Can hydrogen be the sustainable fuel for mobility in India in the global context?

This article provides a critical assessment of H₂ from the standpoint of more widespread use as a sustainable fuel for Indian mobility applications in the global context. The potential techno-economic advantages of utilizing H₂ for automobiles rather than battery electric vehicles or conventional internal combustion engine vehicles are emphasized. The present assessment demonstrates that H₂ production, storage, and distribution costs are the primary challenges, and a significant improvement is still necessary for H₂ to compete either against the internal combustion engine vehicle or the battery electric vehicle to win the race, arguably. The secondary challenges have also been demonstrated, which include the cost of the fuel cell stack and the modifications associated with internal combustion engine vehicles, as well as regulatory and safety concerns, which impede the widespread usage of H₂. It is critical that policy-making for sustainable mobility in India is possible with the aid of a National H₂ Energy Road-Map. This in turn can achieve a cost target of $0.5/kg for H₂.     

Inhibitory effects of curcumin and piperine on fluorescent advanced glycation end products formation in a bovine serum albumin–fructose model

This study investigated the inhibitory effects of curcumin and piperine on fluorescent advanced glycation end products (fAGEs) formation in a bovine serum albumin (BSA)–fructose model. Model systems of BSA and fructose were prepared, and curcumin or piperine was added. fAGEs and BSA oxidation product (dityrosine, kynurenine and N'-formylkynurenine) contents were determined. The results showed that fAGEs content decreased with increasing concentration of curcumin and piperine (P < 0.05). Addition of curcumin and piperine at 160 µg mL⁻¹ could inhibit fluorescent AGEs by 100% and 93% respectively. Dityrosine and N'-formylkynurenine contents decreased as curcumin and piperine concentration increased (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the result of principal component analysis indicated that curcumin and piperine markedly impeded BSA oxidation, resulting in a lower level of fAGEs in model systems. Therefore, adding curcumin and piperine may facilitate reduced fAGEs levels in BSA–fructose model.     

A rapid detection method for the surface defects of mosaic ceramic tiles

Due to its unique artistic value, mosaic ceramics are widely used in construction-related fields. To meet the artist's demand for high-quality mosaic ceramic to create artistic works, it is necessary to meet the needs for efficient screening of mosaic ceramic tiles. Different from the ordinary large-target ceramics, mosaic ceramics exhibit characteristics of small tile sizes, a variety of colors, large demand for quantities, and easy reflection on the surface. Common manual detection methods show problems of low efficiency or accuracy, easy to fatigue, and many others. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a new detection method to identify surface defects of mosaic ceramic tiles and designs a detection system platform to achieve rapid detection. The experiment proves that the detection system has a detection rate of 93.99% for small defects on the surface of mosaic ceramic tiles, and the detection time of a single mosaic ceramic tile is less than 0.06 s. The detection method can quickly and accurately screen out high-quality, defect-free mosaic ceramic tiles, which can effectively improve the quality and artistic value of mosaic ceramic art creation.     

Analysis and proposition of limiting current density measurement protocol

Limiting current density at different temperatures, backpressures, and balance gases can be used to separate molecular diffusion resistance, Knudsen diffusion resistance and local transport resistance of membrane electrode assembly (MEA). However, the measurement of limiting current density has no unified protocol. The diverse choices in the literature, either in the control of current or voltage or in the atmosphere like relative humidity and O₂ concentrations, make it difficult to compare the results and identify the true bottleneck hindering the mass transport. In this work, the current-voltage curves obtained by current scanning/stepping and voltage scanning/stepping methods under dilute O₂ of different concentrations and a wide range of relative humidity were measured and analyzed systematically. It is found that the voltage stepping method is superior to the other three ways of control for the reliable determination of the limiting current density. Aided with simultaneous electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement, the limiting current density can be determined with pinpoint accuracy. When the limiting current density is just used to qualitatively evaluate different MEA, the voltage scanning method can be used instead for its high time efficiency. The selection of the atmosphere also plays an important role in suppressing the distortion from excessive water and reducing the spurious contribution from proton conduction resistance. It is found that O₂ concentrations at 0.5 vol% and relative humidity at 90% can give the best estimation of O₂ transport resistance in membrane electrode assembly.     

基于机器视觉的轮胎表面缺陷检测系统的研究与应用

在传统的轮胎表面缺陷依靠人工检测,存在劳动强度高、受人的主观影响大以及效率低下的问题。针对这一现象,研究了一种基于机器视觉的轮胎表面缺陷3D检测系统。该系统依靠机器视觉系统获取检测轮胎的表面图像,然后创建3D模型、判定缺陷类型,最终实现实时自动预警,为轮胎生产商提供一种自动化检测方案。系统集成了先进的技术、软件和工具,配套的信息管控系统可以对轮胎型号和生产数据进行采集、存储、分析,以便在生产过程中实现更高效、更可靠的质量控制,具有较高的实际应用推广价值。     

No-Reference Video Quality Assessment using novel hybrid features and two-stage hybrid regression for score level fusion

This paper presents a novel No-Reference Video Quality Assessment (NR-VQA) model that utilizes proposed 3D steerable wavelet transform-based Natural Video Statistics (NVS) features as well as human perceptual features. Additionally, we proposed a novel two-stage regression scheme that significantly improves the overall performance of quality estimation. In the first stage, transform-based NVS and human perceptual features are separately passed through the proposed hybrid regression scheme: Support Vector Regression (SVR) followed by Polynomial curve fitting. The two visual quality scores predicted from the first stage are then used as features for the similar second stage. This predicts the final quality scores of distorted videos by achieving score level fusion. Extensive experiments were conducted using five authentic and four synthetic distortion databases. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms other published state-of-the-art benchmark methods on synthetic distortion databases and is among the top performers on authentic distortion databases. The source code is available at https://github.com/anishVNIT/two-stage-vqa.     

面向老龄化社会的产品服务系统设计赋能

目的 针对面向老龄化社会的产品及产品服务系统设计,将赋能的设计理念和价值引入其中,探索设计结果提升老年人能动性和参与性的赋能品质,为设计师开展设计赋能实践提供参考.方法 以设计教学中的学生设计方案作为研究材料,邀请设计研究者参与工作坊,对设计结果的赋能属性进行分析,并通过聚类获得类别化的设计属性,产生了能描述赋能品质的属性词汇表.结果 总结了包含5组形容词组的设计赋能品质集,这一集合包含"顺应性"和"激励性"两个面向.结论 研究结果为设计师进行老龄化设计提供了知识参考,有助于提升设计师的赋能意识.揭示了设计赋能充满矛盾性的品质,提出面向老龄化的设计赋能需要在"顺应"和"激励"之间找到平衡.     

Recent advances during CH4 dry reforming for syngas production: A mini review

Given the continuing issues of environment and energy, methane dry reforming for syngas production have sparked interest among researchers, but struggled with the process immaturity owing to catalyst deactivation. This review summarizes the recent advances in the development of efficient and stable catalysts with strong resistance to coking and metal sintering, including the application of novel materials, the assessment of advanced characterizations and the compatibility to improved reaction system. One feasible option is the crystalline oxide catalysts (perovskite, pyrochlore, spinel and LDHs), which feature a fine metal dispersion and surface confinement effect via a metal exsolution strategy and exhibit superior reactivity and stability. Some new materials (h-BN, clays and MOFs) also extend the option because of their unique morphology and microstructure. It also is elaborated that progresses were achieved in advanced characterizations application, leading to success in the establishment of reaction mechanisms and attributions to the formed robust catalysts. In addition, the perspective described the upgrade of reaction system to a higher reaction efficiency and milder reaction conditions. The combination of efficient reaction systems and robust catalysts paves a way for a scaling-up application of the process.     

Life cycle cost of conventional,battery electric,and fuel cell electric vehicles considering traffic and environmental policies in China

Electric vehicles (EVs) are considered a promising alternative to conventional vehicles (CVs) to alleviate the oil crisis and reduce urban air pollution and carbon emissions. Consumers usually focus on the tangible cost when choosing an EV or CV but overlook the time cost for restricting purchase or driving and the environmental cost from gas emissions, falling to have a comprehensive understanding of the economic competitiveness of CVs and EVs. In this study, a life cycle cost model for vehicles is conducted to express traffic and environmental policies in monetary terms, which are called intangible cost and external cost, respectively. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs), fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), and CVs are compared in four first-tier, four new first-tier, and 4 s-tier and below cities in China. The comparison shows that BEVs and FCEVs in most cities are incomparable with CVs in terms of tangible cost. However, the prominent traffic and environmental policies in first-tier cities, especially in Beijing and Shanghai, greatly increase the intangible and external costs of CVs, making consumers more inclined to purchase BEVs and FCEVs. The main policy benefits of BEVs and FCEVs come from three aspects: government subsidies, purchase and driving restrictions, and environmental taxes. With the predictable reduction in government subsidies, traffic and environmental policies present important factors influencing the competitiveness of BEVs and FCEVs. In first-tier cities, BEVs and FCEVs already have a competitive foundation for large-scale promotion. In new first-tier and second-tier and below cities, stricter traffic and environmental policies need to be formulated to offset the negative impact of the reduction in government subsidies on the competitiveness of BEVs and FCEVs. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis reveals that increasing the mileage and reducing fuel prices can significantly improve the competitiveness of BEVs and FCEVs, respectively.