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Abstract Background Proliferative hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) is a class of aggressive tumors with poor prognosis. We aimed to construct a computed tomography (CT)-based radiomics nomogram to predict proliferative HCC, stratify clinical outcomes and explore the tumor microenvironment. Methods Patients with pathologically diagnosed HCC following a hepatectomy were retrospectively collected from two medical centers. A CT-based radiomics nomogram incorporating radiomics model and clinicoradiological features to predict proliferative HCC was constructed using the training cohort (n = 184), and validated using an internal test cohort (n = 80) and an external test cohort (n = 89). The predictive performance of the nomogram for clinical outcomes was evaluated for HCC patients who underwent surgery (n = 201) or received transarterial chemoembolization (TACE, n = 104). RNA sequencing data and histological tissue slides from The Cancer Imaging Archive database were used to perform transcriptomics and pathomics analysis. Results The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the radiomics nomogram to predict proliferative HCC were 0.84, 0.87, and 0.85 in the training, internal test, and external test cohorts, respectively. The radiomics nomogram could stratify early recurrence-free survivals in the surgery outcome cohort (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.25; P

To explore the characteristics of rock deformation and failure under cyclic loading and unloading, the MTS815 rock mechanics test system and acoustic emission (AE) signal acquisition system were used to perform cyclic loading and unloading tests on red sandstone samples. The results showed that, compared with the uniaxial compression test, cyclic loading and unloading had a certain strengthening effect on the strength of the samples. The plastic deformation of the rock samples increased as the number of cycles increased. Based on AE signals, the cracking mode classification was analyzed on the basis of the average frequency and the rise angle of the waveforms. It was observed that the Felicity ratio gradually decreased with the increase in the stress level, which showed a cumulative damage effect. From the perspective of energy, the obvious increase of AE energy rate was mainly concentrated in the early and late stages of uniaxial compression, while the significant increase of dissipated energy rate occurred in the late stage of uniaxial compression. During the cyclic loading and unloading, most of the work done by external forces in the compaction stage and the elastic stage was converted into elastic strain energy, and dissipated energy began to gradually increase in the stage of stable fracture development. In addition, it was found that the damage evolution of the rock samples changed from slow to fast, and the dissipated energy ratio increased when failure was approaching.

Liquid nitrogen (LN2), which can greatly improve the efficiency of hot dry rock (HDR) mining, is commonly used as a cooling material in the enhanced geothermal system (EGS). Physical property, triaxial compression, and permeability tests were undertaken on treated granite samples, for a better scientific understanding of the effect of the LN2 cooling method on the mechanical and permeability properties of the rocks after heat treatment. The experimental results indicated that the physical properties of the treated granite change significantly, such as the density and wave velocity are substantially reduced. Meanwhile, with the increase of treatment temperature, the macroscopic cracks on its surface are gradually generated and the volume is expanded clearly. In addition, the surface wettability of granite gradually increases with increasing temperature. Compared with the air/water cooling methods, under LN2 cooling condition, the mechanical properties decrease markedly. When the temperature exceeds 600°C, the granite strength decreases significantly to only 56.16% of the reference value. The deformation properties also change significantly, with a final strain of about 3% at failure for a sample at 800°C, showing an obvious ductile deformation characteristic. Further, an appreciable correlation also exists between the initial permeability of granite and temperature. Once the temperature exceeds 200°C, the increase in temperature contributes to the increase in initial permeability. In addition to the effect of temperature, the increase in load also leads to a change in the permeability coefficient. When the temperature reaches 600°C, the permeability of granite first decreases and then increases with the increases in axial stress. The results of this paper are valuable in understanding the effect of thermal shock by LN2 on the fracturing efficiency and permeability characteristics of dry hot rocks.

To explore the development mechanism of cracks in the process of rock failure, triaxial compression tests with simultaneous acoustic emission monitoring were performed on granite specimens using the MTS rock mechanics test system. The frequency-domain information of the acoustic emission signal was obtained by the fast Fourier transform. The Gutenberg–Richter law was used to calculate the acoustic emission signals and obtain the b -value dynamic curve in the loading process. Combined with the stiffness curve of granite specimens and acoustic emission signal in the time domain and frequency domain, the crack development characteristics in different stages were analyzed. The results showed that the acoustic emission signals of granite samples under triaxial compression can be divided into four stages: quiet period 1, active stage 1, quiet period 2, and active stage 2. b -value attained its maximum value in the active phase 2 when it is close to the sample loss, and then drops rapidly, which means the propagation of cracks and the formation of large cracks. The acoustic emission signal’s dominant frequency was not more than 500 kHz, mostly concentrated in the medium-frequency band (100–200 kHz), which accounted for more than 80%. The proportion of signals in each frequency band can reflect the distribution of the three kinds of cracks, while the change in low-frequency signals can reflect the breakthrough of microcracks and the formation time of macrocracks in granite samples. By fully analyzing the characteristics of acoustic emission signals in the time domain and frequency domain, the time and conditions of producing large cracks can be determined accurately and efficiently.

In order to reveal the influence of prophase stress levels on the fatigue damage characteristics of granite, uniaxial fatigue tests of granite with different prophase stress levels were carried out on the basis of the MTS 815.04 rock mechanics test system. The results show that, under the same number of cycles, the failure degree increases with the increase of the prophase stress level. Under the low upper limit of cyclic stress, the tangent modulus and dissipated energy increase significantly with the increase of prophase stress level at the early stage of the cycle loading, while the increasing trend is not obvious with the increase of prophase stress level at the late stage. Under the high upper limit of cyclic stress, the tangent modulus and dissipated energy are less affected by the prophase stress level. The development trend of elastic release energy is not obvious with the increase of prophase stress level, which is less affected by the number of cycles. From the damage parameters defined by dissipative energy, under the low upper limit of cyclic stress, the initial damage is less affected by the prophase stress level. With the increase of the number of cycles, the influence of the prophase stress level on the development trend of the damage variable increases gradually. And the development trend of damage variables shows “C-shaped” damage.

The Preisach model, which is formulated as a weighted superposition of hysteresis kernels, has been widely used for hysteresis modeling, especially in smart-material-based actuators. However, in the classical Preisach model, a trade-off is always required between the model accuracy and the number of the hysteresis kernels. To deal with this problem, a model order reduction technique based on the discrete empirical interpolation method (DEIM) has recently been proposed. The method can largely reduce the number of the hysteresis kernels while barely losing the model accuracy. It is noted that the kernel weight in the reduced DEIM-based model can be both positive and negative, which means that the monotonicity of the Preisach model could be lost. The monotonicity is a very important property especially when constructing the inverse Preisach model. Furthermore, the loss of the monotonicity can also deteriorate the model predictability. In the current paper, a modification strategy is proposed. In the modified reduced Preisach model, the DEIM is only employed to select the dominant hysteresis kernels while the corresponding weights of the selected hysteresis kernels are re-identified by solving a constraint optimization problem. Systematic simulation studies and experimental validation are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

This study proposes an active-controlled hydraulic low-frequency vibration isolator. The vibration isolator can achieve large equivalent mass and quasi-zero dynamic stiffness by combining the fluid inerter with the hydraulic active compensation. Thus, good vibration isolation performance at ultra-low frequency can be realised. The model for the dynamics of the device is set up. The principle of low-frequency vibration isolation is explicated. The natural frequency and its influencing factors are analysed. Finally, preliminary experimental research works are carried out. The results indicate that low-frequency vibration can be effectively isolated by the device proposed in this study.

In this study, a spool actuating mechanism using controlled pressure difference is proposed for a large hydraulic servo valve. The actuating mechanism is accomplished by tuning magneto-rheological (MR) fluid flow. The relationship between the flow rate and the controlled chamber pressure is obtained based on a non-convex constitutive relation of the MR fluid. The control of the pressure difference by tuning the electrical flow is simulated. A series of experiments are carried out on a prototype system; the numerical and experimental results show that the proposed system can produce a very quick pressure change, which can be used to actuate the spool of the hydraulic servo valves for large flow rate applications.

N, N, N0, N0 -Tetrapropargyl-p, p0-diaminodiphenylmethane (TPDDM) is synthesized and used to blended with 4,40-bismaleimide diphenylmethane (BDM) as propargyl compound in a molten state to obtain a TPDDM modified bismaleimide (BTP) resin. The BTP resins are cured under electron-beam (EB) irradiation as well as heat. The cure degree and reactions of BTP resins are studied. The thermal stability and mechanical properties of the cured BTP resins are further investigated. The results show that the BTP resins can be cured under EB irradiation and have over 82% degree of cure, which increases with the increase of EB irradiation dose. The cure reactions of EB-cured BTP resin are similar to that of heat-cured BTP resin. The temperature at 5% weight loss (Td5) and mechanical properties of the cured BTP resins are close analogies between EB and heat cure processes although the cure degrees of EB-cured BTP resins are lower. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and flexural modulus of the EB-cured BTP resin are higher than that of the heat-cured BTP resin. The Tg of the EB-cured BTP resin can reach over 385°C. The TPDDM-modified BDM is a candidate bismaleimide resin for the EB irradiation curing process in advanced manufacturing technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dynamical mathematical model, based on the phase-transition theory is used to observe and study the nonlinearities and hysteresis effects in reciprocal lead-zirconate-titanates (PZT) transducers involving polarization switches. The results show that the nonlinearities in such transducers become very important under high-voltage and off-resonance conditions but do not play a vital role, when subjected to high frequencies under high-input voltages.

In this work, the hysteretic dynamics of a pseudoelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) spring is modeled and tested. A constitutive model of SMA spring is constructed by combining the theory of mechanical spring and the derived SMA constitutive relation. The SMA spring recovery force is modeled by employing the Euler-Lagrange equation based on a non-convex potential function. A macroscopic differential model is formulated to describe the hysteretic dynamics and the pseudoelasticity of the SMA spring. A theoretical method for estimating the equivalent stretch ratio at a specific temperature of SMA spring is given. Numerical simulations were presented in studying the influence of the stretch ratio at a temperature of 50, 70, and 90°C. The experimental tests are performed and presented together with their numerical counterparts. The comparison is made between numerical and experimental results to validate the proposed model for SMA spring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, a novel method for mechanical energy harvesting has been proposed, which is based on stress-induced polarization switching in ferroelectric materials. Compared with the traditional piezoelectric energy harvesters, a huge improvement in the output energy has already been theoretically demonstrated. In this article, the influence of different materials on the energy-harvesting performance associated with this new strategy is further studied. The state-of-the-art phase-field model is adopted to investigate the nonlinear hysteretic energy-harvesting process in two nanoscale ferroelectric energy harvesters, which are respectively based on two typical ferroelectric materials--single-crystal BaTiO3 and PbTiO3. In both cases, the effects of the bias voltage and bias resistance are carefully investigated and the optimum values are obtained. Later, the energy-harvesting process and energy flow details in both harvesters working at the optimum conditions are presented and carefully compared in the context of real applications. Furthermore, the energy-harvesting performance of a BaTiO3-based nanoscale piezoelectric energy harvester with equivalent material size is additionally simulated with the finite element method and compared with the corresponding results of the ferroelectric energy harvesters, where obvious advantages associated with the new strategy are demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  The morphology and structure of the regenerated cellulose membranes prepared from its NaOH–urea aqueous solution by coagulating with 5 wt% H2SO4–10 wt% Na2SO4 aqueous solution with different temperatures and times were investigated. The pore size, water permeability and physical properties of the membranes were measured with scanning electron micrograph (SEM), wide X-ray diffraction (WXRD), Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), flow rate method, and tensile testing. The SEM observation revealed that the structure and pore size of the membranes changed drastically as a function of the coagulation temperature. The membranes coagulated at lower temperatures tended to form the relatively small pore size than those at higher temperatures. On the contrary, the membranes coagulated at different times exhibited similar pore size. Interestingly, the mean pore size and water permeability of the membranes increased from 110 nm with standard deviation (SD) of 25 nm and 12 ml h−1 m−2 mmHg−1 respectively to 1,230 nm with SD of 180 nm and 43 ml h−1 m−2 mmHg−1 with an increase in coagulation temperature from 10 to 60C. However, the membranes regenerated below 20C exhibited the dense structure as well as good tensile strength and elongation at break. The result from FTIR and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy indicated that the relatively strong intermolecular hydrogen bonds exist in the cellulose membranes prepared at lower coagulation temperatures. This work provided a promising way to prepare cellulose materials with different pore sizes and physical properties by controlling the coagulation temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Develops a backward poincare cell-mapping method for animating chaotic fluid mixing. Rotation of the secondary flow of incompressible fluids in a curved pipe; Methods for probing the chaotic fluid mixing. A Backward Poincare cell-mapping (BPCM) method has been developed for animating chaotic fluid mixing. The chaotic mixing field considered is induced by periodically rotating the secondary flow of incompressible fluids in a curved pipe. The pipe's cross-section is transformed into a cell space where each cell is initially assigned with a color code and mapped by integrating the velocity field forward in time. The mixing process is thus animated efficiently with each cell being painted with its color on a computer screen. We propose the backward Poincare cell-mapping instead of direct Poincare cell-mapping as a useful tool for probing the chaotic fluid mixing and for animating the phase deformation of nonlinear dynamical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fully coupled thermo-electro-mechanical properties of nanoscale ferroelectric actuators are investigated by a phase field model. Firstly, the thermal effect is incorporated into the commonly-used phase field model for ferroelectric materials in a thermodynamic consistent way and the governing equation for the temperature field is derived. Afterwards, the modified model is numerically implemented to study a selected prototype of the ferroelectric actuators, where strain associated with electric field-induced non-180° domain switching is employed. The temperature variation and energy flow in the actuation process are presented, which enhances our understanding of the working mechanism of the actuators. Furthermore, the influences of the input voltage frequency and the thermal boundary condition on the temperature variation are demonstrated and carefully discussed in the context of thermal management for real applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from the traditional piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting, a new strategy based on stress-induced polarization switching has been proposed in the current paper. Two related prototypes are presented and the associated advantages and drawbacks have been discussed in detail. It has been demonstrated that, with the assistance of a bias electric field, the robustness of the energy harvesters is improved. Furthermore, the real-space phase-field model has been employed to study the nonlinear hysteretic behavior involved in the proposed energy harvesting process. A substantially larger electric current associated with the stress-induced polarization switching has been demonstrated when compared with that with piezoelectric effect. In addition, the effects of bias electric potential, bias resistance, mechanical boundary conditions, charge leakage and electrodes arrangements have also been investigated by the phase-field simulation, which provides a guidance for future real implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]