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In this work, pure Sn was used to wet Zr 50.7 Cu 28 Ni 9 Al 12.3 bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) assisted by ultrasonic treatment. Without ultrasonic treatment, pure Sn showed a non-wetting condition to BMG. Ultrasonic vibration facilitated the wetting of Sn to BMG. Prior to ultrasonication for 30 s, only physical adsorption formed at the Sn/BMG interface. Increasing ultrasonic time led to the alteration of the bond at the Sn/BMG interface from point contact to local surface contact, and to diffusion layer. Two bonding modes of order-order and order-disorder were discovered at the Sn/BMG interface. Cu content was higher than the other elements near the bonding interface. Longer diffusion distances of Sn into the BMG were obtained at high ultrasonic power, high temperature and large dip depth., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

To prevent the formation of Al/Mg intermetallic compounds (IMCs) of Al 3 Mg 2 and Al 12 Mg 17 , dissimilar Al/Mg were ultrasonic-assisted soldered using Sn-based filler metals. A new IMC of Mg 2 Sn formed in the soldered joints during this process and it was prone to crack at large thickness. The thickness of Mg 2 Sn was reduced to 22 μm at 285 °C when using Sn-3Cu as the filler metal. Cracks were still observed inside the blocky Mg 2 Sn. The thickness of Mg 2 Sn was significantly reduced when using Sn-9Zn as the filler metal. A 17 μm Mg 2 Sn layer without crack was obtained at a temperature of 200 °C, ultrasonic power of Mode I, and ultrasonic time of 2 s. The shear strengths of the joints using Sn-9Zn was much higher than those using Sn-3Cu because of the thinner Mg 2 Sn layer in the former joints. Sn whiskers were prevented by using Sn-9Zn. A cavitation model during ultrasonic assisted soldering was proposed., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Rapid evolution is a hallmark of the viral kingdom and a major concern for developing universal vaccines. The isolation of substantial numbers of viral sequence variants at highly variable viral protein domains remains a major challenge. We previously developed a combinatorial method for the isolation of novel sequences to cope with rapid viral variations at the G-H loop of Foot and Mouth Disease virus VP1 protein [1]. Here we present a modification of that method in its application in the randomization of the hemagglutinin gene from a H5N2 virus, namely: •removal of potentially stressful region which harbored a stretch of basic amino acids to increase the success rates of gene cloning, and to streamline the process of future engineering of novel viral variants.•clustered randomization in a full-length gene, as the positive rate for partial gene fragment libraries was extremely low before enrichment in the previous FMDV studies.•the use of fusion partner was avoided, which was used previously for protein expression, stabilization of clones and reduction of stresses on host cells.•the use of Poisson distribution is proposed to approximate sequencing output to achieve cost effectiveness.