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This paper focuses on the problem of adaptive integral sliding mode control (ISMC) with dissipativity for a type of complex non‐linear system represented by Takagi‐Sugeno (T‐S) fuzzy descriptor models. First, T‐S fuzzy descriptor systems with different derivative matrices are transformed into augmented systems that have the same properties as the original systems, and an integral sliding mode surface function is designed considering the descriptor matrices. Then, based on the dissipativity theory and the non‐parallel distributed compensation (non‐PDC) method, ISMC strategies and dissipativity‐based ISMC strategies are proposed, and the system uncertainties and external disturbances with unknown upper bounds are addressed with an adaptive controller. According to the Lyapunov theory and the dissipativity theory, a fuzzy Lyapunov function is designed, and the obtained criteria are presented in the form of strict linear matrix inequalities (LMIs); this approach guarantees that the closed‐loop system is asymptotically stable and strictly (Q,R,S)−α$(\mathcal{Q},\mathcal{R},\mathcal{S}) - {{\alpha}}$ dissipative. Moreover, the controller gain matrices and Lyapunov matrices are decoupled by introducing the corresponding auxiliary variables and employing Finsler's lemma. Finally, two examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and merit of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li‐ion batteries (LIBs) can reduce carbon emissions by powering electric vehicles (EVs) and promoting renewable energy development with grid‐scale energy storage. However, LIB production and electricity generation still heavily rely on fossil fuels at present, resulting in major environmental concerns. Are LIBs as environmentally friendly and sustainable as expected at the current stage? In the past 5 years, a skyrocketing growth of the EV market has been witnessed. LIBs have garnered huge attention from academia, industry, government, non‐governmental organizations, investors, and the general public. Tremendous volumes of LIBs are already implemented in EVs today, with a continuing, exponential growth expected for the years to come. When LIBs reach their end‐of‐life in the next decades, what technologies can be in place to enable second‐life or recycling of batteries? Herein, life cycle assessment studies are examined to evaluate the environmental impact of LIBs, and EVs are compared with internal combustion engine vehicles regarding environmental sustainability. To provide a holistic view of the LIB development, this Perspective provides insights into materials development, manufacturing, recycling, legislation and policy, and beyond. Last but not least, the future development of LIBs and charging infrastructures in light of emerging technologies are envisioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust is a fundamental condition for secure communication, and the trust evaluation of participating nodes in quantum communication networks is a prerequisite to guarantee the security of various quantum communication protocols. However, existing quantum trust models are based on a trusted third-party central node to complete trust assessment process, once a malicious attacker successfully attacks the third-party central node, the trust mechanism of the whole quantum communication network will no longer be secure. In this paper, a quantum semi-trust evaluation model with graph-based quantum walk teleportation is proposed to enhance the quantum communication node’s security and privacy. The communication nodes do not need to prepare quantum entangled states in advance, and only simple quantum operation are needed to evaluate each other's node trust values. The quantum circuit diagram required for model building is presented, and the security analysis shows that this model has better anti-attack capability and higher particle efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current automatic recognition method of machine English translation errors has poor semantic analysis ability, resulting in low accuracy of recognition results. Therefore, this paper designs an automatic recognition method for machine English translation errors based on multifeature fusion. Manually classify and summarize the real error sentence pairs, falsify a large amount of data by means of data enhancement, enhance the effect and robustness of the machine translation error detection model, and add the source text to translation length ratio information and the translation language model PPL into the model input. The score feature information can further improve the classification accuracy of the error detection model. Based on this error detection scheme, the detection results can be used for subsequent error correction and can also be used for error prompts to provide translation user experience; it can also be used for evaluation indicators of machine translation effects. The experimental results show that the word posterior probability features calculated by different methods have a significant impact on the classification error rate, and adding source word features based on the combination of word posterior probability and linguistic features can significantly reduce the classification error rate, to improve the translation error detection ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the transformation of the trend of vehicle electrification, the overall noise level in the vehicle is gradually reduced. The problem of low-frequency noise in the vehicle, which was previously ignored, is becoming more and more prominent. To solve the vehicle low-frequency noise problem, a combination of real-vehicle tests and simulation analysis is carried out. During the test, the driver and passengers feel that there is a relatively obvious low-frequency roar noise in the car, which results from the structural radiation noise of the trunk door vibration. Therefore, to solve this problem, we design an acoustic metamaterial with lightweight and miniaturized features based on the local resonance principle of phononic crystals. Firstly, the selection of the resonant unit configuration and the design of the band gap are implemented. Then, the layout planning of the whole vehicle, the layout of the resonance unit and the design of the base frame are implemented. The actual vehicle test results show that: after attaching the designed acoustic metamaterial, the low-frequency noise sound pressure levels in the front and rear of the vehicle were reduced by 2.0 dB (A) and 2.3 dB (A), respectively, meanwhile, the interior noise sound quality was improved. The sound pressure level at the driver's right ear in the car has an abnormal peak of around 35Hz. In addition, the driver and passengers feel that there is a relatively obvious low-frequency roar noise in the car, and through low-pass filtering of the collected signals, it is confirmed that the peak frequency is the main cause of the low-frequency roar in the car. The low-frequency steady-state noise of the car is generally considered to be the low-frequency vibration of the body panel and the radiation occurs. Through the finite element simulation analysis (Grid Participation Analysis) of the abnormal peak frequency, the results show that the low-frequency roar is caused by the low-frequency vibration of the tailgate sheet metal, and the problem peak frequency is not coupled with the acoustic cavity mode. Facing the problem of the low-frequency roar radiated into the car by the vibration of the tailgate sheet metal parts, based on the local resonance band gap theory, we developed a design to suppress the 35 Hz vibration of the tailgate sheet metal parts and meet the characteristics of lightweight and miniaturization. By attaching the acoustic metamaterial to the tailgate and performing CAE simulation of the whole vehicle, it is determined that the structure can indeed reduce the 35 Hz noise in the car and the peak value of the tailgate sheet metal vibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the pace of educational reform in colleges and universities, a variety of new types of teaching and research approaches stand out in each subject taught in colleges and universities. For example, in college English lectures, given the practice of individualized tiered teaching, the development of relevant teaching models for students at different levels has become a new type of teaching and research developed year by year. Based on the English classroom program, teachers should make cognizance of the tiered teaching model when teaching. This paper discusses the tiered teaching method of English teaching and carries out teaching from strategies such as paying attention to students' tiered teaching, doing well in lecture tiered teaching, developing homework tiered teaching, and paying attention to evaluation tiered teaching. In addition, the assessment system of college English courses lags behind the development of college English teaching reform and cannot play a guiding role in teaching. In response to the above-mentioned views and problems, this paper proposes a convolutional neural network-based algorithm that provides different learning styles for different students in the stratified teaching method of college English, making capable students understand what they learn in class, improving the teaching quality of high school English courses, and, at the same time, establishing a standardized and scientific course with high reliability and validity that meets the actual situation of applied technical college students. At the same time, a standardized and scientific course assessment system with high reliability and validity has been established to meet the actual needs of applied technical college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The locomotion of a flapping flexible plate with different shapes and non-uniform chordwise stiffness distribution in a stationary fluid is studied numerically. The normalized effective bending stiffness K ∗ for three-dimensional plates with arbitrary stiffness distribution and shape parameters is proposed, and the overall bending stiffness of non-uniform plates with different shapes is reasonably characterized. It is found that the propulsion performance in terms of cruising speed and efficiency of the self-propelled flapping plate mainly depends on the effective bending stiffness. Plates with moderate flexibility K ∗ show better propulsion performance. Meanwhile, both a large area moment of the plate and a flexible anterior are favorable to significantly improve their propulsive performance. The evolution of vortical structures and the pressure distribution on the upper and lower surfaces of the plate are analyzed, and the inherent mechanism is revealed. These findings are of great significance to the optimal design of propulsion systems with different fins or wings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The northwestern sub-basin of South China Sea (SCS) is a unique tectonic unit formed in the early spreading of the SCS. The northwestern Sub-basin has a series of complex geological structures such as seamounts and fault zones surrounded by the Xisha Trough, the Zhongsha Massif, and the Pearl River Valley. These extensional structures and magmatic activity in the northwestern sub-basin are closely related to the lithospheric structure and its deformation. However, details of the deep lithosphere structure are still poorly known. Here, we obtained detailed data of water and Moho depth using sonar buoys, Extended Spread Profiles (ESP), Ocean Bottom Seismometer (OBS), both Multi-beam and land-sea joint seismic surveys in the northwestern sub-basin and its surrounding areas. Then we adopted a thermal isostasy method to calculate the depth of the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary (LAB) in the northwestern sub-basin of the SCS and its surrounding regions. Results show that the range of LAB depth is ~25–110 km. The shallowest burial depth is 25–60 km occurring in the ocean basin. The depth increases to 60–110 km toward the continental margin. The lithospheric structure on the north and south sides of the Xisha Trough is symmetrical and shows the deep structure and thermal features of aborted rifts. The LAB depth in the Zhongsha Trough and the Zhongsha Massif increased from 60 to 70 km southwestwards, consistent with the trend of surface morphology. The LAB depth to the west side of the Pearl River Valley is 60–80 km, and the thinning of the lithosphere is related to the distribution of faults, depressions and the magmatic activity. The LAB depth in the northwestern sub-basin and the eastern sub-basin is less than 60 km with the thinnest part being less than 46 km. Combining ocean drilling, seismic investigation, and seafloor topography, we show that the ocean basin of the northwestern sub-basin of the SCS locates within the 46 km isobath of the LAB. The formation of the rifted valleys and discrete blocks surrounding the ocean basins is both controlled by the regional tectonic movement and the deep thermal state, where their lithospheric structures show strong heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach that forces TWPs to enter and retain in a tunnel to prevent their release into the environment was proposed and investigated by a novel solid-gas two-phase aerodynamic car-wheel-TWP model and verified by a newly-designed equipment. Capture efficiency were investigated by changing the entrance and exit positions of the tunnels. The results show that the maximum capture ratio exceeds 50% and there is good agreement on the capture ratios obtained from the simulations and the experiments. The capture efficiency is mostly determined by the pressure difference between the tunnel ends. The maximum capture ratio appears at 60 km/h. The TWPs captured by the rear tunnel exceeds 60% in total capture amount. Health-concerned TWPs with sizes smaller than 10 μm may be the main source that are captured by the tunnels. This aerodynamic model and capturing approach can provide a methodology and guidelines for relieving the pollution induced by TWPs. [Display omitted] • An approach that prevents tire wear particles from releasing into the environment was proposed. • The approach was verified by the conducted simulation and the physical experiment. • The capture efficiency is mostly determined by the pressure difference between the two ends of the tunnel. • Health-concerned tire wear particles smaller than 10 μm is the main capture source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a numerical investigation into droplet dynamics within a flexible constriction using the phase-field lattice Boltzmann method. Our study focused on constriction bending stiffness, Weber number, and constriction-to-droplet diameter ratio. Flexibility impedes droplet passage at low Weber numbers but significantly facilitates it at moderate and high Weber numbers. Passage times decrease with increasing Weber numbers and are proportional to the droplet's maximum deformed length. An anomalous phenomenon is observed: "more haste, less speed." The underlying mechanics arising from the interaction between the flexible constriction and the droplet are elucidated. The findings enhanced our understanding of droplet behavior in constrained environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an improved sustainable approach to produce high-performance hemicellulose-based biosurfactants for environmentally friendly oily sludge remediation and oil components recovery. The amphipathic hemicellulose derivatives were prepared by hydrothermal extraction from renewable bamboo resources followed by rapid homogeneous esterification with alkenyl succinic anhydrides (C12–C18). The chemical structures of the prepared amphipathic hemicellulose derivatives were analyzed by FT-IR and NMR. The amphipathic hemicellulose derivatives with different hydrophobic chains were used to improve the separation and recovery of oil components from oily sludge in the thermal washing process. The hemicellulose modified with octadecenylsuccinic anhydride (HC-ODSA) exhibited the best oil recovery rate of 79.9%. The results of the interfacial activity, foaming, emulsification, and solubilization tests confirmed that the carbon chain length in the introduced hydrophobic groups exerted a substantial influence on the surface-active characteristics of the prepared amphipathic hemicellulose derivatives. Moreover, the results of desorption kinetics revealed that the amphiphilic hemicellulose molecules can reduce the interfacial tension between oil and water by adsorption at the interface and the petroleum hydrocarbons follow the pseudo-second-order desorption kinetic mode. [Display omitted] • The surface activity of hemicellulose-based biosurfactants was investigated. • The prepared biosurfactants exhibited good oil separate and recovery efficiency. • The sustainable biosurfactants are alternatives to petrochemical-based surfactants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rheology of a capsule suspension in two-dimensional confined Poiseuille flow is studied numerically using an immersed-boundary lattice Boltzmann method. The effects of capsule volume fraction ϕ and bending stiffness Eb on the rheology of the suspension are investigated first. The apparent viscosity does not monotonically increase with ϕ: the variation curve can be divided into four flow regimes. In each regime, there is a distinct equilibrium spatial configuration. The overall lateral position of the capsules is directly connected with the apparent viscosity. Then, we propose to investigate the effect of inertia on the capsule configuration in dilute cases and the capsule transport in concentrated cases. For dilute cases, phase diagrams of flow regimes on the (ϕ, Eb) plane are plotted. It is found that, as the Reynolds number (Re) increases, the range of values for regime I, with a single-line configuration, reduces, while the range for regime II (transition configuration) increases. It is highly correlated with the equilibrium lateral position of a single capsule. For even larger Re, the range for regime IV (random configuration) increases rapidly and dominates because the larger inertia makes the arrangement more random. For concentrated cases, we observe that the optimal volume fraction, at which the transport of capsules is a maximum, increases with Re. This study may help to understand the collective behavior of capsules in Poiseuille flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene and graphene oxide (GO), as wonder materials, have penetrated nearly every field of research. One of their most attractive features is the functionality and assembly of graphene or GO, in which they can be considered to be chemically functionalized building blocks for creating unconventional porous graphene materials (PGMs) that not only combine the merits of both porous materials and graphene, but also have major advantages over other porous carbons for specific applications. The chemistry and approaches for functionalizing graphene and GO are first introduced, and typical procedures for pore creation (e.g., in‐plane pores, 2D laminar pores, and 3D interconnected pore assemblies), self‐assembly, and tailoring mechanisms for PGMs to highlight the significance of precise control over the pore morphology and pore size are summarized. Because of their unique pore structures, with different morphologies and intriguing properties, PGMs serve as key components in a variety of applications such as energy storage, electrocatalysis, and molecular separation. Finally, the challenges relating to PGMs from the understanding of chemical self‐assembly to specific applications are discussed, and promising solutions on how to tackle them are presented. This provides an insightful outlook for the future development of the chemistry and applications of PGMs.Recent advances in the chemistry of graphene and porous graphene materials, including surface chemistry, interface chemistry, assembly chemistry, and functionalization chemistry, and their potential applications are reviewed. Additionally, their porous structure‐performance relationships for energy storage and conversion, electrocatalysis, and molecular separation are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel molecular model of vulcanized styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) was developed and experimentally verified to elucidate the enhanced tribological performance of vulcanized SBR over raw SBR. Vulcanization was modeled by cross- or self-linkages of sulfur (S) atoms with carbon (C) atoms in molecular chains. Frictional models were developed for vulcanized and raw styrene-butadiene rubber-ferrum (SBR-Fe) to study the atomic behavior at the frictional interface. The results at the atomic scale show considerable reductions in the coefficient of friction (COF) and the interfacial temperature of approximately 45.8% and 13.27% for the vulcanized SBR matrix, respectively, from those of raw SBR. In addition, the relative concentration (RC), the radial distribution function (RDF) and interaction energy of the vulcanized SBR are 21.61%, 6.68% and 60.12% lower than those of the raw SBR, respectively. The resulting decrease in the real contact area, adhesion and contact temperature at the interface can significantly improve the tribological properties of the vulcanized SBR over those of raw SBR. The results of this research study show how vulcanization can enhance the tribological properties of polymer composites at the atomic scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-dimensional hierarchically superstructured metal-doped titanate and TiO2 materials with coated-nanosheet and interconnected meso-/macropores have been successfully constructed via a general strategy based on the self-evolution of building blocks. The as-fabricated superstructured TiO2-based fibers exhibited remarkable stable cycling performance at a high current rate (5C) in lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct a complete density transection based on the velocity structures across the Zhongsha Bank in the South China Sea. Gravity modelling of the lateral density contrasts between tectonic units helps us to determine the structural attributes and boundaries between continental blocks and deep basins. The configuration of the continent–ocean boundary (COB) around the Zhongsha Bank is mapped based on the gravity/magnetic anomaly and crustal structures. A low-density mantle is found beneath the Zhongsha Bank and the oceanic basins, and this mantle is associated with the high heat-flow background. The COB orientation is northeast-east in the north of the bank, with faulted linear structures. In further southeast, where there is a more intact crust, the COB orientation changed to north-northeast. The reconstructed density model and gravity/magnetic map indicate that the Zhongsha Bank is conjugated with the Liyue Bank by a rifted basin, where the crust had experienced localized deformation before the seafloor spreading. Because of the insufficient magmatism in the oceanic basin, the spreading ridge propagates into the weakened continental lithosphere between the two continental blocks, thus completely separating the Zhongsha Bank from the Liyue Bank. Seafloor spreading ridge jumps within the South China Sea may also be affected by the heterogeneous lithosphere beneath the continental blocks and oceanic basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of three dimensional macroporous architectures holds exciting implications for applications such as catalysis, sensing, tissue engineering and thermal insulation. Here, we report a general self-assembly process for inorganic sponges with hierarchical porosity of intrafibre micro-/meso-/macropores and interfibre macropores. The as-fabricated SiO 2 -TiO 2 sponge possesses a high porosity of >99.86%, ultralow bulk density of 2.9 mg cm−3 and enhanced compressibility (recovery from 50% compression). The self-assembly mechanism of the SiO 2 -TiO 2 sponge has been investigated in detail. The results confirmed that the hydrolysis and polycondensation of mixed inorganic alkoxides could affect the solidification process and the charge transpote during electrospinning, and plays an essential role on the hierarchical porosity and the self-assembly of the sponge macro-structure. The concerted effects of the solidification and electrostatic repulsion between fibres are responsible for the self-assembly process of the electrospun PVP-SiO 2 -TiO 2 sponge. When used as a thermal insulation material, the SiO 2 -TiO 2 sponge shows good fireproof performances. The current contribution may guide more construction of functional inorganic macroporous architectures for advance applications in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing energy-based models on coalescence-induced droplet jumping on superhydrophobic surfaces often assume that the viscously dissipated energy is proportional to the Ohnesorge (Oh) number (linear form). Based on the numerical results by two different methods, we found that the energy dissipation for droplet coalescence follows a power law form. What is more, the energy dissipation at the time of droplet jumping was found to be larger than that of droplet coalescence. Besides, existing energy-based models assume a fixed portion of translational kinetic energy (KE) within the droplet's total KE, whereas it actually varies with the Oh number from our simulations. Incorporating a special form of energy dissipation and an Oh-dependent portion of translational KE, we obtained an improved model that can predict the jumping velocity of the coalesced droplet of tens of nanometer- to micrometer-size on nonwetting surfaces much more accurately than the existing energy-based models. Finally, we extended the model for superhydrophobic surfaces with finite adhesion and demonstrated its capability through extensive comparisons with relevant experimental and numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a droplet is pinned between a single plate structure (SPS) and a parallel plate structure (PPS), a liquid bridge is formed, which often occurs in digital microfluidics. The understanding of this liquid bridge formation process is still undeveloped; for this reason, the function of the side surface of the up-plate is ignored. In this paper, the formation of a liquid bridge is studied. First, based on pressure analysis, the formation process of a liquid bridge can be divided into two parts. The first part is the wetting motion, which indicates that the side and bottom surfaces attract the droplets according to their wetting force to form a liquid bridge. The second part is the pressure motion, which indicates whether the droplets enter or exit the PPS unidirectionally according to the pressure difference (capillary force) between the SPS and the PPS. The influence of the contact angle hysteresis (CAH) is simulated, and the results indicate that the CAH on the bottom surface plays a more important role than the CAH on the side surface. In addition, the influence of both the material and geometric parameters on the amount of bridge motion is studied. The results show that the thinner the upper plate is, the larger the PPS gap is, and the better the droplet entering the PPS is. These conclusions can be used to obtain better performance when droplets need to be delivered to the PPS on a microfluidic chip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Boiling process on structured surfaces was simulated using our developed LBM. • The geometric parameters effects are investigated in detail. • It is ideal that the heated area is large while the convection is not hindered. Pool boiling heat transfer enhancement on structured surfaces with columns is investigated by a thermal two-phase lattice Boltzmann model. The effects of geometrical parameters, including column height (H), width (W) and gap spacing (D), are discussed in detail. The size of columns is comparable to the diameter of a typical detached bubble ( d b ). It is found that the heat transfer performance mainly depends on two factors: the heated surface area A and local convective flow field. When W and D are properly chosen as about W = D ≈ 4 d b , increasing H enhances the heat transfer solely due to the increase of the surface area. When W and D are small, it is observed that the top of the columns and the channels are mostly covered by a layer of vapor, respectively, which weaken the convection. Under the circumstances, although surface area A increases, heat transfer enhancement is not so significant. For the surface tension effect, the enhancement of the structured surface decreases with the increase of capillary number compared to that of the plain surface. The mechanism is that at larger capillary number, the convection close to the channel may be partially blocked, which hinders the heat transfer. An optimal enhancement could be achieved when A is as large as possible and meanwhile the convection is not hindered by the bubbles behaviors. The finding here may shed some light on mechanism of heat transfer enhancement on structured surfaces with columns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolution of the continental margins of the South China Sea (SCS) is one of the open questions when discussing continental breakup and seafloor spreading. We processed data from a wide-angle seismic profile (OBS2011–1), which passes through the northwestern margin of the SCS, and performed travel time modelling to obtain the seismic velocity structures. The modelling results show a stepwise variation of the crustal thicknesses from continental margin to oceanic basin. Stretching factor of the upper crust is nearly double the estimate of the lower crust along the Zhongsha Trough. The lower crust shows asymmetrical upwelling towards the trough center, accompanied by ∼0.3 km s–1 of the velocity increase due to magmatic addition. The upper and lower crusts have almost the same stretching factor beneath continental blocks, indicating a uniform extension. Crustal structures of the conjugate margins of the Southwest Subbasin show similar velocity range and different thickness distribution, supporting the common origin and asymmetric extension of these two margins. The Ocean–Continent Transition zones (OCT) are much wider in the southern part (∼50 km) than the northern part (∼25 km) crossing the margins. We propose a tectonic model for the asymmetry of both the conjugate margins and the OCTs, favoring the highly stretched upper crust and accompanied by rising of the ductile middle-lower crust controlled by major low-angle faults. The rigid blocks may also act as a kind of hindrance for further evolution of the failed rifts and affect the shape of the OCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Ethanol-induced acute gastric injury is a prevalent type of digestive tract ulcer, yet conventional treatments strategies frequently encounter several limitations, such as poor bioavailability, degradation of enzymes and adverse side effects. Gallic acid (GA), a natural compound extracted from dogwood, has demonstrated potential protective effects in mitigating acute gastric injury. However, its poor stability and limited bioavailability have restricted applications in vivo. To address these issues, we report a hydrogel constructed only by gallic acid with high bioavailability for alleviation of gastric injury. Molecular dynamic simulation studies revealed that the self-assembly of GA into hydrogel was predominantly attributed to π-π and hydrogen bonds. After assembling, the GA hydrogel exhibits superior anti-oxidative stress, anti-apoptosis and anti-inflammatory properties compared with free GA. As anticipated, in vitro experiments demonstrated that GA hydrogel possessed the remarkable ability to promote the proliferation of GES-1 cells, and alleviates apoptosis and inflammation caused by ethanol. Subsequent in vivo investigation further confirmed that GA hydrogel significantly alleviated ethanol-triggered acute gastric injury. Mechanistically, GA hydrogel treatment enhanced the antioxidant capacity, reduced oxidative stress while simultaneously suppressing the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and reduced the production of pro-apoptotic proteins during the process of gastric injury. Our finding suggest that this multifunctional GA hydrogel is a promising candidate for gastric injury, particularly in cases of ethanol-induced acute gastric injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The bidirectional knowledge graph of the tire/road airborne sound quality is proposed. • A multitarget prediction method based on the adaptive balanced learning mechanism for ResNet is proposed. • A knowledge- and data-driven method is developed for the prediction and optimization of TRA sound quality. • The proposed method overperformed the conventional prediction and optimization methods in effectiveness and robustness. With the promotion of pure electric vehicles (PEVs), the overall interior noise level has been gradually reduced. Tire/road noise is increasingly becoming noticeable in PEVs and represents a primary concern for passengers. Vehicle acoustic packages are crucial for suppressing tire/road noise, and numerous studies have focused on improving the acoustic package performance and sound quality of tire/road noise. However, the prediction and optimization of tire/road acoustic comfort have two deficiencies: (1) The characteristics and transfer paths of tire/road noise are complex. Using knowledge-driven methods (such as simulation models) and data-driven methods (such as neural networks) for analysis has difficulty in accuracy parameter acquisition and unexplainable models. (2) The sound quality of tire/road noise is multidimensional. In the development of multitarget prediction models, when multiple targets contradict each other, prediction bias may result from wide differences among targets in the gradient value of the loss function in training. Therefore, in this paper, a knowledge- and data-driven method is proposed, which introduces the knowledge graph technique to develop a vehicle tire/road noise knowledge graph architecture and uses an improved residual network to drive reasoning in the domain knowledge graph. In addition, a multitarget prediction method based on the adaptive balanced learning mechanism for a residual network is proposed, which uses the dynamic weighted average method to adaptively adjust the loss weight of each target according to the convergence speed and learning difficulty of each target. The proposed dual-drive method is applied to predict and optimize the performance of vehicle acoustic package and to further improve the multiple sound quality metrics of tire/road noise. In the experimental validation, the proposed method outperforms the traditional prediction and optimization methods in effectiveness and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wound healing remains a considerable challenge due to its complex inflammatory microenvironment. Developing novel wound dressing materials with superior wound repair capabilities is highly required. However, conventional dressing hydrogels for wound healing are often limited by their complex cross-linking, high treatment costs, and drug-related side effects. In this study, we report a novel dressing hydrogel constructed only by the self-assembly of chlorogenic acid (CA). Molecular dynamic simulation studies revealed the formation of CA hydrogel was mainly through non-covalent interactions, such as π-π and hydrogen bond. Meanwhile, CA hydrogel exhibited superior self-healing, injectability, and biocompatibility properties, making it a promising candidate for wound treatment. As expected, in vitro experiments demonstrated that CA hydrogel possessed remarkable anti-inflammatory activity, and its ability to promote the generation of microvessels in HUVEC cells, as well as the promotion of microvessel formation in HUVEC cells and proliferation of HaCAT cells. Subsequent in vivo investigation further demonstrated that CA hydrogel accelerated wound healing in rats through regulating macrophage polarization. Mechanistically, the CA hydrogel treatment enhanced the closure rate, collagen deposition, and re-epithelialization while simultaneously suppressing the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and increasing the production of CD31 and VEGF during the wound healing process. Our findings indicate that this multifunctional CA hydrogel is a promising candidate for wound healing, particularly in cases of impaired angiogenesis and inflammatory responses. [Display omitted] • CA hydrogel was constructed by self-assembly of chlorogenic acid. • CA hydrogel possessed good cytocompatibility by promoting cell proliferation and migration. • CA hydrogel exhibited excellent anti-inflammation and regulated macrophage polarization properties. • CA hydrogel could significantly accelerate wound healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sugar production is essential for the production of foods, biochemicals, and biofuels via biochemical or catalytic routes. Sugar‐containing crops, and starch‐based and cellulosic feedstocks are resources for sugar production via juice extraction, starch saccharification, and pretreatment and hydrolysis, respectively. Technologies have been developed to attain a high sugar yield; however, production costs are a major consideration in commercializing newly developed approaches to the production of sugars. In this review, the fixed capital and production costs of sugar produced from first‐ and second‐generation crops are summarized. As expected, first‐generation crops provide the lowest fixed capital costs, ranging from 0.01 to 0.13 $ kg−1 feedstock, and have production costs ranging from 0.22 to 0.55 $ kg−1 sugar. For cellulosic crops, because of their recalcitrant structure and complex processing, the fixed capital and production costs are higher, ranging from 0.02 to 1.10 $ kg−1 feedstock and 0.10 to 3.37 $ kg−1 sugar, respectively. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Viscosity reduction is necessary for economical heavy oil production. Dilution of heavy oil with light hydrocarbons is one of the extraction methods as an alternative to the thermal processes. However, in-situ upgrading of heavy oil leads to asphaltene deposition, which causes pore clogging and prevents diluted oil to drain in the direction of production well. Understanding the asphaltene precipitation and deposition mechanism on hydrophilic and hydrophobic porous media improves the efficiency of the solvent-based extraction methods and accuracy of solvent selection in both experiment and simulation. In this work, two different patterns of microfluidic platforms were used to study asphaltene deposition in porous media. Porous media were treated with a silane to evaluate the effect of wettability alteration on asphaltene deposition. Quantitative analysis of the detection point of asphaltene deposition showed faster precipitation from n-pentane in comparison with n-decane as heavier solvent. Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM) analysis was performed on precipitated asphaltene to evaluate the effect of different solvents on the structure of asphaltene precipitates. Moreover, a high-resolution Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy was used to identify the morphology of precipitated asphaltenes and results compared with HIM analysis. It was found that precipitated asphaltene with n-decane had larger asphaltene particles but fine precipitates from n-pentane led to higher aggregation and flocculation. Formation damage and pore blockage of deposited asphaltene from n-pentane was noticeably higher than n-decane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the hydrodynamic effect in the collective locomotion of several birds or fish is an interesting topic. Taking a model of a self-propelled flapping plate, we numerically investigated the collective locomotion of a pair of plates with comparable but different propulsive capacities, e.g., one long and one short plates. The longer plate is supposed to have a stronger propulsive capacity. It is found that two typical equilibrium configurations, i.e., compact and sparse configurations, may emerge, which depend mainly on initial lateral and longitudinal gap spacing, i.e., H and G0, respectively. In the compact cases, when H is small, e.g., H < 0.6, in terms of cruising speed and efficiency, hydrodynamic advantages are found for both plates. In all sparse configurations, the propulsive performance of the leading plate is identical to that of the corresponding isolated one. The following short plate in the "long-short" (the longer in the front) sparse cases always takes hydrodynamic advantages in terms of cruising speed and efficiency. In the "short-long" (the shorter in the front) sparse cases, the follower's propulsive capacity is suppressed because the cruising speed and input power decrease significantly compared to its isolated case. The analyses of hydrodynamic force and corresponding potential energy show that the staggered sparse configuration with H ∈ (0.4, 1.0) is more stable than that with other H. The "hydrodynamic drafting" analyzed here may shed some light on understanding the coordinated collective behaviors in biological and natural systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the wear resistance behavior of the striated tool for cross wedge rolling (CWR).Design/methodology/approach A mechanical-thermal coupled, temperature-dependent FE wear model was developed to explore the wear behaviors for striated CWR tools. To verify the proposed FE model, a newly developed measuring device was also developed to measure wear on the tool ridge. To find the impact order of the parameters of striate unit, orthogonal experiment was carried out.Findings The experimental and numerical results both indicate that the wear resistance of striated tool is better than that of smooth tool. Minimum tool ridge wear can be achieved by choosing proper tool contact temperature with striated units on crossed ridge. The order of the striation geometrical factors’ impact on ridge wear is striation width > striation interval > striation length.Research limitations/implications Because of the specified tool, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.Originality/value It is shown that the wear resistance of striated CWR tool is better than that of smooth tool. The information may help CWR manufactures to design and produce tools with less wear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote the development of a green environment, it is necessary to build a friendly environment for green travel and increase the use of green resources. Methods based on remote sensing image processing and feature analysis have become one of the main ways to obtain ground information, and have been widely used and promoted. Therefore, ground targets the accuracy of object recognition and features have been significantly improved. In the lightweight image of the city, the terrain occupies almost 80% of the buildings and roads. Urban buildings play an important role in supporting the operation, management and planning of the city. An important technology for the construction of digital towns in the future is the city. Building identification, therefore, the research of building identification is more important in the development of the city. With the widespread application of artificial intelligence deep learning and the popularization of smart technologies, the digital images generated by the Internet and mobile smart terminals have exponentially increased. Image data provides users with a comfortable experience and convenient services, but it also brings many challenges. How to filter out the photos we are interested in from a large amount of image data and find the content we need is a data difficulty. In computer vision research, image search systems can solve the problem of searching for the same content in many digital images. This paper applies deep learning and lightweight images to search systems to promote the development of urban building recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a traditionally used packaging material, natural cellulose-based paper has poor barrier properties to water and oxygen, which severely limits its wide application in food packaging. In this study, we report a new sustainable approach to producing hydrophobic, high-barrier, and antibacterial packaging materials from cellulose paper. In this process, commercially available microcrystalline cellulose was first modified by long-chain stearic acid to form hydrophobic microcrystalline cellulose ester and then mixed with stearic acid as filler in the subsequent surface coating of bagasse fibre paper. The microcrystalline cellulose ester/stearic acid-coated paper (MSP) exhibited good water repellency and oxygen barrier activity due to a continuous hydrophobic film that formed, which completely covered the pores of the original bagasse fibre paper. The coated MSP sample also showed excellent dimensional stability in water and a good wet tensile strength of 16 MPa. In addition, poly(hexamethylene guanidine) (PHMG) was chemically grafted onto the free carboxyl groups of the MSP surface layer, and the resulting MSP- g -PHMG samples exhibited excellent antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes. The biodegradable cellulose-based MSP- g -PHMG sample significantly delayed the decay of raspberry during storage, indicating its potential application in food packaging. • Microcrystalline cellulose-based eco-friendly coating agent for paper surface functionalization • The coated cellulose paper sheet showed good waterproofing, oxygen barrier, and antibacterial properties. • The designed cellulose-based paper sheet is well suited for food packaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the tribological performance of the oil distribution plate of the plunger pump under dry sliding wear and temperature rise conditions during the start–stop stage and reduce its cost, a polyamide imide (PAI)/polyimide (PI)–Polytetrafluoroethylen (PTFE) coating filled by three different content of tungsten carbide (WC)/Tantalum (Ta) were designed. The composite polymer coating was prepared on the surface of 1010 steel and AS20 aluminum substrate by liquid spraying, and its tribological properties under different temperatures and lubrication media were investigated. The results showed that the tribological properties of the coating were influenced by the hardness of the substrate, the content of the filled particles, the ambient temperature, and the lubricating medium. The hardness of the coating increased with substrate hardness and WC content. Under the condition of sliding wear at room temperature, the wear mechanism was mainly abrasive wear and adhesive wear. The wear rate of the coating decreased with an increase in WC content. The coating with 5% WC addition had the lowest wear rate on 1010 steel and AS20 aluminum substrate. Under the same coating condition, the tribological properties of the 1010 alloy steel were lower than those of the AS20 aluminum. The pear groove and adhesion of the coating increased with temperature. Compared with the CuPb24Sn at 100°C, coating on the surface of 1010 steel significantly reduce the coefficient of friction (CoF) and wear rate. The CoF and wear rate under dry sliding wear were reduced by 57.5 and 8.7% and those under oil lubrication were reduced by 45.7 and 11.1%, respectively. The supporting effect of the matrix, the bonding of the internal particles in the coating, the softening degree of polymer materials such as resin, and the lipophilicity of the coating are the main reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A High-temperature superconducting (HTS) bandpass filter system containing a lowpass filter, a highpass filter and an LNA has been fabricated to meet the demands of wideband wireless signal receiving system. The filter system has an ultimate fractional bandwidth over 108% with the passband from 820 MHz to 2750 MHz. Besides, the filter system showed good frequency selectivity and out-of-band rejection. The 40 dB to 3 dB rectangle coefficient of our filter system is 1.4, which is better than that of an 8-pole Chebyshev filter, and the out-of-band rejection is better than 40 dB. Through systematical optimization, a return loss of better than 9.8 dB was received in the filter system. This system also showed advantages in design and fabrication precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to typical applications of the pseudopotential Lattice Boltzmann model to two components, quantitative validations and applications for three-component Shan-Chen model are performed here. First, the qualitative and quantitative validations for the following three cases were performed, i.e., three-phase separation, meniscus-induced bubble movement, and the three-phase layered flow. A scheme to control the simulated contact angle of droplets on the interface is provided for the three fluid phase Lattice Boltzmann model. The effects of droplet shape, the strength of gravity, droplet size, and meniscus curvature for the spontaneous motion of droplets and bubbles are investigated in detail. It is found that without gravity, droplets tend to move to the wall on a concave upwards meniscus when they have a big “head” and a small “belly”. Gravity may enhance rather than inhibit the motion towards the wall when the density of the droplet or bubble is relatively small. Finally, smaller droplet size and larger meniscus curvatures enhance the spontaneous movement towards a wall. The conclusions are relevant to practical applications such as water treatment, oil spill remediation, and droplet-based microfluidics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cisplatin (CP) has been used to cure numerous forms of cancers effectively in clinics, however, it could induce some toxic effects. Bee pollen is a natural compound, produced by honey bees. It is obtained from collected flower pollen and nectar, mixed with bee saliva. Bee pollen produced from Schisandra chinensis plants is described to exert potent antioxidant effects and to be a free radical scavenger. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of therapeutic treatment with Schisandra chinensis bee pollen extract (SCBPE) on liver and kidney injury induced by CP. The rats were intragastrically administrated with different doses of SCBPE (400 mg/kg/day, 800 mg/kg/day, 1200 mg/kg/day) and vitamin C (400 mg/kg/day, positive control group) for 12 days, and the liver and kidney injury models were established by single intraperitoneal injection of CP (8 mg/kg) at seventh day. The effect of SCBPE on CP toxicity was evaluated by measuring markers of liver and kidney injury in serum, levels of lipid peroxidation and antioxidants in liver and kidney, observing pathological changes of tissue, and quantified expression of NFκB, IL-1β, IL-6, cytochrome C, caspase3, caspase9, p53 and Bax in liver and kidney. Compared with the model group, the activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and the content of blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr) in serum all decreased in SCBPE high dose group. Meanwhile, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and the content of reduced glutathione (GSH) in liver and kidney increased, and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) decreased. In addition, the histopathologic aspects showed that the pathological changes of liver and kidney were found in the model group, and SCBPE group reduced to varying degrees. Moreover, the expression of NFκB, IL-1β, IL-6, cytochrome C, caspase3, caspase9, p53 and Bax in liver and kidney decreased. Therefore, SCBPE could reduce the damage of liver and kidney caused by CP by reducing the level of oxidative stress, and improving the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic capacity of the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A knowledge- and data-driven approach is proposed for vehicle acoustic package system. • The proposed ALRF-LSTM can decrease and increase the learning rate adaptively. • The proposed MLMO structure can reduce the complexity of the problem. • The acoustic package is optimized through the knowledge-and data-driven method. The sound absorption and sound insulation performance of an acoustic package (AP) system directly affect the noise, vibration and harshness performance of a vehicle. Numerous studies have studied the optimization of vehicle sound package, however, there are two deficiencies in the current research of sound package: (1) The noise transmission path of acoustic package is complex and hierarchical. Most of the related works focus on the data-driven part while ignoring the knowledge attributes behind the acoustic package design problem, which limits the further improvement of prediction and optimization of acoustic package performance. (2) In using intelligent neural networks-based methods such as long short-term memory (LSTM), reducing the learning rate during training gradually narrows the search interval of a solution, and adjusting the learning rate in a small range may tend to trap local optima. In this study, a knowledge- and data-driven approach is proposed for the development of acoustic package systems. A multiple-level multiple-object method is proposed as the knowledge model, and a multilayer structure of the acoustic package system that contains the system, subsystem and component layers is developed. In addition, an improved long short-term memory model based on an adaptive learning rate forest, which can increase and decrease the learning rate adaptively, is proposed as the data-driven model. The knowledge- and data-driven method is applied to optimize the sound absorption and insulation of the acoustic package system. In the experimental validation, the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method outperformed the traditional direct mapping method and the conventional long short-term memory method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicle interior vibro-acoustical comfort, i.e., noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), is important to consumers and automotive manufacturers because it affects the physical and mental health of passengers and impacts the reputations of automotive manufacturers. Although simulations can predict vehicle interior noise and vibration, acoustic treatment and resulting uncertainty may generate considerable errors between the simulation and actual measurement results. Meanwhile, the recursive invocation of a complex simulation model in an optimization leads to a very time-consuming calculation process. These problems make the optimization of vehicle interior vibro-acoustical comfort a challenge for the automotive industry. In this paper, a new method, the multiobjective interval analysis method, was proposed to solve these problems. To implement this method, we carried out a vehicle road test instead of a complicated simulation model to collect data. The vehicle interior noise and vibration were recorded, and the interior sound pressure level (SPL) and total weighted acceleration root mean square (TWA-RMS) values were calculated and used as objectives. Then, a multiobjective interval analysis method was proposed to compute the midpoint and radius of the objective functions under different uncertainties. The preferred average performance and robustness of the vehicle vibro-acoustical comfort was adjusted by tuning the weighting factor. To accelerate the calculation process, a neural network model was developed as an approximate model to construct the numerical relation between the dynamic parameters and the vibro-acoustic metrics. Finally, the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method were verified with experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arabinoglucuronoxylan (AGX), an important carbohydrate polymer in lignocellulosic biomass, contains many functional groups. It has excellent amphiphilic modification properties and has potential application in the separation of oily sludge. In this study, a simple strategy for producing high-performance AGX-based biosurfactants was studied and the raw AGX was extracted from bamboo by hydrothermal treatment. AGX-based biosurfactants with amphiphilic structure were produced by AGX and dodecanal succinic anhydride (DDSA) using rapid homogeneous esterification reactions in deep eutectic solvents (DES). This resulted in a significant reduction in the surface tension of the water from 72.32 to 29.76 mN·m−1. These parameters are similar to those achieved using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a widely employed synthetic surfactant. Other physicochemical properties, including foamability, emulsification activity, stability, solubilization, and detergency were significantly improved compared to the unmodified AGX, demonstrate that AGX-based biosurfactants are promising detergents for oily sludge remediation and oil recovery. The results provide a new pathway for high value utilization of arabinoglucuronoxylan. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicle interior vibro-acoustical comfort, i.e., noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), is important to consumers and automotive manufacturers because it affects the physical and mental health of passengers and impacts the reputations of automotive manufacturers. Although simulations can predict vehicle interior noise and vibration, acoustic treatment and resulting uncertainty may generate considerable errors between the simulation and actual measurement results. Meanwhile, the recursive invocation of a complex simulation model in an optimization leads to a very time-consuming calculation process. These problems make the optimization of vehicle interior vibro-acoustical comfort a challenge for the automotive industry. In this paper, a new method, the multiobjective interval analysis method, was proposed to solve these problems. To implement this method, we carried out a vehicle road test instead of a complicated simulation model to collect data. The vehicle interior noise and vibration were recorded, and the interior sound pressure level (SPL) and total weighted acceleration root mean square (TWA-RMS) values were calculated and used as objectives. Then, a multiobjective interval analysis method was proposed to compute the midpoint and radius of the objective functions under different uncertainties. The preferred average performance and robustness of the vehicle vibro-acoustical comfort was adjusted by tuning the weighting factor. To accelerate the calculation process, a neural network model was developed as an approximate model to construct the numerical relation between the dynamic parameters and the vibro-acoustic metrics. Finally, the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method were verified with experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design and fabrication of hierarchically porous inorganic fibres holds exciting implications for applications in catalysis, separation, and energy devices. In this article, we present a general phase separation strategy for the fabrication of TiO2–SiO2 fibres with hierarchical pores via a typical electrospinning procedure. The porous hierarchy of the as-fabricated products and the possible formation mechanism have been investigated in detail. The results confirmed that the hydrophilic–hydrophobic repulsion between the PVP@TBT@TEOS 3D network complex and the solvent, the hydrolysis and polycondensation of inorganic alkoxides, and the slow solvent evaporation during the process of electrospinning may be responsible for the phase separation, leading to the formation of macropores in the fibres. The obtained hierarchically macro-/mesoporous TiO2–SiO2 fibres exhibited amazing structure stability even at a high calcination temperature of 850 °C. The current work may guide the further design of functional inorganic fibres with controllable hierarchical porous structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we describe a general strategy, which combines electrospinning and hydrothermal processes, for the facile fabrication of one-dimensional hollow and solid porous titania (1DHP-TiO2 and 1DSP-TiO2). Amorphous TiO2 fibres were first fabricated by a conventional electrospinnning method and then used as precursors and templates for the subsequent hydrothermal reaction. Fluoride-mediated chemically induced self-transformation (CIST) was proposed to account for the formation of the hollow and solid porous structures. By controlling the parameters of the processes (i.e. porosity and diameter of the amorphous precursors, type of the mediated reactants), titania with tunable wall thickness and inner structures could be selectively fabricated. Besides, the obtained 1DHP-TiO2 and 1DSP-TiO2 exhibited good thermal stability. The organic residues and trace amounts of Na ions in 1DHP-TiO2 and 1DSP-TiO2 may act as stabilizers to raise the phase transformation temperature. Through this current general strategy based on CIST, it is expected that more functional 1D hollow and solid porous inorganic materials for advanced applications can be designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The construction of TMDs/Gr heterostructures are introduced. • The related properties of TMDs/Gr heterostructures are discussed. • The metal-ion batteries using TMDs/Gr electrodes are comprehensively reviewed. • The thin film electrodes will be a mainstream for the metal-ion batteries. Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are graphene-like layered materials with unique structures and characteristics. These structures and properties make them have great potential in the field of electrochemistry, especially heterogeneous TMDs/Graphene (Gr) composites are the ideal energy storage materials with large specific surface area, excellent mechanical properties, high conductivity, and high electrochemical stability. This article systematically reviews the important progress made by the TMDs/Gr heterostructures used in metal-ion batteries recently. The focus is on the construction of TMDs/Gr heterostructures, related physical properties, and their application in metal-ion batteries. The merits and drawbacks of different preparation methods are summarized and discussed. The performance of TMDs/Gr composites as the electrode materials for various metal-ion batteries is reviewed and investigated. This review aims to provide a reference for the electrochemical research of TMDs/Gr composites and outline the prospects and future challenges of them applied to the metal-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft rubber exhibits good adhesive ability, excellent vibrational absorption, and high traction for tribological use. However, rubber wear particles induced by rapid wear of soft rubber are serious problems under special conditions, which could negatively influence the equipment running, the environment, and even human health faster. This paper presents the influence of five variables (the load, velocity, humidity, slip ratio, and braking time) on the emission of tyre wear particle matter (TWPM), which are generated by soft butadiene-styrene rubber tyres against the concrete under braking conditions with a self-developed rolling-contact test machine. The emission quantity of TWPM and their relationships with the rubber wear mechanism were investigated. The results show that the emission quantity and increment of TWPM of 3.0 μm in size (TWPM 3.0) are much greater than those of TWPMs 5.0 and 10.0. Humidity and braking time both have negative correlations with the quantity of TWPM 3.0, while load, velocity, and slip ratio have positive correlations. Abrasive rubber wear results in more severely TWPM emission than fatigue wear does. It is easy for the soft rubber to form Schallamach pattern on its surface and induce severe abrasive wear, which potentially produces more TWPMs. The variables exhibit the following order of influence on the emission of TWPM 3.0: load, slip ratio, velocity, braking time, and humidity. The impact factor of the load is approximately twice as high as that of velocity and slip ratio and three times greater than that of humidity and braking deceleration. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the generation of TWPMs of soft rubber. • Effects of load, velocity, braking time, humidity, and slip ratio on TWPM′ release are discussed. • It is easy for soft rubber to induce severe abrasive wear, producing more TWPM. • Water-lubricated interface and low contact load can remarkably reduce TWPM′ release. • The impact order of variables on TWPM 3.0's release is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiesel production from vegetable oils has progressively increased over the past two decades. However, due to the low amounts of oil produced per hectare from temperate oilseed crops (e.g. soybean), the opportunities for further increasing biodiesel production are limited. Genetically modified lipid-producing sugarcane (lipid-cane) possesses great potential for producing biodiesel as an alternative feedstock because of sugarcane's much higher productivity compared with soybean. In this study, techno-economic models were developed for biodiesel and ethanol coproduction from lipid-cane, assuming 2, 5, 10, or 20% lipid concentration in the harvested stem (dry mass basis). The models were compared with a conventional soybean biodiesel process model to assess lipid-cane's competiveness. In the lipid-cane process model, the extracted lipids were used to produce biodiesel by transesterification, and the remaining sugar was used to produce ethanol by fermentation. The results showed that the biodiesel production cost from lipid-cane decreased from $0.89/L to $0.59 /L as the lipid content increased from 2 to 20%; this cost was lower than that obtained for soybeans ($1.08/L). The ethanol production costs from lipid-cane were between $0.40/L and $0.46/L. The internal rate of return ( IRR) for the soybean biodiesel process was 15.0%, and the IRR for the lipid-cane process went from 13.7 to 24.0% as the lipid content increased from 2 to 20%. Because of its high productivity, lipid-cane with 20% lipid content can produce 6700 L of biodiesel from each hectare of land, whereas soybean can only produce approximately 500 L of biodiesel from each hectare of land. This would indicate that continued efforts to achieve lipid-producing sugarcane could make large-scale replacement of fossil-fuel-derived diesel without unrealistic demands on land area. © 2016 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of one-dimensional titania with tunable structural hierarchy holds exciting implications for applications such as optoelectronics, sensing and catalysis. Here, we report a general precursor strategy for one-dimensional titania with surface nanoprotrusion and tunable hierarchical structures realized via a titanate route using electrospun titania fibers as precursors. One-dimensional hierarchical hollow titanate (1D-HHT) was first fabricated under mild alkaline hydrothermal conditions from electrospun amorphous TiO2 precursors. The time-dependent evolution of 1D-HHT has been investigated in detail. The concerted effect of alkaline etching and Ostwald ripening is responsible for the surface nanoprotrusion and modulation of structural hierarchy. Anatase TiO2 with the same hierarchical structures can be obtained using controlled calcination. The as-fabricated one-dimensional titania with varying levels of structural hierarchy exhibits about 1.3–1.5 times higher power conversion efficiency than commercial P25 as a photoanode material for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The current work may be extended for more functional TiO2-based materials with tunable structural hierarchy and could widen the application range of electrospinning technology for one-dimensional hierarchical structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 3D thermal-mechanical elastic-plastic FE wear model for investigating tool wear in cross wedge rolling (CWR) process was developed and validated in this paper, especially considering the influence of temperature on tool parameters under the circumstance of laboratory. Tool wear, contact stress, and contact temperature along tool wedge ridge path under different initial billet temperatures were investigated. To study the influence of initial billet temperature, the tool wear is considered as the combined effects of tool thermal softening behavior and resistance to workpiece plastic deformation. Unit wear is firstly introduced to describe the effect of the material thermal softening behaviors on tool wear. Results show that tool wear occurs severely along the wedge ridge and reaches its maximum as the workpiece is rolled at a half round. The minimum tool wear can be achieved using appropriate initial billet temperature. The proposed methodology may help CWR manufacturers to design and produce tools that exhibit less wear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focused on wear mechanism of vulcanized rubber under changing loads and sliding velocities, and coefficient of friction (COF) variation induced by friction and wear mechanism at the atomic scale. A self-developed molecular dynamic (MD) model representing classic abrasive wear was built and experiments were also conducted for verification qualitatively. The results show that rubber wear is slighter both at the nanoscale and macroscale with higher sliding velocity and lower load due to lower interface temperature, less probability of adhesion, less contact area and decreasing motion ability of molecular chains. Furthermore, it was verified both by experiment and simulation that with increasing vertical load, friction mechanism leads to lower COF, and wear mechanism leads to greater COF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uniform, thickness-controllable and large-size mesoscopic TiO2 films based on commercial P25 nanoparticles are prepared by a spray method, which have been applied in the perovskite solar cells, achieving a high efficiency of 16%. This spray method shows promising application in the large-scale production of mesoscopic solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]