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ABSTRACTIn this study, an immunocompromised rat model was established by long-term diet control and excessive swimming and treated with extracts of raw licorice (RL) and honey-roasted licorice (HL) to explore the immunomodulatory efficacy and gut microbiota composition with their metabolites. Pharmacological experiment confirmed that honey-roasting enhanced the ability of RL to regulate inflammatory cytokines and gut mucosal-layer homeostasis. The analysis of 16S rRNA sequences showed that both RL and HL regulated the balance of gut microbiota, but HL exhibited better effects than RL in regulating microbiota closely related to inflammatory cytokines (Coriobacteriaceae_UCG-002) as well as short-chain fatty acids-producing bacteria (Dubosiella and Ruminococcus). Moreover, HL improved the contents of butyrate and isobutyrate in feces more significantly than RL. In conclusion, the balance of gut microbiota and short-chain fatty acids might be one of the pathways that honey-roasting improve the immunomodulatory efficacy of licorice.Abbreviations: ANOVA: analysis of variance; BCA: bicinchoninic acid; ELISA: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; HRP: horseradish peroxidase; LDA: the linear discriminant analysis; LEfSe: the linear discriminant analysis effect size; MS: mass spectrometry; OTU: operational taxonomic units; PBS: phosphate buffered saline; PCoA: principal coordinate analysis; PVDF: polyvinylidene fluoride; RIPA: radio immunoprecipitation assay; SCFAs: short-chain fatty acids;

Highlights MXene film absorbers enable the near theoretical absorption strength in extremely wide wavebands of 0.5–10 THz.

BackgroundRecurrent pregnancy loss is a distressing event during pregnancy, and understanding its causal factors is crucial. Follistatin, a glycoprotein involved in folliculogenesis and embryogenesis, has been implicated as a potential contributor to the risk of spontaneous abortion. However, establishing a causal relationship requires rigorous investigation using robust methods.MethodsIn this study, we utilized mendelian randomization (MR), a powerful genetic epidemiological approach, to examine the causal relationship between follistatin levels and spontaneous abortion. We obtained instrumental variables strongly associated with follistatin levels from large-scale genome-wide association from the IEU database. The inverse variance weighting (IVW) method was taken as gold standard. We also performed sensitivity test to evaluate the robustness of our result.ResultsMR analysis revealed a significant causal relationship between low follistatin levels and spontaneous abortion (p = 0.03). Sensitivity analyses, including pleiotropy test, heterogeneity test, and leave-one-out analysis, all supported the robustness of our findings.ConclusionOur study provides compelling evidence supporting the causal relationship between low follistatin levels and increased risk of spontaneous abortion. These findings underscore the importance of follistatin in the etiology of spontaneous abortion and suggest potential preventive interventions. Modulating follistatin levels or relevant pathways could hold promise for reducing the incidence of spontaneous abortion and improving reproductive outcomes. The utilization of MRs strengthens the validity of our results by mitigating confounding and reverse causality biases. Further research is needed to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms and explore therapeutic strategies targeting follistatin levels.

Cl-redox reactions cannot be fully exploited in batteries because of the Cl2 gas evolution. Here, reversible high-energy interhalogen reactions are demonstrated by using a iodine-based cathode in combination with a Zn anode and a Cl-containing aqueous electrolyte solution.

Highlights The excellent performance of MoS2/PANI cathode is due to better conductivity and desolvation shielding. The self-charging zinc battery was successfully assembled that achieve deep self-discharge and long cycle life. The quasi solid state battery and battery module have excellent performance and practicability.

Highlights The strong interaction between Ti3C2Sx and FeN4 species induces the central metal Fe(II) in FeN4 species with intermediate spin state transferred to high spin state, in which the latter is favorable to initiate the reduction of oxygen. This strong interaction induces a remarkable Fe 3d electron delocalization with d band center upshift, boosting oxygen-containing groups adsorption on FeN4 species and oxygen reduction reaction kinetics. The resulting FeN4–Ti3C2S x with FeN4 moieties in high spin state exhibits high half-wave potential of 0.89 V vs. RHE and high limiting current density of 6.5 mA cm−2, enabling wearable zinc–air battery showing a good discharge performance with a maximum power density of 133.6 mW cm−2.

Phytase efficiently hydrolyzes phytate to phosphate; thus, it is widely used to increase phosphorus availability in animal feeds and reduce phosphorus pollution through excretion. Phytase is easily inactivated during feed pelleting at high temperature, and sufficient thermostability of phytase is essential for industrial applications. In this study, directed evolution was performed to enhance phytase thermostability. Variants were initially expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 for screening, then in Pichia pastoris for characterization. Over 19,000 clones were generated from an error-prone Polymerase Chain Reaction (epPCR) library; 5 mutants (G10, D7, E3, F8, and F9) were obtained with approximately 9.6%, 10.6%, 11.5%, 11.6%, and 12.2% higher residual activities than the parent after treatment at 99°C for 60 min. Three of these mutants, D7, E3, and F8, exhibited 79.8%, 73.2%, and 92.6% increases in catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km), respectively. In addition, the specific activities of D7, E3, and F8 were 2.33-, 1.98-, and 2.02-fold higher than parental phytase; they were also higher than the activities of all known thermostable phytases. Sequence analysis revealed that all mutants were substituted at residue 75 and was confirmed that the substitution of cysteine at position 75 was the main contribution to the improvement of thermostability of mutants by saturation mutagenesis, indicating that this amino acid is crucial for the stability and catalytic efficiency of phytase. Docking structure analysis revealed that substitution of the C75 residue allowed the mutants to form additional hydrogen bonds in the active pocket, thereby facilitating binding to the substrate. In addition, we confirmed that the intrinsic C77-C108 disulfide bond in E. coli phytase is detrimental to its stability.

In this work, the effect of nitrogen doping on vanadium micro-alloyed P460NL1 steel is studied in terms of microstructures and impact toughness. As the nitrogen content increased from 0.0036% to 0.0165%, the number of V (C,N) particles increased. The fine precipitates of V (C,N) effectively pin the prior austenite grain boundary, resulting in the refinement of the austenite grain. The intragranular and intergranular V-containing coarse particles enhanced the nucleation of intragranular ferrite and the grain boundaries of polygonal ferrite during air cooling. Accordingly, the proportion of heterogeneously nucleated ferrite increased, and the grain size of ferrite decreased. Notably, the size of the pearlite microstructure decreased, and the bainite microstructure appeared with a high doping of N. With the increase in N content, the impact toughness of vanadium micro-alloyed P460NL1 steel was enhanced. This can be attributed to the refinement of ferrite and the reduction in pearlite, which, in turn, was ascribed to the increase in nitrogen.

In this work, the influence of normalizing temperature on vanadium micro-alloyed P460NL1 steel is studied in terms of microstructures and impact toughness. With the normalizing temperature increased from 850 °C to 950 °C, the V(C,N) particles are dissolved. The dissolution of V(C,N) particles leads to a reduction in their ability to pin the primitive austenite grain boundaries, resulting in the coarsening of the primitive austenite grain. Simultaneously, the number of precipitated particles promoting ferrite nucleation decreased. The combination of these two effects led to the coarsening of ferrite grains in the steel samples. Of note, in the sample normalized at a temperature of 850 °C, the ferrite and pearlite crystals clearly exhibited banded structures. As the normalizing temperature increased, the ferrite–pearlite belt phase weakened. The highly distributed belt phase resulted in poor impact toughness of the steel sample normalized at 850 °C. The belt phase was improved at a normalizing temperature of 900 °C. In addition to that, the microstructure did not undergo significant coarsening at this normalizing temperature, thereby allowing it to achieve the highest toughness among all samples that were prepared for this study. The belt phase almost vanished at the normalizing temperature of 950 °C. However, microstructure coarsening occurred at this temperature, resulting in the deterioration of impact toughness.

The performances of rechargeable batteries are detrimentally affected by low temperatures (e.g., < 0 °C). Here, the authors report a few-layer Bi2Se3 material capable of improving battery cycling performances when operational temperatures are shifted from +25 °C to −20 °C.

The design, optimization and control methods of a transverse flux Linear Switched Reluctance Motor (LSRM) for the rail transit application are introduced. Two structures of LSRMs, EI type and EE type, are compared and analyzed. The structure of EE type machine is optimized from the perspective of average electromagnetic thrust per unit mass through finite element calculations. The initial sizes of the motor are calculated according to the design theory of the rotary SRM. After obtaining the initial sizes, the sensitivities of the LSRM sizes are analyzed by the three-dimensional finite element calculation, and then the sizes such as the slot depth, the slot width and the tooth width of the motor are optimized. The hardware test platform is built, the electromagnetic characteristics of the prototype are tested, and the motor characteristics of the LSRM with different secondary materials are compared. The control method of the LSRM with position sensors is proposed, and then the sensorless control of the motor is also realized based on the pulse injection strategy. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the design and control strategies.

In this paper, large-eddy simulation of the interaction between a shock wave and the hypersonic turbulent boundary layer in a compression corner with a fixed 34° deflection angle at Ma = 6 for different Reynolds number cases is conducted. For investigating the effects of the Reynolds number for hypersonic cases, three cases where the free-stream Reynolds numbers are 14000, 20000, and 30000/mm are selected. The averaged statistics, such as the mean velocity, the skin friction, the heat flux, and the wall pressure, are used in this paper. The flow structures in the compression ramp including the shock wave and interaction region are discussed. The decomposition of the mean skin-friction drag for the flat flow is extended to be used in the compression corner. In addition, the turbulent kinetic energy is studied through the decomposition of the mean skin-friction drag for the flat-plate region and the corner region. It is found that higher Reynolds numbers would increase the turbulent kinetic energy by turbulent dissipation at the interaction region, while higher Reynolds numbers would decrease the turbulent kinetic energy by turbulent dissipation after reattachment. In addition, it is also found that the turbulent kinetic energy is larger with a higher Reynolds number and higher turbulent kinetic energy inhibits the movement from the separation point to the inflection point (x = 0 mm), which deduces larger separation bubbles.

Despite the remarkable ion-hosting capability of MXenes, their electrochemical performance is restricted to the ion shuttle barrier stemming from the capacious surface and the sluggish chemical activity of intrinsic transition metal layers. Herein, we construct a vertically aligned array of V2CTX flakes utilizing a carbon sphere template (V2CTX@CS), with the interlayer galleries outward facing the external electrolyte, to shorten the diffusion length and mitigate the ion shuttle barrier. Moreover, we leverage the high sensitivity of V2CTX flakes to the water–oxygen environment, fully activating the masked active sites of transition metal layers in an aqueous environment via continuous electrochemical scanning. Aqueous V2CTX@CS/Zn battery delivers a novel capacity enhancement over 42,000 cycles at 10 A g−1. After activation, the capacity reaches up to 409 mAh [Formula: see text] at 0.5 A g−1 and remains at 122 mAh [Formula: see text] at 18 A g−1. With a 0.95-V voltage plateau, the energy density of 330.4 Wh [Formula: see text] surpasses previous records of aqueous MXene electrodes.

In the author’s previous work, we introduced an open-source accelerated computational fluid dynamics code for scientific computations using a graphics processing unit system (OpenCFD-SCU). This code offers significantly improved computation speed and can be applied to challenging direct numerical simulation (DNS) problems. This paper presents several high-resolution cases using OpenCFD-SCU: (1) a 24° compression ramp at Mach 2.9, where the length of the ramp is 200 mm and the mesh number is 7.68 × 109; (2) a 34° compression ramp at Mach 6 with a mesh number of 9.3 × 109; (3) a cold-wall flat plate at Mach 10 with a friction Reynolds number of 1550 and mesh number of 4.5 × 109; (4) a blunt cone with a 1 mm head radius and 0° attack angle at Mach 10, where the mesh number is 24 × 109; and (5) a lifting-body model at Mach 6 with a mesh number of 11.1 × 109. Compared with DNS studies of compressible wall-bound turbulent flow under similar conditions, these cases have larger computational domains, finer resolutions, or higher Reynolds numbers, demonstrating the simulation capability of OpenCFD-SCU and broadening the scope of DNS applications. We have conducted preliminary analyses of these cases and have established an open-access database to store these data. The source code of OpenCFD-SCU can be accessed at http://developer.hpccube.com/codes/danggl/opencfd-scu.git; this website also contains detailed database descriptions and data acquisition methods.

Abstract Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of transition over a hypersonic lifting body model HyTRV developed by China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center is performed. The free-stream parameters are: the free-stream Mach number is 6, the unit Reynolds number is 10000/mm, the free-stream temperature is 79 K, the angle of attack is 0, and the wall temperature is 300 K. Weak random blowing-and-suction perturbations in the leading range are used to trigger the transition. A high order finite-difference code OpenCFD developed by the authors is used for the simulation, and grid convergence test shows that the transition locations are grid-convergence. DNS results show that transition occurs in central area of the lower surface and the concaved region of the upper surface, and the transition regions are also the streamline convergence regions. The transition mechanisms in different regions are investigated by using the spectrum and POD analysis.

Obtaining stable aqueous K-ion capacitors is still challenging due to the cathode materials tended to structurally collapse after long-term cycling during large-radius K-ion insertion/extraction. In this work, three different typical MXene electrodes, i.e., Nb2C, Ti2C, and Ti3C2 were individually investigated upon their electrochemical behaviors for potassium-ion (K-ion) storage. All these MXene materials exhibited pseudocapacitive-dominated behaviors, fast kinetics, and durable K-ion storage, delivering superior performance compared with other K-ion host materials. According to the experimental results, it could be ascribed to the intrinsically large interlayer distance for K-ion transport and the superb structural stability of MXene even subjected to long-term potassiation/depotassiation process.

The interactions between water molecules, electrode materials and anions are essential yet challenging for aqueous dual ion batteries. Here, the authors demonstrate the voltage manipulation of dual ion batteries through matching intercalation energy and solvation energy of different anions.

The space cable-driven continuous manipulator (SCCM) has a slender structure, ultra-high degrees of freedom, and a low mass, which make it suitable for equipment inspection and maintenance operations in an unstructured and limited space environment. In this paper, the SCCM including the cable network and plenty of joint links was deeply modeled. Firstly, the mapping relationship between the cable-driving space, joint space, and task space of the SCCM was studied, and the complete kinematic relationship of the SCCM was established. Secondly, the stiffness components of the SCCM are discussed, and the stiffness modeling method of each part is given. Finally, the Cartesian space equivalent stiffness model of the end was established. Then, a dynamic co-modeling method of Matlab + Adams is proposed, which greatly improved the modeling efficiency while ensuring the modeling accuracy. Finally, based on the stiffness model, the end stiffness characteristics of a specific configuration were analyzed, and the influence of the cable tension on the stiffness and frequency of the manipulator was analyzed. Based on the dynamic co-modeling, the task trajectory dynamics’ simulation analysis and space slit crossing experiment were carried out, which verified that the designed SCCM can meet the needs of slit crossing.

Aiming at the problems of the low efficiency of electro-magnetic generator, and the difficulty in the regulation of magnetic field intensity for the permanent magnet generator, a new cascaded permanent magnet switched reluctance generator (CPMSRG) is proposed for the automobile generation application. The generator has the advantages of simple structure, wide effective power generation speed, adjustable excitation, high efficiency, and low risk of demagnetization. The structure and basic principles of the CPMSRG are introduced firstly. Secondly, the topology of the power converter, the generation control method and the battery free starting generation control method are studied according to the operation characteristics of the generator, and the CPMSRG sensorless generation control strategy is proposed based on the full conduction generation control method. Finally, the prototype experiment platform is built, and the sensorless power generation experiments of the CPMSRG are completed under the conditions of different speeds, different loads and different battery residual powers. The experimental results show that the new cascaded generator proposed can generate power efficiently and stably in a wide speed range, and can realize the battery free power generation at very low speed, which verifies the effectiveness of the designed system and its control methods.

The subgrid-scale (SGS) kinetic energy has been used to predict the SGS stress in compressible flow and it was resolved through the SGS kinetic energy transport equation in past studies. In this paper, a new SGS eddy-viscosity model is proposed using artificial neural network to obtain the SGS kinetic energy precisely, instead of using the SGS kinetic energy equation. Using the infinite series expansion and reserving the first term of the expanded term, we obtain an approximated SGS kinetic energy, which has a high correlation with the real SGS kinetic energy. Then, the coefficient of the modelled SGS kinetic energy is resolved by the artificial neural network and the modelled SGS kinetic energy is more accurate through this method compared to the SGS kinetic energy obtained from the SGS kinetic energy equation. The coefficients of the SGS stress and SGS heat flux terms are determined by the dynamic procedure. The new model is tested in the compressible turbulent channel flow. From the a posterior tests, we know that the new model can precisely predict the mean velocity, the Reynolds stress, the mean temperature and turbulence intensities, etc.

Aiming at the problem that the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is confronted with great challenges in terms of continuity, integrity and usability due to the complex electromagnetic environment, an improved signal detecting algorithm of weak interference based on polarization-sensitive array was proposed. Through the joint-processing in space domain, frequency domain and polarization domain of the real-time data received from antenna elements and the descending processing of eigenvalues in each frequency bin, the weak signals in strong interference environment could be accurately separated and identified by the distribution curve of eigenvalues in the whole frequency domain. The results show that the power consumption and computational complexity were reduced greatly through the improved minimum description length (MDL) criterion based on multistage wiener filter, as the step of eigen-decomposition was omitted. Simulation results also demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method. The improved algorithm can be applied to different antenna arrays, keeps highly effective detecting probability even with amplitude and phase errors, and has high engineering practice value.

Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4-BaTiO3 (NZFO-BTO) magnetoelectric composite ceramics with different molar ratios (mNZFO:mBTO = 1:1.5, 1.5:1 and 2:1, defined as N1B1.5, N1.5B1 and N2B1, respectively) were prepared successfully by using a joint hydrothermal method and sol-gel technique and sintering at 1000 °C. Meanwhile, the dielectric, ferroelectric and magnetic properties of the composites were investigated. The presence of bi-phase structure in the composites was verified with X-ray diffraction analyses. The scanning electron microscopy images and energy dispersion spectrum results confirmed that the bulk-like grains (2 to 5 µm) and spherelike grains (∼0.5 µm) could be attributed to NZFO and BTO, respectively. The dielectric constant and loss increased with increasing NZFO/BTO molar ratio because the carrier concentration of NZFO is higher than that of BTO. Thus, the dielectric constant of the N2B1 ceramics is more than 7800 at low frequency of 100 Hz and room temperature, while only less than 2000 for the N1B1.5 composite. Two peaks can be observed in the temperature dependence of the dielectric constant curves. One is near 120 °C, which corresponds to the Curie temperature of BTO, while the other peak occurs at about 320 °C, corresponding to the relaxation polarization. The remanent polarization increases with increasing the content of ferroelectric BTO. The maximum value at 1 kHz was observed for the N1B1.5 sample and it is larger than 4.5 µC/cm2, while the minimal value was obtained for the N2B1 composite and is only 1.2 µC/cm2. Magnetic properties were also measured and it was observed that magnetization increases with increasing the molar ratio. The largest saturation magnetization has the N2B1 composite (∼51.74 emu/g) due to the larger concentration of NZFO phase. However, the sample N1B1.5 shows the largest coercive field due to the highest interface interaction. This study provides guidelines for the fabrication of NZFO-BTO magnetoelectric composite ceramics.

Advanced scenario-adaptable infrared (IR) stealth materials are crucial for creating localized closed thermal environments. Low emissivity over the broadest possible band is expected, as is superior mechanical deformability. Herein, we report a series of Ti-based MXenes with naturally low emissivity as ideal IR shielding materials. Over a wavelength ranging from 2.5 to 25 μm, Ti3C2TX film delivers an average emissivity of 0.057 with the lowest point of 0.042. Such a low emissivity coupled with outstanding structural shaping capability is beyond the current grasp. The reflection-dominated mechanism is dissected. Also, some intriguing scenarios of IR stealth for wearable electronic devices and skin thermal control are demonstrated. This finding lights an encouraging path toward next-generation IR shielding by the expanding MXene family.

Abstract Aqueous rechargeable metal‐ion batteries (ARMBs) represent one of the current research frontiers due to their low cost, high safety, and other unique features. Evolving to a practically useful device, the ARMBs must be adaptable to various ambient, especially the cold weather. While much effort has been made on organic electrolyte batteries operating at low temperatures, the study on low‐temperature ARMBs is still in its infancy. The challenge mainly comes from water freezing at subzero temperatures, resulting in dramatically retarded kinetics. Here, the freezing behavior of water and its effects on subzero performances of ARMBs are first discussed. Then all strategies used to enhance subzero temperature performances of ARMBs by associating them with battery kinetics are summarized. The subzero temperature performances of ARMBs and organic electrolyte batteries are compared. The final section presents potential directions for further improvements and future perspectives of this thriving field.

In this paper, the Richtmyer–Meshkov (RM) instability in spherical and cylindrical converging geometries with a Mach number of about 1.5 is investigated by using the direct numerical simulation method. The heavy fluid is sulfur hexafluoride, and the light fluid is nitrogen. The shock wave converges from the heavy fluid into the light fluid. The main focus is on the energy transport characteristics in the mixing layer during the entire development process from early instability to late-time turbulent mixing. First, the turbulence kinetic energy transport equation is analyzed, and it is found that the production and dissipation mechanisms of the turbulence induced by the spherical and cylindrical converging RM instabilities in the mixing layer are the same. The turbulent diffusion terms are crucial in the whole development processes of the mixing layers. Before the reflected shock waves transit the interfaces, the dissipation terms can be ignored relative to other terms, and after that, the dissipation terms are close to the production terms and play an important role. The compressibility terms are approximate to the production terms and promote the production of turbulence kinetic energy in the later stage. The viscous diffusion terms can be ignored throughout the process. Then, the enstrophy transport equation is researched, and it is found that, in the mixing layers, the baroclinicity terms play a leading role in the early stage, while the vortex stretching terms play a leading role in the later stage, and the vortex stretching term of the spherical converging geometry develops faster than that of the cylindrical converging geometry. The compressibility terms are positive in the early stage, which promote the production of enstrophy. After the reflected shock waves transit the interfaces, the compressibility terms become negative, which inhibit the production of enstrophy. In addition, the results of the present direct numerical simulation also show that the density fluctuation spectra in the centers of the mixing layers of the spherical and cylindrical converging RM instabilities present the obvious −5/3 scaling law.

In the past decade, MXenes family have undergone considerable development and have been widely investigated in various research fields, relying on their excellent physicochemical properties. Benefiting from the increasingly versatile preparation methods and the continued discovery of new members, their large-scale application has already been underway, with energy storage fields including supercapacitors and batteries leading. The synthesis methods and processing environment of MXenes, which are closely strictly to the microstructure, surface chemistry, and electronic properties, have attracted great attention. In this review, we review the phylogeny of MXenes materials in recent years, mainly focusing on the synthesis process and environmental stability.

The fracture properties of pre-cracked monocrystalline/polycrystalline graphene were investigated via a finite element method based on molecular structure mechanics, and the mode I critical stress intensity factor (SIF) was calculated by the Griffith criterion in classical fracture mechanics. For monocrystalline graphene, the size effects of mode I fracture toughness and the influence of crack width on the mode I fracture toughness were investigated. Moreover, it was found that the ratio of crack length to graphene width has a significant influence on the mode I fracture toughness. For polycrystalline graphene, the strain energy per unit area at different positions was calculated, and the initial fracture site (near grain boundary) was deduced from the variation tendency of the strain energy per unit area. In addition, the effects of misorientation angle of the grain boundary (GB) and the distance between the crack tip and GB on mode I fracture toughness were also analyzed. It was found that the mode I fracture toughness increases with increasing misorientation angle. As the distance between the crack tip and GB increases, the mode I fracture toughness first decreases and then tends to stabilize.

A broadband microwave absorbing composite with a multi-scale layered structure is proposed, in which a reduced graphene oxide (RGO) film sandwiched between two layers of epoxy glass fiber laminates serves as the frequency selective surface (FSS). RGO films with the desired electrical properties were synthesized directly by hydrothermal reaction, vacuum filtration, and heat treatment without subsequent processing. With the novel layer-by-layer structure ranging from micro to macro scale, the optimized composite exhibits excellent microwave absorption performance with a total thickness of 3.2 mm. Its reflection coefficient (RC) is less than −10 dB in the entire X and Ku band, reaching a minimum value of −32 dB at 10.2 GHz and an average RC of −22.8 dB from 8 to 18 GHz. Enhanced microwave absorption of the composites is achieved through the optimization of layer thickness in the sandwich structure to promote destructive interference. Improved impedance matching by the introduction of FSS along with the polarization and conduction loss of layered graphene films also contribute to the increased absorption.

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of supercritical CO2 turbulent channel flow has been performed to investigate the heat transfer mechanism of supercritical fluid. In the present DNS, full compressible Navier-Stokes equations and Peng-Robison state equation are solved. Due to effects of the mean density variation in the wall normal direction, mean velocity in the cooling region becomes high compared with that in the heating region. The mean width between high- and low-speed streaks near the wall decreases in the cooling region, which means that turbulence in the cooling region is enhanced and lots of fine scale eddies are created due to the local high Reynolds number effects. From the turbulent kinetic energy budget, it is found that compressibility effects related with pressure fluctuation and dilatation of velocity fluctuation can be ignored even for supercritical condition. However, the effect of density fluctuation on turbulent kinetic energy cannot be ignored. In the cooling region, low kinematic viscosity and high thermal conductivity in the low speed streaks modify fine scale structure and turbulent transport of temperature, which results in high Nusselt number in the cooling condition of the supercritical CO2.

The robot system has been utilized in the nondestructive testing field in recent years. However, only a few studies have focused on the application of ultrasonic testing for complex work pieces with the robot system. The inverse kinematics problem of the 6-DOF robot should be resolved before the ultrasonic testing task. A new effective solution for curved-surface scanning with a 6-DOF robot system is proposed in this study. A new arm-wrist separateness method is adopted to solve the inverse problem of the robot system. Eight solutions of the joint angles can be acquired with the proposed inverse kinematics method. The shortest distance rule is adopted to optimize the inverse kinematics solutions. The best joint-angle solution is identified. Furthermore, a 3D-application software is developed to simulate ultrasonic trajectory planning for complex-shape work pieces with a 6-DOF robot. Finally, the validity of the scanning method is verified based on the C-scan results of a work piece with a curved surface. The developed robot ultrasonic testing system is validated. The proposed method provides an effective solution to this problem and would greatly benefit the development of industrial nondestructive testing.

Indigoids, as popular dyes, can be produced by microbial strains or enzymes catalysis. However, the new valuable products with their transformation mechanisms, especially inter-conversion among the intermediates and products have not been clearly identified yet. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate novel microbial catalytic processes for indigoids production systematically.A phenol hydroxylase gene cluster (4,606 bp) from Arthrobacter sp. W1 (PH(w1)) was obtained. This cluster contains six components in the order of KLMNOP, which exhibit relatively low sequence identities (37-72%) with known genes. It was suggested that indole and all the tested indole derivatives except for 3-methylindole were transformed to various substituted indigoid pigments, and the predominant color products derived from indoles were identified by spectrum analysis. One new purple product from indole, 2-(7-oxo-1H-indol-6(7H)-ylidene) indolin-3-one, should be proposed as the dimerization of isatin and 7-hydroxylindole at the C-2 and C-6 positions. Tunnel entrance and docking studies were used to predict the important amino acids for indoles biotransformation, which were further proved by site-directed mutagenesis.We showed that the phenol hydroxylase from genus Arthrobacter could transform indoles to indigoids with new chemical compounds being produced. Our work should show high insights into understanding the mechanism of indigoids bio-production.

In this paper, direct numerical simulations in hypersonic turbulent boundary layers over a 24◦ compression ramp at Mach 6.0 are performed. The wall skin friction and its spanwise non-homogeneity in the interaction region are analysed via the spectral analysis and drag decomposition method. On the compression ramp, the premultiplied spanwise energy spectrum of wall shear stress τw reveals two energetic spanwise length scales. One occurs in the region of x/δref = 0-3 (x = 0 lies in the compression corner; δref is the boundary layer thickness upstream of the interaction region) and is consistent with that of the large-scale streamwise vortices, indicating that the fluctuation intensity of τw is associated with the Görtler-type structures. The other one is observed downstream of x/δref = 3.0 and corresponds to the regenerated elongated streaky structures. The fluctuation intensity of τw peaks at x/δref = 3.0, where both the above energetic length scales are observed. The drag decomposition method proposed by Li et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 875, 2019, pp. 101-123) is extended to include the effects of spanwise non-homogeneity so that it can be used in the interaction region where the mean flow field and the mean skin friction Cf exhibit an obvious spanwise heterogeneity. The results reveal that, in the upstream turbulent boundary layer, the drag contribution arising from the spanwise heterogeneity can be neglected, while this value on the compression ramp is up to 20.7% of Cf, resulting from the Görtler-type vortices. With the aid of the drag decomposition method, it is found that the main flow features that contribute positively to the amplification of Cf and its rapid increase on the compression ramp includes: the density increase across the shock, the high mean shear stress and turbulence amplification around the detached shear layer and the Favre-averaged downward velocity towards the ramp wall. Compared with the spanwise-averaged value, Cf and its components at the spanwise station where the downwash and upwash of the Görtler-type vortices occur reveal a spanwise variation exceeding 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The turbulent boundary layer (TBL) is a widely existing flow phenomenon in nature and engineering applications. Its strong mixing effect can achieve more sufficient material mixing, heat transport, etc. The understanding of the entrainment process and mechanism of irrotational fluids entering the turbulent region can be promoted by studying the geometric and dynamic characteristics of turbulent/non-turbulent interfaces (TNTI). In compressible flow, it is unclear whether the properties of TNTI will change and whether the entrainment will show different features due to the influence of compressibility. Based on the direct numerical simulation results of supersonic compressible plate TBLs with Mach number of 2.9, the geometric and dynamic characteristics of TNTI are investigated in this paper. The interface is identified by the enstrophy method, and the height, thickness, fractal dimension, enstrophy transportation and entrainment characteristics of the interface are investigated. It is found that for the enstrophy transportation in a TBL, the contribution of compressibility-related terms accounts for approximately 13.4% of the total enstrophy transportation, which tends to transfer the enstrophy of turbulence near the interface to both directions vertical to the interface. This promotes the expansion of the turbulent region towards the non-turbulent region, and the mean height, thickness and entrainment velocity are increased by approximately 3.7 %, 7.0% and 8.5%, respectively, while the fractal dimension is basically unaffected. Different from the incompressible flow, the contribution of the compressibility-related terms to the entrainment velocity is independent of the local curvature, and the intense entrainment process is more likely to occur on a highly curved concave surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helicity plays a key role in the evolution of vortex structures and turbulent dynamics. The helicity dynamics and vortex structures in streamwise-rotating channel turbulence are discussed in this paper using the helicity budget equation and the differentiated second-order structure function equation of helicity. Generally, rotation and Reynolds numbers exhibit opposing effects on the interscale helicity dynamics and the vortices. Under the buffer layer, the positions of the helicity peaks are proportional to the ratio between the Reynolds and rotation numbers. The mechanism is related to the opposing effects of convection and rotation. Rotation directly affects the helicity balance through the Coriolis term and corresponding pressure term. In the buffer layer, the scale helicity is negative at small scales but positive at large scales, which is mainly induced by the spatial effects (the production and the spatial turbulent convection) but reduced by interscale cascades. Examination of structures reveals the close association between scale helicity and streaks, with streak lift angles exhibiting an increase with rotation and a decrease with Reynolds numbers. In the log-law layer, the Coriolis terms and corresponding pressure terms are proportional to the rotation numbers but remain independent of the Reynolds numbers. The negative scale helicity is forward cascaded towards small scales. Generally, spanwise vortices in the log-law layer are related to sweep events and forward cascades. Our findings indicate that these spanwise vortices are suppressed by rotation but recover with increasing Reynolds numbers, aligning with the effects observed in the scale helicity balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]