Low Energy Research Articles

Vacancies Engineering in Molybdenum Boride MBene Nanosheets to Activate Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism.

The rapid development of low energy dissipation spintronic devices has stimulated the search for air-stable 2D nanomaterials possessing room-temperature ferromagnetism. Here the experimental realization of 2D Mo4/3B2 nanosheets is reported with intrinsic room-temperature ferromagnetic characteristics by vacancy engineering. These nanosheets are synthesized by etching the bulk MAB phase (Mo2/3Y1/3)2AlB2 into Mo4/3B2 nanosheets in ZnCl2 molten salt. The Mo4/3B2 nanosheets show robust intrinsic ferromagnetic properties, with a saturation magnetic moment of 0.044emug-1 at 300K, while vacancy-free MoB MBene exhibits paramagnetism. It is elucidated that the Mo-vacancy defect generates large density of states near the Fermi surface and spontaneously spin-split bands through first-principles calculations, which contributes to the non-zero magnetic moment in Mo4/3B2 nanosheets. This work lays the groundwork for activating the magnetic properties of MBene nanosheets by vacancy engineering, offering the possibilities for development of practical spintronic devices.

Chronic fatigue in the general population: Prevalence, natural course and associations with chronic pain (theHUNT pain study).

Fatigue and pain are both prevalent and frequently co-occur. No standard measure of fatigue exists, but most definitions include a continuum between high levels of energy and fatigue. There is limited knowledge about the course of fatigue in the general population and its association with functioning and other health outcomes. Our main aim was to identify trajectories of energy and fatigue in the general population and to investigate whether chronic pain is related to a negative prognosis of chronic fatigue. Longitudinal latent class analysis was performed to classify 4771 individuals into trajectory groups based on five quarterly repeated measures. A five-cluster solution was identified: 'much energy' (n = 1471, [31%]), 'varying energy' (n = 1445, [30%]), 'some energy' (n = 921, [19%]), 'low energy' [chronic moderate fatigue] (n = 852, [18%]) and 'no energy'[chronic severe fatigue] (n = 82, [2%]). Individuals with chronic moderate fatigue who reported chronic pain had reduced probability of improvement over the following 3 years (OR = 0.67, 95% CI [0.52, 0.88]). Chronic fatigue is highly prevalent in the general population and a small proportion have chronic severe fatigue. When chronic pain co-occurs with chronic fatigue, improvement of chronic fatigue is less likely, indicating that these symptoms may perpetuate each other. Understanding the close relationship between chronic pain and chronic fatigue is important as they both contribute to suffering and loss of functioning, may be related to the same underlying diseases, or in the absence of disease, may share common mechanisms. This study highlights the important role of chronic pain in relation to chronic fatigue, both by showing a strong association between the prevalence of the two conditions, and by showing that chronic pain is associated with a negative prognosis of chronic fatigue.

Consequences of career progression barriers experienced by doctors in GP training: an interpretative phenomenological study

ABSTRACT Background Despite commitment across national medical education and training bodies to tackle differential attainment (DA), alongside a wealth of research into contributing factors and solutions, progression in narrowing the gap has lagged. This study explores the lived experiences of doctors facing DA, career progression barriers and their wider consequences. Methods Interpretative phenomenological analysis was chosen as the methodological framework. The six doctors interviewed were released from General Practice training before enrolling in a ‘targeted’ intervention scheme designed to support them with training completion. Results The cohort included four international medical graduates and two graduates from the United Kingdom. Three participants were neurodiverse. Three inter-related themes were identified. 1) ‘Career insecurity’ is defined as uncertainty about career prospects and attainment of career goals. At varying points along their journey navigating through progression barriers, participants frequently questioned their futures and the decision to persist in the arduous pursuit of training completion. 2) ‘Psychological injury’ featured prominently in the experiences of the ‘targeted trainees’. Feelings of worthlessness, helplessness, low energy and mood, and ‘traumatic’ experiences were described. 3) ‘Social injury’ illustrates consequences to doctors’ familial and social contexts (including relationships), as well as wider societal consequences (such as attrition). Conclusion Our research evidences the consequences of DA and career progression barriers. We highlight the urgent need for escalated efforts in addressing the challenges faced by different groups of doctors and narrowing the attainment gap. Recommendations for interventions are included in our study.

Multi-omics Data Integration Analysis Identified Therapeutic Targets and Potential Reuse Drugs for Osteoporosis.

To facilitate drug discovery and development for the treatment of osteoporosis. With global aging, osteoporosis has become a common problem threatening the health of the elderly. It is of important clinical value to explore new targets for drug intervention and develop promising drugs for the treatment of osteoporosis. To understand the major molecules that mediate the communication between the cell populations of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis patients and identify potential reusable drugs for the treatment of osteoporosis. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data of BM-MSCs in GSE147287 dataset were classified using the Seurat package. CellChat was devoted to analyzing the ligand-receptor pairs (LR pairs) contributing to the communication between BM-MSCs subsets. The LR pairs that were differentially expressed between osteoporosis samples and control samples and significantly correlated with immune score were screened in the GSE35959 dataset, and the differentially expressed gene in both GSE35959 and GSE13850 data sets were identified as targets from a single ligand or receptor. The therapeutic drugs for osteoporosis were screened by network proximity method, and the top-ranked drugs were selected for molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation with the target targets. Twelve subsets of BM-MSCs were identified, of which CD45-BM-MSCS_4, CD45-BM- MSCS_5, and CD45+ BM-MSCs_5 subsets showed significantly different distributions between osteoporosis samples and osteoarthritis samples. Six LR pairs were identified in the bidirectional communication between these three BM-MSCs subsets and other BM-MSCs subsets. Among them, MIF-CD74 and ITGB2-ICAM2 were significantly correlated with the immune score. CD74 was identified as the target, and a total of 48 drugs targeting CD47 protein were identified. Among them, DB01940 had the lowest free energy binding score with CD74 protein and the binding state was very stable. This study provided a new network-based framework for drug reuse and identified initial insights into therapeutic agents targeting CD74 in osteoporosis, which may be meaningful for promoting the development of osteoporosis treatment.

Mechanisms of Thermal Decomposition in Spent NCM Lithium-Ion Battery Cathode Materials with Carbon Defects and Oxygen Vacancies.

Resource recovery from retired electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is a key to sustainable supply of technology-critical metals. However, the mainstream pyrometallurgical recycling approach requires high temperature and high energy consumption. Our study proposes a novel mechanochemical processing combined with hydrogen (H2) reduction strategy to accelerate the breakdown of ternary nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) cathode materials at a significantly lower temperature (450 °C). Particle refinement, material amorphization, and internal energy storage are considered critical success factors for the accelerated decomposition of NCM cathode materials. In our proposed approach, NCM cathode materials can develop active sites with carbon defects (Cv) and oxygen vacancies (Ov), which improve the reduction and breakdown of H2. The adsorbed H2 on the surface of NCM decomposes into H* and combines with oxygen to form OH species, which can be facilitated by Ov via the enhanced charge transfer. The introduced Cv can enhance H2 cracking and generate *C-H species to promote the thermal decomposition of NCM. The presence of defects proves to foster the preferential reduction of Mn(IV) by H2, leading to a lower activation energy for the NCM decomposition (from 139 to 110 kJ/mol) with less H2 consumption. Life cycle assessment suggests a reduction of 4.42 kg CO2 eq for the recycling of every 1.0 kg of retired batteries. This study can promote material circularity and minimize the environmental burden of mining technology-critical metals for a low-carbon transition.

Observed Variability in Convective Cell Characteristics and Near-Storm Environments across the Sea- and Bay-Breeze Fronts in Southeast Texas

Abstract During the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER) IOP spanning June–September 2022, two fixed ARM sites and a mobile team concurrently sampled the airmass heterogeneity across sea- and bay-breeze fronts around the greater Houston metropolitan region. Here, we quantify the spatiotemporal variability between maritime (coastal/bay side of breeze fronts) and continental (inland side of breeze fronts) air masses over 15 IOP days characterized by strong sea-breeze forcing. We analyze environmental profile data from 177 radiosondes and use S- and C-band radar data to track and quantify the variability in attributes of more than 2300 shallow and transitioning cells across different air masses. The composite analysis of environmental profiles indicates that during the early afternoon, the sea-breeze maritime air mass exhibits lower convective available potential energy (CAPE) than the bay-breeze maritime air mass. As the sea breeze advances inland with time, CAPE within the maritime air mass exceeds that of the continental air mass to the north of the breeze fronts. In general, maritime cells have a larger mean composite reflectivity and cell widths than continental cells; however, the response varies between shallow and transitioning cells. Mean composite 20-dBZ echo-top heights, however, are similar across air masses for both shallow and transitioning cells. The continental and maritime inflow air mass for transitioning cells has significantly different mean values for mixed-layer entrainment CAPE, lifted condensation level, level of free condensation, boundary layer depth, and diluted equilibrium level. For shallow cells, only total precipitable water shows a significant difference. Significance Statement The greater Houston metropolitan area is a natural laboratory for understanding the individual impacts of background meteorology and aerosols on convective clouds. Due to its proximity to the Gulf Coast and Galveston Bay, the Houston region experiences a diurnal precipitation cycle in the summer, driven by convection triggered from sea- and bay-breeze fronts. These fronts act as a boundary between air masses with distinct thermodynamic and environmental characteristics. Convergence along these fronts and interactions between storm outflow and the fronts facilitate convection initiation in different mesoscale air masses. This study quantifies the heterogeneity among these air masses while investigating their influence on cloud microphysics. We find that the effect of airmass heterogeneity is more pronounced for the bulk microphysical properties in shallow clouds.

Timing of debridement: When to do it, and who should perform it?

The timely and effective management of open fractures continues to be a challenge in modern orthopaedic practice. Lower limb high energy fractures with complex soft tissue injuries require multi-disciplinary care to achieve the best results. Despite an extensive published literature on open fractures, the timing of debridement and the most appropriate personnel to perform it continue to be a source of debate. National guidelines on the topic are few but they suggest immediate debridement for open fractures with highly contaminated wounds and debridement within 12 to 24 h is considered desirable for less contaminated wounds. There is actually limited evidence linking timing of debridement to infection risk but the largest studies recently published do indicate a link between delay to debridement and increasing infection risk. Most studies on management are based on a clinical model where the initial debridement and fixation are performed by an orthopaedic surgeon and if required delayed coverage and closure is subsequently carried out by a plastic surgeon. More recently, studies have proposed an alternative approach, with initial debridement and temporary fixation followed within 48 h with a further debridement, definitive fixation and flap cover with a combined orthoplastic team. Reported results have been favourable. This is a significant change in management and there are limited data at present to determine if this approach will improve results in the most complex open fractures.

In-situ fabrication of defect rich Cu2+1O on electrodeposited Cu cone arrays for promoting electrocatalytic anode hydrogen production

The low-potential formaldehyde oxidation reaction (FOR) is a significant replacement for oxygen evolution reaction, as FOR can couple with the cathode hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) to obtain a bipolar H2 production system with an extra low cell voltage. Cu-based electrocatalysts offer cost advantages in FOR but suffer from poor intrinsic activity and stability. Herein, a novel defect rich CF-Cu@Cu2+1O/Cu pinecone-shaped array electrocatalyst is fabricated by in-situ solution immersion of electrodeposited Cu cone arrays on foam for efficient and stable formaldehyde selective oxidation reaction to co-produce hydrogen and valuable formate. Benefitting from the partially mixed Cu2+1O in metallic copper and concomitant production of defect rich oxygen vacancies, only 0.04 VRHE is required for electrocatalytic FOR at 100 mA·cm−2 under alkaline conditions. FOR current density of CF-Cu@Cu2+1O/Cu electrode exhibits 2.35 times than that of CF-Cu (144 mA·cm−2) and 77 times than that of copper foam (4.4 mA·cm−2) at 0.5 VRHE. Moreover, the special pinecone-shaped structure is constructed to modify Cu-based catalysts with substantially enhanced stability. A FOR-HER co-electrolysis device of CF-Cu@Cu2+1O/Cu(+)||Pt/C(−) can achieve bipolar H2 production with an approaching 200 % Faradaic efficiency, requiring an extremely low electrical energy consumption of only ∼ 0.35 kWh per m3 of H2 and potential of 0.291 V at 100 mA·cm−2 at room temperature.

Synergistic effects of liquid phase sintering and B-site substitution to enhance proton conductivity of BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.1Yb0.1O3-δ for protonic ceramic fuel cell

This paper is dedicated to improving the sintering and conductivity of BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.1Yb0.1O3-δ (BZCYYb) by adding ZnO-CuO dual-sintering aids. The synergistic effects of liquid-sintering of Zn and B-site substitution of Cu on the sinterability and proton conductivity of BZCYYb are systematically investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of BZCYYb after addition of ZnO-CuO (BZCYYb-Zn-Cu) confirms the complete perovskite phase formation without any secondary phase. The substitution of Ce4+ (0.87 Å) with Zn2+ (0.74 Å) or Cu2+ (0.73 Å) induces a shift in XRD diffraction peak to higher angle due to a decrease in lattice constant. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis indicate a distinct distribution of Zn primarily at the grain boundaries, while Cu is predominantly located within the grains of BZCYYb-Zn-Cu. The addition of ZnO-CuO into BZCYYb results in a denser microstructure with larger average grain size. Furthermore, the substitution of Ce4+ by Cu2+ increases the concentration of oxygen vacancies and reduces activation energy. For BZCYYb-Zn-Cu, the proton conductivity reaches 4.52×10-2 S/cm at 750 °C, approximately 3 times higher than that of BZCYYb. This enhancement can be attributed to the synergistic effects of larger average grain size resulting from liquid phase sintering of Zn, low active energy, and high concentration of oxygen vacancies arising from Cu B-site substitution. BZCYYb-Zn-Cu is used as the electrolyte for anode support SOFC, and the single cell exhibits remarkable electrochemical performance and excellent stability in H2 fuel. This research establishes a crucial theoretical foundation for the preparation and performance evaluation for large-size protonic ceramic cell.

Development of novel multifunctional phase change microcapsules for improving thermal comfort and radiation properties

Microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs) have gained widespread application in energy-efficient buildings, aiming to improve thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption. To enhance the engineering feasibility of MPCMs, researchers are now focusing on developing MPCMs with multifunctional properties, beyond single thermal storage functionality. In this study, we proposed a novel and straightforward approach to fabricate multifunctional MPCMs with BaCO3 as shell and a core composed of binary phase change materials (PCMs) and lipophilic-modified graphite (MG) via self-assembly method. The incorporation of BaCO3 shell provides MPCMs with additional resistance to ionizing radiation pollution due to the high atomic number element Ba. Additionally, the incorporation of MG into PCMs enhances its temperature sensitivity. The thermal analysis indicates that the binary PCMs’ composition in MPCMs results in two phase transition temperatures at 3.3 °C and 26.4 °C, making them capable of thermal storage in line with comfortable residential temperatures across different seasons. Furthermore, MPCMs were introduced into cement paste (CPM) and used to construct cement chambers. Adding 10 wt% MPCMs in the CPM chambers placed outdoors in Wuhan (from June 7th to June 9th) led to a 23.8 % decrease in temperature fluctuations compared to the reference sample. Radiation shielding results indicated that the linear attenuation coefficient (μ) of CPM increased by 58.7 %, due to enhanced incoherent scattering and photoelectric effects between high atomic number elements and photons. Additionally, XCOM simulations predicted a strong correlation between MPCM content and μ values, with particularly high accuracy at low photon energies. Overall, the multifunctional MPCMs developed in this study not only offers a new route for reducing residential energy consumption and shielding ionizing pollution, but also broadens the applicability of traditional PCMs in the building and other fields.

Synthesizing gas-filled anti-resonant hollow-core fiber Raman lines enables access to the molecular fingerprint region

The synthesis of multiple narrow optical spectral lines, precisely and independently tuned across the near- to mid-infrared region, is a pivotal research area that enables selective and real-time detection of trace gas species within complex gas mixtures. However, existing methods for developing such light sources suffer from limited flexibility and very low pulse energy, particularly in the mid-infrared domain. Here, we introduce a concept that is based on the combination of an appropriate design of near-infrared fiber laser pump and cascaded configuration of gas-filled anti-resonant hollow-core fiber technology. This concept enables the synthesis of multiple independently tunable spectral lines, with >1 μJ high pulse energies and a few nanoseconds pulse width in the near- and mid-infrared regions. The number and wavelengths of the generated spectral lines can be dynamically reconfigured. A proof-of-concept laser beam synthesized of two narrow spectral lines at 3.99 µm and 4.25 µm wavelengths is demonstrated and combined with photoacoustic modality for real-time SO2 and CO2 detection. The proposed concept also constitutes a promising way for infrared multispectral microscopic imaging.

On the origin of superior stability of coherent nanoparticles under ion irradiation

Recently, a new anti-irradiation mechanism relying on reversible disorder-ordering transition of coherent nanoparticles was discovered, which significantly improves the microstructural stability and void swelling resistance of metallic materials. However, the factors that govern the outstanding stability and superb radiation tolerance are still not clear. Here, two kinds of FeCrAl alloys were designed, each strengthened by a different type of coherent phase: L21-ordered Fe2AlV and B2-ordered Ni (Al, Fe). It was observed that the two alloys exhibited disparate responses to high-dose ion irradiations at elevated temperatures. The L21-Fe2AlV precipitates were found to be completely dissolved after 50 dpa of ion irradiation at 500–600 °C, whereas the B2-NiAl precipitates remained stability even after 200 dpa irradiation. This research challenges the conventional wisdom that the stability of nanoparticles is governed by the balance between radiation-enhanced coarsening and radiation dissolution. Instead, it demonstrates the re-nucleation and subsequent interface-controlled solute reshuffling processes govern the stability of coherent chemically-ordered nanoparticles under radiation at high temperatures. We demonstrate that the low interfacial energy, which is related to both the simply chemically-ordered lattice structure and low lattice misfit interface, is crucial for enabling such short-range elemental reshuffling process to repeatedly form nanoprecipitates that cannot be suppressed by radiation.

Mechanistic studies on the oxidation reaction of n-pentane

The oxidation reaction mechanism of n-pentane is investigated using density functional theory and transition state theory as a case study to elucidate the combustion characteristics of liquids with low boiling points. This study divides the oxidation reaction of n-pentane into four steps. First, n-pentane decomposes to form n-pentyl radicals C5H11 and H, CH3 and C4H9, and C2H5 and C3H7 radicals. Second, n-pentane primarily undergoes H-abstraction reactions with H, CH3, C2H5, and C3H7 radicals to form the C5H11 radicals. Subsequently, C5H11 radicals react with O2 in an addition reaction to form n-pentyl peroxy radicals ROO. Finally, ROO radical undergoes internal H-atom transfer to form hydroperoxy pentyl radicals QOOH, which then undergoes cyclization and bond scission to produce cyclic ethers, alkenes, aldehydes, OH radicals, and HO2 radicals. Results indicate that n-pentane readily decomposes into C2H5 and C3H7 radicals, with a bond dissociation energy of 367.1 KJ/mol. The H-abstraction reactions involving H and CH3 radicals have the fastest rates, which require the lowest energy barriers of 21.6 and 41.9 KJ/mol, respectively. The reaction between C5H11 and O2 is a barrierless addition reaction. The oxidation of n-pentane, which leads to the formation of 2-methyloxirane and OH radicals, exhibits the fastest reaction rate.

Polymer-Injection Pilot in Colombian Field Indicates Reduced Carbon Footprint

_ This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 218169, “Carbon Footprint and Energy Intensity Assessment for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Based on Polymer Injection: A Colombian Case Study,” by Henderson I. Quintero, SPE, Pedro L. Solorzano, SPE, and Carolina Barbosa, Ecopetrol, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed. _ Chichimene is an oil field in eastern Colombia. Since 2014, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) using a water-injection process has been performed successfully in part of this field. A polymer-injection pilot was executed over five injection patterns to optimize this process as a promising strategy for polymer-based EOR in challenging reservoir conditions with high temperatures and heavy oil. Field Background Included in Colombia’s energy-transition strategy are EOR technologies that, through the acceleration of oil production even with low energy consumption, increase the efficiency and carbon intensity of conventional oil-production processes. Several studies in the literature have reported improved energy and carbon indicators as a result of implementing EOR using thermal and chemical methods. Among these, polymer injection promises higher incremental oil production with lower energy consumption. The polymer-flooding (PF) pilot in the Chichimene field was performed to evaluate this technology’s ability to displace the heavy crude oil of the Fm1 formation (350–700 cp). The reservoir is more than 20 km long by 6 km wide and features 250–300 ft of thickness, with permeability between 100 md and 10 D and a depth of approximately 6,200 ft true vertical depth subsea. Polymer injection began at the end of 2015 in an extensive pattern (N1), followed by a smaller pattern (N2) in 2018 after a short water-injection stage. The polymer injection in medium patterns (N3 and N4) and a second small pattern (N5) began in 2019, being considered early chemical EOR because they were performed after the primary production stage. The well spacing of the patterns is 10 and 40 acres, respectively. The producer wells of each pattern are displayed in Table 1 of the complete paper. The PF project injected 21.65 thousand STB of polymer solution. At the end of 2022, incremental oil production was 4.9 billion bbl. At the time of writing, patterns show incremental recovery factors of between 4 and 9%. The reservoir showed strong signals of repressurization, gas/oil ratio reduction, water/oil ratio control, and oil incremental recovery. Energy consumption and carbon intensity were calculated for the oil production baseline case [waterflooding (WF) or primary production] and PF, considering the field’s energy matrix. The results were compared to quantify the effect of PF on these efficiency indicators. Evaluation of Product System Energy consumption was calculated for each phase involved in the processing system: lifting fluids, oil dehydration, water-clarification treatment, water reinjection, and PF. The evaluation did not include solvent or facilities to dilute the crude oil or the pumping energy used to deliver the oil to the pipeline system. Currently, the total volume of water produced is reinjected into the reservoir for pressure maintenance and oil-recovery purposes. Also, part of the produced gas is used in heaters and fire tubes for dehydration, but most is burned in a gas flare.

A high-strength, environmental-friendly, and multifunctional soy protein adhesive inspired by biomineralization

Soy protein is an economical and eco-friendly adhesive material that offers significant potential for the development of bio-based adhesives. However, they have poor water resistance, low bonding strength, mold-susceptibility, and deterioration, which are serious challenges to the widespread application of soy protein adhesives in plywood. This work was inspired by the biomineralization phenomenon and the preparation of a novel soy protein adhesive (SPI-RGT-AgNPs). The SPI-RGT-AgNPs adhesive exhibited excellent viscosity, residual rate, and moisture absorption performance compared with the original soy protein isolate (SPI) adhesive, with an increase from 37° (SPI) to 81° (SPI-10RGT-10AgNPs) in water contact angle testing. The dry and wet adhesion strengths reached 2.49MPa and 1.43MPa, 193% and 117% higher than SPI adhesive, respectively. Molecular docking simulations were used to verify that the introduction of modifiers significantly improved the stability and crosslinking strength of the adhesive. The best ratio of the SPI-RGT-AgNP adhesive was confirmed using the response surface methodology (RSM). Simultaneously, SPI-RGT-AgNPs adhesive also showed excellent anti-mildew and anti-microbial efficiencies to Escherichia coli (98.18%) and Staphylococcus aureus (99.33%). In addition, a life-cycle assessment was used to explore the pollution emissions from the adhesives. As compared to formaldehyde-based adhesives, the SPI-RGT-AgNP adhesive had lower energy consumption and pollution emissions. Therefore, this study prepared a novel high-strength and multifunctional soy protein adhesive, guiding the production of multifunctional and green adhesives.

The influence of laser process parameters on the Iron loss of grain-oriented silicon steel

Laser scribing effectively reduces the energy loss of grain-oriented silicon steel in alternating and pulsating magnetic fields. This study focuses on the 27Q120 material, analyzes the macroscopic surface morphology and iron loss variations of grain-oriented silicon steel under the influence of two types of laser spots (circular spots without the application of a diffractive optical element (DOE) and rectangular spots formed by a DOE), laser power (600W to 2400W), and scribing spacing (3.5mm to 7.5mm) as process parameters. The relationship between magnetic domain width, stress, and iron loss was analyzed. The result shows that the iron loss improvement rates (β) achieved with circular and rectangular spot scribing were 16.054% and 17.116%, respectively. Corresponding magnetic domain widths were 0.17754 mm and 0.1636 mm, with hysteresis losses of 0.5114 W/kg and 0.5033 W/kg, respectively. Under the same laser power and scribing spacing, a lower energy density significantly reduced the damage to the surface macroscopic morphology by the laser, leading to improved iron loss. Furthermore, the iron loss of grain-oriented steel is positively correlated with the width of magnetic domains and negatively correlated with compressive stress.

Overview of the Balanced Suspension Patents

Background: The suspension has the role of transmitting and carrying the forces and moments between the wheels and the frame and controlling the wheel runout, thus providing the car with good comfort and operational stability. Objective: Through the analysis of the current situation of suspension research, we summarize the research line and specific technical solutions of suspension, and finally, we provide an outlook on the future development direction of suspension, which in turn can provide some reference value for readers. Methods: The existing suspensions are classified into passive suspensions, semi-active suspensions, and active suspensions, and their improvement methods are described to compare the advantages and disadvantages of different improvement methods. Results: By comparing the results of suspension studies, semi-active suspension can effectively improve the smoothness and handling stability of the vehicle. Semi-active suspension has the advantages of low energy consumption, simple control, lower cost, easy implementation, and high reliability, while the effect of vibration control can be close to active suspension to some extent and far better than passive suspension. Conclusion: This paper introduces passive suspension, semi-active suspension, and active suspension in three categories and describes the working principle, functions, problem-solving advantages, and shortcomings of the three suspensions, respectively. Semi-active suspension is more suitable for the future development trend of suspension.

Removal of antibiotics from aquaculture wastewater using a continuous flow/EC/PMS coupled system

The electricity activated peroxomonosulfate (ion) coupled system (EC/PMS) has important application value in water pollution treatment. However, the traditional batch system commonly used in this coupled system poses significant challenges in treating large volume and low concentration aquaculture wastewater, such as poor mass transfer, long treatment time, and increased risk of secondary pollution. Therefore, this study proposed to introduce the continuous flow operation mode into the EC/PMS system to form a continuous flow electrocatalytic peroxomonosulfate (ion) (CF/EC/PMS) coupling system, achieving 100 % removal of tetracycline (TC) with an initial concentration of 2 mg/L. Subsequently, through cathodic optimization, an 85 % removal efficiency was achieved for antibiotics with secondary pollution risks, such as norfloxacin and NOR. It is worth noting that the secondary pollutants (such as fluoride ions, F−) generated during the degradation process have also successfully achieved a removal efficiency of 70 %. In this system, singlet oxygen (1O2) was the main active species. This system has advantages such as a processing volume of at least 3L, a wide pH range (3–9), low oxidant dosage (PMS = 2 mM), and low energy consumption (EEO = 0.018 kWh/m3 log). The coupling system effectively removes the main pollutants, and the optimized cathode coupling system achieves safe removal of fluorinated drugs, reducing the risk of secondary pollution. In summary, this study has the characteristics of low cost and engineering applicability, providing a promising method for economically, efficiently, and environmentally friendly treatment of aquaculture wastewater.

Design and optimization for a longitudinal-flow corn ear threshing device of low loss and low energy consumption

The traditional corn grain harvester threshing device has the problems of high grain breakage rate, high unthreshed grain rate and high energy consumption when harvesting high water content corn ears. A longitudinal-flow corn ear threshing device and its measurement and control system were proposed to overcome these problems. The working performance and energy consumption of the threshing device were optimized by conducting three factors and five levels corn ear threshing experiments. The experiments took the threshing cylinder speed (X1), threshing gap (X2), and guide vane angle (X3) as the experimental factors, and the grain breakage rate (Y1), unthreshed grain rate (Y2), unit energy consumption (Y3), and threshing concave pressure (Y4) as the experimental indicators. According to the experimental results, the quadratic polynomial regression models between experimental indicators and experimental factors were established. Through models optimization, the optimal working parameters for the threshing device were obtained as X1 at 392.40 r/min, X2 at 40.70 mm, and X3 at 33.16°. Through conducting verification experiment, it was found that under the optimal parameters, the experimental indicators were Y1 at 2.32 ± 0.06 %, Y2 at 0.48 ± 0.04 %, Y3 at 2.14 ± 0.10 kJ/kg, and Y4 at 46.28 ± 3.23N. The errors between the experimental results and the quadratic polynomial regression models were less than 5 %, which indicated that the models had high prediction accuracy. Compared with the unoptimized experimental indicators, the optimized experimental indicators Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y4 decreased by 36.26 %, 39.24 %, 14.74 % and 16.27 %, respectively. The working performance of the threshing device was significantly improved, and the energy consumption was significantly reduced. The relevant research could provide reference for the optimization of the mechanical structure and working parameters of the corn ear threshing device.

Accelerating Kerr-Taub-NUT spacetime in the low energy limit of heterotic string theory

We construct a novel solution in the low energy limit of heterotic string theory describing accelerating charged and rotating black holes with NUT parameter. Some aspects of the new spacetime are discussed, such as locations of horizons, ergoregions, conic singularity, closed timelike curves, and area temperature product. We find some of the properties resemble the ones belong to accelerating Kerr-Newman-Taub-NUT spacetime.