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HPR1000 nuclear power technology is the mainstream technology of commercial pressurized water nuclear power in China, which is adopted by most nuclear power plants under construction or planned. Mn-Ni-Mo alloy steel heavy forgings are widely used in the equipment of pressurized water nuclear reactor. In order to achieve the aim of safe operation for at least 60 years, the technical specifications of Mn-Ni-Mo alloy steel heavy forgings for HPR1000 are high and strict. Due to the high technology and difficult manufacturing, only a few factories have the manufacturing capacity of forgings with stable quality worldwide, which can’t meet the continuous growth demand of Chinese market. Therefore, whether Mn-Ni-Mo alloy steel heavy forgings can be delivered on time has become an important factor restricting the construction cycle of HPR1000 nuclear power plants. In order to meet the market demand, Shanghai Electric SHMP Casting & Forging Co., Ltd (SCF) has developed the manufacturing technology of heavy forgings for HPR1000. According to the technical specifications of HPR1000, SCF has carried out systematic research in smelting, forging and heat treatment technologies. By 2020, SCF has realized the mass production of heavy forgings for HPR1000 nuclear power plant. This paper reports new technologies obtained by SCF in the development of Mn-Ni-Mo alloy steel heavy forgings for HPR1000 nuclear power plant.

Additional file 1: Appendix 1. Variables used to construct Fried Index. Appendix 2. Variables used to construct Trauma-Specific Frailty Index. Appendix 3. Variables used to construct 11-item modified frailty indexa. Appendix 4. List of ICD-10 codes of Hospital Frailty Risk Score. Appendix 5. List of ICD-10 codes of Geriatric Trauma Frailty Index.

In many bilaterians, Hox genes are generally clustered along the chromosomes and expressed in spatial and temporal order. In vertebrates, the expression of Hox genes follows a whole-cluster spatio-temporal collinearity (WSTC) pattern, whereas in some invertebrates the expression of Hox genes exhibits a subcluster-level spatio-temporal collinearity pattern. In bilaterians, the diversity of collinearity pattern and the cause of collinearity difference in Hox gene expression remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate genomic organization and expression pattern of Hox genes in the echiuran worm Urechis unicinctus (Annelid, Echiura). Urechis unicinctus has a split cluster with four subclusters divided by non-Hox genes: first subcluster (Hox1 and Hox2), second subcluster (Hox3), third subcluster (Hox4, Hox5, Lox5, Antp and Lox4), fourth subcluster (Lox2 and Post2). The expression of U. unicinctus Hox genes shows a subcluster-based whole-cluster spatio-temporal collinearity (S-WSTC) pattern: the anterior-most genes in each subcluster are activated in a spatially and temporally colinear manner (reminiscent of WSTC), with the subsequent genes in each subcluster then being very similar to their respective anterior-most subcluster gene. Combining genomic organization and expression profiles of Hox genes in different invertebrate lineages, we propose that the spatio-temporal collinearity of invertebrate Hox is subcluster-based.

In this paper, sample of Eu-doped SrTiO3was synthesized using hydrothermal method, in which the Eu (NO3)3and Sr (OH)2were as the Eu and Sr source. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to characterize the structure and ingredient of the as-prepared samples. The results show that high-purity of SrTiO3was prepared and structure of SrTiO3without change with Eu doping. Also, performance of cathodic protection of stainless steel was tested in the photoelectricity cell. Furthermore, the mechanism of the improvement by the rare earth was also detected.

Cabled seafloor observatories play an important role in ocean exploration for its long-term, real-time, and in-situ observation characteristics. In establishing a permanent, reliable, and robust seafloor observatory, a highly reliable cable switching and fault isolation method is essential. After reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of existing switching methods, we propose a novel active switching method for network configuration. Without additional communication path requirements, the switching method provides a way to communicate with a shore station through an existing power transmission path. A coded voltage signal with a distinct sequence is employed as the communication medium to transmit commands. The analysis of the maximum bit frequency of the voltage signals guarantees the accuracy of command recognition. A prototype based on the switching method is built and tested in a laboratory environment, which validated the functionality and reliability of the method.

With the continuous development of science and technology in our country, big data technology is becoming more and more mature. In recent years, the application of computer software in our country is more and more extensive. As an important part of social production, it is of great significance to strengthen the research of computer software technology. Computer technology, as one of the landmark technologies in the 21st century, has a direct relationship with social production and people’s quality of life. Therefore, this paper focuses on the application of computer software technology in the era of big data, to improve the data processing capacity and strengthen the economic benefits of social production. Therefore, it is of great significance to strengthen the application of computer software technology in the era of big data.

Real-time capacity of a battery is normally indicated by the state of charge (SOC). In this paper, the SOC prediction methods of vanadium redox-flow battery (VRB) are introduced and the advantages and disadvantages of those are compared. Based on the nonlinear characteristic of SOC, the method of using BP neural network to predict SOC of VRB is proposed. The BP neural network is optimized with Levenberg-Marquardt optimization algorithm and Bayesian regulation algorithm, respectively. The neural network improved with Bayesian regulation can predict SOC in real time during the VRB testing process. The experimental results show that the neural network improved by Bayesian regulation algorithm can improve the real-time prediction accuracy of SOC and has a good application prospect.

In practical applications, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), reliability, and the long-term stability of wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) system is limited by the non-absorption transmission loss. In this investigation, we report on a signal recovery method to remove the impact of non-absorption transmission loss based on an automatic gain closed-loop control. The deviation of the WMS system with the introduced signal recovery method has been observed to be below 4.27% under the non-absorption transmission loss which varied from 0 dB to −6.02 dB, and is about 13 times lower than the ordinary system. The proposed method is suitable for promoting the reliability and stability of WMS system under rigorous circumstances. Besides, it has the potential value in the multi-point detection or to achieve a higher SNR.

It has been repeatedly reported that Cr-series alloy steels have enhancing passivation under carbonation (within alkalinity range), which is diametrically opposed to plain carbon steel. This work investigated the composition and structure depth profiles of passive film formed on alloy corrosion-resistant steel Cr10Mo1 in simulating concrete pore solutions of different pH (13.3, 12.0, 10.5 and 9.0) by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and analyzed the kinetics of the passive film growth and formation influenced by the pH through current transient analysis. The results stated that the growth and formation process of passive film on the steel could be explained using dissolution-precipitation reaction mechanism. When exposed to an alkaline medium, the metal first incurs rapid anodic dissolution and releases metallic cations into the electrolyte before the passive oxides/hydroxides precipitation. Decreasing pH promotes excessive anodic dissolution of the metal and more metallic cations are released into the solution, resulting more Cr species enriched in the film layer for their high stability insensitive to lower pH although Fe species become soluble under carbonation. This contributes to the formation of a thicker passive film with higher corrosion resistance, providing the steel enhanced passivity in less alkaline environments.

Lithium–sulfur battery has been considered as a promising electrochemical energy storage system based on its theoretical energy density. However, its practical application is hindered by poor conductivity of sulfur and the shuttle effect. Herein, a hierarchical three-dimensional nitrogen and phosphorous codoped graphene and carbon nanotubes with 70 wt% of sulfur content (N, P codoped G/CNTs-S70) composite was prepared using melamine phosphate as a single precursor of N and P. The simultaneous introduction of N and P creates high active sites on the G/CNTs backbones, restricts the detachments of sulfur from the host G/CNTs, and induces strong chemical adsorption of the dissolution of lithium polysulfides. The as-prepared N, P codoped G/CNTs-S70 composite delivers a high initial discharge capacity of 1550 mA h g−1 and retains a capacity of 735 mA h g−1 after 200 cycles at 0.5 C. This is a significant improvement in the rate capability and cycling stability compared with the un-doped G/CNTs-S70 cathode. This simple strategy with single precursor offers promising electrochemical properties for Li–S batteries.

The problem of choosing error penalty parameter C for optimization extreme learning machine (OELM) is that it can take any positive value for different applications and it is therefore hard to choose correctly. In this paper, we reformulated OELM to take a new regularization parameter ν (ν-OELM) which is inspired by Scholkopf et al. The regularization in terms of ν is bounded between 0 and 1, and is easier to interpret as compared to C. This paper shows that: (1) ν-OELM and ν-SVM have similar dual optimization formulation, but ν-OELM has less optimization constraints due to its special capability of class separation and (2) experiment results on both artificial and real binary classification problems show that ν-OELM tends to achieve better generalization performance than ν-SVM, OELM and other popular machine learning approaches, and it is computationally efficient on high dimension data sets. Additionally, the optimal parameter ν in ν-OELM can be easily selected from few candidates.

An underwater profiler is one of the popular platforms for ocean observation. Due to energy limitations, conventional underwater vehicles have a short life span, which cannot meet the needs of long-term ocean exploration. Therefore, there is a growing interest in using ocean energy such as ocean thermal energy and wave energy for driving. This study aimed to investigate an energy-saving and ocean thermal energy (OTE)-powered buoyancy driving system of the ocean profiler. The purpose of this study was to explore an ocean profiler buoyancy driving system powered by ocean thermal energy (OTE). According to the seawater profile temperature gradient, an OTE-powered electro-hydraulic control system was designed, and the dynamic characteristics of this system are simulated and analyzed by using the power bonding diagram method. Based on the results conducted from lake tests, this profiler possesses the self-driving capability for using OTE perfectly. This research can provide important guidance for the design of the buoyancy drive system of underwater vehicles.

The failure of landslide dams is a sudden geological disaster, and thus their formation and failure greatly threaten the security of people's lives and property. In this research, the influences of different flume gradients, dam heights, and downstream slope angles relative to the flume bed on the overtopping breaching process of noncohesive landslide dams are explored through 12 sets of model experiments. Based on these experimental results, the dam overtopping breaching can be divided into four stages: initiation, head cutting, acceleration, and riverbed rebalancing. The variation in the erosion rate (EAX and EBX) and the downstream slope angle relative to the horizontal line (Φ) exhibit clear differences in the different stages. The influences of the flume gradient, dam height, and downstream slope angle on the breaching process of landslide dams are different. In our experiments, accumulation bodies could only form in the middle and lower parts of the downstream dam face when the total height from the spillway to the flume bed was greater than 15 cm. In addition, the downstream slope angle relative to the horizontal line determined the breaching process and stage of the dam overtopping breaching. Since the dam breach evolution mode and dam overtopping breaching process were mainly affected by the dam height and downstream slope angle relative to the horizontal line, the evolution of the longitudinal section in the process of dam body failure can be divided into four modes based on our experimental results. The applicability of the widely used empirical equations for the erosion rate was assessed using the experimental data, which revealed obvious differences between the measured and calculated erosion rates. However, the erosion rate and the shear stress at the soil/water interface exhibited a good correlation in every test. Therefore, these widely used empirical equations need to be improved in future research. This preliminary research provides a basis for subsequent studies of dam breaching using models and a scientific reference for the prevention and mitigation of landslide dams.

The cabled seafloor observation network, which provides abundant power and broad bandwidth to seafloor scientific packages, has become one of the most efficient ocean exploration methods because of its long-term, real-time, and sustained presence. However, node failure or maintenance may shut down the system until the situation is cleared. An active node switching method based on discrete-voltage intervention is proposed to establish a reliable and robust underwater electrical network that allows the system to operate partially amid node failure or maintenance. This method switches a specific node on/off from the network whenever necessary. The main structure and operating mechanism of this switching method are presented in this paper. A prototype was established, and several tests were performed in a laboratory to validate its feasibility and reliability. The prototype was then integrated into a pool-testing underwater network that included a 50-km electrical/optical submarine cable between the base station and the junction box. The test results demonstrated that the active node-switching method can efficiently and reliably fix node failure emergency situations for cabled ocean networks.

The high-temperature hydrothermal (HTH) stability is always a key factor that affects the NH3-SCR performance and limits the industrial applications of Cu/SAPO-34. Herein, two Cu/SAPO-34 catalysts with different grain sizes are HTH aged to investigate the role of the grain size of Cu/SAPO-34 in holding the structure stability of catalysts and the relationships between the grain size and deNOx performance over Cu/SAPO-34 during the HTH treatment. Characterization results illustrates that the relationship between the grain size and the stability of SAPO framework and the content of isolated Cu2+ ions. During the HTH treatment, CuO species more easily transfer to isolated Cu2+ species via migrating into the framework from the external surface of SAPO-34 for the larger-sized catalyst rather than the smaller-sized one. The re-distribution of Cu2+ in the larger-sized catalyst prevents Si-O(H)-Al from H2O attacking during HTH treatment. Therefore, the larger-sized Cu/SAPO-34 maintains stronger structural stability and higher deNOx activity than smaller-sized one after HTH treatment. This work provides a new strategy for design of high-temperature hydrothermal stabilized Cu/SAPO-34 for eliminating NOx emitted from diesel engines.

The electrochemical properties of sulfur cathode with Ni foam current collector are investigated in detail. Different from sulfur cathode with stain steel current collector, it is interesting found that novel redox peaks at 1.95 V/1.35 V are observed for sulfur cathode with Ni foam. The electrochemical behavior is further verified by ex-situ XRD, SEM and XPS analyses. The results indicate that Ni foam current collector is involved in the redox reaction in Li/S rechargeable battery, and NiS forms at the surface of the Ni foam. These results demonstrate that the sulfur electrode is transformed into NiS.

Environmental friendly earth fill was produced by recycling dredged marine sediment and phosphate tailing. The properties of the marine sediment and tailing were tested. Composite soil samples of different mix ratios were prepared. The optimum moisture contents, basic physical properties, compression characteristics, and shear strength characteristics under the optimum moisture contents were tested and analyzed. The results indicated that the optimum moisture content decreases with increasing phosphorus tailing content and that composite soil is preferable over both marine sediment and phosphate tailing because of its higher dry density, lower compressibility, and higher shear strength. When the phosphorus tailing content is in 50–65%, the dry density is maximized and the void ratio is minimized, indicating the best ratio. The coefficient of compressibility is in 0.07–0.12 MPa−1. When the phosphorus tailing content is 50%, the compression index and coefficient of compressibility are minimized, whe...

Lithium–sulphur (Li–S) batteries with high theoretical energy densities are regarded as promising energy storage devices for electric vehicles and large-scale electricity storage. We report a facile, environment friendly, soft approach and scalable synthesis of a sulfur/graphene/multiwalled carbon nanotube (S/GN/MWCNTs) composite as a cathode for Li–S batteries by a one-pot hydrothermal method. The 2D graphene nanosheets and 1D carbon nanotubes have been chosen as a scaffold because of their conductive carbon skeleton and high specific surface area. In the composite, the carbon nanotubes can not only significantly enhance the conductivity, but also effectively tune the mesoporous structure. The as-prepared S/GN/MWCNTs hybrid electrode delivers an initial discharge capacity of 1135.9 mA h g−1 at 0.2C. Moreover, at a high current rate of 0.8C, it exhibits excellent cyclability and coulombic efficiency, the reversible charge capacity stays at 702.3 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles and the coulombic efficiency is up to 96.3%. The results confirm that the one-pot hydrothermal method is a promising approach for the synthesis of composite for lithium–sulfur batteries.

A novel high-precision measurement method for measuring roll is presented. The pentagonal prism and corner-cube prism are used as splitting element and sensitive element, respectively. A pair of parallel collimated beams generated by a pair of splitting pentagonal prisms is incident upon the target moving along linear guide. Two beams returning from two corner-cube prisms on the target reach two four-quadrant photoelectric detectors (QD 1 and QD 2 ), respectively. So the roll can be measured by differential measurement based on QD 1 and QD 2 . Further, the measurement resolution can be doubled and resistance to common mode interference can be enhanced, by adopting common-path structure based on the polarization splitting prisms. Feasibility of the method is verified by theoretical analysis and experiments. When the system parameters apply to the values supposed, for the roll, the angular resolution can reach to 0.1″, and measuring accuracy is about 1″.

Frame interpolation attempts to generate intermediate frames given existing ones, which is challenging because of complex video scenes and motion. Standard methods first estimate motion between two continuous frames and then synthesize new ones. In this paper, we propose a novel frame interpolation method based on a video synthesis approach deep voxel flow (DVF). In DVF, a deep convolutional encoder-decoder predicts 3D voxel flow, and then a volume sampling layer synthesizes the intermediate frame guided by the flow. To improve the accuracy of voxel flow, we employ recurrent convolutional layers (RCL) in the encoder-decoder module to refine the flow step by step, called DVF-RCL. We also incorporate perceptual loss to increase the visual quality. Experiments demonstrate that our method greatly improves the performance of original DVF and produce results that compare favorably to state-of-the-art methods both quantitatively and qualitatively.

With time synchronization becoming an important feature of cabled ocean observatory networks, an innovative approach using the IEEE 1588 standard featuring the precision timing protocol (PTP) is proposed. Both boundary clock (BC) and transparent clock (TC) based on PTP are analyzed, and the framework of a synchronization system mainly consisting of a shore station section, a junction box layer, and a science instrument layer is presented. The proposed time synchronization system was applied and tested on a laboratory setup of the Experimental Underwater Observatory Network System of China. Results indicate that the time accuracy of the proposed system satisfies the needs of the observatory networks either in BC mode or TC mode, and the time accuracy is better in TC mode, especially when the network structure becomes more complex.

Numerical simulation of ultrasonic wave propagation provides an efficient tool for crack identification in structures, while it requires a high resolution and expensive time calculation cost in both time integration and spatial discretization. Wavelet finite element model provides a highorder finite element model and gives a higher accuracy on spatial discretization, B-Spline wavelet interval (BSWI) has been proved to be one of the most commonly used wavelet finite element model with the advantage of getting the same accuracy but with fewer element so that the calculation cost is much lower than traditional finite element method and other high-order element methods. Precise Integration Method provides a higher resolution in time integration and has been proved to be a stable time integration method with a much lower cut-off error for same and even smaller time step. In this paper, a wavelet finite element model combined with precise integration method is presented for the numerical simulation of ultrasonic wave propagation and crack identification in 1D structures. Firstly, the wavelet finite element based on BSWI is constructed for rod and beam structures. Then Precise Integrated Method is introduced with application for the wave propagation in 1D structures. Finally, numerical examples of ultrasonic wave propagation in rod and beam structures are conducted for verification. Moreover, crack identification in both rod and beam structures are studied based on the new model.

Oxidative stress represents a major cause of cellular damage and death in pathological conditions including osteoporosis, in which oxidative stress is associated with increased bone resorption and low bone mass. And grape seed proanthocyanidins are a group of polyphenolic bioflavonoids which are known to possess broad pharmacological activity and therapeutic potential, exerting a protective role against oxidant injury. The aim of our study was to investigate whether proanthocyanidins exert an anti-apoptosis effect in osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells, via their antioxidant activity. Firstly, we determined the anti-apoptosis effect of proanthocyanidins in osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells, which were subject to H2O2 treatment, then we determined the association of the antioxidant activity exerted by proanthocyanidins with their anti-apoptosis effect. Results demonstrated that proanthocyanidins inhibit H2O2-promoted apoptosis in MC3T3-E1 cells, via ameliorating the viability of MC3T3-E1 cells post H2O2 treatment and reducing the apoptotic cell numbers. And the proanthocyanidins treatment also ameliorates the H2O2-induced mitochondrial dysfunction via promoting the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and respiratory chain complex IV, and reducing the mitochondrial free radical production, ROS and mitochondrial superoxide. Moreover, the proanthocyanidins inhibit H2O2-induced apoptosis signaling which is mediated by p53. This study implied a possible anti-osteoporosis effect of proanthocyanidins via their antioxidant and anti-apoptosis activity.

Foxl2 is a female related gene that plays a role in ovarian development and maintenance of function in mammals.However,little is know about the expression and function of foxl2 during early embryonic development. We investigated the pattern of foxl2(Cf-foxl2) expression during development in the scallop,Chlamys farreri, using qRT-PCR and in situ hybridization.The expression of Cf-foxl2 mRNA was low in the fertilized egg,but increased during development.The level of expression was highest in D-shaped larvae,after which levels declined significantly.In situ hybridization revealed that Cf-foxl2 mRNA was evenly distributed in the embryos up to the trochophore stage,at which point we observed a strong positive signal concentrated in the ventral surface near the concave region of the mouth.The intensity of the signal increased significantly in D-shaped larvae,was strongest in the dorsal part of the visceral mass and the margin of mantle,and was distributed symmetrically.Thereafter,the signal disappeared until sex differentiation,at which time the signal was only detected in the ovary.Our results suggest that the foxl2 gene participates in the regulation of ovarian development.Furthermore,given the persistent expression during the early development stages,we hypothesize that this gene plays a role in the development of C. farreri.

Huang Y., Peng L., Liu Y., Zhang Z., Lv L., Zhao G. (2013): Evaluation of essential and toxic elements concentrations in different parts of buckwheat. Czech J. Food Sci., 31: 249–255. The elements concentrations in different parts of buckwheat and the commercial products of it were analysed by ex perimental and chemometric approaches. The results indicated that the essential and toxic elements concentrations were significantly different in various parts of the buckwheat, with the seeds revealing the lowest concentrations. The elemental patterns were not significantly different between Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaertn and F. esculentum Moench. Abundant essential elements were found in the commercial buckwheat tea. The detection of heavy metals manifested the potential toxicity of buckwheat.

Wulu Mountain Nature Reserve is located between the western margin of the North China Plain and the eastern margin of the Loess Plateau,and shows distinct transitional vegetation types and high species richness.Thus the reserve has an important role to play in plant biodiversity research.In the present study we investigated the plant species distribution along an altitudinal gradient in the Wulu Mountain Nature Reserve in October,2010.The vegetation zones and dominant species in each community changed with increasing elevation,and a combination of rainfall and temperature determined the major communities in the forests.The plant communities were classified as Robinia pseudoacacia forest,Pinus bungeana forest,mixed conifer-broadleaf forest,and Quercus liaotungensis forest.We investigated the species composition of plant communities in different plots to discern patterns of species diversity and distribution along the altitudinal gradient.We calculated α-diversity,β-diversity and γ-diversity using the data collected from the study plots and analyzed with a generalized additive model to examine the following relationships: 1) changes in the total number of trunks and diameter at breast height in all forest plots along the altitudinal gradient;2) species richness in the tree,shrub and herbaceous layers with altitude;3) the Shannon-Wiener diversity index for the tree,shrub and herbaceous layers with altitude;4) Pielou′s evenness index for the tree,shrub and herbaceous layers with altitude;5) β-diversity for the tree,shrub and herbaceous layers with altitude;6) γ-diversity with altitude;and 7) the relationships of grass species richness with total number of trunks and diameter at breast height in all forest plots.The results showed that total number of trunks and diameter at breast height in all forest plots increased with the increase in elevation.Species richness,the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Pielou′s evenness index for the tree layer were significantly higher in mixed conifer-broadleaf forest at middle elevations(P0.01).Species richness and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index of the shrub layer both peaked at 1507 m but were also relatively high at 1160 and 1260 m,whereas Pielou′s evenness index of the shrub layer increased with the increase in elevation(P0.05).In contrast,species richness and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index of the herbaceous layer decreased with the increase in elevation except at lower elevations,owing to the significant influence of forest canopy cover,whereas no differences in species richness and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index of the herbaceous layer were observed at higher elevations.Pielou′s evenness index of the herbaceous layer increased with the increase in elevation.The Shannon-Wiener diversity index over the entire altitudinal gradient showed the rank order: herbaceous layershrub layertree layer.Beta-diversity showed peaks at middle and high elevations.Gamma-diversity was highest at 1400—1500 m altitude.Aridity at low altitudes and low temperature at high altitudes limited species survival,and only middle elevations experienced favorable precipitation and temperatures to support high plant species diversity.The species richness of grasses decreased with the increase in total number of trunks and diameter at breast height in all forest plots.

3D carbon scaffold built from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene exhibits the synergistic effects in electronic conductivity and buffers the structural strain of materials. In this paper, NiO–graphene–carbon nanotubes (NiO–G–CNTs) nanohybrids were prepared via a facile hydrothermal–thermal decomposition process. The as-prepared ternary component nanohybrids exhibit high reversible specific capacity, improved cycling stability, and excellent rate capability, compared to those of NiO–graphene hybrids and pure NiO. The NiO–G–CNT electrode reveals a specific capacity of 858.1 mA h g−1 after 50 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g−1. At a higher current density of 1000 mA g−1, it still reveals a specific capacity of 676 mA h g−1 after 40 cycles. This outstanding electrochemical performance is attributed to its special 3D network structures, where the NiO nanoparticles are well distributed on the surface of graphene sheets, with the CNTs interwoven between individual graphene sheets. This special structure effectively prevents the restacking of graphene sheets and affords an easy route for the transport of electrons and ions.

Deformation based circulating tumor cell (CTC) microchips are a representative diagnostic device for early cancer detection. This type of device usually involves a process of CTC trapping in a confined microgeometry. Further understanding of the CTC flow regime, as well as the threshold passing-through pressure is key to the design of deformation based CTC filtration devices. In the present numerical study, we investigate the transitional deformation and pressure signature from surface tension dominated flow to viscous shear stress dominated flow using a droplet model. Regarding whether CTC fully blocks the channel inlet, we observe two flow regimes: CTC squeezing and shearing regime. By studying the relation of CTC deformation at the exact critical pressure point for increasing inlet velocity, three different types of cell deformation are observed: 1) hemispherical front, 2) parabolic front, and 3) elongated CTC co-flowing with carrier media. Focusing on the circular channel, we observe a first increasing and then decreasing critical pressure change with increasing flow rate. By pressure analysis, the concept of optimum velocity is proposed to explain the behavior of CTC filtration and design optimization of CTC filter. Similar behavior is also observed in channels with symmetrical cross sessions like square and triangular but not in rectangular channels which only results in decreasing critical pressure.

Ocean observatory networks have been investigated and developed and are receiving considerable attention in the 21st century. As intermediate processing nodes, junction boxes (JBs) are essential sections of ocean observatory networks. This paper explored the key technologies of JBs for Chinese experimental seafloor observatory networks, including industrial control, Ethernet communication, and time synchronization technologies. Specific functional verifications of each section were conducted in the laboratory prior to sea trials. The JBs were packaged in a frame and were deployed in the East and South China Sea. Results of the laboratory and sea trial experiments demonstrated that the examined technologies were effective and could provide valid guarantee to the long operation of the JBs.

The cotton′s maturity and fineness are the key parameters to evaluate the cotton fibers quality.The indirect parameters measurement can not accurately evaluate the cotton fiber′s quality.A direct method based on the optoelectronic measurement of Fraunhofer diffraction was presented.The measurement results were compared between the microscope and the optoelectronic setup.The results show that two methods have the good correlation(R=0.956,and SD=0.332).The optoelectronic technique can assess the cotton fiber′s maturity in the lab.

Ginning cotton qualities influence seriously the quality of textiles. Ginning cotton is always mixed with various defects during the picking, transporting, storing, and processing. This paper proposed one novel method to solve the problems of intensity changes of light source. Firstly, the properties of cotton and defects are studied. Secondly, the setup of measuring system is introduced and image processing algorithm is proposed. Finally, experimental results are discussed and the optimal drive circuit of light sources is designed. The results show the measuring system can meet with the requirement of nondestructive measurement of ginning cotton quality. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the cotton defect's measuring system is above 90%, and the measuring time is within 3 second. This system can meet with the requirement of fast measurement of cotton ginning qualities in field.

Laser collimation technology is widely applied in the positioning and measurement. Because the accuracy is affected by the laser beam drift, so laser beam drift compensation is necessary. The complexity of sources and forms of laser beam drifts affect the compensation effect. The noise signals caused by electronic noise, laser source, and environment, are analyzed in detail. Further, the parallel drift and angular drift of various types of beam drift signals are estimated and the effectiveness of low-pass filter and mean process are verified and compared. This study is beneficial to analyzing various types of noise signals and building a more effective compensation models for laser beam drift.

We present a fully automated method to segment the interventricular septum from cardiac MR images in this paper. By introducing the circular Hough transformation our model can automatically detect the contours of left ventricle as circles used as the initialization. The interior and exterior energies are weighted by the entropy, which improves the robust of the evolving curve. Local neighborhood information is used to evolve the level set function, which can reduce the impact of the heterogeneous grays inside of regions and improve the segmentation accuracy. The adaptive window size is utilized to reduce the sensitivity to initialization rather than a fixed window size. The Gaussian kernel is used to not only ensure the smoothness and stability of the level set function, but also eliminate the traditional Euclidean length term and re-initialization. Finally, we segment the septum automatically by the classical segmentation methods combined with anatomical location information. Extensive experiments indicate that the superior performance of the proposed method over the state-of-the-art methods in terms of both good robustness and high efficiency.

The changes in heme (associated with hemoglobin), hemoglobin and hematin in the coelomic fluid of marine worm,Urechis unicinctus, exposed to different concentrations of sulfide, were investigated using biochemical techniques. When exposed to different sulfide concentrations for up to 96 h, the relative amounts of the three components changed in a regular pattern suggesting that the coelomocytes play an important role in the worm's tolerance to sulfide. The possible roles of heme compounds in sulfide tolerance of this species are discussed on the basis of our experimental data.

This study on the cytological changes of the body wall, aspiratory intestine and crissal bursa inUrechis unicinctus by light microscope (LM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) showed that the difference between the body wall and the natural environment rich in H2S was not obvious; that the wall color of the aspiratory intestine in H2S rich environment changed from normal semitransparency to dark brown; that its epithelia were disassembled and the electron density of its cytoplasm matrix was lower; and that in H2S rich environment many basophilic granules occurred in the epithelia of the crissal bursa. Granules with single membrane and myelinefingure were found with TEM.

Dithione was used as chelator in the flow injection-knotted reactor separation and pre-concentration system coupled to flame atomic absorption spectrometry to determine trace amounts of Cu, Cd, Zn, Co in biological standard samples. Peak height was used for quantitative purpose. Alkali and alkaline earth elements, which could not chelate with dithione were separated from the objective metals; competition between trace metals were avoided for the strong chelating ability of dithione. Compared to diethyldithiocarbamate and pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC), dithione was used for multi-element detection with lower chelator concentration and better analytical performance. Concentration factors of 23.4–69.3 were obtained using dithione, with the detection limits of 1.06–2.56 μg/l. The system developed was used to determine trace metals in certified biological reference materials of human hair, pig liver and sea prawn after routine digestion, the results obtained agreed well with the certified values, relative standard deviations of the determinations were at the range of 2.10–3.02%.

Abri cantoniensis (AC) is regarded as a potent folk medicine for jaundice, hepatitis for long history worldwide. Abri Mollis (AM) is an alternative species of AC. In the present study, the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) profile and antioxidant activities of these two species were compared. With the established HPLC fingerprint, 20 batches of AC and AM were efficiently distinguished. The antioxidant activities against DPPH radical of 20 batches of AC and AM were compared, and AC showed generally stronger antioxidant activities than AM, with IC50 value ranging from 14.19 to 65.06 μg/mL. Extract of AC was further separated into 4 fractions by serial extraction. Only ethyl acetate fraction (EF) and n-butanol fraction (BF) showed strong DPPH radical scavenging activities, with IC50 value of 48.32±4.70 and 62.72±3.03 μg/mL, respectively. These two fractions also showed potent cellular antioxidant …

The diffraction methods were used to measure thin wires or fibers with some advantages. The method was based on Fraunhofer diffraction principle. The diffraction pattern can be detected by the Charge Coupled Device (CCD). CCD often produced the noise in the diffraction pattern and gave rise to the measuring error for the ambient disturbance. After theoretical simulation and analysis, the wavelet analysis was prior to the FFT method. The five repetition measurements of the diffraction pattern signals of the normal fiber were obtained. The five repetition measuring results showed that the wavelet analysis method was better than the FFT method to remove the noise from the signal. The diameter of the cotton fibers can assess the cotton’s qualities, so this research was very advantageous to the next study about the diameter measurement of the cotton fiber.