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The uniform ZnO submicron spheres composed of nanodots were synthesized by solvothermal method and then added to PZT5A powder for spark plasma sintering. The effects of ZnO addition on phase composition， microstructure and electric properties of the lead zirconate titanate （PZT） ceramics were studied. The results indicate that PZT ceramics with a relative density higher than 97% can be prepared by spark plasma sintering at 900 ℃ for 5 min. The addition of ZnO submicron spheres is beneficial for speeding up the sintering process and promoting the grain growth of PZT ceramics. With the increase of ZnO addition， the content of the trigonal phase increases gradually. The addition of a proper amount of ZnO submicro spheres can improve the piezoelectric and dielectric property of PZT ceramics. When the mass fraction of ZnO is 0.10%， the superior overall performance of the material is optimal， at a frequency of 1 kHz， the piezoelectric constant d33=432 pC/N， the electromechanical coupling coefficient kp=0.56， the mechanical quality factor Qm=69.8， the relative dielectric constant εr=1360， and the dielectric loss tanδ=0.0227.

Increasing research has focused on how ovarian hormones influence individual prosocial motivation and cooperation. However, most results remain ambiguous and contradictory. Here, we collected progesterone (PROG) and oestradiol from 62 healthy women with regular menstrual cycles to explore whether variations in ovarian hormones could flexibly change their cooperative preference according to their opponents' strategies in multiple rounds of a prisoner's dilemma (PD) game. Participants in different menstrual phases (32 in the follicular phase [FP] and 30 in the luteal phase [LP]) were asked to complete 20 rounds of PD games with each of three computer opponents holding different cooperative strategies. The results revealed that in PD games that did not require cooperation for increased outcomes, women in the LP (high PROG) reduced their cooperation rate more significantly than women in the FP (low PROG). In contrast, when the game design required reciprocity, simultaneously elevated levels of PROG and oestradiol predicted greater instances of participants choosing to cooperate. Furthermore, we found that elevated PROG levels accounted for women's elevated prosocial choices, regardless of the need to increase outcomes through cooperation. These results implied higher levels of PROG and oestradiol influence women's cooperative strategies resulting in increased social interactions.

This research investigated egg freshness of Roman pink in 4 storage temperature change groups. The shell eggs were storage for 0, 10, 20, 30 d, and weight loss, gas chamber height, Haugh unit, yolk index, thick-to-thin albumen ratio and albumen pH of all shell egg experiment groups were evaluated. The results showed that weight loss increased significantly (P

In order to study the mechanical damage characteristics and energy evolution law of coal after ultrasonic fracturing, uniaxial compression experiments were carried out on fractured coal with different power by using electronic universal pressure testing machine, acoustic emission system. The mechanical damage parameters of different power ultrasonic fracturing coal were obtained, and the relationship between acoustic emission signal and damage parameters of coal mass with different power fracturing was explored. The fractal characteristics of coal surface cracks were analyzed by box fractal dimension, and the damage degradation mechanism of ultrasonic fracturing coal caused by different ultrasonic power was clarified. The experimental results show that the characteristic strength and elastic modulus of coal gradually decrease with the increase of ultrasonic fracturing power, and the damage parameters of uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus of coal are linearly correlated with the fracturing power. During the uniaxial compression process, the acoustic emission ringing count can be divided into three stages, which are quiet period, rising period and fluctuating period. With the increase of ultrasonic power, the incubation period of crack is shorter and the proportion of relative time is smaller. With the increase of crack growth rate, the weakening effect on the strength of coal is gradually enhanced, the sudden increase of acoustic emission signal is obvious., the final failure of coal sample is more broken, and the failure characteristics change from elastic brittleness to ductility-plasticity with the increase of fracturing power. Coal pore fissure extension, and three is a linear positive correlation between the fractal dimension damage parameters of coal surface cracks and the fracturing power. The greater the fractal dimension damage parameter is, the more complex the coal fracture morphology is. Based on the acoustic parameters, the relationship between the damage parameters and the normalized parameters of acoustic emission is analyzed, and it has a good fitting relationship. The above results show that ultrasonic fracturing causes damage to the coal structure, makes the coal seam damage and deformation, and forms a complex coal seam seepage network, thus improving the permeability of coal seam.

This paper proposes a novel multilevel topology “Modular-Isolated-Multilevel-Converter” which achieves almost zero low frequency capacitor voltage fluctuation. It inherits the structure of MMC but replaces the half bridge module by the newly proposed Isolated Half-Bridge (IHB). The fundamental and 2nd order harmonic frequency current originally in the MMC module capacitor have been eliminated through connecting the secondary sides of the IHB at the same level of the three phases together. The elimination is due to that the 1st and 2nd order components in the arm current are 120° phase shifted in three phases. Therefore, the module capacitance is reduced by more than 10 times since it only carries switching frequency ripple. Moreover, the arm inductance can also be significantly reduced since the 2nd order harmonic current disappears. The topology is specifically suitable for variable frequency drive application, because its capacitance and inductance are not affected by the output frequency. The challenges of zero frequency start-up when MMC is adopted for VSD can be addressed here. In the paper, the operation principle of the proposed MIMC is fully analyzed and the mathematical model is built. Moreover, a methodology of capacitor sizing and arm inductor design for general MMC topology is proposed. The detailed design considerations for MIMC are also discussed and presented. The plant modeling and control strategy have been proposed for MIMC. A 55-kW simulation is carried out to verify the theoretical analysis. And a 6-kW downscaled hardware prototype is also developed to demonstrate the benefits of the new topology over the traditional MMC.

This paper proposes a generalized design methodology of a robust controller to mitigate the impact of system uncertainty on controller stability and performance which includes steady-state error, disturbance rejection, high-frequency noise attenuation and speed of dynamic response. The first step is to select the weighting functions that bound the transfer functions for the entire range of uncertainty. The second step is to form mathematical representation for both robust stability and robust performance. The third step is to conduct the robust H-infinity controller synthesis to generate the full-order controller, and then carry out order reduction and recheck of the design objectives. The last step is to select an optimized controller based on the multi-dimensional Pareto Front algorithm. The proposed method has been firstly applied to the current controller design of a grid-connected inverter with variable grid impedance, and secondly to the voltage controller design of an LLC resonant DC/DC converter with variable resonant capacitance. The results indicate that the selected optimal H-infinity controller has an overall more satisfactory performance in terms of stability, steady-state error, disturbance/noise rejection capability and dynamic performance, compared with conventional PI and PR controllers when there is a large variation of system parameters.

Series connection of devices is an effective way to achieve higher blocking voltage. SiC MOSFETs exhibit narrow short-circuit withstand time and generally much lower short-circuit robustness than silicon IGBTs. This puts a critical concern on their utilization, further stressing the importance of reliable protection. A complete short-circuit protection should be implemented to improve the reliability. In this article, a systematic short-circuit analysis methodology is proposed. Following this methodology, all the possible fault scenarios can be derived. Besides the traditional short-circuit scenarios, some unique short-circuit faults, such as a single device short- or open- circuit, have been found in series-connected SiC MOSFETs. These unique faults may not cause overcurrent, which means the traditional overcurrent-based protection is not applicable. This article proposes a method combining drain-source voltage logic signal and gate signal to comprehensively detect both classic short-circuit scenarios and unique fault scenarios. Another different point in series-connected devices is that the soft turn-off should be synchronized for each serial device to prevent excessive voltage unbalancing. The proposed short-circuit protection scheme is evaluated under each short-circuit scenario. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed protection scheme can successfully protect the serial devices from further destruction within 500 ns for all short-circuit scenarios.

Plant nutrient stoichiometry indicates the balance of plant internal nutrients and its nutrient-use strategies in response to environmental changes. However, the responses of nutrient stoichiometry in different wetland plant organs under agricultural intervention are poorly understood. Here, we compared the nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and the ratio of N:P in the plant organs (leaves, stems, roots, and root hair) of a typical helophyte plant (Glyceria spiculosa) in reference, drained, nutrient-rich, and cultivated wetlands (CW) located downstream of the Tumen River in Northeast China. Compared with that in reference wetlands (RW), the results indicate that the average N content in plant leaves, stems, roots, and root hair in nutrient-rich wetlands (NW) was significantly higher by 76, 61, 56, and 39%, respectively (p < 0.05), whereas the N content of roots and root hair in drained wetlands (DW) was significantly higher by 17 and 32%, respectively (p < 0.05). It was found that plant root P increased only in nutrient-rich and DW (p < 0.05). Interestingly, the agricultural interventions significantly affected soil N and P availability, resulting in positive effects on plant leaves, stems, roots, and root hair. Nutrient stoichiometry analysis showed the highest increase in plant leaf N:P ratio in NW, followed by that in drained and CW, but its ratio in root and root hair showed no significant changes under different agricultural interventions, which suggests that G. spiculosa allocates nutrients differently in different organs under agricultural interventions. These results imply that plant nutrient stoichiometry should incorporate various plant organs for an in-depth understanding of plant strategies against environmental changes.

High-frequency seismic data onMars are dominated bywind-generated lander vibrations, which are radiated partially to the subsurface. Autocorrelation functions (ACFs) of seismic data on Mars filtered between 1 and 5 Hz show clear phases at ∼1.3, ∼2.6, and ∼3.9 s. Daily temporal changes of their arrival times (dt/t) correlatewellwith the daily changes of ground temperature, with ∼5% daily variation and ∼50 min apparent phase delay. The following two mechanisms could explain the observations: (1) the interference of two predominant spectral peaks at ∼3.3 and ∼4.1 Hz, assumed to be both lander resonance modes, generate the apparent arrivals in the ACFs; (2) the interference of the lander vibration and its reflection from an interface ∼200 m below the lander generate the 3.3 Hz spectral peak and ∼1.3 s arrival in the ACFs. The driving mechanism of the resolved dt/t thatmost likely explains the ∼50min delay is thermoelastic strain at a near-surface layer, affecting the lander-ground coupling and subsurface structures. The two outlined mechanisms suggest, respectively, up to ∼10% changes in ground stiffness at 1-5 Hz and ∼ 15% velocity changes in the top ∼20 m layer. These are upper bound values considering also other possible contributions. The presented methodology and results contribute to analysis of ACFs with limited data and the understanding of subsurface materials on Mars.

Subsurface structures play important roles in seismic ground motion, crustal hydrology, stability of the built environment, and more. Constraining temporal changes of subsurface shear wave velocity (VS) can provide useful information to all these topics and the growing field of hydrological monitoring with seismic velocity. Using borehole records at Garner Valley, CA, we estimate seasonal subsurface VS variations from impulse response functions (IRFs) of earthquake data (2005–2018) along with IRFs and cross-correlation of cross-hole experiment data (2015–2018). The inferred VS variations are up to ∼25% in the top 6 m and ∼10% at 2–5 m in depth. The VS variations correlate strongly with the water table depth changes, suggesting that the changes are mostly due to fluctuations of pore pressure in the shallow material. The shallow velocity changes alter the near-surface conditions, can affect seismic hazard estimation, and may be improperly attributed to deeper processes without careful analysis.