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LiNi 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 O 2 crystals with ∼4 μm particle size have been synthesized from spherical Ni 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 (OH) 2 precursors via a two-step treatment strategy. A specific surface area controllable precipitation method was introduced to synthesize Ni 1-x-y Co x Al y (OH) 2 hydroxides with large specific surface area. Spherical hydroxides with large specific area and excess LiOH calcination technique ensure the LiNi 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 O 2 crystals with mono dispersed micrometer scaled particle distribution and perfect α-NaFeO 2 layered structure. Water washing process wipes off the LiOH and Li 2 CO 3 impurities from the cathodes efficiently without structural degradation. The LiNi 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 O 2 prepared via 15% excess lithium calcination presents an improved compacting density of 3.8 g cm −3 . The modified cathode material shows an initial discharge capacity of 174.5 mAh g −1 at 1C rate and 91.7% capacity retention after 100 cycles. The mono dispersed micron scaled morphology together with high structural stability endows the LNCAO material with superior compacting density and cycling capability for lithium ion batteries with high energy density.

Abtract LiNi0.80Co0.15Al0.05O2 has been widely pursued as an alternative to LiCoO2 cathode materials for lithium ion batteries because of its high capacity and acceptable cycling property. However, that NCA can react with commercialized electrolyte during cycling restrains its wide use. Here, olivine structured LiMnPO4 has been introduced to modify the surface of NCA by a sol-gel method. Characterizations from structure, morphology and composition analysis technologies demonstrate that a LiMnPO4 layer has been uniformly coated on NCA particles. The electrochemical performance and thermo stability of modified samples are characterized by electrochemical tests, XRD and metallic nail penetration tests. The olivine structured skin, which provides structural and thermal stability, is used to encapsulate the high powered core via using the effective coating technique. The modified material displays a high discharge capacity of 211.0 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C and better rate performance and promoted cycling stability than the uncoated control sample. Furthermore, the thermal stability of coated sample in the delithiated state is upgraded to the pristine powders remarkably.

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of increased AA and energy intake during late gestation on reproductive performance, milk composition, and metabolic and redox status of sows. A total of 118 Yorkshire sows (third through sixth parity) were randomly assigned to dietary treatments from day 90 of gestation until farrowing. Dietary treatments consisted of combinations of 2 standardized ileal digestible (SID) AA levels [14.7 or 20.6 g/d SID Lys, SID Lys and other AA met or exceeded the NRC (2012) recommendations] and 2 energy levels (28.24 or 33.78 MJ/d intake of NE) in a 2 × 2 factorial design. After parturition, all sows were fed a standard lactation diet. Blood samples were collected and analyzed for parameters on metabolism, redox status, and amino acid profile. The data were analyzed using the generalized linear mixed models to reveal the impact of dietary levels of energy, AA, and their interaction. Sows with increased intake of AA had greater BW gain (P < 0.01) during late gestation. Furthermore, the BW loss during lactation was increased in sows with increasing intake of energy (P < 0.05) or AA (P < 0.05). Sows fed high energy had higher total litter birth weights (20.2 kg vs. 18.4 kg, P < 0.05) and shorter duration of farrowing (261 min vs. 215 min, P < 0.05), compared with those fed low energy, which likely was due to higher (P < 0.05) plasma glucose and lower (P < 0.05) plasma lactate prior to parturition. High AA intake in late gestation increased the ADG of piglets during the following lactation (P < 0.05), and increased the concentrations of plasma urea, and the following AA: Lys, Met, Thr, Val, Ile, Leu, Phe, Asp, Ser, and Arg at farrowing (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the increased intake of energy increased total litter weight of newborns and shortened the farrowing duration, which likely was due to improved energy status at farrowing. Furthermore, sows with increased intake of AA led to higher growth rate of piglets during the following lactation, accompanying with the increasing levels of plasma urea and amino acids. Therefore, the higher energy intake in late gestation appeared to improve litter weight and farrowing duration, while higher AA intake may have positive effect on piglets performance in lactation.

LiNi1−x−yCoxAlyO2 is a commonly used Ni-rich cathode material because of its relatively low cost, excellent rate capability and high gravimetric energy density. Surface modification is an efficient way to overcome the shortcomings of Ni-rich cathodes such as poor cycling stability and poor thermal stability. A high-powered concentration-gradient cathode material with an average composition of LiNi0.815Co0.15Al0.035O2 (LGNCAO) has been successfully synthesized by using spherical concentration-gradient Ni0.815Co0.15Al0.035(OH)2 (GNCA)as the starting material. An efficient design of the Al3+ precipitation method is developed, which enables obtaining spherical GNCA with ∼10 μm particle size and high tap density. In LGNCAO, the nickel and cobalt concentration decreases gradually whereas the aluminum concentration increases from the centre to the outer layer of each particle. Electrochemical performance and storage properties of LGNCAO have been investigated comparatively. The LGNCAO displays better electrochemical performance and improved storage stability than LNCAO.

Highly efficient hydrogen production can be produced via catalytic steam reforming of bio-oil. On the basis of fixed-bed reactor system, a bio-oil model compound (m-cresol) was steam reformed on commercial Ni–Co/MgO catalyst. Under the optimal reaction conditions of 850 °C and steam to carbon ratio 5:1, as high as 79.8% of hydrogen yield and 96.8% of carbon conversion can be obtained during 5 h time-on-stream. The results indicated that carbon elimination appears in temperature range of 400–600 °C, and the carbon can be removed completely through its combustion in the air flow at 600 °C. By using the recycling and secondary steam reforming of liquid toxics, the organic pollutants can be eliminated perfectly, and additional hydrogen production was recovered at 850 °C. The compositions of H2, CO, CH4 and CO2 in recovered gas production were 71.5%, 3.7%, 0.2% and 25.0%, respectively. High hydrogen composition of 71.5% was obtained due to the water–gas shift reactions to form hydrogen.

To produce high quality bio-oil from biomass using fast pyrolysis, rice husks were pyrolyzed in a 1-5 kg/h bench-scale fluidized-bed reactor. The effect of hot vapor filtration (HVF) was investigated to filter the solid particles and bio-char. The results showed that the total bio-oil yield decreased from 41.7% to 39.5% by weight and the bio-oil had a higher water content, higher pH, and lower alkali metal content when using HVF. One hundred and twelve different chemical compounds were detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The molecular weight of the chemical compounds from the condenser and the EP when the cyclone was coupled with HVF in the separation system decreased compared with those from the condenser and EP when only cyclone was used.

Steam reforming of crude bio-oil or some heavy component present in bio-oil is a great challenge for sustainable hydrogen production due to the extensive coke formation and catalyst deactivation. Catalyst regeneration will be an unavoidable operation in this process. In this paper, m-cresol (a model compound derived from bio-oil) was steam reformed on commercial Ni-based catalyst. Two conventional carbon elimination methods for coked catalyst were applied and the results showed that sustainable hydrogen production can be obtained based on carbon deposition/elimination. The carbon deposition can be gasified easily under certain temperature. The activity of regenerated catalyst samples can be nearly recovered as the fresh ones. Under the reaction conditions of 850 °C and steam to carbon ratio 5:1, >66% hydrogen mole fraction, >81% hydrogen yield, and >97% carbon conversion can be achieved based on regenerated catalyst. Catalyst characterization indicated that the loss of active metal can be considered as the main reason for tiny activity drop. Ni redispersion and Fe contamination may be another two factors that influence catalyst activity.

Liquid pollutants and coke formation can cause many problems in steam reforming of bio-oil for hydrogen production. From an environmental and economic point of view, an operation of liquid condensate recycling aiming at eliminating secondary pollution as well as carbon deposition was applied in this work. Under the optimal reaction conditions, m-cresol (a heavy organic compound present in bio-oil) was steam-reformed on a highly efficient commercial Ni-based catalyst for 6 h time-on-stream. Gas product distribution, liquid pollutant formation, and carbon deposition behavior were investigated, respectively. On the basis of one-time liquid condensate recycling, a green and efficient steam-reforming process can be achieved. Under different reaction conditions, the possibility of achieving this green process was evaluated. The results indicated that under a much higher temperature (900 °C), m-cresol becomes easier to steam reform but it is still impossible to achieve a green process just by a single steam refo...

Catalyst deactivation caused by coke formation is a bottleneck in steam reforming of bio-oil for hydrogen production. The investigation of carbon deposition behavior can make a contribution to the improvement of catalyst and the knowledge of reaction mechanism. In this paper, m-cresol (C 7 H 8 O, one of the organic compounds present in bio-oil) was chosen as model compound. The experiment was carried out on a commercial Ni/MgO catalyst. As a comparative test, m-cresol decomposition showed carbon deposition can be formed more easily under higher temperature. In steam reforming process, for the competition of carbon deposition and carbon elimination, a peak value of coking formation rate was obtained in a broad range of temperature (575–900 °C). The increase of steam to carbon ratio can favor the carbon elimination. Final coking formation rate curve was determined under optimal reaction conditions and the results showed the severity of carbon deposition maintained a very low level during the entire reaction time. Based on the distribution of reforming products, high temperature and sufficient water feeding can favor the carbon conversion from solid and liquid phase to gaseous phase. Unreacted m-cresol is the main organic compound detected in liquid condensate. Some secondary reactions can be deduced through the other compounds detected. The carbon deposition state on catalyst surface can be in the form of nanofiber, but their concrete shapes can be different due to different reaction conditions.

Two model bio-oil fractions were chosen as two different major classes of components present in bio-oil. Steam reforming of the two fractions was carried out to investigate the gas product distributions and carbon deposition behavior. Higher H 2 yield and carbon conversion to the gaseous phase can be obtained at relatively low temperature (650°C) for steam reforming of the light fraction. For steam reforming of the heavy fraction, a higher temperature (800°C) is necessary to obtain higher H 2 yield and carbon conversion to the gaseous phase. At 800 °C, the heavy fraction requires a higher steam to carbon ratio (10) than that for the light fraction (7) to achieve efficient steam reforming. Based on the same carbon space velocity, for 10 h stream time, the drop of H 2 yield and carbon conversion to the gaseous phase in the steam reforming of the heavy fraction is more rapid than that of the light fraction. Carbon deposition in the steam reforming of the heavy fraction is much more severe than that of the light fraction, as determined by carbon content analysis and SEM detection.

Computer vision-based fire detection involves flame detection and smoke detection. This paper proposes a new flame detection algorithm, which is based on a Bag-of-Features technique in the YUV color space. Inspired by that the color of flame in image and video will fall in certain regions in the color space, models of flame pixels and non-flame pixels are established based on code book in the training phase in our proposal. In the testing phase, the input image is split into some N×N blocks and each block is classified respectively. In each N×N block, the pixels values in the YUV color space are extracted as features, just as in the training phase. According to the experimental results, our proposed method can reduce the number of false alarms greatly compared with an alternative algorithm, while it also ensures the accurate classification of positive samples. The classification performance of our proposed method is better than that of alternative algorithms.

Background Most diagnostic tools for spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) are either invasive or occasionally inconsistent with the clinical condition. In this study, we examined the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics in SIH using phase-contrast magnetic resonance (PC-MR) imaging. Materials and method Seventeen SIH patients and 32 healthy individuals, matched by sex and age, were recruited. Each person underwent brain and PC-MR imaging using 3-Tesla MRI. We evaluated the differences in image parameters among patients during the initial and recovery stages against the status of the control group. Results SIH patients had lower CSF flow-volume, flux, peak velocity, and higher systolic-to-diastolic time ratio, as well as systolic-to-diastolic volume ratio compared to the control group and the conditions when they recovered. The flow time and volume of the diastolic phase markedly increased after treatment. The discriminating power of PC-MR for SIH was good. Diffuse pachymeningeal enhancement and venous engorgement were present when their PC-MR values were lower than the cut-off values for SIH diagnosis. The headache scores correlated with the peak velocity and pituitary volume. Conclusion Noninvasive PC-MR could provide valid parameters for diagnosis and treatment follow-up in SIH patients. It may be more sensitive than conventional brain MRI.

The effect of particle size on the gasification performance of a pilot-scale (25 kg/h) downdraft fixed bed gasification system was investigated using prunings from peach trees at five different size fractions (below 1, 1–2, 2–4, 4–6 and 6–8 cm). The gas and hydrocarbon compositions were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC–MS), respectively. With increasing particle size, gas yield increased while tar and dust content decreased. The lower heating value of the gas decreased slightly with particle size. At a smaller particle size, more hydrocarbons were detected in the producer gas. Hydrogen and carbon dioxide contents increased with the decrease in particle size, reaching 16.09% and 14.36% at particle size below 1 cm, respectively. Prunings with a particle size of 1–2 cm were favorable for gasification in the downdraft gasifier used in this study.

Steam reforming of two kinds of bio-oil from rice husks fast pyrolysis was conducted for hydrogen production at three temperatures (650, 750 and 850 °C) with Ni-based catalyst in a fixed-bed reactor. The gas composition and organic compounds in liquid condensate were detected by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), respectively. In addition, the carbon deposition was also investigated. The results showed that the mole fraction range of hydrogen was within 55.8-61.3% at all temperatures and more hydrogen was produced at the higher temperature. The highest H₂ efficiency of bio-oil steam reforming was 45.33% when extra water was added. The bio-oil with lower content of chemical compounds has a higher H₂ efficiency, but its hydrogen volume was less. Analysis of the liquid condensate showed that most of the organic compounds were circularity compounds. The carbon deposition can decrease the bio-oil conversion, and it was easier to form at the temperature of 750 °C.

The participation of antibody and complement in cell-mediated adherence and cytotoxicity to infected larvae (L3) of Angiostrongylus cantonensis was investigated in vitro. Of the different cell types involved in the reaction, neutrophils were seen to have a predominant role in immune serum--dependent adherence and cytotoxicity to L3. In the presence of immune serum, cytotoxicity to L3 by neutrophils from infected rats was twice that of neutrophils from normal rats. Although mononuclear cells and eosinophils from infected rats significantly increased the adherence to L3, they had little lethal effect on L3. A further study using gel filtration (Sephacryl S-200) and affinity chromatography (protein A) revealed that immunoglobulin G (IgG) alone was responsible for the complement activation in neutrophil-mediated killing of L3. Neither adherence nor cytotoxicity to L3 by neutrophils were affected when immune serum was heated to 50 degrees C or treated with zymosan, but they were markedly decreased when immune serum was treated with Mg2(+)-ethylene glycol-bis-(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid. The results of this study indicate that the neutrophil-mediated adherence and cytotoxicity to L3 of A. cantonensis are mediated through IgG-dependent classical complement pathway activation.

As the characteristic pollutant, terephthalic acid (TA) was in charge of 40%-78% of the total COD of terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater (TPW-water). The studies on biodegradability of TA were conducted in a serial of activated sludge reactors with TPW-water. TA appeared to be readily biodegradable with removal efficiency over 96.5% under aerobic conditions, hardly biodegradable with removal efficiency below 10% under anoxic conditions and slowly biodegradable with a turnover between 31.4% and 56.0% under anaerobic conditions. TA also accounted for the majority of BOD in TPW-water. The process combined by anoxic, anaerobic and aerobic activated sludge reactor was suitable for TA degradation and TPW-water treatment, Further, the aerobic process was essentially much more effective than the anaerobic or anoxic one to degrade TA in TPW-water.

This study aims to detect the popular polymorphisms in VKORC1, CYP2C9 and CYP4F2 in Bai-, Zang-Chinese, to start the exploration of better use of warfarin in Chinese minorities. Methods 370 healthy, unrelated individuals were enrolled, including 131 Han-Chinese, 132 Bai-Chinese? and 107 Zang-Chinese. PCR-based methods (PCR-RFLP) were used to analyse VKORC1 3673G>A, CYP2C9*3, CYP4F2 rs2108622 C>T in Han-, Bai- and Zang-Chinese. Results The differences among the mutation frequencies of the studied genes in three ethnics were not statistically significant. A-allele in VKORC1 3673G>A was quite common in three studied ethnics. *3-allele in CYP2C9*3 was rare. Approximately one third of each ethnic had the mutant T-allele of CYP4F2 rs108622. However, Bai-Chinese got statistically higher A-allele frequencies of VKORC1 3673G>A than previously studied Han-Chinese did. Also, Zang-Chinese showed significantly lower CYP2C9*3 frequency than combined Han-Chinese, which indicated lower warfarin dose. Conclusions (1) Attribute to obvious contribution of VKORC1 3673G>A to warfarin dose variation, Bai-Chinese got the potential to benefit more from lower warfarin dose. (2) Due to CYP2C9*39s medium contribution to warfarin dosage variation, moderate adjustment of dosing algorithm or multiple linear regression models is needed for Zang-Chinese in the future.