Search

Tickborne orthonairoviruses have been considered a major public health threat worldwide (1). In China, other than Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, there are 3 emerging orthonairoviruses: Tacheng tick virus 1 (2), [...]

As society becomes increasingly concerned with sustainable development, the demand for high-efficiency, low-cost, and green technology makes air–land multimodal transportation one of the effective means of fast freight transportation. In the actual transportation business, some orders will have overlapping transportation routes, and transporting each order separately will result in resource waste, high costs, and carbon emissions. This paper proposes a multimodal transportation scheme optimization model considering order consolidation to improve transport efficiency and reduce costs and carbon emissions. An improved genetic algorithm incorporating the ride-sharing scheduling method is designed to solve the model. The results show that order consolidation will reduce multimodal transport costs and carbon emissions but increase transportation time slightly, and the advantages in cost and carbon emission reduction will vary with origin–destination scenarios, which are ranked in order of single-origin single-destination, single-origin multi-destinations, multi-origin single-destination, and multi-origin multi-destination. For the fourth scenario, the cost and carbon emissions decrease by 16.6% and 26.69%, respectively, and the time increases by 5.56% compared with no consolidation. For the sensibility of customer demands, it is found that order consolidation has the advantage for price-sensitive, time- and price-sensitive, and time- and carbon emission-sensitive customers; however, it is specifically beneficial for time-sensitive customers only in single-origin single-destination scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rheological characteristics of high-pour-point (high-PPT) oil are crucial for its economical and safe production and transportation. However, current research on the viscosity–temperature prediction and viscoelastic-yielding transition of high-PPT oil is insufficient. The Arrhenius formula faces challenges in accurately depicting the viscosity–temperature relationship, and there is a lack of a quantitative description of the viscoelastic-yielding transition behavior in gelled high-PPT oil. This study addresses these gaps through a series of rheological experiments. The results reveal that the viscosity–temperature relationship of high-PPT oil can be classified into three regions, each associated with a sequentially increasing activation energy E a . Introducing two characteristic parameters, T 0 and n , yields a modified Arrhenius formula with an extended range of applicability. Thixotropy and gelation process experiments demonstrate an exponential increase in thixotropic strength with a decreasing temperature below the wax appearance temperature, while an optimum cooling rate maximizes the gelation degree of high-PPT oil. A brittleness index B I was defined to quantitatively describe the fracture mode of gelled crude. Critical characteristic strains and B I exhibit a decrease with an increase in the reciprocal of the average free degree 1 / w free , where the diminishing trend of B I follows a robust power-law form. This comprehensive investigation contributes valuable insights into the rheological behavior of high-PPT oil, offering a foundation for more accurate modeling and control strategies in its production and transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MXenes, which have good reinforcing and toughening effects, can serve as excellent polymer additives. However, the mechanism whereby MXenes act has not been revealed. In this study, to understand the reinforcement effect of Tin+1Cn on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) from an atomistic perspective, we used molecular dynamics to conduct unidirectional tensile simulations of PMMA composites reinforced with monolayer Ti2C and Ti3C2 sheets. The results showed that Ti3C2 can more significantly improve the mechanical properties of the PMMA polymer than Ti2C, and the yield stress and Young's modulus of the Ti3C2/PMMA complexes were respectively 54.39% and 73.46% higher than the Ti2C/PMMA complexes. To further reveal the interaction mechanism between Tin+1Cn and PMMA, different separation speeds were used to simulate the pull‐out of Tin+1Cn from the PMMA matrix. The results showed that, in addition to the enhancement of interfacial strength by non‐bonding van der Waals forces, there were TiO and CTi bonds between Tin+1Cn and PMMA, which further increased the interfacial strength. Ti3C2 formed a denser interfacial region with PMMA, it could more effectively resist the formation and expansion of cracks. These findings may provide an important theoretical basis to design new type of MXene/polymer composites with excellent mechanical properties. Highlights: MXene greatly improved the mechanical properties of the PMMA matrix.Formation of chemical bonds improved connection between the MXene and PMMA.The addition of MXene slows down the rate of crack propagation in PMMA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft actuators based on smart materials can utilize external stimuli, especially clean energy sources such as light and humidity in nature, to achieve controllable actuation and perception, which has attracted much attention in the development of smart robots. However, most existing soft actuators based on light or humidity stimulation may suffer from several shortcomings, such as low response sensitivity, a single response mode, and an inability to achieve a multi-stimulus cooperative response. Hence, inspired by the biological structure of plants, we have fabricated soft double-layer actuators with ultrahigh sensitivity by casting a graphene oxide (GO) solution on a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film. With just 40 mW cm−2 of NIR light, the actuator can quickly change from the curled state to the flat state, achieving an angle change of 500°, which is less than the natural light intensity (80 mW cm−2). Moreover, the actuator also showed a rapid response (∼2.6 s) and large deformation (500°) under humidity stimulation. As an application concept demonstration, the actuator can be assembled into a crawling robot that mimics inchworms crawling on a leaf, an adaptive soft gripper that grabs different shapes of cargo, and a rotating robot driving a boat forward. The soft actuator will have great potential in smart bionics, energy conversion, and other emerging fields in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]