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Sodium-sulfur batteries operating at ambient temperature are being extensively studied because of the high theoretical capacity and abundant resources, yet the long-chain polysulfides' shuttle effect causes poor cycling performance of Na-S batteries. We report an annealing/etching method to converse low-cost wheat bran to a 3D honeycomb-like carbon with abundant micropores (WBMC), which is smaller than S

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are promising candidates for large-scale energy storage systems due to the abundance and wide distribution of sodium resources. Various solutions have been successfully applied to revolve the large-ion-size-induced battery issues at the mid-to-low current density range. However, the fast-charging properties of SIBs are still in high demand to accommodate the increasing energy needs at large to grid scales. Herein, a core-shell Co2VO4/carbon composite anode is designed to tackle the fast-charging problem of SIBs. The synergetic effect from the stable spinel structure of Co2VO4, the size of the nanospheres, and the carbon shell provide enhanced Na+ ion diffusion and electron transfer rates and outstanding electrochemical performance. With an ultrahigh current density of 5 A g-1, the Co2VO4@C anode achieved a capacity of 135.1 mAh g-1 and a >98% capacity retention after 2000 cycles through a pseudocapacitive dominant process. This study provides insights for SIB fast-charging material design and other battery systems such as lithium-ion batteries.

In recent years, supply chain risk management has been followed with interest due to the short life cycle of products. How to identify risk indicators can help evaluate risks on supply chains. Commonly adopted methods such as Fuzzy to determine the level of risks have limitations. In this paper, a framework of supply chain risk evaluation is first proposed and risk indicators are identified by theoretical surveys from 35 keywords and empirical analysis from 448 questionnaires. Moreover, both linguistic risk assessment model and Cloud model are used to evaluate risks of supply chain. The Cloud model evaluation results are between general risk and high risk but closer to high risk. In addition, Cloud expected value of risk is 6.54 which is within the high-risk range, and evaluation results are also high risk. It is shown that when the weights are the same, the cloud model can determine the priority of risk indicators, and reflect volatility and randomness comparing with other evaluation methods.

In recent years, the driving range of electric vehicles (EVs) has been dramatically improved. But the large-scale adoption of EVs still is hindered by long charging time. The high-energy LIBs are unable to be safely fast-charged due to their electrode materials with unsatisfactory rate performance. Thus it is necessary to summarize the properties of cathode and anode materials of fast-charging LIBs. In this review, we summarize the background, the fundamentals, electrode materials and future development of fast-charging LIBs. First, we introduce the research background and the physicochemical basics for fast-charging LIBs. Second, typical cathode materials of LIBs and the method to enhancing their fast-charging properties are discussed. Third, the anode materials of LIBs and the strategies for improving their fast-charging performance are analyzed. Finally, the future development of the cathode materials in fast-charging LIBs is prospected.

Increase in infections with Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is a serious global challenge in healthcare. Sinoporphyrin sodium (DVDMS) combined with photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) can effectively eradicate Gram-positive organisms. However, the poor penetration of DVDMS into the Gram-negative bacterial cell membrane and bacterial biofilm greatly limits the photo-inspired antimicrobial activity. This study optimized the cationic lipid-mediated nano-DVDMS delivery to improve the cellular uptake, and evaluated the antimicrobial efficacy of cationic DVDMS-liposome (CDL)-provoked PACT in both P. aeruginosa and its multidrug resistant strain. The results showed that the positively charged liposome modification promoted the enrichment of DVDMS in Gram-negative bacteria. CDL-PACT-produced ROS and caused bacterial death, accompanied by the decreased expression levels of virulence factor-related genes. The P. aeruginosa-infected burn model indicated satisfactory bacterial eradication and accelerated wound healing after CDL-PACT, in addition to gradually increasing bFGF, VEGF, TGF-β1 and Hyp levels and reducing TNF-α and IL-6, with no detectable side-effects. Overall, these findings provide fundamental knowledge that enables the design of feasible and efficient PACT treatments, including biophysical membrane permeabilization and photodynamic eradication, which are promising to overcome the infection and resistance of highly opportunistic Gram-negative bacteria.

Multichannel blind audio source separation aims to recover the latent sources from their multichannel mixtures without supervised information. One state-of-the-art blind audio source separation method, named independent low-rank matrix analysis (ILRMA), unifies independent vector analysis (IVA) and nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF). However, the spectra matrix produced from NMF may not find a compact spectral basis. It may not guarantee the identifiability of each source as well. To address this problem, here we propose to enhance the identifiability of the source model by a minimum-volume prior distribution. We further regularize a multichannel NMF (MNMF) and ILRMA respectively with the minimum-volume regularizer. The proposed methods maximize the posterior distribution of the separated sources, which ensures the stability of the convergence. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods compared with auxiliary independent vector analysis, MNMF, ILRMA and its extensions. The source code is available at https://github.com/alexwang9654/m-ILRMA .

Trastuzumab is a humanized mAb used to treat HER2-overexpressing breast cancer; however its mechanisms remain to be fully elucidated. Previous studies suggest a role for immunity in mediating trastuzumab-specific antitumor effects. This study evaluated the role(s) of trastuzumab and other antibodies on macrophage activation and Ab-dependent cell-mediated phagocytosis (ADCP) of HER2+ breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. We employed orthotopic implantation of HER2+ murine breast cancer (BC) cells in immunocompetent mouse models, a human HER2+ BC xenograft in an immune humanized mouse model, and human PDXs involving adoptive transfer of autologous macrophages to simulate an endogenous mammary tumor-immune microenvironment. Our study demonstrated that trastuzumab greatly and consistently increased macrophage frequency and tumor-cell phagocytosis, and that concurrent knockdown of B7-H4 by a neutralizing antibody increased immune cell infiltration and promoted an antitumor phenotype. Furthermore, neoadjuvant trastuzumab therapy significantly upregulated B7-H4 in the cancer-infiltrating macrophages of HER2+ BC patients, which predicted poor trastuzumab response. We suggest that strategies to specifically enhance ADCP activity might be critical to overcoming resistance to HER2 mAb therapies by inhibiting tumor growth and potentially enhance antigen presentation. Furthermore, these results advance the understanding of macrophage plasticity by uncovering a dual role for ADCP in macrophages involving elimination of tumors by engulfing cancer cells while causing a concomitant undesired effect by upregulating immunosuppressive checkpoints.

High-energy–density lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) that can be safely fast-charged are desirable for electric vehicles. However, sub-optimal lithiation potential and low capacity of commonly used LIBs anode cause safety issues and low energy density. Here we hypothesize that a cobalt vanadate oxide, Co2VO4, can be attractive anode material for fast-charging LIBs due to its high capacity (~ 1000 mAh g−1) and safe lithiation potential (~ 0.65 V vs. Li+/Li). The Li+ diffusion coefficient of Co2VO4 is evaluated by theoretical calculation to be as high as 3.15 × 10–10 cm2 s−1, proving Co2VO4 a promising anode in fast-charging LIBs. A hexagonal porous Co2VO4 nanodisk (PCVO ND) structure is designed accordingly, featuring a high specific surface area of 74.57 m2 g−1 and numerous pores with a pore size of 14 nm. This unique structure succeeds in enhancing Li+ and electron transfer, leading to superior fast-charging performance than current commercial anodes. As a result, the PCVO ND shows a high initial reversible capacity of 911.0 mAh g−1 at 0.4 C, excellent fast-charging capacity (344.3 mAh g−1 at 10 C for 1000 cycles), outstanding long-term cycling stability (only 0.024% capacity loss per cycle at 10 C for 1000 cycles), confirming the commercial feasibility of PCVO ND in fast-charging LIBs. Highlights: 1 The Li+ diffusion coefficient of Co2VO4 is evaluated by theoretical calculation to be as high as 3.15 × 10–10 cm2 s−1, theoretically proving Co2VO4 a promising anode in fast-charging lithium-ion batteries.2 A hexagonal porous Co2VO4 nanodisk (PCVO ND) structure is designed, featuring a high specific surface area of 74.57 m2 g−1 and numerous pores with a pore size of 14 nm.3 The PCVO ND shows excellent fast-charging performance (a high average capacity of 344.3 mAh g−1 at 10 C for 1000 cycles with only 0.024% capacity loss per cycle for 1000 cycles).

The Li+ diffusion coefficient of Co2VO4 is evaluated by theoretical calculation to be as high as 3.15 × 10–10 cm2 s−1, theoretically proving Co2VO4 a promising anode in fast-charging lithium-ion batteries.A hexagonal porous Co2VO4 nanodisk (PCVO ND) structure is designed, featuring a high specific surface area of 74.57 m2 g−1 and numerous pores with a pore size of 14 nm.The PCVO ND shows excellent fast-charging performance (a high average capacity of 344.3 mAh g−1 at 10 C for 1000 cycles with only 0.024% capacity loss per cycle for 1000 cycles). Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40820-021-00758-5., High-energy–density lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) that can be safely fast-charged are desirable for electric vehicles. However, sub-optimal lithiation potential and low capacity of commonly used LIBs anode cause safety issues and low energy density. Here we hypothesize that a cobalt vanadate oxide, Co2VO4, can be attractive anode material for fast-charging LIBs due to its high capacity (~ 1000 mAh g−1) and safe lithiation potential (~ 0.65 V vs. Li+/Li). The Li+ diffusion coefficient of Co2VO4 is evaluated by theoretical calculation to be as high as 3.15 × 10–10 cm2 s−1, proving Co2VO4 a promising anode in fast-charging LIBs. A hexagonal porous Co2VO4 nanodisk (PCVO ND) structure is designed accordingly, featuring a high specific surface area of 74.57 m2 g−1 and numerous pores with a pore size of 14 nm. This unique structure succeeds in enhancing Li+ and electron transfer, leading to superior fast-charging performance than current commercial anodes. As a result, the PCVO ND shows a high initial reversible capacity of 911.0 mAh g−1 at 0.4 C, excellent fast-charging capacity (344.3 mAh g−1 at 10 C for 1000 cycles), outstanding long-term cycling stability (only 0.024% capacity loss per cycle at 10 C for 1000 cycles), confirming the commercial feasibility of PCVO ND in fast-charging LIBs. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40820-021-00758-5.

The technology for the replacement and displacement of CH4 by supercritical CO2 (Sc-CO2-ECBM) injection is still in its infancy, so experimental simulation and theoretical studies on this Sc-CO2-ECBM technology should be perfected. First, experimental simulations of the Sc-CO2-ECBM process were carried out under different temperatures, injected pressures and confining pressures. Then, the differences in replacement and displacement efficiency and the equivalent percentage of replacement and displacement time between samples were analyzed. Last, the influences of the pore network model on the difference in the replacement and displacement effects, the stage division and its difference of the replacement and displacement effects, and the project design of collaborative optimization of Sc-CO2 storage and ECBM were discussed. The results show the following: (1) The injected pressure, confining pressure and temperature were the key factors affecting the replacement and displacement efficiency. The equivalent percentage of replacement and displacement time negatively correlated with the differential pressure and temperature was positively correlated with the confining pressure, but the replacement and displacement efficiencies were the opposite. (2) The pore network model and its characteristic parameters explain that the replacement and displacement effects were more successful in the SH sample than that in the YW sample. (3) According to the gas condition at the outlet of the sample chamber, the replacement and displacement process can be divided into 3 stages. ① Sc-CO2 was not detected, and the replacement effect was dominant. ② Sc-CO2 and CH4 were detected simultaneously, and the gas concentration was constantly changing, as the process changed from replacement to displacement. ③ Sc-CO2 and CH4 were detected simultaneously, the gas concentration tended to be stable, and the displacement effect was dominant. (4) The geological significance of this experimental simulation is that the Sc-CO2-ECBM process can be embodied by the optimization design of the Sc-CO2 project, ECBM project and Sc-CO2 and ECBM project. This research into experimental simulation of the Sc-CO2-ECBM process can further promote the implementation of the CO2-ECBM project in deep coal seams.

Burn infection is one of the commonest causes of death in severely burned patients. Developing multifunctional biological nanomaterials has a great significance for the comprehensive treatment of burn infection. In this paper, we developed a hydrogel-based nanodelivery system with antibacterial activity and skin regeneration function, which was used for photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) in the treatment of burns. The treatment system is mainly composed of porphyrin photosensitizer sinoporphyrin sodium (DVDMS) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)-encapsulated basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) nanospheres that are embedded in carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS)–sodium alginate to form CSDP hybrid hydrogel. We systematically evaluated the inherent antibacterial performance, rheological properties, fluorescence imaging, and biocompatibility of the CSDP nanosystem. Under mild photoirradiation (30 J/cm2, 5 min), 10 μg/mL CSDP showed excellent antibacterial and anti-biofilm activities, which eradi...

Anti-scaling is a key challenge in various industrial productions. The use of coatings is the most effective strategy for protecting metal equipment. An excellent scale inhibitor is 1-hydroxy ethylidene-1, 1-diphosphate (etidronic acid) (HEDP), which is usually incorporated into wastewater and discharged directly with the water flow. In this study, HEDP was coated with poly-α-ethyl cyanoacrylate (PEC) by a simple spray method. The corresponding slow-release microcapsules, which we named PEC&HEDP, were successfully prepared. In addition, a correct mass of the microcapsules was added to the spray polyurea elastomer (SPUA) coating. The resulting SPUA/PEC&HEDP70&30 composite coating exhibited excellent anti-corrosion and scale-inhibiting effects. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and salt spray corrosion test were used to assess the corrosion resistance of the coating. The results showed that the barrier performance of the composite coating improved significantly. In addition, the scale inhibition performance of the composite coating was tested in a supersaturated CaCO3 solution. The results showed that the scale inhibition rate of the composite coating was higher by as much as 80.5% relative to the pure SPUA coating. This work provides a new and simple method for designing and preparing a slow-release microcapsule composite coating intended for scale control.

Background Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is generally increasing, which has become a great challenge for treating infectious diseases caused by microbes. Photodynamic antibacterial chemotherapy (PACT) has been considered as a promising method for inactivating bacteria. The combination of antimicrobial agent with PACT may provide efficient way against drug-resistant microbe. This study aims to investigate the synergistic effects of PACT mediated by toluidine blue (TB), combined with gentamicin (GEN) on common pathogens Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and multidrug-resistant S. aureus (MDR S. aureus). Methods Alkaline lysis was used to detect the uptake of TB by S. aureus and MDR S. aureus. Plate counting was applied to evaluate the inhibition efficiency of GEN alone, TB-PACT alone, and work together. Flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy were performed to examine the permeability of bacterial membranes after different treatments. Intracellular and extracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) were assessed with the assist of H2DCF-DA and SOSG probes. Results TB-PACT combined with GEN led to more pronounced antibacterial effects in S. aureus and MDR S. aureus, as compared with either alone. TB-PACT treatment permeabilized the bacterial membranes, promoted GEN cellular accumulation and augmented the antibacterial efficiency. The intracellular ROS generation by the combination of TB-PACT and GEN was much higher than that of single treatment groups. Conclusions TB-PACT decreased the GEN cytotoxic threshold and usage, and the synergy of them significantly enhanced the sterilization of S. aureus and MDR S. aureus.

Waterborne protective coatings have attracted tremendous attention recently, but their practical applications are severely limited by week shielding performance and poor mechanical durability. Herein, a concrete-like three-dimensional network filler was designed by stacking fly ash, graphene oxide, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes onto each other with the help of a silane coupling agent to enhance the anti-corrosion performance and wear resistance of waterborne epoxy coating. Through chemical modification, the surface of the filler has a large number of both epoxy and amino groups, and the filler-filler, resin-filler, and resin-resin multi-dimensional cross-linking reactions occur inside the coating to improve the cross-linking performance of the water-based resin. With the help of the stable structure of the “imitation” concrete structure and greater interface strength of the silane-modified composite material, the water-based coating exhibits excellent anti-corrosion and wear resistance. The mass loss of the imitation concrete coating is only 0.0098 g per-cycle of Taber friction testing, and in the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy test, its |Z|0.01 Hz value became stabilized at approximately 1 × 107 Ω·cm2 after 14 d of being immersed in 3.5% NaCl solution, and its value was two orders of magnitude higher than that of pure epoxy. The results show the matching of the three different types of fillers in the imitation concrete, and interface chemical control of the filler surface can improve the compatibility between the functional filler and water-based epoxy resin. The use of industrial waste fly ash as one of the main fillers is conducive to promoting the recycling of resources, so that the coating has a certain cost performance and engineering application value. This study is expected to open new insights into specialized design of the internal filler of such coatings and the modification of the internal surface of a water-based coating improves the coating’s anti-corrosion and wear resistance.

Titanium dioxide (TiO

Background Antibacterial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) has been proposed as an alternative strategy to inactivate bacteria. This study was designed to investigate the antibacterial effect of a novel photosensitizer S-Porphin sodium (S-PS) on plankton and biofilm cultures of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and its multiple drug resistance strain S. aureus (MDR S. aureus). Methods The plate counting method was used to evaluate the antimicrobial effect of S-PS-aPDT. The bacterial viability was detected by SYTO9/PI. The intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was estimated by electron spin resonance spectroscopy and flow cytometry. The destruction of bacteria and biofilm was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM), respectively. Results The aPDT induced antibacterial effect in S. aureus and MDR S. aureus was S-PS concentration- and light dose-dependent. S. aureus exhibited much higher sensitivity to aPDT than MDR S. aureus, regarding to cell killing, ROS level, as well as morphological damages under AFM observation. When pretreated with the efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs), the intracellular uptake of S-PS in MDR S. aureus increased and the coupled aPDT produced significantly enhanced antibacterial efficiency. Conclusion S-PS-aPDT exhibited excellent bactericidal activity in plankton and biofilms. S-PS might be a good candidate for using in PDT anti-bacterial field. The introduction of EPIs could effectively improve the killing effect of MDR S. aureus.

Emergency management is conceptualized as a complex, multi-objective optimization problem related to facility location. However, little research has been performed on the horizontal transportation of emergency logistics centres. This study makes contributions to the multi-objective locating abrupt disaster emergency logistics centres model with the smallest total cost and the largest customer satisfaction. The IABC algorithm is proposed in this paper to solve the multi-objective emergency logistics centres locating problem. IABC algorithm can effectively calculate the optimal location of abrupt disaster emergency logistics centres and the demand for relief materials, and it can solve the rescue time satisfaction for different rescue sites. (1) IABC has better global search capabilities to avoid premature convergence and provide a faster convergence speed, and it has optimal solution accuracy, solution diversity and robustness. (2) From the three optimal objective function values obtained, the optimal objective function values obtained by IABC algorithm are obviously better than ABC and GABC algorithms. (3) From the convergence curves of three objective functions the global search ability and the stability of IABC algorithm are better than those of ABC and GABC algorithm. The improved ABC algorithm has proven to be effective and feasible. However, emergency relief logistics systems are very complex and involve many factors, the proposed model needs to be refined further in the future.

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticle has good photo-/sono-catalytic features, the reunion of this particle in solution-phase generally limits the extensive biomedical application. In the present study, the aggregation of TiO2 nanoparticles was alleviated by facile fabrication under different pH conditions. A novel TiO2 nanocomposite was further synthesized by properly conjugation with trace amount of DVDMS sensitizer (named DFT). The characterization, sonoactivity, as well as the antibacterial efficiency were specially evaluated. The results showed that the sonochemical activity of DFT was greatly improved as compared with the simple surface modification of TiO2 (F-TiO2) and free DVDMS, regarding to the hydroxyl radicals and singlet oxygen yields using the same ultrasound exposure. Moreover, ultrasonic stimulation of DFT exhibited excellent bacterial eradication, with up to 92.41% of killing efficiency in S. aureus. The flow cytometry analysis indicated an increased intracellular ROS and membrane disturbance by combination of DFT and ultrasound. The findings suggest that the proper fabrication and DVDMS incorporation greatly improved the sonocatalytic process of TiO2, and the ultrasound based biomedical applications of DFT deserve future deep investigation.

The 450 °C and 600 °C isothermal sections of the Zn–Ti–Si ternary system were experimentally determined by means of optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy equipped with wave dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis, and X-ray diffraction. The experimental results indicate that nine and eight three-phase regions exist in the Zn–Ti–Si system at 450 °C and 600 °C, respectively, Ti5Si3 is in equilibrium with the all Zn–Ti compounds. The maximum solubility of Zn in Ti5Si3 is up to 2.9% and 5.4% at 450 °C and 600 °C, respectively. Five Zn–Ti binary compounds, TiZn16, Ti3Zn22, TiZn3, TiZn and Ti2Zn were found in this study.

Eu 2+ and Dy 3+ codoped (Ca,Sr) 7 (SiO 3 ) 6 Cl 2 yellow phosphors were successfully synthesized by self-flux method. The structure, morphology and photoluminescence properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and photoluminescence spectra. The as-prepared phosphor showed a broad emission spectrum centered at 550 nm for Eu 2+ single-doped phosphor, while located at 548–544 nm for the Eu 2+ , Dy 3+ codoped samples under excitation at 380 nm light. The emission intensity was greatly improved when Dy 3+ was doped into the (Ca,Sr) 7 (SiO 3 ) 6 Cl 2 :Eu 2+ system. The composition-optimized sample with 3 mol.% of Dy 3+ and constant 10 mol.% of Eu 2+ exhibited a 220% PL enhancement compared to the phosphor with 10 mol.% Eu 2+ single-doped. Meanwhile, it was found that the quantum efficiency of phosphor namely (Ca,Sr) 7 (SiO 3 ) 6 Cl 2 :3 mol.% Dy 3+ , 10 mol.% Eu 2+ could get up to 24.6%. The synthesized yellow-emitting (Ca,Sr) 7 (SiO 3 ) 6 Cl 2 :Dy 3+ ,Eu 2+ is a promising candidate as high-efficiency yellow phosphor for NUV-excited white LEDs.

The interfacial reaction in the Ni3Si/Zn ternary diffusion couples was studied at 370, 390 and 440 °C. The reaction zone exhibited the periodic layered structure consisting of alternating NiZn3 and Ni2Zn3Si phase layers, perpendicular to the diffusion direction. The new NiZn3 phase was confirmed to nucleate and precipitate from the Ni2Zn3Si phase. The growth of Ni3Si/Zn solid-state reaction zone indicated that the process is diffusion controlled. High amounts of dispersed particles existing in the periodic layer structure are attributed to the number of the previous precipitated NiZn3 particles inside the Ni3Si/Zn phase. A detailed account of nucleation process of the periodic layered structure in the Ni3Si/Zn system is presented.

The continuous casting tundish has evolved into a useful reactor for liquid steel refining. The appreciate flow control devices such as dam, turbulence inhibitor and gas blowing, helps to modify the pattern and minimize short circuiting and dead zone. In this paper, a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package FLUENT was used to predict the flow field under steady state in one-strand tundish. The effects of flow control devices, gas bottom-blowing flow rate on flow field and residence time distribution (RTD) were studied. The results show that the molten steel flow state in optimized tundish has been improved significantly. When the gas blowing position was 1950mm from inlet axis and argon flow rate was 0.3m3/h, the average residence time of molten steel in the tundish was prolonged. And the volume fraction of dead zone in the tundish was reduced from 28.6% to 13.3%.

Nozzle plays a key role in determining the flow behavior in the mold of the continuous casting process with and without nozzle gas injection. Different modifications applied to the ports are used to study the flow behavior. The predicted results with k-e turbulence model show that the backflow phenomenon eliminates owing to a low pressure zone at the ports, the surface velocity decreases, when the curvature is implemented at the internal upper side of the port. This result agrees with the simulation result of other researchers. Meanwhile, increasing the thickness of ports has little influence on the surface level fluctuation. The Reynolds-stress model (RSM) and the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model are used to simulate the air bubbles movement in the mold. The result shows that the air bubbles are closer to the nozzle while using the nozzle with curvature at the internal upper side of the port.

Solidification process is very important for making fiber reinforced aluminum matrix composites. Some recent studies have used cooling through reinforcing carbon fibers to obtain better control over the solidification microstructure in the post pressure infiltration process. The present work is focused on studying the effect of active cooling fiber on temperature, thermal stresses and microstructure of aluminum matrix composites. The predicted results show that the temperature gradients of both the matrix and the carbon fiber vary continuously before loading the stress field, while the temperature gradient between the fiber and Al2014 melt become steeper as a cliff after loading the stress field (when Al2014 melt solidified completely). The predicted results of temperature contour agree well with the result of references. The microstructure simulation results shows that grains grow along the opposite direction of heat flow, and form the finer equiaxed grains away from the cold end.

Time synchronisation plays an important role in networked measurement and control systems, where high precision of global time resolution are required for distributed data acquisition and control. The Ethernet/IP-based IEEE 1588 precise time protocol (PTP) provides a perfect solution to this requirement. The work of this paper addresses the modelling and simulation of the IEEE 1588 PTP clock implementation, aiming to provide insight on the process of the PTP clock synchronisation, the factors that affect the synchronisation performance as well as the interactions of these factors. The OMNeT++ is chosen as the simulation platform and the end-to-end (E2E)-based double-node scenario is considered. Simulation results show that, the clock synchronisation procedure with frequency skew correction mechanism has enabled a nanosecond precision to be achieved, regardless of the quality of the local timing components and the asymmetry of the transmission path delay.