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We consider the effect that an upstream cylinder has on the effective inertial collection efficiency of a downstream cylinder. We consider an initially uniform distribution of particles moving past a cylindrical fiber in a potential crossflow and numerically calculate the resulting particle distribution far downstream of the fiber using finite differences. We then investigate the effect that the downstream distribution of particles has on the effective inertial collision efficiency of a downstream test cylinder oriented parallel to the first. We show that the effective collision efficiency of the test cylinder depends on its relative offset in the transverse direction (normal to the flow) with respect to the upstream cylinder. For relatively small offsets there is complete shielding, and no particles collide with the test cylinder. As the offset increases, a growing effective collision efficiency is observed leading to a significant enhancement relative to the collision efficiency of an isolated cylinder for intermediate offsets and Stokes numbers close to unity. Importantly, we observe relative gains in effective collision efficiency above 100% for a range of Stokes number and offset values. For larger offsets and Stokes numbers, the effect of the upstream cylinder on the effective collision efficiency of the test cylinder decreases and eventually becomes negligible. Detailed results are provided for Stokes drag acting on the particles and we also show that a non-linear drag has negligible effect on the observed trends for the conditions relevant to filtration systems. These results suggest that the arrangement of fibers has a substantial effect on inertial particle impaction even when neighboring fibers do not alter the flow field around each individual collector. Moreover, periodic arrangements with specific orientations with respect of the flow could lead to a significant enhancement of the inertial collision of particles on an array of collectors, thus contributing towards a better filtration performance.

Through quantitative statistics and morphological characterization of ceramic fragments for ceramic composite bulletproof insert plates (CCBIPs), distribution characteristics of ceramic fragments within a specific size range were analyzed for different Armor Piercing Incendiary (API) and shot times. To quantitatively evaluate the effect of energy absorption for ceramic plates, a model of energy absorption during penetration for CCBIPs was established based on statistics of the size distribution of ceramic fragments (SDCF). Variation in the SDCF and its influence on energy absorption for CCBIPs were investigated. The results indicate that the distribution feature of ceramic fragments in the range of 0.25–2.25 mm is Gaussian distribution. Compared with Type 56 of API (56-API), ceramic fragments formed by 53-API with higher kinetic energy possess more quantity and more concentrated distribution, whose average equivalence size decreases by 6.5%, corresponding to increasing by 83.9% of estimated energy absorption. Besides, the ability of CCBIPs to resist the third shot is significantly weakened, whose estimated energy absorption decreases by 58.8% compared with the first shot. More concentrated distribution and fewer fragments are formed after the third shot, the average equivalence size of ceramic fragments increases by 6.9%, which may attribute to the micro-cracks induced by the previous two shots.

A Phase-shifted full-bridge (PSFB) converter is widely used in various applications due to its soft-switching characteristics. However, one of the recognized shortcomings of the PSFB converter is that it cannot simultaneously have a wide soft switching range and a small secondary-side duty cycle loss. The shortcoming hinders the high frequency and high efficiency of the converter. In this paper, the change of the energy demand of the converter on the external series inductor with input voltage and load is analyzed. On this basis, a variable saturation inductor with controllable energy is proposed to meet the energy demand and solve the problem of core heating. The controllable change characteristics of the inductor energy are studied directly instead of the controllable change of the inductance value. By adjusting the inductor energy, the PSFB can not only achieve soft switching under light loads, but also reduce duty cycle loss under heavy loads. Theoretical analysis and experimental verification are carried out on the soft switching and duty cycle loss of the converter. Since the transformer ratio can be increased due to the smaller duty cycle loss. The efficiency of the converter can be further improved.

In this work, the impact of the doping process on the photoluminescence emission of CaWO4 as a function of the concentration of Eu3+ cation (0.01 mol%, 0.02 mol%, 0.04 mol%, 0.06 mol%, 0.08 mol%, and 0.10 mol%) is discussed in detail. Ca1−xWO4:xEu3+ samples were successfully synthesized by a simple co-precipitation method followed by microwave irradiation. The blue shift in the absorption edge confirmed the quantum confinement effect and the band gap energy cover the range from 3.91 to 4.18 eV, as the amount of Eu3+ cations increases. The experimental results are sustained by first-principles calculations, at the density functional theory level, to decipher the geometry and electronic properties, thereby enabling a more accurate and direct comparison between theory and experiment for the Ca1−xWO4:xEu3+ structure. Funding for open access charge: CRUE-Universitat Jaume I

Several crucial and impactful three-dimensional (3D) printing applications have been developed within a broad range of fields. Among these, revolutionary changes in health care are highly anticipat...

The gas–liquid–solid mini fluidized bed (GLSMFB) combines the advantages of fluidized bed and micro-reactor, and meets the requirements for safety and efficiency of green development of process industry. However, there are few studies on its flow performance and no studies on its mass and heat transfer performance. In this paper, the characteristics of gas–liquid mass transfer in a GLSMFB were studied in order to provide basic guidance for the study of GLSMFB reaction performance and application. Using CO2 absorption by NaOH as the model process, the gas–liquid mass transfer performance of GLSMFB was investigated. The results show that the liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient and the gas–liquid interfacial area both increase with the increase of the superficial gas velocity within the experimental parameter range under the same given superficial liquid velocity. At the same ratio of superficial gas to liquid velocity, the liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient increases with the increase of the superficial liquid velocity. Fluidized solid particles strengthen the liquid mass transfer process, and the liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient is about 13% higher than that of gas–liquid mini bubble column.

Many underground engineering projects show that rockburst can occur in rocks at great depth and high temperature, and temperature is a critical factor affecting the intensity of rockburst. In general, temperature can affect the energy storage, dissipation, and surplus in rock. To explore the influence of temperature on the energy storage and dissipation characteristics and rockburst proneness, the present study has carried out a range of the uniaxial compression (UC) and single-cyclic loading–unloading uniaxial compression (SCLUC) tests on pre-heated granite specimens at 20 °C to 700 °C. The results demonstrate that the rockburst proneness of pre-heated granite initially increases and subsequently decreases with the increase of temperature. The temperature of 300 °C has been found to be the threshold for rockburst proneness. Meanwhile, it is found that the elastic strain energy density increases linearly with the total input strain energy density for the pre-heated granites, confirming that the linear energy property of granite has not been altered by temperature. According to this inherent property, the peak elastic strain energy of pre-heated granites can be calculated accurately. On this basis, utilising the residual elastic energy index, the rockburst proneness of pre-heated granite can be determined quantitatively. The obtained results from high to low are: 317.9 kJ/m3 (300 °C), 264.1 kJ/m3(100 °C), 260.6 kJ/m3 (20 °C), 235.5 kJ/m3 (500 °C), 158.9 kJ/m3 (700 °C), which are consistent with the intensity of actual rockburst for specimens. In addition, the relationship between temperature and energy storage capacity (ESC) of granite was discussed, revealing that high temperature impairs ESC of rocks, which is essential for reducing the rockburst proneness. This study provides some new insights into the rockburst proneness evaluation in high-temperature rock engineering.

In the inductive charging scenario of an electric vehicle (EV), the charger should have the capability to flexibly regulate the output power regardless of the misalignment and EV battery voltage. This paper proposes a hybrid voltage and frequency tuning strategy for a series-series (SS) inductive power transfer (IPT) system to regulate power through 0 to 3.3kW at any battery voltages and misalignment conditions without using additional converters. A voltage tuning is used to achieve full-power of 3.3kW and partly contribute to reducing the power. When the input voltage achieves the lower limit, a frequency tuning is used to further decrease the power to 0W, achieving the regulation through 0 to full power. The practical charging region is specified by 110mm airgap, 100mm misalignment in both x and y directions, and 180V-240V battery voltage range. Experiments are carried out at various conditions, and it shows that with an input voltage range of 180V-380V and a frequency of 82.5kHz~87.9kHz, the charging power can be regulated between 100W and 3.3kW at any case in the specified working region. In addition, a peak dc-dc efficiency of 95.7% is achieved at 3.29 kW.

In many energy and combustion applications, particles experience large temperature gradients, which can affect the coagulation process due to thermophoresis. This study presents a rigorous theory of thermophoretically modified Brownian coagulation in the entire particle size regime. The theoretical derivations are based on the kinetic theory for the free-molecular regime and the harmonic mean method for the transition regime. The coagulation kernels in different size regimes can be expressed as the basic Brownian coagulation kernel times an enhancement factor. The enhancement factor represents the coagulation rate enhancement induced by thermophoresis and is a function of specific dimensionless numbers. Based on the enhancement factor, the thermophoretic enhancement effects on particle coagulation are further analyzed under a wide range of gas and particle conditions. The results show that thermophoretic enhancement effects are ignorable in the free-molecular regime, but need to be considered in the continuum regime and the transition regime. In addition, the enhancement effects increase significantly with increase of gas temperature and temperature gradient while decrease with increase of gas pressure. The present study can improve understanding of thermophoretic effects on Brownian coagulation in the entire size regime and provide a useful tool to calculate the coagulation rates in presence of thermophoresis.

The intensities and phase profiles of the elliptic optics vortex beam both are determined by the topological charge (TC) and ellipticity. This paper presents an efficient and simple method for measuring the TC and ellipticity of elliptic vortex. By observing the diffraction patterns, the TC modulus and ellipticity can be probed with the suitable rectangular aperture, and the TC sign can be detected with the suitable right triangular aperture. The scheme works well even for high-order elliptic vortex with topological charge value as high as ± 18, and ellipticity range from 0.5 to 2 at least. Obviously, the measurement of TC and ellipticity have important research value for promoting the application of elliptical vortex.

Renewable solid sorbents for CO2 capture and storage have shown great potentials for the sake of gaseous separation, tail gas treatment, environmental regulation and climate governance. However, current existed preparation and reusability of solid sorbents are generally subject to high energy consumption and complicated procedure. Herein, a light-controlled CO2 separation system with high working temperature resulting from natural sawdust combined with polyethyleneimine is fabricated, which involves low energy input and few operating sequences. This system shows a direct and ratiometric response to sunlight illumination by which CO2 can be reversibly adsorbed and released. This light-controlled CO2 separation process is prospective to become an attractive alternative to traditional alkaline CO2 collection method in terms of its convenience and low cost. As a practical demonstration, CO2 mixed with N2 is successfully separated through this light-controlled carbon capture and storage (CCS) system, which offers great promise for CO2 capture and enrichment with applicability across a wide range of scales.

Confronting the challenge of replacing or recharging batteries for numerous low-power devices in IoT, the harvesting of ambient electromagnetic (EM) energy is considered a promising approach. Since EM energy is randomly distributed in the environment, omnidirectional antennas or multibeam antennas are better choices for their large coverages which enable them to collect as much energy as possible. However, omnidirectional antennas usually have low gains resulting in low receiving energy, and most multibeam antennas with high gains require complicated feeding networks. To address these issues, a six-beam antenna without a complex feeding network is proposed in this paper. It consists of a triangular patch array layer and a surface waveguide layer. A peak gain of 8.3 dBi, as well as a 3-dB beamwidth of 620 in H-plane and 560 in E-plane have been achieved, affording full azimuthal coverage within a certain elevation angle range. For demonstration, an EM energy harvester is constructed based on the proposed antenna. It can be observed that the implemented device can harvest almost the same amount of EM energy in different horizontal orientations, and acquire multi-fold DC power in the case of multiple EM transmitters.

Pressure - and temperature-dependent luminescence properties of 3F3/2 → 4I9/2 transition of Nd3+:GdTaO4 were studied for potential applications in optical sensing. Two isolated emission lines correspond to 3F3/2(R2, 1) → 4I9/2(Z5) transitions, locates at 920 and 927 nm under ambient condition, are very sensitive to pressure with coefficients of −15.6 and −14.5 cm−1/GPa determined in a pressure range up to about 9 GPa. The luminescence intensity ratio between the two emission lines exhibits a large dependence with temperature in a range from 80 to 620 K, the corresponding temperature sensitivity at room temperature is similar to that of Nd3+:YAG. These advantages, together with the other observed features of high stable position relationship under pressure and low thermal shifts for the two emission lines indicate that, Nd3+:GdTaO4 is a promising candidate to be used as pressure and temperature sensors in the near-infrared spectral range.

The results of experiments on ablation of targets made of stainless steel and aluminum by a scanning beam of nanosecond pulses at intensity up to 109 W/cm2 are presented. It was found that the overlap of the impact zones during irradiating leads to an increase in the ablation depth in proportion to the area of overlap of the irradiation spots. This is due to increase in overlap irradiation spots degree, zones with a large number of pulse effects are formed on surface, which increases the depth of the melt bath and leads to the ejection of larger particles. An increase in ablation depth of aluminum increase with increase of the interval between pulses up to 10 ms and overlapping of the irradiation spots. The shape of the ejected particles changes from spherical, when formed from a melt, to an irregular shape, when the target is mechanically destroyed by an internal shock wave. The size and velocity distribution of the ejected particles was determined, and on the basis of these data, the laser radiation shielding coefficients were calculated depending on the degree of overlapping of the irradiation spots. It was found that the main mechanism for the decrease in the efficiency of ablation by a scanning beam of radiation is the backflow of microparticles deposited on the target surface. The analysis of the energy balance of the aluminum ablation process is carried out.

The intrinsic origins and formation of atomic-scale structure in multicomponent alloys remain largely unknown owing to limited simulations and inaccessible experiments. Herein, we report the formation of three-dimensional periodicity from a disordered atomic-scale structure to an imperfect/perfect ordered cluster and finally to long-range translational and rotational symmetry coupled with Nb heterogeneity. Significant atomic-scale structural clustering and atomic arrangements involving solvent or solute atoms simultaneously occurred during isothermal annealing. A close relationship between atomic-scale structural evolution and composition variation has important implications in depicting the chemical and topological packing during the early crystallization stage in metallic glasses. This work can provide a comprehensive understanding of how short-range orders evolve into long-range periodicity and will further shed light on the origins and nature of metallic glasses.

Tomographic imaging with radionuclides commonly used in nuclear medicine, such as $^{111}$In (171 and 245 keV) and $^{131}$I (364 keV), is in high demand for medical applications and small animal imaging. The Si/CdTe Compton camera with its high angular and high energy resolutions is an especially promising detector to extend the energy coverage for imaging to the range that covers gamma-ray emitted from these radionuclides. Here, we take the first steps towards short-distance imaging by conducting experiments using three-dimensional phantoms composed of multiple sphere-like solutions of $^{111}$In and $^{131}$I with a diameter of 2.7 mm, placed at a distance of 41 mm. Using simple back-projection methods, the positions of the sources are reproduced with a spatial resolution of 11.5 mm and 9.0 mm (FWHM) for $^{111}$In and $^{131}$I, respectively. We found that a LM-MLEM method gives a better resolution of 4.0 mm and 2.7 mm (FWHM). We resolve source positions of a tetrahedron structure with a source-to-source separation of 28 mm. These findings demonstrate that Compton Cameras have the potential of close-distance imaging of radioisotopes distributions in the energy range below 400 keV.

Experiments have been performed to explore the combustion behaviors of spherical micron-sized aluminum (μAl) particles and liquid water for Al particle sizes in the range of 3.5–25 μm. The ignitio...

Antiferroelectric (AFE) materials have superior energy storage properties in high power multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs). To adapt to the sintering temperature of inner metal electrodes with less palladium content, in this work, Al2O3 was added to Pb0.95La0.02Sr0.02(Zr0.50Sn0.40Ti0.10)O3 (PLSZST) AFE ceramics, in an attempt to reduce the sintering temperature. Results of this study demonstrate that the optimal composition of PLSZST-0.8 wt% Al2O3 sintered at a lower temperature 1040 ℃, has a high recoverable energy density (Wre, 3.23 J/cm3) and a high efficiency (η, 90 %) at room temperature. It is also high in pulse discharge energy density (Wdis, 2.45 J/cm3), current density (1369 A/cm2), and has an extremely short period of discharge (less than 500 ns). In addition, both Wre and η demonstrate a good stability in temperature within a wide range of 30 ℃-100 ℃. In sum, this novel AFE composition has great potentials for energy storage applications such as high energy density MLCCs.

The effect of mechanical strength of the dispersed particle gels (DPG) on their macro plugging performances is significant, however, little study has been reported. In this paper, DPG particles with different mechanical strengths were obtained by mechanical shearing of bulk gels prepared with different formula. Young's moduli of DPG particles on the micro and nano scales were measured by atomic force microscope for the first time. The mapping relationship among the formula of bulk gel, the Young's moduli of the DPG particles and the final plugging performance was established. The results showed that when the Young's moduli of the DPG particles increased from 82 to 328 Pa, the plugging rate increased significantly from 91.46% to 97.10% due to the distinctly enhanced stacking density and strength at this range. While when the Young's moduli of the DPG particles surpassed 328 Pa, the further increase of plugging rate with the Young's moduli of the DPG particles became insignificant. These results indicated that the improvement of plugging rate was more efficient by adjusting the Young’s moduli of the DPG particles within certain ranges, providing guidance for improving the macroscopic application properties of DPG systems in reservoir heterogeneity regulation.

Slurry reactors are popular in many industrial processes, involved with numerous chemical and biological mixtures, solid particles with different concentrations and properties, and a wide range of operating conditions. These factors can significantly affect the hydrodynamic in the slurry reactors, having remarkable effects on the design, scale-up, and operation of the slurry reactors. This article reviews the influences of fluid physical properties, solid particles, and operating conditions on the hydrodynamics in slurry reactors. Firstly, the influence of fluid properties, including the density and viscosity of the individual liquid and gas phases and the interfacial tension, has been reviewed. Secondly, the solid particle properties (i.e., concentration, density, size, wettability, and shape) on the hydrodynamics have been discussed in detail, and some vital but often ignored features, especially the influences of particle wettability and shape, as well as the variation of surface tension because of solid concentration alteration, are highlighted in this work. Thirdly, the variations of physical properties of fluids, hydrodynamics, and bubble behavior resulted from the temperature and pressure variations are also summarized, and the indirect influences of pressure on viscosity and surface tension are addressed systematically. Finally, conclusions and perspectives of these notable influences on the design and scale-up of industrial slurry reactors are presented.

The rapid detection of microparticles exhibits a broad range of applications in the field of science and technology. The proposed method differentiates and identifies the 2 µm and 5 µm sized particles using a laser light scattering. The detection method is based on measuring forward light scattering from the particles and then classifying the acquired data using support vector machines. The device is composed of a microfluidic chip linked with photosensors and a laser device using optical fiber. Connecting the photosensors and laser device using optical fibers makes the device more diminutive in size and portable. The prepared sample containing microspheres was passed through the channel, and the surrounding photosensors measured the scattered light. The time-domain features were evaluated from the acquired scattered light, and then the SVM classifier was trained to distinguish the particle's data. The real-time detection of the particles was performed with an overall classification accuracy of 96.06%. The optimum conditions were evaluated to detect the particles with a minimum concentration of 0.2 µg/mL. The developed system is anticipated to be helpful in developing rapid testing devices for detecting pathogens ranging between 2 µm to 10 µm.

Li transient concentration distribution in spherical active material particles can affect the maximum power density and the safe operating regime of the electric vehicles (EVs). On one hand, the quasi-exact/exact solution obtained in the time/frequency domain is time-consuming and just as a reference value for approximate solutions; on the other hand, calculation errors and application range of approximate solutions not only rely on approximate algorithms but also on discharge modes. For the purpose to track the transient dynamics for Li solid-phase diffusion in spherical active particles with a tolerable error range and for a wide applicable range, it is necessary to choose optimal approximate algorithms in terms of discharge modes and the nature of active material particles. In this study, approximation methods, such as diffusion length method, polynomial profile approximation method, Pade approximation method, pseudo steady state method, eigenfunction-based Galerkin collocation method, and separation of variables method for solving Li solid-phase diffusion in spherical active particles are compared from calculation fundamentals to algorithm implementation. Furthermore, these approximate solutions are quantitatively compared to the quasi-exact/exact solution in the time/frequency domain under typical discharge modes, i.e., start-up, slow-down, and speed-up. The results obtained from the viewpoint of time-frequency analysis offer a theoretical foundation on how to track Li transient concentration profile in spherical active particles with a high precision and for a wide application range. In turn, optimal solutions of Li solid diffusion equations for spherical active particles can improve the reliability in predicting safe operating regime and estimating maximum power for automotive batteries.

One important aspect in capacitor switching concerns the high inrush current during the energizing of the capacitor. One peculiarity of capacitor switching is the high rate of switching operations easily achieving 1000 operations. Two vacuum breakers were operated up to 1000 times in a simple test circuit simulating the making of high inrush currents. According to standards, peak and frequency of inrush currents are 20 kA and 4200 Hz for back-to-back switching. The range of inrush currents was extended here to peak currents up to 60 kA and frequencies up to 24 kHz. Peak current and frequency have an important impact on radius and current density of the associated arc, and thus on the energy deposited under the arc roots. Under the conditions prevailing here, the whole surface of the contacts appear uniformly melted to a depth of less than 1 mm after 1000 operations. It is obvious that the arc moves across the contact surface driven by the radial magnetic forces generated by this kind of contact. It seems that high peak inrush currents in combination with high inrush frequencies melt the contact surfaces more severe than inrush currents with lower frequencies.

A kind of layered Li2MSiO4 material, Fe saponite with Na+ pillaring (Na+-FSAP) was developed as a low-cost and environment-friendly lithium-ion storage material. The Na+-FSAP follows the insertion/deinsertion working mechanism accompanied by valence change of Fe from Fe1.86+ to Fe2.71+ (average value) after stabilization, and displays a specific capacity of 125 mAh g–1 at 50 mA g–1 with retention ratio of 80.8% after 75 cycles. The Na+-pillaring effect and abundant structural water in the gallery urge Li+ migrate rapidly, resulting in a large Li+ diffusion coefficient within a range of 10−6.5–10−7.5 cm2 s−1. Thus, the Na+-FSAP provides a model material to design electrode materials with rapid lithium-ion migration and has great potential to take place of polyanionic-type Li2MSiO4 (M = Mn, Fe, Co) cathode materials.

A kind of phase change material (PCM)-based nanocomposite was prepared and added into high energy propellants containing RDX as additives to investigate its effect on thermal decomposition and burning characteristic of high energy propellants. The effect of PCM-based nanocomposites on thermal decomposition of high energy propellants is investigated by TG/DSC-FTIR-MS technology. Due to the delayed protection effect (PCM-based nanocomposites can absorb lots of heat at the range of certain temperature when it undergoes structure change or phase transitions) of PCM-based nanocomposites under the thermal decomposition condition, the thermal stability of high energy propellants modified with PCM-based nanocomposites is improved. At the same time, the concentration of N2, NO2, H2O and CO2 is increased during thermal decomposition of high energy propellants whereas NO and CO is decreased. The burning gaseous products and burning characteristic of high energy propellants are studied by the combination of closed bomb test and Fourier transform infrared spectrum. The main burning gaseous products are N2, CO2, CO, H2O, CH4, etc. After the high energy propellant modified with PCM-based nanocomposites, the concentration of CH4 is increased while CO, CO2 and H2O is decreased under the high-pressure burning condition. The progressivity factor of high energy propellants is increased by 22.2% compared with the control sample while the maximum pressure is merely decreased 1.25% after the addition of the PCM-based nanocomposite, thus PCM-based nanocomposites can be used to adjust the burning process and improve the burning progressivity of high energy propellants. This study is expected to boost the practical application of PCM-based nanocomposite to the propellant formulation and effectively control the burning characteristic of high energy propellants.

The effects of the long range electrostatic interaction in twisted bilayer graphene are described using the Hartree-Fock approximation. The results show a significant dependence of the band widths and shapes on electron filling, and the existence of broken symmetry phases at many densities, either valley/spin polarized, with broken sublattice symmetry, or both., Comment: Invited contribution to a special issue of Nano Materials Science. 12 pages, 8 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2004.01577

In proton therapy, a highly conformal proton dose can be delivered to the tumor by means of the steep distal dose penumbra at the end of the beam range. The proton beam range, however, is highly sensitive to range uncertainty, which makes accurately locating the proton range in the patient difficult. In-vivo range verification is a method to manage range uncertainty, one of the promising techniques being prompt gamma imaging (PGI). In earlier studies, we proposed gamma electron vertex imaging (GEVI), and constructed a proof-of-principle system. The system successfully demonstrated the GEVI imaging principle for therapeutic proton pencil beams without scanning, but showed some limitations under clinical conditions, particularly for pencil beam scanning proton therapy. In the present study, we upgraded the GEVI system in several aspects and tested the performance improvements such as for range-shift verification in the context of line scanning proton treatment. Specifically, the system showed better performance in obtaining accurate prompt gamma (PG) distributions in the clinical environment. Furthermore, high shift-detection sensitivity and accuracy were shown under various range-shift conditions using line scanning proton beams.

Proton therapy for cancer treatment has a precise dose deposition capability owing to the nature of the interactions of heavy charge particles with matter resulting in a Bragg Peak. Uncertainties in the proton range can limit the scope of proton therapy. Academia Sinica PET employs a modular design for In-beam detection using SiPMs and crystals read out by STiC asic for range verification. In this work we report the depth distribution of the positron emitters from a PMMA sample irradiated with 130 MeV protons at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital measured using a compact 32-channel setup. The timing capabilities of this system are assessed and presented. The depth dependence of the positron activity measured using coincidences agrees well with the Geant4 simulated distributions. Using a multi-exponential fit function we estimate and compare the relative amounts of different positron emitting isotopes with the relative cross sections. The application of this method can be useful to estimate the anatomical changes between different treatment sessions. The modular design of the AS-PET currently under development at Academia Sinica is presented and the simulated images of the reconstructed positron activity for the palm sized modules are used to assess the range verification capability.

A novel detection concept for high-energy gamma-rays for medical applications has been tested using the coincident detection of Cherenkov photons from Compton-electrons in an optically transparent radiator material. Such detection capability would facilitate imaging of the distribution of certain targeted alpha-emitter therapies and also could be applicable in range verification for proton therapy, which are both connected to prompt gamma emission. To prove the concept, a demonstrator experiment at energies below the MeV scale was conducted: measurements with a 22Na gamma source emitting two 511 keV photons were performed and the Cherenkov light from Compton and photo electrons in UV transparent polymethyl metacrylate (PMMA) was detected in coincidence. Using a 8×8 silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) array and fast FPGA-based read-out electronics, an efficiency in the order of 0.1% was achieved. A strong increase up to about 3% for higher gamma energies up to 1.5MeV is indicated by Monte-Carlo simulations. The number of detected Cherenkov photons per event and per channel was counted using the time over threshold (TOT) of the SiPM signal. The measured number of photons and their distribution from accumulated events are in good agreement with simulations, and the measured patterns of photon hits indicate spatial sensitivity. The ability to detect 511 keV photons with Cherenkov light was demonstrated successfully.

The purpose of this study was to determine how the characteristics of the data acquisition (DAQ) electronics of a Compton camera (CC) affect the quality of the recorded prompt gamma (PG) interaction data and the reconstructed images, during clinical proton beam delivery. We used the Monte-Carlo-plus-Detector-Effect (MCDE) model to simulate the delivery of a 150 MeV clinical proton pencil beam to a tissue-equivalent plastic phantom. With the MCDE model we analyzed how the recorded PG interaction data changed as two characteristics of the DAQ electronics of a CC were changed: (1) the number of data readout channels; and (2) the active charge collection, readout, and reset time. As the proton beam dose rate increased, the number of recorded PG single-, double-, and triple-scatter events decreased by a factor of 60× for the current DAQ configuration of the CC. However, as the DAQ readout channels were increased and the readout/reset timing decreased, the number of recorded events decreased by

This paper presents a monolithically integrated E-band amplifier multiplier chain (AMC) developed in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS process. This E-band AMC is composed of a 25 GHz 1:1 power divider, two 25 GHz driver amplifiers (DA 1,2 ), a 75 GHz passive frequency tripler, and a 75 GHz power amplifier (PA). By applying a bypass tuning capacitor based power enhancing technique in the single-ended DA and PA, the output power and power-added-efficiency (PAE) of the AMC have been effectively improved. Benefiting from the proposed passive tripler core with second harmonic suppression function, and the impedance matching network with frequency selection characteristics, the AMC presents better harmonic suppression performance compared with the conventional topology. The bias circuits with temperature compensation are applied to the DA and PA to ensure the performance of the AMC when the temperature changes. The AMC has a measured output power exceeding 0 dBm in the entire E-band frequency range with a peak output power of 10.9 dBm at 77 GHz, and exhibits a record PAE of 8.25 %. Within the 3 dB operating frequency range from 69 to 87 GHz, the rejection of fundamental and second harmonics are better than 33.5 dB. The AMC can work properly between -40 °C and 125 °C with the proposed temperature compensation bias circuits.

The experimental densities and viscosities are reported in this paper for the binary mixtures: water + methanol, water + ethanol and methanol + ethanol over the entire composition range at 293.15 K and atmospheric pressure. From these experimental data, the excess molar volumes, V E, and deviations in viscosity, Δη, were derived and fitted to the Redlich–Kister polynomial to determine the adjustable fitting parameters and standard deviations. The variation of excess and deviation properties with composition has been interpreted in terms of the molecular interactions between the components of the mixtures and structural effects. Additionally, various correlation models were applied to estimate the viscosities of the mixtures to test their validity for the mixtures being studied.

An ultra-wide-angle frequency beam scanning leaky wave antenna (LWA) with high scanning rate based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) waveguide is proposed in this communication. A row of elliptical patches is placed periodically near the SSPPs waveguide, which can shift the fundamental mode of SSPPs waveguide to the fast-wave region and radiate electromagnetic (EM) waves. The simulated results show that the proposed LWA achieves an ultra-wide scanning angle range of 172° over a narrow operation bandwidth of 9.8-12.28GHz, which implies a high scanning rate. The simulated average gain of the proposed LWA is 10.13dBi and its average total efficiency is 75.35%. The proposed LWA is fabricated and measured. The measured scanning angle range is 167° in the frequency band of 9.9-12.25GHz, and the measured average gain is 9.73dBi. Good agreements between the simulated and measured results are obtained, validating the proposed design.

In this paper, Dy3+ incorporated BaSi2O5 phosphors were synthesized by gel combustion method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effects of various heating rates on thermoluminescence (TL) kinetics and glow peak temperatures of Dy3+ incorporated BaSi2O5 phosphors exposed to β irradiation at room temperature were investigated. The glow curves of the phosphor exposed to β-irradiation (0.1–100 Gy) consist of four main peaks located at 87, 130, 271, and 327 °C and exhibit a good linearity between 0.1 and 100 Gy. Three experimental techniques including variable heating rate (VHR), repeated initial rise (RIR), peak shape (PS) and computerized glow curve deconvolution (CGCD) were employed to determine TL kinetic parameters. Our findings indicate that the TL glow peaks of the phosphor obey first-order kinetics. Analysis of the main dosimetric peaks through the techniques mentioned above indicates that activation energies (E) and pre-exponential factor (s) are in the range of 0.80–1.50 eV and 1.15 × 108–3.28 × 1013 s−1. Additionally, it is found that the temperature of the glow peaks shifts toward the higher temperatures and the TL intensity smoothly decreases as the heating rate increases. The effect on the TL intensities and glow peak temperatures of the heating rate is discussed in terms of thermal quenching.

Fully resolved numerical simulations of a micron-sized spherical particle residing on a surface with large-scale roughness are performed by using the Lattice–Boltzmann method. The aim is to investigate the influence of surface roughness on the detachment of fine drug particles from larger carrier particles for transporting fine drug particles in a DPI (dry powder inhaler). Often the carrier surface is modified by mechanical treatments for modifying the surface roughness in order to reduce the adhesion force of drug particles. Therefore, drug particle removal from the carrier surface is equivalent to the detachment of a sphere from a rough plane surface. Here a sphere with a diameter of 5 μm at a particle Reynolds number of 1.0, 3.5 and 10 are considered. The surface roughness is described as regularly spaced semi-cylindrical asperities (with the axes oriented normal to the flow direction) on a smooth surface. The influence of asperity distance and size ratio (i.e. the radius of the semi-cylinder to the particle radius, Rc/Rd) on particle adhesion and detachment are studied. The asperity distance is varied in the range 1.2

In this paper, experimental study has been performed to investigate the performance of a new combined cooling system (CCS) included indirect evaporative cooler and 4-bed solar adsorption cooling system. Solar adsorption cooling system acted as pre-cooling for the CCS. in this study, two mass flow rates passing from evaporator of 0.1 and 0.15 kg s−1, and also three volumetric air flow rates passing from indirect evaporative cooler of 700, 850 and 1000 m3 h−1, were investigated. Results were shown that, the highest average efficiency was 104 % and obtained for minimum of mass flow passing from solar adsorption cooling system (0.1 kg s−1) and minimum of volumetric air passing from indirect evaporative coolind system (700 m3 h−1). Also, the average efficiency of combined cooling was in the range of 84-104 %.

Optical tunneling is an effect extremely sensitive to wavelength changes. In this article, we use this effect to design a new type of biosensor. The tunneling effect is excited by long range surface plasmon resonance, the energy is concentrated in the sensing medium in the form of standing waves, which lead a very high wavelength sensitivity and quality factor. By using COMSOL for finite element analysis, for the sensor structure of BK7/Cytop /Al2O3/Ag/Al2O3/sensing media/air, a quality factor of 10296 RIU-1 is achieved under angle modulation, a sensitivity of 170,000 nm/ RIU and a quality factor of 11333 RIU-1 are obtained under wavelength modulation. At the same time, the advantage of this structure is that there is no excessive requirement on the refractive index of the material, and a good sensing effect can be achieved even if the material is cheap and easy to prepare. After optimization, this structure is suitable for sensing media with a refractive index of 1.335-1.375, which can be applied to most liquid solutions.

The dielectric breakdown strength of solid insulators is usually dependent on the dimensions of the sample. In particular, for "thick" insulating sheets having thicknesses above a certain threshold thickness of typically about 10 micrometer, the dielectric breakdown strength at room temperature is often found to be roughly proportional to the inverse of the square root of the sample thickness. In this contribution, the hypothesis is examined that the latter type of size dependence is related to electric field inhomogeneities associated with the geometrical electrode configuration. In order to test the hypothesis, dielectric breakdown experiments have been performed for alumina ceramic sheets of different thicknesses. In this context, an electrode configuration has been used which allows for an analysis of the local electric field enhancement at the electrode edge in terms of fracture mechanics concepts. It is concluded from a comparison of experimental and theoretical results that the mentioned dependence of the dielectric breakdown strength on sample thickness is, under certain circumstances, likely related to electrode edge effects.

The mass attenuation coefficients (μm) of polyethylene glycol (PEG) of different molecular weights (1000–200,000) were measured using single-beam photon transmission. The X-ray fluorescent (XRF) photons from Zinc (Zn), Zirconium (Zr), Molybdenum (Mo), Silver (Ag) and Cadmium (Cd) targets were used to determine the attenuation of gamma radiation of energy range between 8.67 and 23.19 keV in PEG samples. The results were compared to theoretical values using XCOM and Monte Carlo simulation using Geant4 toolkit which was developed to validate the experiment at those certain energies. The mass attenuation coefficients were then used to compute the effective atomic numbers, electron density and half value layers for the studied samples. The outcomes showed good agreement between experimental and simulated results with those calculated theoretically by XCOM within 5% deviation. The PEG 1000 sample showed slightly higher μm value compared with the other samples. The dependence of the photon energy and PEG composition on the values of μm and HVL were investigated and discussed. In addition, the values of Zeff and Neff for all PEG samples behaved similarly in the given photon energy range, and they decreased as the photon energy increased.

Ensembles of parallel nanowires, consists of the parts from different ferro-magnetic metals (for example-FeNi/Co/FeNi) were obtained by method of template synthesis. It was shown that such samples could be the sources of electromagnetic emission – irradiation of Terahertz range. It could be detected when current passed through the contacts at the sample with these wires. The methods of obtaining nanowires was proposed (two-bath galvanic technique), formation of contact layers at the surface (parallel narrow strips of metal) were proposed. The features of these radiation were investigated–it‘s threshold character, it‘s non-thermal origin and spatial distribution. The calculation was also presented, which demonstrated possibility of detecting of Terahertz irradiation, using ensemble of such nanowires, included ferro-magnetic metal and anti-ferromagnetic metal.

Lysosomal polarity is considered a key indicator of lysosomal function due to its significant impact on membrane fluidity and enzymatic reactions in lysosomes. Monitoring lysosomal polarity can gain insight into the related physiological and pathological processes and develop new diagnostic methods. However, current fluorescent probes with lysosomal polarity response suffer from narrow linear range, photobleaching and complicated preparation. Herein, a ratiometric fluorescent probe (r-bCDs) for intracellular lysosomal polarity imaging is designed and constructed by amide bond assembly of polarity-sensitive red fluorescent carbon dots (rCDs) and referenced blue fluorescent carbon dots (bCDs). r-bCDs show a much wider linear range of polarity response (orientation polarizability Δf from 0.020 to 0.315) than other probes, and the interference of uneven distribution and instrument factors can be effectively eliminated by ratiometric fluorescent sensing. Imaging of intracellular lysosomal polarity with r-bCDs is implemented to observe the polarity variation caused by the change of cell state and the difference between cancer cells and normal cells. This work provides a promising tool for studying the related physiological and pathological processes and developing new diagnostic methods.

This paper presents a multi-mode boost converter to achieve the high efficiency over a wide input voltage range for thermoelectric energy harvesting (TEH) applications. Under high, medium, and low input voltages, continuous conduction mode (CCM), critical conduction mode (CRM), and discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) are adopted to improve the conversion efficiency, respectively. Moreover, a constant peak current (CPC) control scheme is proposed to realize high efficiency under ultra-low input voltage. The proposed converter is implemented in a 0.18 μm standard CMOS process, which occupies a chip core area of about 1.0 mm x 0.9 mm. It achieves >60% efficiency in the range of TEG open-circuit voltage $V_{S}$ from 20 mV to 500 mV, and a peak efficiency of 91.4%. Moreover, after the startup is completed, an efficiency of 37.1% under the $V_{S}$ as low as 10 mV can be achieved.

Most of current centrifugal classifiers can only obtain coarse products and fine products. With the development of industry, particles with different average particle sizes and narrower distribution widths are required. In order to obtain the product in a specified range, classification has to be carried out repeatedly, resulting in higher time and energy cost. For this problem, a novel air classifier that can obtain multi-product with different particle size was designed. Because of the different trajectories of particles with different sizes, particles are sorted and separated in the classifier and flow into different outlets, where a variety of products with increasing average particle size were obtained. There are many feasible matching schemes that the particles do not hit the classifier wall and make full use of classifier space. CFD is employed to investigate particles distribution law and flow field character at different matching schemes, the effect of particle classification at different particles distribution law. Classification size ratio (CSR) is used to evaluate separation effectiveness, the greater CSR, the better separation effectiveness. Experiment results show when the accelerating flow field velocity is 4m/s, the classifying flow field angle is 60°, the CSR at outlet 1∼5 is 3.99, 1.56, 0.96, 0.61, 0.5. As the accelerating flow field velocity increase from 4 m/s to 7 m/s, the separation effectiveness is slightly improved, CSR increase to 4.55, 1.77, 1.03, 0.68, 0.54. There are obvious differences in CSR between adjacent outlet, which shows a variety of products can be obtain in multi-product classifier.

Excitation functions of the natFe (p, x) 52,54Mn, 55Co, 51Cr, 52Fe, and 46Sc reactions were measured at the proton energy of 87, 94 and 100 MeV, using the stacked foil activation technique followed by the off-line γ-ray spectrometry. The experiment was carried out on the separated sector cyclotron at the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The natNi (p, x)57Ni and natAl (p, x)22Na reactions with known cross sections was used to monitor the proton beam intensity. The results from this work were compared with the existing literature data available in EXFOR data library and were found to be in good agreement. TALYS-1.95 is able to reproduce, in most cases, the experimental trend. Our experimental results were also compared with evaluated nuclear data from the ENDF/B-VIII.0, JENDL-4.0/HE, and PADF-2007 libraries as a function of proton energy, which reproduced the trend of the excitation functions of the experimental natFe (p, x) reaction cross-sections. These data expand our knowledge on the related excitation functions to confirm the existing trends and to give additional experimental values on a wider energy range.