Stress effects on stability and diffusion behavior of sulfur impurity in nickel: A first-principles study

A systematic investigation regarding the effect of stress on the stability and diffusion behavior of S impurity in Ni was carried out via first-principles methods. A comparison of the formation energy of S in Ni indicated that S more easily forms as a solution atom with increasing S concentration in Ni supercells, but the binding energy showed that as the concentration of S that dissolved into Ni increased, the structure became less stable. The diffusion barrier via the octahedral-tetrahedral-octahedral site path was always lower than that via the octahedral-octahedral site path. The diffusion barrier of single S decreased with increase in tensile stress. S diffusion accelerated under applied tensile stress, which was disadvantageous in suppressing S retention in Ni. These results implied that even at a low concentration, dissolved S still had a tendency of precipitating from the Ni matrix, to further increase the stability of the system. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Time dependent behaviour of high strength concrete

Civil Engineering and Geoscience

The smart releasing behavior of a microcapsule based on chemical self-healing system caused by chemical trigger activation

A novel chemical self-healing system based on microcapsule technology for cementitious composites is established in Guangdong Key Laboratory of Durability for Coastal Civil Engineering, Shenzhen University. The key issue of this system is how to release the healing material and how to activate the healing mechanism. In this paper, the study is focused on the releasing behavior. The smart releasing behavior of healing material in the microcapsule is characterized by EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid) titration method. The experimental results show that releasing procedure of the corrosion inhibitor covered with PS is a function of the time, and is controlled by the wall thickness of the microcapsule. Moreover, the pH value affects the release rate of corrosion inhibitor. With the increasing of pH value, the releasing rate will increase greatly

A study on the steel corrosion protection of a microcapsule based self-healing cementitious system by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

Based on microcapsule technology, a new type of self-healing system for cementitious composites is established. The performance of the system was characterized by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of steel bars immersed in a simulated concrete environment. The results demonstrate strong inhibition of chloride-induced corrosion when microcapsules are added to the solution. A novel equivalent circuit model, which takes into account the inductive effect arising from the generation of corrosion products on the steel bar surface, is proposed to explain the protection performance of the microcapsules against steel bar corrosion in a concrete environment

Interaction between microcapsules and cementitious matrix after cracking in a self-healing system

A new type of self-healing cementitious composites by using organic microcapsules is designed in Guangdong Key Laboratory of Durability for Coastal Civil Engineering, Shenzhen University. For the organic microcapsules, the shell material is urea formoldehyde (UF), and the core healing agent is Epoxy. The effect of organic microcapsules on mechanical behaviors of the composite specimens and the interaction between an organic microcapsule and an approaching crack is investigated in this study. The mechanical behaviors of bending and compression strengths for mortar specimens are tested. The results show that the strength may increase with a small amount of microcapsules and then decrease with increasing of microcapsules. The FEM numerical simulation is carried out to study the interaction between a crack and a microcapsule in the concrete matrix. It is known that there exist two possibilities when a crack approaches a microcapsule, the microcapsule is ruptured or debonded from the matrix. The self-healing function is based on the rupture of microcapsules. Thus determination of judgment criterion (The physical trigger mechanism-cracking) that under what condition a microcapsule ruptures is necessary. For simplicity, a two-dimensional plane square area is considered, in which the side length is 1 cm. A microcapsule of radius 0.1mm is located at the center of the area. Left hand side is a line crack. The interface between the microcapsule and the mortar matrix, as well as the bonding behavior of the microcapsule shell wall is modeled using the cohesive traction-separation constitutive relationship. The actual parameters of the materials may lead to rupture or debonding of a microcapsule. Through numerical simulation, the criterion of the possible failure pattern for a microcapsule is obtained in terms of the intensity of microcapsule wall, the intensity of the interface, thickness of the microcapsule wall, location of the crack, and the microcapsule radius.Structural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience

Design of microcapsule system used for self-healing cementitious material

For a microcapsule based self-healing system in the cementitious material, a fundamental issue is to find and facilitate a suitable microcapsule system, concerning either the material selection or design and manufacture process. In this study, urea formaldehyde resin is used for the shell of microcapsule, and bisphenol – an epoxy resin E-51 diluted by n-butyl glycidy ether (BGE) is adopted as the heal-agent inside the microcapsule. The production process mainly includes pre-polymerization preparation, emulsification, acidification and curing stage. The fundamental reaction mechanisms with respect to the synthesis process and the properties of the obtained microcapsule are discussed in this paper. Meanwhile, the healing mechanism by means of catalyst MC120D is further explored. Results show that the microcapsule obtained with the adopted production process can be used for the self-healing system in the cementitious materials.Structural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience

Design of microcapsule system used for self-healing cementitious material

For a microcapsule based self-healing system in the cementitious material, a fundamental issue is to find and facilitate a suitable microcapsule system, concerning either the material selection or design and manufacture process. In this study, urea formaldehyde resin is used for the shell of microcapsule, and bisphenol \u96 an epoxy resin E-51 diluted by n-butyl glycidy ether (BGE) is adopted as the heal-agent inside the microcapsule. The production process mainly includes pre-polymerization preparation, emulsification, acidification and curing stage. The fundamental reaction mechanisms with respect to the synthesis process and the properties of the obtained microcapsule are discussed in this paper. Meanwhile, the healing mechanism by means of catalyst MC120D is further explored. Results show that the microcapsule obtained with the adopted production process can be used for the self-healing system in the cementitious materials

Evaluation of a microcapsule based self-healing system for cementitious materials

An international cooperation research project has been financially supported by China Nature Science Foundation, which consists of three relatively independent, but strategically integrated research sub-programs, aiming at the formation of a selfhealing system based on the microcapsule principle for the cementitious composites. In this paper, a self-healing system triggered by physical process (cracking) is introduced. The healing material mainly consists of epoxy like materials. The discussion concerning microcapsule techniques are presented in another paper in this conference. This study mainly focuses on the two healing mechanisms: i.e. the mechanical recovery and the permeability related recovery. The primary test results concerning these healing mechanisms are presented and the healing effects on the relevant properties are further discussed.Structural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience