Microstructure and mechanical properties of Mo-Nb microalloyed medium Manganese trip Steel by cyclic quenching

A novel cyclic quenching (CQ) and austenite reverse transformation (ART) was proposed for a Fe-0.25C-3.98Mn-1.22Al-0.20Si-0.19Mo-0.03Nb (wt.%) Mo-Nb microalloyed medium-Mn TRIP steel to improve strength and ductility. The results show that after twice cyclic quenching and ART exhibited optimum comprehensive properties, characterized by an ultimate tensile strength of 838 MPa, a total elongation of 90.8%, a product of strength and elongation (PSE) of 76.1 GPa ·%, and the volume fraction of austenite of approximately 62 vol.%

Exploring the Structural Transformation Mechanism of Chinese and Thailand Silk Fibroin Fibers and Formic-Acid Fabricated Silk Films

Silk fibroin (SF) is a protein polymer derived from insects, which has unique mechanical properties and tunable biodegradation rate due to its variable structures. Here, the variability of structural, thermal, and mechanical properties of two domesticated silk films (Chinese and Thailand B. Mori) regenerated from formic acid solution, as well as their original fibers, were compared and investigated using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). Four relaxation events appeared clearly during the temperature region of 25 °C to 280 °C in DMA curves, and their disorder degree (fdis) and glass transition temperature (Tg) were predicted using Group Interaction Modeling (GIM). Compared with Thai (Thailand) regenerated silks, Chin (Chinese) silks possess a lower Tg, higher fdis, and better elasticity and mechanical strength. As the calcium chloride content in the initial processing solvent increases (1%–6%), the Tg of the final SF samples gradually decrease, while their fdis increase. Besides, SF with more non-crystalline structures shows high plasticity. Two α- relaxations in the glass transition region of tan δ curve were identified due to the structural transition of silk protein. These findings provide a new perspective for the design of advanced protein biomaterials with different secondary structures, and facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the structure-property relationship of various biopolymers in the futu

Long-lived Microwave Electromechanical Systems Enabled by Cubic Silicon-Carbide Membrane Crystals

Cubic silicon-carbide crystals, known for their high thermal conductivity and in-plane stress, hold significant promise for the development of high-quality ($Q$) mechanical oscillators. Enabling coherent electrical manipulation of long-lived mechanical resonators would be instrumental in advancing the development of phononic memories, repeaters, and transducers for microwave quantum states. In this study, we demonstrate the compatibility of high-stress and crystalline (3C-phase) silicon-carbide membranes with superconducting microwave circuits. We establish a coherent electromechanical interface for long-lived phonons, allowing precise control over the electromechanical cooperativity. This interface enables tunable slow-light time with group delays extending up to an impressive duration of \emph{an hour}. We then investigate a phononic memory based on the high-$Q$ ($10^{8}$) silicon-carbide membrane, capable of storing and retrieving microwave coherent states \emph{on-demand}. The thermal and coherent components can be distinguished through state tomography in quadrature phase space, which shows an exponential increase and decay trend respectively as the storage time increases. The electromechanical interface and phononic memory made from crystalline silicon-carbide membrane possess enticing attributes, including low microwave-induced mechanical heating, phase coherence, an energy decay time of $T_{1}=19.9$~s, and it acquires less than one quantum noise within $\tau_{\textrm{coh}}=41.3$~ms storage period. These findings underscore the unique opportunities provided by cubic silicon-carbide membrane crystals for the storage and transfer of quantum information across distinct components of hybrid quantum systems

Dual-Crystallizable Silk Fibroin/Poly(L-lactic Acid) Biocomposite Films: Effect of Polymer Phases on Protein Structures in Protein-Polymer Blends

Biopolymer composites based on silk fibroin have shown widespread potential due to their brilliant applications in tissue engineering, medicine and bioelectronics. In our present work, biocomposite nanofilms with different special topologies were obtained through blending silk fibroin with crystallizable poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) at various mixture rates using a stirring-reflux condensation blending method. The microstructure, phase components, and miscibility of the blended films were studied through thermal analysis in combination with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman analysis. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope were also used for advanced structural analysis. Furthermore, their conformation transition, interaction mechanism, and thermal stability were also discussed. The results showed that the hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions existed between silk fibroin (SF) and PLLA polymer chains in the blended films. The secondary structures of silk fibroin and phase components of PLLA in composites vary at different ratios of silk to PLLA. The β-sheet content increased with the increase of the silk fibroin content, while the glass transition temperature was raised mainly due to the rigid amorphous phase presence in the blended system. This results in an increase in thermal stability in blended films compared to the pure silk fibroin films. This study provided detailed insights into the influence of synthetic polymer phases (crystalline, rigid amorphous, and mobile amorphous) on protein secondary structures through blending, which has direct applications on the design and fabrication of novel protein–synthetic polymer composites for the biomedical and green chemistry fields

Study on rolling process and heat treatment of high strength ship plate steel EH40

Means of a tensile test studied the mechanical properties and microstructure of the experimental steel plate under different rolling processes, Charpy impact test, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the optimum thermomechanical control process (TMCP) is a heating temperature of 1200 °C, the best rolling temperature of 1180 °C. The thickness of the ship plate steel was rolled from 170 mm to 40 mm in the recrystallization zone by multi-channel time deformation, and then the thickness was decreased from 40 mm to 15mm in the non-recrystallization zone, the temperature waiting for a range 980 °C ~ 920 °C, the finish rolling temperature of 830 °C. After rolling and being cooled rapidly by laminar cooling, the cooling rate is about 12 °C/s and the final target temperature of 600 °C, which maintains the best state of steels. All data of the experimental steels have accelerated the international level, high-strength ship plate EH40 has been successfully trialed and met the practical requirements, all of these provide a solid foundation for further scientific research

Stochastic distribution tracking control for stochastic non-linear systems via probability density function vectorisation

YesThis paper presents a new control strategy for stochastic distribution shape tracking regarding non-Gaussian stochastic non-linear systems. The objective can be summarised as adjusting the probability density function (PDF) of the system output to any given desired distribution. In order to achieve this objective, the system output PDF has first been formulated analytically, which is time-variant. Then, the PDF vectorisation has been implemented to simplify the model description. Using the vector-based representation, the system identification and control design have been performed to achieve the PDF tracking. In practice, the PDF evolution is difficult to implement in real-time, thus a data-driven extension has also been discussed in this paper, where the vector-based model can be obtained using kernel density estimation (KDE) with the real-time data. Furthermore, the stability of the presented control design has been analysed, which is validated by a numerical example. As an extension, the multi-output stochastic systems have also been discussed for joint PDF tracking using the proposed algorithm, and the perspectives of advanced controller have been discussed. The main contribution of this paper is to propose: (1) a new sampling-based PDF transformation to reduce the modelling complexity, (2) a data-driven approach for online implementation without model pre-training, and (3) a feasible framework to integrate the existing control methods.This paper is partly supported by National Science Foundation of China under Grants (61603262 and 62073226), Liaoning Province Natural Science Joint Foundation in Key Areas (2019- KF-03-08), Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province (20180550418), Liaoning BaiQianWan Talents Program, i5 Intelligent Manufacturing Institute Fund of Shenyang Institute of Technology (i5201701), Central Government Guides Local Science and Technology Development Funds of Liaoning Province (2021JH6/10500137)

Screening of oleaginous yeast with xylose assimilating capacity for lipid and bio-ethanol production

Microbial oil is a promising new biodiesel resource, which have great potential in industrial-scale production. In our preliminary study, 57 oleaginous yeast with xylose assimilating capacity were isolated from 13 soil samples, 16 strains were identified as potential lipid biomass producer. Four strains which showed higher lipid content were used for further ethanol fermentation at different conditions. Strain 9-44 belonging to Pichia guillermondii showed the highest ethanol production (21.91 g/l), and the theoretical ethanol yield was 85.90%. Our study will be of great significance for coupling of lipid and bio-ethanol production, and also provide a choice of cellulocis biomass utilization.Key words: Microbial oil, oleaginous yeast, Pichia guillermondii, bio-ethanol, cellulocis biomass

Observed wintertime tidal and subtidal currents over the continental shelf in the northern South China Sea

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 119 (2014): 5289–5310, doi:10.1002/2014JC009931.Synthesis analyses were performed to examine characteristics of tidal and subtidal currents at eight mooring sites deployed over the northern South China Sea (NSCS) continental shelf in the 2006–2007 and 2009–2010 winters. Rotary spectra and harmonic analysis results showed that observed tidal currents in the NSCS were dominated by baroclinic diurnal tides with phases varying both vertically and horizontally. This feature was supported by the CC-FVCOM results, which demonstrated that the diurnal tidal flow over this shelf was characterized by baroclinic Kelvin waves with vertical phase differences varying in different flow zones. The northeasterly wind-induced southwestward flow prevailed over the NSCS shelf during winter, with episodic appearances of mesoscale eddies and a bottom-intensified buoyancy-driven slope water intrusion. The moored current records captured a warm-core anticyclonic eddy, which originated from the southwestern coast of Taiwan and propagated southwestward along the slope consistent with a combination of β-plane and topographic Rossby waves. The eddy was surface-intensified with a swirl speed of >50 cm/s and a vertical scale of ∼400 m. In absence of eddies and onshore deep slope water intrusion, the observed southwestward flow was highly coherent with the northeasterly wind stress. Observations did not support the existence of the permanent wintertime South China Sea Warm Current (SCSWC). The definition of SCSWC, which was based mainly on thermal wind calculations with assumed level of no motion at the bottom, needs to be interpreted with caution since the observed circulation over the NSCS shelf in winter included both barotropic and baroclinic components.R. Li was supported by the SOA 908 Special Project Foundation of China (908-01-ST07 and 908-01-BC10), the National High Tech Project Foundation (863) of China (2008AA09A401), the Administrator Foundation of South Branch, SOA (0683). The development of FVCOM was funded by the US NSF Office of Polar Programs through grants ARC0712903, ARC0732084, ARC0804029, and ARC1203393.2015-02-1

Grazing weakens competitive interactions between active methanotrophs and nitrifiers modulating greenhouse-gas emissions in grassland soils

This work was financially supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (41977033, 41907026, and 41721001), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2019QNA6011), National Key Basic Research Program of China (2014CB138801), Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2019BD032), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020T130387 and 2019M652448). CG-R was funded by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UF150571). Special thanks to ChunMei Meng, Yu Luo, and Yan Zheng for their assistance in laboratory analyses.Peer reviewedPublisher PD