Demonstration of high performance in a perovskite oxide supported solid oxide fuel cell based on La and Ca co-doped SrTiO3

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) for the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative under grant agreement n° 256730 and Energy Technology Partnership (ETP).Perovskite electrodes have been considered as an alternative to Ni-YSZ cermet-based anodes as they afford better tolerance towards coking and impurities and due to redox stability can allow very high levels of fuel utilisation. Unfortunately performance levels have rarely been sufficient, especially for a second generation anode supported concept. A-site deficient lanthanum and calcium co-doped SrTiO3, La0.2Sr0.25Ca0.45TiO3 (LSCTA-) shows promising thermal, mechanical and electrical properties and has been investigated in this study as a potential anode support material for SOFCs. Flat multilayer ceramics cells were fabricated by aqueous tape casting and co-sintering, comprising a 450 μm thick porous LSCTA- scaffold support, a dense YSZ electrolyte and a thin layer of La0.8Sr0.2CoO3-δ (LSC)-La0.8Sr0.2FeO3-δ (LSF)-YSZ cathode. Impregnation of a small content of Ni significantly enhanced fuel cell performance over naked LSCTA-. Use of ceria as a co-catalyst was found to improve the microstructure and stability of impregnated Ni and this in combination with the catalytic enhancement from ceria significantly improved performance over Ni impregnation alone. With addition of CeO2 and Ni to a titanate scaffold anode that had been pre-reduced at 1000 oC, a maximum powder density of 0.96 W cm-2 can be achieved at 800 oC using humidified hydrogen as fuel. The encouraging results show that an oxide anode material, LSCTA- can be used as anode support with YSZ electrolyte heralding a new option for SOFC development.PostprintPeer reviewe

Collaborating to safeguard children in Taiwan: Systemic transformation

Child abuse and exploitation pose significant threats to the health and well-being of children. While the Taiwanese government introduced the Protection of Children and Youth Welfare and Rights Act in 2011 to address these issues, progress has been slow. This paper aims to examine the evolution of Taiwan’s child protection system (CPS), with a particular focus on interdepartmental collaboration. Through the collection of legislation, statistics, conference proceedings, and reports, this study analyzes the working model between law enforcement and public health. Three cases of collaboration between law enforcement and public health at the community level are presented: social safety net programs, early intervention for child abuse, and trauma-informed training for first responders. The accomplishments and challenges of each project are discussed, along with a review of the CPS in relation to the United Nations (UN) strategy INSPIRE’s approaches. Although Taiwan has shown a commendable emphasis on prevention and family support, the collaboration between law enforcement and public health is still in its early stages. The next crucial step is to strengthen integration in the early stages of identifying, assessing, and referring cases of child abuse and neglect. This can be achieved by generating more evidence on effective working models and promoting their implementation

Microstructure dependence of performance degradation for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells based on the metallic catalyst infiltrated La- and Ca-doped SrTiO3 anode support

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) for the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative under grant agreement No. 256730 and Energy Technology Partnership (ETP). C. Ni also would like to thank the support from the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 51702264) Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2017B033) and Research Funding of Southwest University (SWU117019).Anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells with the configuration of the La0.2Sr0.25Ca0.45TiO3 (LSCTA-) anode, YSZ electrolyte and La0.8Sr0.2Co0.2Fe0.8O3 (LSCF)-YSZ cathode were fabricated using tape casting and co-sintering techniques followed by pre-reduction and impregnation. In order to improve the performance, the active anodes were prepared via the wet impregnation of metallic catalysts (Ni or Ni-Fe solution). The impregnation of 3 wt% nickel significantly improved the fuel cell performance from 43 mW cm-2 for the bare LSCTA- anode to 112 mW cm-2 for the Ni-LSCTA- anode at 700 °C in humidified hydrogen containing 3 vol% H2O. More interestingly, the substitution of 25 wt% Fe to Ni further enhances the power density by a factor of 1.5, compared to the Ni-impregnated cell. The cell infiltrated with Ni-Fe solid solution shows a slower degradation than the other two cells after the first 20 h period. High-resolution back-scattered electron (BSE) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images performed on the cross section of the impregnated anodes with time after ion beam preparation show that the sintering of the catalyst particles on the scaffold surface and the interaction between backbone and catalyst are the predominant contributions for the degradation of cell performance.PostprintPeer reviewe

Effect of Steam Explosion on the Aroma Characteristics of Tea Produced from Tender and Mature Leaves of Eucommia ulmoides Analyzed Using Electronic Nose and Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction Combined with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

In order to investigate the differences in volatile components and major aroma characteristics between tea made from tender and mature leaves of Eucommia ulmoides pre-treated by steam explosion (SE), an electronic nose (E-nose) and headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) were applied to analyze the effect of SE on the volatile components in tea made from tender and mature leaves of the Eucommia ulmoides cultivar ‘Huazhong 8’. The results showed that the principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) models fitted well the E-nose data, which suggested that the aroma characteristics of both tender and mature leaf tea were significantly different between with and without SE pretreatment. Altogether, 177 volatile components were identified by HS-SPME-GC-MS, among which 24 were selected as aroma active substances by orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (variable importance in the projection (VIP) value ≥ 1) and Kruskal-Wallis H test (P < 0.05). The key aroma substance of tender leaf tea without SE was dihydroactinidiolide. The key aroma substances of tender leaf tea with SE were dihydroactinidiolide, nonanal, benzaldehyde and phenylacetaldehyde, contributing to citrus-like, flowery, caramelic, bitter almond-like, nutty, rose-like and chocolate-like aromas. No key aroma substances were found in mature leaf tea without SE, while dihydroactinidiolide and nonanal were identified the key aroma substances in mature leaf tea with SE, contributing to sweet peach-like, woody, citrus-like, flowery and caramelic aromas. The results of this study can provide a reference for the development of beverage products based on Eucommia ulmoides leaves

The Adjuvanticity of an O. volvulus-Derived rOv-ASP-1 Protein in Mice Using Sequential Vaccinations and in Non-Human Primates

Adjuvants potentiate antigen-specific protective immune responses and can be key elements promoting vaccine effectiveness. We previously reported that the Onchocerca volvulus recombinant protein rOv-ASP-1 can induce activation and maturation of naïve human DCs and therefore could be used as an innate adjuvant to promote balanced Th1 and Th2 responses to bystander vaccine antigens in mice. With a few vaccine antigens, it also promoted a Th1-biased response based on pronounced induction of Th1-associated IgG2a and IgG2b antibody responses and the upregulated production of Th1 cytokines, including IL-2, IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-6. However, because it is a protein, the rOv-ASP-1 adjuvant may also induce anti-self-antibodies. Therefore, it was important to verify that the host responses to self will not affect the adjuvanticity of rOv-ASP-1 when it is used in subsequent vaccinations with the same or different vaccine antigens. In this study, we have established rOv-ASP-1's adjuvanticity in mice during the course of two sequential vaccinations using two vaccine model systems: the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV spike protein and a commercial influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) vaccine comprised of three virus strains. Moreover, the adjuvanticity of rOv-ASP-1 was retained with an efficacy similar to that obtained when it was used for a first vaccination, even though a high level of anti-rOv-ASP-1 antibodies was present in the sera of mice before the administration of the second vaccine. To further demonstrate its utility as an adjuvant for human use, we also immunized non-human primates (NHPs) with RBD plus rOv-ASP-1 and showed that rOv-ASP-1 could induce high titres of functional and protective anti-RBD antibody responses in NHPs. Notably, the rOv-ASP-1 adjuvant did not induce high titer antibodies against self in NHPs. Thus, the present study provided a sound scientific foundation for future strategies in the development of this novel protein adjuvant

Elastic Inflatable Actuators for Soft Robotic Applications

The 20th century’s robotic systems have been made out of stiff materials and much of the developments in the field have pursued ever more accurate and dynamic robots which thrive in industrial automation settings and will probably continue to do so for many decades to come. However, the 21st century’s robotic legacy may very well become that of soft robots. This emerging domain is characterized by continuous soft structures that simultaneously fulfil the role of robotic link and robotic actuator, where prime focus is on design and fabrication of the robotic hardware instead of software control to achieve a desired operation. These robots are anticipated to take a prominent role in delicate tasks where classic robots fail, such as in minimally invasive surgery, active prosthetics and automation tasks involving delicate irregular objects. Central to the development of these robots is the fabrication of soft actuators to generate movement. This paper reviews a particularly attractive type of soft actuators that are driven by pressurized fluids. These actuators have recently gained substantial traction on the one hand due to the technology push from better simulation tools and new manufacturing technologies including soft-lithography and additive manufacturing, and on the other hand by a market pull from the applications listed above. This paper provides an overview of the different advanced soft actuator configurations, their design, fabrication and applications.This research is supported by the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO), and the European Research Council (ERC starting grant HIENA)

Effect of electrolytes on electrochemical properties of MmNi(5)-based hydrogen storage alloy

This Project is financially supported by the National Natural Foundations of China (51261003), the Natural Foundations of Guangxi Province (2012GXNSFGA060002; 2011GXNSFD018004; 201201ZD009) Guangxi Experiment center of information science (20130113) and National students’ Innovative Project (101059530) and National students’ Innovative Project (101059530).The effect of electrolytes on the electrochemical properties of MmNi(3.68)Co(0.72)Mn(0.43)Al(0.17) hydrogen storage alloy electrodes has been investigated at 303 K and 273 K. Three electrolytes (EL1, EL2, EL3) were obtained by adding 2 wt%, 4 wt% and 6 wt% LiOH into the original electrolyte EO (6 M/ L KOH), respectively. The results indicate that the addition of LiOH improves the discharge capacity and cycle life at 303 K and 273 K. The highest maximum capacity and capacity retention (after 50th cycles) have been observed in electrolyte EL2. However, the high-rate dischargeability (HRD) decreases gradually from EO to EL3 at the two temperatures because of the addition of LiOH. The corrosion current I-corr from Tafel Polarization curves (TP) and the resistance of the oxide layer R-ol from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) indicates that the alloy electrode worked in EL1 has a better anti-corrosion ability. The real surface area of the electrodes estimated with EIS analysis, decrease from 51.95 cm(2) in EO to 15.6 cm(2) in EL2, but increase to 31.59 cm(2) in EL3 after being fully activated. The additional LiOH improves the anti-pulverization ability of alloy powders, delay the loss of active elements within the alloy electrode, resulting in an inproved capacity retention of alloy electrode. Meanwhile, the electrochemical kinetics analysis suggests that the charge-transfer reaction at the interface of electrode surface and electrolyte is the rate-determining step when tested at 303 K and 273 K.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe