Optical Trapping with Focused Surface Waves

Near-field optical trapping can be realized with focused evanescent waves that are excited at the water–glass interface due to the total internal reflection, or with focused plasmonic waves excited on the water–gold interface. Herein, the performance of these two kinds of near-field optical trapping techniques is compared using the same optical microscope configuration. Experimental results show that only a single-micron polystyrene bead can be trapped by the focused evanescent waves, whereas many beads are simultaneously attracted to the center of the excited region by focused plasmonic waves. This difference in trapping behavior is analyzed from the electric field intensity distributions of these two kinds of focused surface waves and the difference in trapping behavior is attributed to photothermal effects due to the light absorption by the gold film.     

The effects of learning in production and group size on the lot-sizing problem

One of the lot-sizing problem extensions that received noticeable attention in the literature is the one that investigated the effects of learning in production. The studies along this line of research assumed learning to improve with the number of repetitions following a power form. There is evidence also that the group size, i.e., the number of workers learning in a group affects performance (time per unit). This note revisits the problem and modifies it by incorporating the group size, along with cumulative production, as a proxy for measuring performance. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the behavior of the modified model. The results of the two models are also compared to draw some meaningful insights and conclusions. Although the results favor using a simple univariate learning curve, considering group size when modeling lot-sizing problems can significantly affect the unit production cost.     

具有恒定冲击载荷的梯度泡沫金属材料设计

多胞材料可通过大变形大量地吸收冲击能量，引入密度梯度可进一步提高其耐撞性。梯度多胞材料的宏观力学响应对材料密度分布极为敏感，不同类型的细观构型的影响也极为不同。已有的研究工作主要局限在对给定的密度梯度分析其动态响应，较少对耐撞性设计方法进行研究。本文针对梯度闭孔泡沫金属材料，基于非线性塑性冲击波模型发展了耐撞性反向设计方法，以维持冲击物受载恒定为目标，运用级数法获得了简化模型和渐近解。利用变胞元尺寸法构建了连续梯度变化的三维Voronoi细观有限元模型，并利用ABAQUS/Explicit有限元软件对理论设计进行数值验证。结果表明，反向设计理论简化模型的渐近解对于梯度闭孔泡沫金属材料的耐撞性设计是有效的，所提出的耐撞性设计方法在控制冲击吸能过程和冲击物受载方面具有指导意义。     

表面增强拉曼光谱研究自组装单分子层在化学接触和纳米隔绝下的分子振动活性变化(英文)

为确定表面增强拉曼光谱中某些有争议的弱振动模式是来自高阶的影响还是分子基团对称性变化的影响,本文以1,4-苯二硫醇作为探针分子提供了一种实验验证的框架方法.光谱实验显示,观测到的有争议的弱振动模式并不是来自高阶的影响,而是分子基团对称性变化所致.我们的实验框架方法很容易拓展开来,如用于研究其它波长激光激发的类似体系或有机分子搭接的分子结.     

Copper-based oxygen carriers supported with alumina/lime for the chemical looping conversion of gaseous fuels

Copper(Ⅱ) oxide in varying ratios was combined with either an alumina-based cement(Al300), or CaO derived from limestone as support material in a mechanical pelletiser. This production method was used to investigate its influence on possible mechanical and chemical improvements for oxygen carriers in chemical looping processes. These materials were tested in a lab-scale fluidised bed with CO or CH_4 as a reducing gas at 950 °C. As expected, the oxygen carriers containing a greater ratio of support material exhibited an enhanced crushing strength. Oxygen carriers comprised of a 1:3 ratio of support material to active CuO exhibited increased crushing strength by a minimum of 280% compared to pure CuO pellets.All oxygen carriers exhibited a high CO conversion yield and were fully reducible from CuO to Cu. For the initial redox cycle, Al300-supported oxygen carriers showed the highest fuel and oxygen carrier conversion. The general trend observed was a decline in conversion with an increasing number of redox cycles.In the case of CaO-supported oxygen carriers, all but one of the oxygen carriers suffered agglomeration.The agglomeration was more severe in carriers with higher ratios of CuO. Oxygen carrier Cu25Al75(75 wt% aluminate cement and 25 wt% CuO), which did not suffer from agglomeration, showed the highest attrition with a loss of approximately 8% of its initial mass over 25 redox cycles. The reducibility of the oxygen carriers was limited with CH_4 in comparison to CO. CH_4 conversion were 15%-25% and 50% for Cu25Ca75(25 wt% CuO and 75 wt% CaO) and Cu25Al75, respectively. Cu25Ca75 demonstrated improved conversion, whereas Cu25Al75 exhibited a trending decrease in conversion with increasing redox cycles.     

A hybrid feedback control strategy for autonomous waypoint transitioning and loitering of unmanned aerial vehicles

We consider the problem of autonomously controlling a fixed-wing aerial vehicle to visit a neighborhood of a pre-defined waypoint, and when nearby it, loiter around it. To solve this problem, we propose a hybrid feedback control strategy that unites two state-feedback controllers: a transit controller capable of steering or transitioning the vehicle to nearby the waypoint and a loiter controller capable of steering the vehicle about a loitering radius. The aerial vehicle is modeled on a level flight plane with system performance characterized in terms of the aerodynamic, propulsion, and mass properties. Thrust and bank angle are the control inputs. Asymptotic stability properties of the individual control algorithms, which are designed using backstepping, as well as of the closed-loop system, which includes a hybrid algorithm uniting the two controllers, are established. In particular, for this application of hybrid feedback control, Lyapunov functions and hybrid systems theory are employed to establish stability properties of the set of points defining loitering. The analytical results are confirmed numerically by simulations.     

Copper-catalyzed 1,4-protosilylation and 1,4-protoborylation of enynic orthoesters for synthesis of functionalized 2,3-allenoates

Herein, copper-catalyzed 1,4-protosilylation and 1,4-protoborylation of enynic orthoesters have been developed. The enynic orthoesters as precursors of unstable enynic esters were applied to produce the functionalized 2,3-allenoate products. Meanwhile, the asymmetric 1,4-protosilylation of enynic orthoesters with Ph Me2Si-Bpin was also studied. The chiral monopyridine imidazoline ligand was efficient to provide the asymmetric 1,4-protosilylation products with high enantioselectivity.     

Light-conversion phosphor nanoarchitectonics for improved light harvesting in sensitized solar cells

Photovoltaic technology provides a promising approach for solar energy conversion. One significant factor limiting the efficiency is the poor light harvesting of solar energy, which is related to the mismatch between the energy distribution of photons and the absorption of semiconductor materials or dye. Light-conversion phosphors have been explored as spectral converters to improve the light-harvesting ability in sensitized solar cells. Many progressive studies have been conducted to expand the family of light-conversion phosphors and exploit their application in sensitized solar cells, bringing emerging opportunities to develop commercial sensitized solar cells. In this review, we survey the development of light-conversion phosphors in sensitized solar cells. First, the application and conversion mechanism of light-conversion phosphors, including up-conversion phosphors, down-conversion phosphors, up/down conversion phosphors, and long-lasting phosphors, are summarized in detail. After that, the challenging problems and possible solutions of applying light-conversion phosphors to sensitized solar cells are discussed. The review also highlights some new ideas in the development of sensitized solar cells and the application of light-conversion phosphors in other solar technology.     

Nanobody-based electrochemical immunoassay for Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ab toxin by detecting the enzymatic formation of polyaniline

We describe an electrochemical immunoassay for the Cry1Ab toxin that is produced by Bacillus thuringiensis. It is making use of a nanobody (a heavy-chain only antibody) that was selected from an immune phage displayed library. A biotinylated primary nanobody and a HRP-conjugated secondary nanobody were applied in a sandwich immunoassay where horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is used to produce polyaniline (PANI) from aniline. PANI can be easily detected by differential pulse voltammetry at a working voltage as low as 40 mV (vs. Ag/AgCl) which makes the assay fairly selective. This immunoassay for Cry1Ab has an analytical range from 0.1 to 1000 ng∙mL^-1 and a 0.07 ng∙mL^-1 lower limit of detection. The average recoveries of the toxin from spiked samples are in the range from 102 to 114 %, with a relative standard deviation of <7.5 %. The results demonstrated that the assay represented an attractive alternative to existing immunoassays in enabling affordable, sensitive, robust and specific determination of this toxin.

Nanobodies specific to Cry1Ab toxin were isolated from an immunized camel. A biotinylated primary nanobody and a HRP-conjugated secondary nanobody were applied in a sandwich immunoassay with horseradish peroxidase being used to produce polyaniline, which can be easily detected by differential pulse voltammetry.

     

An adaptive smooth unsaturated bistable stochastic resonance system and its application in rolling bearing fault diagnosis

An adaptive smooth unsaturated bistable stochastic resonance (ASUBSR) system for bearing fault signal detection is established. Based on the problem of output saturation and poor low-frequency suppression performance of classical bistable stochastic resonance (CBSR) system, an SUBSR with unsaturated characteristics is proposed. An ASUBSR system is designed by extracting the envelope spectrum of the input signal and resampling it to satisfy the adiabatic approximation condition, combining high-pass filter to filter out low-frequency interference, and using genetic algorithm to select the optimal system parameters. Through simulations and experiments, we found that the system can effectively suppress the interference of low-frequency and high-frequency, indicates that the system performs like a band-pass filter, and the output signal-to-noise ratio is better than that of the CBSR system. The proposed ASUBSR system has great application in the field of fault detection of rolling bearings.