Modeling and numerical simulation of the resistance spot welding of zinc coated steel sheets using rounded tip electrode: Analysis of required conditions

This paper investigates the essential conditions to improve the accuracy of a resistance spot welding computational study of advanced zinc coated steel sheets using rounded tip electrode. An experimental analysis is performed to highlight the required considerations for a suitable simulation. A sequential Electrical-Thermal-Metallurgical and Mechanical (ETMM) finite element analysis with appropriate precautions of the contact conditions enables to accurately simulate the nugget development during the welding. A critical smooth evolution of the contact radius is required. A fine meshing with an interfacial mesh size of at least 0.05 × 10⁻³ m combined with a coupling time step of 0.0025 s between the electrical-thermal-metallurgical and the mechanical analysis allows a regular incrementation of the contact radius, without burdening the time computing. Accurate values of the contact resistance depending on the interfacial pressure and temperature are essential for a good simulation of the nugget size. The ETMM calculation is successfully extended to the simulation of the welding of a typical two sheets assembly.     

Resistance characterizations of equiarboreal graphs

A weighted (unweighted) graph $G$ is called equiarboreal if the sum of weights (the number) of spanning trees containing a given edge in $G$ is independent of the choice of edge. In this paper, we give some resistance characterizations of equiarboreal weighted and unweighted graphs, and obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions for $k$-subdivision graphs, iterated double graphs, line graphs of regular graphs and duals of planar graphs to be equiarboreal. Applying these results, we obtain new infinite families of equiarboreal graphs, including iterated double graphs of 1-walk-regular graphs, line graphs of triangle-free 2-walk-regular graphs, and duals of equiarboreal planar graphs.     

Overcoming Cancer Resistance to Platinum Drugs by Inhibiting Cholesterol Metabolism

Drug resistance is a serious challenge for platinum anticancer drugs. Platinum complexes may get over the drug resistance via a distinct mechanism of action. Cholesterol is a key factor contributing to the drug resistance. Inhibiting cellular cholesterol synthesis and uptake provides an alternative strategy for cancer treatment. Platinum(IV) complexes FP and DFP with fenofibric acid as axial ligand(s) were designed to combat the drug resistance through regulating cholesterol metabolism besides damaging DNA. In addition to producing reactive oxygen species and active platinum(II) species to damage DNA, FP and DFP inhibited cellular cholesterol accumulation, promoted cholesterol efflux, upregulated peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα), induced caspase-1 activation and gasdermin D (GSDMD) cleavage, thus leading to both apoptosis and pyroptosis in cancer cells. The reduction of cholesterol significantly relieved the drug resistance of cancer cells. The double-acting mechanism gave the complexes strong anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo, particularly against cisplatin-resistant cancer cells.     

Effects of non-smooth characteristics on bionic bulldozer blades in resistance reduction against soil

The phenomenon of soil adhesion occurs widely when terrain machines and construction machines work; this adhesion increases their working resistance. Bionics is one of the most effective methods to reduce resistance against soil. Several non-smooth convex form bulldozer blades were tested to study the effects of non-smooth characteristics on resistance reduction against soil. Under the same soil and test conditions, the draft forces of different non-smooth samples were obtained, and were lower than those of smooth samples. The sample with largest convex base diameter had the lowest draft force. The experiments with smooth and non-smooth samples were repeated to observe soil adhesion and test resistance. A minimum amount of soil adhered to the surface of the non-smooth sample, and the draft force varied smoothly. The smooth sample was different in soil adhesion and draft force.     

Promotion effect of Pt on a SnO2–WO3 material for NOx sensing

Metal-oxide nanocomposites were prepared over screen-printed gold electrodes to be used as room-temperature NO_x (nitric-oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂)) sensors. Various weight ratios of SnO₂–WO₃ and Pt loadings were used for NO sensing. The sensing materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and BET surface analysis. The NO-sensing results indicated that SnO₂–WO₃ (1:2) was more effective than other materials were. The sensor response (S=resistance of N₂/resistance of NO=R_N2/R_NO) for detecting 1000 ppm of NO at room temperature was 2.6. The response time (T₉₀) and recovery time (TR₉₀) was 40 s and 86 s, respectively. By further loading with 0.5% Pt, the sensor response increased to 3.3. The response and recovery times of 0.5% Pt/SnO₂–WO₃ (1:2) were 40 s and 206 s, respectively. The linearity of the sensor response for a NO concentration range of 10–1000 ppm was 0.9729. A mechanism involving Pt promotion of the SnO₂–WO₃ heterojunction was proposed for NO adsorption, surface reaction, and adsorbed NO₂ desorption.     

Resistance switching memory in perovskite oxides

The resistance switching behavior has recently attracted great attentions for its application as resistive random access memories (RRAMs) due to a variety of advantages such as simple structure, high-density, high-speed and low-power. As a leading storage media, the transition metal perovskite oxide owns the strong correlation of electrons and the stable crystal structure, which brings out multifunctionality such as ferroelectric, multiferroic, superconductor, and colossal magnetoresistance/electroresistance effect, etc. The existence of rich electronic phases, metal–insulator transition and the nonstoichiometric oxygen in perovskite oxide provides good platforms to insight into the resistive switching mechanisms.     

Study on resistance coefficient in compound channels

This paper presents a further study of the Manning and Darcy-Weisbach resistance coefficients, as they play a significant role in assessing the cross-sectional mean velocity, conveyance capacity and determining the lateral distribution of depth mean velocity and local boundary shear stress in compound channels. The relationships between the local, zonal and overall resistance coefficients, and a wide range of geometries and different roughness between the main channel and the flood plain are established by analyzing a vast amount of experimental data from a British Science and Engineering Research Council Flood Channel Facility (SERC-FCF). And the experimental results also show that the overall Darcy-Weisbach resistance coefficient for a compound channel is the function of Reynolds number, but the function relationship is different from that for a single channel. By comparing and analyzing the conventional methods with the experimental data to predict composite roughness in compound channels, it is found that these methods are not suitable for compound channels. Moreover, the reason why the conventional methods can not assess correctly the conveyance capacity of compound channels is also analyzed in this paper.The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50279024), the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (973 Program) (2003CB415202) and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20030610039)The English text was polished by Ron Marshall     

Introduction of a biowaste/graphene oxide nanocomposite as a coating for a metal alloy based SPME fiber: Application to screening of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

The present study introduces a high efficiency metal alloy-based solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber coated with a green biowaste nanocomposite of chicken feet yellow membrane mixed with graphene oxide (CFYM/GO). An Al/Cr commercial heating element (aluchrom, AC) has been selected as the fiber substrate and designed as coiled form (CAC-SPME) to enhance its extraction and pre-concentration capacity. The fabricated fiber, CAC-SPME/CFYM/GO, has been employed for the extraction and pre-concentration of some commonly seen PAHs in different standard/real samples prior to their high performance liquid chromatography- ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) analyzing. The synthesized materials and the fibers surface were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis. Under the optimized experimental conditions, low detection limits (LOD, 0.039–0.30 µg L^–1), wide linear ranges (LR, 0.13–643 µg L^–1) and good relative recoveries (RR, 76.20–105.60%) were achieved for all the target analytes. The materials applied to prepare this fiber were low-priced and accessible and also eliminated the need for expensive coating substances. In addition, using of the AC alloy substrate was increased the fiber physicochemical resistance and solved the breakage drawback of the conventional SPME fibers. Moreover, simple fabrication, high rigidity, long service life and high extraction capacity were some of the other advantages of the suggested fiber. Therefore, the proposed method can be utilized successfully for the routine analysis of PAHs in different matrixes.     

Dielectric-breakdown-like forming process in the unipolar resistance switching of Ta2O5−x thin films

We report unipolar resistance switching (URS) in Ta₂O_5−x thin films. The current increased suddenly when we applied voltages up to 5-7 V to the pristine state of Pt/Ta₂O_5−x/Pt, Ni/Ta₂O_5−x/Pt, and Ti/Ta₂O_5−x/Pt cells. Just after this forming process, we observed a repetitive URS occurring independently of the electrodes. We found that the required voltages for the forming process did not depend on the top electrode type, but on the film thickness. These results suggest that the forming process is driven by a dielectric-breakdown-like phenomenon, and that URS occurs due to the formation and rupture of conducting channels inside the Ta₂O_5−x thin film.     

B原子的掺杂对富勒烯C32的电子传输特性与负微分电阻效应的影响

采用基于密度泛涵理论的第一性原理和非平衡格林函数方法研究了硼原子的掺杂对于富勒稀C32分子的电子传输特性与负微分电阻效应的影响．结果显示硼原子的掺杂明显改变了C32分子的电子传输特性和负微分电阻效应．同时研究了掺杂的硼原子的个数多少对C32分子的影响．