Differentiating bulk nanobubbles from nanodroplets and nanoparticles

History has shown that it is not as easy as one might think to differentiate between bulk nanobubbles and nanodroplets or nanoparticles. It is generally easy to detect colloids (i.e. something that looks different, e.g. scatters light differently than its surrounding solvent), but less easy to determine the nature of these colloids. This has led to misinterpretations in the literature, where nanodroplets or nanoparticles have mistakenly been assumed to be nanobubbles. In this paper, we review a multitude of experimental methods and approaches to prove the existence of bulk nanobubbles. We conclude that combinations of optical detection with physical perturbations such as pressure or ultrasound, or phase-sensitive holographic methods are the most promising and convenient approaches.     

基于眼动追踪技术的高中生化学问题解决的差异性研究——以“氧化还原反应”为例

以氧化还原反应相关试题作为测试材料,采用眼动追踪技术对12名高一学生进行3(学业水平)*3(试题难度)两因素混合实验,实验结束后进行追述性口语报告。结果表明,在氧化还原反应问题解决过程中学优生信息加工速度快、深度浅、难度小,采用正向加工和逆向排除结合的策略。学中生信息加工速度慢、深度深、难度大,采用正向加工策略。学困生轻易放弃,信息加工无效。随着问题难度的增大,学生信息加工速度变慢、深度变深、难度变大。     

Fluidization characteristics of sawdust in a cold flow fluidized bed

India has abundance of biomass such as rice husk, bagasse, wheat straw, sawdust etc. which is used as a main or auxiliary fuel in the fluidized bed combustor, gasifier and pyrolizer. Design of such fluidized bed equipments require the knowledge of minimum fluidization velocity (U_mf), complete fluidization velocity (U_cf) and transport disengagement height (TDH). The present work reports the fluidization characteristic, U_mf, U_cf and TDH of the individual size groups of sawdust and mixture thereof. The results indicate that the U_mf and U_cf have a tendency to increase with increase in particle diameter, however the TDH shows the reverse trend. The sawdust particle size of 925 and 1200 ​μm showed significant difference between their U_mf and U_cf, an essential parameter for controlled fluidization. Based on the experimental work new correlations for the prediction of U_mf, U_cf and TDH for sawdust sample are proposed. The proposed correlations of U_mf, U_cf and TDH are in good agreement with experimental values and the deviations found within the range of nearly ±10% for all the samples.     

Bacteria and cancer cell pearl chain under dielectrophoresis

In this work, we aim to observe and study the physics of bacteria and cancer cells pearl chain formation under dielectrophoresis (DEP). Experimentally, we visualized the formation of Bacillus subtilis bacterial pearl chain and human breast cancer cell (MCF-7) chain under positive and negative dielectrophoretic force, respectively. Through a simple simulation with creeping flow, AC/DC electric fields, and particle tracing modules in COMSOL, we examined the mechanism by which bacteria self-organize into a pearl chain across the gap between two electrodes via DEP. Our simulation results reveal that the region of greatest positive DEP force shifts from the electrode edge to the leading edge of the pearl chain, thus guiding the trajectories of free-flowing particles toward the leading edge via positive DEP. Our findings additionally highlight the mechanism why the free-flowing particles are more likely to join the existing pearl chain rather than starting a new pearl chain. This phenomenon is primarily due to the increase in magnitude of electric field gradient, and hence DEP force exerted, with the shortening gap between the pearl chain leading edge and the adjacent electrode. The findings shed light on the observed behavior of preferential pearl chain formation across electrode gaps.     

Numerical simulations of viscoelastic particle migration in a microchannel with triangular cross-section

The migration of a spherical particle immersed in a viscoelastic liquid flowing in a microchannel with a triangular cross-section is investigated by direct numerical simulations under inertialess conditions. The viscoelastic fluid is modeled through two constitutive equations to investigate the effect of the second normal stress difference and the resulting secondary flows on the migration phenomenon. The results are presented in terms of trajectories followed by the particles released at different initial positions over the channel cross-section in a wide range of Weissenberg numbers and confinement ratios. Particles suspended in a fluid with a negligible second normal stress difference migrate toward the channel centerline or the closest wall, depending on their initial position. A much more complex dynamics is found for particles suspended in a fluid with a relevant second normal stress difference due to the appearance of secondary flows that compete with the migration phenomenon. Depending on the Weissenberg number and confinement ratio, additional equilibrium positions (points or closed orbits) may appear. In this case, the channel centerline becomes unstable and the particles are driven to the corners or “entrapped” in recirculation regions within the channel cross-section. The inversion of the centerline stability can be exploited to design efficient size-based separation devices.     

Investigation of viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microchannel

Microfluidic particle focusing has been a vital prerequisite step in sample preparation for downstream particle separation, counting, detection, or analysis, and has attracted broad applications in biomedical and chemical areas. Besides all the active and passive focusing methods in Newtonian fluids, particle focusing in viscoelastic fluids has been attracting increasing interest because of its advantages induced by intrinsic fluid property. However, to achieve a well-defined focusing position, there is a need to extend channel lengths when focusing micrometer-sized or sub-microsized particles, which would result in the size increase of the microfluidic devices. This work investigated the sheathless viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microfluidic channel. Benefit from the zigzag structure of the channel, the channel length and the footprint of the device can be reduced without sacrificing the focusing performance. In this work, the viscoelastic focusing, including the focusing of 10 μm polystyrene particles, 5 μm polystyrene particles, 5 μm magnetic particles, white blood cells (WBCs), red blood cells (RBCs), and cancer cells, were all demonstrated. Moreover, magnetophoretic separation of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles after viscoelastic pre-focusing was shown. This focusing technique has the potential to be used in a range of biomedical applications.     

Electrophoresis and electric conduction in a salt-free suspension of charged particles

The electrophoresis and electric conduction of a suspension of charged spherical particles in a salt-free solution are analyzed by using a unit cell model. The linearized Poisson-Boltzmann equation (valid for the cases of relatively low surface charge density or high volume fraction of the particles) and Laplace equation are solved for the equilibrium electric potential profile and its perturbation caused by the imposed electric field, respectively, in the fluid containing the counterions only around the particle, and the ionic continuity equation and modified Stokes equations are solved for the electrochemical potential energy and fluid flow fields, respectively. Explicit analytical formulas for the electrophoretic mobility of the particles and effective electric conductivity of the suspension are obtained, and the particle interaction effects on these transport properties are significant and interesting. The scaled zeta potential, electrophoretic mobility, and effective electric conductivity increase monotonically with an increase in the scaled surface charge density of the particles and in general decrease with an increase in the particle volume fraction, keeping each other parameter unchanged. Under the Debye-Hückel approximation, the dependence of the electrophoretic mobility normalized with the surface charge density on the ratio of the particle radius to the Debye screening length and particle volume fraction in a salt-free suspension is same as that in a salt-containing suspension, but the variation of the effective electric conductivity with the particle volume fraction in a salt-free suspension is found to be quite different from that in a suspension containing added electrolyte.     

基于ZigBee网络和超声定位的智能跟随小车

基于成熟的IEEE802.15.4协议和ZigBee无线模块,结合超声定位,设计了一种新颖的智能跟随系统。设计的核心为PIC18F4620单片机和MRF24J40MA无线收发模块,通过无线收发来完成节点间的识别与同步,同时以超声测距系统完成对被跟踪目标的定位,通过控制驱动电机动作实现对指定目标的定距离跟随。控制网络以子网的形式控制不同系统的分时定位跟随,同时管理各移动定位系统的入网和切换。样机测试结果表明系统达到了预期的跟随设计要求,具有一定的工程使用价值。     

二冷配水优化建模与混合自适应PSO算法求解

针对连铸二冷区生产环境复杂且存在着大量水雾干扰的情况,建立了连铸水量优化模型并提出了一种混合的自适应粒子群算法来求解连铸二冷水优化问题。依据冶金过程中的工艺要求建立了二冷水量优化模型,并在经典的PSO算法基础上提出了适合该问题求解了混合自适应PSO算法。由于连铸过程存在着偏微分方程约束,传统的优化方法容易陷入局部最优解,不能达到很好的动态优化效果。研究了粒子群算法,基于种群的多样性,不断的自适应的更新粒子群算法中参数,将禁忌搜索的方法和传统的粒子群算法结合,增强了算法的局部搜索能力和全局寻找全局最优的能力。将该算法应用到连铸二冷水动态优化中,实验结果表面该算法能够快速有效的求解该优化问题。该方法用于连铸二冷水优化是可行的、有效的。     

Marginal filtering in large state spaces

Recognising everyday activities including information about the context requires to handle large state spaces. The usage of wearable sensors like six degree of freedom accelerometers increases complexity even more. Common approaches are unable to maintain an accurate belief state within such complex domains. We show how marginal filtering can overcome limitations of standard particle filtering and efficiently infer the context of actions. Symbolic models of human behaviour are used to recognise activities in two different settings with different state space sizes. Based on these scenarios we compare the marginal filter to the standard particle filter. An evaluation shows that the marginal filter performs comparably in small state spaces but outperforms the particle filter in large state spaces.