Thermoelectric properties of plasma sprayed of calcium cobaltite (Ca2Co2O5)

The thermoelectric properties of calcium cobaltite deposits produced by the plasma spray process are investigated from room-temperature to 873 K. Synthesis of Ca₃Co₂O₆ and Ca₂Co₂O₅ powders were prepared by the solid-state reaction from CaO and CoO_x starting powders. During their subsequent plasma spray Ca particles experience preferential evaporation within the plasma, resulting in a complex interplay among process conditions, stoichiometry, and resultant phases. The as-sprayed material predominantly contains amorphous and secondary phases. Upon annealing, the deposits show sensitivity to phase evolution and therefore thermoelectric properties. Through screening studies, optimal annealing conditions were identified which show a p-type Seebeck coefficient value of 180 μV K^?1, electrical conductivity of 1.09 × 10⁴ S m^?1, thermal conductivity of 1.16 W m^-1 K^-1 at 873 K. The resultant figure of merit value reached 0.266 for this combination of processing and thermal treatment and is in line with data reported from other techniques for this system.     

Natural circulation characteristics of lead-based reactor under long-term decay heat removal

The natural circulation of primary coolant plays an important role in removing the decay heat in Station-Black-out (SBO) accident from reactor core to decay heat removal systems, such as RVACS and PHXS cooling, for lead-based reactor. In order to study the natural circulation characteristics of primary coolant under Reactor Vessel Air Cooling System (RVACS) and primary heat exchangers (PHXs) cooling, which are crucial to the safety of lead-based reactors. A three-dimensional CFD model for the China Lead-based Research Reactor (CLEAR-I) has been built to analyze the thermal-hydraulics characteristics of primary coolant system and the cooling capability of the two systems. The abilities of the two cooling systems with different decay heat powers were discussed as well. The results demonstrated that the decay heat could be removed effectively only relying on either of the two systems. However, RVACS appeared the obvious thermal stratification phenomenon in the cold pool. Besides, with the increase in decay heat power, the natural circulation capacity of primary coolant between the two systems had a significant difference. The PHXs cooling system was stronger than the RVACS, with respect to the mass flow of primary coolant and the average temperature difference between cold pool and hot pool.     

Should emoji replace emotion words in questionnaire-based food-related consumer research?

Emotion word questionnaires remain dominant in food-related emotion research despite acknowledged limitations. Emoji questionnaires can overcome some of these limitations but are not yet regarded as a strong alternative to emotion word questionnaires. We believe they have the potential to earn this right and use this invited opinion piece to explain why. Following a brief introduction about emoji, advantages of emoji questionnaires are summarised: – enhanced ecological validity, familiarity and cross-culturally shared meanings. We then address concerns that hinder uptake of emoji questionnaires, including emoji meanings/interpretations, appropriateness for older consumers and ability to represent emotional arousal (activation to deactivation). Finally, we offer suggestions for how to accelerate the uptake of emoji questionnaires in sensory and consumer science, which include: i) more applied studies using emoji questionnaires, ii) establishing emoji meanings in the context of eating of drinking, iii) adopting open-ended question formats, iv) comparing emoji and emotion word questionnaires, and v) establishing guidelines for emoji questionnaires. An important spill-over benefit of research to develop emoji questionnaires is that it exposes the lack of similar research for emotion word questionnaires. We encourage colleagues in the field to engage in the task of conducting needed methodological research on emoji and emotion words alike.     

A personal retrospect on three decades of high temperature fuel cell research; ideas and lessons learned

In1986 the Dutch national fuel cell program started. Fuel cells were developed under the paradigm of replacing conventional technology. Coal-fired power plants were to be replaced by large-scale MCFC power plants fuelled by hydrogen in a full-scale future hydrogen economy. With today's knowledge we will reflect on these and other ideas with respect to high temperature fuel cell development including the choice for the type of high temperature fuel cell. It is explained that based on thermodynamics proton conducting fuel cells would have been a better choice and the direct carbon fuel cell even more so, with electrochemical gasification of carbon as the ultimate step. The specific characteristics of fuel cells and multisource multiproduct systems were not considered, whereas we understand now that these can provide huge driving forces for the implementation of fuel cells compared to just replacing conventional combined heat and power production technology.     

基于语义的智能信息处理技术的研究

智能信息处理是模拟人或者自然界其他生物处理各种信息的行为,是当前信息处理技术向多样化、集成化与智能化方向的发展,具有很高的理论研究和应用价值.经过多年的研究和探索,智能信息处理技术已经取得较大的发展,但在实际应用中还存在许多问题需要解决和完善.分析了基于概念图的语义研究在智能信息处理中的应用,并设计与实现了一个基于概念图的智能答疑系统CGQAS,通过实验结果验证了基于概念图的智能信息处理的可行性和有效性.     

The ECHORD project proposals analysis – Research profiles,collaboration patterns and research topic trends

This paper investigates the research profiles, collaboration patterns and research topic trends which can be identified in the proposals submitted to the ECHORD (European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development) FP7 project. On a country level, clusters were identified and characterized by patterns of proposal production per inhabitant, score and international cooperation. Belgium and Sweden constitute a cluster characterized by high proposal production, with very high scores and extensive international collaboration. Belgium also excels from another cluster analysis, being as the only country where 100% of proposals involve industry–academia cooperation and obtain scores above 10. Other findings show that single partner proposals have significantly lower quality than multi-partner proposals but, on the other hand, the number of countries involved shows no influence on the quality of the proposals. Despite the high number of industrial participants present on the proposals, it is observed that they play secondary roles in the proposals, with a very low number projects leaded by companies. Also, it is observed that partnerships between research institutions (non-universities) are the most successful. Concerning topics of the proposals, the technology human–robot interface and the product vision robot for small-scale manufacturing are the most significant. Finally, the paper shows clusters of institutions extracted from the giant network of relations obtained from the ECHORD set of proposals.     

Artificial intelligence and other approaches to speech understanding: reflections on methodology

This paper characterizes the methodology of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by looking at research in speech understanding, a field where AI approaches contrast starkly with the alternatives, particularly engineering approaches. Four values of AI stand out as influential: ambitious goals, introspective plausibility, computational elegance, and wide significance. The paper also discusses the utility and larger significance of these values.     

STAT3及其肿瘤关系的研究进展

STAT3是一类具有信号转导和转录激活双重功能的蛋白,在人类多种癌症包括实体瘤、白血病、淋巴瘤、乳腺癌、胰腺癌、前列腺癌等多种癌症的发生发展中,都起到至关重要的调控作用。