The influence of heat treatment on the sliding wear behavior of a ZA-27 alloy

The effects of heat treatment, involving solutionizing at temperature of 370 °C for a relatively short period of time (3 or 5 h), followed by quenching in water, on tribological behavior of ZA-27 alloys were examined.Dry sliding wear tests were conducted on as-cast and heat-treated ZA-27 samples using block-on-disk machine over a wide range of applied loads. To determine the wear mechanisms, the worn surfaces of the samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The tribological results were related to the microstructure and mechanical properties.The heat treatment resulted in reduction in the hardness and tensile strength but increase in elongation. The heat-treated alloy samples attained improved tribological behavior over the as-cast ones, both from the aspects of friction and wear. The improved tribological behavior of the heat-treated alloys, in spite of reduced hardness, could be the result of breaking the dendrite structure, when the fraction of interdendrite regions was considerably decreased and a very fine α and η mixture was formed at the same time. The wear response of the samples has been corroborated through characteristics of worn surfaces and dominant wear mechanisms.     

Influence of winemaking techniques on the resveratrol content, total phenolic content and antioxidant potential of red wines

In this paper, the influence of winemaking techniques and cultivars on the resveratrol content, total phenolic content and antioxidant potential of red wines was studied. Wines were made from the cultivars Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Prokupac. Applied winemaking technologies included thermovinification and separation of must from pomace. The analysis of trans- and cis-resveratrol in wines was performed by HPLC, while the total phenolic content and antioxidant potential was determined by spectrophotometric methods. The total resveratrol content in analysed samples ranged from 0.35 to 4.85 mg/l; Merlot wines had the highest average resveratrol content, while the lowest was found for native cultivar Prokupac. Although the resveratrol content depended on grape variety, correlation between the winemaking technology applied and the resveratrol level in wines was not observed. The total phenolic content (TPC) varied from 544.4 to 1410.4 mg/l expressed as gallic acid equivalents, and the antioxidant potential, assayed by DPPH in terms of SC₅₀ (mean scavenging concentration), ranged from 0.58 to 2.91 μl/ml. Obtained results showed that thermovinificated wine samples had higher amount of phenolic compounds. Significant negative correlation was observed (p < 0.05) between the total phenolic content and SC₅₀, but there was no significant correlation (p > 0.05) between the resveratrol content and SC₅₀ or TPC. This study could contribute to the establishment of optimal conditions for producing red wines which contain more beneficial phenolic compounds.     

SDF-2-SDF Registration for Real-Time 3D Reconstruction from RGB-D Data

We tackle the task of dense 3D reconstruction from RGB-D data. Contrary to the majority of existing methods, we focus not only on trajectory estimation accuracy, but also on reconstruction precision. The key technique is SDF-2-SDF registration, which is a correspondence-free, symmetric, dense energy minimization method, performed via the direct voxel-wise difference between a pair of signed distance fields. It has a wider convergence basin than traditional point cloud registration and cloud-to-volume alignment techniques. Furthermore, its formulation allows for straightforward incorporation of photometric and additional geometric constraints. We employ SDF-2-SDF registration in two applications. First, we perform small-to-medium scale object reconstruction entirely on the CPU. To this end, the camera is tracked frame-to-frame in real time. Then, the initial pose estimates are refined globally in a lightweight optimization framework, which does not involve a pose graph. We combine these procedures into our second, fully real-time application for larger-scale object reconstruction and SLAM. It is implemented as a hybrid system, whereby tracking is done on the GPU, while refinement runs concurrently over batches on the CPU. To bound memory and runtime footprints, registration is done over a fixed number of limited-extent volumes, anchored at geometry-rich locations. Extensive qualitative and quantitative evaluation of both trajectory accuracy and model fidelity on several public RGB-D datasets, acquired with various quality sensors, demonstrates higher precision than related techniques.     

The New Therapeutic Approaches in the Treatment of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most prevalent chronic liver disease which is characterized by extremely complex pathogenetic mechanisms and multifactorial etiology. Some of the many pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the development of NAFLD include oxidative stress, impaired mitochondrial metabolism, inflammation, gut microbiota, and interaction between the brain-liver-axis and the regulation of hepatic lipid metabolism. The new therapeutic approaches in the treatment of NAFLD are targeting some of these milestones along the pathophysiological pathway and include drugs like agonists of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists, sodium/glucose transport protein 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, farnesoid X receptor (FXR) agonists, probiotics, and symbiotics. Further efforts in biomedical sciences should focus on the investigation of the relationship between the microbiome, liver metabolism, and response to inflammation, systemic consequences of metabolic syndrome.     

Customized Design of Scalable Microfluidic Droplet Generators Using Step‐Emulsification Methods

Customized monodisperse microparticles and microcapsules can be produced by combining microfluidic droplet generation with subsequent particle solidification. Established microfluidic devices for droplet formation like flow‐focusing structures or T‐junctions provide high reproducibility and controllability, but are often limited in terms of throughput or variability. A higher throughput by means of simple numbering‐up can be achieved by applying alternative droplet formation mechanisms like step emulsification. Using laser‐ablated glass reactors designed in‐house, comprehensive studies with varied step geometry and process parameters were performed in order to provide fundamental data for general calculation methods allowing the fast design of customized microfluidic droplet generators.     

Defensive Secretions in Three Species of Polydesmids (Diplopoda,Polydesmida, Polydesmidae)

Nine compounds were detected in three different millipede species: Polydesmus complanatus (L.), Brachydesmus (Stylobrachydesmus) avalae Ćurčić & Makarov, and Brachydesmus (Stylobrachydesmus) dadayi Verhoeff. Benzaldehyde, benzyl alcohol, benzoylnitrile, benzyl methyl ketone, benzoic acid, benzyl ethyl ketone, mandelonitrile, and mandelonitrile benzoate were identified by GC-FID and GC-MS analyses. Hydrogen cyanide was detected qualitatively by the picric acid test. Benzyl ethyl ketone, benzyl methyl ketone, and benzyl alcohol were detected for the first time in polydesmidan millipedes. Benzoylnitrile was the major component in all three hexane extracts. These compounds are suspected to be active in the defensive secretions of these millipede species.     

Improved coloristic properties and high NIR reflectance of environment-friendly yellow pigments based on bismuth vanadate

Herein, fine powders of yellow pigments based on BiVO₄ were successfully prepared in two crystalline forms, tetragonal zircon-structured and monoclinic scheelite-structured, through a ethylene glycol-assisted method subjected to a thermal treatment at two different temperatures. The obtained materials were brightly colored with different hues of yellow, exhibited high reflection in the near-infrared region and showed visible luminescence under excitation by UV light. The new preparation method had a considerable effect on chromatic properties of the prepared scheelite-structured BiVO₄ pigments. The sample with the most vivid and bright shade of yellow was found to have the L^*a^*b^* and L^*C^*_ab h^*_ab color coordinates of (87.28, 0.37, 91.53) and (87.28, 91.53, 89.79), which are indicative of exceptionally good chromatic properties superior and/or comparable to those of other inorganic yellow pigments, both commercially available and recently described. In addition, the NIR reflectance of this powder was very high (≥?80%).     

MCNP-ORIGEN耦合通用程序(MOCUP)的基准验证与实用化

本文的目的是将MOCUP程序实用化，以用于燃耗分析。选取了2个资料完整的基准问题以验证MOCUP程序本身和应用方法。一个基准题是压水堆的栅元燃耗问题(含3种状况)；另一个是快堆的燃耗问题。适当选取程序的有关参数后．将MOCUP的计算结果同实验结果和／或其它程序计算结果相比较．可得如下结论：①除极个别特例外，MOCUP程序计算得到的同位素成分结果处于其它程序计算结果的范围之内；②与实验测量数据相比。MOCUF程序计算得到的锕系元素浓度的误差均小于11％，绝大多数小于5％；裂变产物浓度的误差小于10％，除^149Sm之外；③MOCUP程序计算得到的反应性随燃耗变化的结果与所报告的其它结果吻合很好。     

A Model for Explosive Reactive Armor Interaction with Shaped Charge Jet

Study of interaction of explosive reactive armor (ERA) with shaped charge jet is the basis for evaluation of the effectiveness of ERA. The physically based theoretical model of this interaction is given. It is incorporated in the NERA computer code. The influences of backward moving plate and forward moving plate thickness, explosive layer thickness, jet attack angle, and distance between ERA and main armor are investigated. The comprehensive analysis of a longitudinal point of impact effect on ERA efficiency, based on NERA code calculations, is presented. Computational results of NERA code are compared with experimental data. The computational and experimental results of penetration in the steel armour target are in good agreement. The developed code enables optimization of explosive reactive armor characteristics.