[en] Graphical abstract: Zeta potential of oil-wet quartz powder treated with different surfactants at different concentrations. - Highlights: • Mechanisms of wettability alteration during surfactant flooding were studied. • Different analytical instruments were used to study sandstone wettability alteration. • Surfactants’ structure plays a great role in wettability alteration of solid surface. • CTAB irreversibly desorbs carboxylic acid from solid surface by ionic interaction. • Cationic surfactant is more effective in wettability alteration of sandstone surface. - Abstract: Different analytical methods including Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), zeta potential measurements, contact angle measurements and spontaneous imbibition tests were utilized to make clear the mechanism for wettability alteration of oil-wet sandstone surface using different surfactants. Results show that among three types of surfactants including cationic surfactants, anionic surfactants and nonionic surfactants, the cationic surfactant CTAB demonstrates the best effect on the wettability alteration of oil-wet sandstone surface. The positively charged head groups of CTAB molecules and carboxylic acid groups from crude oil could interact to form ion pairs, which could be desorbed from the solid surface and solubilized into the micelle formed by CTAB. Thus, the water-wetness of the solid surface is improved. Nonionic surfactant TX-100 could be adsorbed on oil-wet sandstone surface through hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interaction to alter the wettability of oil-wet solid surface. The wettability alteration of oil-wet sandstone surface using the anionic surfactant POE(1) is caused by hydrophobic interaction. Due to the electrostatic repulsion between the anionic surfactant and the negatively charged surface, POE(1) shows less effect on the wettability alteration of oil-wet sandstone surface

[en] Traditional wired electrical control method is applicable to simple control for the short-distance industrial equipment, but it is not suitable for the water source well of uranium mines requiring remote control. A kind of wireless remote control system based on high-speed radio modem communication technology was presented for the water source wells of a uranium mine, and the water source wells can be remotely controlled with the system. The component, implementation and characteristics of the control system are introduced. (authors)

[en] We consider a general N-soliton solution to a vector nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation of all possible combinations of nonlinearities including all-focusing, all-defocusing and mixed types. Based on the KP hierarchy reduction method, we firstly construct general two-bright-one-dark and one-bright-two-dark soliton solutions in a three-coupled NLS equation, then we extend our analysis to a vector NLS equation to obtain a general N-soliton solution in Gram determinant form. This formula unifies the bright, dark and bright-dark soliton solutions, which have been widely studied in the literature. The conditions for the existence of all types of soliton solutions with all possible combinations of nonlinearities are elucidated. (paper)

[en] Twenty novel tetramic acid derivatives (E)-3-(1-(alkyloxyamino)ethylidene)-1-alkylpyrrolidine-2,4-diones were synthesized by the reaction of 3-(1-hydroxyethylidene)pyrrolidine-2,4-diones with O-alkyl hydroxylamines. The title compounds were confirmed by IR, "1H NMR, MS and elemental analysis. The structure of compound 6r was further verified by X-ray diffraction crystallography. The bioassays showed that most of the title compounds exhibited noticeable herbicidal and fungicidal activities

[en] Two-dimensional planar PIV (2D2C) is still extensively employed in flow measurement owing to its availability and reliability, although more advanced PIVs have been developed. It has long been recognized that there exist perspective errors in velocity fields when employing the 2D2C PIV to measure three-dimensional (3D) flows, the magnitude of which depends on out-of-plane velocity and geometric layouts of the PIV. For a variety of vortex flows, however, the results are commonly represented by vorticity fields, instead of velocity fields. The present study indicates that the perspective error in vorticity fields relies on gradients of the out-of-plane velocity along a measurement plane, instead of the out-of-plane velocity itself. More importantly, an estimation approach to the perspective error in 3D vortex measurements was proposed based on a theoretical vortex model and an analysis on physical characteristics of the vortices, in which the gradient of out-of-plane velocity is uniquely determined by the ratio of the maximum out-of-plane velocity to maximum swirling velocity of the vortex; meanwhile, the ratio has upper limits for naturally formed vortices. Therefore, if the ratio is imposed with the upper limits, the perspective error will only rely on the geometric layouts of PIV that are known in practical measurements. Using this approach, the upper limits of perspective errors of a concentrated vortex can be estimated for vorticity and other characteristic quantities of the vortex. In addition, the study indicates that the perspective errors in vortex location, vortex strength, and vortex radius can be all zero for axisymmetric vortices if they are calculated by proper methods. The dynamic mode decomposition on an oscillatory vortex indicates that the perspective errors of each DMD mode are also only dependent on the gradient of out-of-plane velocity if the modes are represented by vorticity.

[en] We discussed the possibility of studying crust anisotropy by analyzing azimuthal variation of the receiver functions and presented a technique for computing the transmission response of a flat-layered medium with arbitrarily oriented hexagonally symmetric anisotropy using the reflectivity algorithm. Using this method we investigated the crust anisotropy of Taihang Mountain Range (TMR). Our result shows that there is significant anisotropy with a slow symmetry axis in the upper crust and a fast symmetry axis in the lower crust. The anisotropy magnitude of about 8%∼15% is found in the upper crust and a smaller magnitude of about 3%∼5% in the lower crust. Orientation of the symmetry axes and the depth of anisotropy appearance as deduced from the seismic records of four individual seismic stations are different from each other. The crust anisotropy beneath the four stations may be associated with the local crustal fabrics in a small area.

[en] To better understand repeatability of strong earthquakes in previously ruptured zones during one seismogenic period, we studied the rupture zones of the doublet of M6 earthquakes in Zhongba region of southcentral Tibet, China, in 11 July 2004 and 7 April 2005, respectively. We focused on the overlapping degree of two strong quakes’ aftershock areas one week after the mainshocks by using the SQH station in China Seismic Network and a 68-stations temporary broadband seismic array, a part of the international HI-CLIMB project. About 115 local earthquakes were recorded in one week after the mainquakes, and we located these earthquakes by master event relative location (MERL) method. We also used this method to relocate 31 other M3.7⁺ earthquakes from 1 July 2004 to 1 July 2005. Meanwhile, we studied two mainshocks’ coseismic ruptures with satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). Our results show that the ruptured zones of the two earthquakes do not overlapp substantially, either from early aftershock data or from InSAR inversions.

[en] The phase behaviors in a binary mixture of diblock copolymers confined between two parallel walls are investigated by using a cell dynamics simulation of the time-dependent Ginzburg—Landau theory. The morphological dependence of the wall-block interaction and the distance between walls (confinement degree) has been systematically studied, and the effect of repulsive interactions between different monomers is also discussed. It is interesting that multiple novel morphological transitions are observed by changing these factors, and various multilayered sandwich structures are formed in the mixture. Furthermore, the parametric dependence and physical reasons for the microdomain growth and orientational order transitions are discussed. From the simulation, we find that much richer morphologies can form in a binary mixture of diblock copolymers than those in a pure diblock copolymer. Our results provide an insight into the phase behaviors under parallel wall confinement and may provide guidance for experimentalists. This model system can also give a simple way to realize orientational order transition in soft materials through confinement. (condensed matter: structural, mechanical, and thermal properties)

[en] Transparent SiO₂-Al₂O₃-NaF-YF₃ glass ceramics co-doped with Er³⁺ and Tm³⁺ were prepared by melt quenching and subsequent heating. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy experiments revealed that β-YF₃ nanocrystals incorporated with Er³⁺ and Tm³⁺ were precipitated homogeneously among the oxide glass matrix. An integrated broad near-infrared emission band in the wavelength region of 1300-1700 nm, consisting of Tm³⁺ emissions around 1472 nm (³H₄→³F₄) and 1626 nm (³F₄→³H₆), and Er³⁺ emission around 1543 nm (⁴I_13/2→⁴I_15/2), was obtained under 792 nm laser excitation. The full width at half maximum of this integrated band increased with the increasing of [Tm]/[Er] ratio, and it reached as large as 175 nm for the 0.1 mol% Er³⁺ and 0.8 mol% Tm³⁺ co-doped sample. The energy transfers between Er³⁺ and Tm³⁺ were proposed to play an important role in tailoring the emission bandwidth of the sample

[en] The different confinement shapes can induce the formation of various interesting and novel morphologies, which might inspire potential applications of materials. In this paper, we study the directed self-assembly of diblock copolymer confined in irregular geometries with a soft surface by using self-consistent field theory. Two types of confinement geometries are considered, namely, one is the concave pore with one groove and the other is the concave pore with two grooves. We obtain more novel and different structures which could not be produced in other two-dimensional (2D) confinements. Comparing these new structures with those obtained in regular square confinement, we find that the range of ordered lamellae is enlarged and the range of disordered structure is narrowed down under the concave pore confinement. We also compare the different structures obtained under the two types of confinement geometries, the results show that the effect of confinement would increase, which might induce the diblock copolymer to form novel structures. We construct the phase diagram as a function of the fraction of B block and the ratio of h/L of the groove. The simulation reveals that the wetting effect of brushes and the shape of confinement geometries play important roles in determining the morphologies of the system. Our results improve the applications in the directed self-assembly of diblock copolymer for fabricating the irregular structures. (paper)