[en] The present article deals with the investigation of the oxidation kinetics of γ-aluminum oxynitride-Titanium Nitride composites (AlON-TiN) in the temperature range of 1100-1300 deg. C by thermogravimetry. Oxidation experiments with AlON-TiN composite plates have been carried out in air both in isothermal and nonisothermal modes. The results showed that the rate of oxidation was negligible below 1000 deg. C, and showed an increase with increasing temperature at higher temperature. Both isothermal studies as well as experiments with ramped temperature clearly indicated that the mechanism of the reaction changes around 1400 deg. C. In the nonisothermal mode, the oxidation curve showed an increased reaction rate in this temperature range. Oxidation of AlON-TiN composite results in α-Al₂O₃ and TiO₂ at a low temperature and Al₂TiO₅ at higher temperature. The buildup of the product layer leads to diffusion controlled kinetics. In the nonisothermal experiments, the phase transformation from Al₂O₃ and TiO₂, to a Al₂TiO₅ product layer at higher temperature would lead to crack formation, thereby leading to direct chemical reaction. From the experiments for the isothermal oxidation of AlON-TiN composite plates, the overall reactions are separated into three stages: chemistry reaction-controlling stage; chemical reaction- and diffusion-mixed-controlled stage; diffusion-controlled stage. The apparent activation energy for the experiments were calculated to be 10.109, 2.19 and 5.614 kJ mol^-1, respectively, in the above three stages

[en] This paper deals with the synthesis, microstructures and properties of γ-aluminum oxynitride (AlON). The thermodynamic properties of AlON were analyzed and the Gibbs energy of AlON with different compositions and temperatures were evaluated. Based on thermodynamic studies, AlON has been synthesized. The microstructures, mechanical properties and oxidation resistance of the synthetic AlON have been examined and discussed

[en] The influence of doping lanthana on valent state of CeO₂ surface has been studied by using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that La³⁺ doping in host CeO₂ lattice can promote to convert Ce⁴⁺ into Ce³⁺ and enhance adsorbing-carbonyl capacity of the materials. However, the inversion of Ce⁴⁺ to Ce³⁺ is depressed by dopant La³⁺ during argon ion bombardment

[en] Highlights: • Influences of DO, temperature and phytoplankton on OP were analyzed. • Transformation rate of total organic P increased with the increasing of temperature. • DO is more important for total organic P transformation at high temperature. • Transformation rate of Mono-P was increased by the growth of phytoplankton. Transformation of organic phosphorus (P) is directly related to a range of environmental factors, therefore exploring their relationships is vital to understanding the biogeochemical cycling of P and its significance in eutrophication of lake waters. In this study, a series of experiments were conducted to simulate the organic P transformation in the water under the influence of dissolved oxygen (DO), temperature and phytoplankton growth. Results showed that the transformation rate of total organic P increased with temperature, ranging from 0.02 to 0.25 mg L⁻¹ day⁻¹ at 5 °C, and from 0.04 to 0.72 mg L⁻¹ day⁻¹at 30 °C. The transformation rate of total organic P was significantly higher under anaerobic conditions than that under aerobic conditions at 20 °C and 30 °C, indicating that DO is a more important factor for the transformation of total organic P at the high temperature. However, different compounds of organic P responded differently to environmental factors. The change of orthophosphate monoester (Mono-P) content was consistent with that of total organic P when the temperature and DO were the same, but the transformation rates of phosphonate and DNA in the water were less affected by changes of temperature and DO. Additionally, the transformation rate of Mono-P was increased by the growth of phytoplankton when it was used as a P source. Although the relationships between alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and organic P are complex, ALP may be the main factor affecting the transformation of organic P at lower temperatures.

[en] In this paper, a novel hybrid plasmonic nanolaser with a metal ridge and a MgF₂ dielectric layer at ultraviolet band is demonstrated. The electric field distribution, the modal properties, the quality factor and the lasing threshold are investigated by using the finite-element method on the basis of the COMSOL Multiphysics platform. At the 390 nm working wavelength, the structure of the nanolaser can reach good deep-subwavelength mode confinement by optimizing its geometric parameters, while maintaining high quality factor and low propagation loss and low gain threshold. Compared to the previously reported structure with a metal plate, this structure has stronger capacity of field confinement and microcavity bound with the same geometric parameters. The structure shows potential to promote miniaturization and integration of lasers. (authors)

[en] This research is designed to investigate the regulatory effect of miR-18a to the target gene connective tissue growth factor (CTGF, or CCN2), by participating in TGF-β1 signaling pathway and explore the pathogenic mechanism of miR-18a in pulmonary injury induced by nano-SiO₂ based on our early study. miR-18a and expression of TGF-β1 in Chinese hamster lung (CHL) fibroblasts cells stimulated by supernatants of NR8383 cells exposed to 40 μg/ml nano-SiO₂ for 24 h demonstrated 1.58 ± 0.22-fold and 1096.00 ± 2.60 pg/ml increase compared with blank control group analyzed by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. Expression increase of miR-18a and reduction of CCN2 mRNA expression levels and protein gray value ratio detected by Western blotting in CHL cells transfect miR-18a mimics for 48 h. The reverse of CHL cell transfection miR-18a inhibit is also true. The result of miR-18a and CCN2 binding sites tested by luciferase reporter gene assay shows that the report relative fluorescence value of miR-18a mimics wild type on CCN2 is 0.50 ± 0.02 with the control of mimics NC and mutant relative fluorescence report value 0.86 ± 0.04 (P < 0.05). Expression levels of miR-18a, CCN2 mRNA, and protein gray value ratio decreased in CHL cells treated by TGF-β1, respectively, and vice versa treated by TGF-β1corepressor. The results suggest that CCN2 is the target gene regulated by miR-18a and miR-18a participates in TGF-β1 signaling pathway by regulating the expression of CCN2 negatively through CCN2 3’UTR site, and thus may be involved in the development process of pulmonary injury.

[en] In view of the strong correlation between amplitude and phase characteristics of Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier (TWTA) analog predistortion technology, a dual-branch vector synthesis predistortion linearizer is proposed, which consists of branch line hybrid couplers, an adjustable attenuator and a reflective diode-based predistortion circuit. This linearizer is fabricated and measured according to the theoretical analysis and simulation results. The measurement results show that the linearizer can compensate the nonlinearity of the TWTAs. Once the two branches bias voltages are rationalized, the phase expansion can change 30 degrees, while the change of the amplitude expansion is less than 1 dB, which effectively reduces the correlation between the amplitude and the phase characteristics of the analog predistortion linearizer. (authors)

[en] For the property and application of dye random laser, the relations among the random laser emission threshold, luminescent properties, number density change and particle size of fluorescence particles and additional scattering particles in disorder media were discussed. Using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method to solve Maxwell's equations and rate equations directly, the curves of number density and emission line changing with laser emission threshold were simulated. When the mass fraction of Rh6G-SiO_2 was 4% and the threshold was 8.5 μJ/pulse, the influence of additional TiO_2 particles on random lasing was small enough to be neglected. Furthermore, we also simulated the threshold characteristics of random lasing in variety of conditions and background media. (authors)

[en] The source, quantity and quality of sedimentary organic matter (SOM) were investigated in the surface sediments of Lake Fuxian, a deep oligotrophic lacustrine system in China. Granulometry, biochemical organic composition, bulk organic proxies and their stable isotopes were determined in the surface sediments (0–4 cm). The values of δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N and atomic ratio of total organic carbon to total nitrogen (TOC/TN) indicated that the sediments in the large partial lake were influenced by autochthonous organic matter. The concentrations of TOC, protein (PRT) and total hydrolysable amino acids may be mainly modulated by phytodetritus sinking from euphotic zones since they correlated significantly with chlorins. Otherwise, the lack of correlation between chlorins concentrations and carbohydrate (CHO) and lipid (LIP) indicated that the latter may have an additional terrestrial source. The highest sediment quantity was found in the deepest station NC owing to its fine sediment. Stations near northwestern shore accumulated more SOM than other littoral stations, which was in accordance with sewage discharge strength. Degradation quality indices, such as chlorin index, degradation index, PRT/CHO, and LIP/CHO, were in general agreement in showing the degraded status of SOM in Lake Fuxian. No clear spatial patterns were found in sediment degradation quality, which may be influenced by bottom oxygen concentration in the deep stations.

[en] Highlights: • The existence of optimal stationary policy is analyzed for the MDP model. • A novel reinforcement learning method is developed to handle the integrated model. • Impact analysis is carried out for the number of job types and machine states. • Results of simulations verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Preventive maintenance and production scheduling are two important and interactive activities in production systems. In this work, the integrated optimization problem of production scheduling for multi-state single-machine production systems experiencing degradation processes is investigated. Preventive maintenance tasks and jobs scheduling are jointly considered to find the optimal production policy by considering the processing costs, the maintenance costs, and the completion rewards, simultaneously. We formulate the integrated optimization problem as Markov decision process framework. R-learning algorithm is introduced to maximize the long-run expected average rewards per time unit over infinite horizon. On the basis of the analysis of the optimal stationary policy, the appropriate condition to perform preventive maintenance following optimal stationary policy is presented. This provides the basis for the improvement in R-learning algorithm. Furthermore, a novel heuristic reinforcement learning method is proposed to deal with the integrated model more efficiently. Finally, we present the simulation results and analysis of the proposed algorithm's performance in terms of the number of job types and machine states. The simulation results and analysis show the effectiveness of the proposed approach for solving the integrated problems.