Hong Huo

Wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) was used to investigate the effects of shear on the crystallization behavior of polypropylene (PP) with β-nucleating agent. The melt was subjected to shear at the shear rate from 0.5 to 60 s-1 for 5 s with a CSS450 shear stage. For the PP with low content of the additive, the formation mechanism of the β crystals is almost the same as that of pure isotactic polypropylene (iPP), viz., shear induces. Otherwise, for the samples with high content of the additive, the formation mechanism of the β form are nucleating agent induces. The results clearly show that shear restrains the formation of high β phase for the melt with additive.

In this work, a peptide derived from the rabies virus glycoprotein (RVG) was linked to siRNA/trimethylated chitosan (TMC) complexes through bifunctional PEG for efficient brain-targeted delivery of siRNA. The physiochemical properties of the complexes, such as siRNA complexing ability, size and ζ potential, morphology, serum stability, and cytotoxicity, were investigated prior to studying the cellular uptake, in vitro gene silencing efficiency, and in vivo biodistribution. The RVG-peptide-linked siRNA/TMC-PEG complexes showed increased serum stability, negligible cytotoxicity, and higher cellular uptake than the unmodified siRNA/TMC-mPEG complexes in acetylcholine receptor positive Neuro2a cells. The potent knockdown of BACE1, a therapeutic target in Alzheimer's disease, demonstrated the gene silencing efficiency. In vivo imaging analysis showed significant accumulation of Cy5-siRNA in the isolated brain of mice injected with RVG-peptide-linked complexes. Therefore, the RVG-peptide-linked TMC-PEG developed in this study can be used as a potential carrier for delivery of siRNA to the brain.

A dendrite-free Li deposition strategy is developed with a composite separator of MnCO3 coated porous polypropylene. Mn2+ ions are preferentially reduced to form Mn nanoparticles on Li anodes, which helped to reduce the nucleation overpotential and achieve a dendrite-free deposition of Li bulky grains. When MnCO3 contacts the Li metal anode directly, an in situ artificial solid electrolyte interphase passivating layer was created from the reaction of Li metal, MnCO3 and liquid electrolyte. Li metal anodes show significantly improved stability for more than 2000 h of plating/stripping in Li||Li symmetric cells. The homemade ultrathin Li films on Cu foils (Li@Cu), obtained by electrochemical Li deposition with PP/MnCO3 separators, give enhanced cycling stability in LFP||Li@Cu cells. Combined with gel polymer electrolyte, the cycling stability of quasi-solid-state LFP||Li@Cu was further improved. This strategy for dendrite-free deposition via a composite separator provides a low-cost but efficient choice for alkaline metal batteries.

Many fault detection and diagnosis schemes are based on the concept of comparing the plant output with a model in order to generate residues. A fault is deemed to have occurred if the residue exceeds a predetermined threshold. Unfortunately, the practical usefulness of model-based fault detection schemes is limited because of the difficulty in acquiring sufficiently rich experimental data to identify an accurate model of the system characteristics. This paper aims at developing a generic neurofuzzy model-based strategy for detecting broken rotor bars, which is one of the most common type of faults that may occur in a squirrel-cage induction motor. A neurofuzzy model that captures the generic characteristics of a class of asynchronous motor is the key component of the proposed approach. It is identified using data generated by a simulation model that is constructed using information on the name plate of the motor. Customization for individual motors is then carried out by selecting the threshold for fault detection via an empirical steady-state torque-speed curve. Since data obtained from a practical motor are used to select the threshold and not to build a complete model, the objective of reducing the amount of experimental input-output data required to design a model-based fault detector may be realized. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the viability of the proposed fault detection scheme.