Effect of Magnesium Addition and High Energy Processing on the Degradation Behavior of Iron Powder in Modified Hanks’ Solution for Bioabsorbable Implant Applications

This paper shows the results of applying a combination of high energy processing and magnesium (Mg) as an alloying element in a strategy for enhancing the degradation rate of iron (Fe) for applications in the field of non-permanent medical implants. For this purpose, Fe powder was milled with 5 wt% of Mg (Fe5Mg) and its microstructure and characterized degradation behavior. As-received Fe powder was also milled in order to distinguish between the effects due to high energy processing from those due to the presence of Mg. The powders were prepared by high energy planetary ball milling for 16 h. The results show that the initial crystallite size diminishes from >150 nm to 16 nm for Fe and 46 nm for Fe5Mg. Static degradation tests of loose powder particles were performed in Hanks’ solution. Visual inspection of the immersed powders and the X-ray diffraction (XRD) phase quantification indicate that Fe5Mg exhibited the highest degradation rate followed by milled Fe and as received Fe, in this order. The analysis of degradation products of Fe5Mg showed that they consist on magnesium ferrite and pyroaurite, which are known to present good biocompatibility and low toxicity. Differences in structural features and degradation behaviors of milled Fe and milled Fe5Mg suggest the effective dissolution of Mg in the Fe lattice. Based on the obtained results, it can be said that Fe5Mg powder would be a suitable candidate for non-permanent medical implants with a higher degradation rate than Fe.

Health Impacts of Air Pollution in Chinese Coal-Based Clean Energy Industry: LCA-Based and WTP-Oriented Modeling

The evolution of energy system occupies an important position in economic development and quality of life. Influenced by the energy endowment in China, developing the coal-based clean energy industry has been regarded as a guaranteed path to realizing the clean and efficient use of coal resources. However, an evaluation paradigm could systematically assess the health impacts of airborne pollution in this industry is still lack, which is our concern. Combining with life cycle analysis, probabilistic risk models, and health impacts models, this study proposes a series of models which are consistent enough to unite pollutant concentration, health risk, and health impact, and equip assessment results with more intuitive significance using life and economic loss. Further, case studies for three typical coal-based clean energy processing, namely, coal mining, coal-fired power generation, and coal liquefaction are presented to verify the reliability of these models. It is proved that this evaluation paradigm can help to find out the worksite, substage, and airborne pollutant with the most severe impact, and more importantly, the application of evaluation indicators with life and economic meaning is more profitable to provide references for minimizing or eliminating the health impacts, moreover, explicit the developing directions of the national energy industry.

Modelling of SEPIC, Ćuk and Zeta Converters in Discontinuous Conduction Mode and Performance Evaluation

High-order switched DC-DC converters, such as SEPIC, Ćuk and Zeta, are classic energy processing elements, which can be used in a wide variety of applications due to their capacity to step-up and/or step-down voltage characteristic. In this paper, a novel methodology for analyzing the previous converters operating in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) is applied to obtain full-order dynamic models. The analysis is based on the fact that inductor currents have three differentiated operating sub-intervals characterized by a third one in which both currents become equal, which implies that the current flowing through the diode is zero (DCM). Under a small voltage ripple hypothesis, the currents of all three converters have similar current piecewise linear shapes that allow us to use a graphical method based on the triangular shape of the diode current to obtain the respective non-linear average models. The models’ linearization around their steady-state operating points yields full-order small-signal models that reproduce accurately the dynamic behavior of the corresponding switched model. The proposed methodology is applicable to the proposed converters and has also been extended to more complex topologies with magnetic coupling between inductors and/or an RC damping network in parallel with the intermediate capacitor. Several tests were carried out using simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and using an experimental prototype. All the results validate the theoretical models.

The Inclusion of Power Gyrator Topologies as Energy Processing Cells in Photovoltaic Solar Conversion

This paper will provide a classification of high efficiency switching power-gyrator structures and their use as cells for energy processing in photovoltaic solar facilities. Having into account the properties of these topologies presented in the article, their inclusion in solar facilities allows increasing the performance of the whole installation. Therefore, the design, simulation and implementation of a Gtype power gyrator are carried out throughout the text. In addition, in order to obtain the maximum power from the photovoltaic solar panel, a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is mandatory in the energy processing path. Therefore, the practical implementation carried out includes a control loop of the power gyrator in order to track the aforementioned maximum power point of the photovoltaic solar panel.

Application of CO2-Assisted Polymer Compression to Polylactic Acid and the Relationship between Crystallinity and Plasticization

CO2-assisted polymer compression (CAPC) is an environmentally friendly processing method that uses CO2 to plasticize and crimp polymer fibers at room temperature, enabling low-energy processing within a short time. In this study, CAPC was applied to polylactic acid (PLA), a carbon-neutral polymer. To evaluate the relationships between CO2 plasticization and the crystallinity degree and plasticization of PLA, samples with different degrees of crystallinity were layered and simultaneously compressed to observe the most collapsed layer. The sample with lower crystallinity exhibited better crushing and higher plasticization than the crystallized samples. The PLA with high crystallinity developed cracks on the fiber surfaces with consequent loss of strength. Based on the results, CAPC is a potentially effective method for PLA with low crystallinity.

Simulation of the Circulating Motion of the Working Medium and Metal Removal during Multi-Energy Processing under the Action of Vibration and Centrifugal Forces

The rotational motion of the medium granules under the influence of an impeller installed in the bottom of a cylindrical reservoir is considered. The dependencies of the circulation velocity of the abrasive granules, as well as the dependence of the pressure in the circulation flow of the granules on the radius of the vibrating machine cylindrical reservoir for different speeds of the impeller rotation are obtained. Furthermore, the velocities of the abrasive granules at various distances from the center of the cylindrical reservoir of the vibrating machine have been determined. The amplitudes of the tangential and radial components of the velocity of movement of pseudo-gas from abrasive granules are obtained. The total pressure on the surface of the processed part and the average velocity of the abrasive granules colliding with it are determined. The graphical dependencies of the integral metal removal on the amplitude and frequency of oscillations of the walls of the vibrating machine reservoir are given for various values of the angular velocities of the impeller rotation.

The Improvement of the CurveCP Cryptography for enhancing the secure of Internet of Things

With the development of Information Technology, Internet of Things (IoT) has been applied widely in human civilization, but it leads the increase of the risk about information security. The traditional security solutions has revealed the lack of compatibility with IoT because of the difference about complex communication protocol, low energy, processing ability and limited memory. Therefore, the suitable IoT security solutions needs the balance between energy and costs as well as wide adaption for the various network protocols. Our research team, after had been under a long process of analyzing theoretical documents and operating simulated experiments, recognized that the Lightweight cryptography is the most optimal solution in new network platform generation. Our team also improved and implemented CurveCP which is one of these Lightweight cryptographies in the Wireless sensor Networks (WSN) so as to enhance data secure and information security of IoT System. This study describes briefly the improvement of CurveCP Lightweight cryptography by reducing length of cryptographic key as well as implement in IoT System. It also includes the simulation experiment, solutions evaluation, conclusion and future development.