ALBERT

Description: The predicted navigation satellite clock offsets are crucial to support real-time global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise positioning applications, especially for those applications difficult to access the real-time data stream, such as the low earth orbit (LEO) autonomous precise orbit determination. Currently, the clock prediction for the Chinese BeiDou system is still challenging to meet the precise positioning requirement. The onboard clocks of BeiDou satellites are provided by different manufacturers, and the clocks’ switch events are more frequent. Considering the satellite-specified and temporal variation of the BeiDou clocks characteristics, we intend to use an adaptive model for BeiDou clock prediction. During clock prediction, we identify different models for BeiDou clocks’ characteristics, and then address the optimal model with a cross-validation procedure. The model achieving the minimum variance in the cross-validation procedure is used for the final clock prediction. We compared the prediction results of our method with two well-recognized BeiDou ultra-rapid clock products, named GBU-P and ISU-P, respectively. The comparison results indicate that the adaptive model achieves about 1-ns precision for 3-h prediction, which corresponds to 47.3% and 32.1% precision improvement compared to the GBU-P and ISU-P products, respectively. The efficiency of the predicted clocks is further validated with the precise point positioning (PPP) data processing. The results indicate that the static PPP solution precision is improved by 21.6%–30.0% compared to the current predicted clock product. The precision improvement in kinematic PPP is even more significant, which reaches 46.7%–53.9% with respect to these GBU-P and ISU-P products. Therefore, the proposed adaptive model is a practical and an efficient way to improve the BeiDou clock prediction.

Description: Hirudin and its variants, as strong inhibitors against thrombin, are present in the saliva of leeches and are recognized as potent anticoagulants. However, their yield is far from the clinical requirement up to now. In this study, the production of hirudin variant 3 (HV3) was successfully realized by cultivating the recombinant Pichia pastoris GS115/pPIC9K-hv3 under the regulation of the promoter of AOX1 encoding alcohol oxidase (AOX). The antithrombin activity in the fermentation broth reached the maximum value of 5000 ATU/mL. To explore an effective strategy for improving HV3 production in the future, we investigated the influence of methanol assimilation on the general gene expression in this recombinant by transcriptomic study. The results showed that methanol was partially oxidized into CO2, and the rest was converted into glycerone-P which subsequently entered into central carbon metabolism, energy metabolism, and amino acid biosynthesis. However, the later metabolic processes were almost all down-regulated. Therefore, we propose that the up-regulated central carbon metabolism, energy, and amino acid metabolism should be beneficial for methanol assimilation, which would accordingly improve the production of HV3.

Description: The Nyquist folding receiver (NYFR) can achieve a high-probability interception of an ultra-wideband (UWB) signal with fewer devices, while the output of the NYFR is converted into a hybrid modulated signal of the local oscillator (LO) and the received signal, which requires the matching parameter estimation methods. The linear frequency modulation (LFM) signal is a typical low probability of intercept (LPI) radar signal. In this paper, an estimation method of both the Nyquist Zone (NZ) index and the chirp rate for the LFM signal intercepted by NYFR was proposed. First, according to the time-frequency characteristics of the LFM signal, the accurate NZ and the rough chirp rate was estimated based on least squares (LS) and random sample consensus (RANSAC). Then, the information of the LO was removed from the hybrid modulated signal by the known NZ, and the precise chirp rate was obtained by using the fractional Fourier transform (FrFT). Moreover, a fast search method of FrFT optimal order was presented, which could obviously reduce the computational complexity. The simulation demonstrated that the proposed method could precisely estimate the parameters of the hybrid modulated output signal of the NYFR.

Description: Monitoring nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) losses on farmland is essential for the prevention of agricultural non-point source pollution (NPS). This study was conducted on typical dry farmland in southern China to determine the effect of conservation tillage and conventional tillage (CT) on soil physical and chemical properties, nutrient movement, as well as on N and P losses. Four conservation tillage techniques (i.e., no-tillage direct seeding (NTDS), no-tillage transplanting (NTTS), minimum tillage direct seeding (MTDS), and minimum tillage transplanting (MTTS)), as well as one CT technique, were carried out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates each. The results suggest that MTDS and NTDS improved soil physical and chemical properties by ensuring adequate retention of these properties at the 0–20 cm soil depth. Low levels of N and P losses in runoff and drainage water were recorded under NTTS and NTDS compared to CT. Our results, therefore, suggest that conservation tillage approaches, such as MTDS and NTDS, are the most suitable tillage techniques for improving soil nutrients and reducing agricultural N and P losses while providing an eco-friendly and sustainable agricultural practice.

Description: The accessibility, quantity, and quality of water resources are the basic requirements for guaranteeing water resource security. Research into regional water resource accessibility will contribute to improving regional water resource security and effective water resource management. In this study, we used a water resource accessibility index model considering five spatial factors to evaluate the grid-scale water resource accessibility and constructed the spatial pattern of water resource accessibility in Southwest China. Then, we analyzed the coupling coordination degree between county-level water resource accessibility and eco-socio-economic water demand elements. The water resource accessibility showed obvious regional differences, and the overall trend gradually decreased from Southeast to Northwest. The coupling coordination degree between county-level water resource accessibility and eco-socio-economic water demand elements was between 0.26 and 0.84, and was relatively low overall, whereas the counties (districts) with high coordination, moderate coordination, low coordination, reluctant coordination, and incoordination accounted for 0.92%, 5.31%, 21.06%, 59.71%, and 13.00% of total counties (districts), respectively. Therefore, the Southwest region needs to further strengthen the construction of its agricultural irrigation facilities, protect the water resources, and coordinate the relationship between water resource management and water demand elements to comprehensively guarantee regional sustainable development.

Description: The overheat abuse experiment of a 12S1P 37 Ah prismatic Lithium-ion battery module in a nominal energy of 1.65 kWh is conducted in this work. The cell behaviors and characterization in the process of thermal runaway propagation is investigated, including the gas eruption, the fire ejection, the flame combustion, the audio features, and the heat transfer, respectively. In the experiment, the central cell is heated on both sides until the pole temperature moves beyond 300 °C, the thermal runaway undergoes about 43 min and propagates from the central to both sides in the module, and all 12 cells burn. Results show that the first three runaway cells spout gas at first, and, then, emit sound with close amplitudes, frequencies, and energies, about 200 s earlier than the fire ejection. Then, the characteristic of the internal short circuit is the temperature rate zone of 1.0 K/s with time greater than 20 s. Moreover, the proposed thermal propagation coefficient is used to assess the thermal propagation capabilities of the runaway cells on their adjacent cells, and this explains the runaway sequence. It is anticipated that the experimental results can provide the deep understanding, thermal runaway warning, and evaluation method for the module safety design.

Description: The determination of microscopic residual gas distribution is beneficial for exploiting reservoirs to their maximum potential. In this work, both forced and spontaneous imbibition (waterflooding) experiments were performed on a high-pressure displacement experimental setup, which was integrated with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to reveal the impacts of capillary number (Ca) and initial water saturation (Swi) on the residual gas distribution over four magnitudes of injection rates (Q = 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 and 1 mL/min), expressed as Ca (logCa = −8.68, −7.68, −6.68 and −5.68), and three different Swi (Swi = 0%, 39.34% and 62.98%). The NMR amplitude is dependent on pore volumes while the NMR transverse relaxation time (T2) spectrum reflects the characteristics of pore size distribution, which is determined based on a mercury injection (MI) experiment. Using this method, the residual gas distribution was quantified by comparing the T2 spectrum of the sample measured after imbibition with the sample fully saturated by brine before imbibition. The results showed that capillary trapping efficiency increased with increasing Swi, and above 90% of residual gas existed in pores larger than 1 μm in the spontaneous imbibition experiments. The residual gas was trapped in pores by different capillary trapping mechanisms under different Ca, leading to the difference of residual gas distribution. The flow channels were mainly composed of micropores (pore radius, r 〈 1 μm) and mesopores (r = 1–10 μm) at logCa = −8.68 and −7.68, while of mesopores and macropores (r 〉 10 μm) at logCa = −5.68. At both Swi= 0% and 39.34%, residual gas distribution in macropores significantly decreased while that in micropores slightly increased with logCa increasing to −6.68 and −5.68, respectively.

Description: Although most lotic ecosystems are groundwater dependent, our knowledge on the relatively long-term ecological effects of groundwater discharge on downstream reaches remains limited. We surveyed four connected reaches of a Chinese karst stream network for 72 consecutive months, with one reach, named Hong Shi Zi (HSZ), evidently affected by groundwater. We tested whether, compared with other reaches, HSZ had (1) milder water temperature and flow regimes, and (2) weaker influences of water temperature and flow on benthic algal biomass represented by chlorophyll a (Chl. a) concentrations. We found that the maximum monthly mean water temperature in HSZ was 0.6 °C lower than of the adjacent upstream reach, and the minimum monthly mean water temperature was 1.0 °C higher than of the adjacent downstream reach. HSZ had the smallest coefficient of variation (CV) for water temperature but the largest CV for discharge. Water temperature and discharge displayed a significant 12-month periodicity in all reaches not directly groundwater influenced. Only water temperature displayed such periodicity in HSZ. Water temperature was an important predictor of temporal variation in Chl. a in all reaches, but its influence was weakest in HSZ. Our findings demonstrate that longer survey data can provide insight into groundwater–surface water interactions.

Description: The security of wireless sensor networks (WSN) has become a great challenge due to the transmission of sensor data through an open and wireless network with limited resources. In the paper, we discussed a lightweight security scheme to protect the confidentiality of data transmission between sensors and an ally fusion center (AFC) over insecure links. For the typical security problem of WSN’s binary hypothesis testing of a target’s state, sensors were divided into flipping and non-flipping groups according to the outputs of a pseudo-random function which was held by sensors and the AFC. Then in order to prevent an enemy fusion center (EFC) from eavesdropping, the binary outputs from the flipping group were intentionally flipped to hinder the EFC’s data fusion. Accordingly, the AFC performed inverse flipping to recover the flipped data before data fusion. We extended the scheme to a more common scenario with multiple scales of sensor quantification and candidate states. The underlying idea was that the sensor measurements were randomly mapped to other quantification scales using a mapping matrix, which ensured that as long as the EFC was not aware of the matrix, it could not distract any useful information from the captured data, while the AFC could appropriately perform data fusion based on the inverse mapping of the sensor outputs.

Description: BaTiO3/polymer/Al (BPA) composite films for energy storage were fabricated by way of a roll coating and thermal curing process. The coating slurry consisted of silicon-containing heat-resistant resin (CYN-01) and BaTiO3 particles with various particle sizes obtained from commercial BaTiO3 powders processed at different durations of wet sand grinding in the presence of silane coupling agent (KH550), which not only improves the dielectric performance of the BPA films but also facilitates its production in a large scale. The major influence factors, such as the ratio between BaTiO3 and resin and the size of BaTiO3 particles, were investigated and their related mechanisms were discussed. The results show that modifying BaTiO3 particles (D90 = 0.83 μm) with the silane coupling agent of KH550 enhances the dielectric properties of the BPA films. The typical BPA films obtained exhibit a high dielectric constant of 32, a high break strength of 20.8 V/μm and a low dielectric loss of 0.014. The present work provides a simple and convenient way to prepare high-quality ceramic/polymer composite films for energy-storage application in a large scale.