Process Parameter Optimization for CO2 Laser Polishing of Fused Silica Using the Taguchi Method.

Fused silica was polished to a high quality by a CO2 laser beam with a rapid scanning rate. The rapid scanning rate produced a line laser heat source, resulting in a "polishing line" during the polishing process. The Taguchi method was used to evaluate the comprehensive influence of polishing process parameters on the polishing qualities. Four factors, namely the length of laser reciprocating scanning (A), laser beam scanning speed (B), feed speed (C), and defocusing amount (D), were investigated in this study. The optimal process parameter combination (A1B1C1D1) was obtained. The surface roughness of fused silica was reduced from Ra = 0.157 µm to 0.005 µm. Through analysis of variance (ANOVA), it was found that laser beam scanning speed (B) had a significant influence on the polishing quality. The interaction of the two factors plays a decisive role in the determination of the best process parameters, and the influence of other multi-factor interaction can be ignored; the interaction between A × B is the largest, with a contribution of 42.69%.

Accelerating the remodeling of collagen in cutaneous full-thickness wound using FIR soldering technology with bio-targeting nanocomposites hydrogel.

A novel composite wound dressing hydrogel by incorporating single-walled carbon nanotubes and indocyanine green into a dual-crosslinked hydrogel through Schiff base reaction was developed. The objective was to prevent wound infection and enhance the thermal effect induced by laser energy. The hydrogel matrix was constructed using oxidized gelatin, pre-crosslinked with calcium ions, along with carboxymethyl chitosan, crosslinked via Schiff base reaction. Optimization of the blank hydrogel's gelation time, swelling index, degradation rate, and mechanical properties was achieved by adding 0.1% SWCNT and 0.1% ICG. Among them, the SWCNT-loaded hydrogel BCG-SWCNT exhibited superior performance overall: a gelation time of 102 s; a swelling index above 30 after equilibrium swelling; a degradation rate of 100.5% on the seventh day; and a compressive modulus of 8.8 KPa. It displayed significant inhibition against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection in wounds. When combined with laser energy usage, the composite hydrogel demonstrated excellent pro-healing activity in rats.

Effect of femtosecond laser process parameters on the thermal denaturation degree of skin tissue.

The influence of femtosecond laser parameters on the degree of thermal denaturation was studied experimentally. The relationship between the degree of thermal denaturation and the characteristic parameters of skin microstructure and the secondary structure of skin tissue proteins in characterizing the degree of thermal damage was analyzed. The results showed the interaction of laser power, laser power, and scanning speed had a significant effect on the degree of thermal denaturation; greater degrees of thermal denaturation were associated with larger second-order moments of the texture angle of the skin microtissue and smaller entropy values and contrast, indicating a greater degree of thermal damage; and higher peak temperature, the lower peak intensity of Raman spectra, decrease in the percentage area of α-helix fitted curves and increase in the percentage area of ß-sheet and ß-turn fitted curves indicate that the protein is denatured to a large extent that means thermal damage is large.

Influence of Thermal Annealing on Mechanical and Optical Property of SiO2 Film Produced by ALD.

The application range of fused silica optical components can be expanded and the cost of fused silica components can be reduced by depositing the same material film on fused silica substrate. However, due to the different manufacturing process, the performance of ALD SiO2 film is lower than that of fused silica substrate, which also limits the use of this process. In this paper, ALD SiO2 film with different thicknesses were deposited, and then the structure and properties were tested. Finally, the ALD SiO2 film was treated via the annealing process. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that the ALD SiO2 film had good compactness and substrate adhesion. The Raman spectra showed that the ALD SiO2 film and substrate had the same structure, with only slight differences. The XRD pattern showed that ALD-fused silica did not crystallize before or after annealing. The infrared spectra showed that there was an obvious Si-OH defect in the ALD SiO2 film. The laser damage showed that the ALD SiO2 film had a much lower damage threshold than the fused silica substrate. The nanoindentation showed that the mechanical properties of the ALD SiO2 film were much lower than those of the fused silica substrate. After a low-temperature annealing treatment, the ALD SiO2 film Si-OH defect was reduced, the ALD SiO2 film four-member ring content was increased, the elastic modulus of the ALD SiO2 film was increased from 45.025 GPa to 68.025 GPa, the hardness was increased from 5.240 GPa to 9.528 GPa, and the ALD SiO2 film damage threshold was decreased from 5.5 J/cm2 to 1.3 J/cm2.

Research on evolution process of full-layer incision of skin tissue under different laser incidences.

Considering difficulties of achieving vertical incidence of beam in different positions of skin, it is significant to study potential effects of incidence angles of laser on incisions. Surgical platform with a 1064 nm continuous fiber laser was established. Incident angle was adopted and real-time temperature fluctuations in laser operating area could be monitored. The rats were treated with laser at day 0 and day 3 after incision modeling, and H&E, Masson, Sirius Red, and Immuno-histochemical staining and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were adopted at day 3, 7, 14 to analyze the performance of healing. Laser with energy density of 67.54 J/mm2 can effectively accelerate wound healing in vivo, in which a laser with incident angle around 60° can effectively avoid scar hyperplasia. Therefore, the use of low energy laser with a small deflection angle has a good clinical application prospect in promoting wound healing.

Experimental study on the mechanical properties and thermal damage of laser welding the ruptured flexor digitorum longus tendons.

To investigate the influence of laser parameters on the performance of tendon tissue, experiments were conducted and the process of laser-assisted tendon welding was studied. Several conclusions were drawn by analyzing the effects of laser parameters on the tensile strength, microstructure, and collagen content of tendon tissue incisions. The optimal parameters for laser welding tendon tissue were found to be a laser power of 5 W, a scanning speed of 150 mm/s, and a defocus amount of 0 mm, resulting in a laser energy density of 32.164 J/cm2 . At these parameters, the percentage of inactivated cells due to thermal damage was only 23.78%, and the tensile strength of the tendon tissue incisions reached 0.61 MPa. Additionally, the collagen content around the incision was measured to be 33.679%, composed of type I and type III collagens, with the latter accounting for 50.714% of the total collagen content.

Experimental study on the effect of scanning path on skin tissue properties of femtosecond laser welding.

To study the influence pattern of femtosecond laser scanning path on the welding effect of skin tissue, this experiment analyzed the influence of scanning path on the surface morphology, degree of thermal damage, tensile strength, and microstructure of skin samples after skin attachment by designing nine scanning paths to weld skin tissue. The results showed that the skin samples connected by interrupted parallel mattress eversion sewing method with d = 0.2 mm showed no obvious color changes in morphology, the skin samples were connected on both front and back sides, the tensile strength was the highest, reaching 12.80 N/cm2 , the thermal damage parameter was low at 1.08 × 10-2 , the microstructure had obvious directionality, and the texture was clear and uniformly distributed.

Research on the effect of process parameters on the performance of femtosecond laser-bonded skin microstructure.

In this paper, the effect of the femtosecond laser process parameters on the texture characteristics of the microstructure was analyzed with the response surface method. The correspondence between the temperature of skin during laser bonding and microscopic tissue texture characteristics parameters was explored. The results show that the three process parameters of laser power, scanning speed, and scanning times and the interaction between the parameters have different patterns of influence on the four texture characteristics parameters of skin microstructure angular second-order moments, entropy, contrast, and relevance. Angular second-order moments and relevance of skin microstructure textures increase with increasing temperature, while entropy values and contrast decrease. It provides another way to evaluate the performance of femtosecond laser-bonded skin with microstructure.

Coexistence of transmission mechanisms for independent multi-parameter sensing in a silica capillary-based cascaded structure.

The coexistence of transmission mechanisms, including Fabry-Perot (FP), Mach-Zehnder (MZ), and anti-resonant (AR), is demonstrated via a silica capillary-based cascaded structure. The analysis for MZ shows that one pathway is formed by the beam refracted into the silica capillary cladding from the air core, rather than being transmitted into the cladding directly at the splicing interface. Using the ray optics method, the two coexistence conditions are derived for FP and MZ, and for FP, MZ and AR, respectively. The existence percentages of the three mechanisms can be obtained using the fast Fourier transform. Finally, the coexistence of multiple transmission mechanisms is applied for independent multi-parameter sensing with the FP-based temperature sensitivity of 10.0 pm/°C and AR-based strain sensitivity of 1.33 nm/N. The third mechanism MZ interference can assist in verifying changes in both the temperature and axial strain. This shows the possibility to optimize the transmission spectra for independent multi-parameter sensing by tailoring the existence percentages of different mechanisms.

Effects of Concentration and Spin Speed on the Optical and Electrical Properties of Silver Nanowire Transparent Electrodes.

In this paper, silver nanowires (AgNWs) with a diameter of 40 nm and a length of 45 µm were dispersed into an ethanol solution to prepare AgNW solutions with concentrations of 1, 2, and 3 mg/mL, respectively. The AgNW solutions were then deposited on a glass substrate using spin-coating at 1000, 2000, and 3000 rpm for 45 s, respectively, to prepare transparent electrodes. The results showed that the distribution of AgNWs on the substrate increased in density with the increase in the AgNW solution concentration and the decrease in spin speed. The effect of concentration on the distribution of AgNWs was greater than that of the spin speed. The transmittance of each electrode was between 84.19% and 88.12% at 550 nm, the average sheet resistance was between 20.09 and 358.11 Ω/sq, the highest figure of merit (FoM) was 104.42, and the lowest haze value was 1.48%. The electrode prepared at 1000 rpm with a concentration of 2 mg/mL and that prepared at 3000 rpm with a concentration of 3 mg/mL were very similar in terms of the average sheet resistance, transmittance at 550 nm, FoM, and haze value; thus, these two electrodes could be considered equivalent. The haze value of the electrode was positively correlated with the spin speed at low concentration, but that relationship became inverse as the concentration rose. For the AgNWs used in this experiment with an aspect ratio of 1125, the concentration of the AgNW solution should reach at least 2 mg/mL to ensure that the FoM of the electrode is greater than 35.

The Crystallization Mechanism of Zr-Based Bulk Metallic Glass during Electron Beam Remelting.

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are promising for multifunctional and structural application in different industries. However, the limited size of BMGs hinders their further application. The welding of BMGs has shown the possibility of getting rid of the casting size limitation. The heat-affected zone (HAZ) and fusion zone (FZ) often undergo severe crystallization during the welding process. It is still unclear whether the crystallization occurs during the heating process or the cooling process. To figure out the crystallization mechanisms of Zr-based BMGs during the electron beam welding process, the Zr-based BMGs with the composition of Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 were remelted by electron beam. The microstructures of the HAZ and the remelting zone (RZ) were analyzed. The thermal field of the electron beam welding was obtained by the finite element method (FEM). The critical conditions for crystallization during the heating and cooling processes were obtained by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the Kissinger equation. The results show that the Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 in the HAZ undergoes severe crystallization, while the Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 in RZ keeps amorphous state after the remelting process. The low cooling rate in the HAZ is responsible for its crystallization.

[Maintaining mechanisms of riparian invertebrate biodiversity: A review]. / æ²³å²¸æ— è„Šæ¤ŽåŠ¨ç‰©å¤šæ ·æ€§ç»´æŒæœºåˆ¶ç ”ç©¶è¿›å±•.

Riparian zones, the critical ecological interfaces between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, are species rich habitats. However, riparian zones are seriously threatened by human activities in the world. Riparian invertebrates represent a large proportion of riparian biodiversity, perform various ecological functions, and provide an essential link between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Although many studies have investigated the riparian invertebrate communities, there is lacking a comprehensive summary of maintaining mechanisms underlying riparian invertebrate diversity. This review discussed seven characteristics of riparian zones that might support high riparian invertebrate diversity: flood and drought, nutrient, microhabitat diversity, riparian vegetation, microclimate gradients, food resources and river spatial gradients. Further, we summarized the maintaining mechanisms of riparian invertebrate diversity. Disturbances of periodic flood and drought trigger the reproduction and migration of invertebrates, increase the turnover of invertebrate communities, and create suitable conditions for riparian invertebrates. Adequate nutrients support a high invertebrate diversity by increasing primary productivity of riparian habitats. Elevated microhabitat diversity provides a variety of niche space for specialist riparian invertebrates. Strong microclimate gradients provide complex and diverse habitats and thus facilitate the coexistence of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates in riparian zones. Cross-ecosystem resource subsidies increase food availability and contribute unique food sources to riparian invertebrates. The differentiation of these factors along river longitudinal and lateral gradients provides conditions for the diversification of riparian invertebrates at a larger scale. Understanding the maintaining mechanisms of riparian invertebrate diversity is important for conservation of riparian biodiversity and integrated management of river ecosystems.

An ecological scenario prediction model for newly created wetlands caused by coal mine subsidence in the Yanzhou, China.

The ecological model we developed can simulate the state of wetlands and predict ecosystem development by varying both parameter settings and forcing functions. The newly created wetland resulting from large-scale coal mining is a distinct type of wetland, but existing ecological models for this wetland type are limited in number and scope. The Yanzhou coalfield, located in Shandong Province in China, contains a typical newly created wetland that came into being after coal mining subsidence. We developed an ecological model for this wetland that estimates values for four state variables: phytoplankton biomass (A), zooplankton biomass (Z), sediment biomass (D), and hydrophyte biomass (H). Analysis of the results showed that the model was sensitive to changes in nutrient loading. As nutrient loads increased, plankton biomass increased, and the ratio of zooplankton biomass to phytoplankton biomass (Z/A) decreased. We defined three prediction scenarios for the wetland and calculated their eco-exergies to compare the ecological effects for each scenario. The most effective measures to improve the state of the ecosystem are to reduce the subsidence depth and to decrease nutrient loading.

Diversity and Distribution of Riparian Arthropods in the Drawdown Zone of China's Three Gorges Reservoir.

Riparian zones are interesting habitats as they are important transitional zones between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, but highly threatened by human disturbances. They support a high arthropod diversity as they experience periodic flooding disturbance and sharp environmental gradients. Their associated arthropod fauna are of high conservation value. Nevertheless, their arthropod diversity remains largely unknown, and its distribution pattern along elevational gradients is poorly understood. Few data are available on the effects of flood regimes and other factors in determining riparian arthropod communities. In this study, we investigated the diversity and distribution of riparian arthropods along an elevational gradient and determined the major factors structuring the arthropod communities in the drawdown zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir, China. Significant compositional and structural changes of riparian arthropod communities were observed along the test elevational gradient. The abundance and richness of riparian arthropods increased with elevation. The relative abundance of predators decreased with elevation, whereas the saprovores and omnivores showed an upward trend along the elevational gradient. Redundancy analysis showed that there were significant interactions between the flood regimes, plant communities, and soil conditions. Among these environmental factors studied, flood duration was the main factor in structuring the riparian arthropod communities. Conservation and restoration strategies should consider flood duration in the operation of large reservoirs because riparian arthropods are particularly sensitive to flood regimes.

Biodiversity and temporal patterns of macrozoobenthos in a coal mining subsidence area in North China.

Coal resources play a strategic role in the long-term development of China. Large-scale mining has a considerable impact on the landscape, and it is a long-term heritage of industrialization unique to the Anthropocene. We investigated the macrozoobenthos and water in nine mining subsidence wetlands at different developmental stages (3-20 years) in North China. A total of 68 species were found, and the macrozoobenthos community in the newly formed wetlands showed high diversity. We believe that this high diversity is not random; rather, the high diversity was because of the special origin and development of the wetland. We used three time slices from the timeline of the development of the newly formed wetlands and compared them. It was found that the macrozoobenthos community was significantly affected by the change in the subsidence history. We emphasize that coal mining subsidence should not be merely identified as secondary man-made disasters, as they are often secondary habitats with high conservation value, and their conservation potential lies in the fact that these secondary habitats can replace rapidly decreasing natural wetlands.

Seasonal dynamics in the community structure and trophic structure of testate amoebae inhabiting the Sanjiang peatlands, Northeast China.

Peatlands cover 3% of the earth's land surface but contain 30% of the world's soil carbon pool. Microbial communities constitute a crucial detrital food web for nutrient and carbon cycling in peatlands. Heterotrophic protozoans are considered top predators in the microbial food web; however, they are not yet well understood. In this study, we investigated seasonal dynamics in the community and the trophic structure of testate amoebae in four peatlands. Testate amoebae density and biomass in August were significantly higher than those in May and October. The highest density, 6.7 × 104 individual g-1 dry moss, was recorded in August 2014. The highest biomass, 7.7 × 102 µg C g-1 dry moss, was recorded in August 2013. Redundancy analyses showed that water-table depth was the most important factor, explaining over one third of the variance in fauna communities in all sampled seasons. High trophic position taxa dominated testate amoebae communities. The Shannon diversity index and community size structure index declined from August to October in 2013 and from May to October in 2014. These seasonal patterns of testate amoebae indicated the seasonal variations of the peatlands' microbial food web and are possibly related to the seasonal carbon dynamics in Northeast Chinese peatlands.

Erratum: Daytime warming has stronger negative effects on soil nematodes than night-time warming.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep44888.

Daytime warming has stronger negative effects on soil nematodes than night-time warming.

Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, that is, stronger warming during night-time than during daytime. Here we focus on how soil nematodes respond to the current asymmetric warming. A field infrared heating experiment was performed in the western of the Songnen Plain, Northeast China. Three warming modes, i.e. daytime warming, night-time warming and diurnal warming, were taken to perform the asymmetric warming condition. Our results showed that the daytime and diurnal warming treatment significantly decreased soil nematodes density, and night-time warming treatment marginally affected the density. The response of bacterivorous nematode and fungivorous nematode to experimental warming showed the same trend with the total density. Redundancy analysis revealed an opposite effect of soil moisture and soil temperature, and the most important of soil moisture and temperature in night-time among the measured environment factors, affecting soil nematode community. Our findings suggested that daily minimum temperature and warming induced drying are most important factors affecting soil nematode community under the current global asymmetric warming.

Daytime warming has stronger negative effects on soil nematodes than night-time warming.

Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, that is, stronger warming during night-time than during daytime. Here we focus on how soil nematodes respond to the current asymmetric warming. A field infrared heating experiment was performed in the western of the Songnen Plain, Northeast China. Three warming modes, i.e. daytime warming, night-time warming and diurnal warming, were taken to perform the asymmetric warming condition. Our results showed that the daytime and diurnal warming treatment significantly decreased soil nematodes density, and night-time warming treatment marginally affected the density. The response of bacterivorous nematode and fungivorous nematode to experimental warming showed the same trend with the total density. Redundancy analysis revealed an opposite effect of soil moisture and soil temperature, and the most important of soil moisture and temperature in night-time among the measured environment factors, affecting soil nematode community. Our findings suggested that daily minimum temperature and warming induced drying are most important factors affecting soil nematode community under the current global asymmetric warming.

Secretory Expression, Purification, Characterization, and Application of an Aspergillus oryzae Prolyl Aminopeptidase in Bacillus subtilis.

cDNA coding a prolyl aminopeptidase (PAP) was cloned from Aspergillus oryzae and over expressed in Bacillus subtilis with a 6×His tag in N-terminus. The recombinant prolyl aminopeptidase was secreted to extracellular by adding 2 mM CaCl2 and 5% D-sorbitol in TB medium; the enzyme activity in fermented supernatant increased from 7.2 to 41.5 U mL-1. It has been purified 4.3-fold through Ni-chelating affinity chromatography with a recovery of 47.3%. The purified enzyme is stable below 50 °C and within pH 6-11, and with the highest activity at pH 7.5 and 50 °C. Several kinds of salt can activate enzyme activity in a certain concentration and the relative activity was 127.02% even when the concentration of NaCl reached 4.36 M. It cleaved N-terminal Pro residues from many peptides but shown different hydrolysis rates for various Pro-X dipeptides or peptides which are of different lengths. It combined with alkaline protease and leucine aminopeptidase to hydrolyze casein, many free amino acid especially proline and small peptide of hydrolysate increased significantly.