The energy consumption of crushing is directly affected by the mechanical properties of cement materials. The elastic modulus, energy dissipation, recovery resistance and other mechanical properties of cement materials are evaluated based on the depth-sensing indentation method in this work. It is significant and efficient for engineering application. In results, the calculated elastic modulus is close to that measured by dynamic method, being used to verify the correctness of the calculated data. And the calculated energy dissipation of clinker is higher than that of limestone and granite, which can partially be used to explain why the grinding of clinker consumes a lot of energy in cement industry. The recovery resistance of clinker is almost identical to that of granite, more than that of limestone. It is found that the clinker, in contrast to granite and limestone, exhibits better plasticity and greater energy absorption capacity.

Background Although increasing the oocyte/embryo yield via an accumulation from consecutive stimulation cycles may be an effective approach towards improving IVF outcomes in POR patients, there are no robust data indicating the efficiency of the ‘accumulation scenario’ in women with a poor response undergoing IVF after multiple treatment cycles in a certain period of time. Methods This is a retrospective study of 276 infertile women in poor ovarian responders according to the Bologna criteria undergoing IVF between October 2016 to March 2020. Infertile women fulfilling the Bologna criteria in which at least two of the following three features (age ≥ 40 years, a previous POR, an abnormal ovarian reserve test) undergoing IVF were included. They used either embryo pooling (study group, n = 121) or conventional non-pooling strategy (control group, n = 155) at the discretion of the attending physicians. The primary outcome measure was the cumulative live birth rate (CLBR) of which the ongoing status had to be achieved within 24 months since ovarian stimulation. LBR was calculated by including the first live birth generated during the 24 months period whether via fresh or FET cycles. Results Implantation rate was significantly lower in the study group compared to that in the control group(17.4%vs27.8%, P = 0.002). The CLBR after multiple IVF stimulation cycle and subsequent fresh embryo transfer and /or FET cycles within 24 months follow-up were significantly lower in the study group compared to that in the control group (31.4% (38/121) and 43.2% (67/151), RR = 0.727; 95%CI: 0.528-1.000). The average time from ovarian stimulation to live birth was significantly longer in the study group compared to the control group (20.5(15.4–25.8) months vs.16(14.5–22.6) months respectively, P < 0.001). In Kaplan-Meier analysis, the cumulative incidence of ongoing pregnancy leading to live birth was significantly lower in the study group compared with control group (Log rank test, chi-square = 21.958, P < 0.001). Cox proportional hazard modelling revealed that the embryo pooling (HR = 1.896; 95% CI: (1.114–3.229), P = 0.018), age of women, number of stimulation cycles per woman (HR = 0.900; 95% CI:(0.849–0.955), P < 0.001) were strongly associated with the CLBR after adjusting other confounding factors. Conclusions The embryo pooling strategy can achieve significantly lower cumulative live birth rate when compared with the conventional non-pooling strategy. Moreover, the time to live birth was significantly longer in the embryo pooling group than the non-pooling group.

Adhesion is one of the most important mechanical properties of ceramic coatings. Scratch testing is considered as a simple and effective method to evaluate adhesion of ceramic coatings. In this paper, the critical normal forces and scratch morphologies for different coating-substrate systems were studied by scratch testing. It is shown that the critical normal force obtained by acoustic emission (AE) signals decreases from 12 N to 7 N when the applied normal force rate increases from 20 N/min to 100 N/min for CVD SiC on C, and the failure area of this scratched sample increases with increasing maximum normal force; Based on scratch morphologies, spallation or delamination can be observed for hard-brittle coatings on glass or metal, while discontinuous or continuous ductile perforation can be observed for ductile coatings on metal; The critical normal force for hard-brittle coatings can be effectively obtained by AE signals.

LPFBs are mainly applied in the lower party of glass furnace regenerator as checker works or walls. They are subjected to the loads of upper refractory materials at high temperature. So the creep behavior of them should be considered to predict the longevity of the regenerator. Two kinds of LPFBs were chosen as the test samples. It is shown that the creep rates of them under different stresses (0.1MPa, 0.2MPa, and 0.3MPa) and different temperatures (1200°C and 1280°C) are within 0.2%. LPFB1 with lower apparent porosity is more sensitive to temperature. LPFB2 is more sensitive to stress. The relationship between the creep and other mechanical properties is: the higher the Al2O3 content, the higher the bulk density, the lower the apparent porosity, and the higher the refractoriness under load of LPFB, the lower the total strain range of it. A model combined with phase diagram was built to analyze the microstructures and the creep curves with different shapes of the two LPFBs.

Elastic modulus of glass was measured using static method, dynamic method and Vickers indentation technique, respectively. The residual indent of Vickers indentation is analyzed to estimate the elastic modulus, using conventional hardness tester without load-depth curve. The modulus and hardness of glass are determined by load, deformation and residual semi-angle of the indent. The result is compared with the modulus obtained by conventional dynamic and static methods. It was shown that the modulus measured by dynamic method provides the highest value and the modulus obtained by indentation technique is between the values of dynamic modulus and static modulus. The result also shows that the modulus measured by dynamic method has very stable value and that measured by bending method has the lowest value. The modulus obtained in indentation tests shows relatively greater scatter.