Thermal stability of lysozyme and myoglobin in the presence of anionic surfactants

The interactions of lysozyme and myoglobin with anionic surfactants (hydrogenated and fluorinated), at surfactant concentrations below the critical micelle concentration, in aqueous solution were studied using spectroscopic techniques. The temperature conformational transition of globular proteins by anionic surfactants was analysed as a function of denaturant concentration through absorbance measurements at 280 nm. Changes in absorbance of protein-surfactant system with temperature were used to determine the unfolding thermodynamics parameters, melting temperature, T _m, enthalpy, ΔH _m, entropy, ΔS _m and the heat capacity change, ΔC _p, between the native and denatured states.     

Normalized Dynamic Characterization and Application of Multiple Heat Storage Materials Based on Standard Thermal Resistance北大核心CSCD

基于标准热阻和能量流法,推导出储热材料与换热流体的瞬态换热热阻,通过类比电路分析法,获得了储热-换热过程的瞬态热量流模型及动态响应时间常数。进一步引入节点温度,重新定义换热热阻,获得了储热与换热过程耦合的三阶电路瞬态热量流模型,求解得到了加热、储热和释热三类时间常数,可用于协同表征储热材料中储热与释热的快慢程度,从而实现了多类储热材料的归一化动态表征。通过数值模拟验证与应用对比分析,发现基于多时间常数的归一化动态模型用于表征储热材料的动态特性是可行的,可直接对不同换热、储热材料进行对比分析。案例分析发现与固体储热材料换热时,液态金属的动态换热能力优于熔融盐,而相比于水蒸气和CO₂,空气与陶瓷材料换热能更快达到稳态。     

Orientation control of perovskite thin films on glass substrates by the application of a seed layer prepared from oxide nanosheets

Orientation control of perovskite compounds was investigated by the application of a seed layer prepared from oxide nanosheets. An aqueous suspension of oxide nanosheets was prepared by the exfoliation of a layered compound of KCa₂Nb₃O₁₀ oxide grains. A seed layer composed of (TBA)Ca₂Nb₃O₁₀ nanosheets (TBA = tetrabutylammonium) was formed on a glass substrate by simply dip coating it in the suspension. Two kinds of perovskite compounds, LaNiO₃ (LNO) and Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT) with a preferred orientation of (00l) were successfully grown on this seeded glass substrate. In this study, the relation between lattice mismatch and electrical properties is investigated. A large, oriented PZT film with a size of 5 ×4 cm shows an improved P-E hysteresis behavior by use of this orientation control.     

Hitting Time Problems of Sticky Brownian Motion and Their Applications in Optimal Stopping and Bond Pricing

This paper investigates the hitting time problems of sticky Brownian motion and their applications in optimal stopping and bond pricing. We study the Laplace transform of first hitting time over the constant and random jump boundary, respectively. The results about hitting the constant boundary serve for solving the optimal stopping problem of sticky Brownian motion. By introducing the sharpo ratio, we settle the bond pricing problem under sticky Brownian motion as well. An interesting result shows that the sticky point is in the continuation region and all the results we get are in closed form.

     

Safety Stock Determination with Serially Correlated Demand in a Periodic-Review Inventory System

We consider a periodic-review inventory replenishment model with an order-up-to-R operating doctrine for the case of deterministic lead times and a covariance-stationary stochastic demand process. A method is derived for setting the inventory safety stock to achieve an exact desired stockout probability when the autocovariance function for Gaussian demand is known. Because the method does not require that parametric time-series models be fit to the data, it is easily implemented in practice. Moreover, the method is shown to be asymptotically valid when the autocovariance function of demand is estimated from historical data. The effects on the stockout rate of various levels of autocorrelated demand are demonstrated for situations in which autocorrelation in demand goes undetected or is ignored by the inventory manager. Similarly, the changes to the required level of safety stock are demonstrated for varying levels of autocorrelation.     

Optimal Control of an <Emphasis Type="Italic">M/E</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis></Subscript>/1 Queueing System with a Removable Service Station

This paper studies the optimal operation of an M/E _k /1 queueing system with a removable service station under steady-state conditions. Analytic closed-form solutions of the controllable M/E _k /1 queueing system are derived. This is a generalization of the controllable M/M/1, the ordinary M/E _k /1, and the ordinary M/M/1 queueing systems in the literature. We prove that the probability that the service station is busy in the steady-state is equal to the traffic intensity. Following the construction of the expected cost function per unit time, we determine the optimal operating policy at minimum cost.     

An Algorithm for the Economic Design of <Emphasis Type="Italic">np</Emphasis> Charts for a Multiplicity of Assignable Causes

Chiu, in 1976, studied the economic design of np charts for processes subject to a multiplicity of assignable causes. Chiu developed a two-step minimization procedure to obtain the three control variables, namely, the sampling interval, the sample size and the acceptance number. Although Chiu's two-step minimization procedure is simple, applicable and down to earth, it is rather inefficient and has some drawbacks. This paper presents an algorithm to overcome these drawbacks. The results and the execution times of all numerical examples show that the accuracy and the efficiency of the algorithm is reasonably good.     

A Heuristic Decomposition Algorithm for Scheduling Problems on Mixed Graphs

We consider a scheduling problem where a set of n jobs has to be processed on a set of m machines and arbitrary precedence constraints between operations are given. Moreover, for any two operations i and j values a _ij >0 and a _ji >0 may be given where a _ij is the minimal difference between the starting times of operations i and j when operation i is processed first. Often, the objective is to minimize the makespan but we consider also arbitrary regular criteria. Even the special cases of the classical job shop problem J//C_max belong to the set of NP-hard problems. Therefore, approximation or heuristic algorithms are necessary to handle large-dimension problems. Based on the mixed graph model we give a heuristic decomposition algorithm for such a problem, i.e. the initial problem is partitioned into subproblems that can be solved exactly or approximately with a small error bound. These subproblems are obtained by a relaxation of a subset of the set of undirected edges of the mixed graph. The subproblems are successively solved and a proportion of the results obtained for one subproblem is kept for further subproblem definitions. Numerical results of the algorithm presented here are given.     

Availability Analysis of Repairable <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-Server <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">i</Emphasis></Subscript>-Replicated Systems

We develop an exact closed-form expression for the steady-state availability of a repairable, N-server system in which the ith server contains n _i identical, reconfigurable, breakdown-prone units. Our approach, which follows from the Markov chain balance equations and the recursive properties of Hessenberg matrix determinants, is simpler than previously proposed matrix geometric approaches, and can readily be adapted to the availability analysis of more complicated structures. We illustrate this by computing the steady-state availability of a mixed parallel-serial gracefully degrading replicated system.     

Clumping Data in 2-Way Tables: A User-Orientated Perspective

Following a critique of existing algorithms, an algorithm is presented which will re-organize a 2-way data table to bring like rows together, and like columns together. Extensions of the method are described, and justified, to accommodate distances measured in modular arithmetic, and with bipolar columns/rows, as in repertory grid analysis. One value of the algorithms is that the user can see relationships in the tables without the data in the cells themselves ever having been transformed. Thus, users will continue to feel they own their data.