A multi-stage financial hedging approach for the procurement of manufacturing materials

This paper addresses the problem of mitigating procurement risk that arises from volatile commodity prices by proposing a hedging strategy within a multi-stage time frame. The proposed multi-stage hedging strategy requires a commodity futures position to be correctly initialised and rebalanced with adequate volumes of short/long positions, so as to reduce the volatility in the total procurement cost that would otherwise be generated by varying commodity spot prices. The novelty in the approach is the introduction of the rebalancing of commodity futures position at defined intermediate stages. To obtain an efficient or near optimal multi-stage hedging strategy, a discrete-time stochastic control model (DSCM) is developed. Numerical experiments and Monte Carlo simulation are used to show that the proposed multi-stage hedging strategy compares favourably with the minimal-variance hedge and the one-stage hedge. A close-form optimal solution is also presented for the case when procurement volume and price are independent.     

Improved λ/4 phase-shifted DFB semiconductor laser with spatial hole burning compensation using grating chirp

A λ/4 phase-shifted distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor laser with a preformed chirped grating used to compensate the spatial hole burning (SHB) induced index change is proposed and analyzed. It shows that compared with the three phase shifted DFB laser which is known for its good performance to eliminate SHB, the proposed SHB compensated laser has better single longitudinal mode property, narrower spectral linewidth and better dynamic characteristics.     

Tunable multichannel drop filters based on the two-dimensional photonic crystal with oval defects

Light propagation through the channel filter based on the two-dimensional photonic crystals with oval-rod defects is studied by the finite-difference time-domain method. In addition to the traditional size tuning, shape alteration of the defects from the usual circle to the ellipse offers a powerful approach to tune the resonant frequency of channel-drop filters based on two-dimensional photonic crystals. It is found that the resonant frequency can be flexibly adjusted only by changing the orientation angle of the oval defects. The sensitivity of the resonant frequency to the alteration of the oval rods’ rotation angle is systematically studied. Because the rotation angles of the ellipse can be continuously adjusted, so the channel drop filter based on this kind of defects with different rotation angles is more suitable to the occasion where a large number of output channel filters is need.     

Self-Assembly Approach Towards MoS2-Embedded Hierarchical Porous Carbons for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Transition metal-based nanoparticle-embedded carbon materials have received increasing attention for constructing next-generation electrochemical catalysts for energy storage and conversion. However, designing hybrid carbon materials with controllable hierarchical micro/mesoporous structures, excellent dispersion of metal nanoparticles, and multiple heteroatom-doping remains challenging. Here, a novel pyridinium-containing ionic hypercrosslinked micellar frameworks (IHMFs) prepared from the core–shell unimicelle of s-poly(tert-butyl acrylate)-b-poly(4-bromomethyl) styrene (s-PtBA-b-PBMS) and linear poly(4-vinylpyridine) were used as self-sacrificial templates for confined growth of molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) inside cationic IHMFs through electrostatic interaction. After pyrolysis, MoS₂-anchored nitrogen-doped porous carbons possessing tunable hierarchical micro/mesoporous structures and favorable distributions of MoS₂ nanoparticles exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction as well as small Tafel slope of 66.7 mV dec⁻¹, low onset potential, and excellent cycling stability under acidic condition. Crucially, hierarchical micro/mesoporous structure and high surface area could boost their catalytic hydrogen evolution performance. This approach provides a novel route for preparation of micro/mesoporous hybrid carbon materials with confined transition metal nanoparticles for electrochemical energy conversion.     

科学认识论——化学教育研究的新议题

主要评述国外学生科学认识论研究的最新进展,如科学认识论的作用、概念、理论框架、测评与教学研究等;并据此探讨科学认识论对我国化学教育研究的启示,以期对中学化学教学改革以及化学教师教育提供有益借鉴。     

An efficient,scalable approach to hydrolyze flavonoid glucuronides via activation of glycoside bond

Hydrolyzing flavonoid glucuronides into corresponding aglycones posed some significant challenges. To improve acid-catalyzed hydrolysis process of flavonoid glucuronide, structures of glucuronide, hydrolysis parameters and post-processing were optimized. The optimized condition was performed by hydrolysis flavonoid glycoside methyl ester in a mixed solvent consisting of 2 mol/L H₂SO₄/EtOH/H₂O (1/8/1, v/v/v) at 95 °C for 7 h and resulted in up to 90% aglycone yields, minimal byproduct formations and milder hydrolysis conditions. Furthermore, the optimized method avoids tedious purification steps and is easily conducted on a relatively large-scale using economical and commercially available reagents.