Dynamic Bivariate Mortality Modelling

The dependence structure of the life statuses plays an important role in the valuation of life insurance products involving multiple lives. Although the mortality of individuals is well studied in the literature, their dependence remains a challenging field. In this paper, the main objective is to introduce a new approach for analyzing the mortality dependence between two individuals in a couple. It is intended to describe in a dynamic framework the joint mortality of married couples in terms of marginal mortality rates. The proposed framework is general and aims to capture, by adjusting some parametric form, the desired effect such as the “broken-heart syndrome”. To this end, we use a well-suited multiplicative decomposition, which will serve as a building block for the framework to relate the dependence structure and the marginals, and we make the link with existing practice of affine mortality models. Finally, given that the framework is general, we propose some illustrative examples and show how the underlying model captures the main stylized facts of bivariate mortality dynamics.

     

Unveiling the Layer‐Dependent Catalytic Activity of PtSe2 Atomic Crystals for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Two‐dimensional (2D) PtSe₂ shows the most prominent layer‐dependent electrical properties among various 2D materials and high catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and therefore, it is an ideal material for exploring the structure–activity correlations in 2D systems. Here, starting with the synthesis of single‐crystalline 2D PtSe₂ with a controlled number of layers and probing the HER catalytic activity of individual flakes in micro electrochemical cells, we investigated the layer‐dependent HER catalytic activity of 2D PtSe₂ from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. We clearly demonstrated how the number of layers affects the number of active sites, the electronic structures, and electrical properties of 2D PtSe₂ flakes and thus alters their catalytic performance for HER. Our results also highlight the importance of efficient electron transfer in achieving optimum activity for ultrathin electrocatalysts. Our studies greatly enrich our understanding of the structure–activity correlations for 2D catalysts and provide new insight for the design and synthesis of ultrathin catalysts with high activity.     

Polyepoxysuccinic acid with hyper-branched structure as an environmentally friendly scale inhibitor and its scale inhibition mechanism

In order to improve the scale inhibition efficiency of existing polyepoxysuccinic acid (PESA) and to study the impact of their molecular structure on scale inhibition efficiency, a series of PESA with linear and hyper-branched structure have been designed and synthesized through co-polymerization reaction with glycidyl and epoxy succinate. The scale inhibition behavior of PESA with linear and hyper-branched structure against CaCO₃ and CaSO₄ scales was evaluated using static scale inhibition method, and their ability to retard deposition of CaCO₃ was also examined. The experimental results showed that, for CaCO₃ and CaSO₄, the PESA with hyper-branched structure provides a scale inhibiting efficiency as high as 95.9% and 94.3%, respectively, at an inhibitor concentration of 15?mg/L. In addition, the processes of crystal nucleation, growth and crystal morphology have been analyzed. The experimental results show that the PESA with hyper-branched structure not only prolongs the induction period of CaCO₃ crystal nucleation, but also reduces the number of crystal nuclei and changes the size and morphology of the CaCO₃ crystal. Moreover, the FTIR, SEM and XRD analyses showed that the PESA with hyper-branched structure can induce the irregularity of growing CaCO₃ crystal, destroy the formation of crystals and change the polymorphs of calcium scale crystal. This conclusion indicates that the prepared PESA with hyper-branched structure has great potential for applying in the treatment of industrial water.     

Rational design of perfluorinated sulfonic acid ionic sieve modified separator for high-performance Li-S battery

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Practical application of Li-S battery is limited by the fast capacity decay and low coulombic efficiency caused by the shuttling phenomenon. Modification...     

新型稀磁半导体Fe掺杂LiZnP的光电性质

采用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理计算法研究了新型稀磁半导体Li_(1±)_y(Zn_(1-)_xFe_x)P (x=0, 0.0625;y=0, 0.0625)的电子结构、磁性及光学性质.结果表明,Fe的掺入使体系产生自旋极化杂质带,Fe的3d态与Li2s态,Zn4s态以及P3p态的态密度峰在费米能级处出现重叠,产生sp-d轨道杂化,此时体系净磁矩最大,材料表现出金属性,导电性增强.当Li空位时,导电性减弱,但杂质带宽度最大,居里温度最高.而Li填隙时,体系形成能最低,材料变为半金属性,表现为100%自旋注入,表明掺杂体系的磁性和电性可以分别通过Fe的掺入和Li的含量进行调控.对比光学性质发现,Li空位时,在介电函数虚部和复折射率函数的低能区出现新峰,扩大了对低频电磁波的吸收范围.能量损失函数表明掺杂体系具有明显的蓝移效应,且Li填隙时有更强的等离子共振频率.     

Pharmacokinetic study of tanshinol and ligustrazine in rat plasma after intravenous administration of tanshinol and Danshen Chuanxiongqin Injection

To investigate the effect of ligustrazine on the pharmacokinetic profile of tanshinol after intravenous administration in rats, a sensitive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for quantitative determination of tanshinol and ligustrazine in rat plasma. After prepared by protein precipitation, the analytes were separated on a Waters Acquity HSS T3 column (100 × 2.1 mm, 1.8μm) and eluted by 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile at a flow rate of 0.4 ml/min. The precursor–product ion transitions were m/z 197.0 → 135.0 for tanshinol, m/z 417.1 → 255.1 for liquiritin (internal standard) in negative ion mode and m/z 137.1 → 55.0 for ligustrazine in positive ion mode. To avoid the interference of tanshinol metabolite transformation, the stability of analytes in samples collected after administration was assessed. The validated method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study after intravenous administration of single tanshinol and Danshen Chuanxiongqin Injection. After Danshen Chuanxiongqin injection administration, the values of elimination half-time, area under the concentration–time curve and C_o were 0.36 ± 0.13 h, 1.29 ± 0.37 μg/ml h and 10.51 ± 2.58 μg/ml for male rats, respectively. In the single tanshinol group, the corresponding values were 0.56 ± 0.24 h, 1.85 ± 0.44 μg/ml h and 14.11 ± 2.26 μg/ml for male rats—30–40% higher than those for the Danshen Chuanxiongqin Injection group. There was a significant different between male and female rats. This study provided information on the influence of ligustrazine on the pharmacokinetic characteristics of tanshinol after intravenous administration of Danshen Chuanxiongqin Injection in rats, which will be helpful for its clinical application.     

Unlocking the Drug Potential of the Bryostatin Family: Recent Advances in Product Synthesis and Biomedical Applications

Bryostatins are a class of naturally occurring macrocyclic lactones with a unique fast developing portfolio of clinical applications, including treatment of AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. This comprehensive account summarizes the recent progress (2014–present) in the development of bryostatins, including their total synthesis and biomedical applications. An emphasis is placed on the discussion of bryostatin 1 , the most-studied analogue to date. This review highlights the synthetic and biological challenges of bryostatins and provides an outlook on their future development.     

Approximate solutions of the Alekseevskii–Tate model of long-rod penetration

The Alekseevskii–Tate model is the most successful semi-hydrodynamic model applied to long-rod penetration into semi-infinite targets. However, due to the nonlinear nature of the equations, the rod(tail) velocity, penetration velocity, rod length, and penetration depth were obtained implicitly as a function of time and solved numerically By employing a linear approximation to the logarithmic relative rod length, we obtain two sets of explicit approximate algebraic solutions based on the implicit theoretica solution deduced from primitive equations. It is very convenient in the theoretical prediction of the Alekseevskii–Tate model to apply these simple algebraic solutions. In particular, approximate solution 1 shows good agreement with the theoretical(exact) solution, and the first-order perturbation solution obtained by Walters et al.(Int. J. Impac Eng. 33:837–846, 2006) can be deemed as a special form of approximate solution 1 in high-speed penetration. Meanwhile, with constant tail velocity and penetration velocity approximate solution 2 has very simple expressions, which is applicable for the qualitative analysis of long-rod penetration. Differences among these two approximate solutions and the theoretical(exact) solution and their respective scopes of application have been discussed, and the inferences with clear physical basis have been drawn. In addition, these two solutions and the first-order perturbation solution are applied to two cases with different initial impact velocity and different penetrator/target combinations to compare with the theoretical(exact) solution. Approximate solution 1 is much closer to the theoretical solution of the Alekseevskii–Tate model than the first-order perturbation solution in both cases, whilst approximate solution 2 brings us a more intuitive understanding of quasi-steady-state penetration.     

三色圆偏振激光组合脉冲驱动氦原子产生椭圆偏振的阿秒脉冲

我们提出利用频率为ω,3ω和强度较弱的2ω组成的三色圆偏振激光组合脉冲驱动氦原子能够得到椭偏率较大的阿秒脉冲链的一种方法.通过强场近似方法,计算了氦原子在两色和三色圆偏振激光组合脉冲驱动下发射高次谐波谱及其合成阿秒脉冲链,比较了氦原子(初态为s态)在这两种情况下发射高次谐波谱的特点及其合成阿秒脉冲链椭偏率的大小,结果发现,在反旋的两色ω,3ω激光脉冲基础上加入了频率为2ω的第三色激光脉冲联合作用到氦原子上,所得到的阿秒脉冲链的椭偏率相对于双圆场情况下有所增加,通过调整ω,3ω激光的强度比,并且选择适当的第三色激光的强度,对初态为s态的原子,仍能够得到具有较大椭偏率的阿秒脉冲链.