Socially responsible merchant operations: Comparison of shutdown-averse CVaR and anticipated regret policies

Commodity and energy production assets are managed as real options on market uncertainties. Social impacts of plant shutdowns incentivize balancing asset value with shutdown probability. We propose new shutdown-averse policies based on the popular dynamic conditional value-at-risk (CVaR). We analytically and numerically compare these policies to known shutdown-averse policies based on anticipated regret (AR). Our findings support the use of AR over CVaR to embed shutdown-aversion and the consideration of hybrid policies that are asymptotically time-consistent but easily interpretable.     

人参属中药腐解化感作用研究进展

人参、西洋参和三七为人参属近缘物种,形态和化学成分相似,均具有连作障碍的特性。人参属中药连作后,土壤环境逐渐变得不适宜其生长,植株长势变弱易患病,导致生长发育受到抑制,出现严重的根腐病、须根脱落,甚至植株死亡现象。而造成人参属连作障碍的主要原因之一是化感物质的自毒作用,人参残体降解物作为人参化感物质主要来源之一,会导致种子发芽率下降,种苗死亡率升高、根腐病等病害加重,最终造成连作障碍。在人参属中药连作过程中,通过化感物质与土壤交流,也会直接或间接影响土壤理化性质的变化。对人参属中药腐解化感作用的研究进展以及腐解对土壤成分的影响进行综述,以期为人参属中药腐解化感作用及土壤利用的相关研究提供借鉴。     

PBL教学模式在中美高校化学实验课教学中应用的对比研究

因课程设置、学情等不同, PBL教学模式在中美高校化学实验课的实施过程中各具特色。本文从教材、课程考核、师资培训、研究机构和基金等4个角度客观分析PBL教学模式在中美2国高校化学实验课应用中的差异,并在此基础之上提出,应该客观公正地看待这种差异,树立文化自信。     

矿物元素指纹图谱的建立及在西洋参产地鉴别中的应用研究

采用电感耦合等离子体质谱法测定了山东、吉林、美国和加拿大4个产地西洋参中50种矿物元素的含量,研究了不同产地西洋参矿物元素的差别和转换系数,构建了西洋参的矿物元素指纹图谱。以各产地矿物元素含量的平均值构建了山东、吉林、美国和加拿大产西洋参的矿物元素标准指纹图谱。采用SPSS 20.0计算了各西洋参矿物元素指纹图谱与其矿物元素标准指纹图谱的相似度,确定了山东、吉林、美国和加拿大产西洋参矿物元素指纹图谱的相似度阈值分别为0.93、0.91、0.98和0.93。通过比较未知产地西洋参矿物元素指纹图谱与矿物元素标准指纹图谱的相似度,进行西洋参的产地判别。采用20批未知产地西洋参样品验证模型的准确性,正确率为85%。此外,研究表明,不同生长年限和不同部位西洋参样品对所建立的西洋参产地鉴别方法无影响。     

Isolation of Volatile Compounds with Repellent Properties against Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) Using CPC Technology

The present work describes the use of Centrifugal Partition Chromatography (CPC) for the bio-guided isolation of repellent active volatile compounds from essential oils. Five essential oils (EOs) obtained from three Pinus and two Juniperus species were initially analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and evaluated for their repellent properties against Aedes albopictus. The essential oil from needles of P. pinea (PPI) presented the higher activity, showing 82.4% repellency at a dose of 0.2 μL/cm². The above EO, together with the EO from the fruits of J. oxycedrus subsp. deltoides (JOX), were further analyzed by CPC using the biphasic system n-Heptane/ACN/BuOH in ratio 1.6/1.6/0.2 (v/v/v). The analysis of PPI essential oil resulted in the recovery of (−)-limonene, guaiol and simple mixtures of (−)-limonene/β-pheladrene, while the fractionation of JOX EO led to the recovery of β-myrcene, germacrene-D, and mixtures of α-pinene/β-pinene (ratio 70/30) and α-pinene/germacrene D (ratio 65/45). All isolated compounds and recovered mixtures were tested for their repellent activity. From them, (−)-limonene, guaiol, germacrene-D as well the mixtures of (−)-limonene/β-pheladrene presented significant repellent activity (>97% repellency) against Ae. albopictus. The present methodology could be a valuable tool in the effort to develop potent mosquito repellents which are environmentally friendly.     

INFLUENCE OF ASIAN DUSTS ON THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOLS IN TAIWAN DISTRICT USING THE PENGHU ISLANDS AS AN EXAMPLE

1. Introduction In the early months of each year, Asian dusts transport frequently from Northwest China and Mongolia to the Pa-cific-Rim countries (Kagawa et al., 2001; Uno et al., 2002). It causes significant environmental effects such as ambient air quality deterioration, atmospheric visibility impairment, radiation energy reduction, mineral deposition, and acid rain neutralization (Terada et al., 2002; Zhang & An, 1999). During Asian dust periods, significant increases of atmos-pheric …     

Pathwise superhedging for time-dependent barrier options on càdlàg paths—Finite or infinite tradeable European,One-Touch,lookback or forward starting options

We establish pathwise duality using simple predictable trading strategies for the robust hedging problem associated with a barrier option whose payoff depends on the terminal level and the infimum of a càdlàg strictly positive stock price process, given tradeable European options at all strikes at a single maturity. The result allows for a significant dimension reduction in the computation of the superhedging cost, via an alternate lower-dimensional formulation of the primal problem as a convex optimization problem, which is qualitatively similar to the duality which was formally sketched using linear programming arguments in Duembgen and Rogers [10] for the case where we only consider continuous sample paths. The proof exploits a simplification of a classical result by Rogers (1993) which characterizes the attainable joint laws for the supremum and the drawdown of a uniformly integrable martingale (not necessarily continuous), combined with classical convex duality results from Rockefellar (1974) using paired spaces with compatible locally convex topologies and the Hahn–Banach theorem. We later adapt this result to include additional tradeable One-Touch options using the Kertz and Rösler (1990) condition. We also compute the superhedging cost when in the more realistic situation where there is only finite tradeable European options; for this case we obtain the full duality in the sense of quantile hedging as in Soner (2015), where the superhedge works with probability $1?\epsilon$ where $\epsilon$ can be arbitrarily small), and we obtain an upper bound for the true pathwise superhedging cost. In Section 5, we extend our analysis to include time-dependent barrier options using martingale coupling arguments, where we now have tradeable European options at both maturities at all strikes and tradeable forward starting options at all strikes. This set up is designed to approximate the more realistic situation where we have a finite number of tradeable Europeans at both maturities plus a finite number of tradeable forward starting options.¹     

胶黏剂中的化学*——2020年美国国家化学周活动介绍及启示

重点介绍2020年美国国家化学周——“胶黏剂中的化学”实验活动,对科学阅读和采访未来科学家活动作简要介绍。以此得出本次化学周活动对我国化学教学的几点启示:(1)大概念视角,加深结构化认识;(2)扎根实践,提高应用意识;(3)鼓励探析,深化本质意识;(4)跨界科学,渗透STSE理念;(5)精选主题,凸显微型项目;(6)勤研善思,塑造优秀品格。