An updated search of steady TeV γ-ray point sources in northern hemisphere using the Tibet air shower array

Using the data taken from Tibet Ⅱ High Density (HD) Array (1997 February--1999 September) and Tibet-Ⅲ array (1999 November--2005 November), our previous northern sky survey for TeV γ-ray point sources has now been updated by a factor of 2.8 improved statistics. From 0.0° to 60.0° in declination (Dec) range, no new TeV γ-ray point sources with sufficiently high significance were identified while the well-known Crab Nebula and Mrk421 remain to be the brightest TeV T-ray sources within the field of view of the Tibet air shower array. Based on the currently available data and at the 90% confidence level (C.L.), the flux upper limits for different power law index assumption are re-derived, which are approximately improved by 1.7 times as compared with our previous reported limits.     

Strategies for reducing large fMRI data sets for independent component analysis

In independent component analysis (ICA), principal component analysis (PCA) is generally used to reduce the raw data to a few principal components (PCs) through eigenvector decomposition (EVD) on the data covariance matrix. Although this works for spatial ICA (sICA) on moderately sized fMRI data, it is intractable for temporal ICA (tICA), since typical fMRI data have a high spatial dimension, resulting in an unmanageable data covariance matrix. To solve this problem, two practical data reduction methods are presented in this paper. The first solution is to calculate the PCs of tICA from the PCs of sICA. This approach works well for moderately sized fMRI data; however, it is highly computationally intensive, even intractable, when the number of scans increases. The second solution proposed is to perform PCA decomposition via a cascade recursive least squared (CRLS) network, which provides a uniform data reduction solution for both sICA and tICA. Without the need to calculate the covariance matrix, CRLS extracts PCs directly from the raw data, and the PC extraction can be terminated after computing an arbitrary number of PCs without the need to estimate the whole set of PCs. Moreover, when the whole data set becomes too large to be loaded into the machine memory, CRLS-PCA can save data retrieval time by reading the data once, while the conventional PCA requires numerous data retrieval steps for both covariance matrix calculation and PC extractions. Real fMRI data were used to evaluate the PC extraction precision, computational expense, and memory usage of the presented methods.     

ON THE IMPULSIVE BEVERTON–HOLT EQUATION AND EXTINCTION CONDITIONS IN POPULATION DYNAMICS

Abstract This paper is devoted to investigate extinction and nonextinction conditions of the extended Beverton–Holt equation (BHE) for dynamics of populations in Ecology when potential discontinuities at sampling points are included in the model. The proposed model is described by means of four sequences of parameters. Two of them are the intrinsic growth rate and the carrying capacity sequences which are included in the basic BHE model. The other two ones, namely, the harvesting (i.e., the hunting or fishing quota) and the internal consumption (which can include positive and negative migrations in the considered population habitat) sequences are included to parameterize the model discontinuities. Such discontinuities are related to impulses in the corresponding continuous‐time logistic equation. The obtained results establish how the harvesting quota and/or the internal consumption has to be fixed to guarantee the population nonextinction or, eventually, its extinction. Finally, some controllability results related to the search of a carrying capacity sequence such that the solution of the proposed impulsive BHE tracks a reference one are obtained.     

A two dimensional asymmetrical crack problem

The distribution of stress in the neighborhood of a Griffith crack located asymmetrically in an infinitely long elastic strip is considered. It is assumed that the edges of the strip are stress free and that the crack is opened by an internal pressure varying along its length. Expressions are derived up to the order of δ^?8, where 2δ denotes the thickness of the strip, for the stress intensity factor, the shape of the deformed crack, and the crack energy.     

Acoustical method of whole-body hydration status monitoring

An acoustical handheld hydration monitor (HM) for assessing the water balance of the human body was developed. Dehydration is a critical public health problem. Many elderly over age of 65 are particularly vulnerable as are infants and young children. Given that dehydration is both preventable and reversible, the need for an easy-to-perform method for the detection of water imbalance is of the utmost clinical importance. The HM is based on an experimental fact that ultrasound velocity in muscle is a linear function of water content and can be referenced to the hydration status of the body. Studies on the validity of HM for the assessment of whole-body hydration status were conducted in the Appalachian State University, USA, on healthy young adults and on elderly subjects residing at an assisted living facility. The HM was able to track changes in total body water during periods of acute dehydration and rehydration in athletes and day-to-day and diurnal variability of hydration in elderly. Results of human studies indicate that HM has a potential to become an efficient tool for detecting abnormal changes in the body hydration status.     

Ultrafast optical multidimensional spectroscopy without interferometry

We present here the details of a phase retrieval technique that provides access to multidimensional modalities that are not currently available using existing interferometric techniques. The development of multidimensional optical spectroscopy has facilitated significant insights into electronic processes in physics, chemistry, and biology. The versatility and number of available techniques are, however, significantly limited by the requirement that the detection be interferometric. Many of these techniques are closely related to the vast range of multidimensional NMR spectroscopies, which revolutionized analytical chemistry more than 30 years ago. We focus here on the specific case of two-color multidimensional spectroscopy (analogous to heteronuclear NMR) and discuss the details of an iterative algorithm that recovers the relative phase relationships required to perform the Fourier transformation and find the unique solution for the 2D spectrum. A detailed guide is provided that describes the practical implementation of such algorithms. The effectiveness and accuracy of the phase retrieval process are assessed for simulated one- and two-color experiments. It is also compared with one-color experimental data for which the target phase information has been obtained independently by interferometry. In all the cases, the present algorithm yields results that compare well with the solutions obtained by other means. There are, however, some limitations and potential pitfalls that are identified and discussed. We conclude with a discussion of the potential applications and further advances that may be possible by adopting iterative phase retrieval algorithms of the type discussed here.     

乙酸铵离心交换法和乙酸钙离心交换法测定土壤阳离子交换量

土壤阳离子交换量(CEC)的测定在农业中有重要的意义,对农业行业标准NY/T295—1995和NY/T1121.5—2006中的离心交换法测定土壤中CEC值的方法进行了优化,讨论了不同pH值的土壤样品对两种方法的选择依据,分析了CEC值测定重现性较差的原因。结果表明,pH值的范围是方法选择的重要依据,pH7.0的样品适合用乙酸铵离心交换法,pH≥7.0的样品则适用乙酸钙离心交换法。优化后方法的准确度和精密度有了较大的改善,实验中对各步骤的优化缩短了约40%的操作时间,减少工作量,适合于批量样品的准确测定。     

纳氏试剂测定水中氨氮影响因素的探讨

对国家生活饮用水标准检验方法"GB/T5750—2006"中涉及到的水中氨氮的检测条件进行了探讨,讨论了样品的采集与保存,影响显色、空白值的各项因素,并提出相应的解决办法。对国家标准物质以及实际样品的验证表明,方法的相对误差为0.03%~1.5%,相对标准偏差RSD为0.55%~5.3%,准确度也能满足分析要求,对国家标准方法进行了补充与细化,在实际工作中有参考价值。