Variable selection and estimation using a continuous approximation to the $$L_0$$ penalty

Variable selection problems are typically addressed under the regularization framework. In this paper, an exponential type penalty which very closely resembles the \(L_0\) penalty is proposed, we called it EXP penalty. The EXP penalized least squares procedure is shown to consistently select the correct model and is asymptotically normal, provided the number of variables grows slower than the number of observations. EXP is efficiently implemented using a coordinate descent algorithm. Furthermore, we propose a modified BIC tuning parameter selection method for EXP and show that it consistently identifies the correct model, while allowing the number of variables to diverge. Simulation results and data example show that the EXP procedure performs very well in a variety of settings.     

A REVIEW OF OXYGEN-CONTAINING SURFACE GROUPS AND SURFACE MODIFICATION OF ACTIVATED CARBON

1. INTRODUCTION Activated carbons (ACs) have been widely used as adsorbents in environmental protection, e.g. removing organic or inorganic pollutants from liquid effluents and voltaic organic compounds (VOCs) from polluted air. It has been well known that the adsorptive capacity of ACs is not only determined by its textural properties (e.g. specific surface area, pore size distribution, pore volume), but also related to its surface chemistry. Many studies have demonstrated that the ad…     

INVESTIGATION OF THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN WATER AND MODIFIED SILICA GEL BY IGC AND TPD

1. INTRODUCTIONSilica gel is an amorphous inorganic polymer composed of siloxane (Si-O-Si) groups in the inner region and silanol (Si-OH) groups distributed on the surface [1]. Silanol groups can be easily functionalized by different chemical procedures. …     

Total synthesis of (-)-apicularen A

Complete details of an asymmetric synthesis of apicularen (1) are described. The synthesis has been accomplished using a highly diastereo- and enantioselective [4 + 2] annulation for the assembly of the functionalized pyran core. An underdeveloped lactonization method involving an NaH promoted transesterification of an advanced intermediate bearing an aryl cyanomethyl ester was used for the macrolactonization step.     

一类有限阶可解完全群

It has been shown in the present paper that the automorphism group of the group of upper triangular matrices (a_ij) with entries in the finite field F_q(q=p^m,q>2, P is prime) and with α₁₁=1 is solvable and complete.     

Cationic Gemini surfactant at the air/water interface

The surface properties and structures of a cationic Gemini surfactant with a rigid spacer, p-xylyl-bis(dimethyloctadecylammonium bromide) ([C(18)H(37)(CH(3))(2)N(+)CH(2)C(6)H(4)CH(2)N(+)(CH(3))(2)C(18)H(37)],2Br(-), abbreviated as 18-Ar-18,2Br(-1)), at the air/water interface were investigated. It is found that the surface pressure-molecular area isotherms observed at different temperatures do not exhibit a plateau region but display an unusual "kink" before collapse. The range of the corresponding minimum compressibility and maximum compressibility modulus indicates that the monolayer is in the liquid-expanded state. The monolayers were transferred onto mica and quartz plates by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. The structures of monolayers at various surface pressures were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and UV-vis spectroscopy, respectively. AFM measurements show that at lower surface pressures, unlike the structures of complex or hybrid films formed by Gemini amphiphiles with DNA, dye, or inorganic materials or the Langmuir film formed by the nonionic Gemini surfactant, in this case network-like labyrinthine interconnected ridges are formed. The formation of the structures can be interpreted in terms of the spinodal decomposition mechanism. With the increase of the surface pressure up to 35 mN/m, surface micelles dispersed in the network-like ridges gradually appear which might be caused by both the spinodal decomposition and dewetting. The UV-vis adsorption shows that over the whole range of surface pressures, the molecules form a J-aggregate in LB films, which implies that the spacers construct a pi-pi aromatic stacking. This pi-pi interaction between spacers and the van der Waals interaction between hydrophobic chains lead to the formation of both networks and micelles. The labyrinthine interconnected ridges are formed first because of the rapid evaporation of solvent during the spreading processes; with increasing surface pressure, some of the alkyl chains reorient from tilting to vertical, forming surface micelles dispersed in the network-like ridges due to the strong interaction among film molecules.     

Synthesis of NaYF4 nanocrystals doped with Yb/Er and influence of citric acid on the green and red luminescence

In this paper, NaYF₄ nanocrystals doped with Yb³⁺ and Er³⁺ were synthesized in a medium containing polyethylene glycol and citric acid. This nanocrystal presents up-converting green and red emission bands which were simultaneously observed under the excitation of a 980 infrared diode laser. Mainly, the green to red ratio (GRR) of the up-conversion emission of the hexagonal NaYF₄ nanocrystals doped with Yb³⁺ and Er³⁺ can be finely tuned by changing the content of citric acid to be nearly an arithmetic progression, i.e. 6/4, 5/4, 4/4, and 3/4. The further analysis revealed that citric acid plays a key role in improving the surface crystallinity of NaYF₄ nanocrystals doped with Yb³⁺ and Er³⁺, to which the achievement of fine controlling on GRR is ascribed.     

Hydrogen evolution via sunlight water splitting on an artificial butterfly wing architecture

A prototype of nature's butterfly wing architecture using Pt loaded TiO(2) is provided and demonstrated to be able to enhance the hydrogen evolution rate by 2.3 times in sunlight water splitting. This is due to advantages brought about by the hierarchical architecture in both meso scope and nano scope.     

Density functional theory study on the interaction between metalloporphyrins and NH3

The binding behaviors of eight bivalent metalloporphyrins (MPs) (M?Zn, Mg, Cu, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cd) with NH₃ were investigated by density functional theory. For both MPs and corresponding complexes MPs‐NH₃, good linear correlations are found between the partial charge on metal M and that on atom N (nitrogen of porphyrin) as well as the M? N bond length. Natural population and frontier orbital analysis demonstrate that charge transfer in CoP‐NH₃ is much easier and greater. As a consequence of the charge transfer and the hybridization of molecular energy levels, striking disparities of electronic properties of MPs‐NH₃ are observed. Particularly, a modest linear relationship is obtained between the magnitude of charge transfer and the binding energy. The much greater Fukui functions of CoP, together with its larger binding strength, suggest that CoP is more favorable to the interaction with NH₃, which might be a promising sensing material to response NH₃. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Experimental investigation of jointed rock breaking under a disc cutter with different confining stresses

Extensive and detailed investigations have been made to better understand the rock-breaking mechanism of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) disc cutter, but the crack propagation and failure modes induced by the disc cutter when the confining stresses and joint characteristics vary have not been comprehensively investigated. To address this area of research, a triaxial testing machine (TRW-3000) is modified to investigate the effect of different confining stresses (0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 MPa) on the rock breaking of different joint angles (0°, 30°, 60°, and 90°) induced by the disc cutter. In this series of tests, the crack propagation and failure modes of the intact and jointed rock with different confining stresses are analysed. During the experiments, four different types of failure modes have been observed. The failure mode is affected by the joint orientation at low confining stress. The existence of joints has no obvious effect on the failure mode when the confining stress increases to a certain extent.