Effect of pH, temperature and solvent mole ratio on solubility of disodium 5′-guanylate in water + ethanol system

Solubility of disodium 5′-guanylate in water + ethanol binary solvent mixtures was determined by a gravimetric method in the temperature range from 283.15 K to 323.15 K, pH range from 8 to 10 and at different water/ethanol mole ratios. The effects of pH, temperature and water/ethanol mole ratio on the solubility were investigated in detail. The modified Apelblat model and the combined nearly ideal binary solvent (CNIBS)/Redlich-Kister model were selected to correlate the experimental data. The results showed that the experimental data was satisfactorily correlated by the (CNIBS)/Redlich-Kister model, but for the modified Apelblat model, the correlation was not so satisfactory in some cases.     

The asymptotic estimate for the sum of two correlated classes of discounted aggregate claims with heavy tails

Consider a risk model with two correlated classes of insurance business and a constant force of interest. We assume that the correlation comes from a common shock and that the claim-size distribution is heavy-tailed. Under this setting, we investigate the tail behavior of the sum of the two correlated classes of discounted aggregate claims. We obtain the uniform asymptotic formulas for some subclass of subexponential distributions.     

A General Vehicle Routing Problem

In this paper, we study a rich vehicle routing problem incorporating various complexities found in real-life applications. The General Vehicle Routing Problem (GVRP) is a combined load acceptance and generalised vehicle routing problem. Among the real-life requirements are time window restrictions, a heterogeneous vehicle fleet with different travel times, travel costs and capacity, multi-dimensional capacity constraints, order/vehicle compatibility constraints, orders with multiple pickup, delivery and service locations, different start and end locations for vehicles, and route restrictions for vehicles. The GVRP is highly constrained and the search space is likely to contain many solutions such that it is impossible to go from one solution to another using a single neighbourhood structure. Therefore, we propose iterative improvement approaches based on the idea of changing the neighbourhood structure during the search.     

Sequence Determination of a Tetrapeptide Using Long-Rang Heteronuclear Shift Correlation 2D NMR Spectroscopy

A tetrapeptide has been studied by means of NMR of ¹³C in natural abundance. By the combined application of various two-dimensional ¹H/¹H and ¹³C/¹H correlation techniques, the primary structure of the peptides could be unambiguously determined.     

Monte Carlo study of electron correlation functions for small molecules

A study is made of electron-electron correlation functions for use in trial wave functions for small molecules. New forms are proposed that have only a few variational parameters, and these parameters have physical meanings that are easily discerned. Total energies for H₂, LiH and Li₂ computed using these correlation functions are presented, and comparison is made with previous forms, including the Jastrow-Pade form often used in Monte Carlo studies. We further treat the possibility that correlation depends not only on the separation of a pair of electrons but also on the location of the electron pair relative to the nuclei — indicative of a density-dependent or many body correlation effect. Our results indicate that such a many-body correlation effect is weakly present.This work was supported by the Director, Office of Energy Research, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences Division of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098     

Used digital speckle correlation method to realize orientation function of optical mouse

Used digital speckle correlation method (DSCM) to realize orientation function of optical mouse is researched. The experiment is designed to obtain the dynamic speckle patterns which are shot by CCD, then the DSCM is used to process the sequential images and also the experiment is simulated. The experimental results show the DSCM can confirm orientation function of the optical mouse, and have a good agreement with the simulation results, and the resolution we obtained is higher than the resolution of mouse on the market.     

Supporting offshoring and nearshoring decisions for mass customization manufacturing processes

Offshore countries attract companies for a possible relocation of production processes through extremely low worker wages. Particularly, mass production processes seem to be highly appropriate for a relocation. However, while the impact of wage reductions can be directly estimated, an appropriate determination of additional cost consequences proves to be a complex task. For instance, on account of lower education standards and higher fluctuation rates, the average worker skills in offshore countries are often significantly lower than in high-wage countries like the United States. In order to appropriately analyze and evaluate the resulting tradeoff between wages and worker skills for mass customization manufacturing systems, this paper introduces a new approach that comprises a detailed mixed-model assembly line balancing. This approach provides a direct comparison of the estimated variable manufacturing costs by generating a country-dependent line layout for all competing locations. In order to validate the efficiency of the balancing approach and, in particular, derive general implications for management, several test series with various country configurations were executed. First, by attaining improvement rates of up to 40%, the capability of a generated Tabu Search procedure for finding appropriate line layouts was proven. Second, as the main result, the complexity of the variant program was identified as a crucial factor for offshoring decisions since it substantially affects variable manufacturing costs. This was particularly proven for countries with low worker skills, which attract offshoring/nearshoring through exceptionally low labor costs. Hence, companies that consider outsourcing production systems to those countries are strongly hold to examine these decisive effects thoroughly. Regarding this, offshoring becomes very promising for manufacturing processes characterized by a moderate variant complexity level.     

A class of stationary random fields with a simple correlation structure

A stationary random field is often more complicated than a univariate stationary time series, since dependence for a random field extends in all directions, while there is only the natural distinction of past and future at any instant in a univariate time series. In this paper we start from a simple correlation structure, derive a class of stationary random fields with the simple correlation function and the simple spectral density function by using linear combinations of separable spatial correlation functions, and discuss a problem of embedding a lattice model into a continuous domain model.     

聚合物侧基NMR弛豫相关函数

本文导出了聚合物为链段运动时,侧基进行非等价二位置和三位置跃迁内旋转、随机自由扩散内旋转以及受阻内旋转时的NMR弛豫相关函数,同时给出了相应的谱密度函数,并讨论了两个应用实例。     

Preparation and characterization of a novel green tea essential oil nanoemulsion and its antifungal mechanism of action against Magnaporthae oryzae

Blast is one of the most devastating fungal diseases of rice caused by Magnaporthe oryzae. Plant essential oil (EO) can function as antifungal agents and are regarded as a safe and acceptable method for plant disease control. However, EOs are unstable and hydrophobic, which limits its use. In the present study, we aimed for the preparation and characterization of a nanoemulsion (NE) from green tea essential oil (GTO) by ultrasonication method and determined the antifungal activity of NE on M. oryzae. The particle size and zeta potential of the NE were 86.98 nm and −15.1 mV, respectively. The chemical composition and functional groups of GTO and NE were studied by using GC–MS analysis, portable Raman spectroscopy, and FTIR coupled with chemometric analysis. GC–MS analysis showed the major components in GTO and NE were n-Hexyl cinnamaldehyde and L-α-Terpineol. Both GTO and NE showed good antioxidant activity and total phenol content. Moreover, the NE showed good antifungal activity against M. oryzae which was further confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examination. Also, confocal Raman micro-spectroscopy (CRM) revealed the antifungal mechanism of GTO and NE on M. oryzae which proves the cell damage. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on the antifungal activity of GTO and NE against M. oryzae and also the use of CRM for the evaluation of the chemical changes in single fungal hyphae in a holistic approach. This study suggests that the prepared NE could be a potential candidate for use as a substitute for synthetic fungicides.