Correlation between Boron Isotope of Coral Acropora and pH Value of Seawater Surface

A water circulation system with the almost same element composition and socket type was adopted in coral Acropora culture under different seawater pH value conditions and the data of the relationship between boron isotopic compositions of coral and seawater pH value by thermoelectric ionization mass spectrometer were obtained. According to the correlations between α_carb-3 of coral and the pH value of cultured seawater, α_carb-3 was not a constant but related to pH value, indicating that B(OH)₃ also incorporated carbonate. Therefore, the theoretical formula could not be used to calculate the seawater pH value from the δ¹¹B_carb value of the measured marine biological carbonate. The empirical equations obtained experimentally would be an alternative method to calculate the seawater pH value. In addition, the mixed precipitation of CaCO₃ and Mg(OH)₂ was found in aquaculture tanks with high pH value, and the δ¹¹B of the solid was significantly higher than that of cultured seawater. The result indicated that the presence of Mg(OH)₂ had a significant effect on the boron isotope fractionation, which deserved our attention.     

Three-dimensional interfacial fracture analysis of a one-dimensional hexagonal quasicrystal coating

In this paper, the three-dimensional (3D) interfacial fracture is analyzed in a one-dimensional (1D) hexagonal quasicrystal (QC) coating structure under mechanical loading. A planar interface crack with arbitrary shape is studied by a displacement discontinuity method. Fundamental solutions of interfacial concentrated displacement discontinuities are obtained by the Hankel transform technique, and the corresponding boundary integral-differential equations are constructed with the superposition principle. Green’s functions of constant interfacial displacement discontinuities within a rectangular element are derived, and a boundary element method is proposed for numerical simulation. The singularity of stresses near the crack front is investigated, and the stress intensity factors (SIFs) as well as energy release rates (ERRs) are determined. Finally, relevant influencing factors on the fracture behavior are discussed.     

Design of robust differential microphone arrays with the Jacobi–Anger expansion

Due to their small size, differential microphone arrays (DMAs) are very attractive. Moreover, they have been effective in combating noise and reverberation. Recently, a new class of DMAs of different orders have been developed with the MacLaurin’s series and the frequency-independent patterns. However, the MacLaurin’s series does not approximate well the exponential function, which appears in the general definition of the beampattern, when the intersensor spacing is not small enough. To circumvent this problem, we propose in this paper to approximate the exponential function with the Jacobi–Anger expansion. Based on this approximation and the frequency-independent Chebyshev patterns, we derive first-, second-, and third-order DMAs. Furthermore, in order to improve the robustness of DMAs against white noise amplification, we propose to use more microphones combined with minimum-norm filters. It is also shown that the Jacobi–Anger expansion is optimal from a mean-squared error perspective. Simulations are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed DMAs.     

Multifold factorizations of cyclic groups into subsets

Let $(G,+)$ be an abelian group. A finite multiset A over G is said to give a λ-fold factorization of G if there exists a multiset B over G such that each element of G occurs λ times in the multiset $A+B:=\{a+b:a\in A,b\in B\}$. In this article, restricting G to a cyclic group, we will provide sufficient conditions on a given multiset A under which the exact value or an upper bound of the minimum multiplicity λ of a factorization of G can be given by introducing a concept of ‘lcm-closure’. Furthermore, a couple of properties on a given factor A will be shown when A has a prime or prime power order (cardinality). A relation to multifold factorizations of the set of integers will be also glanced at a general perspective.     

Analysis of risk bounds in partially specified additive factor models

The study of worst case scenarios for risk measures (e.g. the Value at Risk) when the underlying risk vector (or portfolio of risks) is not completely specified is a central topic in the literature on robust risk measurement. In this paper we discuss partially specified factor models as introduced in Bernard et al. (2017) in more detail for the class of additive factor models which admit more explicit results. These results allow to describe in more detail the reduction of risk bounds obtainable by this method in dependence on the degree of positive resp. negative dependence induced by the systematic risk factors. The insight may help in applications of this reduction method to get a better qualitative impression on the range of influence of the partially specified factor structure.     

Screening potential antagonists of epidermal growth factor receptor from Marsdenia tenacissima via cell membrane chromatography model assisted by HPLC–ESI–IT–TOF–MS

Marsdenia tenacissima, or Tongguanteng in Chinese, is a traditional Chinese herb and has a broad application in clinical practice for its pharmacological effects of treating asthma, pneumonia, tonsillitis, pharyngitis tumors, etc. However, few studies have reported the screening of the active components of this medicine for tumor therapy. In this work, a two‐dimensional analytical system was developed to screen antagonists of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) from M. tenacissima. A fraction was retained on the EGFR cell membrane chromatography (CMC) column, separated and identified as tenacissoside G (TG), tenacissoside H (TH) and tenacissoside I (TI) by two‐dimensional HPLC–IT–TOF–MS. Molecular docking and 3‐(4,5‐dimethyl‐2‐thiazolyl)‐2,5‐diphenyl‐2‐H‐tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay were carried out to assess the activity of TS (including TG, TH and TI). Molecular docking results showed that the binding mode of TS on EGFR is similar to that of gefitinib. The MTT assay demonstrated that gefitinib and TS (especially TI) could inhibit the growth of EGFR highly expressed cell lines in a dose‐dependent manner in the range of 5–50 μmol/L. In conclusion, the two‐dimensional EGFR/CMC–HPLC–IT–TOF–MS system could be a useful approach in drug discovery from traditional Chinese medicines for searching for potential antitumor candidates.     

White and some colored marbles as alternative radiation shielding materials for applications

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the radiation shielding parameters such as linear attenuation coefficients (LAC, µ), mass attenuation coefficients (MAC, µ/ρ), effective atomic numbers (Z_eff), effective electron densities (N_eff), half value of layers (HVL), mean free paths (MFP) and buildup factors (exposure (EBF) and energy absorption (EABF)) were investigated for cream (M1), pink (M2), white (M3), maroon (M4) and green (M5) marbles. Attenuation coefficients were measured in the energy region 31.18–661.66 keV photon energies. The values of Z_eff and N_eff were then calculated using these coefficients with logarithmic interpolation method, and HVLs and MFPs were calculated using the values of LAC of marble samples at the same photon energies. The experimental results were compared with the theoretical values obtained from WinXCom program, and good agreements were observed between the experimental and theoretical results. HVLs and MFPs of all marble samples were compared with those of some concretes, glasses and commercial radiation shielding glasses (SCHOTT Co.). The studied marbles were better radiation shielding materials than standard shielding concretes due to lower HVL and MFP values lower than the ordinary concrete. Finally, EBFs and EABFs of the marbles were calculated in the energy region 0.015–1?MeV up to penetration depths of 40 mfps by Geometric Progression method (G-P), and the results were discussed in terms of photon energies and chemical compositions of the marbles.     

我国渔业企业经济效益分析研究——以2013年我国上市渔业公司数据为例

随着居民收入水平的提高,我国水产品消费数量不断增加.水产品消费需求的增加,一方面导致水产品养殖企业数量增多,水产品养殖产业初具规模;另一方面也导致了市场竞争压力的增大,使得水产品养殖企业经济效益降低.利用2013年我国上市渔业公司财务数据,基于因子分析法研究了我国上市渔业公司经济效益水平.研究结果显示,2013年大湖股份、国联水产各公共因子及综合因子得分都较高,表明其公司盈利能力、偿债能力及运营能力较强,企业后期发展前景较好.而好当家、武昌鱼的综合因子得分较低,需要引起公司重视.最后针对2013年我国上市渔业公司的整体得分情况,提出了提高我国渔业企业经济效益水平的建议.     

Rational design of thermoelastic damping in microresonators with phase-lagging heat conduction law

The design of thermoelastic damping (TED) affected by the phase-lagging non-Fourier heat conduction effects becomes significant but challenging for enlarging the quality factor of widely-used microresonators operating in extreme situations, including ultra-high excitation frequency and ultra-low working temperature. However, there does not exist a rational method for designing the TED in the framework of non-Fourier heat conduction law. This work, therefore, proposes a design framework to achieve low thermoelastic dissipation of microresonators governed by the phase-lagging heat conduction law. The equation of motion and the heat conduction equation for phase-lagging TED microresonators are derived first, and then the non-Fourier TED design problem is proposed. A topology optimization-based rational design method is used to resolve the design problem. What is more, a two-dimensional (2D) plain-strain-based finite element method (FEM) is developed as a solver for the topology optimization process. Based on the suggested rational design technique, numerical instances with various phase lags are investigated. The results show that the proposed design method can remarkably reduce the dissipation of microresonators by tailoring their substructures.     

Radiation shielding effectiveness with correlated uncertainties

The space radiation environment is composed of energetic particles which can deliver harmful doses of radiation that may lead to acute radiation sickness, cancer, and even death for insufficiently shielded crew members. Spacecraft shielding must provide structural integrity and minimize the risk associated with radiation exposure. The risk of radiation exposure induced death (REID) is a measure of the risk of dying from cancer induced by radiation exposure. Uncertainties in the risk projection model, quality factor, and spectral fluence are folded into the calculation of the REID by sampling from probability distribution functions. Consequently, determining optimal shielding materials that reduce the REID in a statistically significant manner has been found to be difficult. In this work, the difference of the REID distributions for different materials is used to study the effect of composition on shielding effectiveness. It is shown that the use of correlated uncertainties allows for the determination of statistically significant differences between materials despite the large uncertainties in the quality factor. This is in contrast to previous methods where uncertainties have been generally treated as uncorrelated. It is concluded that the use of correlated quality factor uncertainties greatly reduces the uncertainty in the assessment of shielding effectiveness for the mitigation of radiation exposure.