Electrochemical Characterization of Coinage Techniques the 17th Century: The maravedís Case

The voltammetry of immobilized particles (VIMP) methodology was applied to the discrimination of Spanish maravedis produced in 10 different mints between 1661 and 1664 using characteristic signatures for the reduction of cuprite and tenorite in the patina of the coins and catalytic effects on the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The variation of the apparent tenorite/cuprite ratio with depth was fitted to potential laws differing from one mint to another for A Coruña, Burgos, Córdoba, Cuenca, Granada, Madrid, Trujillo, Segovia, Sevilla and Valladolid coins. Electrochemical data permitted to detect the changes in the composition (with lowering of the silver content) and manufacturing technique (from hammer to mill) occurring in this historical period.     

The cultural Red King effect

Why do minority groups tend to be discriminated against when it comes to situations of bargaining and resource division? In this article, I explore an explanation for this disadvantage that appeals solely to the dynamics of social interaction between minority and majority groups—the cultural Red King effect (Bruner, 2017). As I show, in agent-based models of bargaining between groups, the minority group will tend to get less as a direct result of the fact that they frequently interact with majority group members, while majority group members meet them only rarely. This effect is strengthened by certain psychological phenomenon—risk aversion and in-group preference—is robust on network models, and is strengthened in cases where preexisting norms are discriminatory. I will also discuss how this effect unifies previous results on the impacts of institutional memory on bargaining between groups.     

Estimation of the limit of detection using information theory measures

Definitions of the limit of detection (LOD) based on the probability of false positive and/or false negative errors have been proposed over the past years. Although such definitions are straightforward and valid for any kind of analytical system, proposed methodologies to estimate the LOD are usually simplified to signals with Gaussian noise. Additionally, there is a general misconception that two systems with the same LOD provide the same amount of information on the source regardless of the prior probability of presenting a blank/analyte sample. Based upon an analogy between an analytical system and a binary communication channel, in this paper we show that the amount of information that can be extracted from an analytical system depends on the probability of presenting the two different possible states. We propose a new definition of LOD utilizing information theory tools that deals with noise of any kind and allows the introduction of prior knowledge easily. Unlike most traditional LOD estimation approaches, the proposed definition is based on the amount of information that the chemical instrumentation system provides on the chemical information source. Our findings indicate that the benchmark of analytical systems based on the ability to provide information about the presence/absence of the analyte (our proposed approach) is a more general and proper framework, while converging to the usual values when dealing with Gaussian noise.     

热红外光谱的石榴子石亚类识别方法

高光谱技术快速、无损、精确探测矿物,能够清楚的反映矿物化学成分的改变。石榴子石在热红外波段具有诊断性的三峰式特征。反射峰波长与化学成分关系密切,所以可以依据石榴子石在热红外波段的光谱特征开展其亚类分类研究。钙铬榴石和锰铝榴石反射峰位置易于与其他亚类区分,而铁铝榴石和镁铝榴石、钙铁榴石和钙铝榴石的反射峰位置有较大重叠区域,无法直接判别,因此亟需一种基于热红外光谱的快速、准确识别石榴子石亚类的分类方法。基于热红外光谱库中85个不同类型的石榴子石样本数据获取其3个反射峰位置及波长差值信息,利用非线性BP神经网络、聚类分析以及多元线性判别分析3种方法开展石榴子石亚类识别实验,并运用精确率、召回率和F1值进行分类精度评价。结果显示：BP神经网络算法分类的精确率、召回率和F1值均能达到100%,铁铝榴石和镁铝榴石、钙铁榴石和钙铝榴石得到很好地区分;聚类分析和多元线性判别分析分类的精确率、召回率和F1值分别为86.1%、80%和79.2%,84.2%、80%和79.5%,这两种方法对反射峰重叠的铁铝榴石和镁铝榴石、钙铁榴石和钙铝榴石分类效果不好,因此BP神经网络更适合石榴子石亚类识别。本研究利用BP神经网络强大的非线性自动映射能力,找到了石榴子石热红外谱段反射峰位置与亚类类型之间复杂的映射关系,证明了BP神经网络方法与热红外光谱特征结合使用的可行性与优越性,为石榴子石亚类识别提供了快速有效的技术支撑,同时为其他矿物的快速有效识别提供了良好的技术启示。     

基于卷积神经网络和近红外光谱的太平猴魁茶产地鉴别分析

太平猴魁茶因其特有的“喉韵”深受广大消费者喜爱,不同产地太平猴魁茶市场价格相差较大,如何实现产地精准鉴别是目前促进绿茶产业发展的关键因素。依赖于人工经验的感官评审方法主观性强、稳定性差,无法应用于实际生产检测过程。作为目前主要的检测分析方法,化学分析方法周期长、检测成本高,而且目前没有用于茶叶产地鉴别的统一标准。近红外光谱（NIR）作为一种无损检测分析方法,具有快速、非破坏性、无污染等特点,但是不同产地太平猴魁茶主要内含成分及其含量基本相同,不同产地样本光谱特征峰分布相似,导致常规分析方法无法有效选择特征变量。卷积神经网络（CNN）作为经典深度学习网络模型之一,具有强特征提取和模型表达能力。采用太平猴魁茶产地光谱特征分析,利用一维卷积神经网络模型（1-D CNN）提取太平猴魁茶NIR特征,提出一种基于1-D CNN和NIR的太平猴魁茶产地鉴别分析方法。试验以6个不同产地共120个样本为研究对象,分析10 000~4 000 cm-1范围内的光谱信息;将样本随机划分为训练集（84,占70%）和测试集（36,占30%）,分别讨论不同间隔采样、网络结构、卷积核大小及激活函数对产地鉴别结果的影响,并引入Dropout方法对比分析模型过拟合现象;最终建立一个具有9层结构的1-D CNN模型。蒙特卡罗试验结果表明,相比于基于原始光谱数据（40.57%,7.06）和PCA方法（31.93%,6.96）的太平猴魁茶产地预测模型准确率和标准差,基于1-D CNN的太平猴魁茶产地鉴别模型预测精度和稳定性更高,其测试集预测准确率平均值和标准差分别为97.73%和3.47。因此,1-D CNN可有效提取太平猴魁茶不同产地NIR特征,提高太平猴魁茶产地鉴别精度,为太平猴魁茶精准产地鉴别及溯源分析提供参考。     

光电倍增管在磷酸液声致发光实验中的应用

对不同厚度液体进行光强测量,深入探索空化气泡的运动,研究发光机理很有意义。用超声激励法在磷酸液体中实现多泡声致发光,研究不同共振频率下发光的特点。利用光电倍增管多次测量发光强度相互比较,结果是在液体厚度10 cm、驱动频率f=21.061kHz和f=20.316kHz时,周期性较好为50μs,液体通过漩涡集中气泡可以使更多气泡发光;在液体厚度3 mm、驱动频率f=17.91kHz和f=19kHz时,周期性很好为25μs;且光信号都较强。结论是磷酸中声致发光强度、周期与液体厚度、驱动频率密切相关。本文以磷酸液多泡声致发光实验研究为基础,从内部和外部原理来出发,详细介绍了光电倍增管在多泡声致发光光强测量中的实用,为今后研究者提供了一些经验。根据实验过程中遇到的一些实际问题提出了建议和改善意见。     

Chiral discrimination in biomimetic systems: Phenylalanine

Chiral discrimination and recognition is important in peptide biosynthesis, amino acid synthesis and drug designing. Detailed structural information is available about the peptide synthesis in ribosome. However, no detailed study is available about the discrimination in peptide synthesis. We study the conformational energy variation of neutral methoxy phenyl alanine molecule as a function of its different dihedral angle to locate the minimum energy conformation using quantum chemical theory. We compared the intermolecular energy surfaces of phenyl alanine molecule in its neutral and zwitterionic state using quantum chemical theory as a function of distance and mutual orientation. The energy surfaces are studied with rigid geometry by varying the distance and orientation. The potential energy surfaces of L-L and D-L pairs are found to be dissimilar and reflect the underlying chirality of the homochiral pair and racemic nature of the heterochiral pair. The intermolecular energy surface of homochiral pair is more favourable than the corresponding energy surface of heterochiral pair.     

扩散先验分布下Bayes多总体分类判别方法的构造

本文研究了各总体服从多元正态分布 ,其未知参数的先验分布均为扩散先验分布时 ,如何利用待判样品的预报密度函数、构造后验概率比并据此对样品进行分类与判别 ;此方法并不需要假设各总体分布的协方差相同 ,而且在预试样本容量较小时仍然可行。     

A detector telescope with charge coupled devices for particle dosimetry in space

A telescopic device with charge coupled devices (CCDs) for particle dosimetry in space has been developed. Data on ionization events of energetic particles passing the CCDs are processed in an image analyzing system of a PC. As ‘Charged Particle Telescope’ (CHAPAT), the equipment was flown on the russian space station MIR during the EUROMIR mission in 1995. The response of the CCDs to various charged particles and methods for the discrimination of heavy particles in CCDs are discussed. First results of a correlation of temporal particles fluxes to the actual orbital parameters of MIR clearly identify passages through the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA).     

Pricing under quality of service uncertainty: Market segmentation via statistical QoS guarantees

This article examines how performance-contingent pricing schemes with long-term statistical performance guarantees can be applied to many IT services. We study two forms of performance-contingent pricing, with rebate proportional to failure rate and fixed rebate for below-threshold performance. We show that threshold-performance contingency pricing can increase both profits and fairness (customers who receive higher benefits pay higher effective price) relative to standard pricing. But an even better solution is to offer a menu of performance guarantees: this can increase the firm’s profit and segment the market. Only service providers whose performance level is sufficiently better than the industry standard can benefit from this pricing mechanism.