A Penalized Likelihood Approach to Rotation of Principal Components

A new paradigm for enhancing the interpretability of principal components through rotation is presented within the framework of penalized likelihood. The rotated components are computed as the maximizers of a Gaussian-based profile log-likelihood function plus a penalty term defined by a standard rotation criterion. This method enjoys a number of advantages over other methods for principal component rotation, notably (1) the rotation specifically targets ill-defined principal components, which may benefit the most from rotation, and (2) the connection with likelihood allows assessment of the fidelity of the rotated components to the data, thereby guiding the choice of penalty parameter. The method is illustrated with an application to a small functional dataset. Efficient computation of the penalized likelihood solution is possible using recently developed algorithms for optimization under orthogonality constraints.     

OSCILLATION THEOREMS FOR A CLASS OF SECOND ORDER NEUTRAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF EMDEN-FOWLER TYPE

Some oscillation theorems are established by the averaging technique for a class of second order neutral differential equations of Emden-Fowler type. Our results essentially improve some known results in the previous literature.     

La2O3对TiAl合金激光熔覆γ/Cr7C3/TiC 复合材料涂层组织与性能的影响

研究了添加不同含量稀土氧化物La2O3对TiAl合金预涂NiCr-Cr3C2混合粉末激光熔覆复合材料涂层组织、耐磨性及抗氧化性能的影响，分析了La2O3的作用机理。结果表明，激光熔覆涂层的组织主要由大量较规则初生块状Cr2C3，细小粒状或树枝状TiC以及γ／Cr2C3共晶组成；随着La2O3的加入，初生相明显细化、球化，共晶组织数量增多，适当的(质量分数4％）La2O3的添加能提高涂层的硬度、韧性和耐磨性，并改善其抗氧化性能。这主要是由于稀土元素对显微组织的细化和涂层的净化作用，显微组织的细化提高了涂层的强度、韧性和硬度，而涂层的净化可以降低其夹杂物的含量，进而提高氧化膜的致密性和附着性，这些都有利于提高其耐磨性和抗氧化性。     

Effects of applied anodic potential and pH on the repassivation kinetics of pure aluminium in aqueous alkaline solution

The repassivation kinetics of pure aluminium have been explored in aqueous alkaline solutions as functions of applied anodic potential and pH by using an abrading electrode technique and a rotating disc electrode. The repassivation rate of the abraded bare surface of pure aluminium increased with increasing applied anodic potential in aqueous alkaline solutions, while it decreased with increasing pH. These results revealed that the growth rate of the passivating oxide film is enhanced by an applied electric field, but it is lowered due to the chemical attack by hydroxyl ions. A potentiostatic anodic current decay transient obtained from the abraded electrode surface showed a constant repassivation rate in neutral and weakly alkaline solutions. In contrast, in concentrated alkaline solutions it was observed to consist of three stages: a high repassivation rate in the initial stage due to a high formation rate of the oxide film on the abraded bare surface; a zero value of the repassivation rate in the second stage due to the dissolution of the oxide film by the attack of OH⁻; a high repassivation rate in the third stage due to a lowered dissolution rate of the oxide film. The dissolution rate of the passivating oxide film was observed to depend on the removal rate of aluminate ions from the oxide/solution interface. Received: 1 April 1998 / Accepted: 3 July 1998     

Effects of Cu~(2+) on characteristic of SV currents

Applying the patch-clamp technique to vacuoles from Radish we studied the effects of Cu2 on Slow Vacuolar (SV) current’s characteristic. Our results show that Cu2 in bath solution at higher concentration inhibits SV currents and the percentage of inhibition increases with increasing concentration and changes with different voltage. When at lower concentration, Cu2 significantly promotes the SV currents and the promotion ratio decrease with increasing voltage. At the same time, the time constants of activation become lesser after adding Cu2 . These results show that there may be some Cu2 binding sites on SV channels and binding to which can change SV current’s characteristic.     

Preparation of stable second‐order nonlinear optical films by sol–gel technique

A stable nonlinear optical (NLO) film containing “T” type alkoxysilane dye was prepared by sol–gel technology. This crosslinked “T” type alkoxysilane dye was synthesized and fully characterized by FTIR, UV–Vis spectra, and ¹H‐NMR. Followed by hydrolysis and copolymerization processes of the alkoxysilane with γ‐glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane (KH560) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), high quality inorganic–organic hybrid second‐order NLO films were obtained by spin coating. The “T” type structure of the alkoxysilane was found to be effective for improving the temporal stability of the optical nonlinearity due to the reduction in the relaxation of the chromophore in the film materials. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiresidue determination of pesticides from aquatic media using polyaniline nanowires network as highly efficient sorbent for microextraction in packed syringe

A simple, rapid and sensitive method based on microextraction in packed syringe (MEPS), in combination with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was developed. Polyaniline (PANI) nanowires network was synthesized and used as sorbent of MEPS for the multiresidue determination of selected analytes from triazine, organochlrorine and organophosphorous pesticides in aqueous samples. The PANI nanowires network was prepared using soft template technique and its characterization was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The presence of micelles in this methodology showed to be an important parameter in shaping the growing polymer. Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HTAB) was used as structure directing agent in PANI preparation procedure and this was led to the formation of nanowires with diameters ranging from 35 nm to 45 nm. The synthesized PANI nanowires network showed higher extraction capability in comparison with the bulk PANI. Important parameters influencing the extraction and desorption processes including desorption solvent, elution volume, draw–eject cycles of sample, draw–eject mode, pH effect and amount of sorbent were optimized. Limits of detection were in the range of 0.07–0.3 ng mL⁻¹ using time scheduled selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The linearity of method was in the range from 0.5–200 ng mL⁻¹ to 0.2–1000 ng mL⁻¹. The method precision (RSD %) with three replicates were in the range of 5.3–18.4% at the concentration level of 5 ng mL⁻¹. The developed method was successfully applied to the Zayandeh-rood river water samples and the matrix factor obtained for the spiked real water samples were in the range of 0.79–0.94.     

Dielectric relaxation study of N -methyl formamide with glycols using time domain reflectometry technique

The dielectric relaxation study that is static dielectric permittivity (∈₀) and relaxation time (τ) of amide of N-methyl formamide (NMF) with increasing volume percent propylene glycol (PLG) and BLG has been carried out at different temperatures. The time domain reflectometry (TDR) technique has been used to measure reflection coefficient in frequency range of 10 MHz to 20 GHz. The dielectric parameters have been obtained by fitting experimental data with the Havriliak–Negami equation. The experimental observation shows that the static dielectric permittivity and relaxation time decreases with increasing temperature. The experimental observation also shows that the static dielectric permittivity decreases and relaxation time increases with increasing percentage volume of Propylene glycol (PLG) and Butylene glycol (BLG) in NMF. The nature of (?₀) and (τ) is same for the temperature ranges (20, 30, and 40°C). The thermodynamic parameters enthalpy (ΔH) and entropy (ΔS) of the binary mixture are also reported in this work.     

关于中学生的原子、分子心智模型的研究

学生对于科学概念的认识被称为学生的心智模型。本研究探讨了学生关于原子、分子2个概念的心智模型。研究采用半结构的访谈法,访谈对象是初三、高一和大学一年级的学生。文章从2个方面对研究结果进行了分析：学生关于原子模型的认识、学生对于原子、分子的描述。文章最后对研究结果进行了讨论。