The Positive and the Negative Method and the Spheres of Living： Some Thoughts on Feng Youlan＇s Philosophical Method

Among contemporary Chinese philosophers, Feng Youlan had the greatest degree of methodological self-awareness. In his earlier years, he especially emphasized the formalist meaning （not touching on content） of metaphysical concepts and propositions and defined the negative method too narrowly, leading to some theoretical confusion over the inherent unity of the two methods. In his later years, he employed the concept of the ＂concrete universal＂ to reflect on his philosophical system; while affirming the formalism of philosophical conceptual category, he revealed the ＂peculiar content＂ of the category as a means of grasping actuality and its intellectual movements, thus realizing the mutual accommodation of rationality and intuition （mystery）. A review of Feng＇s philosophical system in accordance with the theoretical reflections of his later years will indicate the consistency of his thought throughout his life. His new understanding of his own philosophical system and the nature of philosophy on the basis of the ＂concrete universal＂ was the logical outcome of his previous ideas. Only with this in mind will we be able to attain a better understanding of the methodology and true spirit of Feng＇s philosophy and draw inspiration for the contemporary reconstruction of Chinese philosophy and culture.

Preliminary Research on the Mathematical Methods and Order of Problems in the“Fungcheng”Chapter of Yang Hui's Mathematical Methods(1261 CE)

Yang Hui was one of the most important authors of mathematical works during the thirteenth century.Mathematical Methods Explaining in Detail The Nine Chapters(Xiangjie jiuzhang suanfa詳解九章算法,1261 CE)is the earliest extant work attributed to Yang Hui.From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century,this work played a crucial role in the circulation and popularization of The Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures(Jiuzhang suanshu九章算术).However,the only surviving printed edition of Mathematical Methods is incomplete and contains many mistakes obstructing contemporary researchers'understanding of this work.The "Fangcheng" chapter of The Nine Chapters deals with problems related to solving what today are known as simultaneous sets of linear equations.However,interpreting the text in this chapter of Mathematical Methods and recovering the mathematical practices relating to fangcheng are difficult.Through detailed textual and mathematical analyses,the author of this paper explains Yang Hufs understanding and practice relating to〃the fangcheng method"and"the method of the positive and the negative".This paper includes an appendix that provides a detailed translation of the ambiguous text relating to"the method of the positive and the negative"and gives reasons supporting the interpretation provided here.Yang Hufs understanding of the concepts of"positive"and"negative"and his practice relating to these two concepts may easily be confused with their apparent counterparts in modem mathematics.Also,careful analysis of the mathematical methods in this work reveal that the order of problems in Yang Hufs Reclassifications of Mathematical Methods Explaining in Detail The Nine Chapters([Xiangjie jiuzhang suanfa zuanlei詳解九章算法纂類],namely,the last section of Mathematical Methods)were rearranged according to commentaries to specific methods that appear in Mathematical Methods.Some textual clues referring to the zzprevious question"(qianwen前問)in certain commentaries of Mathematical Methods indeed reflect the order of problems in Reclassifications.Yang Hui made especially detailed commentaries on the problems that he arranged in a sequence that differs with respect to the original order of problems as they appear in the ancient classic work,The Nine Chapters.All these discoveries reveal and serve to prove a close relationship between Yang Hufs Mathematical Methods and his Reclassifications.

Quantum Chemical Studies on Proteins in the Reaction Center of Rhodobacter sphaeroides

The electronic structure of protein chains L and M in photosynthetic reaction center (PRC) of Rhodobacter sphaeroides (Van Niel) Imhoff, Truper et Pfennig) was studied by using the Overlapping Dimer Approximation method and the Extended Negative Factor Counter method at ab initio level. The result indicated that: (1) Amino acid residues, the molecular orbitals of which composed the main components of frontier orbitals of protein chain L (M), are located at the random coil areas of chain L (alpha helix areas of chain M). Since the random coil is flexible and more easy to change its conformation in the electron transfer process and to reduce the energy of the system, and the structure of the alpha helix is reletively stable, this difference might be one of the causes for the electron transfer in photosynthetic reaction center (PRC) only takes place along the L branch. (2) The His residues which axially coordinated to the 'special pair' P and accessory chlorophyll molecules (ABChls) are essentially important for the E-LUMO levels of P and ABChl. But, the corresponding molecular orbitals of these His residues do not appear in the composition of frontier orbitals of protein chains. It means that the interaction between pigment molecules and protein chains do not influence the contribution to the frontier orbitals of protein chains explicitly, but influences the corresponding E-LUMO levels significantly.

RESEARCH ON IMPROVED CUT-OFF NEGATIVE PRESSURE METHOD FOR UNSTEADY SEEPAGE FLOW WITH FREE SURFACE

The cut-off negative pressure method is one of effective approaches to solve the seepage flow with free surface. According to the characteristics of this method, however, it has been found out that the deficiency of the algorithms is to easily cause inaccurate simulation in the vicinity of free surface owing to the penalty function with only one controlling penalty parameter. Therefore, an improved cut-off pressure method was presented by constructing penalty function with two controlling penalty parameters. The improved algorithms were illustrated to be able to improve the simulation accuracy and raise the convergence speed through considering the effects of the partially saturated or unsaturated elements more reasonably and calculating the nodal external forces more accurately. Finally, the improved cut-off negative pressure method was applied to the simulation of unsteady seepage flow with free surface, and the corresponding program codes were developed with validation of some cases.

Application of internal standard method in recombinant luminescent bacteria test

Mercury and its organic compounds have been of severe concern worldwide due to their damage to the ecosystem and human health. The development of effective and affordable technology to monitor and signal the presence of bioavailable mercury is an urgent need.The Mer gene is a mercury-responsive resistant gene, and a mercury-sensing recombinant luminescent bacterium using the Mer gene was constructed in this study. The mer operon from marine Pseudomonas putida strain SP1 was amplified and fused with prompterless lux CDABE in the p UCD615 plasmid within Escherichia coli cells, resulting in p THE30–E. coli.The recombinant strain showed high sensitivity and specificity. The detection limit of Hg^2＋was 5 nmol/L, and distinct luminescence could be detected in 30 min. Cd^2＋, Cu^2＋, Zn^2＋, Ca^2＋,Pb^2＋, Mg^2＋, Mn^2＋, and Al^3＋did not interfere with the detection over a range of 10-5–1 m M.Application of recombinant luminescent bacteria testing in environmental samples has been a controversial issue： especially for metal-sensing recombinant strains, false negatives caused by high cytotoxicity are one of the most important issues when applying recombinant luminescent bacteria in biomonitoring of heavy metals. In this study, by establishing an internal standard approach, the false negative problem was overcome;furthermore, the method can also help to estimate the suspected mercury concentration,which ensures high detection sensitivity of bioavailable Hg2＋.

Effects of doping Fe cations on crystal structure and thermal expansion property of Yb_2Mo_3O_(12)

Crystal structures and thermal expansion properties of Yb2-xFexMo3O12（x=0.0,0.6,1.0,1.1,1.4） solid solutions have been studied by X-ray powder diffraction（XRPD） at different temperatures.Rietveld analysis of the XRPD data shows that Yb2-xFexMo3O12 solid solutions adopt orthorhombic structure and have variable thermal expansion coefficients controlled by the ratio of Yb^3＋ to Fe^3＋.Yb2Mo3O12 shows anisotropic negative thermal expansion property,induced by the reductions in average Yb-O-Mo angle and average apparent Mo2-O bond length with increasing temperatures.As more Yb^3＋ substituted by Fe^3＋,the linear thermal expansion coefficients of Yb2-xFexMo3O12 increase from negative to positive.A near-zero thermal expansion coefficient of 0.55×10^-6K^-1 for Yb0.6Fe1.4Mo3O12 is observed in the temperature range of 573-873 K.