Effects of the Ice Bath Time after Heat Shock and the Incubation Time on the Efficiency of Chemical Transformation Method

[Objective] The aim of the research was to study the effect of the ice bath time after heat shock and the incubation time on the transformation efficacy,and to establish a simple and quick transformation method.[Method]Competent cells were prepared with two buffer solutions;with the ice bath time after heat shock and the recovery time as the variables,the relationship between these two factors and transformation efficacy was studied.[Result]The transformation efficacy was the best when the ice bath time was 2 min and the recovery time was 30 or 40 min;when the ice bath time and the recovery time was 0 min,a certain amount of transformants still could be obtained.[Conclusion]The ice bath time after heat shock and the recovery time had certain impact on transformation efficacy,but they were not the decisive factors.Therefore,in the general transformation experiment,these two steps could be omitted.

Spatial Exploration of Multiple Cropping Efficiency in China Based on Time Series Remote Sensing Data and Econometric Model

This study explored spatial explicit multiple cropping efficiency （MCE） of China in 2005 by coupling time series remote sensing data with an econometric model - stochastic frontier analysis （SFA）. We firstly extracted multiple cropping index （MCI） on the basis of the close relationship between crop phenologies and moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer （MODIS） enhanced vegetation index （EVI） value. Then, SFA model was employed to calculate MCE, by considering several indicators of meteorological conditions as inputs of multiple cropping systems and the extracted MCI was the output. The result showed that 46% of the cultivated land in China in 2005 was multiple cropped, including 39% double- cropped land and 7% triple-cropped land. Most of the multiple cropped land was distributed in the south of Great Wall. The total efficiency of multiple cropping in China was 87.61% in 2005. Southwestern China, Ganxin Region, the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and Huanghuaihai Plain were the four agricultural zones with the largest rooms for increasing MCI and improving MCE. Fragmental terrain, soil salinization, deficiency of water resources, and loss of labor force were the obstacles for MCE promotion in different zones. The method proposed in this paper is theoretically reliable for MCE extraction, whereas further studies are need to be done to investigate the most proper indicators of meteorological conditions as the inputs of multiple cropping systems.

Performance Comparison of Space-Time Trellis Codes and Space-Time Transmit Diversity under the Same Bandwidth Efficiency

Space time coding can provide high data rate and performance gain for wireless communication system. Performance comparison of space time trellis codes and space time transmit diversity is carried out under the same bandwidth efficiency in this paper. We also propose some optimum low rate space time trellis codes in quasi static Rayleigh fading chan￣nel. Performance analysis and simulation show that the low rate space time trellis codes outperform space time transmit diversity at the same bandwidth efficiency, and are more suitable for the power limited wireless communication system which has no strict requirement on bandwidth efficiency.

Optimization on temperature efficiency and switch time of thin-walled regenerator with perturbation analysis

The heat transfer characteristic of honeycomb ceramic regenerator was optimized by the perturbation analytical-numerical method. The results show that there is a temperature efficiency peak and the corresponding optimal switch time. The decrease of air oxygen concentration leads to the decrease of maximum temperature efficiency. Optimal switch time is directly proportional to the matrix thickness. The solid heat conduction along the flow direction and the regenerator heat storage capacity of the unit volume have no impact on maximum temperature efficiency and optimal switch time. The temperature efficiency tendency based on the semi-analysis is the same as dispersion combustion tests with low oxygen concentration, and optimal switch time of 2-4 s agrees well with that of 4 s in high-temperature gasification tests. The possibility of design, operate and control a thin-walled regenerator with high efficiency by means of the perturbation method is proved.

A Theoretical Comparison among Recursive Algorithms for Fast Computation of Zernike Moments Using the Concept of Time Complexity

Zernike polynomials have been used in different fields such as optics, astronomy, and digital image analysis for many years. To form these polynomials, Zernike moments are essential to be determined. One of the main issues in realizing the moments is using factorial terms in their equation which causes higher time complexity. As a solution, several methods have been presented to reduce the time complexity of these polynomials in recent years. The purpose of this research is to study several methods among the most popular recursive methods for fast Zernike computation and compare them together by a global theoretical evaluation system called worst-case time complexity. In this study, we have analyzed the selected algorithms and calculated the worst-case time complexity for each one. After that, the results are represented and explained and finally, a conclusion has been made by comparing these criteria among the studied algorithms. According to time complexity, we have observed that although some algorithms such as Wee method and Modified Prata method were successful in having the smaller time complexities, some other approaches did not make any significant difference compared to the classical algorithm.

Dimensional Complexity and Algorithmic Efficiency

This paper uses the concept of algorithmic efficiency to present a unified theory of intelligence. Intelligence is defined informally, formally, and computationally. We introduce the concept of dimensional complexity in algorithmic efficiency and deduce that an optimally efficient algorithm has zero time complexity, zero space complexity, and an infinite dimensional complexity. This algorithm is used to generate the number line.

The Efficiency of the Energy Saving Stoves in Amboseli Ecosystem-Analysis of Time, Energy and Carbon Emissions Savings

It is estimated that more than 2.5 billion people worldwide use biomass for cooking. Burning biomass is one of the major contributors to carbon dioxide (CO2) emission—a principle gas in global warming and climate change. One way of cutting down the CO2 emissions is adaptation of efficient and clean energy technologies. This study examined the efficiency of the energy saving stoves in Amboseli ecosystem by comparing the cooking time, energy use, wood fuel and carbon emissions to the traditional three stone open fire set ups. The result indicates a statistical difference in the time spent cooking on energy stoves and three stone open fire (t = 5.3055;n = 60;p = 0.00117). Energy saving stoves saved 12.7% - 33.3% of wood fuel compared to the traditional three stones set ups. Water boiling tests to determine the energy savings, revealed that energy saving stoves saved between 25.74% and 26.16% energy/joule per session in-house and outdoor settings respectively. Based on the two meals prepared per day by each household, the total Carbon Emission Savings for the 1000 local beneficiaries of energy saving stoves varied from 102,200 kg CO2 (indoor cooking) to 357,700 kg CO2 (outdoor cooking) per year. It is therefore concluded that energy saving stoves saves time, fuel wood and energy, and reduces carbon emissions. The study findings refute the claims that open fire when carefully operated can be fuel efficient and clean burning to rival energy saving stoves. To improve the performance of the energy saving stoves, it is recommended that a design modification be done to include a chimney to emit excess smoke during indoor cooking;and the stove should be fixed to the floor with mortar to minimise heat loss and breakages.

Reasons and Solutions of the Time-consuming College English Teaching with Low Efficiency

College English teaching has been regarded as time- consuming with low efficiency for a long time. This thesis proceeds with the entity of English education in China, deals with the main problems lying in the current college English teaching from 3 perspectives, including the nation and society, teachers, and students, and provides 5 suggestions accordingly.

Effect of Nitrogen Regimes on Grain Yield,Nitrogen Utilization,Radiation Use Efficiency,and Sheath Blight Disease Intensity in Super Hybrid Rice

Poor nitrogen use efficiency in rice production is a critical issue in China. Site-specific N managements （SSNM） such as real-time N management （RTNM） and fixed-time adjustable-dose N management （FTNM） improve fertilizer-N use efficiency of irrigated rice. This study was aimed to compare the different nitrogen （N） rates and application methods （FFP, SSNM, and RTNM methods） under with- and without-fungicide application conditions on grain yield, yield components, solar radiation use efficiency （RUE）, agronomic-nitrogen use efficiency （AEN）, and sheath blight disease intensity. Field experiments were carried out at Liuyang County, Hunan Province, China, during 2006 and 2007. A super hybrid rice Liangyou 293 （LY293） was used as experimental material. The results showed that RTNM and SSNM have great potential for improving agronomic-nitrogen use efficiency without sacrificing the grain yield. There were significant differences in light interception rate, sheath blight disease incidence （DI） and the disease index （ShBI）, and total dry matter among the different nitrogen management methods. The radiation use efficiency was increased in a certain level of applied N. But, the harvest index （HI） decreased with the increase in applied N. There is a quadratic curve relationship between grain yield and applied N rates. With the same N fertilizer rate, different fertilizer-N application methods affected the RUE and grain yield. The fungicide application not only improved the canopy light interception rate, RUE, grain filling, and harvest index, but also reduced the degree of sheath blight disease. The treatment of RTNM under the SPAD threshold value 40 obtained the highest yield. While the treatment of SSNM led to the highest nitrogen agronomic efficiency and higher rice yield, and decreased the infestation of sheath blight disease dramatically as well. Nitrogen application regimes and diseases control in rice caused obvious effects on light interception rate, RUE, and HI. Optimal N rate is helpful to get higher light interception rate, RUE, and HI. Disease control with fungicide application decreased and delayed the negative effects of the high N on rice yield formation. SSNM and RTNM under the proper SPAD threshold value obtained high-yield with high efficiency and could alleviate environmental pollution in rice production.

Network-level optimization method for road network maintenance programming based on network efficiency

To maintain their capacity,transportation infrastructures are in need of regular maintenance and rehabilitation.The major challenge facing transportation engineers is the network-level policies to maintain the deteriorating roads at an acceptable level of serviceability.In this work,a quantitative transportation network efficiency measure is presented and then how to determine optimally network-level road maintenance policy depending on the road importance to the network performance has been demonstrated.The examples show that the different roads should be set different maintenance time points in terms of the retention capacities of the roads,because the different roads play different roles in network and have different important degrees to the network performance.This network-level road maintenance optimization method could not only save lots of infrastructure investments,but also ensure the service level of the existing transportation system.

An efficiency algorithm on Gaussian mixture UKF for BDS/INS navigation system

To further improve the performance of UKF(Unscented Kalman Filter) algorithm used in BDS/SINS(BeiDou Navigation Satellite System/Strap down Inertial Navigation System), an improved GM-UKF(Gaussian Mixture Unscented Kalman Filter) considering non-Gaussian distribution is discussed in this paper. This new algorithm using SVD(Singular Value Decomposition) is proposed to alternative covariance square root calculation in UKF sigma point production. And to end the rapidly increasing number of Gaussian distributions, PDF(Probability Density Function) re-approximation is conducted. In principle this efficiency algorithm proposed here can achieve higher computational speed compared with traditional GM-UKF. And simulation experiment result show that, compared with UKF and GM-UKF algorithm, new algorithm implemented in BDS/SINS tightly integrated navigation system is suitable for handling nonlinear/non-Gaussian integrated navigation position calculation, for its lower computational complexity with high accuracy.

Spectrum Efficiency Maximization for Cooperative Power Beacon-Enabled Wireless Powered Communication Networks

We consider a spectrum efficiency(SE)maximization problem for cooperative power beacon-enabled wireless powered communication networks(CPB-WPCNs),where each transmitter harvests en-ergy from multi-antenna power beacons(PBs)and transmits data to the corresponding receiver.For data transmission,both orthogonal transmission,i.e.,the time splitting(TS)mode,and non-orthogonal trans-mission,i.e.,the interference channel(IC)mode,are considered.Aiming to improve the system SE,the energy beamformers of PBs,the transmit power,and the transmit time duration of transmitters are jointly optimized.For the TS mode,the original non-convex problem is transformed into a convex opti-mization problem by means of variable substitution and semidefinite relaxation(SDR).The rank-one na-ture of this SDR is proved,and then a Lagrange-dual based fast algorithm is proposed to obtain the opti-mal solution with much lower complexity.For the IC mode,to conquer the strong non-convexity of the problem,a branch-reduce-and-bound(BRB)mono-tonic optimization algorithm is designed as a bench-mark.Furthermore,a low-complexity distributed suc-cessive convex approximation(SCA)algorithm is pre-sented.Finally,simulation results validate the perfor-mance of the proposed algorithms,achieving optimal-ity within only 1%∼2%computation time compared to the CVX solver in the TS mode and achieving 98%of the optimal performance in the IC mode.

Semi-empirical modeling of volumetric efficiency in engines equipped with variable valve timing system

Volumetric efficiency and air charge estimation is one of the most demanding tasks in control of today's internal combustion engines.Specifically,using three-way catalytic converter involves strict control of the air/fuel ratio around the stoichiometric point and hence requires an accurate model for air charge estimation.However,high degrees of complexity and nonlinearity of the gas flow in the internal combustion engine make air charge estimation a challenging task.This is more obvious in engines with variable valve timing systems in which gas flow is more complex and depends on more functional variables.This results in models that are either quite empirical(such as look-up tables),not having interpretability and extrapolation capability,or physically based models which are not appropriate for onboard applications.Solving these problems,a novel semi-empirical model was proposed in this work which only needed engine speed,load,and valves timings for volumetric efficiency prediction.The accuracy and generalizability of the model is shown by its test on numerical and experimental data from three distinct engines.Normalized test errors are 0.0316,0.0152 and 0.24 for the three engines,respectively.Also the performance and complexity of the model were compared with neural networks as typical black box models.While the complexity of the model is less than half of the complexity of neural networks,and its computational cost is approximately 0.12 of that of neural networks and its prediction capability in the considered case studies is usually more.These results show the superiority of the proposed model over conventional black box models such as neural networks in terms of accuracy,generalizability and computational cost.

A High Spectral Efficiency System Enabled by Free Window with Full Duplex

This paper studies the capacity issues of a wireless communication system that implements single channel full duplex(SCFD) communication at the base station(BS), thereby the mobile stations share the channel via time division duplex(TDD). The system makes use of the same setup as has been used in previous studies of SCFD, but unlike these previous systems, the new system uses water-filling to maximize the spectral efficiency of the uplink channel. The concept of a free window is introduced to the duplex model for measuring, intuitively, the effective bandwidth of the bi-directional communication. The capacity gain is calculated and numerical results show the advantage of the proposed system over that of conventional TDD.

Static and Dynamic Analysis on the Environmental Efficiency of 267 Cities in China during 2004-2012

This study mainly investigates the environmental efficiency of 267 Chinese cities from 2004 to 2012 through a metafrontier,directional and super-efficiency approach. First,we explore the regional and time heterogeneity of environmental efficiency. Then,we compare the technological gap ratio in different regions and years. Lastly,we analyze the technological and management potential in different regions. We determine that the gap between environmental efficiency under group frontier and metafrontier widened from 2009 to 2012,indicating that environmental efficiency varies in different regions in China. The technology gap ratio has decreased in the four regions. This result confirms that the regional heterogeneity of environmental efficiency has increased. Thus,strengthening environmental management is crucial. China must improve green innovation to decrease energy consumption and abate carbon emissions.

Real estate market efficiency: Evidence from Chinese cities

The price in an efficient market can adjust to new information instantaneously to eliminate any arbitrage opportunities. Such a phenomenon is not always observed in the real estate market because of its unique characteristics, which include fixed location, heterogeneity and low transaction frequency. Using housing and office market data of some major cities in China, this paper examines the return and risk characteristics in these markets and assesses market efficiency. It finds that a number of instruments, including lagged quarterly and annual excess returns and, to some extent, the measure of the deviation of price from the intrinsic value, predict future returns. Therefore, weak form and semi-strong form efficiency can both be rejected in these real estate markets. These empirical findings suggest that there is slow price adjustment in real estate markets in China, which may be attributed to inefficient information transmission systems and long searching time in the markets.

Recent Advances on the Technologies to Increase Fertilizer Use Efficiency

To increase fertilizer use efficiency （FUE） and to minimize its negative impact on environment have been the focal points in the world for a long time. It is very important to increase FUE in China for its relatively low FUE and serious losses of nutrients. Recent advances of the technologies to increase FUE are reviewed in this article. These include site-specific and real-time nitrogen management, non-destructive quick test of the nitrogen status of plants, new types of slow release and controlled release fertilizers, site-specific nutrient management, and use of urease inhibitor and nitrification inhibitor to decrease nitrogen losses. Future outlook in technologies related to FUE improvement is also discussed.

High efficiency spreading spectrum modulation using double orthogonal complex sequences

This paper presents a novel scheme of high efficiency spreading spectrum modulation using double orthogonal complex sequences （DoCS）. In this scheme, input data bit-stream is split into many groups with length M. Each group is then mapped into a word of width M and then utihzed to select one sequence from 2u-2 DoCS sequences each with length L. After that, the selected sequence is modulated on carrier in quadrature phase shift keying （QPSK） mode. In addition, a new method named forward phase correction （FPC） is put forward for carrier recovery. Theoretical analysis and bit-error-ratio（BER） experiment results indicate that the proposed scheme has better performance than the conventional direct sequence spread spectrum（DSSS） scheme both in bandwidth efficiency and processing gain of the receiver.

On Some Issues of Assessing the Efficiency of Renewable Energy Power Plants and the Share of Renewables in the World＇s Electricity Generation

The paper considers some issues related to the evaluation of power plants using renewable energy sources： energy efficiency, economic efficiency, the share of renewable energy in the world＇s electricity generation. At one time in the world there was a myth that more energy is expended on the construction of wind and photoelectric power stations, than they produce for the service life. Adherents of this myth are still found in Russia. In response to this myth, numerous studies have been carried out for the manufacturers of wind turbines and photovoltaic modules. It was proved that these power plants spent energy on them are produced within a period of less than a year and the energy consumed by them cannot be taken into account, since it is renewable. The author showed that power plants on organic fuel and existing nuclear plants using depleted fuel with a coefficient less than unity fundamentally cannot compensate for the energy used during their construction. In the world, the concept of the LEC （Levelized Energy Cost） produced by any power plant is widely used to estimate economic efficiency. However, the formula for determining it, in the author＇s opinion, contains an inaccuracy, which is proposed to be eliminated. At present, there are different opinions on the role of RES （Renewable Energy Sources） in the production of electricity. A summary indicator is the share of renewable energy in the world＇s electricity generation. The determination of the actual share of RES and the forecast of its growth is of significant importance for the development of the world economy. The author shows the differences in the estimates and suggests an approach for establishing agreed estimates.