Idealized Experiments for Optimizing Model Parameters Using a 4D-Variational Method in an Intermediate Coupled Model of ENSO

Large biases exist in real-time ENSO prediction, which can be attributed to uncertainties in initial conditions and model parameters. Previously, a 4D variational （4D-Vat） data assimilation system was developed for an intermediate coupled model （ICM） and used to improve ENSO modeling through optimized initial conditions. In this paper, this system is further applied to optimize model parameters. In the ICM used, one important process for ENSO is related to the anomalous temperature of subsurface water entrained into the mixed layer （Te）, which is empirically and explicitly related to sea level （SL） variation. The strength of the thermocline effect on SST （referred to simply as ＂the thermocline effect＂） is represented by an introduced parameter, （l＇Te. A numerical procedure is developed to optimize this model parameter through the 4D-Var assimilation of SST data in a twin experiment context with an idealized setting. Experiments having their initial condition optimized only, and having their initial condition plus this additional model parameter optimized, are compared. It is shown that ENSO evolution can be more effectively recovered by including the additional optimization of this parameter in ENSO modeling. The demonstrated feasibility of optimizing model parameters and initial conditions together through the 4D-Var method provides a modeling platform for ENSO studies. Further applications of the 4D-Vat data assimilation system implemented in the ICM are also discussed.

Optimization of Extraction Conditions of Pomegranate Peel Polyphenols and Its Protective Effect on Acute Alcoholic Liver Injury in Mice

[Objectives]This study was conducted to explore the optimization of ultrasonic-assisted organic solvent extraction of pomegranate peel polyphenols(PPPs),and to study the protective effect of PPPs on acute alcoholic liver injury in mice.[Methods]The optimal extraction conditions of PPPs were determined by single factor and orthogonal experiments,and an acute alcoholic liver injury model in mice was established.Bifendate was used as the positive control group to investigate the protective effect of low,medium and high doses of PPPs on acute alcoholic liver injury.[Results]The optimum extraction process parameters were followed as 60%ethanol concentration,solid-liquid ratio of 1:40(w/v),extraction temperature of 50℃,and extraction time of 1.5 h,and the yield was 1.42%.The results of animal experiments showed that PPPs could effectively reduce the degree of alcoholic liver injury in mice,reduce the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase(ALT)and aspartate aminotransferase(AST),and reduce the inflammation and necrosis of liver tissue in mice.Meanwhile,the total polyphenols from pomegranate peel also significantly reduced the expression levels of malondialdehyde(MDA),tumor necrosis factor(TNF-α)and interleukin-6(IL-6)in mice,and increased the levels of superoxide dismutase(SOD)and reduced glutathione(GSH)in liver tissue of mice,indicating its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects,further illustrating its protective effect on alcoholic liver injury.[Conclusions]PPPs could reduce the expression levels of TNF-α,IL-6 and MDA in mice,and increase the expression levels of SOD and GSH to achieve the protective effect on acute alcoholic liver injury in mice.This study will provide new ideas for the development of new anti-alcoholic liver injury drug resources.

THE OPTIMALITY CONDITIONS OF NONCONVEXSET-VALUED VECTOR OPTIMIZATION

The concepts of alpha-order Clarke's derivative, alpha-order Adjacent derivative and alpha-order G.Bouligand derivative of set-valued mappings are introduced, their properties are studied, with which the Fritz John optimality condition of set-valued vector optimization is established. Finally, under the assumption of pseudoconvexity, the optimality condition is proved to be sufficient.

An optimal scheduling algorithm based on task duplication

When the communication time is relatively shorter than the computation time for every task, the task duplication based scheduling (TDS) algorithm proposed by Darbha and Agrawal generates an optimal schedule. Park and Choe also proposed an extended TDS algorithm whose optimality condition is less restricted than that of TDS algorithm, but the condition is very complex and is difficult to satisfy when the number of tasks is large. An efficient algorithm is proposed whose optimality condition is less restricted and simpler than both of the algorithms, and the schedule length is also shorter than both of the algorithms. The time complexity of the proposed algorithm is O(v2), where v represents the number of tasks.

Preparation and Performance of Geopolymers

The influence of each factor on the reaction of geopolymers material was investigated by using the orthogonal experimental design method, which got the optimal condition of reaction. Based on this results the performances of geopolymers were investigated. The results are as follows： （1） The effect of each factor on the compressive strength of geopolymers was different; （2） For paste the optimal condition of reaction is that the modulus and the concentration of sodium silicate solution are 1.2 and 40%, the calcined temperature and calcined time of kaolin are 800 ℃ and 2 h, and the liquid-solid ratio is 1.25; （3） When the pH value of solution is higher than l, the compressive strength of Geopolymers will not decrease as that in the water; （4） As the calcined temperature of samples were lower than 700 ℃ the heat-resistant of geopolymers was good;（5） Geopolymers is unlikely to react with the active aggregate.

Optimality conditions and duality for a class of nondifferentiable multiobjective generalized fractional programming problems

This paper studies a class of multiobjective generalized fractional programming problems, where the numerators of objective functions are the sum of differentiable function and convex function, while the denominators are the difference of differentiable function and convex function. Under the assumption of Calmness Constraint Qualification the Kuhn-Tucker type necessary conditions for efficient solution are given, and the Kuhn-Tucker type sufficient conditions for efficient solution are presented under the assumptions of （F, α, ρ, d）-V-convexity. Subsequently, the optimality conditions for two kinds of duality models are formulated and duality theorems are proved.

Global optimality conditions for quadratic 0-1 programming with inequality constraints

Quadratic 0-1 problems with linear inequality constraints are briefly considered in this paper.Global optimality conditions for these problems,including a necessary condition and some sufficient conditions,are presented.The necessary condition is expressed without dual variables.The relations between the global optimal solutions of nonconvex quadratic 0-1 problems and the associated relaxed convex problems are also studied.

Optimality Conditions and Duality for Nonsmooth Multiobjective Programms with Generalized Essential Convexity

In this paper, we introduce generalized essentially pseudoconvex function and generalized essentially quasiconvex function, and give sufficient optimality conditions of the nonsmooth generalized convex multi-objective programming and its saddle point theorem about cone efficient solution. We set up Mond-Weir type duality and Craven type duality for nonsmooth multiobjective programming with generalized essentially convex functions, and prove them.

Optimization of the operating conditions in a TiO_2/Fe_3O_4-SiO_2 photocatalytic reactor for the treatment of industrial wastewater containing Procion Red MX-5B

According to the design principle of the central composite experimental,the method of response surface analysis with three factors and three levels was adopted based on one factor test.A second-order quadratic equation for photocatalysis of Procion Red MX-5B was built.Response surface and contour were graphed with the decoloration rate of Procion Red MX-5B as the response value.Based on the analysis of the response surface plots and their corresponding contour plots,effects of pH value,irradiation time and catalyst loading were explored.By using this new method,the optimum decoloration condition was obtained as follows:pH value,1.3;irradiation time,49.9 min;catalyst loading,0.57 g/L.In the optimization,R-Squared and Adj R-Squared correlation coefficients for quadratic model were evaluated quite satisfactorily as 0.9310 and 0.8620,respectively.Under the optimum conditions established,the performance of 99.47% for color removal was experimentally reached.It was found that all factors considered have an important effect on the decolorization efficiency of Procion Red MX-5B.By the ANOVA analysis and model confirmation the optimal solution obtained using RSM was experimentally validated and credible with preferable instructional ability for experiments.

Mathematical Analysis of Nipah Virus Infections Using Optimal Control Theory

The optimal use of intervention strategies to mitigate the spread of Nipah Virus (NiV) using optimal control technique is studied in this paper. First of all we formulate a dynamic model of NiV infections with variable size population and two control strategies where creating awareness and treatment are considered as controls. We intend to find the optimal combination of these two control strategies that will minimize the cost of the two control measures and as a result the number of infectious individuals will decrease. We establish the existence for the optimal controls and Pontryagin’s maximum principle is used to characterize the optimal controls. The numerical simulation suggests that optimal control technique is much more effective to minimize the infected individuals and the corresponding cost of the two controls. It is also monitored that in the case of high contact rate, controls have to work for longer period of time to get the desired result. Numerical simulation reveals that the spread of Nipah virus can be controlled effectively if we apply control strategy at early stage.

On Second-order Sufficient Conditions in Constrained Nonsmooth Optimization

In this paper, we establish a second-order sufficient condition for constrained optimization problems of a class of so called t-stable functions in terms of the first-order and the second-order Dini type directional derivatives. The result extends the corresponding result of [D. Bednarik and K. Pastor, Math. Program. Ser. A, 113（2008）, 283-298] to constrained optimization problems.

Axisymmetric Powell-Eyring fluid flow with convective boundary condition: optimal analysis

The effects of axisymmetric flow of a Powell-Eyring fluid over an impermeable radially stretching surface are presented. Characteristics of the heat transfer process are analyzed with a more realistic condition named the convective boundary condition. Governing equations for the flow problem are derived by the boundary layer approximations. The modeled highly coupled partial differential system is converted into a system of ordinary differential equations with acceptable similarity transformations. The convergent series solutions for the resulting system are constructed and analyzed. Optimal values are obtained and presented in a numerical form using an optimal homotopy analysis method （OHAM）. The rheological characteristics of different parameters of the velocity and temperature profiles are presented graphically. Tabular variations of the skin friction coefficient and the Nusselt number are also calculated. It is observed that the temperature distribution shows opposite behavior for Prandtl and Biot numbers. Furthermore, the rate of heating/cooling is higher for both the Prandtl and Biot numbers.

Simultaneous Optimal Controls for Non-Stationary Stokes Systems

This paper deal with optimal control problems for a non-stationary Stokes system. We study a simultaneous distributed-boundary optimal control problem with distributed observation. We prove the existence and uniqueness of a simultaneous optimal control and we give the first order optimality condition for this problem. We also consider a distributed optimal control problem and a boundary optimal control problem and we obtain estimations between the simultaneous optimal control and the optimal controls of these last ones. Finally, some regularity results are presented.

New smooth gap function for box constrained variational inequalities

A new smooth gap function for the box constrained variational inequality problem （VIP） is proposed based on an integral global optimality condition. The smooth gap function is simple and has some good differentiable properties. The box constrained VIP can be reformulated as a differentiable optimization problem by the proposed smooth gap function. The conditions, under which any stationary point of the optimization problem is the solution to the box constrained VIP, are discussed. A simple frictional contact problem is analyzed to show the applications of the smooth gap function. Finally, the numerical experiments confirm the good theoretical properties of the method.

Output neighboring-extremal and NCO tracking control in the optimal operation of CSTR

A new optimizing framework of process operation is proposed to deal with optimizing op- eration of continuous stirred tank reactor （CSTR）. The optimization framework includes two layers： the first layer, necessary condition of optimally （NCO） tracking controller, calculates the optimal set-point of the process; and the second layer, output neighboring-extremal controller, calculates the input values of the controlled plant. The algorithm design and convergent analysis of output neighboring-extremal controller are discussed emphatically, and in the case of existing parametric uncertainty, the approach is shown to converge to the optimum atmost in two iterations. At last the approach is illustrated by simulation results for a dynamic CSTR.

An Optimization Model for the Strip-packing Problem and Its Augmented Lagrangian Method

This paper formulates a two-dimensional strip packing problem as a non- linear programming （NLP） problem and establishes the first-order optimality conditions for the NLP problem. A numerical algorithm for solving this NLP problem is given to find exact solutions to strip-packing problems involving up to 10 items. Approximate solutions can be found for big-sized problems by decomposing the set of items into small-sized blocks of which each block adopts the proposed numerical algorithm. Numerical results show that the approximate solutions to big-sized problems obtained by this method are superior to those by NFDH, FFDH and BFDH approaches.

Operating conditions combination analysis method of optimal water management state for PEM fuel cell

The water content of proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs)affects the transport of reactants and the conductivity of the membrane.Effective water management measures can improve the performance and extend the lifespan of the fuel cell.The water management state of the stack is influenced by various external operating conditions,and optimizing the combination of these conditions can improve the water management state within the stack.Considering that the stack's internal resistance can reflect its water management state,this study first establishes an internal resistance-operating condition model that considers the coupling effect of temperature and humidity to determine the variation trend of total resistance and stack humidity with single-factor operating conditions.Subsequently,the water management state optimization method based on the ANN-HGPSO algorithm is proposed,which not only quantitatively evaluates the influence weights of different operating conditions on the stack's internal resistance but also efficiently and accurately obtains the optimal combination of five operating conditions:working temperature,anode gas pressure,cathode gas pressure,anode gas humidity,and cathode gas humidity to achieve the optimal water management state in the stack,within the entire range of current densities.Finally,the response surface experimental results of the stack also validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the ANN-HGPSO algorithm.The method mentioned in this article can provide effective strategies for efficient water management and output performance optimization control of PEMFC stacks.

Optimality Conditions for Generalized Convex Nonsmooth Uncertain Multi-objective Fractional Programming

This paper aims at studying optimality conditions of robust weak efficient solutions for a nonsmooth uncertain multi-objective fractional programming problem(NUMFP).The concepts of two types of generalized convex function pairs,called type-I functions and pseudo-quasi-type-I functions,are introduced in this paper for(NUMFP).Under the assumption that(NUMFP)satisfies the robust constraint qualification with respect to Clarke subdifferential,necessary optimality conditions of the robust weak efficient solution are given.Sufficient optimality conditions are obtained under pseudo-quasi-type-I generalized convexity assumption.Furthermore,we introduce the concept of robust weak saddle points to(NUMFP),and prove two theorems about robust weak saddle points.The main results in the present paper are verified by concrete examples.

Controlled Synthesis of Polymers

Controlled synthesis is central to obtaining polymers with accurate structures and excellent performances.Recent research in the controlled synthesis of polymers has focused on optimizing monomers,initiation systems,and reaction conditions.The satisfactory sequence,topological structure,and dispersity have been achieved to satisfy the growing demand for functional polymers.This re-view summarizes the selection of monomers of various types and structures,the innovation of initiation systems,and the optimiza-tion of reaction conditions in the controlled synthesis of polymers and discusses their challenges and opportunities.

Optimality Conditions of Approximate Solutions for Nonsmooth Semi-infinite Programming Problems

In this paper,we study optimality conditions of approximate solutions for nonsmooth semi-infinite programming problems.Three new classes of functions,namelyε-pseudoconvex functions of type I and type II andε-quasiconvex functions are introduced,respectively.By utilizing these new concepts,sufficient optimality conditions of approximate solutions for the nonsmooth semi-infinite programming problem are established.Some examples are also presented.The results obtained in this paper improve the corresponding results of Son et al.(J Optim Theory Appl 141:389–409,2009).