Comparisons of Criteria for Analyzing the Dynamical Association of Solutes in Aqueous Solutions

How to determine accurately the association states of solutes in aqueous systems is of fundamental importance in a variety of chemical, physical, and biological processes, We apply four widely used criteria to analyze the dynamic association processes of solutes, e.g., amphiphilic molecules, and to find the inappropriate selections of representative sites on solutes in these criteria may bring about appreciable influence on the estimation of dynamic association behaviors such as unrealistic packing radii and even misleading packing structures. It would be better to select dynamically representative sites on solute molecules based on the characteristic of solute associations. Our detailed discussions give a guide on how to determine an appropriate criterion to accurately analyze the association behaviors of solute molecules in aqueous solutions.

SOME NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS FOR EXISTENCE OF POSITIVE SOLUTIONS FOR THIRD ORDER SINGULAR SUBLINEAR MULTI-POINT BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEMS

We mainly study the existence of positive solutions for the following third order singular multi-point boundary value problem{x^（3）（t） ＋ f（t, x（t）, x′（t）） = 0, 0 〈 t 〈 1,x（0）-∑i=1^m1 αi x（ξi） = 0, x′（0）-∑i=1^m2 βi x′（ηi） = 0, x′（1）=0,where 0 ≤ ai≤∑i=1^m1 αi 〈 1, i = 1, 2, ···, m1, 0 〈 ξ1〈 ξ2〈 ··· 〈 ξm1〈 1, 0 ≤βj≤∑i^m2=1βi〈1,J=1,2, ···, m2, 0 〈 η1〈 η2〈 ··· 〈 ηm2〈 1. And we obtain some necessa βi 〈=11, j = 1,ry and sufficient conditions for the existence of C^1[0, 1] and C^2[0, 1] positive solutions by constructing lower and upper solutions and by using the comparison theorem. Our nonlinearity f（t, x, y）may be singular at x, y, t = 0 and/or t = 1.

DIFFERENTIAL QUADRATURE METHOD FOR BENDING OF ORTHOTROPIC PLATES WITH FINITE DEFORMATION AND TRANSVERSE SHEAR EFFECTS

Based on the Reddy's theory of plates with the effect of higher-order shear deformations, the governing equations for bending of orthotropic plates with finite deformations were established. The differential quadrature (DQ) method of nonlinear analysis to the problem was presented. New DQ approach, presented by Wang and Bert (DQWB), is extended to handle the multiple boundary conditions of plates. The techniques were also further extended to simplify nonlinear computations. The numerical convergence and comparison of solutions were studied. The results show that the DQ method presented is very reliable and valid. Moreover, the influences of geometric and material parameters as well as the transverse shear deformations on nonlinear bending were investigated. Numerical results show the influence of the shear deformation on the static bending of orthotropic moderately thick plate is significant.

Conditioning and PPP processing of smartphone GNSS measurements in realistic environments

Smartphones typically compute position using duty-cycled Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) L1 code measurements and Single Point Positioning (SPP) processing with the aid of cellular and other measurements. This internal positioning solution has an accuracy of several tens to hundreds of meters in realistic environments (hand-held, vehicle dashboard, suburban, urban forested, etc.). With the advent of multi-constellation, dual-frequency GNSS chips in smartphones, along with the ability to extract raw code and carrier-phase measurements, it is possible to use Precise Point Positioning (PPP) to improve positioning without any additional equipment. This research analyses GNSS measurement quality parameters from a Xiaomi MI 8 dual-frequency smartphone in varied, realistic environments. In such environments, the system suffers from frequent phase loss-of-lock leading to data gaps. The smartphone measurements have low and irregular carrier-to-noise (C/N0) density ratio and high multipath, which leads to poor or no positioning solution. These problems are addressed by implementing a prediction technique for data gaps and a C/N0-based stochastic model for assigning realistic a priori weights to the observables in the PPP processing engine. Using these conditioning techniques, there is a 64% decrease in the horizontal positioning Root Mean Square (RMS) error and 100% positioning solution availability in sub-urban environments tested. The horizontal and 3D RMS were 20 cm and 30 cm respectively in a static open-sky environment and the horizontal RMS for the realistic kinematic scenario was 7 m with the phone on the dashboard of the car, using the SwiftNav Piksi Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) solu-tion as reference. The PPP solution, computed using the YorkU PPP engine, also had a 5-10% percentage point more availability than the RTK solution, computed using RTKLIB software, since missing measurements in the logged file cause epoch rejection and a non-continuous solution, a problem which is solved by prediction for the PPP solution. The internal unaided positioning solution of the phone obtained from the logged NMEA (The National Marine Elec-tronics Association) file was computed using point positioning with the aid of measurements from internal sensors. The PPP solution was 80% more accurate than the internal solution which had periodic drifts due to non-continuous computation of solution.