An Improved Experiment to Determine the‘Past of a Particle’in the Nested Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

We argue that the modification proposed by Li et al. [Chin. Phys. Lett. 32 （2015）050303] to the experiment of Danan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 （2013） 240402] does not test the past of the photon as characterized by local weak traces. Instead of answering the questions： （i） were the photons in A？ （ii） were the photons in B？ and （iii） were the photons in C？ the proposed experiment measures a degenerate operator answering the questions： （i） were the photons in A？ and （ii） were the photons in B and C together？ A negative answer to the last question does not tell us if photons were present in B or C. On the other hand, a simple variation of the proposal by Li et al. does provide conceptually better evidence for the past of the pre- and post-selected photon, but this evidence will be in agreement with the results of Danan et al.

Progress in applying patient experience in nursing quality improvement

Background： Improving and sustaining the quality of nursing care is an intractable and persistent challenge. The patient experience of nursing care can give a different perspective on nursing quality and help clinical nursing staff to direct quality improvement. Attempts to identify what is patient experience,the relationship with nursing care, and the application of patient experience in nursing quality improvement practice, in order to provide advices for constructing the quality standards and quality improvement strategies of nursing care.Methods： We conducted a literature review of original research publications. The database platforms Pubmed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure（CNKI） and Wanfang were searched from inception until end of August 2015. After screening retrieved articles, 40 sources（articles and organizational websites） were selected for analysis for the connotation, development and application of patient experience in nursing quality researches.Results： Our study identified several concepts about patient experience, roughly sorted out the development path of patient experience in worldwide and the application of patient experience in nursing quality improvement. It points out four precautions when applying patient experience in nursing quality improvement, which are differentiating patient satisfaction and patient experience, choosing appropriate data collection method and appropriate feedback time, and the last but the most important, applying theories to actual clinical practice.Conclusions： Professional indexes are important to maintain the care quality, but it cannot fully reflect quality of nursing care, which needs patient experience as the supplement. Nursing staffs need to make more efforts to enhance patient＇s nursing care experience, and apply the research results to clinical practice, and finally make patient-centered care come true. For future study, the evaluation system and management strategies about patient experience need to be developed to guide nursing quality improvement.

Approach for improving precision of regression analysis of single-replication fertilization experiments in rice

The field experiment designs with single replication were frequently used for factorial experiments in which the numbers of field plots were limited, but the experimental error was difficult to be estimated. To study a new statistical method for improving precision of regression analysis of such experiments in rice, 84 fertilizer experiments were conducted in 15 provinces of China, including Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hunan, Sichuan, Heilongjiang, etc. Three factors with 14 treatments (N: 0—225kg/ha, P: 0 —112. 5kg/ha, K: 0—150kg/ha) and two replications were employed using approaching optimun design. There were 2352 (84×14×2=2352) Yield deviations (d) between the individual treatment yields and its arithmetic mean. The results indicated that:

Coefficient of restitution for particles impacting on wet surfaces： An improved experimental approach

The coefficient of restitution is widely used to characterize the energy dissipation rate in numerical simulations involving particle collisions. The challenge in measuring the coefficient of restitution is the strong scatter seen in experimental data that results from varying particle properties, i.e. shape and surface roughness, and from imperfections in the experimental technique. To minimize this scattering, a novel experimental setup was developed based on two synchronized high-speed cameras capturing the collision behaviour of a particle in three dimensions. To measure the wet restitution coefficient, which describes particle impact in the presence of a liquid layer in the contact region, additional accuracy can be achieved by measuring the liquid layer thickness by a high-precision optical confocal sensor. The coefficient of restitution was measured for glass particles with two different diameters, at different relative velocities and liquid layer thicknesses, with a focus on small collision velocities and thin liquid layers, using both the improved （three dimensional） and the conventional （two dimensional） approaches to quantify the improvement of the new method＇s accuracy.

Design and Performance of an Improved Trapped Vortex Combustor

A trapped vortex combustor （TVC） has been a very promising novel concept for it offers improvements in lean blow out, altitude relight, operating range, as well as a potential to decrease NOx emissions compared to conventional combustors. The present paper discusses the improved designs of the new combustor over the prior ones of our research group, including that：a） the over-all dimensions, both axial and radial, are reduced to those of an actual aero-engine combustor; b） the air flow distribution is optimized, and especially 15% of the air is fed into the liner as cooling air; c） a straight-wall diffuser with divergence angle 9°is added. A series of experiments （cavity-fueled only, under atmospheric pressure） has been conducted to investigate the performance of the improved TVC. Experimental results show that at the inlet temperature of 523 K, the inlet pressure of 0.1 MPa, stable operation of the TVC test rig is observed for the Mach number 0.15-0.34, indicating good flame stability; the combustion efficiency obtained in this paper falls into the range of 60%-96%; as the total excess air ratio increases, the combustion efficiency decreases, while the increase of the inlet temperature is beneficial to high combustion efficiency; besides, the optimal Mach numbers for high combustion efficiency under different inlet conditions are confirmed. The outlet temperature profiles feature a bottom in the midheight of the exit. This paper demonstrates the feasibility for the TVC to be applied to a realistic aero-engine preliminarily and provides reference for TVC design.