A Near-Normalisation?Sino-Saudi Diplomatic Flirtations between 1955 and 1957

The article examines a window of opportunity that emerged between 1955 and 1957 and which could have resulted in the normalisation of Saudi Arabia’s relations with the People’s Republic of China,along with a few other states from the communist bloc.As the article will show,this possibility emerged as a by-product of the Kingdom’s national security challenges during that juncture,and which in turn contributed towards its embrace of a strategy playing both sides of the Cold War divide against one another.This strategy elicited the desired American response which,hand in hand with changing Saudi assessments of regional threats by late 1956,consolidated the American-Saudi security partnership and foreclosed Sino-Saudi normalisation.While the Kingdom had‘moved on’by 1957,a reading of open Chinese sources from the late 1950s suggests that Beijing continued to harbour the hope that formal relations could be established.

安康七里香蔷薇rpl36-rps8基因序列分析

研究安康地区七里香蔷薇(Rosa banksiae var.normalis)和蔷薇科其他植物间的亲缘关系,选择安康地区七里香蔷薇,对其叶绿体rpl36-rps8序列进行扩增、测序,与Gen Bank中其他薇科植物的rpl36-rps8序列同源性进行对比分析,利用系统发育分析软件MEGA6,运用邻接法(Neighbor Joining)建构了系统发育树。结果表明,七里香蔷薇与蔷薇属的大花香水月季同源性很高。

AB015.Interocular normalization in monkey primary visual cortex(V1)

Background:The two images,slightly different,seen by the two eyes allow the brain to build a 3D representation of the world.Monocular signals enter the primary visual cortex through layer 4,where they are segregated and organized in ocular dominance stripes.They are later combined in upper layers.In order to study the integration of the information coming from the two eyes at this mesoscopical scale in V1,we use optical imaging in anaesthetized macaque monkey.Methods:Ocular dominance maps have been obtained with intrinsic optical imaging.Dichoptic interactions have then been studied with voltage-sensitive dye imaging(VSDI)with a frequency-tagging paradigm.Visual stimuli with different contrasts were respectively presented at 6 and 10 Hz to the two eyes,independently or simultaneously with a passive 3D screen.Frequency analysis thus allowed to identify each eye’s contribution to the signal.Results:We observed that V1 population activity generated by one eye stimulation is suppressed when the other eye is stimulated too.This integration of monocular signals at the population level can be accurately modeled with an interocular normalization model.Conclusions:This approach and this model confirm V1 implication in combining the signals coming from the two eyes.The mechanisms underlying this interocular normalization,through local,feedforward,feedback or long-range connections,are still to be determined.

Impact of land cover change on land surface temperature: A case study of Spiti Valley

Land surface temperature(LST) is the skin temperature of the earth surface. LST depends on the amount of sunlight received by any geographical area. Apart from sun light, LST is also affected by the land cover, which leads to change in land surface temperature. Impact of land cover change(LCC) on LST has been assessed using Landsat TM5, Landsat 8 TIRS/OLI and Digital Elevation Model(ASTER) for Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India. In the present study, Spiti valley was divided into three altitudinal zones to check the pattern of changing land cover along different altitudes and LST was calculated for all the four land cover categories extracted from remote sensing data for the years of 1990 and 2015. Matrix table was used as a technique to evaluate the land cover change between two different years. Matrix table shows that as a whole, about 2,151,647 ha(30%) area of Spiti valley experienced change in land cover in the last 25 years. The result also shows vegetation and water bodies increased by 107,560.2 ha(605.87%) and 45 ha(0.98%), respectively. Snow cover and barren land decreased by 19,016.5 ha(23.92%) and 88,589(14.14%), during the study period. A significant increase has been noticed in vegetation amongst all land cover types. Minimum, maximum and mean LST for three altitudinal zones have been calculated. The mean LST recorded was 11℃ in 1990 but it rose by 2℃ and reached to 13℃ in 2015. Changes in LST were obtained for each land cover categories. The mean temperature of different land cover types was calculated by averaging value of all pixels of a given land cover types. The mean LST of vegetation, barren land, snow cover and water body increased by 6℃, 9℃, 1℃, and 7℃, respectively. Further, relationships between LST, Normalized Difference Snow Index(NDSI), and Normalised Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI) were established using Linear Regression.

An approach to measure infill matric suction of irregular infilled rock joints under constant normal stiffness shearing

Rock joints infilled with sediments can strongly influence the strength of rock mass. As infilled joints often exist under unsaturated condition, this study investigated the influence of matric suction of infill on the overall joint shear strength. A novel technique that allows direct measurement of matric suction of infill using high capacity tensiometers(HCTs) during direct shear of infilled joints under constant normal stiffness(CNS) is described. The CNS apparatus was modified to accommodate the HCT and the procedure is explained in detail. Joint specimens were simulated by gypsum plaster using threedimensional(3D) printed surface moulds, and filled with kaolin and sand mixture prepared at different water contents. Shear behaviours of both planar infilled joints and rough joints having joint roughness coefficients(JRCs) of 8-10 and 18-20 with the ratios of infill thickness to asperity height(t/a)equal to 0.5 were investigated. Matric suction shows predominantly unimodal behaviour during shearing of both planar and rough joints, which is closely associated with the variation of unloading rate and volumetric changes of the infill material. As expected, two-peak behaviour was observed for the rough joints and both peaks increased with the increase of infill matric suction. The results suggest that the contribution of matric suction of infill on the joint peak normalised shear stress is relatively independent of the joint roughness.

Correlation between Process Variables in Shielded Metal-Arc Welding (SMAW) Process and Post Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) on Some Mechanical Properties of Low Carbon Steel Welds

This investigation was conducted to correlate process variables in shielded metal-arc welding (SMAW) and post weld heat treatment on some mechanical properties of low carbon steel weld. Three hundred and sixty pieces of weld samples were prepared. The samples were welded together using AWS E6013 electrodes with DC arc welding process. Varying welding currents of 100 A, 120 A, 140 A were used with a terminal voltage of 80 V. The weld samples were prepared for hardness, tensile and impact test. The prepared samples were then subjected to normalising heat treatment operation at temperatures of 590°C, 600°C, 620°C, 640°C, 660°C, 680°C, and 700°C. It was observed that increase in welding current led to an increase in hardness and ultimate tensile strength values of as-weld samples while impact strength de-creases. After post heat treatment operation the hardness and ultimate tensile strengths decreases while impact strength increases. From this outcome we conclude that there is correlation between the welding current and mechanical proper-ties of weld metal on one hand and normalising temperatures and mechanical properties on the other hand. As the cur-rent increases the hardness and strength increases but impact strength reduces, while hardness and strength continuously reduces but impact strength increases as normalising temperatures increases.

Rapprochement in Israel-Saudi Foreign Policy:Moving on Tiptoes to a Normalization Process?

The possibility of a Saudi rapprochement with Israel has been continuously influenced by the the domestic barriers within the Saudi community and the Saudi historical narratives on the regional security perceptions of the Saudi decision-makers.After the appointment of Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the Minister of Defense in 2015,King Salman’s government adopted a new discourse in domestic and foreign policy built upon a redefined Saudi identity rhetorically distanced from its Islamic neighbours and moved towards a nationalised tone.The unstable nature of the regional security dynamics forces the kingdom to actively reconstruct new security routines based on the emerging regional security dynamics and repositions the alliances.At this juncture,this research aims at understanding the rationality of the rise and fall of the intensity of Saudi foreign policy towards a normalisation process with Israel within the borders of the redefined Saudi national identity and regional threat perceptions.

The normalizations and related dynamic processes for two power indexes

Here,we introduce the normalisations for the marginal index and the Banzhaf–Owen index,respectively.We show that there exists reduced games that could be adopted to characterise these two normalisations.Further,alternative formulations are also proposed by applying excess functions.Based on reduced games and excess functions,we provide different dynamic processes for these two normalisations.

Numerical simulation of sedimentation of microparticles usingthe discrete particle method

A mathematical model has been formulated based on the combined continuous and discrete particle method for investigating the sedimentation behaviour of microparticles in aqueous suspensions, by treating the fluid phase as continuous and the particles phase as discrete, thus allowing the behaviour of individual particles to be followed and the evolution of the structure of the particle phase to be investigated as a function of time. The model takes into account most of the prevailing forces acting on individual particles including van der Waals attractive, electrostatic repulsive, gravitational, Brownian, depletion, steric, contact and drag forces. A code has also been developed based on the model. This paper reports some preliminary modelling results of mono-dispersed microparticles settling in aqueous suspensions under various conditions. The results show the short time dynamics of the fluid phase, which has a similar order of magnitude to the particle phase. Such short time dynamics could bear significance to processes such as particle aggregation when their size becomes very small. Preliminary analyses of the results have also been carried out on the evolution of particle settling based on a newly proposed parameter, local normalised volume fraction （LNVF）.