Experimental study of relationship between average isotopic fractionation factor and evaporation rate

Isotopic fractionation is the basis of tracing the water cycle using hydrogen and oxygen isotopes. Isotopic fractionation factors in water evaporating from free water bodies are mainly affected by temperature and relative humidity, and vary significantly with these atmospheric factors over the course of a day. The evaporation rate （E） can reveal the effects of atmospheric factors. Therefore, there should be a certain functional relationship between isotopic fractionation factors and E. An average isotopic fractionation factor （ t~＊ ） was defined to describe isotopic differences between vapor and liquid phases in evaporation with time intervals of days. The relationship between or＊ and E based on the isotopic mass balance was investigated through an evaporation pan experiment with no inflow. The experimental results showed that the isotopic compositions of residual water were more enriched with time; tr＊ was affected by air temperature, relative humidity, and other atmospheric factors, and had a strong functional relation with E. The values of 0~＊ can be easily calculated with the known values of E, the initial volume of water in the pan, and isotopic compositions of residual water.

Remarkable average thermoelectric performance of the highly oriented Bi(Te,Se)-based thin films and devices

Bi(Te,Se)-based compounds have attracted lots of attention for nearly two centuries as one of the most successful commercial thermoelectric(TE)materials due to their high performance at near room tem-perature.Compared with 3D bulks,2D thin films are more compatible with modern semiconductor technology and have unique advantages in the construction of micro-and nano-devices.For device applications,high average TE performance over the entire operating temperature range is critical.Herein,highly c-axis-oriented N-type Bi(Te,Se)epitaxial thin films have been successfully prepared using the pulsed laser deposition technology by adjusting the deposition temperature.The film deposited at~260℃demonstrate a remarkable average power factor(PFave)of~24.4 mW·cm^(-1)·K^(-2)over the tem-perature range of 305e470 K,higher than most of the state-of-the-art Bi(Te,Se)-based films.Moreover,the estimated average zT value of the film is as high as~0.81.We then constructed thin-film TE devices by using the above oriented Bi(Te,Se)films,and the maximum output power density of the device can reach up to~30.1 W/m^(2)under the temperature difference of 40 K.Predictably,the outstanding average TE performance of the highly oriented Bi(Te,Se)thin films will have an excellent panorama of applications in semiconductor cooling and power generation.

A moving average Cholesky factor model in joint mean-covariance modeling for longitudinal data

Modeling the mean and covariance simultaneously is a common strategy to efficiently estimate the mean parameters when applying generalized estimating equation techniques to longitudinal data. In this article, using generalized estimation equation techniques, we propose a new kind of regression models for parameterizing covariance structures. Using a novel Cholesky factor, the entries in this decomposition have moving average and log innovation interpretation and are modeled as the regression coefficients in both the mean and the linear functions of covariates. The resulting estimators for eovarianee are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normally distributed. Simulation studies and a real data analysis show that the proposed approach yields highly efficient estimators for the parameters in the mean, and provides parsimonious estimation for the covariance structure.

Calculation of stress intensity factor in two-dimensional cracks by strain energy density factor procedure

In order to calculate the stress intensity factor(SIF) of crack tips in two-dimensional cracks from the viewpoint of strain energy density, a procedure to use the strain energy density factor to calculate the SIF is proposed. In this paper, the procedure is presented to calculate the SIF of crack tips in mode I cracks, mode II cracks and I+II mixed mode cracks. Meanwhile, the results are compared to those calculated by traditional approaches or other approaches based on strain energy density and verified by theoretical solutions. Furthermore, the effect of mesh density near the crack tip is discussed, and the proper location where the strain energy density factor is calculated is also studied. The results show that the SIF calculated by this procedure is close to not only those calculated by other approaches but also the theoretical solutions, thus it is capable of achieving accurate results.Besides, the mesh density around the crack tip should meet such requirements that, in the circular area created, the first layer of singular elements should have a radius about 0.05 mm and each element has a circumferential directional meshing angle to be15°–20°. Furthermore, for a single element around the crack tip, the strain energy density factor is suggested to be calculated in the location where half of the sector element's radius from the crack tip.