EFFECT OF STRUCTURE OF FUNCTIONAL POLYMER ACTIVE MATERIALS ON PROPERTIES OF GADOLINIUM ION SELECTIVE ELECTRODE

In this paper,the functional polymeric active materials were prepared by the grafting copolymerization and their structure and properties were studied.The results show that the structure and properties of these ac- tive materials have the relative large effects on the properties of gadolinium ion selective electrodes.

Dynamic programming methodology for multi-criteria group decision-making under ordinal preferences

A method of minimizing rankings inconsistency is proposed for a decision-making problem with rankings of alternatives given by multiple decision makers according to multiple criteria. For each criteria, at first, the total inconsistency between the rankings of all alternatives for the group and the ones for every decision maker is defined after the decision maker weights in respect to the criteria are considered. Similarly, the total inconsistency between their final rankings for the group and the ones under every criteria is determined after the criteria weights are taken into account. Then two nonlinear integer programming models minimizing respectively the two total inconsistencies above are developed and then transformed to two dynamic programming models to obtain separately the rankings of all alternatives for the group with respect to each criteria and their final rankings. A supplier selection case illustrated the proposed method, and some discussions on the results verified its effectiveness. This work develops a new measurement of ordinal preferences’ inconsistency in multi-criteria group decision-making （MCGDM） and extends the cook-seiford social selection function to MCGDM considering weights of criteria and decision makers and can obtain unique ranking result.

Selective role of autophagy in neuronal function and neurodegenerative diseases

Proteostasis is critical for neuronal maintenance and survival, and its imbalance leads to neurodegeneration with the hallmark of protein misfolding and aggregation. Macroautophagy becomes a major route for the clearance of protein aggregates that are normally poor substrates for the proteasome, the other protein quality-control machinery. As a flux process, macroautophagy （hereafter referred to as autophagy） involves the formation of the autophagosome, a double-membrane vesicle for engulfing unwanted cellular components such as protein aggregates, and the fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes that contain many potent proteases for final degradation.

Femoral nerve regeneration and its accuracy under different injury mechanisms

Surgical accuracy has greatly improved with the advent of microsurgical techniques. However, complete functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury has not been achieved to date. The mechanisms hindering accurate regeneration of damaged axons after peripheral nerve injury are in urgent need of exploration. The present study was designed to explore the mechanisms of peripheral nerve regeneration after different types of injury. Femoral nerves of rats were injured by crushing or freezing. At 2, 3, 6, and 12 weeks after injury, axons were retrogradely labeled using 1,1′-dioctadecyl-3,3,3′,3′-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate（Dil） and True Blue, and motor and sensory axons that had regenerated at the site of injury were counted. The number and percentage of Dil-labeled neurons in the anterior horn of the spinal cord increased over time. No significant differences were found in the number of labeled neurons between the freeze and crush injury groups at any time point. Our results confirmed that the accuracy of peripheral nerve regeneration increased with time, after both crush and freeze injury, and indicated that axonal regeneration accuracy was still satisfactory after freezing, despite the prolonged damage.

Effect of TiO_2 Functionalization on Nano-Porous Silicon for Selective Alcohol Sensing at Room Temperature

Room temperature operated sensor for detection of alcohol vapours in low ppm range based on TiO_2 functionalized nano-porous silicon（PSi） is demonstrated. The effect of functionalization by TiO_2 on PSi is investigated using SEM, EDX, Raman spectroscopy, XRD and contact angle measurements. Sensing is accomplished by measuring change in resistance of the sensing layer using Cr-Au inter-digitatedelectrode（IDE） structure formed on top of the functionalized PSi layer. The sensors were tested for volatile organic compounds（VOCs） and water vapours in the wide range of 5–500 ppm concentration at room temperature. Functionalization of the nanostructured PSi by sputter deposited TiO_2 results in significant enhancement of sensitivity and inverse change in selectivity. PSi sensors have displayed strong response to water vapours whereas after functionalization, selective sensing to ethanol is depicted. Minimum detection by PSi sensors is portrayed at 100 ppm and that of functionalized sensors is at 10 ppm. Sensing mechanism is explained on the basis of surfaces and structures of both PSi and TiO_2. This study incites the importance of surface treatment of PSi for tuning the sensing properties and is useful in the development of selective alcohol sensors.

Prediction of Gas Chromatographic Retention Indices of Organophosphates by DFT and VSMP Method

Polychlorinated dibenzothiophenes（PCDTs） are a group of important persistent organic pollutants.In the present study,geometrical optimization and electrostatic potential calculations have been performed for all 135 PCDTs congeners at the B3LYP/6-31G＊ level of theory.By means of the VSMP（variable selection and modeling based on prediction） program,one optimal descriptor（molecular polarizability,α） was selected to develop a QSRR model for the prediction of gas chromatographic retention indices（GC-RI） of PCDTs.The estimated correlation coefficients（r2） and LOO-validated correlation coefficients（q2）,all more than 0.99,were built by multiple linear regression,which shows a good estimation ability and stability of the models.A prediction power for the external samples was validated by the model built from the training set with 17 polychlorinated dibenzothiophenes.

On the determination of particle impact breakage in selection function

This paper presents a thorough study of particle impact breakage in selection function with a unified breakage criterion.The impact mode and breakage pattern for particulate materials are classified based on a significant review of well-established impact testers.It was found that the lack of a unified breakage criterion to determine the breakage probability disables a direct comparison of particle breakage propensity from different impact loading testers.The literature breakage models to describe the breakage probability are reviewed where the advantage and drawback of these models are scrutinized.The sourced literature breakage models are compared with the zeolite breakage datasets in a unified breakage criterion to evaluate the model performance.A novel computational modelling workflow for a milling process is proposed to provide a guidance in implementing the digital twin in milling process prediction.The breakage probability models,i.e.the selection functions are comprehensively assessed in population balance model to examine the model serviceability.The model simplicity and fidelity in the model assessment are specifically discussed and the value of digital twin in substantially reducing the experimental trials is highlighted.

Insight into selective removal of copper from high-concentration nickel solutions with XPS and DFT:New technique to prepare 5N-nickel with chelating resin

An efficient and profitable separation process was proposed to prepare 5N （the purity of the metal solution reaches 99.999%） high-purity nickel from 3N nickel-solutions using Purolite S984. The adsorption performance of this superior resin, especially its selectivity for metal ions, was explored quantitatively. The maximum adsorption capacity for copper was 2.286 mmol/g calculated by the Langmuir model, which was twice as large as that for nickel. In the binary systems, the adsorption capacity for nickel was decreased by 45%, indicating direct competition for the active sites. The infinite separation factor for copper versus nickel exceeded 300, revealing the feasibility of preparing 5N-level high-purity nickel solutions, which was further verified using the 800 BV （bed volume） effluent in the column dynamic process. According to the cost-benefit analysis, purification contributed to a profit of approximately 60,000 USD per cycle, and the investment return period was less than 1/3 years. Density functional theory analysis confirmed that four nitrogen atoms would be involved in the coordination complex and thus a structure involving two five-membered rings could be achieved. The X-ray photoelectron spectra confirmed the involvement of nitrogen atoms, implying a coordination ratio of approximately 1：1.

Highly sensitive hybrid nanofiber-based room-temperature CO sensors： Experiments and density functional theory simulations

Chemical sensors （CSs） are an emerging area in nanoscience research, which focuses on the highly sensitive detection of toxic and hazardous gases and disease- related volatile organics. While the field has advanced rapidly in recent years, it lacks the theoretical support required for the rational design of innovative materials with tunable measurement responses. Herein, we present a one-dimensional （1D） hybrid nanofiber decorated with ultrafine NiO nanoparticles （NiO NPs） as an efficient active component for CSs. Highly dispersed （110）-facet NiO NPs with a high percentage of Ni2~ active sites with unsaturated coordination were confined in a TiO2 nanofiber （TiO2 NF） matrix that is favorable for surface catalytic reactions. The CSs constructed using the 1D heterostructure NiO/TiO2 nanofibers （NiOdrio2 HNFs） exhibited a highly selective response to trace CO gas molecules （1 ppm） with high sensitivity （AR/Ro = 1.02）, ultrafast response/ recovery time （T 〈 20 s）, and remarkable reproducibility at room tem- perature. The density functional theory （DFT） simulations and experimental results confirmed that the selective response could be attributed to the high molecular adsorption energy of the NiO nanoparticles with （110） facets and abundant interfaces, which act synergistically to promote CO adsorption and facilitate charge transfer.

Scale,Site Selection and Function of Economic and Technological Development Zones

This article analyses different characteristics of scale,site selection and function of the current economic andtehnological development zones in our country.It further proposes that it is inappropriate for the economic andtechnological development zones to follow the“pattern of the special zones”,but a new pattern of“small scale,unitaryfunction and closeness to old city”should be adopted to fit in with the practical conditions in our country.The scale,landuse structure and the relations between the development zone and the old city are the basic issues in planning forthe development zones.These three essential elements constitute the pattern of planning which determines to a certainextent the success or failure of the development zones.

Consistent habitat preference underpins the geographically divergent autumn migration of individual Mongolian common shelducks

While many avian populations follow narrow,well-defined"migratory corridors,"individuals from other populations undertake highly divergent individual migration routes,using widely dispersed stopover sites en route between breeding and wintering areas,although the reasons for these differences are rarely investigated.We combined individual GPS-tracked migration data from Mongolian-breeding common shelduck Tadorna tadorna and remote sensing datasets,to in-vestigate habitat selection at inland stopover sites used by these birds during dispersed autumn migration,to explain their divergent migration patterns.We used generalized linear mixed models to investigate population-level resource selection,and generalized linear models to investigate stopover-sit-level resource selection.The population-level model showed that water recurrence had the strongest positive effect on determining birds'occupancy at staging sites,while cultivated land and grassland land cover type had strongest negative effects;effects of other land cover types were negative but weaker,particularly effects of wwater seasonality and presence of a human foot-print,which were positive but weak or non-significant,respectively.Although stopover-site-level models showed variable resource selection patterns,the variance partitioning and cross-prediction AUC scores corroborated high inter-individual consistency in habitat selection at inland stopover sites during the dispersed autumn migration.These results suggest that the geographically wide-spread distribution(and generally rarity)of suitable habitats explained the spatially divergent autumn migrations of Mongolian breeding common shelduck,rather than the species showing flexible autumn staging habitat occupancy.

Mean-Field Maximum Principle for Optimal Control of Forward–Backward Stochastic Systems with Jumps and its Application to Mean-Variance Portfolio Problem

We study mean-field type optimal stochastic control problem for systems governed by mean-field controlled forward-backward stochastic differential equations with jump processes,in which the coefficients depend on the marginal law of the state process through its expected value.The control variable is allowed to enter both diffusion and jump coefficients.Moreover,the cost functional is also of mean-field type.Necessary conditions for optimal control for these systems in the form of maximum principle are established by means of convex perturbation techniques.As an application,time-inconsistent mean-variance portfolio selectionmixed with a recursive utility functional optimization problem is discussed to illustrate the theoretical results.

Size-dependent dissociation of small cobalt clusters on ultrathin NaCI films

Mass-selected anionic cobalt clusters of two different sizes （Co2 and Co13） were deposited onto ultrathin NaC1 films grown on an Au（111） substrate. Using scanning tunneling microscopy experiments and density functional theory simulations, we show that the deposited Co2 cluster dissociates and that the resulting Co atoms dope the NaCI surface by substituting Na ions. In contrast, the larger Co13 cluster does not dissociate and remains stable on top of the NaC1 film. The size- dependent fragmentation of clusters is an important aspect in the understanding of the chemical interaction between size-selected small aggregates of atoms and supporting surfaces.