Flux Jumps and H-T Diagram of Instability for MgB2

We present a study of magneto-thermal instabilities in polycrystalline MgB₂ superconductor, by magnetic hysteresis loop measurements and by investigations of magnetic flux dynamics with a miniature Hall probe. Temperature and magnetic field ranges where the flux jumps may be observed have been determined. On the basis of measurements of the magnetic flux dynamics, an average magnetic diffusivity describing the process of the flux jump is estimated. This parameter is compared with the thermal and magnetic diffusivities calculated on the basis of available data for thermal conductivity, heat capacity and resistivity. It is shown that the estimated value of the field of the first flux jump is influenced significantly by the field dependence of specific heat. In order to explain the observed phenomenon, the temperature reached by the sample during the flux jump at different magnetic fields is calculated.     

俄联邦防爆电气设备——对照国际标准俄国国家标准的修改、差异和独特性

1 俄联邦防爆电气设备应用情况 传统上快速发展的工业部门如进行石油和天然气生产、运输以及加工处理的那些部门、石油化工行业，以及很多可能出现爆炸性环境的其他行业，在其一些场所中需要使用防爆电气设备。     

The effects of a “distinct window” screen design on computer-mediated group decision making

An experiment was performed to test a distinct-window conferencing screen design as an electronic cue of social status differences in computer-mediated group decision-making. The screen design included one distinct window to symbolize high-status, and two nondistinct windows to symbolize low-status. The results indicated that the distinct-window screen design did produce status affects in groups of peers making decisions on judgmental problems. Randomly assigned occupants of the distinct window had greater influence on group decisions and member's attitudes than occupants of nondistinct windows.The authors would like to thank Shyam Kamadolli and Phaderm Nangsue, the programmers who developed the software used in this experiment. We would also like to thank the editor and our three anonymous reviewers for exceedingly helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

Halogenated Ti3C2 MXenes Prepared by Microwave Molten Salt for Hg0 Photo-Oxidation

Ti₃C₂ MXenes with different halogen modifications are prepared rapidly and efficiently by microwave molten salt method, and the MXene surface functional group modification is successfully achieved to address the problems of low purity, complex functional groups, and uncontrollable energy band structure of MXenes obtained by traditional liquid phase etching. Among them, the modification of the iodine (I) functional group onto the surface of Ti₃C₂ changes the energy band structure and band gap, resulting in easier photoexcitation and more photogenerated carriers. The increased Fermi energy is closer to the conduction band, the decreased surface work function weakens the electron confinement ability. The photogenerated carriers can migrate to the surface of the material more easily with extended lifetime, so the activity of the catalyst is improved. Further, for gaseous monomeric mercury (Hg⁰) photo-oxidative removal, Ti₃C₂-I₂ exhibits 85.5% efficiency of Hg⁰ photo-oxidative removal under visible light. Based on the experimental characterization and density functional theory calculations, a mechanism for the photo-oxidative removal of Hg° from Ti₃C₂-I₂ MXene is proposed, which provides a valuable strategy for studying Ti₃C₂ MXenes in the field of photocatalysis.     

Local effects in the vicinity of inserts in sandwich panels

The paper considers local bending effects induced in the vicinity of inserts in sandwich panels. Such local bending effects are associated with an increase of bending stresses in the sandwich faces and normal and shear stresses in the sandwich core. An earlier developed analytic model [Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Sandwich Structures (ICSS-6) (2002) 551] is adapted for the case of a sandwich panel with circular insert, with elastic properties differing from those of the core. The locally induced stresses in the faces and core due to presence of the insert are expressed via simple analytic relations (and charts) enabling an estimation of these local stresses. Finite element analysis is employed to demonstrate the applicability of the analytic model, and a good correspondence between the numerical and the analytical data is found. A study case related to marine applications, namely a circular insert in a sandwich deck panel used for mounting of a rigging fixture, is considered, and optimization of an existing design is carried out.     

A complete characterization of statistical query learning with applications to evolvability

Statistical query (SQ) learning model of Kearns is a natural restriction of the PAC learning model in which a learning algorithm is allowed to obtain estimates of statistical properties of the examples but cannot see the examples themselves (Kearns, 1998 [29]). We describe a new and simple characterization of the query complexity of learning in the SQ learning model. Unlike the previously known bounds on SQ learning (Blum, et al., 1994; Bshouty and Feldman, 2002; Yang, 2005; Balcázar, et al., 2007; Simon, 2007 [9], [11], [42], [3], [37]) our characterization preserves the accuracy and the efficiency of learning. The preservation of accuracy implies that our characterization gives the first characterization of SQ learning in the agnostic learning framework of Haussler (1992) [23] and Kearns, Schapire and Sellie (1994) [31]. The preservation of efficiency is achieved using a new boosting technique and allows us to derive a new approach to the design of evolution algorithms in Valiant?s model of evolvability (Valiant, 2009 [40]). We use this approach to demonstrate the existence of a large class of monotone evolution algorithms based on square loss performance estimation. These results differ significantly from the few known evolution algorithms and give evidence that evolvability in Valiant?s model is a more versatile phenomenon than there had been previous reason to suspect.     

Statistical and electrical properties of the conduction electrons of a metal nanosphere in the region of metal-insulator transition

Statistical and electrical properties of the conduction electrons of a silver or gold sphere with a radius from 1 to 2 nm are shown to differ drastically from the properties of electrons in a bulk metal sample. If the radius of a noble metal sphere decreases from 10 to 1 nm, its conductivity oscillates around the bulk metal value with increasing amplitude and drops at the ''magic’ numbers of electrons. These numbers are equal to 186, 198, 254, 338, 440, 556, 676, 832, 912, 1,284, 1,502, and 1,760, in agreement with various experimental data. We show that the conductivity and capacitance of a metal nanosphere can be changed by several orders of magnitude by adding or removing just a few electrons.