Synthesis,Anticancer Activity,Structure-Activity Relationship and Mechanistic Investigations of Falcarindiol Analogues

Forty samples of optically active falcarindiol analogues are synthesized by using the easily available C2 symmetric (R)- and (S)-1,1’-binaphth-2-ol (BINOL) in combination with Ti(OⁱPr)₄, Zn powder and EtI. Their anticancer activities on Hccc-9810, HepG2, MDA-MB-231, Hela, MG-63 and H460 cells are assayed to elucidate their structure-activity relationships. These results showed that the falcarindiol analogue (3R,8S)- 2 i with the terminal double bond has the most potent anti-proliferation effect on Hccc-9810 cells with IC₅₀ value of 0.46 μM. The falcarindiol analogue (3R,8S)- 2 i can induce obvious Hccc-9810 cell apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner by Hoechst staining and flow cytometry analysis. The proposed mechanism suggests that the falcarindiol analogue (3R,8S)- 2 i increases LDH release and MDA content, and reduces the levels of SOD activity, which lead to the accumulation of oxidative stress and induce apoptosis in Hccc-9810 cells.     

Farmers' preferences for adopting on-farm concentration of raw milk: Results from a discrete choice experiment in Germany

Milk concentrates are used in the manufacturing of dairy products such as yogurt and cheese or are processed into milk powder. Processes for the nonthermal separation of water and valuable milk ingredients are becoming increasingly widespread at farm level. The technical barriers to using farm-manufactured milk concentrate in dairies are minimal, hence the suspicion that the practice of on-farm raw milk concentration is still fairly uncommon for economic reasons. This study, therefore, set out to investigate farmers' potential willingness to adopt a raw milk concentration plant. The empirical analysis was based on discrete choice experiments with 75 German dairy farmers to identify preferences and the possible adoption of on-farm raw milk concentration. The results showed that, in particular, farmers who deemed the current milk price to be insufficient viewed on-farm concentration using membrane technology as an option for diversifying their milk sales. We found no indication that adoption would be impeded by a lack of trustworthy information on milk processing technologies or capital.     

Optimal operating conditions to maximize the net power of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells: The stack-system interface of a commercial 18 kW module

A new, experimental method based on air flow rate rather than current is presented to optimize operating parameters for the stacks and systems of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) for maximizing their net power. This approach is illustrated for a commercial 18 kW PEMFC module. The impact of contamination pressure drop across the cathode air filter is also investigated on the compressor behavior. It is further shown that a 4V reduction in the compressor voltage reduces its power consumption by 9.1%. Using the 3D graphs of the power-pressure-flow data, it is found that the stack pressure of 180 kPaa is superior to the higher tested pressures as it enhances the net power by 7.0 and 13.7% at different conditions. Application of the present study will lead to the development of PEMFCs with higher power output by optimizing stack pressure, stoichiometry and air flow to properly deliver the system design specifications.     

Modeling and Verification of a Sentiment Analysis System Using Aspect-Oriented Petri Nets

An increasing number of social media and networking platforms have been widely used. People usually post the online comments to share their own opinions on the networking platforms with social media. Business companies are increasingly seeking effective ways to mine what people think and feel regarding their products and services. How to correctly understand the online customers’ reviews becomes an important issue. This study aims to propose a method with the aspect-oriented Petri nets (AOPN) to improve the examination correctness without changing any process and program. We collect those comments from the online reviews with Scrapy tools, perform sentiment analysis using SnowNLP, and examine the analysis results to improve the correctness. In this paper, we apply our method for a case of the online movie comments. The experimental results have shown that AOPN is helpful for the sentiment analysis and verifying its correctness.     

采用随机Petri网的嵌入式机载软件可靠性检测

针对嵌入式机载软件设计中存在的典型缺陷问题，结合嵌入式机载软件任务调度特性，提出采用随机Petri网对嵌入式机载软件设计进行仿真验证的可靠性检测方法，以提高嵌入式机载软件设计的可靠性。该方法采用随机Petri网对嵌入式机载软件系统行为建模，并给出典型缺陷的检测策略和判定准则，然后通过对Petri网模型进行仿真验证，检测系统是否存在此类设计缺陷；并给出了软件设计的运行流程的仿真验证算法，以支持对相应设计的可靠性检测。通过与其他可靠性检测方法的比较，表明了该方法的有效性。     

The generalized Dice similarity measures for Pythagorean fuzzy multiple attribute group decision making

The Pythagorean fuzzy set (PFS) is characterized by two functions expressing the degree of membership and the degree of nonmembership, which square sum of them is equal or less than 1. It was proposed as a generalization of a fuzzy set to deal with indeterminate and inconsistent information. In this study, we shall present some novel Dice similarity measures of PFSs and the generalized Dice similarity measures of PFSs and indicates that the Dice similarity measures and asymmetric measures (projection measures) are the special cases of the generalized Dice similarity measures in some parameter values. Then, we propose the generalized Dice similarity measures-based multiple attribute group decision-making models with Pythagorean fuzzy information. Then, we apply the generalized Dice similarity measures between PFSs to multiple attribute group decision making. Finally, an illustrative example is given to demonstrate the efficiency of the similarity measures for selecting the desirable ERP system.     

International Trade

Values of net oil imports(-)/exports for Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, the United States and Australia. Updated on a monthly basis. Number of imports for Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Other EU-15 (EU-15), Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, and Other Europe (OECD Europe), Canada, Chile, Mexico, and the United States (OECD Western Hemisphere), and Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, (OECD Asia-Pacific), and Total OECED. Current data for Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Other EU-15 (EU-15), Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, and Other Europe (OECD Europe), Canada, Mexico, and the United States (OECD Western Hemisphere), Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea, and New Zealand (OECD Asia-Pacific). Updated on a monthly basis. Current data for principal importers of natural gas and the amount in which they import from United States, Republic of Korea, United Kingdom, France, Japan, Italy, Germany and Spain (Table 19.1). Current data for principal exporters of natural gas and the amount they export to Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Turkmenistan, Qatar, Algeria, Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia (Table 19.2). Updated on a monthly basis.     

Attitudinal choice models with applications in human decision making

A new family of attitudinal discrete choice models is proposed by considering the attitudinal character and the weight vector, both of which are specific to a decision maker (DM). Given the attribute values of different alternatives, the proposed models give varying choice probabilities, as per the DM's-specific attitudinal character and the weight vector. It is also shown that the conventional discrete choice models are the special cases of the proposed attitudinal models. The proposed choice models are also generalized through an additional parameter to add to their capabilities. An application on real data is included to demonstrate their usefulness in the real world.     

Refurbishment or quality recovery: joint quality and pricing decisions for new product development

Refurbishment and quality recovery, as two important strategies of reverse logistics, have been widely used for consumer durables, especially consumer electronics. This trend is driven by manufacturers’ profit-seeking behaviours and the increasing environmental concerns of society. This study investigates and compares the optimal emergence of these two strategies when product quality is endogenous. Model analyses provide several notable insights. First, we find that the refurbishment strategy dominates the quality recovery strategy when the fraction of the recoverable quality-inducing components in the defective product is low enough. Moreover, when the refurbishment strategy emerges as the optimum, the quality and price of the new product as well as the total realised sales of both new and refurbished products are consistently higher than those with the quality recovery strategy. In addition, when either the refurbishment or quality recovery strategy emerges as the optimum, the overall consumer surplus is also enhanced. Finally, in the model generalisation, we show that a synthetic strategy with which some of the returned defective products are refurbished and others are remanufactured through quality recovery can certainly increase the manufacturers’ profit compared to either one of them when the fraction of the recoverable quality-inducing components in the defective product is moderate.     

微量Zr对不对称轧制Al-0.8Mg-0.9Si合金板织构及性能的影响

本文研究了微量Zr对不对称轧制Al-0.8Mg-0.9Si合金板及其相继固溶处理后的微观结构及性能的影响。结果表明：微量Zr在Al-0.8Mg-0.9Si合金中形成Al3Zr相弥散分布在基体中,在不对称轧制过程中,该化合物相对Copper{112}<111>、Brass{011}<211>、S{123}<634>、E{111}<110>和F{111}<112>等形变织构无明显影响；在随后的固溶处理过程中,轧制板材发生的再结晶使得Copper、Brass、S等形变织构的取向密度降低,但不溶的细小Al3Zr相在一定程度上抑制了不连续再结晶行为,反而使轧制过程中形成的E、F剪切织构的取向密度增加。添加微量Zr所形成的上述结构使该合金板材在固溶后获得较好的综合性能,其抗拉强度、屈强比和延伸率分别可达230MPa、0.49和9.5%以上；塑性应变比r值从0.7提高至0.84,杯突值IE由8.94提高至9.84,各向异性度|Δr|由0.15降低至0.04。