THERMOLUMINESCENT AUTHENTICATION OF ANCIENT CHINESE POTTERY

A rapid and effective TL technique to authenticate ancient Chinese pottery is proposed in the paper.Twenty three samples,ranging in age from 200to 9000a,including multiple styles and shapes and drawn from diverse and remote areas in China have been used to establish the typical annual dose as 5.5mGy/a and its associated deviation.Ten unauthenticated samples are then appraised using the technique which,in nearly all cases,leads to satisfactory results.     

On uniform integrability and asymptotically risk-efficient sequential estimation

In the theory of asymptotically risk-efficient sequential estimation, one encounters uniform integrability of both positive and negative powers of stopping rules and moment convergence of randomly stopped statistics. We describe a simple approach to obtain these uniform integrability and moment convergence results, not only in the classical setting of i.i.d. observations but also for much more general stochastic sequences. We also use this approach to establish asymptotic risk efficiency of sequential estimators of means of stochastic sequences and to derive asymptotic approximations for the mean squared errors of ratio estimators.     

Oscillation and convergence behaviours exhibited in an ‘unstable’ second‐order digital filter with saturation‐type non‐linearity

This letter explains the oscillatory behaviours exhibited in a second‐order digital filter with saturation‐type non‐linearity via the Hopf bifurcation theorem. It is shown that depending on the bifurcation parameter, the state variables may converge to zero even when the eigenvalues of the system matrix are outside the unit circle. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. abstract     

Improved active‐diode circuit used in voltage doubler

An improved active‐diode circuit, which makes use of positive feedback to achieve fast on/off transition, is presented in this paper. The proposed active‐diode circuit can be embedded into a voltage doubler to replace the commonly used dead‐time circuit and to eliminate reverse current. In addition, the relationship between oscillation frequency, boosting and output capacitances, load‐ and on‐resistances of the power switch and the output voltage is analysed, to investigate a methodology to retain high voltage gain of a voltage doubler. The proposed active‐diode circuit is applied to a voltage doubler implemented in a commercial 0.35‐µm process with threshold voltage of about 0.68 V. The input voltage, maximum output current and oscillation frequency of the voltage doubler are 1 V, 1 mA and 0.4 MHz, respectively. Moreover, the used boosting and output capacitances are 22 nF. The highest power efficiency achieved is 83% at a load current of 0.47 mA. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A genetic algorithm approach in optimal capacitor selection with harmonic distortion considerations

This paper reports the research findings of an innovative genetic algorithm approach for optimizing shunt capacitor sizes and their placement in radical distribution systems with the consideration of harmonic distortion limit due to the presence of nonlinear power electronic devices. The algorithm is based on a genetic algorithm solution technique to minimize cost under the additional constraints of maximum limit in harmonic distortion factor. A harmonic distortion calculation is embedded in the genetic algorithm solution routine to enhance the optimal capacitor allocation solution. Results of simulation show that the approach is effective for such a discrete value optimization problem.     

ASYMPTOTIC INFERENCES FOR AN AR(1) MODEL WITH A CHANGE POINT: STATIONARY AND NEARLY NON‐STATIONARY CASES

This article examines the asymptotic inference for AR(1) models with a possible structural break in the AR parameter β near the unity at an unknown time k₀. Consider the model y_t = β₁y_{t − 1}I{t ≤ k₀} + β₂y_{t − 1}I{t > k₀} + ϵ_t, t = 1,2, … ,T, where I{ ⋅ } denotes the indicator function. We examine two cases: case I | β₁ | < 1,β₂ = β_2T = 1 − c ∕ T; and case II β₁ = β_1T = 1 − c ∕ T, | β₂ | < 1, where c is a fixed constant, and {ϵ_t,t ≥ 1} is a sequence of i.i.d. random variables, which are in the domain of attraction of the normal law with zero means and possibly infinite variances. We derive the limiting distributions of the least squares estimators of β₁ and β₂ and that of the break‐point estimator for shrinking break for the aforementioned cases. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to demonstrate the finite‐sample properties of the estimators. Our theoretical results are supported by Monte Carlo simulations.     

Nucleating agent effects on selected properties of polypropylene

A study of nucleating agent effects on the selected optical and mechanical properties of a semicrystalline homoisotactic polypropylene is presented. The results showed that the type and concentration of the nucleating agents to be added, and the screw speed during the compounding process, were of vital importance. It was also noticed that the improvement in optical clarity due to the addition of the additive might not necessarily benefit the mechanical properties of injection molded articles.     

Linear or branched structure? Probing molecular architectures of fullerene-styrene copolymers by size exclusion chromatographs with online right-angle laser-light scattering and differential viscometric detectors

The poly(C₆₀-co-styrene)s prepared by radical copolymerizations of C₆₀ and styrene in bulk were characterized by multiple-detector size-exclusion chromatographs consisting of a refractometer, a differential viscometer, and/or a right-angle laser-light scattering photometer. The multidetector systems enabled the determinations of reliable, absolute molecular weights of the copolymers. The plots of intrinsic viscosity vs. molecular weight and radius of gyration vs. molecular weight offered valuable information about the molecular architectures of the copolymers. The slopes of the plots reveal that the structure of the copolymer changes with its C₆₀ content: the copolymer with a low C₆₀ content of 0.58 wt% possesses a linear structure, whereas its conger with a high C₆₀ content of 1.14 wt% possesses a branched structure.     

15,16-Dihydrotanshinone I from the Functional Food Salvia miltiorrhiza Exhibits Anticancer Activity in Human HL-60 Leukemia Cells: in Vitro and in Vivo Studies

15,16-Dihydrotanshinone I (DHTS) is extracted from Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge which is a functional food in Asia. In this study, we investigated the apoptotic effect of DHTS on the human acute myeloid leukemia (AML) type III HL-60 cell line. We found that treatment with 1.5 μg/mL DHTS increased proapoptotic Bax and Bad protein expressions and activated caspases-3, -8, and -9, thus leading to poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage and resulting in cell apoptosis. DHTS induced sustained c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) phosphorylation and Fas ligand (FasL) expression. The anti-Fas blocking antibody reversed the DHTS-induced cell death, and the JNK-specific inhibitor, SP600125, inhibited DHTS-induced caspase-3, -8, -9, and PARP cleavage. In a xenograft nude mice model, 25 mg/kg DHTS showed a great effect in attenuating HL-60 tumor growth. Taken together, these results suggest that DHTS can induce HL-60 cell apoptosis in vitro and inhibit HL-60 cell growth in vivo; the underlying mechanisms might be mediated through activation of the JNK and FasL signal pathways.