Comment on "Orientational Distribution of Free O-H Groups of Interfacial Water is Exponential"

In a recent letter (PRL,121,246101,2018), Sun et al. reported that combined MD simulation and sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS) measurements led to conclusions of a broad and exponentially decaying orientational distribution, and the presence of the free O-H group pointing down to the bulk at the air/water interface. In this comment, we show that their main conclusions are based on questionable interpretation of the SFG-VS data presented in the letter [1], and are also contrary to the established data analysis and interpretations in the literature [2-5].Comment: 2 pages, 0 figure

Detangling Climate and Topographic History from Cenozoic Proxy Records: Examples from Western North America and the Andes.

Cenozoic topographic histories of the North American Cordillera and Andes are essential to understand the tectonic and climate evolution over these regions. However, because proxy records document both elevation and climate signals, detangling these signals is difficult and often associated with large uncertainties. To overcome this difficulty, this dissertation describes an interdisciplinary approach involving the application of global climate models (GCMs) to search for coherent solutions of paleoelevations and climates that match Cenozoic proxy records. This approach is used to investigate both early Cenozoic uplift and Neogene extension history of western North American Cordillera; and the late Cenozoic co-evolution of the Andean uplift and tropical climate state. My analysis reveals that elevation estimates derived from fossil leaf physiognomy and stable isotope compositions may be substantially biased by ignoring changes in climate states, and spatial climate patterns. Elevation biases are greatest when using fossil leaves if one assumes modern lapse rates as approximations to the past lapse rates, and are small when using stable isotope compositions due to fortuitous canceling of δ18O variations induced by changes in regional circulation, mixing conditions, and precipitation types. After accounting for climate, we estimate Western Cordillera attaining a height of 3-4 km in the early Cenozoic. In contrast, influences of changing climates on δ18O records are strong during the Neogene. These changes could explain stronger proxy δ18O enrichment surrounding the northern Sierra Nevada and central Rockies relative to enrichment within the Great Basin. Removal of this climate signal reveals elevation loss up to 1.5 – 2 km across the Great Basin, but smaller elevation loss in its surroundings, consistent with the reconstructions of early Cenozoic pre-extension topography. Finally, we demonstrate that the Andean uplift played an integral role in creating the present-day east (cold) –west (warm) SST contrast across the tropical Pacific, through strengthening the diabatic vertical tropospheric circulation and low cloud formation along the South American coast. Collectively, these results improve our interpretations and mechanistic understanding of Cenozoic tectonic and climate history around the eastern circum-Pacific orogenic belt.PhDEarth and Environmental SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116704/1/rfeng_1.pd

The Marketing Strategy of Double Roll Coal Crushers in China

This study explores the characteristics and marketing tactics of double-roll coal crushers. Coal processing is in high demand in the mining market in China. To empower the mining market’s competitiveness, product quality and technical level should be improved persistently. According to the absolute advantage compared with other mining corporations and analysis based on the Boston Matrix, the marketing strategy that should be adopted by the company can be described as ‘the missionary selling method’ which is very aggressive. In addition to adopting these marketing strategies, there is an opportunity for the interaction between current technological progress and current market demand, which can be seized by the company. We aim to illustrate the advantages and marketing opportunities of double-roll coal crushers and what kind of marketing tactic is suitable for this mining equipment

Spectroscopic Evidence for the Specific Na+ and K+ Interactions with the Hydrogen-bonded Water Molecules at the Electrolyte Aqueous Solution Surfaces

Sum frequency generation vibrational spectra of the water molecules at the NaF and KF aqueous solution surfaces showed significantly different spectral features and different concentration dependence. This result is the first direct observation of the cation effects of the simple alkali cations, which have been believed to be depleted from the aqueous surface, on the hydrogen bonding structure of the water molecules at the electrolyte solution surfaces. These observations may provide important clue to understand the fundamental phenomenon of ions at the air/water interface.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

New predictions on the mass of the 1−+1^{-+} light hybrid meson from QCD sum rules

We calculate the coefficients of the dimension-8 quark and gluon condensates in the current-current correlator of $1^{-+}$ light hybrid current $g\bar{q}(x)\gamma_{\nu}iG_{\mu\nu}(x)q{(x)}$. With inclusion of these higher-power corrections and updating the input parameters, we re-analyze the mass of the $1^{-+}$ light hybrid meson from Monte-Carlo based QCD sum rules. Considering the possible violation of factorization of higher dimensional condensates and variation of $\langle g^3G^3\rangle$, we obtain a conservative mass range 1.72--2.60\,GeV, which favors $\pi_{1}(2015)$ as a better hybrid candidate compared with $\pi_{1}(1600)$ and $\pi_{1}(1400)$.Comment: 12pages, 2 figures, the version appearing in JHE

An Evidential-enhanced Tri-Branch Consistency Learning Method for Semi-supervised Medical Image Segmentation

Semi-supervised segmentation presents a promising approach for large-scale medical image analysis, effectively reducing annotation burdens while achieving comparable performance. This methodology holds substantial potential for streamlining the segmentation process and enhancing its feasibility within clinical settings for translational investigations. While cross-supervised training, based on distinct co-training sub-networks, has become a prevalent paradigm for this task, addressing critical issues such as predication disagreement and label-noise suppression requires further attention and progress in cross-supervised training. In this paper, we introduce an Evidential Tri-Branch Consistency learning framework (ETC-Net) for semi-supervised medical image segmentation. ETC-Net employs three branches: an evidential conservative branch, an evidential progressive branch, and an evidential fusion branch. The first two branches exhibit complementary characteristics, allowing them to address prediction diversity and enhance training stability. We also integrate uncertainty estimation from the evidential learning into cross-supervised training, mitigating the negative impact of erroneous supervision signals. Additionally, the evidential fusion branch capitalizes on the complementary attributes of the first two branches and leverages an evidence-based Dempster-Shafer fusion strategy, supervised by more reliable and accurate pseudo-labels of unlabeled data. Extensive experiments conducted on LA, Pancreas-CT, and ACDC datasets demonstrate that ETC-Net surpasses other state-of-the-art methods for semi-supervised segmentation. The code will be made available in the near future at https://github.com/Medsemiseg

Experimental study on behaviour of retrofitted square hollow section slender columns under axial compression

An experimental investigation was conducted in this study on axially loaded square hollow section (SHS) slender columns retrofitted by carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP). A total of seven specimens with identical cross section dimensions and raw material properties were compressed between pinned ends to identify the influence of the CFRP, in which six specimens were retrofitted by the CFRP. The effects of many influential factors including different layers of the CFRP, retrofitting directions of the CFRP and retrofitting sequences of the CFRP on the behaviour of the CFRP strengthened SHS slender columns were carefully evaluated. The column strengths obtained from the experimental investigation are compared with the design strengths calculated using the design equations given in the British Standard (CIRIA) and the equations modified based on the section conversion method proposed by Canadian Standard (CAN/CSA-S16-01). It is shown from the comparison that the ultimate strengths of the SHS slender columns were enhanced by retrofitting with the CFRP. The retrofitting directions of the CFRP in the longitudinal directions were found to have a great influence on the ultimate strengths of the CFRP strengthened SHS slender columns. Furthermore, a correction factor (βc) is proposed in this paper for the stability of the CFRP retrofitted SHS slender columns under axial compression