Provenance and depositional environments of the upper Permian-lowermost Triassic fluvial and lacustrine sandstones, Wutonggou low-order cycle, Bogda Mountains, NW China

This work integrates petrographic and fieldwork studies and documents the spatial and temporal distributions of compositions and textures of the upper Permian-lowermost Triassic fluvial-lacustrine sandstones, Wutonggou low-order cycle (WTG LC), Bogda Mountains, NW China. In the first part, three petrofacies are identified on the basis of the relative abundances of quartz, feldspar, and lithics and conglomerate compositions and paleocurrent directions are documented. These data indicate that rocks of the eastern North Tianshan Suture (ENTS) and rift shoulders were the provenance lithology. Moreover, the upsection changes of petrofacies and conglomerate compositions suggest that the lithology of ENTS changed. During approximately Wuchiapingian, the eastern part of ENTS included the subduction complex, whereas the western part contained the undissected volcanic arc. During approximately Changhsingian to early Induan, the eastern part of ENTS was dominated with the transitional volcanic arc and subordinate with the subduction complex, whereas the subduction complex was exposed in the western part of ENTS. The second part documents the textural characteristics of the sandstones of WTG LC. Textures of different petrofacies are different in grain size, sorting, roundness, and textural maturity, indicating provenance is a major control factor in sandstone textures. Moreover, each petrofacies is subdivided into littoral/beach, deltaic, and fluvial sedimentary facies, of which the textural characteristics are similar. This work improves our understanding of the nature and the unroofing history of ENTS and factors in controlling compositions and textures of fluvial-lacustrine sandstones --Abstract, page iv

Synchronous charge extraction and voltage inversion (SCEVI): a new efficient vibration-based energy harvesting scheme

This paper presents a new interface technique called synchronous charge extraction and voltage inversion (SCEVI), which consists of a synchronous inductor and a buck-boost converter for vibration-based energy harvesting using piezoelectric elements. The theoretical calculation of the harvested power obtained by using such a technique are proposed and compared with the so-called Standard, SECE (Synchronous Electric Charge Extraction), Parallel-SSHI (Parallel Synchronized Switch Harvesting on Inductor) and Series-SSHI (Series Synchronized Switch Harvesting on Inductor) methods commonly used in piezoelectric vibration-powered generator considering both constant displacement amplitude and force amplitude. From the harvested power point of view, SCEVI and Parallel – SSHI techniques are the better ones and each has its own merits. But the harvested power of SCEVI is independent of the load connected to the generator and Parallel – SSHI depend on the load resistance. The harvested power of SECE is also independent of the load, but the further experimental results show that the proposed SCEVI interface technique dramatically increases the harvested power by almost up to 150 % compared with the SECE method under the same amplitude of displacement excitation

ANTECEDENTS OF PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION SUCCESS IN CROWDFUNDING

Crowdfunding is emerging as a booming financing channel for entrepreneurs to raise money for their projects. However, crowdfunding project implementation has been a major challenge which does not gain enough attention in the current literature. This paper developed a research model to investigate the antecedents of crowdfunding project success measured in three dimensions, i.e., award (product) delivery timeliness, the extent to which the award meets the specifications (meeting specifications), and sponsor overall satisfaction. We conducted a survey in Demohour, one of the famous crowdfunding platforms in China, to test the proposed model. The findings suggested that compared with delivery timeliness, meeting specifications is of more importance to increase overall satisfaction. The results also revealed that crowdfunding project difficulty significantly reduces the implementation success. In addition, team experience plays an important role in improving project success. Project planning is also a critical predictor for delivery timeliness. Both of theoretical research and crowdfunding industrial practice can draw some enlightenment from this study

Not only Online Review but also its Helpfulness is Manipulated: Evidence from Peer to Peer Lending Forum

Online reviews have become proposed as useful information for consumers to make decision. Meanwhile, review manipulation will weaken the credibility of online reviews. Except manipulating the review text and rating, we propose that review helpfulness, an important signal for consumer to filter the reviews, could also be manipulated. This study thus explores the existence of review helpfulness manipulation and the relationship between firm quality and review manipulation. Based on a dataset from a review forum in www.wdzj.com which is the leading and largest portal of peer to peer lending industry in China, we get the following interesting results. First, due to the manipulation of review helpfulness, a manipulated positive review is more likely to receive higher helpfulness, while a manipulated negative is more likely to get lower helpfulness. Second, a manipulated review tends to be lower quality in terms of readability and word count, which are found as positive predictors for review helpfulness. Third, high quality firms tend to manipulate more positive reviews, and at the same time high quality firms will receive more negative manipulated reviews. This study extends current understanding about online review manipulation, thereby providing theoretical and practice implications

Isolation Mondrian Forest for Batch and Online Anomaly Detection

We propose a new method, named isolation Mondrian forest (iMondrian forest), for batch and online anomaly detection. The proposed method is a novel hybrid of isolation forest and Mondrian forest which are existing methods for batch anomaly detection and online random forest, respectively. iMondrian forest takes the idea of isolation, using the depth of a node in a tree, and implements it in the Mondrian forest structure. The result is a new data structure which can accept streaming data in an online manner while being used for anomaly detection. Our experiments show that iMondrian forest mostly performs better than isolation forest in batch settings and has better or comparable performance against other batch and online anomaly detection methods.Comment: Accepted for presentation at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) 2020. The first three authors contributed equally to this wor

Entangled X-ray Photon Pair Generation by Free Electron Lasers

Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen's prediction on incompleteness of quantum mechanics was overturned by experimental tests on Bell's inequality that confirmed the existence of quantum entanglement. In X-ray optics, entangled photon pairs can be generated by X-ray parametric down conversion (XPDC), which is limited by relatively low efficiency. Meanwhile, free electron laser (FEL) has successfully lased at X-ray frequencies recently. However, FEL is usually seen as a classical light source, and its quantum effects are considered minor corrections to the classical theory. Here we investigate entangled X-ray photon pair emissions in FEL. We establish a theory for coherently amplified entangled photon pair emission from microbunched electron pulses in the undulator. We also propose an experimental scheme for the observation of the entangled photon pairs via energy and spatial correlation measurements. Such an entangled X-ray photon pair source is of great importance in quantum optics and other X-ray applications.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Mechanism of Litchi Semen Extract in Preventing Exercise-induced Muscle Damage Based on Network Pharmacology and in Vivo and in Vitro Experiments

Objective: Based on network pharmacology combined with the GEO database and in vivo and in vitro experiments to explore the potential mechanisms of litchi semen extract (LZH) for preventing exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD). Methods: Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining and comparison of the levels of indicators of skeletal muscle damage in serum were performed to detect the effectiveness of LZH in preventing EIMD. The main active ingredients of LZH were searched through the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database in conjunction with the published literature, and the targets corresponding to the active ingredients were found through the relevant websites, which were intersected with the EIMD-related targets obtained from the GEO database. The STRING database screened the intersected targets and finally enriched them for analysis. The results of the network pharmacology predictions were validated in vivo using the centrifugal exercise-induced EIMD mouse model and in vitro using the H2O2-induced C2C12 cell model. Results: In vivo experiments showed that skeletal muscle fiber cross-sectional area (P<0.05), creatine kinase (CK) (P<0.001) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (P<0.01) were significantly reduced after the intervention of LZH. The results of network pharmacology showed that LZH had 14 active ingredients, corresponding to 367 targets. The GEO database obtained 1015 targets related to EIMD. The intersection of the two yielded 37 intersecting targets. The enrichment analysis demonstrated p53-mediated cell cycle arrest as the primary target for validation. In vivo experiments showed that LZH significantly reduced the expression of p53 (P<0.01), p21 (P<0.001), BCL2-associated X (Bax) (P<0.05), and the expression of Cyclin D1 (P<0.05), B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) (P<0.05) expression was significantly increased. In vitro experiments showed that low and high dose pretreatment of LZH significantly decreased the expression of apoptosis (P<0.001), p53 (P<0.05), p21 (P<0.01, P<0.001) and increased the expression of Cyclin D1 (P<0.05, P<0.001). Conclusion: LZH attenuates EIMD, and its mechanism is closely related to the activation of G1 phase arrest and attenuation of apoptosis in skeletal muscle cells. The results suggest that LZH can be used as a nutritional supplement to prevent EIMD