Vocational Ability Oriented Modularized Curriculum for Advanced Vocational School

AbstractThis paper elaborates how to construct a vocational ability oriented modularized curriculum system for advanced vocational school, identifies content and target of each module, and discusses specific steps of construction

A Gap Analysis of Biodiversity Research in Rocky Mountain National Park: A Pilot Study on Spiders

Research on biodiversity and the relationship between organisms is imperative to establish management practices for the conservation of protected areas. The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation (EOWBF) formed our team of four Duke University students as the first of many ATBI/BioBlitz SWAT teams to travel to protected areas and develop approaches to conduct biodiversity research that can inform their conservation. Our project consisted of two elements. First, our team assessed the current status of biodiversity research at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) to determine major gaps in the understanding of biodiversity. We used available species lists from research conducted in the Park to ensure that the National Park species database, NPSpecies, contained the most up-to-date information. Our team then added 645 species of plants and fungi to the database through this process. One of the identified gaps was a lack of research on spiders in the park. The second element of our study was a pilot analysis of spider biodiversity, to identify as many species in the park as possible and to relate their occurrences to environmental variables. Over 300 spider specimens were collected, 157 of which were identified, representing 51 species. Specimens were collected from three non-wilderness sites in RMNP at three different times of day (morning, afternoon, and night), over a span of ten days (July 16 - 25, 2014). The three sites represent a range of elevations (2,398 - 2,923 meters) and habitats. Cost-effective methods were utilized and evaluated for future spider research. We propose a more thorough spider survey in RMNP that can better inform management of the Park by providing information about spider diversity, abundance, function, and how spiders can be used as ecological indicators

Experimental and numerical simulation study of perforation effect of steel pipes subject to the impact loadings of ASC and LSC jets

The perforation effect of steel pipes subjected to the circular-shaped charge (ASC) and linear-shaped charge (LSC) jet were studied by experimental research, and the explicit nonlinear dynamic finite element computer code LS-DYNA was adapted to study the nonlinear responses of the steel pipes, which subjected to the impact of the two different jets, using Lagrangian-Eulerian coupling method. The deformation process and the stress of the steel pipes were described and analyzed, and the simulation results are in good agreement with the experiment data. The studies indicated that under the impact of ASC jet, the steel pipe got a circular incision and a deformation process of local perforation, flocculent shear lip forming and axial shock. Under the impact of LSC jet, the steel pipe got a ship-type incision and a deformation process of coupling of local perforation and dent, whole bending and radial shock. The formation of flocculent shear lip attributes to the radial stress concentration. Under the impact of LSC jet, the whole bending leads to the axial stretch and tearing of the cut tip, and there is a bigger radial plastic deformation area than the damage effect for the impact of ASC jet

Self-Reference Deep Adaptive Curve Estimation for Low-Light Image Enhancement

In this paper, we propose a 2-stage low-light image enhancement method called Self-Reference Deep Adaptive Curve Estimation (Self-DACE). In the first stage, we present an intuitive, lightweight, fast, and unsupervised luminance enhancement algorithm. The algorithm is based on a novel low-light enhancement curve that can be used to locally boost image brightness. We also propose a new loss function with a simplified physical model designed to preserve natural images' color, structure, and fidelity. We use a vanilla CNN to map each pixel through deep Adaptive Adjustment Curves (AAC) while preserving the local image structure. Secondly, we introduce the corresponding denoising scheme to remove the latent noise in the darkness. We approximately model the noise in the dark and deploy a Denoising-Net to estimate and remove the noise after the first stage. Exhaustive qualitative and quantitative analysis shows that our method outperforms existing state-of-the-art algorithms on multiple real-world datasets

Dynamic analysis of buried steel pipeline subjected to blast seismic waves

A solution for dynamic stress concentration of buried pipeline with different material properties subjected to incident P waves is given by wave function expansion method. Through the quantitative analysis of the dynamic response of pipeline structures subjected to blasting seismic waves, the influence of the incident wave numbers, diameter-thick ratio and buried depth on dynamic stress concentration of both Q235 and X70 pipelines was revealed in the paper

Online near-infrared analysis coupled with MWPLS and SiPLS models for the multi-ingredient and multi-phase extraction of licorice (Gancao)

Additional file 1. Table S1. The sampling intervals in different extraction phases. Table S2. The HPLC results of different indicators. Table S3. The evaluation parameters of PLS and SiPLS models

Short communication: QTL mapping for ear tip-barrenness in maize

Barren tip on corn ear is an important agronomic trait in maize, which is highly associated with grain yield. Understanding the genetic basis of tip-barrenness may help to reduce the ear tip-barrenness in breeding programs. In this study, ear tip-barrenness was evaluated in two environments in a F2:3 population, and it showed significant genotypic variation for ear tip-barrenness in both environments. Using mixed-model composite interval mapping method, three additive effects quantitative trait loci (QTL) for ear tip-barrenness were mapped on chromosomes 2, 3 and 6, respectively. They explained 16.6% of the phenotypic variation, and no significant QTL × Environment interactions and digenic interactions were detected. The results indicated that additive effect was the main genetic basis for ear tip-barrenness in maize. This is the first report of QTL mapped for ear tip-barrenness in maize

Achieving high strength and ductility in magnesium alloys via densely hierarchical double contraction nanotwins.

Light-weight magnesium alloys with high strength are especially desirable for the applications in transportation, aerospace, electronic components, and implants owing to their high stiffness, abundant raw materials, and environmental friendliness. Unfortunately, conventional strengthening methods mainly involve the formation of internal defects, in which particles and grain boundaries prohibit dislocation motion as well as compromise ductility invariably. Herein, we report a novel strategy for simultaneously achieving high specific yield strength (∼160 kN m kg-1) and good elongation (∼23.6%) in a duplex magnesium alloy containing 8 wt % lithium at room temperature, based on the introduction of densely hierarchical {1011}-{101 1} double contraction nanotwins (DCTWs) and full-coherent hexagonal close-packed (hcp) particles in twin boundaries by ultrahigh pressure technique. These hierarchical nanoscaled DCTWs with stable interface characteristics not only bestow a large fraction of twin interface but also form interlaced continuous grids, hindering possible dislocation motions. Meanwhile, orderly aggregated particles offer supplemental pinning effect for overcoming latent softening roles of twin interface movement and detwinning process. The processes lead to a concomitant but unusual situation where double contraction twinning strengthens rather than weakens magnesium alloys. Those cutting-edge results provide underlying insights toward designing alternative and more innovative hcp-type structural materials with superior mechanical properties

Assessment of Arctic sea ice simulations in CMIP5 models using a synthetical skill scoring method

Abstract(#br)The Arctic sea ice cover has declined at an unprecedented pace since the late 20th century. As a result, the feedback of sea ice anomalies for atmospheric circulation has been increasingly evidenced. While climatic models almost consistently reproduced a decreasing trend of sea ice cover, the reported results show a large distribution. To evaluate the performance of models for simulating Arctic sea ice cover and its potential role in climate change, this study constructed a reasonable metric by synthesizing both linear trends and anomalies of sea ice. This study particularly focused on the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea, where sea ice anomalies have the highest potential to affect the atmosphere. The investigated models can be grouped into three categories according to their..