Local Search For SMT On Linear and Multilinear Real Arithmetic

Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) has significant application in various domains. In this paper, we focus on quantifier-free Satisfiablity Modulo Real Arithmetic, referred to as SMT(RA), including both linear and non-linear real arithmetic theories. As for non-linear real arithmetic theory, we focus on one of its important fragments where the atomic constraints are multi-linear. We propose the first local search algorithm for SMT(RA), called LocalSMT(RA), based on two novel ideas. First, an interval-based operator is proposed to cooperate with the traditional local search operator by considering the interval information. Moreover, we propose a tie-breaking mechanism to further evaluate the operations when the operations are indistinguishable according to the score function. Experiments are conducted to evaluate LocalSMT(RA) on benchmarks from SMT-LIB. The results show that LocalSMT(RA) is competitive with the state-of-the-art SMT solvers, and performs particularly well on multi-linear instances

Community assembly and functional leaf traits mediate precipitation use efficiency of alpine grasslands along environmental gradients on the Tibetan Plateau

The alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau are sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. However, it is still unknown how precipitation use efficiency (PUE), the ratio of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) to precipitation, is related to community assembly of plant species, functional groups or traits for the Tibetan alpine grasslands along actual environmental gradients. We conducted a multi-site field survey at grazing-excluded pastures across meadow, steppe and desert-steppe to measure aboveground biomass (AGB) in August, 2010. We used species richness (SR), the Shannon diversity index, and cover-weighted functional group composition (FGC) of 1-xerophytes, 2-mesophytes, and 3-hygrophytes to describe community assembly at the species level; and chose community-level leaf area index (LAIc), specific leaf area (SLAc), and species-mixed foliar δ13C to quantify community assembly at the functional trait level. Our results showed that PUE decreased with increasing accumulated active temperatures (AccT) when daily temperature average is higher than 5 °C, but increased with increasing climatic moisture index (CMI), which was demined as the ratio of growing season precipitation (GSP) to AccT. We also found that PUE increased with increasing SR, the Shannon diversity index, FGC and LAIc, decreased with increasing foliar δ13C, and had no relation with SLAc at the regional scale. Neither soil total nitrogen (STN) nor organic carbon has no influence on PUE at the regional scale. The community assembly of the Shannon index, LAIc and SLAc together accounted for 46.3% of variance in PUE, whilst CMI accounted for 47.9% of variance in PUE at the regional scale. This implies that community structural properties and plant functional traits can mediate the sensitivity of alpine grassland productivity in response to climate change. Thus, a long-term observation on community structural and functional changes is recommended for better understanding the response of alpine ecosystems to regional climate change on the Tibetan Plateau

The Study of Fluid Dynamics in Countercurrent Multi-stage Micro-extraction System

AbstractCompare to the conventional extraction systems, the microextractoin systems are more efficient. However, difficulty in achieving countercurrent two-phase flow is a barrier to its application. The human cardiovascular system gives us inspiration to solve the problem in the micro-fluidic system. In our previous work, a bionic system simulating the cardiovascular system was built to realize a countercurrent multi-stage micro-extraction. We mainly studied the fluid dynamics of the two phase flow in the system in the present work.TBP-kerosene/water two phase system was used as the test system. The pressure on several key points of the system was measured by pressure sensors and the pressure-flow relationship was investigated under different flow ratio, pulse frequency and stroke. The pressure at all points changed continuously and periodically. When the pulse frequency was increased, the amplitude of the pressure change gets bigger. The reason was that the flow velocity in the system get higher and flow resistance caused the increasing of the pressure amplitude

The computational method of substructure’s frequency response function in transfer path analysis

The multi-degree-of-freedom coupled vibration system with “engine-mount-body” as the transfer path was divided into active substructure (engine), passive substructure (body) and linking components (mounts) between active and passive substructure. According to the dynamic equation of multi-degree-of-freedom coupling vibration system, the computational method of the substructure’s Frequency Response Function (FRF) was proposed. For the coupled vibration system of the real vehicle’s transfer path, the computational method of the substructure’s FRF was used to obtain the FRF of substructure and dynamic mount stiffness based on the FRF of system obtained by the hammering test. Combining the dynamic mount stiffness with the vibration acceleration of the active and passive sides of the mount, the operating load was identified based on the mount-stiffness method of the transfer path analysis. Combining the operating load with the FRF of substructure to analyze the contribution of the transfer path, the contribution of each path to the target location (the Z-direction of the front floor of the cab) was presented. The correctness of the computational method of the substructure’s FRF was presented by calculating the vibration isolation ratio of the mount, which provided theoretical support for the research of dynamic characteristics of the substructure and linking components

Countermeasure of Research University Development Based on the Index System Analysis of the Comprehensive Competitiveness Ranking of Chinese Universities

Under new situations and circumstances, more quickly and efficiently resources allocation is a natural advance for higher education development. Its inevitable result is that universities must pay great attention to the construction and the promotion of their competitiveness hand in hand with cultivating talents needed in society. This paper made a comprehensive overview to the Comprehensive Competitiveness Ranking of Chinese Universities (CCRCU) released by RCCSE, and emphasized on analyzing the changing trends of evaluation methods and indicators, and digging the development trends of the connotation and extension of universities competence. Some suggestions and countermeasures are put forward

The Trapping and Characterization of a Single Hydrogen Molecule in a Continuously Tunable Nanocavity

Using inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy with the scanning tunneling microscope (STM-IETS) and density functional theory calculations (DFT), we investigated properties of a single H2 molecule trapped in nanocavities with controlled shape and separation between the STM tip and the Au (110) surface. The STM tip not only serves for the purpose of characterization, but also is directly involved in modification of chemical environment of molecule. The bond length of H2 expands in the atop cavity, with a tendency of dissociation when the gap closes, whereas it remains unchanged in the trough cavity. The availability of two substantially different cavities in the same setup allows understanding of H2 adsorption on noble metal surfaces and sets a path for manipulating a single chemical bond by design.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Recovery of antioxidant gene expression in sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) embryonic axes enhances tolerance to extreme high temperature

Sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) seed is long-living and have various stress-resistance characteristics. We investigated the protecting mechanisms of lotus seeds against extreme high temperature by comparison of expression patterns of antioxidant genes in embryonic axes between exposure and non-exposure to extreme high temperature. It was shown that viability of seeds did not severely decline after exposure to 90°C for 24 h. Germination and growth were inhibited and H2O2 was accumulated at high level in the lotus embryonic axes germinated after heat treatment. Transcriptional levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), peroxidase (POD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and thioredoxin-dependent peroxidase (TPX) encoding genes were induced to rise at late germination stage. Transcriptional levels of APX, POD, GPX and alternative oxidase (AOX) encoding genes were also immediately stimulated and up-regulated after heat treatment. These results suggest that the embryonic axes of sacred lotus maintain a protective and recovery mechanism from heat damage during and after exposure to extreme high temperature. Furthermore, the recovery of antioxidant gene expression enhanced tolerance to extreme high-temperature stress in sacred lotus.Keywords: Antioxidant gene, high temperature, seed germination, Nelumbo nucifera Gaert

Improving Local Search for Minimum Weighted Connected Dominating Set Problem by Inner-Layer Local Search

The minimum weighted connected dominating set (MWCDS) problem is an important variant of connected dominating set problems with wide applications, especially in heterogenous networks and gene regulatory networks. In the paper, we develop a nested local search algorithm called NestedLS for solving MWCDS on classic benchmarks and massive graphs. In this local search framework, we propose two novel ideas to make it effective by utilizing previous search information. First, we design the restart based smoothing mechanism as a diversification method to escape from local optimal. Second, we propose a novel inner-layer local search method to enlarge the candidate removal set, which can be modelled as an optimized version of spanning tree problem. Moreover, inner-layer local search method is a general method for maintaining the connectivity constraint when dealing with massive graphs. Experimental results show that NestedLS outperforms state-of-the-art meta-heuristic algorithms on most instances