Young measures in a nonlocal phase transition problem

A nonlocal variational problem modelling phase transitions is studied in the framework of Young measures. The existence of global minimisers among functions with internal layers on an infinite tube is proved by combining a weak convergence result for Young measures and the principle of concentration-compactness. The regularity of such global minimisers is discussed, and the nonlocal variational problem is also considered on asymptotic tubes

Adaptive Neural Network Feedforward Control for Dynamically Substructured Systems

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Socially engaged architecture in a Chinese rural village: Xihe Village Community Centre, 2014

This paper attempts to explore the social production of architecture in contemporary Chinese rural villages through a case study on the Community Centre in Xihe Village. This community project, designed and built in 2014, exemplifies a lesser-known type of Chinese architectural practice engaging in a local and specific context, which suddenly gave participation a dramatic image in current breakneck Chinese rural-urban transition of large scale and rapid speed. By looking at this highly specific case through a detailed description and critical evaluation, this paper takes this participatory architectural project as the very first critical example of the socially-engaged architecture in China; as presenting an alternative architecture of resistance in response to the top-down guiding principle ‘Construction of A New Socialist Countryside’ launched by the government in 2005. Source material was collected through fieldwork in the village, including observational study, photographic documentation, and intensive formal and informal interviews with practitioners, authorities, and villagers. The analysis emphasizes the social process and consequences of different stages of this building, in order to explore hidden potentials and methodologies tailoring the architectural design and construction to the site-specificity. The social consequence of the building process is much more important than the object produced. By investigating the architectural version within a broader framework combining anthropology and activism, the paper attempts to introduce a more socially resilient way of making architecture in the current Chinese rural-urban transition. On the one hand it addresses the contingencies in working with underprivileged village communities in inner rural China, which have scarce resources and fragile identities; on the other hand it cuts through the surface of rural vernacular China to expose the undercurrent of silent issues in architecture that constitute the indigenous, the everyday, resistance, transition, and resilience

A rapid staining-assisted wood sampling method for PCR-based detection of pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus in Pinus massoniana wood tissue

For reasons of unequal distribution of more than one nematode species in wood, and limited availability of wood samples required for the PCR-based method for detecting pinewood nematodes in wood tissue of Pinus massoniana, a rapid staining-assisted wood sampling method aiding PCR-based detection of the pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Bx) in small wood samples of P. massoniana was developed in this study. This comprised a series of new techniques: sampling, mass estimations of nematodes using staining techniques, and lowest limit Bx nematode mass determination for PCR detection. The procedure was undertaken on three adjoining 5-mg wood cross-sections, of 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.015 cm dimension, that were cut from a wood sample of 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 cm initially, then the larger wood sample was stained by acid fuchsin, from which two 5-mg wood cross-sections (that adjoined the three 5-mg wood cross-sections, mentioned above) were cut. Nematode-staining-spots (NSSs) in each of the two stained sections were counted under a microscope at 100· magnification. If there were eight or more NSSs present, the adjoining three sections were used for PCR assays. The B. xylophilus – specific amplicon of 403 bp (DQ855275) was generated by PCR assay from 100.00% of 5-mg wood cross-sections that contained more than eight Bx NSSs by the PCR assay. The entire sampling procedure took only 10 min indicating that it is suitable for the fast estimation of nematode numbers in the wood of P. massonina as the prelimary sample selections for other more expensive Bx-detection methods such as PCR assay

China's energy consumption in the building sector: A Statistical Yearbook-Energy Balance Sheet based splitting method

China's energy consumption in the building sector (BEC) is not counted as a separate type of energy consumption, but divided and mixed in other sectors in China's statistical system. This led to the lack of historical data on China's BEC. Moreover, previous researches' shortages such as unsystematic research on BEC, various estimation methods with complex calculation process, and difficulties in data acquisition resulted in “heterogeneous” of current BEC in China. Aiming to these deficiencies, this study proposes a set of China building energy consumption calculation method (CBECM) by splitting out the building related energy consumption mixed in other sectors in the composition of China Statistical Yearbook-Energy Balance Sheet. Then, China's BEC from 2000 to 2014 are estimated using CBECM and compared with other studies. Results show that, from 2000 to 2014, China's BEC increased 1.7 times, rising from 301 to 814 million tons of standard coal consumed, with the BEC percentage of total energy consumption stayed relatively stable between 17.7% and 20.3%. By comparison, we find that our results are reliable and the CBECM has the following advantages over other methods: data source is authoritative, calculation process is concise, and it is easy to obtain time series data on BEC etc. The CBECM is particularly suitable for the provincial government to calculate the local BEC, even in the circumstance with statistical yearbook available only

Dark viscous fluid described by a unified equation of state in cosmology

We generalize the $\Lambda$CDM model by introducing a unified EOS to describe the Universe contents modeled as dark viscous fluid, motivated by the fact that a single constant equation of state (EOS) $p=-p_0$ ($p_0>0$) reproduces the $\Lambda$CDM model exactly. This EOS describes the perfect fluid term, the dissipative effect, and the cosmological constant in a unique framework and the Friedmann equations can be analytically solved. Especially, we find a relation between the EOS parameter and the renormalizable condition of a scalar field. We develop a completely numerical method to perform a $\chi^2$ minimization to constrain the parameters in a cosmological model directly from the Friedmann equations, and employ the SNe data with the parameter $\mathcal{A}$ measured from the SDSS data to constrain our model. The result indicates that the dissipative effect is rather small in the late-time Universe.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. v2: new materials added. v3: matches the version to appear in IJMP

On the qq-log-convexity conjecture of Sun

In his study of Ramanujan-Sato type series for $1/\pi$, Sun introduced a sequence of polynomials $S_n(q)$ as given by $$S_n(q)=\sum\limits_{k=0}^n{n\choose k}{2k\choose k}{2(n-k)\choose n-k}q^k,$$ and he conjectured that the polynomials $S_n(q)$ are $q$-log-convex. By imitating a result of Liu and Wang on generating new $q$-log-convex sequences of polynomials from old ones, we obtain a sufficient condition for determining the $q$-log-convexity of self-reciprocal polynomials. Based on this criterion, we then give an affirmative answer to Sun's conjecture