20,371 research outputs found
Changing characteristics of the water consumption structure in Nanjing city, Southern China
Understanding the changes in water consumption structure in order to take measures for demand control is very important for sustainable water resources management. In this study, using the Southern China area of Nanjing as an example, we employed the information entropy method to analyze the water consumption structure, as well as the grey incidence analysis to analyze synthetic incidence degree of the factors associated with agricultural, industrial, domestic, and ecological water consumption. The results show that the degree of balance among water consumption sectors has increased from 0.755 to 0.825 between 1993 and 2014. Gradual decrease of the relative proportion of a single water user structure in a water consumption system has made the utilization of water resources in Nanjing rational and diversified. The study identifies three stages of transformation of water structure in Nanjing, namely, a growth period from 1993 to 2002, an adjustment period from 2003 to 2010, and another growth period from 2011 to 2014. The synthetic incidence degree analysis indicates that adjustments of the agricultural and industrial water consumption as well as water saving measures are the main factors that affected water consumption structure in Nanjing. It is expected that the results obtained from this study will provide references to optimize the utilization of urban water resources
Improved Noisy Student Training for Automatic Speech Recognition
Recently, a semi-supervised learning method known as "noisy student training"
has been shown to improve image classification performance of deep networks
significantly. Noisy student training is an iterative self-training method that
leverages augmentation to improve network performance. In this work, we adapt
and improve noisy student training for automatic speech recognition, employing
(adaptive) SpecAugment as the augmentation method. We find effective methods to
filter, balance and augment the data generated in between self-training
iterations. By doing so, we are able to obtain word error rates (WERs)
4.2%/8.6% on the clean/noisy LibriSpeech test sets by only using the clean 100h
subset of LibriSpeech as the supervised set and the rest (860h) as the
unlabeled set. Furthermore, we are able to achieve WERs 1.7%/3.4% on the
clean/noisy LibriSpeech test sets by using the unlab-60k subset of LibriLight
as the unlabeled set for LibriSpeech 960h. We are thus able to improve upon the
previous state-of-the-art clean/noisy test WERs achieved on LibriSpeech 100h
(4.74%/12.20%) and LibriSpeech (1.9%/4.1%).Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables; v2: minor revisions, reference adde
A simpler and more efficient algorithm for the next-to-shortest path problem
Given an undirected graph with positive edge lengths and two
vertices and , the next-to-shortest path problem is to find an -path
which length is minimum amongst all -paths strictly longer than the
shortest path length. In this paper we show that the problem can be solved in
linear time if the distances from and to all other vertices are given.
Particularly our new algorithm runs in time for general
graphs, which improves the previous result of time for sparse
graphs, and takes only linear time for unweighted graphs, planar graphs, and
graphs with positive integer edge lengths.Comment: Partial result appeared in COCOA201
Necessity of integral formalism
To describe the physical reality, there are two ways of constructing the
dynamical equation of field, differential formalism and integral formalism. The
importance of this fact is firstly emphasized by Yang in case of gauge field
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 33 (1974) 445], where the fact has given rise to a deeper
understanding for Aharonov-Bohm phase and magnetic monopole [Phys. Rev. D. 12
(1975) 3845]. In this paper we shall point out that such a fact also holds in
general wave function of matter, it may give rise to a deeper understanding for
Berry phase. Most importantly, we shall prove a point that, for general wave
function of matter, in the adiabatic limit, there is an intrinsic difference
between its integral formalism and differential formalism. It is neglect of
this difference that leads to an inconsistency of quantum adiabatic theorem
pointed out by Marzlin and Sanders [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 160408]. It has
been widely accepted that there is no physical difference of using differential
operator or integral operator to construct the dynamical equation of field.
Nevertheless, our study shows that the Schrodinger differential equation (i.e.,
differential formalism for wave function) shall lead to vanishing Berry phase
and that the Schrodinger integral equation (i.e., integral formalism for wave
function), in the adiabatic limit, can satisfactorily give the Berry phase.
Therefore, we reach a conclusion: There are two ways of describing physical
reality, differential formalism and integral formalism; but the integral
formalism is a unique way of complete description.Comment: 13Page; Schrodinger differential equation shall lead to vanishing
Berry phas
Observation of orbital ordering and origin of the nematic order in FeSe
To elucidate the origin of nematic order in FeSe, we performed
field-dependent 77Se-NMR measurements on single crystals of FeSe. We observed
orbital ordering from the splitting of the NMR spectra and Knight shift and a
suppression of it with magnetic field B0 up to 16 T applied parallel to the
Fe-planes. There is a significant change in the distribution and magnitude of
the internal magnetic field across the orbital ordering temperature Torb while
stripe-type antiferromagnetism is absent. Giant antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin
fluctuations measured by the NMR spin-lattice relaxation are gradually
developed starting at ~ 40 K, which is far below the nematic ordering
temperature Tnem. These results demonstrate that orbital ordering is the origin
of the nematic order, and the AFM spin fluctuation is the driving mechanism of
superconductivity in FeSe under the presence of the nematic order.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Blob ejection from advection-dominated accretion flow: observational consequences
There is increasing evidence for the presence of an optically thin
advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) in low luminosity active galactic
nuclei and radio-loud quasars. The present paper is devoted to explore the fate
of a blob ejected from an ADAF, and to discuss its observational consequences.
It is inevitable for the ejected blob to drastically expand into its
surroundings. Consequently, it is expected that a group of relativistic
electrons should be accelerated, which may lead to nonthermal flares, since a
strong shock will be formed by the interaction between the blob and its
surroundings. Then the blob cools down efficiently, leading to the appearance
of recombination lines about s after its ejection from an ADAF. We apply
this model to NGC 4258 for some observational prediction, and to PKS 2149--306
for the explanation of observational evidence. Future simultaneous observations
of recombination X-ray lines and continuum emission are highly desired to test
the present model.Comment: 4 pages in emulateapj.sty, no figure. Accepted by ApJ Letter
Three-dimensional numerical modeling of land subsidence in Shanghai, China
Abstract. Shanghai city has been suffering land subsidence caused by overly exploitation of ground water since 1921, which is a serious problem for this coastal city with altitude of 2.2–4.8 m above mean sea level. The largest cumulative land subsidence amounted to 2.6 m in the downtown area. Measures to decrease the ground water exploitation, change the pumping aquifers, and increase aquifer artificial recharge have been used to mitigate land subsidence since 1961. It is necessary to develop a proper numerical model to simulate and predict land subsidence. In this study, a decoupled three-dimensional (3-D) finite element land subsidence model including a 3-D ground water flow model and a 3-D geo-mechanical model was developed to simulate the 3-D deformation of the aquifer systems in the center area of Shanghai. The area of downtown Shanghai is 660 km2, with 10 million inhabitants, dense high buildings, and 11 metro lines. The simulation spans the period from 1979 to 1995. Two different assumptions have been tested on the side boundary, i.e., precluding the three components of the displacement, or assuming a free-displacement condition. The distribution of calculated land subsidence and horizontal displacements in different aquifers was analyzed. The computed vertical displacement fitted well with the available observations. It has been verified that the two different assumptions on the lateral boundaries in the geo-mechanical model caused different results just limited on nodes close to boundary. The developed 3-D land subsidence model is reasonable and can be used to simulate and predict 3-D movement of aquifer systems in the center area of Shanghai, which could provide scientific support to local government in controlling land subsidence and differential movements of the land surface
Effects of Changes in Moisture Source and the Upstream Rainout on Stable Isotopes in Precipitation – A Case Study in Nanjing, Eastern China
In the Asian monsoon region, variations in the stable isotopic composition of speleothems have often been attributed to the amount effect . However, an increasing number of studies suggest that the amount effect in local precipitation is insignificant or even non-existent. To explore this issue further, we examined the variability of daily stable isotopic composition (δ18O) in precipitation from September 2011 to November 2014 in Nanjing, eastern China. We found that intra-seasonal variations of δ18O during summer were not significantly correlated with local rainfall amount but could be linked to changes in the moisture source location and rainout processes in the source regions. Our findings suggest that the stable isotopes in summer precipitation could signal the location shift of precipitation source regions in the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) over the course of the monsoon season. As a result, changes in moisture source location and upstream rainout effect should be taken into account when interpreting the stable isotopic composition of speleothems in the Asian monsoon region. In addition, the temperature effect on isotopic variations in non-monsoonal precipitation should also be considered because precipitation in the non-monsoon season accounts for about half of its annual precipitation
YB-1 regulates Sox2 to coordinately sustain stemness and tumorigenic properties in a phenotypically distinct subset of breast cancer cells
BACKGROUND: Sox2, a transcription factor and an embryonic stem cell marker, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of breast cancer (BC). YB-1 is another transcription factor that has been shown to promote stemness in BC cells. METHODS: Western blotting, quantitative PCR, and siRNAs were used to query the regulatory relationships between YB-1, Sox2, and their downstream targets. Chromatin immunoprecipitation was used to detect YB-1 interactions at the Sox2 promoter. Mammosphere and soft agar assays were used to assess the phenotypic consequences of YB-1 knockdown. RESULTS: Here, we report that YB-1 regulates Sox2. YB-1 was found to bind to the SOX2 promoter and down-regulate its expression in MCF7 and ZR751. The regulatory interaction between YB-1 and Sox2 was drastically different between the two phenotypically distinct cell subsets, purified based on their differential response to a Sox2 reporter. They are referred to as the reporter unresponsive (RU) cells and the reporter responsive (RR) cells. Upon siRNA knockdown of YB-1, RU cells showed an increase in Sox2 expression but no change in Sox2 reporter activity; in contrast, RR cells exhibited increased expression and reporter activity of Sox2. Correlating with these findings, YB-1 knockdown induced a differential response in the expression of genes known to be regulated by both Sox2 and YB-1 (e.g. CCND1 and ITGA6). For instance, in response to YB-1 knockdown, CCND1 and ITGA6 expression were decreased or unchanged in RU cells but paradoxically increased in RR cells. Compared to RU cells, RR cells were significantly more resistant to the suppression of mammosphere formation due to YB-1 knockdown. Importantly, mammospheres derived from parental MCF7 cells treated with YB-1 siRNA knockdown exhibited higher expression levels of SOX2 and its downstream targets. CONCLUSIONS: To conclude, in a subset of BC cells, namely RR cells, YB-1 regulates Sox2 to coordinately maintain stemness and tumorigenic properties
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