Existence of Positive Solutions for Fractional Differential Equation with Nonlocal Boundary Condition

By using the fixed point theorem, existence of positive solutions for fractional differential equation with nonlocal boundary condition D0+αu(t)+a(t)f(t,u(t))=0, 0<t<1, u(0)=0, u(1)=∑i=1∞αiu(ξi) is considered, where 1<α≤2 is a real number, D0+α is the standard Riemann-Liouville differentiation, and ξi∈(0,1),  αi∈[0,∞) with ∑i=1∞αiξiα-1<1, a(t)∈C([0,1],[0,∞)),  f(t,u)∈C([0,1]×[0,∞),[0,∞))

The Mediating Role of Personality Strengths in the Relationship Between Gender Roles and Occupational Well-Being of Nurses

Background: The purpose of the study is to explore the relationships amongst gender roles, personality strengths and occupational well-being of nurses in Mainland China. Design: A crossâ€sectional study was used. Method: A total of 318 nurses from a tertiary hospital in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, were measured with general information questionnaire, gender role scale (simplified version), three-dimensional character advantage questionnaire, and medical worker occupational well-being scale. Results: The character strengths and occupational well-being scores of the nurses in this study were (57.29±7.16) and (79.59±12.67), respectively. Bisexuality in gender roles was positively correlated with personality dominance and occupational well-being (r=0.535, r=0.204,P&lt;0.01); undifferentiated was negatively correlated with both (r=-0.529, r=-0.230,P&lt;0.01); and personality dominance was positively correlated with occupational well-being (r=0.350,P&lt;0.01). In the effect of nurses' gender roles on occupational well-being, personality strengths played a fully mediating role. Conclusion: Gender roles and character strengths are important factors affecting nurses' professional well-being, and gender roles can indirectly affect nurses' professional well-being through character strengths. Clinical nursing managers should take relevant measures to cultivate character strengths appropriate to different gender roles to improve nurses' occupational well-being

Flexibility and Capacity Allocation under Uncertain Prescheduled (Non-urgent) Demand and Same-day (Urgent) Demand in Primary Care Practices

In this dissertation, we are applying and extending well-established concepts of flexibility in manufacturing and service sectors to a healthcare setting: primary care. In the healthcare scenarios, appointments are booked over time and thus future resource capacity is sequentially being allocated under partial demand information. In manufacturing flexibility is typically presented as a technology choice that requires heavy investment for expensive flexible equipment, or highly cross-trained workers, but can then be used at little or no cost to satisfy demand. In primary care, however, the resources are inherently flexible, as primary care physicians are naturally able to see other panel\u27s patients. There is therefore no long-term cost to the system for ``installing\u27\u27 flexibility, but a cost for ``using this flexibility. This cost results from the loss of patient-physician continuity which may induce patient dissatisfaction, require longer appointment durations as the physician needs to study the unfamiliar patient\u27s history, and potentially lead to poorer medical outcomes. Appointments in primary care are of two types: 1) prescheduled appointments, which are booked in advance of a given workday; and 2) same-day appointments, which are booked as calls come during the course of the workday. This creates two competing demand streams with different continuity needs. For same-day patients, the need for timely access often outweighs the need for continuity. Prescheduled appointments, on the other hand, include patients with chronic conditions who require regular monitoring and follow ups, and for whom continuity is essential. Within this context, we address two interrelated problems: 1) the capacity allocation between prescheduled and same-day patients and how it is impacted by flexibility and the addition of extra resources; 2) the dynamic allocation of same-day patients to an existing schedule as they call over the day. The study of the former aggregate capacity allocation problem is based on a 3-stage framework. We assume different flexibility configuration to study the impact of flexibility in primary care practices. Our study of flexibility in primary care practices suggest that better management of the inherently flexibility inside primary care practices helps to balance prescheduled and same-day demand streams. We then study the latter dynamic allocation problem based on a simulation model, which captures several realistic issues like, patient\u27 preferences, call-in frequency of same-day requests, and policies to reserve time blocks for prescheduled patients, etc. Our study provides guidelines for clinic to provide better quality of care for patients

Coupled Cooling Method and Application of Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage Combined with Pre-cooling of Envelope: Sensitivity Analysis and Optimization

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Xiangkui gao, Yanping Yuan, Hongwei Wu, and Xudong Zhao, ‘Coupled Cooling Method and Application of Latent Het Thermal Energy Storage Combined with Pre-cooling of Envelope: Sensitivity Analysis and Optimization’, Process Safety and Environmental Protection, first published online 9 March 2017. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 9 March 2018. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The version of record is available online at doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2017.03.005 © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Cooling system for mine refuge chamber provides comfortable environment for miners to avoid heat damage. The existing cooling systems have their own application scopes and limitations. The coupled cooling method of Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage (LHTES) combined with Pre-cooling of Envelope (PE) is a new free cooling method which is suitable for high-temperature, passive, impact and other harsh environment. Then, to improve the thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption, the effect of the pre-cooling temperature, melting temperature of PCM, aspect ratio and amounts of PCM unit on the indoor temperature are investigated in a systematic manner. Furthermore, the system is optimized and the generalized results for the evaluation parameter are given. Analysis of the results may lead to following main conclusions: (i) the method really controls the indoor temperature and the saving amount of PCM is more than 50% compared to the traditional LHTES systems; (ii) the Temperature Control(TC) performance of PCM would drop significantly if it melts more than 80%; (iii) under current operating conditions, the optimal melting temperature is about 29 °C and the aspect ratio of PCM unit is 60:500; (iv) per 1 °C the pre-cooling temperature dropped, 19% the actual amount of PCM decreased for the case studied.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Coupled Cooling Method and Application of Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage Combined with Pre-cooling of Envelope: Optimization of Pre-cooling with Intermittent Mode

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Xiangkui Gao, Yanping Yuan, Hongwei Wu, Xiaoling Cao, and Xudong Zhao, ‘Coupled cooling method and application of latent heat thermal energy storage combined with pre-cooling of envelope: Optimization of pre-cooling with intermittent mode’, Sustainable Cities and Society, Vol. 38: 370-381, April 2018. Under embargo until 10 January 2019. The final, definitive version of this paper is available online via: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.01.014The coupled cooling method combining latent heat thermal energy storage and pre-cooling of the envelope (PE) is a new free-cooling method that is suitable for exposure to high temperatures and other types of harsh environments. PE plays the most critical role in the coupled cooling method. Long-term, continuous PE cannot only reduce energy storage capacity, but it also causes numerous energy waste. Thus, an intermittent operational mode is firstly proposed to improve the heat transfer performance and reduce energy consumption. A simplified numerical model of intermittent thermal storage is established, and the subsequent effects of intermittent ratio (IR) and intermittent period (IP) on cold storage performance have been systematically investigated. Furthermore, the operational period is divided into a cold storage period (CSP) and a cold preservation period (CPP), each with their own respective evaluation indices. Long-term intermittent PE is optimized, and an interchanging continuous/intermittent cold storage strategy is proposed. Under the current operating conditions, as compared with the conventional continuous mode, the duration of CSP is extended by 0–26%, yielding an annual cold storage energy consumption reduction of 68–78%. Thus, the current study demonstrates the significant potential of intermittent operational mode application in underground thermal energy storage systems.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Isolation of a novel abscisic acid stress ripening (OsASR) gene from rice and analysis of the response of this gene to abiotic stresses

Abiotic stresses constitute a serious threat to agricultural production, which often develops into major crop production reducing factors around the world. Molecular biology technology has, however, emerged as a promising vehicle improving crop tolerance. A cold-, drought- and heat-inducible gene designated Oryza sativa L. abscisic acid stress-ripening (OsASR) gene, GenBank accession: AK318549.1 was identified in rice Pei’ai64s (O. sativa L. ssp. Indica cv.) using the GeneChip rice genome array (Affymetrix) representing 51, 279 transcripts from two rice subspecies japonica and indica. The expression profile of OsASR obtained by the microarray analysis was confirmed by quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of the gene. The two sets of data matched very well, suggesting that OsASR is a multiple stresses responsive gene in rice. Based on the sequence, PCR primers were designed. The cDNA with the whole open reading frame (ORF) was amplified by PCR and cloned. Sequence analysis showed that the cDNA encodes a protein of 284 amino acid residues with M.W. ≈ 11.7 kD and pI ≈ 10.4. The gene encodes a protein with several conserved domains. Comparison of protein sequences indicates that OsASR encodes a putative abscisic acid stress-ripening protein. Analysis of the putative promoter region for candidate cis-regulatory elements using PlantCARE software identified seven kinds of cis-elements related to stress responses. Based on the aforementioned analyses and results obtained, we propose that OsASR is a novel candidate gene involved in stress tolerance in rice.Keywords: Rice, microarray, abiotic stress, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), abscisic acid stress ripenin

Ferroelectric Photovoltaic Effect

Tetragonal BiFeO3 films with the thickness of 30 nm were grown epitaxially on (001) oriented LaAlO3 substrate by using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The transverse photovoltaic effects were studied as a function of the sample directions in-plane as well as the angle between the linearly polarized light and the plane of the sample along X and Y directions. The absorption onset and the direct band gap are ~2.25 and ~2.52 eV, respectively. The photocurrent depends not only on the sample directions in-plane but also on the angle between the linearly polarized light and the plane of the sample along X and Y directions. The results indicate that the bulk photovoltaic effect together with the depolarization field was ascribed to this phenomenon. Detailed analysis presents that the polarization direction is along [110] direction and this depolarization field induced photocurrent is equal to ~3.53 μA/cm2. The BPV induced photocurrent can be approximate described as Jx ≈ 2.23cos(2θ), such an angular dependence of photocurrent is produced as a consequence of asymmetric microscopic processes of carriers such as excitation and recombination

A Preliminary Study of the Microbial Resources and Their Biological Activities of the East China Sea

East China Sea is one of the four sea areas in China, which possesses peculiar ecological environment and many kinds of living creatures, especially the microorganisms. We established the East China Sea microorganism library (during 2006–2010) for the first time, which stored about 30000 strains that covered most kinds of the species. In this paper, 395 pure strains of East China Sea microorganism library which belong to 33 different genera were mainly introduced. Sulfitobacter, Halomonas, Bacillus, Pseudoalteromonas, and Idiomarina were the most dominant species. On the large-scale biological activity screening of the 395 strains, 100 strains possess different biological activities based on different screening models, of which 11.4% strains have antibacterial activities, 15.9% have cytotoxicity activities, and 6.1% have antioxidation activities. Besides, the secondary metabolites of 6 strains with strong biological activities were studied systematically; diketopiperazines and macrocyclic lactones are the active secondary metabolites. The species and the biological activity of microorganisms diversity, the abundant structure type of the secondary metabolites, and their bioactivities all indicate that East China Sea is a potent marine microorganisms-derived developing resource for drug discovery