Resource Optimization for Small Business Company Balance the Data Accuracy and Storage

Small business plays a vital role in economy. There are lots of difficulties faced by the small business owners under today’s financial crisis. Optimization could help small business owner to reduce the operation cost and earn more from the IT investment. In this paper, we provide a case study of IT resource optimization on a small trading company. Through the case study, the trading company could get an optimized balance on data accuracy and storage. A reduction in the number of data points can still allow a company to pull out meaningful statistics

The Future of Rural Communities

There is a problem in how modern energy is being distributed throughout the world; less than a quarter of the population have access to energy. Limited energy access is seen in rural areas because of the costs that comes from transporting material and making modern energy resources (solar panels, wind turbines, etc..). Through research on thermoelectric devices, there have been many theories tested in order to improve energy efficiency focusing on easy maneuverable resources. At Boise State’s Advanced Energy Lab, thermoelectric generators are being created and modified which can be used to help communities from rural areas power utilities needed in their daily lives. These generators focus on creating electricity through heat. Many people from these communities depend on fuels such as crop residues, charcoal, and wood to cook their meals. These same fuels can be used to create the heat needed to power the portable generator

Research on the Influence of Institutional Investors' Shareholding and Transaction on Stock Price Synchronicity

Chinese institutional investors have experienced rapid growth in both size and volume over the past decade, but their role in the capital market has been inconclusive. By investigating the institutional investors' shareholdings and trading behaviors from 2007 to 2017, the study found that China's stock market overall stock price synchronicity is high. The share price of stocks with high institutional shareholdings is lower, while the increase in institutional investor transactions has failed to reduce stock price synchronicity. By further examining the impact of different types of institutional investor behavior on stock price synchronicity, it is found that there are differences in the influence of various types of institutional investors, and the shareholding and trading behavior of trusts, pension funds and QFII will reduce stock price synchronicity. Therefore, in order to maintain the stability of the capital market, we should continue to vigorously develop institutional investors while improving the structure of institutional investors and optimizing the company's dividend distribution mechanism

Characteristics and properties of a polysaccharide isolated from Wolfiporia cocos as potential dietary supplement for IBS

IntroductionAs low FODMAP (Fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols) diet therapy is recommended for most of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) patients, the consequent insufficient of dietary fibers (DFs) intake exert an adverse impact on intestinal health. It is necessary to find suitable DFs for IBS patients.MethodsThis study extracted a water-insoluble polysaccharide from Wolfiporia cocos (WIP) by alkali-extraction and acid-precipitation method. Its molecular weight was detected by high performance gel permeation chromatography (HPGPC) analysis. The structure of WIP was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrum, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The properties related to stability, digestion, viscosity, osmotic activity, adsorption and fermentation were investigated, aimed to explore the feasibility of WIP as a new DF supplement for patients with IBS. In addition, 16S rRNA sequencing analysis was conducted to explore its effects on IBS-related gut microbiota.Results and DiscussionThe results showed that WIP had a single homogeneous composition and the molecular weight was 8.1 × 103 Da. WIP was indicated as a kind of pyranose form with β anomeric configuration and the main chain of WIP was 1,3-β-glucan with amorphous structure. In addition to good thermal stability, WIP also has low bioavailability and can reach the colon mostly without being digested. Moreover, the low viscosity and osmotic activity, the high water- swelling and water/oil-holding capacity, fructose adsorption capacity and poor fermentation performance of WIP demonstrated that it is suitable for IBS patients. It is worth noting that WIP regulates IBS associated gut microbiota effectively, such as the abundance of Lachnospiraceae and Prevotella. These findings provide a theoretical basis for the development of WIP as a dietary supplement for IBS patients with low FODMAP diet therapy.GRAPHICAL ABSTRAC

Synthesis of Hafnium-Free Nanostructured Half-Heusler Materials for Thermoelectric Applications

Half-Heusler thermoelectric materials convert heat directly into electricity by means of the Seebeck effect. Improving the conversion efficiency and reducing fabrication costs will reduce the price per watt enabling widespread commercialization for waste heat energy harvesting and self-powered devices. In this work, a rapid low-cost synthesis route utilizing mechanical alloying via high energy planetary ball milling and spark plasma sintering was used to fabricate n-type hafnium-free single phase nano-grained TiZrNiSnSb based half-heusler monoliths with a modest figure of merit performance with significantly reduced thermal conductivity

New Directions for Thermoelectrics: A Roadmap from High-Throughput Materials Discovery to Advanced Device Manufacturing

Thermoelectric materials, which can convert waste heat into electricity or act as solid-state Peltier coolers, are emerging as key technologies to address global energy shortages and environmental sustainability. However, discovering materials with high thermoelectric conversion efficiency is a complex and slow process. The emerging field of high-throughput material discovery demonstrates its potential to accelerate the development of new thermoelectric materials combining high efficiency and low cost. The synergistic integration of high-throughput material processing and characterization techniques with machine learning algorithms can form an efficient closed-loop process to generate and analyze broad data sets to discover new thermoelectric materials with unprecedented performances. Meanwhile, the recent development of advanced manufacturing methods provides exciting opportunities to realize scalable, low-cost, and energy-efficient fabrication of thermoelectric devices. This review provides an overview of recent advances in discovering thermoelectric materials using high-throughput methods, including processing, characterization, and screening. Advanced manufacturing methods of thermoelectric devices are also introduced to realize the broad impacts of thermoelectric materials in power generation and solid-state cooling. In the end, this paper also discusses the future research prospects and directions

On the performance of an integrated communication and localization system: an analytical framework

Quantifying the performance bound of an integrated localization and communication (ILAC) system and the trade-off between communication and localization performance is critical. In this letter, we consider an ILAC system that can perform communication and localization via time-domain or frequency-domain resource allocation. We develop an analytical framework to derive the closed-form expression of the capacity loss versus localization Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRB) loss via time-domain and frequency-domain resource allocation. Simulation results validate the analytical model and demonstrate that frequency-domain resource allocation is preferable in scenarios with a smaller number of antennas at the next generation nodeB (gNB) and a larger distance between user equipment (UE) and gNB, while time-domain resource allocation is preferable in scenarios with a larger number of antennas and smaller distance between UE and the gNB.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Factors influencing successful establishment of exotic Pinus radiata seedlings with co-introduced Lactarius deliciosus or local ectomycorrhizal fungal communities

An introduction of exotic or non-native trees may fail due to a lack of suitable fungal partners. We planted exotic Pinus radiata in Xifeng, Guizhou Southwest China. Strategies to introduce P. radiata seedlings either colonized with an ectomycorrhizal fungus (EcMF), Lactarius deliciosus, or expect them to form familiar/new associations with local EcMF in a new habitat were studied to know how P. radiata could be successfully established over a period of 2.5 years. Plant height and needle nutrient acquisition, the persistence of the co-introduced L. deliciosus, and fungal community composition in rhizosphere soil and root tips were analyzed. In addition, a greenhouse bioassay experiment of local soil to assess the differences in the EcMF community between exotic and native pine seedlings was also conducted. The current results demonstrated that P. radiata could establish in the Xifeng plantation with or without co-introduced L. deliciosus. The co-introduced L. deliciosus might be naturalized with P. radiata in the new area since it has been fruited for 2 years with high relative abundance in mycorrhizosphere soil. L. deliciosus pre-colonization significantly altered the mycorrhizosphere fungal composition and it had a positive correlation with nitrogen acquisition of P. radiata. Host identity had no effect on fungal composition since exotic P. radiata and native P. massoniana recruited similar local fungal communities in early establishment or in plantation. The cosmopolitan species Suillus placidus, with high relative abundance, formed a familiar association with P. radiata. The greenhouse bioassay experiment further showed that Suillus sp. contributed relatively higher total extracellular enzymes by forming ectomycorrhizas with P. radiata and the same type of ectomycorrhiza of P. radiata and P. massoniana showed different enzymatic functions. Our study indicated that exotic P. radiata could be a suitable tree capable to get established successfully in the Xifeng plantation either by interaction with the co-introduced L. deliciosus or with a local EcMF, but we should be cautious about large-scale planting of P. radiata. L. deliciosus persisted in plantation and more attention should be paid to local EcMF community changes induced by the introduced L. deliciosus.This work was supported by the Fund of Yunnan Key Laboratory for Fungal Diversity and Green Development (No. E03A311261-6), the National Sciences Foundation of China (No. 31901204), and the Yunnan Key Project of Science and Technology (No. 202102AE090034)