An advanced fuzzy Bayesian-based FMEA approach for assessing maritime supply chain risks

This paper aims to develop a novel model to assess the risk factors of maritime supply chains by incorporating a fuzzy belief rule approach with Bayesian networks. The new model, compared to traditional risk analysis methods, has the capability of improving result accuracy under a high uncertainty in risk data. A real case of a world leading container shipping company is investigated, and the research results reveal that among the most significant risk factors are transportation of dangerous goods, fluctuation of fuel price, fierce competition, unattractive markets, and change of exchange rates in sequence. Such findings will provide useful insights for accident prevention

Fe-doping induced superconductivity in charge-density-wave system 1T-TaS2

We report the interplay between charge-density-wave (CDW) and superconductivity of 1$T$-Fe$_{x}$Ta$_{1-x}$S$_{2}$ ($0\leq x \leq 0.05$) single crystals. The CDW order is gradually suppressed by Fe-doping, accompanied by the disappearance of pseudogap/Mott-gap as shown by the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The superconducting state develops at low temperatures within the CDW state for the samples with the moderate doping levels. The superconductivity strongly depends on $x$ within a narrow range, and the maximum superconducting transition temperature is 2.8 K as $x=0.02$. We propose that the induced superconductivity and CDW phases are separated in real space. For high doping level ($x>0.04$), the Anderson localization (AL) state appears, resulting in a large increase of resistivity. We present a complete electronic phase diagram of 1$T$-Fe$_{x}$Ta$_{1-x}$S$_{2}$ system that shows a dome-like $T_{c}(x)$

Evolutionary conservation and functional roles of ncRNA

Extent: 11 p.Non-coding RNAs(ncRNAs)are a class of transcribed RNA molecules without protein-coding potential. They were regarded as transcriptional noise,or the by product of genetic information flow from DNA to protein for a long time. However, in recent years, a number of studies have shown that ncRNAs are pervasively transcribed, and most of them show evidence of evolutionary conservation, although less conserved than protein-coding genes. More importantly, many ncRNAs have been confirmed as playing crucial regulatory roles in diverse biological processes and tumorigenesis. Here we summarize the functional significance of this class of “darkmatter” in terms its genomic organization,evolutionary conservation, and broad functional classes.Zhipeng Qu and David L. Adelso

On the Integrability, B\"Acklund Transformation and Symmetry Aspects of a Generalized Fisher Type Nonlinear Reaction-Diffusion Equation

The dynamics of nonlinear reaction-diffusion systems is dominated by the onset of patterns and Fisher equation is considered to be a prototype of such diffusive equations. Here we investigate the integrability properties of a generalized Fisher equation in both (1+1) and (2+1) dimensions. A Painlev\'e singularity structure analysis singles out a special case ($m=2$) as integrable. More interestingly, a B\"acklund transformation is shown to give rise to a linearizing transformation for the integrable case. A Lie symmetry analysis again separates out the same $m=2$ case as the integrable one and hence we report several physically interesting solutions via similarity reductions. Thus we give a group theoretical interpretation for the system under study. Explicit and numerical solutions for specific cases of nonintegrable systems are also given. In particular, the system is found to exhibit different types of travelling wave solutions and patterns, static structures and localized structures. Besides the Lie symmetry analysis, nonclassical and generalized conditional symmetry analysis are also carried out.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Int. J. Bifur. Chaos (2004

Bovine ncRNAs are abundant, primarily intergenic, conserved and associated with regulatory genes

It is apparent that non-coding transcripts are a common feature of higher organisms and encode uncharacterized layers of genetic regulation and information. We used public bovine EST data from many developmental stages and tissues, and developed a pipeline for the genome wide identification and annotation of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). We have predicted 23,060 bovine ncRNAs, 99% of which are un-annotated, based on known ncRNA databases. Intergenic transcripts accounted for the majority (57%) of the predicted ncRNAs and the occurrence of ncRNAs and genes were only moderately correlated (r = 0.55, p-value<2.2e-16). Many of these intergenic non-coding RNAs mapped close to the 3’ or 5’ end of thousands of genes and many of these were transcribed from the opposite strand with respect to the closest gene, particularly regulatory-related genes. Conservation analyses showed that these ncRNAs were evolutionarily conserved, and many intergenic ncRNAs proximate to genes contained sequence-specific motifs. Correlation analysis of expression between these intergenic ncRNAs and protein-coding genes using RNA-seq data from a variety of tissues showed significant correlations with many transcripts. These results support the hypothesis that ncRNAs are common, transcribed in a regulated fashion and have regulatory functions.Zhipeng Qu and David L. Adelso

Clean heating and heating poverty: A perspective based on cost-benefit analysis

To improve the air quality in winter, clean heating policy was implemented in “2 + 26” cities of China in 2016, which mainly included replacing coal with gas or electricity. Tremendous financial subsidies have been provided by city and central governments. This new heating mode changed the heating fee-cost to residents. This paper estimates the economic costs to both governments and residents, and evaluates the environmental and public health benefits by combining a difference-in-differences model with an exposure-response function. Results show that the total costs of clean heating were up to 43.1 billion yuan. Governments and residents account for 44% and 56% of the total costs, respectively. In terms of benefits, the clean heating project is effective for air pollution control and brings health economic benefits of about 109.85 billion yuan (95% CI: 22.40–159.83). The clean heating policy was identified as a net-positive benefit program with environmental and public health improvements. However, the inequality in subsidies from different cities governments increases the heating burden on low-income households and leads to heating poverty for households in the less developed regions. We provide suggestions for implementation in future clean heating campaigns and in subsidy mechanism design in China and for other developing countries

Generation of finite wave trains in excitable media

Spatiotemporal control of excitable media is of paramount importance in the development of new applications, ranging from biology to physics. To this end we identify and describe a qualitative property of excitable media that enables us to generate a sequence of traveling pulses of any desired length, using a one-time initial stimulus. The wave trains are produced by a transient pacemaker generated by a one-time suitably tailored spatially localized finite amplitude stimulus, and belong to a family of fast pulse trains. A second family, of slow pulse trains, is also present. The latter are created through a clumping instability of a traveling wave state (in an excitable regime) and are inaccessible to single localized stimuli of the type we use. The results indicate that the presence of a large multiplicity of stable, accessible, multi-pulse states is a general property of simple models of excitable media.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Loadability of power systems with steady-state and dynamic security constraints

Abstract Estimating loadability of a generation and transmission system is of practical importance in power system operations and planning. This paper presents a new formulation for the problem using mathematical programming theory. Both steady-state and dynamic security are taken into account in the proposed formulation. The difference between the proposed formulation and existing ones is that dynamic security is handled by an integration method. Using the new formulation, an iterative solution procedure is developed to solve the corresponding mathematical programming problem numerically. The method normally yields a slightly conservative estimate on the loadability of a generation/transmission system. Simulation results of a test power system are provided.