TWO ESSAYS ON CHINA'S ECONOMY AND FINANCIAL MARKETS

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENCE (BUSINESS

Hydrodynamics And Mass Transfer Of A Downward Gas Jet In A Two-dimensional Fluidized Bed

Downward gas jets can be found in many important process fluidized bed reactors, but design and operation data are scarce in the literature. The need for an understanding of such reactors led to a study, for this project, of hydrodynamics and mass transfer of a single downward air jet in a 2D fluidized bed of sand particles.;The jet issuing from a downward nozzle shifted between the two sides of the nozzle through a cyclic sequence of left-central-right-central-left positions. While the jet flowed along one side of the nozzle, a small fraction of the nozzle air split out to the other side and formed satellite bubbles rising through the bed. The jet cycling time was a random variable which could be described by a log-normal probability distribution. Its average reached a minimum at the aspect ratio 1.58. Both the increase in the jet velocity and the presence of internals had an increasing effect on the average jet cycling time. A proposed wave model interpreted that the jet cyclic motion was caused by the sloshing of the fluidized bed. This was supported by the fact that the cyclic motion was in synchronism with the change in the pressure difference between the two sides of a nozzle. A lower pressure was found on the side of the jet flow and a higher pressure on the side of satellite bubbles.;The jet also fluctuated in width and there was no fixed position for the jet boundary. This led to a successful approach using the concept of the jet presence probability. The gas dispersion coefficient from the nozzle gas zone to the emulsion phase was further determined from tracer experiments. It increased with the jet velocity and was about one fifth of that reported in the literature for upward jets

EMPIRICAL LIKELIHOOD AND DIFFERENTIABLE FUNCTIONALS

Empirical likelihood (EL) is a recently developed nonparametric method of statistical inference. It has been shown by Owen (1988,1990) and many others that empirical likelihood ratio (ELR) method can be used to produce nice confidence intervals or regions. Owen (1988) shows that -2logELR converges to a chi-square distribution with one degree of freedom subject to a linear statistical functional in terms of distribution functions. However, a generalization of Owen\u27s result to the right censored data setting is difficult since no explicit maximization can be obtained under constraint in terms of distribution functions. Pan and Zhou (2002), instead, study the EL with right censored data using a linear statistical functional constraint in terms of cumulative hazard functions. In this dissertation, we extend Owen\u27s (1988) and Pan and Zhou\u27s (2002) results subject to non-linear but Hadamard differentiable statistical functional constraints. In this purpose, a study of differentiable functional with respect to hazard functions is done. We also generalize our results to two sample problems. Stochastic process and martingale theories will be applied to prove the theorems. The confidence intervals based on EL method are compared with other available methods. Real data analysis and simulations are used to illustrate our proposed theorem with an application to the Gini\u27s absolute mean difference

Phylogenetic Characterization of the Kinesin Superfamily and Functional Analysis of PpKin14-Vs in Physcomitrella patens

Chloroplasts are organelles that convert light energy to chemical energy through photosynthesis. The movement of chloroplasts within the cell for the optimization of light absorption is crucial for plant survival. Cellular motor proteins and cytoskeletal tracks can facilitate transport of organelles. As an ancient superfamily of microtubule-dependent motors, kinesins participate in various cellular activities including cytokinesis, vesicle and organelle movements. Based on phylogenetic relationships and functional analysis, the kinesin superfamily has been subdivided into more than 14 families, most of which can be found in plants. With the ever increasing amount of genomic information, it is important and beneficial to systematically characterize and document kinesins within an organism. As a result of my collaborative work with other members of the Vidali lab, a detailed phylogenetic characterization of the 76 kinesins of the kinesin superfamily in the moss Physcomitrella patens is reported here. We found a remarkable conservation of families and subfamily classes with Arabidopsis, which is important for future comparative analyses of functions. Some of the families are composed of fewer members, while other families are greatly expanded in moss. To improve the comparison between species, and to simplify communication between research groups, we proposed a classification of subfamilies based on our phylogenetic analysis. As part of my efforts in studying chloroplasts motility, I investigated the function of two members of Physcomitrella kinesin family 14 class V proteins, Ppkin14-Va and -Vb. These two proteins are orthologs of the Arabidopsis KAC proteins which mediate actin-based chloroplast movement in Arabidopsis thaliana. In contrast, in the Physcomitrella both actin filaments (AFs) and microtubules (MTs) participate in chloroplast movement. Our results show that Ppkin14-Vs are important for maintaining chloroplast dispersion. They also function during chloroplast light avoidance responses via an AF-dependent, rather than MT-dependent mechanism. Although two Ppkin14- Vs do not act as MT-based motors, our phylogenetic study on moss kinesins provides an important source of information to track other potential kinesins that are predicted to move chloroplasts on MTs

Conversions between barycentric, RKFUN, and Newton representations of rational interpolants

We derive explicit formulas for converting between rational interpolants in barycentric, rational Krylov (RKFUN), and Newton form. We show applications of these conversions when working with rational approximants produced by the AAA algorithm [Y. Nakatsukasa, O. S\`ete, L. N. Trefethen, arXiv preprint 1612.00337, 2016] within the Rational Krylov Toolbox and for the solution of nonlinear eigenvalue problems

Combined probabilistic linguistic term set and ELECTRE II method for solving a venture capital project evaluation problem

Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) frameworks assist people in assessing alternatives and making reasonable decisions, with the ELECTRE II MCDM method in particular being widely applied to many diverse fields. As it is not always possible to assess qualitative attributes or accurately evaluate alternatives using precise values, this paper proposes a new approach that combines the ELECTRE II method with probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTS) to allow decision makers to state their qualitative preferences using corresponding probabilities. To demonstrate the viability of the PTLS-ELECTRE II method and assess its practicability, the proposed method was applied to a typical MCDM venture capital project evaluation problem, for which a comprehensive venture capital project evaluation index system was constructed that included multiple qualitative and quantitative indicators, such as industry background, marketing, product technology, team management and financial data. The reasonable evaluation sequence of alternatives was then determined using the PTLS-ELECTRE II method which can provide more accurate MCDM decisions

Prognostic Values of Filamin-A Status for Topoisomerase II Poison Chemotherapy

Filamin-A, also called Actin Binding Protein-280, is not only an essential component of the cytoskeleton networks, but also serves as the scaffold in various signaling networks. It has been shown that filamin-A facilitates DNA repair and filamin-A proficient cells are more resistant to ionizing radiation, bleomycin, and cisplatin. In this study, we assessed the role of filamin-A in modulating cancer cell sensitivity to Topo II poisons, including etoposide and doxorubicin. Intriguingly, we found that cells with filamin-A expression are more sensitive to Topo II poisons than those with defective filamin-A, and filamin-A proficient xenograft melanomas have better response to etoposide treatment than the filamin-A deficient tumors. This is associated with more potent induction of DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) by Topo II poisons in filamin-A proficient cells than the deficient cells. Although the expression of filamin-A enables cells a slightly stronger capability to repair DSB, the net outcome is that filamin-A proficient cells bear more DSBs due to the significantly enhanced DSB induction by Topo II poisons in these cells. We further found that filamin-A proficient cells have increased drug influx and decreased drug efflux, suggesting that filamin-A modulates the intra-cellular drug kinetics of Topo II poisons to facilitate the generation of DSB after Topo II poison exposure. These data suggest a novel function of filamin-A in regulating the pharmacokinetics of Topo II poisons, and that the status of filamin-A may be used as a prognostic marker for Topo II poisons based cancer treatments