Dust-acoustic waves and stability in the permeating dusty plasma: II. Power-law distributions

The dust-acoustic waves and their stability driven by a flowing dusty plasma when it cross through a static (target) dusty plasma (the so-called permeating dusty plasma) are investigated when the components of the dusty plasma obey the power-law q-distributions in nonextensive statistics. The frequency, the growth rate and the stability condition of the dust-acoustic waves are derived under this physical situation, which express the effects of the nonextensivity as well as the flowing dusty plasma velocity on the dust-acoustic waves in this dusty plasma. The numerical results illustrate some new characteristics of the dust-acoustic waves, which are different from those in the permeating dusty plasma when the plasma components are the Maxwellian distribution. In addition, we show that the flowing dusty plasma velocity has a significant effect on the dust-acoustic waves in the permeating dusty plasma with the power-law q-distribution.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, 41 reference

Printable magnesium ion quasi-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitors for flexible solar-charging integrated units.

Wearable and portable self-powered units have stimulated considerable attention in both the scientific and technological realms. However, their innovative development is still limited by inefficient bulky connections between functional modules, incompatible energy storage systems with poor cycling stability, and real safety concerns. Herein, we demonstrate a flexible solar-charging integrated unit based on the design of printed magnesium ion aqueous asymmetric supercapacitors. This power unit exhibits excellent mechanical robustness, high photo-charging cycling stability (98.7% capacitance retention after 100 cycles), excellent overall energy conversion and storage efficiency (ηoverall = 17.57%), and outstanding input current tolerance. In addition, the Mg ion quasi-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitors show high energy density up to 13.1 mWh cm-3 via pseudocapacitive ion storage as investigated by an operando X-ray diffraction technique. The findings pave a practical route toward the design of future self-powered systems affording favorable safety, long life, and high energy

Reaching the last mile: best practices in leveraging the power of ICTs to communicate climate services to farmers at scale

This report reviews key ICTs for Development (ICT4D) Programs, Innovations and Information Exchange Platforms which are experimented within South Asia to explore the use and scale-ability of these innovative approaches to other parts of Africa and the developing world. Learning from the pioneering experiences of pilot projects across India and Africa in ICT development, we assess the potential ICTs offer to not only communicate climate information and related advisory services but also to build capacity and increase the resilience of rural smallholders. It is our hope that such South-South learning can pave the way for improved cross-regional experience sharing to tackle common challenges in reaching ‘the last mile’ with salient rural extension services, including climate information services

Designing intelligent language tutoring system for learning Chinese characters

The purposes of this research are to explore 1) the design and usability of the interface for an intelligent tutoring system for recognition of Chinese characters, 2) the pedagogical effectiveness of different forms of information presentation and feedback. A prototype system (an iPad Chinese character tutor) was developed and was evaluated for its effectiveness and usability. In the evaluation test, two groups were given 34 Chinese characters and phrases to learn using two different versions of the system. Version A contained a metaphor-based pedagogy, feedback, and extra instructions; Version B did not. Participants’ learning performance and survey results were used to measure the effectiveness and usability of the system. Learning performance of the group who used Version A was statistically significantly better than that of the Version B group. Participants surveyed rated Version A significantly higher than Version B on several constructs, including usability, satisfaction, functionality, and usefulness. This study lays the foundation for the development of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) for Chinese learning

Comparing two groups of ranked objects by pairwise matching

Let [gamma][subscript]X = (X[subscript]sp(1)\u27,X[subscript]sp(2)\u27,...,X[subscript]sp(n)\u27) and [gamma][subscript]Y = Y[subscript]sp(1)\u27,Y[subscript]sp(2)\u27,...,Y[subscript]sp(n)\u27) be two groups of stochastically increasing rv\u27s, which can represent, say, the increasing strengths of the members of two chess teams or two tennis teams, etc. Let [pi] = ([pi][subscript]1,[pi][subscript]2,...,[pi][subscript]n) be a permutation of (1,2,...,n). Then the statistic S([pi]) = [sigma][subscript]spi=1n I(Y[subscript]sp(i)\u27 \u3e X[subscript]sp(i)\u27) measures the performance of [gamma][subscript]Y over [gamma][subscript]X under the permutation or matching [pi], where I(y \u3e x) is an indicator function. We are interested in the relationship between [pi] and ES([pi]) = [sigma][subscript]spi = 1n P(Y[subscript]sp(i)\u27 \u3e X[subscript]sp([pi][subscript] i)\u27), especially in comparing ES([pi]) when [pi] = (1,2,..., n), corresponding to ordered matching, and when [pi] is randomly given. The P(Y[subscript]sp(i)\u27 \u3e X[subscript]sp(i)\u27) are of interest in themselves. A class of special matchings called \u27fair matchings\u27 is emphasized. We say a matching [pi] is fair if ES([pi]) = n[over] 2 when [gamma][subscript]X ~ [gamma][subscript]Y. Simple matching and symmetric matching, which are fair under certain conditions, are also defined. The problems are investigated under two models, i.e., the order statistics model and the linear preference model;In the order statistics model, we assume that X[subscript]sp(i)\u27 and Y[subscript]sp(i)\u27 have the same marginal distributions as X[subscript](i) and Y[subscript](i), the i-th order statistics in two random samples of size n from F(x) and G(x), respectively. In this case, ES([pi]) = [sigma][subscript]spi = 1n P(Y[subscript](i) \u3e X[subscript]([pi][subscript] i)), and when [pi] is randomly given ES([pi]) = [sigma][subscript]spi =1n P(Y[subscript]i \u3e X[subscript]i), where (X[subscript]1,X[subscript]2,...,X[subscript]n) and (Y[subscript]1,Y[subscript]2,...,Y[subscript]n) are random samples from F(x) and G(x), respectively. If G(x) = F(x - [mu]), where [mu] ≥ 0, then it is shown that [sigma][subscript]spi = 1n P(Y[subscript](i) \u3e X[subscript](i)) ≥ [sigma][subscript]spi = 1n P(Y[subscript]i \u3e X[subscript]i). Moreover, we have [sigma][subscript]spi = 1n P(Y[subscript](i) \u3e X[subscript](i)) ≥ ES([pi]), for any simple matching [pi]. If F(x) is a distribution function of a symmetric rv, then this inequality holds also for any symmetric matching [pi];In the linear preference model, we assume that X[subscript]sp(i)\u27 ~ F(x - [lambda][subscript](i)) and Y[subscript]sp(i)\u27 ~ F(x - [mu][subscript](i)), for i = 1,2,..., n, where F(x) is a unimodal distribution function, [lambda][subscript](1) ≤ [lambda][subscript](2) ≤ ... ≤ [lambda][subscript](n), and [mu][subscript](1) ≤ [mu][subscript](2) ≤ ... ≤ [mu][subscript](n). If U(x) is the cdf of Z[subscript]1 - Z[subscript]2, where Z[subscript]1 and Z[subscript]2 are iid with cdf F(x), the expectation of S([pi]) can be written as E[S([pi])] = [sigma][subscript]spi = 1n U([mu][subscript](i) - [lambda][subscript]([pi][subscript] i)). Under certain conditions, we get similar results to those in the order statistics model. We also obtain some other miscellaneous results about ordered matching, as well as maximization and rearrangement properties of ES([pi]).;In both models, the case with ties permitted is also considered

SPA: Sparse Photorealistic Animation using a single RGB-D camera

Photorealistic animation is a desirable technique for computer games and movie production. We propose a new method to synthesize plausible videos of human actors with new motions using a single cheap RGB-D camera. A small database is captured in a usual office environment, which happens only once for synthesizing different motions. We propose a markerless performance capture method using sparse deformation to obtain the geometry and pose of the actor for each time instance in the database. Then, we synthesize an animation video of the actor performing the new motion that is defined by the user. An adaptive model-guided texture synthesis method based on weighted low-rank matrix completion is proposed to be less sensitive to noise and outliers, which enables us to easily create photorealistic animation videos with new motions that are different from the motions in the database. Experimental results on the public dataset and our captured dataset have verified the effectiveness of the proposed method

CERKL regulates autophagy via the NAD-dependent deacetylase SIRT1

<p>Macroautophagy/autophagy is an important intracellular mechanism for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Here we show that the <i>CERKL</i> (ceramide kinase like) gene, a retinal degeneration (RD) pathogenic gene, plays a critical role in regulating autophagy by stabilizing SIRT1. <i>In vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i>, suppressing CERKL results in impaired autophagy. SIRT1 is one of the main regulators of acetylation/deacetylation in autophagy. In CERKL-depleted retinas and cells, SIRT1 is downregulated. ATG5 and ATG7, 2 essential components of autophagy, show a higher degree of acetylation in CERKL-depleted cells. Overexpression of SIRT1 rescues autophagy in CERKL-depleted cells, whereas CERKL loses its function of regulating autophagy in SIRT1-depleted cells, and overexpression of CERKL upregulates SIRT1. Finally, we show that CERKL directly interacts with SIRT1, and may regulate its phosphorylation at Ser27 to stabilize SIRT1. These results show that CERKL is an important regulator of autophagy and it plays this role by stabilizing the deacetylase SIRT1.</p

A Comparative Study on the Herd Behavior of Chinese Equity and Partial Equity Hybrid Funds-Empirical Analysis Based on Market Fluctuations

This paper uses the LSV model and the VOL volatility index, as well as the quarterly position data of equity funds and partial equity hybrid funds from the first quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2019 to conduct an empirical study on the herd behavior of both kinds of funds. Then establish a connection with the volatility of the Shanghai Stock Exchange over the same period. The results show that the overall trend of herd behavior between equity funds and partial equity hybrid funds is almost completely opposite. Equity funds have a stronger herd behavior in buying, while partial equity hybrid funds have a stronger herd behavior in selling. Meanwhile, when the volatility of the Shanghai Composite Index increased significantly, the herd behavior in selling both increased

3D Printing of Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has demonstrated its great potential in producing functional scaffolds for biomedical applications. To facilitate tissue regeneration, scaffolds need to be designed to provide a suitable environment for cell growth, which generally depends on the selection of materials and geometrical features such as internal structures and pore size distribution. The mechanical property match with the original tissue to be repaired is also critical. In this chapter, the specific request of materials and structure for tissue engineering is briefly reviewed, and then an overview of the recent research in 3D printing technologies for tissue engineering will be provided, together with a discussion of possible future directions in this area