COMPARISON OF MAX—MIN APPROACH AND NN METHOD FOR RELIABILITY OPTIMIZATION OF SERIES—PARALLEL SYSTEM

Two heuristics, the max-min approach and the Nakagawa and Nakashima method, are consideredfor the redundancy allocation problem with series-parallel structure. The max-min approach canformulate the problem as an integer linear programming problem instead of an integer nonlinearproblem. This paper presents a comparison between those methods from the standpoint of solutionquality and computational complexity. The experimental results show that the max-min approach issuperior to the Nakagawa and Nakashima method in terms of solution quality in small-scale problems,but analysis of computational complexity shows that the max-min approach is inferior to other greedyheuristics.     

Biosynthesis of selenosubtilisin: A novel way to target selenium into the active site of subtilisin

Glutathione peroxidase （GPx, EC1.11.1.9）, an important anti-oxidative selenoenzyme, can catalyze the reduction of harmful hydroperoxides with concomitant glutathione, thereby protecting cells and other biological issues against oxidative damage. It captures considerable interest in redesign of its function for either the mechanism study or the pharmacological development as an antioxidant. In order to develop a general strategy for specifically targeting and operating selenium in active sites of enzymes, the catalytically essential residue selenocysteine （Sec） was first successfully bioincorporated into the catalytic center of subtilisin by using an auxotrophic expression system. The studies of the catalytic activity and the steady-state kinetics demonstrated that selenosubtilisin is an excellent GPx-like biocatalyst. In comparison with the chemically modified method, biosynthesis exhibits obvious advantages： Sec could be site-directly incorporated into active sites of enzymes to overcome the non-specificity generated by chemical modification. This study provides an important strategy for specifically targeting and operating selenium in the active site of an enzyme.     

Hopf bifurcation and chaos of financial system on condition of specific combination of parameters*

Exponential stability of the first order singular distributed parameter systems is discussed in the light of degenerate semi-group methods, which is described by the abstract developing equation in Hilbert space. The necessary and sufficient conditions concerning the exponential stability of the first order singular distributed parameter systems are given.     

STRATEGIC EXERCISE OF REAL OPTIONS：INVESTMENT DECISIONS IN TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

Viewing investment projects in new technologies as real options, this paper studies the effects ofendogenous competition and asymmetric information on the strategic exercise of real options. We firstdevelop a multi-period, game-theoretic model and show how competition leads to early exercise andaggressive investment behaviors and how competition erodes option values. We then relax the typicalfull-information assumption found in the literature and allow information asymmetry to exist acrossfirms. Our model shows, in contrast to the literature that payoff is independent of the ordering ofexercise, that the sequential exercise of real options may generate both informational and payoffexternalities. We also find some surpising but interesting results such as having more information isnot necessarily better.     

BOTTLENECKS IN PRODUCTION NETWORKS： AN OVERVIEW

1. Introduction Performances of a production system, such as the throughput, the circle time and the average delay, etc., are affected by the capacities of machines and resources available in the system. Some of them may affect the system performances more than others. Usually, the limitation of a system can be traced to the limitation of one or two machines or one or two kinds of resources, commonly called bottlenecks. From system point of view, bottlenecks are the congestion points of the sy…     

Types and biotic successions of Ordovician reefs in China

Ordovician reefs are located in the South China,Tarim,and North China blocks,in low-latitude epicontinental marine regions and mostly consist of large-scale carbonate platforms.During the Paleozoic,faunal radiation reef biota diverged and thrived in diverse paleogeographic settings.Algal reefs of the Early Ordovician,Calathium-lithistid sponge-algal reefs of the late Early Ordovician to early Middle Ordovician,and coral-stromatoporoid-algal reefs of the early Late Ordovician,indicate change from Cambrian to Paleozoic biota.Coral-stromatoporoid-algal reefs were the basic communities after 100 Ma.The macroevolution of biotic struc-tures generally shows increased complexity;the evolution of China’s reef biota parallels that worldwide.Important aspects are:(1) The Calathium-algal reefs from the early Tremadocian Nantzinkuan Formation,Zhangjiajie,western Hunan are the pioneer reefs,and the Darriwillian Yijianfang Formation,Bachu are the relic reefs.(2) The bryozoan-dominated reefs of the late Tremadocian Fenhsiang Formation,Middle Yangtze Platform are unique.(3) The early coral-stromatoporoid-algal reefs are highly restricted in China.(4) The algal reefs from the latest Katian on the western margin of the Yangtze Platform,represent an abnormal reef-building environment during the initial stages of Gondwanan glaciations.     

A novel method for solving the multiple traveling salesmen problem with multiple depots

Multi-traveling salesman problem(MTSP) is an extension of traveling salesman problem,which is a famous NP hard problem,and can be used to solve many real world problems,such as railway transportation,routing and pipeline laying.In this paper,we analyze the general properties of MTSP,and find that the multiple depots and closed paths in the graph is a big issue for MTSP.Thus,a novel method is presented to solve it.We transform a complicated graph into a simplified one firstly,then an effective algorithm is proposed to solve the MTSP based on the simplified results.In addition,we also propose a method to optimize the general results by using 2-OPT.Simulation results show that our method can find the global solution for MTSP efficiently.     

An efficient scheme for multi-party quantum state sharing via non-maximally entangled states

We present a new scheme for investigating the usefulness of non-maximally entangled states for multi-party quantum state shar-ing in a simple and elegant manner.In our scheme,the sender,Alice shares n various probabilistic channels composed of non-maximally entangled states with n agents in a network.Our protocol involves only Bell-basis measurements,single qubit measurements,and a two-qubit unitary transformation operated by free optional agents.Our scheme is a more convenient realiza-tion because no other multipartite joint measurements are needed.Furthermore,in our scheme various probabilistic channels lessen the requirement for quantum channels,which makes it more practical for physical implementation.     

SHRIMP zircon U-Pb ages and tectonic implications for Indosinian granitoids of southern Zhuguangshan granitic composite,South China

The large southern Zhuguangshan granitic batholith composite consists of granites with ages varying from the Caledonian through Indosinian to Yanshanian. Based on K-Ar dating data, the ages of the major parts of this composite were previously regarded as Yanshanian. In this study, the SHRIMP zircon U-Pb dating method has been adopted for six plutons, Ledong, Longhuashan, Dawozi, Zhaidi, Baiyun and Jiangnan, in the southern Zhuguangshan composite, in which the four plutons other than Baiyun and Jiangnan were previously regarded as Yanshanian granites. Magmatic zircons from these six plutons, dated by this study, have yielded ages of 239±5 Ma (MSWD = 2.5), 239±5 Ma (MSWD = 2.5), 239±2 Ma (MSWD = 1.7), 239±4 Ma (MSWD = 3.2), 231±2 Ma (MSWD = 0.81) and 231±3 Ma (MSWD = 1.8), respectively. The results indicate that these plutons were formed by early Indosinian magmatism. Geochemical characteristics suggest that these granites were formed in an extensional tectonic environment. Therefore, the Indosinian period granites in the southern Zhuguangshan composite were formed by partial melting of the Paleo-Mesoproterozoic crustal components during the collapse of thickened lithosphere after the collision between the South China and Indosinian plates.     

Comparison of different triolein-based composite semipermeable membranes for passive sampling of organochlorine pesticides

Passive sampling methods have been widely used for more than 20 years because they can provide information on time-weighted average concentrations(CTWA) of hydrophobic organic contaminants in water.Many factors affect the efficiency and applicability of a passive sampling process.Among others,selection of the sampler design and choice of the supporting membrane material are important factors that determine the performance of passive samplers.In this work,the influences of some critical properties of membranes,such as membrane density,hydrophilicity of the membrane surface,and chemical and mechanical resistances,on the uptake of organic chlorinated pesticides(OCPs) were evaluated.Four membrane materials,namely cellulose acetate(CA),cellulose acetate butyrate(CAB),a cellulose acetate-cellulose triacetate blend(CA-CTA),and cellulose triacetate(CTA),and their triolein-embedded samplers were selected for the study.The four membranes are all hydrophilic;CAB has the highest contact angle and CA has the lowest.CTA is chemically and mechanically resistant,and has better tensile strength than the other membranes have.CAB does not have good chemical resistance and dissolves in hexane/dichloromethane solvent.CA and CTA alone showed lower uptake rates for the selected OCPs than with triolein-embedded passive samplers,indicating that triolein increased the accumulation capacity.Triolein-embedded CA(TECAM),CA-CTA(TECA-CTA),CTA(TECTA),and CAB(TECAB) as passive samplers showed similar uptake patterns;TECTA showed the highest uptake rates and TECAB showed the poorest accumulation.In summary,TECTA gave the best performance among all the tested composite semipermeable membranes.