Automatic Question Answering from Web Documents

A passage retrieval strategy for web-based question answering （QA） systems is proposed in our QA system. It firstly analyzes the question based on semantic patterns to obtain its syntactic and semantic information and then form initial queries. The queries are used to retrieve documents from the World Wide Web （WWW） using the Google search engine. The queries are then rewritten to form queries for passage retrieval in order to improve the precision. The relations between keywords in the question are employed in our query rewrite method. The experimental result on the question set of the TREC-2003 passage task shows that our system performs well for factoid questions.     

Research on the User Interest Modeling of Personalized Search Engine

At present, how to enable Search Engine to construct user personal interest model initially, master user＇s personalized information timely and provide personalized services accurately have become the hotspot in the research of Search Engine area. Aiming at the problems of user model＇s construction and combining techniques of manual customization modeling and automatic analytical modeling, a User Interest Model （UIM） is proposed in the paper. On the basis of it, the corresponding establishment and update algorithms of User lnterest Profile （UIP） are presented subsequently. Simulation tests proved that the UIM proposed and corresponding algorithms could enhance the retrieval precision effectively and have superior adaptability.     

Analysis of Conditional Value-at-Risk for Newsvendor with Holding and Backorder Cost under Market Search

We consider a distribution system with one supplier and two retailers. For the two retailers, they face different demand and are both risk averse. We study a single period model which the supplier has ample goods and the retailers order goods separately. Market search is measured as the fraction of customers who unsatisfied with their ＂local＂ retailer due to stock-out, and search for the goods at the other retailer before leaving the system. We investigate how the retailers game for order quantity in a Conditional Value-at-Risk framework and study how risk averse degree, market search level, holding cost and backorder cost influence the optimal order strategies. Furthermore, we use uniform distribution to illustrate these results and obtain Nash equilibrium of order strategies.     

Investigation of Highly Designable Dented Structures in HP Model with Hydrogen Bond Energy

Some highly designable protein structures have dented on the surface of their native structures, and are not full compactly folded. According to hydrophobic-polar （HP） model the most designable structures are full compactly folded. To investigate the designability of the dented structures, we introduce the hydrogen bond energy in the secondary structures by using the secondary-structure-favored HP model proposed by Ou-yang etc. The result shows that the average designability increases with the strength of the hydrogen bond. The designabilities of the structures with same dented shape increase exponentially with the number of secondary structure sites. The dented structures can have the highest designabilities for a certain value of hydrogen bond energy density.     

Microstructure and Corrosion Resistance of Cr7C3/γ-Fe Ceramal Composite Coating Fabricated by Plasma Cladding

A new type in situ Cr7C3/γ-Fe ceramal composite coating was fabricated on substrate of hardened and tempered grade C steel by plasma cladding with Fe-Cr-C alloy powders. The ceramal composite coating has a rapidly solidified microstructure consisting of primary Cr7C3/γ- and the Cr7C3/γ-Fe eutectics, and is metallurgically bonded to the degree C steel substrate. The corrosion resistances of the coating in water solutions of 0.5 mol/L H2SO4 and 3.5% NaCl were evaluated utilizing the electrochemical polarization corrosion-test method. Because of the inherent excellent corrosion-resisting properties of the constituting phase and the rapidly solidified homogeneous microstructure, the plasma clad ceramal composite coating exhibits excellent corrosion resistance in the water solutions of 0.5 mol/L H2SO4 and 3.5% NaCl.     

Preparation of 3-D porous fibroin scaffolds by freeze drying with treatment of methanol solutions

In this study, silk scaffolds with appropriate porous structures were prepared by adjusting solution concentrations and providing treatment with methanol solutions in the way of freeze drying. The effects of the preparation conditions on the microstructures and properties of the scaffolds were discussed. Fibroin solutions with different concentrations of 4, 6, 8, 10 wt% were used respectively to prepare the scaffolds. The effects of the addition of 20 vol% methanol before or after freeze drying to the 4 wt% fibroin solution were investigated. As demonstrated by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), the fib-roin scaffolds prepared without methanol had porous microstructures composed of thin sheets, and the sizes of the pores decreased with the increase of the fibroin solution concentrations, while the scaffolds prepared in the presence of methanol showed porous microstructures formed by fine-particle aggregates. The porosities and mechanical properties of the prepared fibroin scaffolds under different conditions were tested. The crystalline structures and conformations of the fibroin scaffolds were detected by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD).     

The orbital scale evolution of regional climate recorded in a long sediment core from Heqing, China

Based on the analysis of carbonate content and loss on ignition for a long sediment core (737 m in length) drilled in Heqing, the orbital scale evolution of the Southwest Monsoon is revealed, by using overlapped spectral analysis and filter methods. It is shown that the obliquity cycle and precession cycle are the key factors for the Southwest Monsoon evolution and that the change of the global ice volume and the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau also impose great influences on it.     

Single grain Rb-Sr dating of euhedral and cataclastic pyrite from the Qiyugou gold deposit in western Henan, central China

The Rb-Sr isotopic dating of pyrite mineral from ore deposits can directly provide mineralization age. However, many geological factors may affect the Rb-Sr isotopic system,which baffles application of this method. Employing ultra-low procedural blank Rb-Sr method,we have dated pyrites separated from the No. 4 breccia pipe of the Qiyugou gold deposit,western Henan Province. Single grains of euhedral pyrite crystal with few microcracks yield an isochron age of 126 ± 11 Ma, which represents time of the main mineralization stage of the deposit. Pyrite grains of cataclastic type show nevertheless scattered Rb-Sr isotopic composition and no reasonable isochron can be defined. Crystal morphology and mineral inclusion studies reveal that Rb and Sr of pyrite mineral probably are preserved mainly in biotite, K-feldspar, and sericite mineral inclusions. The dating results likely suggest that cataclastic pyrite is not suitable for the Rb-Sr dating due to modification of the Rb-Sr isotopic system by later hydrothermal activity of fluid.     

Linear and third-order nonlinear optical properties for the heptamethine cyanine chromophore H-aggregates thin film

The thin film of a heptamethine cyanine chromophore HC was prepared by spin-coating technique. Its surface morphology and linear optical property were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy. The results show that HC molecules are arranged in a well-ordered H-aggregate type. The third-order nonlinear optical properties of the spin-coating film were also measured by degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) measurement. Enhanced third-order nonlinear susceptibility can be attributed to molecular aggregation effects, and the corresponding mechanism was dealt with by collective electronic oscillator (CEO) approach.     

A tubular focused sonochemistry reactor

This paper presents a new sonochemistry reactor, which consists of a cylindrical tube with a certain length and piezoelectric transducers at tube’s end with the longitudinal vibration. The tube can effectively transform the longitudinal vibration into the radial vibration and thereby generates ultrasound. Furthermore, ultrasound can be focused to form high-intensity ultrasonic field inside tube. The reactor boasts of simple structure and its whole vessel wall can radiate ultrasound so that the electroacoustic transfer efficiency is high. The focused ultrasonic field provides good condition for sonochemical reaction. The length of the reactor can be up to 2 meters, and liquids can pass through it continuously, so it can be widely applied in liquid processing such as sonochemistry.