Mutual Equilibrium Research Articles

Effect of gamma irradiation on sensory and aroma compounds of soaked bayberry jiu

Soaked bayberry jiu is a homely fruit alcoholic beverage that produced by soaking bayberry in Baijiu, a traditional Chinese distilled spirit. To investigate the changes in the sensory and aroma compounds of soaked bayberry jiu following gamma irradiation, the sensory evaluation, electron nose, electron tongue, and headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) were conducted. The results showed that the different irradiation doses of samples could be well separated. The taste and smell of 6 kGy irradiated soaked bayberry jiu were significantly improved, but the color of irradiated samples was deteriorated. Moreover, a total of 53 differential products (21 decreased and 32 increased products) were detected compared 6 kGy irradiated soaked bayberry jiu to unirradiated sample, including some important aroma compounds of Baijiu, indicating that the active free radicals produced by gamma irradiation promote the oxidation-reduction reaction in soaked bayberry jiu and lead to the mutual transformation and equilibrium among the compounds. These findings suggest that gamma irradiation can improve the quality of soaked bayberry jiu.

Selection of corporate strategic and operational decisions based on the strategic orientation of informatization: an experimental study

Abstract This paper firstly divides the enterprise informatization strategy into three objectives, namely cost (C), time (T) and performance (P), so as to form a triangle with mutual constraints and equilibrium. Secondly, based on demand effect curve fitting, establish the product sales revenue effect function to find the product price that maximizes sales revenue. And under the cumulative effect of the multi-period business decision-making scheme, the traditional Markov process model is improved to form a multi-period business decision-making optimization method based on the Markov process. Finally, using Enterprise A as a study case in the horizontal expansion stage, simulation and sensitivity analysis of the enterprise’s business decision-making scheme are performed. The results show that in the 8-year operation cycle, as the target profit margin increases from 0.05 to 0.20, the cumulative profit level decreases from 11.43 to 8.38. Enterprises can select the scheme that obtains the optimal comprehensive ability in one aspect according to their own internal and external environments as the final implementation scheme.

Thermal dissipation of the quantum spin Hall edge states in HgTe/CdTe quantum well

Quantum spin Hall effect is characterized by topologically protected helical edge states. Here we study the thermal dissipation of helical edge states by considering two types of dissipation sources. The results show that the helical edge states are dissipationless for normal dissipation sources with or without Rashba spin–orbit coupling in the system, but they are dissipative for spin dissipation sources. Further studies on the energy distribution show that electrons with spin-up and spin-down are both in their own equilibrium without dissipation sources. Spin dissipation sources can couple the two subsystems together to induce voltage drop and non-equilibrium distribution, leading to thermal dissipation, while normal dissipation sources cannot. With the increase of thermal dissipation, the subsystems of electrons with spin-up and spin-down evolve from non-equilibrium finally to mutual equilibrium. In addition, the effects of disorder on thermal dissipation are also discussed. Our work provides clues to reduce thermal dissipation in the quantum spin Hall systems.

Conformational Plasticity in α-Synuclein and How Crowded Environment Modulates It.

A 140-residue intrinsically disordered protein (IDP), α-synuclein (αS), is known to adopt conformations that are vastly plastic and susceptible to environmental cues and crowders. However, the inherently heterogeneous nature of αS has precluded a clear demarcation of its monomeric precursor between aggregation-prone and functionally relevant aggregation-resistant states and how a crowded environment could modulate their mutual dynamic equilibrium. Here, we identify an optimal set of distinct metastable states of αS in aqueous media by dissecting a 73 μs-long molecular dynamics ensemble via building a comprehensive Markov state model (MSM). Notably, the most populated metastable state corroborates with the dimension obtained from PRE-NMR studies of αS monomer, and it undergoes kinetic transition at diverse time scales with a weakly populated random-coil-like ensemble and a globular protein-like state. However, subjecting αS to a crowded environment results in a nonmonotonic compaction of these metastable conformations, thereby skewing the ensemble by either introducing new tertiary contacts or by reinforcing the innate contacts. The early stage of dimerization process is found to be considerably expedited in the presence of crowders, albeit promoting nonspecific interactions. Together with this, using an extensively sampled ensemble of αS, this exposition demonstrates that crowded environments can potentially modulate the conformational preferences of IDP that can either promote or inhibit aggregation events.

Paradoxical fluorescein-naphthalene Salamo-Salen-Salamo Zn(II) complex as a H2PO4−-targeted chemosensor and its application in water samples

Chemical materials with different properties could be directionally synthesized by introducing various functional groups into a molecular system. Here, an unusual naphthalene-fluorescein Salamo-Salen-Salamo-type Zn(II) complex was first developed as a fluorogenic chemosensor (ZnSS) based on a grafting design strategy. The in situ chemosensor ZnSS exhibits selective and efficient fluorogenic detection towards dihydrogen phosphate ion (H2PO4−) with off-on style in DMSOHEPES buffer. The synthesized chemosensor ZnSS could be applied to quantitatively analyze H2PO4− ion in rain water and tap water. Fluorescence quantum yield calculation was performed to study the luminescent properties of these compounds. Moreover, the mutual equilibrium of H2PO4− ion was studied by the transition state theory and vibration analysis of density functional theory (DFT). Time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) and electrostatic potential (ESP) calculations further explain the fluorescence emission characteristics and electronic excitation behavior in the sensing process.

Dynamic simulation of the quasiparticle excitations spectra in the magnetic bcc iron

We used the LAMMPS algorithm for spin-lattice dynamics to model the coupled relaxation processes of the spin and lattice subsystems in bcc Fe with the aim to investigate the relevant phonon and magnon dispersion laws at T = 300 K. The atomic interactions were modeled via the semi-empirical many-body Chamati EAM potential, while the distance-dependent spin coupling relied on the Heisenberg-type Hamiltonian. In the state of mutual equilibrium of the spin and lattice ensembles, we have calculated the dynamic matrix of the phonons, the intermediate scattering function, the dynamical structure factor and finally the phonon spectra in bcc-iron. We found that the experimental data could be described best by the elastic [100] and [110] modes calculated in the dynamic structure factor approach for all wavevector absolute values q. Moreover, the impact of magnons on the phonon spectra is pronounced for all investigated directions, but there are elastic vibrations which remain unaltered by interaction with magnons.

Memory-two strategies forming symmetric mutual reinforcement learning equilibrium in repeated prisoners’ dilemma game

We investigate symmetric equilibria of mutual reinforcement learning when both players alternately learn the optimal memory-two strategies against the opponent in the repeated prisoners’ dilemma game. We provide a necessary condition for memory-two deterministic strategies to form symmetric equilibria. We then provide three examples of memory-two deterministic strategies which form symmetric mutual reinforcement learning equilibria. We also prove that mutual reinforcement learning equilibria formed by memory-two strategies are also mutual reinforcement learning equilibria when both players use reinforcement learning of memory-n strategies with n>2.

Československo-sovětská hospodářská spolupráce v období Gottwaldovy éry

Czechoslovak-Soviet economic cooperation in the years 1948-1953 is hitherto a rather marginalized facet of contemporary historiography. The limited secondary literature on this topic, especially from Czechoslovak economists and historians, published both during the communist regime and after the Velvet Revolution, is characterized by a rather strong pro/anti-communist bias limiting its objective insight into the various technical aspects of intra-bloc cooperation. The major aim of this study is therefore to use the newly accessible fonds of the Czech National Archives at Chodov and the Archives of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Czernin Palace to construct a more holistic portrayal of Czechoslovak cooperation with the Soviet Union, its largest trading partner. The hypothesis is that although under the influence of the authoritarian regimes of Stalin and Gottwald, trade relations between the two countries were rather politicized at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, they were nevertheless to some extent guided by the practical needs of the national economies. It was the clash between political and economic reasoning and the quest of the communist leadership of both states to achieve their mutual equilibrium that was characteristic of the Gottwald era. The present work also seeks to highlight the crucial role of the Third Republic (1945-1948) in the economic integration of Czechoslovakia into the Eastern Bloc. Specific space is then devoted to the negotiation processes of individual trade agreements, their content and their impact on the development of the Czechoslovak economy.

Normalized Mutual Information-based equilibrium optimizer with chaotic maps for wrapper-filter feature selection

The problem of feature selection involves selecting the most informative subset of features from a data item which have the most impact in the context of classification. It is an optimization problem that requires discarding irrelevant and redundant data without compromising the classification accuracy rate of the learning algorithm. Due to the complexity of the problem, various stochastic methods have been employed to generate promising results. In this work, we propose Normalized Mutual Information-based equilibrium optimizer (NMIEO), a novel variant of the classical Equilibrium Optimizer as a wrapper-filter framework for feature selection. NMIEO incorporates a novel local search strategy based on Normalized Mutual Information to enhance the exploitation capability. Additionally, for improving the diversity of the solutions, Chaotic maps are utilized for better population initialization. The proposed method is evaluated on 14 challenging high-dimensional datasets selected from diverse domains. The results are tallied against eight well-known metaheuristic-based algorithms proposed recently in the literature for solving the feature selection problem. The experimental results and further analysis illustrate the superior performance of the proposed NMIEO relative to other wrapper-based algorithms that are currently in use.Furthermore, the Wilcoxon’s Signed Rank Test demonstrates the statistical superiority of NMIEO over other competitive methods across all selected metrics, confirming the success of the proposed method.

Dynamic Simulation of the Energy Spectrum of Phonons in the Magnetic BCC Iron


 
 
 We used the symplectic and scalable algorithm for spin lattice dynamics embedded in LAMMPS to model the coupled relaxation processes of the spin and lattice subsystems to investigate the phonon dispersion of bcc Fe at T = 300 K. The atomic interactions were modelled via three semi-empirical many-body potentials within the embedded atom method, while the distance-dependent spin coupling relied on the Heisenberg-type Hamiltonian. In the state of mutual equilibrium of the spin and atom ensembles, we have calculated the dynamical matrix and the phonon spectra in bcc iron. We found that for a small to moderate wavevector absolute values, the phonon dispersion curves agree well with the experimental results obtained from inelastic neutron scattering, while discrepancies between theory and experiment were observed for larger wavevector values, particularly near the zone boundaries. Moreover, the impact of magnons on the phonon spectra is pronounced for all employed potentials.
 
 

A proposal for static load tests on piles: the Equilibrium Method

Abstract This note presents an alternative method for static load tests on piles (and caissons). Called Equilibrium Method by its first proponents, the method was applied in some load tests in Brazil, in addition to being the object of theoretical studies conducted at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The method consists, in each step, to keep the load constant for a period of time and then let it relax (not pumping the jack) until the displacement and the load reach mutual equilibrium. The stabilized displacement and the relaxed load (the so-called load and displacement in equilibrium) are considered for the load-displacement curve. The method has the advantage of producing the load-displacement curve close to that of a slow, stabilized test (incremental slow maintained load test), but with a shorter total execution time. The paper includes a short theoretical background and a review of the Brazilian experience.

Game theory model for a virtual water strategy: Scenarios under rational and semirational game play

AbstractThe virtual water strategy (VWS) provides a theoretically feasible method to transport virtual water (VW) and balance regional differences in water resource endowments. However, the practical implementation of VWS faces selective resistance due to the lack of research in motivation analysis across potential executor regions. Game theory provides a new approach to study the decision‐making mechanism and behavioural motivation in the implementation of VWS. This study builds some semiquantitative game models to analyse the regions’ potential acceptance of VWS in decision‐making, especially concerning economic development, water sustainability, and trade patterns. The result shows the factors like external incentives and stability of game can affect the payoffs and strategy selections on VWS in rational and semirational games. To achieve a mutual benefit equilibrium towards an effective VWS framework, improvement efforts could include mechanisms for rewards or punishments, promoting long‐term cooperation, and promulgation and education.

Solubility Product of Vanadinite Pb5(VO4)3Cl at 25 °C—A Comprehensive Approach to Incongruent Dissolution Modeling

Although vanadinite (Pb5(VO4)3Cl) occurs in abundance in various terrestrial geochemical systems of natural and anthropogenic origin and is seriously considered as a potential nuclear waste sequestering agent, its actual application is severely limited by a lack of understanding of its basic thermodynamic parameters. In this regard, the greatest challenge is posed by its incongruent dissolution, which is a pivotal hurdle for effective geochemical modeling. Our paper presents an universal approach for geochemical computing of systems undergoing incongruent dissolution which, along with unique, long-term experiments on vanadinites’ stability, allowed us to determine the mineral solubility constant. The dissolution experiments were carried out at pH = 3.5 for 12 years. Vanadinite has dissolved incongruently, continuously re-precipitating into chervetite (Pb2V2O7) with the two minerals remaining in mutual equilibrium until termination of the experiments. The empirically derived solubility constant Ksp,V,298 = 10–91.89 ± 0.05 of vanadinite was determined for the first time. The proposed modeling method is versatile and can be adopted to other mineral systems undergoing incongruent dissolution.

Simulating Self-Regeneration and Self-Replication Processes Using Movable Cellular Automata with a Mutual Equilibrium Neighborhood

This paper deals with the issue of model construction of the self-regeneration and self-replication processes using movable cellular automata (MCAs). The rules of cellular automaton (CA) interactions are found according to the concept of equilibrium neighborhood. The method is implemented by establishing these rules between different types of cellular automata (CAs). Several models for two- and three-dimensional cases are described, which depict both stable and unstable structures. As a result, computer models imitating such natural phenomena as self-replication and self-regeneration are obtained and graphically presented.

Isotopic evidence for quasi-equilibrium chemistry in thermally mature natural gases

Natural gas is a key energy resource, and understanding how it forms is important for predicting where it forms in economically important volumes. However, the origin of dry thermogenic natural gas is one of the most controversial topics in petroleum geochemistry, with several differing hypotheses proposed, including kinetic processes (such as thermal cleavage, phase partitioning during migration, and demethylation of aromatic rings) and equilibrium processes (such as transition metal catalysis). The dominant paradigm is that it is a product of kinetically controlled cracking of long-chain hydrocarbons. Here we show that C2+n-alkane gases (ethane, propane, butane, and pentane) are initially produced by irreversible cracking chemistry, but, as thermal maturity increases, the isotopic distribution of these species approaches thermodynamic equilibrium, either at the conditions of gas formation or during reservoir storage, becoming indistinguishable from equilibrium in the most thermally mature gases. We also find that the pair of CO2 and C1 (methane) exhibit a separate pattern of mutual isotopic equilibrium (generally at reservoir conditions), suggesting that they form a second, quasi-equilibrated population, separate from the C2 to C5 compounds. This conclusion implies that new approaches should be taken to predicting the compositions of natural gases as functions of time, temperature, and source substrate. Additionally, an isotopically equilibrated state can serve as a reference frame for recognizing many secondary processes that may modify natural gases after their formation, such as biodegradation.

InxAl1 –xN Solid Solutions: Composition Stability Issues

The phase diagrams of the InxAl1 –xN solid solutions and conditions for their growth by magnetron sputtering and molecular beam and metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy are analyzed. The mutual equilibrium solubility in a wide range of compositions of the thick solution layers is near zero. Elastic misfit stresses in the InxAl1 –xN thin layers narrow the unstable immiscibility gap. By optimizing the growth conditions, one can obtain high-quality homogeneous InxAl1 –xN films for fabricating barrier layers in InAlN/GaN high electron mobility transistors.

Mass transition and mass diffusion coefficients in a diffuse interface model

The purpose of this paper is to determine the mass transition and mass diffusion coefficients in the diffuse interface model. By means of the thermodynamic probabilities of molecules transiting (phase change) and shifting (diffusing), the rate of mass transition and the mass diffusion flux are derived first. By comparing them with the corresponding formulas in the diffuse interface model, the two coefficients are then obtained. The mass transition coefficient is proportional to the rate of molecular unidirectional transition under the mutual equilibrium of liquid and vapor species. The mass diffusion coefficient is proportional to the rate of molecular unidirectional travel through a unit surface under the condition that two local elements at two sides of the surface are in mutual equilibrium. This diffusion coefficient can finally be expressed as the product of the Fick concentration diffusion coefficient and the mixing density besides an energy (or temperature) factor. The Fick coefficient obtained at present is reduced to the self-diffusion coefficient at the gas boundary of the binary mixing layer and becomes the Fick diffusion coefficient of gas in pure liquid at the liquid boundary. The present coefficients (including Fick coefficient) are different from the existing ones in the literature.

Investigation of molecular and mesoscale clusters in undersaturated glycine aqueous solutions

In this work DLS, NTA, SAXS and NMR were used to investigate populations, size distributions and structure of clusters in undersaturated aqueous solutions of glycine. Molecular and colloidal scale (mesoscale) clusters with radii around 0.3-0.5 nm and 100–150 nm, respectively, were observed using complementary experimental techniques. Molecular clusters are consistent with hydrated glycine dimers present in equilibrium with glycine monomers in aqueous solutions. Mesoscale clusters previously observed in supersaturated glycine solutions appear to be indefinitely stable, in mutual equilibrium within mesostructured undersaturated solutions across all glycine concentrations investigated here, down to as low as 1 mg/g of water.

Study on the price of water rights trading between agriculture and industry based on emergy theory

Abstract A water rights trading scheme in China is currently in its initial stage of development, but is without a complete pricing mechanism. This paper proposes a pricing model for transfers of water rights from agriculture to industry in water-deficient areas of China. Both the cost price and the earnings price are considered and incorporated into the model. The cost price includes construction costs, operation and maintenance costs, renewal and reconstruction costs, and economic compensation for ecological damage. The earnings price is calculated according to a reasonable return coefficient and the difference in economic value of the water resources to the buyer and seller. The value of water resources was estimated based on emergy theory in accordance with the principle of mutual benefits equilibrium. This pricing model is then applied to the transfer of surplus water rights arising from agricultural water conservation schemes to industrial uses in the Southbank Ordos Irrigation Zone of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The results indicate that this pricing model could provide technical support to the scientific and reasonable pricing of water rights transactions in water-deficient areas and that it could play an active role in promoting the healthy development of future water markets.

Three-dimensional quasi-geostrophic vortex equilibria with -fold symmetry

We investigate arrays of $m$ three-dimensional, unit-Burger-number, quasi-geostrophic vortices in mutual equilibrium whose centroids lie on a horizontal circular ring; or$m+1$ vortices where the additional vortex lies on the vertical ‘central’ axis passing through the centre of the array. We first analyse the linear stability of circular point vortex arrays. Three distinct categories of vortex arrays are considered. In the first category, the $m$ identical point vortices are equally spaced on a circular ring and no vortex is located on the vertical central axis. In the other two categories, a ‘central’ vortex is added. The latter two categories differ by the sign of the central vortex. We next turn our attention to finite-volume vortices for the same three categories. The vortices consist of finite volumes of uniform potential vorticity, and the equilibrium vortex arrays have an (imposed) $m$-fold symmetry. For simplicity, all vortices have the same volume and the same potential vorticity, in absolute value. For such finite-volume vortex arrays, we determine families of equilibria which are spanned by the ratio of a distance separating the vortices and the array centre to the vortices’ mean radius. We determine numerically the shape of the equilibria for $m=2$ up to $m=7$, for each three categories, and we address their linear stability. For the $m$-vortex circular arrays, all configurations with $m\geqslant 6$ are unstable. Point vortex arrays are linearly stable for $m<6$. Finite-volume vortices may, however, be sensitive to instabilities deforming the vortices for $m<6$ if the ratio of the distance separating the vortices to their mean radius is smaller than a threshold depending on $m$. Adding a vortex on the central axis modifies the overall stability properties of the vortex arrays. For $m=2$, a central vortex tends to destabilise the vortex array unless the central vortex has opposite sign and is intense. For $m>2$, the unstable regime can be obtained if the strength of the central vortex is larger in magnitude than a threshold depending on the number of vortices. This is true whether the central vortex has the same sign as or the opposite sign to the peripheral vortices. A moderate-strength like-signed central vortex tends, however, to stabilise the vortex array when located near the plane containing the array. On the contrary, most of the vortex arrays with an opposite-signed central vortex are unstable.