A HIGH-RESOLUTION SOLID-STATE NMR-STUDY OF THE MISCIBILITY, MORPHOLOGY, AND TOUGHENING MECHANISM OF POLYSTYRENE WITH POLY(2,6-DIMETHYL-1,4-PHENYLENE OXIDE) BLENDS

An extended Goldman-Shen pulse sequence was used to observe indirectly the proton spin diffusion in the blends of polystyrene (PS) with poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxides) (PPO). The results indicate that the average distance between PS and PPO is less than 5 angstrom in the intimately mixed phase, but there are heterogeneous domains on a 100-angstrom scale. The data of spin relaxation of carbons, T1(C), for homopolymers and their blends suggest that there is a strong pi-pi electron conjugation interaction between the aromatic rings of PS and those of PPO, while the aromatic rings of PPO drive the aromatic rings of PS to move cooperatively. It is the cooperative motion that markedly improves the impact strength of PS.

MOLECULAR-WEIGHT DEPENDENCE OF THE GLASS-TRANSITION OF CYCLIC POLYSTYRENE

The glass transition temperature (T(g)) of cyclic polystyrene was measured by differential scanning calorimetry. There was a marked difference in the glass transition behaviour between cyclic and linear polystyrene. In the low molecular weight region (M(n) < 5 x 10(3)), the T(g) of the cyclic polystyrene increased with decreasing M(n), contrary to that of linear polystyrene. With M(n) higher than 5 x 10(3), the T(g) of cyclic polystyrene increased with increasing M(n). The T(g) of cyclic and linear polystyrene approached the same constant value when the M(n) was high enough (M(n) > 10(5)). Combining the results of specific volume, it is believed that the variation of T(g) with molecular weight does not depend only on free volume effects but that configurational entropy is also an important factor.

TIDAL DEPENDENCE OF PHOTOINHIBITION OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS IN MARINE MACROPHYTES OF THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

PHOTOSYSTEM-II; CHLOROPHYLL FLUORESCENCE; ULVA-ROTUNDATA; ELECTRON-TRANSPORT; FIELD EXPERIMENTS; O-2 EVOLUTION; QUANTUM YIELD; TEMPERATURE; MACROALGAE; RESPONSES

Size dependence of biomass spectra and abundance spectra: the optimal distributions

Based on the hypothesis of self-optimization, we derive four models of biomass spectra and abundance spectra in communities with size-dependent metabolic rates. In Models 1 and 2, the maximum diversity of population abundance in different size classes subject to the constraints of constant mean body mass and constant mean respiration rate is assumed to be the strategy for ecosystems to organize their size structure. In Models 3 and 4, the organizing strategy is defined as the maximum diversity of biomass in different size classes without constraints on mean body mass and subject to the constant mean specific respiration rate of all individuals, i.e. the average specific respiration rate over all individuals of a community or group, which characterizes the mean rate of energy consumption in a community. Models 1 and 2 generate peaked distributions of biomass spectral density whereas Model 3 generates a fiat distribution. In Model 4, the distributions of biomass spectral density and of abundance spectral density depend on the Lagrangian multipler (lambda (2)). When lambda (2) tends to zero or equals zero, the distributions of biomass spectral density and of abundance spectral density correspond to those from Model 3. When lambda (2) has a large negative value, the biomass spectrum is similar to the empirical fiat biomass spectrum organized in logarithmic size intervals. When lambda (2) > 0, the biomass spectral density increases with body mass and the distribution of abundance spectral density is an unimodal curve. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Strong temperature dependence and no moss photosynthesis in winter CO2 flux for a Kobresia meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

We examined the CO2 exchange of a Kobresia meadow ecosystem on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau using a chamber system. CO2 efflux from the ecosystem was strongly dependence on soil surface temperature. The COZ efflux-temperature relationship was identical under both light and dark conditions, indicating that no photosynthesis could be detected under light conditions during the measurement period. The temperature sensitivity (Q(10)) of the COZ efflux showed a marked transition around -1.0 degrees C; Q(10) was 2.14 at soil surface temperatures above and equal to -1.0 degrees C but was 15.3 at temperatures below -1.0 degrees C. Our findings suggest that soil surface temperature was the major factor controlling winter COZ flux for the alpine meadow ecosystem and that freeze-thaw cycles at the soil surface layer play an important role in the temperature dependence of winter CO2 flux. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

植物对环境污染的磁学响应机理研究

With development of industry and acceleration of urbanization, problems of air quality as well as their influences on human health have recently been regarded highly by current international communities and governments. Generally, industrializations can result in exhausting of a lot of industry gases and dusts, while urbanization can cause increasing of modern vehicles. Comparing with traditional chemical methods, magnetic method is simple, rapid, exact, low-cost and non-destructive for monitoring air pollution and has been widely applied in domestic and international studies. In this thesis, with an aim of better monitoring air pollution, we selected plants (highroad-side perennial pine trees (Pinus pumila Regel) along a highroad linking Beijing City and the Capital International Airport, and tree bark and tree ring core samples (willow, Salix matsudana) nearby a smelting industry in northeast Beijing) for magnetic studies. With systemic magnetic measurements on these samples, magnetic response mechanism of contamination（e.g. tree leaves, tree ring）to both short- and long-term environmental pollution has been constructed, and accordingly the pollution range, degree and process of different time-scale human activities could be assessed. A series of rock magnetic experiments of tree leaves show that the primary magnetic mineral of leaf samples was identified to be magnetite, in pseudo-single domain (PSD) grain size range of 0.2-5.0 μm. Magnetite concentration and grain size in leaves are ascertained to decrease with increasing of sampling distance to highroad asphalt surface, suggesting that high magnetic response to traffic pollution is localized within a distance of about 2 m away from highroad asphalt surface. On the other hand, highroad-side trees and rainwater can effectively reduce the concentration of traffic pollution-induced particulate matters (PMs) in the atmosphere. This study is the first time to investigate the relationship of smelting factory activities and vicissitudes of environment with tree rings by magnetic methods. Results indicate that magnetic particles are omnipresent in tree bark and trunk wood. Magnetic techniques including low-temperature experiment, successive acquisition of IRM, hysteresis loops and SIRM measurements suggest that magnetic particles are predominated by magnetite in pseudo-single domain state. Comparison of magnetic properties of tree trunk and branch cores collected from different directions and heights implies that collection of magnetic particles depends on both sampling direction and height. Pollution source-facing tree trunk wood contains significantly more magnetic particles than other sides. These indicate that magnetic particles are most likely intercepted and collected by tree bark first, then enter into tree xylem tissues by translocation during growing season, and are finally enclosed in a tree ring by lignifying. Correlation between magnetic properties such as time-dependent SIRM values of tree ring cores and the annual steel yields of the smelting factory is significant. Considering the dependence of magnetic properties in sampling directions, heights, and ring cores, we proposed that magnetic particles in the xylem cannot move between tree rings. Accordingly, the SIRM and some other magnetic parameters of tree ring cores from the source-facing side could be contributed to historical study of atmospheric pollution produced by heavy metal smelting activities, isoline diagrams of SIRM values of all the tree rings indicate that air pollution is increasing worse. We believed that a synthetic rock magnetic study is an effective method for determining concentration and grain size of ferromagnets in the atmospheric PMs, and then it should be a rapid and feasible technique for monitoring atmospheric pollution.

A study on the dependence of the micro-pore configurations on the volatilization and the burn processes of the organic compounds in the matrix of molten carbonate fuel cells

The micro-pore configurations on the matrix surface were studied by SEM. The matrix of molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) performance was also improved by the better coordination between the reasonable radius of the micro-pores and the higher porosity of the cell matrix. The many and complicated micro-pore configurations in the cell matrix promoted the volatilization of the organic additives and the burn of polyvinyl butyral (PVB). The smooth volatilization of the organic additives and the complete burn of PVB were the significant factors for the improved MCFC performance. Oxygen diffusion controlled-burn mechanism of PVB in the cell matrix was proposed. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Distance Metric Between 3D Models and 3D Images for Recognition and Classification

Similarity measurements between 3D objects and 2D images are useful for the tasks of object recognition and classification. We distinguish between two types of similarity metrics: metrics computed in image-space (image metrics) and metrics computed in transformation-space (transformation metrics). Existing methods typically use image and the nearest view of the object. Example for such a measure is the Euclidean distance between feature points in the image and corresponding points in the nearest view. (Computing this measure is equivalent to solving the exterior orientation calibration problem.) In this paper we introduce a different type of metrics: transformation metrics. These metrics penalize for the deformatoins applied to the object to produce the observed image. We present a transformation metric that optimally penalizes for "affine deformations" under weak-perspective. A closed-form solution, together with the nearest view according to this metric, are derived. The metric is shown to be equivalent to the Euclidean image metric, in the sense that they bound each other from both above and below. For Euclidean image metric we offier a sub-optimal closed-form solution and an iterative scheme to compute the exact solution.

Fast Contour Matching Using Approximate Earth Mover's Distance

Weighted graph matching is a good way to align a pair of shapes represented by a set of descriptive local features; the set of correspondences produced by the minimum cost of matching features from one shape to the features of the other often reveals how similar the two shapes are. However, due to the complexity of computing the exact minimum cost matching, previous algorithms could only run efficiently when using a limited number of features per shape, and could not scale to perform retrievals from large databases. We present a contour matching algorithm that quickly computes the minimum weight matching between sets of descriptive local features using a recently introduced low-distortion embedding of the Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) into a normed space. Given a novel embedded contour, the nearest neighbors in a database of embedded contours are retrieved in sublinear time via approximate nearest neighbors search. We demonstrate our shape matching method on databases of 10,000 images of human figures and 60,000 images of handwritten digits.