New Releases by Yi Zhang

Hatchability is an important trait for the chicken industry because of its high impact on chicken output. The embryonic survival ability in fertile eggs is greatly influenced by the offspring genotype and the quality of the egg environment, especially egg yolk metabolites. This study is aimed at estimating genetic parameters of hatchability traits and determining the relationship between yolk nutrients and chicken embryonic survival ability in order to identify important metabolites for the embryonic health of chickens and other species. In chapter 2, the functions of egg yolk metabolites w...

Relying upon a standard New Keynesian DSGE, the authors propose an explanation for two empirical findings in the international finance literature. First, the unbiasedness hypothesis - the proposition that expost exchange rate depreciation matches interest differentials - is rejected much more strongly at short horizons than at long. Second, even at long horizons, the unbiasedness hypothesis tends to be rejected when one of the currencies has experienced a long period of low interest rates, such as in Japan and Switzerland. Using a calibrated New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, the authors show how a monetary policy rule can induce the negative (positive) correlation between depreciation and interest differentials at short (long) horizons. The tendency to reject unbiasedness for Japan and Switzerland even at long horizons they attribute to the interaction of the monetary reaction function and the zero lower bound.

Zirconia (ZrO2) is an important ceramic material with a broad range of applications. Due to its high melting temperature, low thermal conductivity, and high-temperature stability, zirconia based ceramics have been widely used for thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). When TBC is exposed to thermal cycling during real applications, the TBC may fail due to several mechanisms: (1) phase transformation into yttrium-rich and yttrium-depleted regions, When the yttrium-rich region produces pure zirconia domains that transform between monoclinic and tetragonal phases upon thermal cycling; and (2) cracking of the coating due to stress induced by erosion. The mechanism of erosion involves gross plastic damage within the TBC, often leading to ceramic loss and/or cracks down to the bond coat. The damage mechanisms are related to service parameters, including TBC material properties, temperature, velocity, particle size, and impact angle. The goal of this thesis is to understand the structural and mechanical properties of the thermal barrier coating material, thus increasing the service lifetime of gas turbine engines. To this end, it is critical to study the fundamental properties and potential failure mechanisms of zirconia. This thesis is focused on investigating the structural and mechanical properties of zirconia. There are mainly two parts studied in this paper, (1) ab initio calculations of thermodynamic properties of both monoclinic and tetragonal phase zirconia, and monoclinic-to-tetragonal phase transformation, and (2) image-based finite element simulation of the indentation process of yttria-stabilized zirconia. In the first part of this study, the structural properties, including lattice parameter, band structure, density of state, as well as elastic constants for both monoclinic and tetragonal zirconia have been computed. The pressure-dependent phase transition between tetragonal (t-ZrO2) and cubic zirconia (c-ZrO2) has been calculated using the density function theory (DFT) method. Phase transformation is defined by the band structure and tetragonal distortion changes. The results predict a transition from a monoclinic structure to a fluorite-type cubic structure at the pressure of 37 GPa. Thermodynamic property calculations of monoclinic zirconia (m-ZrO2) were also carried out. Temperature-dependent heat capacity, entropy, free energy, Debye temperature of monoclinic zirconia, from 0 to 1000 K, were computed, and they compared well with those reported in the literature. Moreover, the atomistic simulations correctly predicted the phase transitions of m-ZrO2 under compressive pressures ranging from 0 to 70 GPa. The phase transition pressures of monoclinic to orthorhombic I (3 GPa), orthorhombic I to orthorhombic II (8 GPa), orthorhombic II to tetragonal (37 GPa), and stable tetragonal phases (37-60 GPa) are in excellent agreement with experimental data. In the second part of this study, the mechanical response of yttria-stabilized zirconia under Rockwell superficial indentation was studied. The microstructure image based finite element method was used to validate the model using a composite cermet material. Then, the finite element model of Rockwell indentation of yttria-stabilized zirconia was developed, and the result was compared with experimental hardness data.

In this study, a coupled potential flow-viscous flow model is used for numerical wave tank simulation. The solver satisfies all the requirements for such a simulation environment. The coupling scheme is based on a non-overlapping heterogeneous domain decomposition method. In this method, the flow domain consists of two subdomains. In the potential flow subdomain, a boundary element method(BEM) is used to solve Laplace''s equation, while in the viscous flow subdomain, a finite element method (FEM) is used to solve the Navier-Stokes equations(NSE). At the interface, velocity and pressure are used for matching conditions. Techniques for data transfer and local free surface reconstruction are also introduced. The same coupling scheme is further extended to incorporate the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations by including an inner loop that solves, for instance, k-epsilon modeling equations and updates the eddy viscosity. The implementation based on staggered iteration method is validated using previous experiment and numerical data, for both 2D and 3D wave impact, wave--structure interaction, and wave breaking problems.

Ovarian cancer is a common, and one of the most dangerous, type of cancer for women in the western world (Liu et al. 2010). Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is emerging as an important growth factor used in immunotherapy to treat ovarian cancer patients (Chiang et al. 2011). Although GM-CSF has been proven very effective in enhancing hematopoiesis and antigen presentation (Chiang et al. 2011; Clive et al.2010), new studies shows the potential negative effect of GM-CSF in induction of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) and promotion of tumor progression and metastasis (Bronte et al. 1999). The goal of this study is to test the effect of GM-CSF on MDSCs and tumor progression in the murine ID8 ovarian cancer system. Another goal of this study is to explore the fate of MDSCs at the tumor site. Recent studies show that macrophages have proliferation potential at local sites in a Th2 setting (Jenkins et al. 2011). Since tumor environments have been shown to induce macrophages into a more M2 phenotype and MDSCs are not fully mature (Hagemann et al. 2006) (Youn and Gabrilovich 2010), we chose to explore the proliferation potential of MDSCs at the ID8 ovarian tumor site.

The multivariate regular variation (MRV) is one of the most important tools in modelling multivariate heavy-tailed phenomena. This paper characterizes the MRV distribution through the upper tail dependence index of the copula associated with them. Along with Theorem 2.3 in Li and Sun (2009), our results imply that the existence of the upper tail dependence index of the copula is necessary and sufficient for a random vector with regularly varying univariate marginals to have a MRV tail. Moreover, the limit measure of the MRV tail can be explicitly characterized by the tail dependence index. Our analysis is also extended to two more general multivariate heavy-tailed distributions, including the Subexponential and the Long-tailed distribution families.

Three Ducks in traditional Chinese and English. A little girl and two ducks are best friends... until the Mid-Autumn Festival. The little girl grew up to become an artist. She turned her fond memories of her best friends her work of art. It''s a story of friendship, caring and love. A CD of the story is read in Mandarin and English. The story''s English version comes in a pamphlet.

Due to the culture revolution, inflation of economy and globalization, China has been suffering from mass unqualified products of architecture, loss of culture and traditions, also unaffordable real estate; causing the instability of the society, in which emptiness, anxiety, uncertainty of people are occupied. Burdons must be released. And culture need to be revitalized. By studying I-Ching and Taoism, the origins of Chinese civilization, finding the philosophy of Tao which can be carried into architecture, the equilibrium between culture and globalization is established. The nation-wide uniformed apartments built under the welfare oriented housing distribution system in the 1980's, are now either torn down or hidden behind the high rises and forgotten. The ones which survived the development of real estate, could be reconstructed to be a nice and affordable community where social interaction is encouraged, virtue of individual is cultivated and culture is renovated. In the philosophy of Tao, when one side is compelling and overwhelming, the counterpart could be perked up by yielding and returning. Therefore, in the design of the reconstruction, deduction is the motion of Tao. Introducing light scoops into the building to created horizontal and vertical courtyard, sunlight, rainwater and wind is able to come into the building. People are able to perceive the nature inside where balance of artificial and the natural is built. Also the light scoop divides the spaces into layers so that people have a private space to think as well as a semi-public space where social interactions are forced to happen. The space of light scoop is functionally blank, though. It is spiritually abundant.

This thesis describes an efficient numerical simulation technique of magnetoquasistatic electromagnetic fields for planar induction heating applications. The technique is based on a volume-element discretization, integral formulation of Maxwell's equations, and uses the multilayer Green's function to avoid volumetric meshing of the heated material. The technique demonstrates two orders of magnitude of computational advantage compared to existing FEM techniques. Single-objective and multiobjective optimization of a domestic induction heating coil are performed using the new technique, using more advanced algorithms than those previously used due to the increase in speed. Both optimization algorithms produced novel, three-dimensional induction coil designs.

Topological phenomena in physical systems are determined by topological structures and are thus universal and protected against perturbations. We theoretically establish exotic topological phenomena and their consequences for experiments in crystalline systems such as topological insulators and topologically ordered phases. We show that protected one-dimensional fermionic modes may be associated with the line defects such as dislocations in three-dimensional topological insulators, and strong electron-electron repulsion may lead to topological Mott insulators via spontaneous spin-orbit correlations in three dimensions. We also predict anomalous Aharonov Bohm conductance oscillations maximized at half integer multiples of a flux quantum in a topological insulator nanowire with strong surface disorder, arising from surface curvature induced Berry phase. In addition, we classify three-dimensional inversion symmetric insulators and their quantized responses. Quantum entanglement provides a promising probe to the properties of many-body systems, especially topological phases not captured by local order parameters. We present a characterization of topological insulators using entanglement spectrum based only on bulk ground-state wave function. Further, by studying entanglement of trivial partitions, we establish topological order in candidate Gutzwiller projected wave functions for gapped spin liquids and Laughlin states; and with entanglement''s dependence on the ground states for bipartition of a torus into two cylinders, we demonstrate a method to extract the modular matrices and statistics and braiding of quasiparticle excitations. Our method helps to determine the topological order with only the set of ground-state wave functions on a torus. Our variational Monte Carlo calculations of topological entanglement entropy agree well with theory. We also find a violation of the boundary law for a critical spin liquid of Gutzwiller projected Fermi sea on the triangular lattice, where the entanglement entropy''s enhancement by a logarithmic factor reflects the presence of emergent fermions in a bosonic wave function.

This thesis gives the construction of Fourier type transformations in mirror symmetry for non-Lagrangian A-branes.

International student mobility is a rapidly growing and evolving phenomenon. During the 2008/09 academic year, the number of international students at colleges and universities in the U.S. increased by 8% to a record high of 671,616 students with about 15% from mainland China. The model of college choice for Chinese students who are considering postsecondary enrollment at an American university often follows a model unique from that followed by American students. A large number of Chinese students first become aware of specific American institutions and subsequently chose one as their institutional choice through the use of an educational agent. In China, as well as in some other international locales, agents are often hired to assist students in finding an international institution fitting their academic goals. There is virtually no research regarding the balance of costs and benefits of using an agent nor is there evidence of any testing if Chinese students have been well served by their agents when applying to American universities. Facing a fast, steady growth of Chinese undergraduate students on American campuses, it is essential for the university enrollment office to understand the role that education agencies play in Chinese undergraduate recruitment. This study collected both quantitative and qualitative data from both international Chinese undergraduate students in the U.S. higher education institutions and prospective undergraduate students in China, who are considering future enrollment at a foreign university. From both sets of students the authors collected information about the students' rationales of using, or not using, an agent for their college application, and their experience and/or expectation of using an agent. Among those students who were enrolled in the U.S. colleges or universities, who have used an agent, the researchers reported on the main areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction regarding their experiences related to college application and the enrollment processes. (Contains 7 figures and 2 tables.).

Object motion causes spatially varying blur in an image. Partial blur typically carries useful information about the scene. This information is useful for consumer imaging as well as computer vision. However, spatially varying blur also deteriorates image quality. The goals of our research are finding out this information and making images better. In this thesis we introduce a novel method for solving this partial blur problem. We define a statistical model of a spatially-varying blur image and estimate the local point spread function (PSF) by using a set of methods including double wavelet transform and local autocorrelation. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

This book is the proceedings of the Third Annual Conference on Fuzzy Information and Engineering (ACFIE2008) from Dec. 5-10, 2008 in Haikou, China. The conf- ence proceedingsis published by Springer-Verlag(Advancesin Soft Computing,ISSN: 1615-3871). This year, we have received 155 submissions. Each paper has undergone a rigorous review process. Only high-quality papers are included. The Third Annual Conference on Fuzzy Information and Engineering (ACFIE2008), built on the success of previous conferences,the ACFIE2005 (Guangzhou,China), is a major symposium for scientists, engineers and practitioners in China to present their updated results, ideas, devel- ments and applications in all areas of fuzzy information and engineering. It aims to strengthen relations between industry research laboratoriesand universities, and to c- ate a primary symposium for world scientists in fuzzy ?elds as follows: 1) Fuzzy intelligence, neural networks and optimal; 2) Fuzzy algebra; 3) Fuzzy analysis; 4) Fuzzy systems and logic; 5) Fuzzy topology and measure; 6)Fuzzy probability, control, forecasting and decision-making; 7) Fuzzy clustering and fuzzy algorithms; 8) Application in fuzzy sets; 9) Rough sets and its application; etc. This book contains 80 papers, divided into nine main parts: In Section I, we have 9 papers on “fuzzy intelligence, neural networks and optimal”. In Section II, we have 11 papers on “fuzzy algebra”. In Section III, we have 9 papers on “fuzzy analysis”. In Section IV, we have 9 papers on “fuzzy systems and logic”. In Section V, we have 9 papers on “fuzzy topology and measure”.

This paper explores the relationships between subjective experiences and objective design parameters. It presents findings from a research project that questions the notion of attachment between users and objects, attempts to understand its emotional origins and seeks to propose design strategies that favour its development. The researcher summarizes the initial outcomes derived from ethnographic interviews conducted among thirty people. This paper suggests that utility, appearance, symbolic meaning and users' experience are four key reasons that sustain the emotional attachment. The study also reveals the importance of sentimental values which users associated with particular products, generated by relationships, memories, and life experiences. Four design strategies are proposed corresponding to each type of attachment. Sustainable design strategies informed by these insights and their implications for design practices are to be explored. KEYWORDS: Sustainable design strategies, Attachment, Emotion, Experience.

This article is based on interviews with two Chinese business leaders regarding the experiences that have helped develop them as leaders, their strategies for facing challenges, and how they motivate and empower their employees.

The articles in this book are based on talks given at the North Texas Logic Conference in October of 2004. The main goal of the editors was to collect articles representing diverse fields within logic that would both contain significant new results and be accessible to readers with a general background in logic. Included in the book is a problem list, jointly compiled by the speakers, that reflects some of the most important questions in various areas of logic. This book should be useful to graduate students and researchers alike across the spectrum of mathematical logic.