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We consider a dynamic pricing problem that involves selling a given inventory of a single product over a short, two-period selling season. There is insufficient time to replenish inventory during this season, hence sales are made entirely from inventory. The demand for the product is a stochastic, nonincreasing function of price. We assume interval uncertainty for demand, that is, knowledge of upper and lower bounds but not a probability distribution, with no correlation between the two periods. We minimize the maximum total regret over the two periods that results from the pricing decisions. We consider a dynamic model where the decision maker chooses the price for each period contingent on the remaining inventory at the beginning of the period, and a static model where the decision maker chooses the prices for both periods at the beginning of the first period. Both models can be solved by a polynomial time algorithm that solves systems of linear inequalities. Our computational study demonstrates that the prices generated by both our models are insensitive to errors in estimating the demand intervals. Our dynamic model outperforms our static model and two classical approaches that do not use demand probability distributions, when evaluated by maximum regret, average relative regret, variability, and risk measures. Further, our dynamic model generates a total expected revenue which closely approximates that of a maximum expected revenue approach which requires demand probability distributions.

The design, synthesis, in vitro and in vivo evaluation of 6-substituted benzimidazole with 1, 4-disubsituted or 1, 5-disubsituted indole derivatives as novel angiotensin II receptor antagonists are outlined. Radioligand binding assays showed that several 6-substituted benzimidazole derivatives displayed high affinities binding to the angiotensin II type 1 receptor at the same order of magnitude to telmisartan. The biological evaluation on spontaneously hypertensive rats showed that 2-[4-[[2-n-propyl-4-methyl-6-(1-methylbenzimidazol-2-yl)benzimidazole-1-yl]methyl]-1H-indol-1-yl]benzoic acid, 1c, could cause significant decrease on MBP in a dose dependent manner. Its maximal response lowered 53 mmHg of MBP at 5 mg/kg and 64 mmHg of MBP at 10 mg/kg after oral administration, and the significant antihypertensive effect lasted beyond 24 h, which was better than both losartan and telmisartan. A study designed to determine acute toxicity showed that 1c had low acute toxicity with no significant changes in the weight and no obvious untoward reactions. The encouraging results make 1c an effective and durable anti-hypertension drug candidate and deserve further investigation for therapeutic application.

Three new angiotensin II receptor 1 antagonists, 1, 2 and 3 were designed, synthesized and evaluated. The AT1 receptor-binding assays in vitro showed that all the synthesized compounds had nanomolar affinity for the AT1 receptor. From which compound 3 was found to be the most potent ligands with an IC50 value of 2.67±0.23 nM. Biological evaluation in vivo revealed that all the compounds could cause significant decrease on MBP in a dose dependent manner in spontaneously hypertensive rats, and compound 3 especially showed an efficient and long-lasting effect in reducing blood pressure, whose maximal response lowered 41 mmHg of MBP at 10mg/kg and 62 mmHg at 15 mg/kg after oral administration, the significant anti-hypertensive effect lasted beyond 12 h, which is better than the reference compound losartan. The pharmacokinetic experiments showed that compound 3 could be absorbed efficiently and metabolized smoothly both in blood and in tissues in Wistar rats. The acute toxicity assay suggested that it has low toxicity with the LD50 value of 2974.35 mg/kg. These results demonstrate that compound 3 is a potent angiotensin AT1 receptor antagonist which could be considered as a novel anti-hypertension candidate and deserved for further investigation.

A novel photosensitizer trans-2,3-dihydro-2,3-bis(carboxymethyl)-5,10,15,20-tetraphenylchlorin (BCTC) was synthesized. Its photophysical and photochemical properties, intracellular localization, photocytotoxicity in vitro and vivo were also investigated. BCTC displays a characteristic long wavelength absorption peak at 652 nm and shows a singlet oxygen quantum yield of 0.68 in DMF. Without light activation, BCTC was nontoxic to human esophageal cancer cells. However, upon light activation, BCTC exhibited significant photocytotoxicity. After PDT treatment, the growth of Eca-109 tumor in nude mice was significantly inhibited. This study suggests that BCTC is an effective photosensitizer for PDT to tumors.

The contribution of imaging with near infrared (NIR) fluorophores to the elucidation of complex biological processes continues to rapidly expand. New tools for mild selective bioconjugation are strongly desirable for the construction of NIR labelled biomolecules. This work presents the synthesis and evaluation of a strained alkyne substituted NIR BF2-azadipyrromethene (NIR-AZA) which can conjugate in water with azido-homoalanine and cRGD peptide within 30 min at rt. Imaging analysis of the NIR-AZA–cRGD conjugate in vitro and in vivo showed efficient cellular uptake and good in vivo tumor targeting properties, illustrating the potential for translation to clinical imaging.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) does well in both curing early stage tumors and improving patients’ quality of life. However, the limited selectivity of photosensitizers (PSs) to tumors has become an urgent issue during the application of PDT clinically, which would exhibit a poor therapeutic outcome and induce skin phototoxicity. To solve this problem, PS-loaded D-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate (vitamin E TPGS, or simply TPGS) nanoparticles with tumor homing and penetrating peptide tLyp-1 decoration (t-NP) were constructed for PDT of tumors in this study. Verteporfin (VP), as an effective PS, was encapsulated in the core of t-NP, and tLyp-1 was functionalized on the surface as a functional ligand to increase vascular permeability and target the tumor cells. These nanoparticles were spherical in shape and exhibited a narrow size distribution of 23.3 ± 0.80 nm, and had a high encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of hydrophobic VP. Compared with unmodified nanoparticles (NP), t-NP exhibited enhanced cellular uptake in both primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and drug-resistant human colon adenocarcinoma cells (HCT15); and t-NP showed higher selectivity to HCT15 tumors in vivo after intravenous administration of the same dose of VP. The anti-tumor experiment in vivo strongly indicated that nanoparticles with tLyp-1 peptide modification can enhance the selectivity of the PS, and improve the PDT effect.

In this paper, we consider a pricing problem faced by a seller that sells a given inventory of some product over a short selling horizon with limited demand information. The seller knows only that the demand is a linear function of the price, but does not know the parameters involved in the demand function. However, the seller knows that each parameter involved in the demand function belongs to a known interval. The seller’s objective is to determine the optimal price for the entire selling season to minimize the maximum regret, where the maximum regret is defined as the maximum possible loss of revenue due to not knowing the precise values of the parameters. We derive closed-form optimal solutions for the problem under all possible cases of input parameters and identify some structural properties of the solution. We conduct computational tests to compare our modeling approach with several benchmark approaches and report related insights.

Both for-profit and nonprofit peer-to-peer (P2P) ridesharing services have gained enormous popularity in recent years due to their advantages over solo driving and public transit. We study the rideshare matching and routing problem in a nonprofit P2P ridesharing system consisting of a matching agency, drivers and riders. The matching agency is a government or a not-for-profit organization and its objective is to maximize the societal benefits of ridesharing. The drivers involved are commuters and hence have their own travel plans, which are executed regardless of whether riders are matched with them. We consider both static and dynamic versions of the nonprofit P2P ridesharing problem. Existing modeling and solution approaches for similar P2P ridesharing problems can only solve relatively small problem instances optimally. We propose an exact solution algorithm for the static version of the problem by taking advantage of its special characteristics. This exact solution approach formulates and solves the problem as a set packing formulation using route-based variables, and uses an efficient graph-based approach to generate all necessary vehicle routes in the formulation quickly. We also develop a column generation (CG) based heuristic approach for the static problem. Finally, we propose two dynamic dispatching policies for the dynamic version of the problem. Our proposed exact algorithm solves very large problem instances (e.g., with 600 drivers and 1800 riders) of the static problem and our CG based heuristic can find near-optimal solutions for even larger instances of the static problem in short computation time. Our dynamic dispatching policies can generate near-optimal solutions for the dynamic problem in real-time fashion. We also generate some important insights based on some taxi trip data in Washington DC. First, P2P ridesharing can bring significant cost-saving, especially when the participants have a relatively flexible schedule. For every 10% increase in schedule flexibility, there is an about 4% to 7% increase in cost-saving. Second, the cost-saving due to ridesharing increases with the vehicle capacity, but this increase slows down quickly when the vehicle capacity reaches 4. Third, ridesharing generates more cost savings during peak hours and in urban areas.

A series of new fluoro-substituted benzimidazole derivatives were designed, synthesized and pharmacologically evaluated. All the target compounds were characterized by 1HNMR, 13CNMR, mass spectra and elemental analysis. The biological evaluation showed that most of the synthesized compounds displayed nanomolar affinity to the angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor and could decrease blood pressure efficiently in spontaneously hypertensive rats. The maximal response of mean blood pressure (MBP) lowered 74.5 ± 3.5 mmHg (1g) and 69.2 ± 0.9 mmHg (2a) at 10 g/kg after oral administration, and the antihypertensive effect lasted beyond 24 h, which performed better than both losartan and telmisartan. So, compounds 1g and 2a may be considered as potential antihypertension drug candidates.

The development of novel photosensitizers is a challenging task for photodynamic therapy (PDT). Twelve novel photosensitizers (PSs), including porphins (P1-4), chlorins (C1-4) and bacteriochlorins (B1-4) were synthesized. The bacteriochlorins exhibited the longest absorption wavelength (λmax = 736 nm), which is higher than that of porphins (λmax = 630 nm) and chlorins (λmax = 644 nm). In vitro photodynamic activities on Eca-109 human esophageal carcinoma cells were evaluated by standard assays and all PSs showed photodynamic activity. Among them, B2 displayed the highest phototoxicity and the lowest dark toxicity. In addition, B2 exhibited best photodynamic antitumor efficacy on BALB/c nude mice bearing Eca-109 cells tumor. Therefore, B2 is a powerful and promising antitumor photosensitizer for PDT.

[Image: see text] A series of new angiotensin II receptor 1 antagonists were prepared. They displayed nanomolar affinity to AT(1) receptor and could decrease blood pressure efficiently in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Among them, compounds 1b and 2b could reduce the blood pressure with more or equal potency compared to Losartan. So, compounds 1b and 2b could be considered as potential antihypertension drug candidates.

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A novel 131-pyridine substituted chlorin e6 derivative (Chlorin A) was synthesized. It has characteristic long wavelength absorption at 664 nm and the emission wavelength at 667 nm. The generation rate of singlet oxygen of this compound is higher than Temoporfin. In vitro, Chlorin A showed higher phototoxicity against the human esophageal cancer cells than Temoporfin while with lower dark-toxicity. Its accumulation effect in mitochondria, lysosomes and endoplasmic reticulum was traced in subcellular localization tests. In flow cytometry obvious apoptosis cells were observed after 2 h irradiation. Significant in vivo photodynamic anti-tumor efficacy was also exhibited on mice bearing esophageal cancer. So Chlorin A could be suggested as a promising anti-tumor drug candidate in photodynamic therapy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the possibility of measuring radiation dose based on primary color chrominance in chemical solutions. Methods: We used an aqueous solution with different concentrations of Alphaurine A and Tracid Brilliant Red B. This was irradiated by 1.5–13.5 kGy 60Co γ radiation. Data were collected by an instrument that can detect information on the three primary colors. Data were analyzed and manipulated for each experiment. Results and conclusions: The result shows that three primary colors chrominance in the aqueous solutions change with different doses of 60Co γ-rays and different concentrations of Alphaurine A and Tracid Brilliant Red B. For Alphaurine A, the red chrominance is gradually reduced as a function of radiation dose. The blue chrominance gradually increases concurrently. The red and green chrominance changes obviously and inversely, but the green chrominance changes little. In Tracid Brilliant Red B solution, the red chrominance gradually decreases as th...

Display Omitted The flexible solar cell can be achieved on the 30µm-thickness silicon chip.Surface texturization and antireflection structure can reduce the reflectance.The flexible solar cell exhibits conversion efficiency up to 13.8%.The flexible solar cell demonstrates higher efficiency as bending in concave configuration. Recently, the evolution of photovoltaic cells in together with flexible electronics rapidly grows up so as to satisfy the flexibility and elasticity needs. Therefore, it will be a breakthrough impact if it is able to develop flexible single-crystalline photovoltaic cells which are fabricated with traditional procedure and provide highly electrical properties as well. This study aims to fabricate the flexible solar photovoltaic device with practical and reproducible method. Generally, the flexible solar photovoltaic is manufactured on the 30µm-thickness single-crystalline silicon chip by chemical etching process. Versatile design on the flexible device can enhance light trapping effect. The surface texturization and antireflection layer deposition successfully minimize the reflectivity losses from the incident light. In addition, the developed devices under concave bending morphology demonstrates better operating performance than convex and flat configurations. As to the concave bending type, the significant improvement of power conversion efficiency (129% better than flat type, and 161% better than convex type) is observed from a large device current, which is related to the contribution of light trapping enhancement. In combination of all optimal conditions, the flexible device exhibits conversion efficiency up to 13.8%. The development of novel flexible solar photovoltaics with the excellent mechanical flexibility, low silicon material consumption and low fabrication cost demonstrates the potential capability for future solar cells.

This paper describes a new reactivity of the Pd-catalyzed coupling of 2-amino-3-bromo-aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds with sulfonylhydrazones (Barluenga reaction).The new catalyst system and modulation of the electronic nature of hydrazone that were needed for successful reaction are described herein.

In this paper, the antitumor activity of a novel porphyrin-based photosensitizer 5, 10, 15, 20-tetrakis[(5-diethylamino)pentyl] porphyrin (TDPP) was reported in vitro and in vivo. The photophysical and cellular properties of TDPP were investigated. The singlet oxygen generation quantum yield of TDPP was detected ; it showed a high singlet oxygen quantum yield of 0.52. The intracellular distribution of photosensitizer was detected with laser scanning confocal microscopy. The efficiency of TDPP-photodynamic therapy (PDT) in vitro was analyzed by 3-(4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5- diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and in situ trypan blue exclusion test. Treated with a 630-nm laser, TDPP can kill cultured human esophageal cancer cell line (Eca-109) cells and reduce the growth of Eca-109 xenograft tumors significantly in BABL/c nude mice. And histopathological study was also used to confirm the antitumor effect. It has the perspective to be developed as a new antitumor drug in photodynamic therapy and deserves further investigation.

A new compound 2-(4-((2-butyl-5-nitro-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)methyl)-1H-indol-1-yl) benzamide (1) was designed, synthesized and evaluated as a novel AT1 receptor antagonist. Compound 1 displayed high affinity to AT1 receptor with an IC50 value of 1.65 ± 0.2 nM in radio-ligand binding assays. It had an efficient and long-lasting effect in reducing blood pressure which could last for more than 12 h at the dose of 10 mg/kg in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Acute toxicity tests suggested that compound 1 was safe with the LD50 value of 2519.81 mg/kg. Besides, in vitro and in vivo tests suggested its anti-proliferative and anti-tumor activities, respectively. So compound 1 could be considered as a novel anti-hypertension, anti-tumor candidate and deserved further investigation.

Chlorin derivatives are promising photosensitive agents for photodynamic therapy (PDT) of tumors. The aim of the current study is to investigate the PDT therapeutic effects of a novel chlorin-based photosensitizer, meso-tetra[3-(N,N-diethyl)aminomethyl-4-methoxy]phenyl chlorin (TMPC) for gliomas in vitro and in vivo. Physicochemical characteristics of TMPC were recorded by ultraviolet visible spectrophotometer and fluorescence spectrometer. The rate of singlet oxygen generation of TMPC upon photo-excitation was detected by using 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran (DPBF). The accumulation of TMPC in gliomas U87 MG cells was measured by fluorescence spectrometer. The efficiency of TMPC-PDT in vitro was analyzed by MTT assay and clonogenic assay. The biodistribution and clearance of TMPC were determined by fluorescence measuring. Human gliomas U87 MG tumor-bearing mice model was used to evaluate the antitumor effects of TMPC-PDT. TMPC shows a singlet oxygen generation rate of 0.05 and displays a characteristic long wavelength absorption peak at 653 nm (ε = 15,400). The accumulation of TMPC increased with the increase of incubation time. In vitro, PDT using TMPC and laser showed laser dose- and concentration-dependent cytotoxicity to U87 MG cells. In U87 MG tumor-bearing mice, TMPC-PDT significantly reduced the growth of the tumors. Both in vitro and in vivo, TMPC showed little dark toxicity. In vitro and in vivo studies, it found that TMPC has excellent antitumor activities. It suggests that TMPC is a potential photosensitizer of photodynamic therapy for cancer.

The Diels–Alder reaction was exploited for the preparation of novel long-wavelength chlorin photodynamic therapy photosensitizers. The styryl group and furan carboxamide substituents were used as diene components in [4+2] cycloaddition functionalizations.

The first water soluble maleimide bearing NIR BF2-azadipyrromethene (NIR-AZA) fluorochrome has been synthesised which is capable of rapid thiol conjugations in water with peptides such as glutathione, the cell penetrating peptide (CPP) C(β-A)SKKKKTKV-NH2 and a thiol substituted cRGD. NIR fluorescence imaging showed rapid cellular delivery of the CPP conjugate and effective in vivo tumour localization for the cRGD conjugate.

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To compare the clinical effect between the lamina osteotomy and former vertebral plates regraft method and total laminectomy and interbody fusion method in treating single-segment lumbar degenerative disease.The clinical data of 167 patients with single-segment lumbar degenerative disease underwent surgical treatment from January 2010 to December 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 92 males and 75 females, aged from 45 to 75 years old with an average of (59.6±12.4) years. The patients were divided into lamina osteotomy and former vertebral plates regraft group(82 cases) and total laminectomy and interbody fusion group(85 cases) according to the different surgical methods used. The general conditions and clinical effects were compared between two groups. General conditions included the operation time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative drainage, hospitalization time and the clinical effects included the visual analogue scale (VAS), Japanese Orthopaedic Association(JOA), Oswestry Dability Index(ODI), MacNab results, epidural fibrosis (EF), the incidence of adjacent segment degeneration (ASD).All the patients were followed for 18 to 36 months with an average of (24.8±5.7) months, furthermore, there was no significant difference in the follow-up time between two groups. There was no significant difference in general conditions such as operation time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative drainage, or hospitalization time between two groups. At final follow-up, the VAS, ODI, JOA, of all patients were significantly improved (Both two methods can achieve the ideal effects for the treatment of single-segment lumbar degenerative disease, but the lamina osteotomy and former vertebral plates regraft method can reserve the integrity of posterior ligamentous complex, reducing the incidence of EF and ASD, and is a better surgical method.

There are a variety of joint job production and transportation scheduling problems that arise in modern manufacturing systems. In this paper, we study two such problems that arise in a flowshop environment where there are two processing stages and a single transporter that is available to deliver the finished jobs from the first stage to the second. In the first problem, there is a single machine in each of the two flowshop stages and jobs have different sizes when loaded onto the transporter. In the second problem, there are two parallel machines in the first stage and a single machine in the second stage, and the transporter can carry only one job in each shipment. The objective of both problems is to minimize the makespan, i.e., the completion time of the last job in the second stage. The two problems are both strongly NP-hard. For each problem, we propose a fast heuristic and show that the heuristic has a tight worst-case bound of 2.

Dynamic pricing enables a firm to increase revenue by better matching supply with demand, responding to shifting demand patterns, and achieving customer segmentation. In the last 20 years, numerous success stories of dynamic pricing applications have motivated a rapidly growing research interest in a variety of dynamic pricing problems in the academic literature. A large class of problems that arise in various revenue management applications involve selling a given amount of inventory over a finite time horizon without inventory replenishment. In this study, we identify most recent trends in dynamic pricing research involving such problems. We review existing research on three new classes of problems that have attracted a rapidly growing interest in the last several years, namely, problems with multiple products, problems with competition, and problems with limited demand information. We also identify a number of possible directions for future research.

This article studies a markdown optimization problem commonly faced by many large retailers that involves joint decisions on inventory allocation and markdown pricing at multiple stores subject to various business rules. At the beginning of the markdown planning horizon, there is a certain amount of inventory of a product at a warehouse that needs to be allocated to many retail stores served by the warehouse over the planning horizon. In the same time, a markdown pricing scheme needs to be determined for each store over the planning horizon. A number of business rules for inventory allocation and markdown prices at the stores must be satisfied. The retailer does not have a complete knowledge about the probability distribution of the demand at a given store in a given time period. The retailer’s knowledge about the demand distributions improves over time as new information becomes available. Hence, the retailer employs a rolling horizon approach where the problem is re-solved at the beginning of each perio...

Natural gas storages in salt caverns are receiving an increasingly important role in energy storage system of many countries. This study focuses on analyzing the consequence of jet fire associated with natural gas storages in salt caverns. A widely used software, ALOHA, was adopted as simulation tool. The reliability of ALOHA was validated by comparing the simulated results with the field data observed in real accidents and the values calculated by a simple model presented in a previous study. The China's first natural gas storage in salt cavern, Jintan natural gas storage, was selected for case study. The case study reveals that the hazard distance of jet fire decreased with the increase of pipeline length, as well as the decrease of pipeline diameter and operating pressure.

We study an integrated charge batching and casting width selection problem arising in the continuous casting operation of the steelmaking process at Shanghai, China based Baosteel. This decision-making problem is not unique to Baosteel; it exists in every large iron and steel company in the world. We collaborated with Baosteel on this problem from 2006 to 2008 by developing and implementing a decision support system (DSS) that replaced their manual planning method. The DSS is still in active use at Baosteel. This paper describes the solution algorithms we developed and imbedded in the DSS. For the general problem that is strongly NP-hard, a column generation-based branch-and-price (B&P) solution approach is developed to obtain optimal solutions. By exploiting the problem structure, efficient dynamic programming algorithms are designed to solve the subproblems involved in the column generation procedure. Branching strategies are designed in a way that ensures that after every stage of branching the structure of the subproblems is preserved such that they can still be solved efficiently. We also consider a frequently occurring case of the problem where each steel grade is incompatible with any other grade. For this special case, a two-level polynomial-time algorithm is developed to obtain optimal solutions. Computational tests on a set of real production data as well as on a more diverse set of randomly generated problem instances show that our algorithms outperform the manual planning method that Baosteel used to use by a significant margin both in terms of tundish utilization for almost every case, and in terms of total cost for most cases. Consequently, by replacing their manual method with our DSS, the estimated benefits to Baosteel include an annual cost saving of about US $1.6 million and an annual revenue increase of about US $3.25 million.

The outer space of city, construction space and underground space are city’s material spaces with disaster prevention function and are direct carriers of disasters, this paper propsoses the concepts and approaches to integrate, recombine and share city spaces based on the current situation of city’s disasters and spaces for disaster prevention, puts forward ideas and concepts including “ active disaster prevention”, “comprehensive disaster prevention”, “evacuation center” combining the latest research development of nanjing city’s comprehensive disaster prevention planning, and conducts deeper research in aspects of improving the disaster prevention function of city space and inspring planning and construction of city disaster prevention.

The design, synthesis, in vitro and in vivo evaluation of 5-nitro benzimidazole with 1,4-disubsituted or 1,5-disubsituted indole derivatives as novel angiotensin II receptor antagonist is outlined. Radioligand binding assays showed that 2-(4-((2-butyl-5-nitro-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)methyl)-1H-indol-1-yl)benzoic acid, compound 3, displayed a high affinity for the angiotensin II type 1 receptor with IC50 value of 1.03±0.26nM. The biological evaluation on spontaneously hypertensive rats and renal hypertensive rats showed that 3 could cause significant decrease on MBP in a dose dependent manner, whose maximal response lowered 30mmHg of MBP at 5mg/kg and 41mmHg of MBP at 10mg/kg after oral administration, and the significant antihypertensive effect lasted beyond 24h, which is better than Losartan. Taken together 3 could be considered as an effective and durable anti-hypertension drug candidate. These encouraging results are deserved of further investigation towards its use for therapeutic benefit.

Shanghai Baoshan Iron and Steel Complex (Baosteel) is China’s largest and the world’s third-largest steel company. In 2005, our research team was tasked with developing advanced operations research-based planning tools to improve the operational efficiency of Baosteel’s Shanghai plant. In the following six years, we developed novel optimization algorithms and tailored metaheuristics, and implemented four decision support systems (DSSs) to replace the manual planning methods at the Shanghai plant. The DSSs have brought scientific operations management to Baosteel and transformed the plant’s production and final-product delivery operations. Baosteel estimates that from 2007 to 2012, they provided a cumulative economic benefit of 77 million. Based on their current usage at this plant, they also estimate that these DSSs will continue to provide an annual economic benefit of 20 million, which represents a 17 percent improvement of Baosteel’s information technology and operations management capability. They have also reduced Baosteel’s carbon dioxide emissions by 585,770 tons annually.

A series of new 6-substituted aminocarbonyl benzimidazole derivatives with 1, 4-disubsituted or 1, 5-disubsituted indole moiety and benzoic acid moiety were designed, synthesized and pharmacologically evaluated. Most of the synthesized compounds could bind to the AT1 receptor and decrease blood pressure significantly. Notably, 2e and 1h could obviously decrease MBP in a dose dependent manner. The maximal response lowered 57.9 ± 2.3 mmHg (2e) and 57.6 ± 1.9 mmHg (1h) of MBP at 10 mg/kg after oral administration, and the antihypertensive effect lasted beyond 24 h, which performed better than Losartan (Fig. 1). These results indicate that 2e and 1h are effective and long-lasting anti-hypertension drug candidates and deserve further investigation for therapeutic application.

Currently, more and more residential district have built the underground parking and created more water and green space use the ground. The environment has been improved. This paper analyzed the microclimate of two planning programs use the microclimate fluid dynamics simulation software Envi-met, that one is have been made the underground parking planning, the other one is haven't. The results include microclimate parameters air quality parameters (the distribution of CO2) and the outdoor thermal comfort parameters (mean radiant temperature). By comparing the results of the two programs, this paper quantitative analyzed the influence and benefits of the underground parking to the microclimate in residential quarter.

This paper deals with the study of smart substation system level test. The test include three parts:network performance test,electronic transformer test and conformance testing.Network performance test involves the process layer network and station level networks test, transmission delay and frame loss rate of switch is tested.Electronic transformer test contains accuracy test, absolute delay test and polarity test. Conformance test is a test for model based on IEC 61850,test flow is studied.

A novel nonpeptide angiotensin II receptor 1 antagonist, compound 1, N-butyryl-N-[(2'-(2, 5-dihydro-5-oxo-1, 2, 4-oxadiazol-3-yl) biphenyl-4-yl) methy-L-Valine was investigated by receptor-binding studies and vivo experiments in spontaneously hypertensive rats and renal hypertensive rats. Furthermore, treatment with compound 1 significantly inhibited the viability of human breast cancer cell line and promoted apoptosis of the cancer cells. The compound had the effects of anti-hypertension and anti-cancer, which suggested that this new compound could be considered as a candidate for both novel anti-hypertensive and anti-cancer agent.

A series of 2-morpholinetetraphenylporphyrins functionalized with various substituents (Cl, Me, MeO group) at 4-phenyl position were prepared via nucleophilic substitution of 2-nitroporphyrin copper derivatives with morpholine by refluxing under a nitrogen atmosphere and then demetalization. Their basic photophysical properties, intracellular localization, cytotoxicities in vitro and in vivo were also investigated. All synthesized photosensitizers exhibited longer maxima absorption wavelengths than Hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether (HMME). They showed low dark cytotoxicity compared with that of HMME and were more phototoxic than HMME against Eca-109 cells in vitro. M3 also exhibited better photodynamic antitumor efficacy on BALB/c nude mice at a lower concentration. Therefore, M3 is a promising antitumor photosensitizer in photodynamic therapy application.

A series of β-alkylaminoporphyrins conjugated with different amines at β position (D1-D3) or with electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents at phenyl position (D4-D6) were synthesized. Their photophysical and photochemical properties, intracellular localization, photocytotoxicities in vitro and vivo were also investigated. All target compounds exhibited no cytotoxicities in the dark and excellent photocytotoxicities against HeLa cells. Among them, D6 showed the highest phototoxicity and the lowest dark toxicity, which was more phototoxic than Hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether (HMME). In addition, D6 exhibited best photodynamic antitumor efficacy on BALB/c nude mice bearing HeLa tumor. Therefore, D6 is a powerful and promising antitumor photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy.

A series of new 5-oxo-1,2,4-oxadiazole derivatives with 1, 4-disubsituted or 1, 5-disubsituted indole group was designed, synthesized, and pharmacologically evaluated. These derivatives displayed high affinities to the AT1 receptor at the same order of magnitude to losartan. The methyl ester with 1, 4-disubsituted indole group, 1 (5.01 ± 1.67 nM) showed high antihypertension activity on spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Its maximal response lowered 30 mmHg of mean blood pressure (MBP) at 10 mg/kg after oral administration, which was better than irbesartan, and the antihypertensive effect lasted beyond 24 h. These results made 1 deserve further investigation.

The synthesis and pharmaceutical activity of new potent non-tetrazole angiotensin II (Ang II) receptor antagonists were described. These compounds were fluorine substituted derivatives of Losartan, Valsartan and Irbesartan with carboxylic acid group as replacements to the known potent tetrazole moiety at the 2'-biphenyl position. Their activities were evaluated by Ang II receptor binding assay as well as by in vivo assay. All of the synthesized compounds showed nanomolar affinity for the AT(1) receptor subtype. The vivo biological evaluation showed that compounds 1a, 2 and 4 produced a dose-dependent antihypertensive effect both in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and renal hypertensive rats (RHR). Compound 4 especially showed an efficient and long-lasting effect in reducing blood pressure which can last more than 24 h at dose of 10 mg/kg in SHR, which was much better than control Losartan and Valsartan. Compound 4 can also inhibit the prostate cancer in vitro and in vivo. So compound 4 was selected for in-depth investigation as potent, novel and long-lasting non-tetrazole anti-hypertension and anti-tumor drug candidate.

Pyropheophorbid-a (PyroPheo) is one of the well-known photosensitizers which can be useful for future clinical applications. This work is aimed to compare and measure generation rates of single oxygen through activation of pyropheophorbide-a by four different wavelength, and observe the sensitivity of pyropheophorbide-a mediated photodynamic therapy for eca-109 cell. Methods: UV-vis spectrophotometrics was used to measure decrease of singlet oxygen probe 9,10-dimethylanthracene(DPBF) so as to evaluate singlet oxygen production generation. The Eca-109 cells were were exposed to light (650nm) with a constant light power of 200mW/cm2, at a distance of 5cm, for 25 to 200 seconds. The results were measured by MTT assay. Results: pyropheophorbide-a in DMF solution irradiation by different light power can produce singlet oxygen quickly. Comparison of single oxygen generation rate has proved that photodynamic effect at 532nm is fastest, followed by 650nm, 635nm, 690nm which has correlation with absorbance of pyropheophorbide-a. The survival rate of cells dropped after irradiation by light what was significantly different from other groups. Conclusion: pyropheophorbide-a is an excellent photosensitizer and prooxidant. Through activated by different wavelength it could be apply to different disease

As the development of the economic of China and the acceleration of urbanization, metropolises have run out of land resources. Therefore, developing and utilizing the underground space becomes the inevitable trend of sustainable urban development. The modern urban space is a three-dimensional space system which is made up of above and below parts of the space. According to the city on or under the ground, the different characteristics exist. Arranging their own appropriate functions, and avoid weaknesses, will not only make best use of their function, but also promote each to form a good system of urban functions to ensure the city’s efficient and orderly operation.

Kise, Ibaraki and Mine (Operations Research 26:121---126, 1978) give an O(n 2) time algorithm to find an optimal schedule for the single-machine number of late jobs problem with agreeable job release dates and due dates. Li, Chen and Tang (Operations Research 58:508---509, 2010) point out that their proof of optimality for their algorithm is incorrect by giving a counter-example. In this paper we give a correct proof of optimality for their algorithm.

Polyaniline (PANI)/maghemite (γ-Fe 2 O 3 ) nanocomposites were prepared by using the reverse micelle polymerization, where aniline, ferrous and ferric salts and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) act as monomer, precursor of γ-Fe 2 O 3 and surfactant, respectively. The effect of the molar ratio of [SDS]/[H 2 O] on the electromagnetic properties of PANI/γ-Fe 2 O 3 nanocomposites was investigated by Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTIR), UV–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), wide angle X-ray diffraction diffractometer (WAXD), impedance analysis analyzer, micro-ohmetry and superconductor quantum interference device (SQUID). The nanostructure of the PANI/γ-Fe 2 O 3 nanocomposites was characterized by micrographs of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results showed that both the γ-Fe 2 O 3 content and particle size in the nanocomposites decreased with molar ratio of [SDS]/[H 2 O]. The γ-Fe 2 O 3 phase is non-uniformly distributed in the PANI matrix, and exhibits a broader size distribution at higher [SDS]/[H 2 O] molar ratio due to the reduced strength of PANI–γ-Fe 2 O 3 interactions. In the presence of γ-Fe 2 O 3 , the growth rate of quinoid ring is markedly retarded. The retard effect is significantly reduced by increasing the [SDS]/[H 2 O] molar ratio, leading to the improvement of crystallinity, conductivity and dielectric properties (i.e., permittivity and loss factor) of nanocomposites. Simultaneously, the ionic polarization relaxation time is shortened from 2.61 × 10 −9 to 1.04 × 10 −9 s. For SQUID analysis at room temperature, the typical superparamagnetic behavior is found with the saturation magnetization decreased with the [SDS]/[H 2 O] molar ratio, resulting from the reduced γ-Fe 2 O 3 content, smaller γ-Fe 2 O 3 particle size, and the wider particle size distribution.

We consider an integrated production-distribution scheduling problem in the context of a commit-to-delivery business model. The problem is strongly NP-hard. We propose a polynomial-time heuristic algorithm and show that its worst-case performance ratio is bounded by 2 and that this bound is tight.

We consider an integrated production–distribution scheduling model in a make-to-order supply chain consisting of one supplier and one customer. The supplier receives a set of orders from the customer at the beginning of a planning horizon. The supplier needs to process all the orders at a single production line, pack the completed orders to form delivery batches, and deliver the batches to the customer. Each order has a weight, and the total weight of the orders packed in a batch must not exceed the capacity of the delivery batch. Each delivery batch incurs a fixed distribution cost. The problem is to find jointly a schedule for order processing and a way of packing completed orders to form delivery batches such that the total distribution cost (or equivalently, the number of delivery batches) is minimized subject to the constraint that a given customer service level is guaranteed. We consider two customer service constraints—meeting the given deadlines of the orders; or requiring the average delivery lead time of the orders to be within a given threshold. Several problems of the model with each of those constraints are considered. We clarify the complexity of each problem and develop fast heuristics for the NP-hard problems and analyze their worst-case performance bounds. Our computational results indicate that all the heuristics are capable of generating near optimal solutions quickly for the respective problems.

We study an integrated production and distribution scheduling model in a two-stage supply chain consisting of one or more suppliers, a warehouse, and a customer. Each supplier produces a different product at a constant rate. There is a setup time and a setup cost per production run for each supplier. Completed products are first delivered from the suppliers to the warehouse and are then sent from the warehouse to the customer. The customer's demand for each product is constant over time. The problem is to find jointly a cyclic production schedule for each supplier, a cyclic delivery schedule from each supplier to the warehouse, and a cyclic delivery schedule from the warehouse to the customer so that the customer demand for each product is satisfied without backlog at the least total production, inventory and distribution cost. We consider two production and delivery scheduling policies. We derive either an exact or a heuristic solution algorithm for the problem under each policy. Heuristics are evaluated computationally. We also evaluate the value of the warehouse by comparing our model with a model that does not have the warehouse in the supply chain (i.e. the products are delivered directly from the suppliers to the customer). Various managerial insights based on an extensive set of computational tests are reported, including how the value of warehouse and the delivery frequency from the suppliers to the warehouse are influenced by various problem parameters including production rates of the suppliers, unit inventory costs, delivery costs, and the warehouse location.

Polyaniline coated silica/maghemite nanoparticles (PANI/SiO2/γ-Fe2O3 composites) were synthesized by the combination of a sol–gel process and an in-situ polymerization method, in which ferrous and ferric salts as well as tetraethyl orthosilica (TEOS) acted as the precursor for γ-Fe2O3 and silica, respectively. As a result, the SiO2/γ-Fe2O3 particle showed a core-shell structure, with γ-Fe2O3 as the magnetic core and silica as the shell of the particle. The shell thickness can be controlled by changing the TEOS concentration. The PANI/SiO2/γ-Fe2O3 composites revealed a multilayer core-shell structure, where PANI is the outer shell of the composite. The doping level and the conductivity of PANI/SiO2/γ-Fe2O3 composites decreased with increasing the TEOS content due to the presence of the less coated PANI on the SiO2/γ-Fe2O3 core at higher TEOS content. For a SQUID analysis at room temperature, all γ-Fe2O3 containing composites showed a typical superparamagnetic behavior. The saturation magnetization of SiO2/γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles decreased with increasing the TEOS content due to the increase in silica shell thickness, while the saturation magnetization of PANI/SiO2/γ-Fe2O3 composites also decreased with increasing the TEOS content, which is attributed to the lower conductivity of PANI in the composites at higher TEOS content.