In this article, poly methyl triethoxy silane was compounded with an inorganic waterproof admixture at a certain ratio to improve the performance of gypsum products; a new type of high-efficiency compound water-proofing additive was also investigated. Furthermore, the waterproof mechanism and the various properties on the hardened gypsum plaster were investigated in detail by XRD and SEM. The results show that the intenerate coefficient of gypsum plaster increased to more than 0.9; the water absorbing rate decreased to less than 10 %. Both the bending strength and the compressive strength of gypsum plaster increased by various degrees. The intenerate coefficient reached a maximum value of 0.73 and the strength of the samples showed almost no change when 5 % cement alone was added. In this new type of the high-efficiency compound with waterproof additive, the optimal technological parameters for formulas were obtained to be: 5 % cement, 18 % mineral powder, and 0.8 % poly methyl triethoxy silane, to compound gypsum plaster. Meanwhile, the production of high performance gypsum as a building material has become possible.

The high plateaus in west China may provide suitable sites for astronomical observations with the institute's middle-range telescopes and possibly with larger telescopes. Under China-Japan collaborations for site survey in west China, we have been conducting searches for good sites and monitoring their characteristics over several years. As recent results of our site survey show, sites in west Tibet are revealed with a high possibility of good astronomical observations. Weather characteristics at Gar in Ali, Tibet, show its high clear-sky ratios, especially in winter, com- parable to Mauna Kea, Hawaii. But it has some wind problem in winter, where stronger wind speeds, over 20m/sec, occur frequently even though the sky is clear. To find calmer sites, we have conducted numerical simulations for the Ali area using the Japan Meteorological Agency NonHydrostatic Model. We have found another site, named ZoZo Hill, near Gar. We will continue to monitor the Gar site to clarify weather characteristics over the whole year and hopefully start to negotiate for site monitoring at ZoZo Hill this year.

The wind field and precipitable water vapor over the Tibetan Plateau are analyzed using the numerical model WRF. The spatial and vertical distributions of the relevant meteorological factors are summarized, providing evidence for selecting and further evaluating an astronomical site. This study serves as a further demonstration towards astro-climate regionalization, and provides us with an essential database for an astronomical site survey over the Tibetan Plateau.

We have initiated a Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) monitoring project of 36 methanol maser sources at 6.7 GHz using the Japanese VLBI Network (JVN) and East-Asian VLBI Network (EAVN), starting in August 2010. The purpose of this project is to systematically reveal 3-dimensional (3-D) kine- matics of rotating disks around forming high-mass protostars. As an initial result, we present proper mo- tion detections for two methanol maser sources showing an elliptical spatial morphology, G 002.53+00.19 and G 006.79-00.25, which could be the best candidates associated with the disk. The detected proper motions indicate a simple rotation in G 002.53+00.19 and rotation with expansion in G 006.79-00.25, respectively, on the basis of disk model fits with rotating and expanding components. The expanding motions might be caused by the magnetic-centrifugal wind on the disk.

In this work, we study the correlation between the photon index (Γ) of the X-ray spectrum and the 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity (LX) for black hole X-ray binaries (BHBs). The BHB sample is mainly from the quiescent, hard and intermediate states, with values of LX ranging from ~ 1030.5 to 1037.5 erg s-1. We nd that the photon index Γ is positively or negatively correlated with the X-ray luminosity LX, for LX above or below a critical value, ~ 1036.5 erg s-1. This result is consistent with previous works. Moreover, when LX ≤ ~ 1033 erg s-1, we found that the photon index is roughly independent of the X-ray luminosity. We interpret the above correlations in the framework of a coupled hot accretion flow - jet model. Besides, we also find that in the moderate-luminosity region, different sources may have different anti-correlation slopes, and we argue this diversity is caused by the different value of δ, which describes the fraction of turbulent dissipation that directly heats electrons.

Observations show that the accretion ows in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) probably have a two-component structure with an inner hot, optically thin, advection dominated accretion flow (ADAF) and an outer truncated cool, optically thick accretion disk. As shown by Taam et al. (2012), within the framework of the disk evaporation model, the truncation radius as a function of mass accretion rate is strongly affected by including the magnetic field. We define the parameter β as pm = B2=8π = (1 - β)ptot, (where ptot = pgas + pm, pgas is gas pressure and pm is magnetic pressure) to describe the strength of the magnetic field in accretion ows. It is found that an increase of the magnetic field (decreasing the value of β) results in a smaller truncation radius for the accretion disk. We calculate the emergent spectrum of an inner ADAF + an outer truncated accretion disk around a supermassive black hole by considering the effects of the magnetic field on the truncation radius of the accretion disk. By comparing with observations, we found that a weaker magnetic field (corresponding to a bigger value of β) is required to match the observed correlation between L2-10keV/LEdd and the bolometric correction K2-10keV, which is consistent with the physics of the accretion ow with a low mass accretion rate around a black hole.

Most of the stars in the Galaxy are in binary systems. Binaries should be possible as the hosting stars of planets. Searching for planetary companions to binaries, especially evolved close binary stars, can provide insight into the formation and the ultimate fate of circumbinary planets and shed light on the late evolution of binary stars. In order to do this, we have chosen some post common envelope binaries including sdB-type eclipsing binaries and detached WD+dM eclipsing binaries as our targets and monitored them for several years. In this paper, we will present some of our new observations and results for three targets, NSVS 07826147, NSVS14256825 and RR Cae.

Close binary stars are so close that one component has an effect on the evolution of the other. But how do they form and evolve? This is an unsolved problem. One speculation is that the binary is a part of a hierarchical triple and its orbit shrinks due to interaction with the third component. Therefore, searching for and investigating tertiary components, especially close-in ones, in close binary stars are important for understanding their origin, as well as to test theories of star formation and stellar dynamical interaction.

Several contact binary systems in four stellar clusters or their fields are reported here; NGC7789-V12, EP Cep and ES Cep in NGC188, NGC104-V95 and V710 Mon. Their multiple light curves were analyzed by the 2010 version of the W-D code, and their physical parameters were obtained.

Due to the lack of an accretion disk in a polar (magnetic cataclysmic variable, MCV), the material transferred from the secondary is directly accreted onto the white dwarf, forming an accretion stream and a hot spot on the white-dwarf component. During the eclipses, different light components can be isolated. Therefore, the monitoring of eclipsing polars could provide valuable information on several modern astrophysical problems, e.g., CVs as planetary hosting stars, mass transfer and mass accretion in CVs, and the magnetic activity of the most rapidly rotating cool dwarfs. In the past five years, we have monitored about 10 eclipsing polars (e.g., DP Leo and HU Aqr) using several 2-m class telescopes and about 100 eclipse profiles were obtained. In this paper, we will introduce the progress of our research group at YNOs. The first direct evidence of variable mass transfer in a CV is obtained and we show that it is the dark-spot activity that causes the mass transfer in CVs. Magnetic activity cycles of the cool secondary were detected and we show that the variable mass transfer is not caused by magnetic activity cycles. These results will shed light on the structure and evolution of close binary stars (e.g., CVs and Algols).

How high-mass stars form is currently unclear. Calculations suggest that the radiation pressure of a forming star can halt spherical infall, preventing further growth when it reaches 10 M⊙. Two major theoretical models on the further growth of stellar mass have been proposed. One model suggests the merging of less massive stellar objects, and the other is through accretion, but with the help of a disk. In ow motions are key evidence for how forming stars gain further mass to build up massive stars. Recent developments in technology have boosted the search for in ow motion. A number of high-mass collapse candidates were obtained with single dish observations, and mostly showed blue proles. Infalling signatures seem to be more common in regions which have developed radiation pressure than in younger cores, which is the opposite of the theoretical prediction and is also very different from observations of low mass star formation. Interferometer studies so far confirm this tendency with more obvious blue profiles or inverse P Cygni profiles. Results seem to favor the accretion model. However, the evolution of the infall motion in massive star forming cores needs to be further explored. Direct evidence for monolithic or competitive collapse processes is still lacking. ALMA will enable us to probe more detail of the gravitional processes.

The physical and chemical properties of prestellar cores, especially massive ones, are still far from being well understood due to the lack of a large sample. The low dust temperature (< 14 K) of Planck cold clumps makes them promising candidates for prestellar objects or for sources at the very initial stages of protostellar collapse. We have been conducting a series of observations toward Planck cold clumps (PCCs) with ground-based radio telescopes. In general, when compared with other star forming samples (e.g. infrared dark clouds), PCCs are more quiescent, suggesting that most of them may be in the earliest phase of star formation. However, some PCCs are associated with protostars and molecular out ows, indicating that not all PCCs are in a prestellar phase. We have identied hundreds of starless dense clumps from a mapping survey with the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) 13.7-m telescope. Follow-up observations suggest that these dense clumps are ideal targets to search for prestellar objects.

As a “kind of” mature ship form, planing hull has been widely used in military and civilian areas. Therefore, a reasonable design for planing hull becomes more and more important. For planing hull, resistance and trim are always the most important problems we are concerned with. It affects the planing hull’s economic efficiency and maneuverability very seriously. Instead of the expensive towing tank experiments, the development of computer comprehensive ability allows us to previously apply computational fluid dynamics(CFD)to the ship design. In this paper, the CFD method and Goal Driven Optimization (GDO) were used in the estimations of planing hull resistance and running attitude to provide a possible method for performance computation of planing hull.

Generally, there are many kinds of pumps used on a ship, which play an obbligato role to assist the ship’s running. However, due to the pump’s own motor, it becomes a main vibration resource that may cause serious problems in local. If the above situation happened, it may cause local resonance even structural damage. Also, the bigger the pump’s size is, the more serious the vibration is. Therefore, it is very important for researchers to estimate the vibrations situation of pumps accurately and avoid or reduce the probability of resonance. Based on a real marine pump-HHG8065, this paper did a vibration analysis by FEM (Finite Element Method) and compared the results with actual test. Finally, it gave a discussion on the estimation of pump and provided an improvement way to the vibration level.

Fresh attention is being paid to lifestyle brands offering differentiated contents and value such that the 21st century is now being called the age of global lifestyle. Recently national income has been increasing and a broad lifestyle culture has been established. Thus, brands with Scandinavian (Sweden, Denmark, or Norway), culture sensitivity, and design have deeply permeated the domestic market which has led to a domestic consumers' lifestyle trend (Chung& Park, 2004; Kwon, 2013; Magnus & Chrystin, 2003). In particular, such global lifestyle brands as Marimekko (Finland), CathKidston (UK), and Muji (Japan) have secured competitiveness in the global market as textile products which reflect its country's cultural identity (Lee& Park, 2014). Meanwhile, a new word, Hanban (韓版)which refers to Korean brands or products that were created from the Korean wave (韓流), which refers to Korean dramas or songs. Korean culture has been commercialized and grafted into various industries. In particular, a strong wind of Hanban in fashion cultural products not only has spread the Korean lifestyle to the world, but has enhanced its influence on related industries as well as fashion. Although certain major Korean companies launched lifestyle brands such as Jaju, Modern House, Butter, and Pum to help realize a Korean lifestyle brand business, most products sold in Korean lifestyle brands focus on overseas imported goods,so it is difficult to find Korean images on these products(Bang, 2004; Lee & Chung, 2013). The size of the lifestyle market is growing as a high value-added industry that can lead consumers' lifestyle trends, and there is a growing interest for Korean fashion cultural products. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to attempt to develop textile designs for Korean-made high value-added products with the improvement of Korean brand values. For study methodology, the status of lifestyle brands at home and abroad was examined and textile designs were developed for lifestyle brand B. For the development of the textile designs, demand required by brand B was researched and a textile design concept was established based on fashion and interior decoration trends. Then, a textile was designed using a motive that can effectively represent the identity of brand B and the Korean image. Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and Adobe Illustrator CC programs were used for the standardized textile design motif, pattern development, and colorway. The results were as follows. First, global lifestyle brands such as Marimekko, CathKidston, and Muji sell differentiated lifestyle products from other brands by applying motifs and colors which symbolize their country's and city's cultural image on textile products and displaying their own identity and peculiarity. On the other hand, Korean lifestyle brands such as Casamia, Hanssem, Kosney, and Art Box do not plan or produce their own design, but will import and sell foreign textile fabric or textile products with high recognition, or copy imported fabric. Thus, their textile design is unsatisfactory to express their own identity and satisfy consumers' needs. Second, as to the development direction required by brand B, a Korean lifestyle brand, the focus was to first, 'design American and European products using colors and techniques which reflect Korean image trends', Second, to create a 'design with Scandinavia's peculiar simplified line and sensitive color', and finally, to make a 'flower pattern design with good sustainable market feasibility'. Based on the direction and 2015 S/S color and textile trends, three concepts were established: Global Tribe, Bunny in the Wonderland, and Beyond Nature. Global Tribe is a folk paintin g(Minhwa) representing the Korean image well, and was reinterpreted in a modern sense. Bunny in the Wonderland is a modern Scandinavian style design using a rabbit, a symbol of brand B, as the main motif. Beyond Nature used a flower motif in various expression techniques and images. A textile design was developed by extracting from a folk painting, a rabbit, and a flower motif and standardizing a motif in watercolor, pen, and graphic techniques. It was digitalized by a scanner and a pattern was made via the steps of color adjustment and repetition. Three kinds of textile designs were developed according to three concepts and four kinds of colorways were made for each design. This study attempted to develop a textile design as Korean-made high value-added textile products. It is meaningful to suggest textile design with Korean cultural images and brand identity. Further study will focus on the development of fashion cultural products and DIY products to commercialize developed textile design.

The shortest path problem is one of network optimization problems. This paper considers a shortest path problem under the situation where lengths of arcs in a network include both uncertainty and randomness, and focuses on the case that the lengths of arcs are expressed by uncertain random variables. This paper presents a new type of model: relative entropy model of shortest path. By the definition of relative entropy of the uncertain random variables, relative entropy model of shortest path problem is proposed to find the shortest path which fully reflects uncertain and random information. This model is formulated to find a shortest path whose chance distribution minimizes the difference from the ideal one. A numerical example is given to illustrate the model’s effectiveness.

Consumers struggle to find clothes that are fit. This is a problem that has been accentuated with the increasing online sales. It is the largest contribute to sales returns and make customer return about every third item they buy (Ratcliff, 2014). If consumers select to buy online, they can no longer try them out in a fitting room. Most of fast fashion brands have opened their online shops, and many designers’ brands have also started to sell their ready-to-wear lines online. While online shopping is seen as a significant new way to reach more consumers in fashion industry, the size problem becomes more visible and is waiting to be solved. It may decrease the fashion industry’s ambition to piggyback on recent advances in e-commerce. Previous studies on clothing consumption have already touched upon the topic of size and fitting. Consumer surveys in the clothing industry indicate that in general between 35% and 50% of female consumers in the USA were not satisfied with the fitting in their clothing already ahead of the surge in online stores (Desmarteau 2000; Goldsberry et al. 1996). Alexander et al. studied the shopping behaviour of young women in south-eastern USA and found that almost 64% of the respondents frequently changed ready-to-wear clothes to achieve the desired fit (Alexander et al. 2005). Ashdown and Loker pointed out the size problem in current clothing shopping experiences and proposed a conceptual framework called “mass-customized target market sizing”, which is a size system “based on and derived from measurement data exclusively from the people who represent an apparel firm’s target market” (Ashdown and Loker 2010, p147). In this paper we study how innovative mobile technology, social media and crowd sourcing can contribute to solving the size problem. We summarize the current digital approaches that deal with the fitting issues in online clothing shopping and present a new concept, called “Figuracy”, which attempts to find consumers new fitted clothing items through matching their own clothes with anonymous persons’ virtual wardrobe. We have built a mobile application to implement the idea and have done two initial feedback studies to see the consumers’ attitudes. This concept provides new perspectives and opportunities of tackling the fitting problem in online shopping. Ready-to-wear and fast fashion brands are selling their clothes all over the world, not just to one local community. This business model of constantly new collections, draws on standardizing size series that come only in a selected number of models. This adds to the continuous size problem where the interpretation of a particular size varies in-between brands, and even within different models from a single manufacturer. Firms in the ready-to-wear apparel industry in the world use different sizing systems, like general sizes as XS, S, M, L, or more specific standards as numbered sizes from UK, US, FR systems, which can make consumers confused. These sizing systems are usually based on the ideal body types of consumers from certain geographic regions (Nordic Council of Ministers, 2009), thus, a size standard from one region may not fit all types of body within this region. What’s worse, there has been vanity sizing in clothing industry in recent several decades, which actually makes the garments of the normal sizes bigger in physical size (Dooley, 2013). This adds to the difficulty of finding well-fitting apparels. Recently, a few companies have provided a number of solutions to the fitting problem. The solutions are based on fine-grained automatic body measurements; self-generated extended body or garment measurement and body matching. First, the approach to use technology for more automatic and detailed measurements has attracted many interests. For example, it has been to generate a visual presentation of the body by using three-dimensional scan technology. Then consumers do not need to type information manually. A UK-based company, called Bodymetrics, provides the services that use three-dimensional body scanner and “On-line Virtual Try-On” technology to help find the perfect pair of jeans. Second, there are a number of services that require users to manually type the measurements of their bodies or garments that they own and fit. It can be done by users input information of their body types by answering simple questions, such as weight, height, body type, or measurements of bust, waist and hip. Some systems like Mipso, SmartFit can add more personal preferences, such as colours, cuts and budgets. Then the system runs some algorithms to determine the users’ full set of body measurements. It can also be done such as Virtusize, Truefit and Clothes Horse by measuring a garment that the user knows it fits in detail (Perez, 2012). When the personal data is added to the service, it can then match individual’s body measurements with specific brands and sizes of garments. The service recommends fitted ready-to-wear clothing from various brands in online stores, like Fashion Metric and Virtusize. The data can be used to see how fitted the clothing item in an online website is on a virtual avatar built upon the input measurements of the users, like in Virtusize and Mipso. Third, it has been suggested to use self-described body descriptions and then match consumers’ new purchases as a way to recommend clothes that are fit. For instance, Fitbay attempts to personalize clothes suggestions based on the selection of other users with similar descriptions of size and body shape (Lomas, 2014). Through the help of anonymous persons in the community, one could find fitted clothing items. We investigate a fourth approach, called “Figuracy”, where people get suggestions on the garments that are fit by crowd sourcing their existing clothing items and then matching wardrobes among members in the community. It draws on utilizing the matching of consumer-generated data, i.e. crowd sourcing as Fitbay also does. But it uses a description of existing fitting garments in people’s wardrobes in terms of brands, models and size, rather than self-description of bodies. The idea depends on that a community of people are willing to share information of their favourite and fitting clothes from their own wardrobes. The system matches the clothes from one wardrobe with that of other members in order to recommend new fitting clothes to the user. In specific, if the system finds that a user shares a single clothing item with another person in the community, it will predict that the two of them have similar body types. Then it recommends other items from the second person’s wardrobe to the first user. Therefore, the system gains data from the fitting clothes in users’ wardrobe and matches the information with the items from someone else’ wardrobe. If the approach is successful, consumers would not need to input any personal body-data but only data on existing fitting clothes. The concept depends on the existence of a massive database of clothing items from individual wardrobes, i.e. a critical mass, which is also a big challenge to build. The Figuracy concept and implementation is at an early state and it has not yet the amount of content to start generating matching suggestions. Still, the concept is intriguing and the size problem is highly relevant. Thus we were interested in acquiring early users’ feedback. We have done two user studies of two variations of the concept, with a focus on one type of clothing item- the bra. Bras have high requirements on fitting (Chena et al. 2010) and it is considered specifically difficult to find garment of this type that is fit. Since the number of test persons was limited to around ten people each, the system did not generate any matching suggestions. The first test was done in November in 2013 on the app that was available in iPhone’s App-store. This version of the system reads the barcodes, which are usually attached to the price tag, to acquire a unique identifier for brand, model and size. We invited the participants to download the app and scan the barcodes of fitting bras when they try new bras in stores. We conducted phone interviews with six participants. The early feedback identified that users hesitated to add garments based on the barcodes. They did not feel comfortable with adding it in a fitting room in a shop, and they did not have any saved prize tags for the bras at home. Thus, although the barcode is theoretically and technically an easy and effective way of uploading garments, it proved to be inadequate in practice. Based on this feedback, we built a new version, which includes a manual and text-based tag function allowing users to add information about a garment, which do not require barcode reading. The second user feedback study was carried out in December in 2014. We recruited female students on the campuses of Stockholm University and Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. In the end, nine participants tested the application and input data of their bras at home. After the try-out, we contacted the participants for either a phone interview or a face-to-face interview, each of which lasted between twenty and forty minutes. Each interview was recorded and transcribed. We used a method of qualitative content analysis to study the transcripts. “Qualitative”, as opposed to quantitative, indicates that the analysis goes beyond systematic data coding to identify interesting topics and allow us to contextualize the interpretation of the materials, given theoretical preconceptions (Mayring 2004). Through studying the transcripts, we find the following preliminary results. First, our participants all provided concrete examples of size problems they met in real life. Seven participants considered bras as one of the clothing items that are most difficult in this respect. Three participants stated that size should not be independent from other qualities, such as comfort and style. This implies that future design of similar systems may take into account not only sizes, but also other aspects of clothing. Second, in terms of the input function, all of them followed the instructions and managed to input information of their fitted bras from their wardrobes. Seven participants considered it easy to use while two of them thought it was a bit confusing when to add information. They got stuck at whether they should scan the barcode or just type, since the two functions were presented in one place. All of them used “type” to add items and thought the information on what they should input was acceptable. Four participants felt it complicated to take photos by themselves, so they downloaded pictures from the Internet. In addition, the participants tended to add the latest and favourite items from their wardrobes into the system. Thus these items could represent their personal tastes and styles, which will be useful to link fitting and styles in the future improvement of the application. This also points to a general problem. From an individual perspective, a single item would in the long run be enough to get matches from other people’s wardrobes, if they have added more than one item. If they also only add only a single item, the first person would not get any matches. The users must crowd source their wardrobe, and not for example their latest purchase. The user study shows that this concept might be restricted by users’ unwillingness to present data in such a way. Third, as to social interaction, eight participants at least “liked” one item from others’ wardrobe. Although none of the participants commented on other’s items, they all thought it was important to have some kind of social interactions. Four participants expected more interactions, such as reviews and discussions of certain clothing items, or following fashionable people. Most of the existing fitting systems, except Fitbay, lack the opportunities for social interaction, but Figuracy provides such a platform for users to share their interests and exchange their ideas. Two participants asked for increased opportunities to add the information on their own profile pages even though they were sharing images of their underwear. They asked for means similar to those available when building a blog space so that people in the community would get to know each other better. According to the participants, more social interactions could make them more engaged with the application. Social communities are good for those looking to learn, help and/or support like-minded individuals with common interests. Last but not the least, most of the participants were very interested in the “buy” function, which link the item to online shopping sites. But still three participants revealed their concerns and discussed the problems of it, such as how the system can guarantee the fitting of the item if they conduct a purchase through the system. In sum, the use of crowd sourcing and social interaction to fixing the size problem in online shopping gained great interests among participants. However, they also expressed their uncertainties towards how the system would work. They needed the system to make sure that it could provide fitting clothing items. They thought the biggest problem was that it was unclear what real help they could get from the application at this stage. Although the application failed to provide new recommendations based on matching, the user study allows us to see the feedback of the potential users so that we could improve the system, such as clearer interaction flows in adding items and more interesting interactions. Future research will continue the improvement of the system, start collaborations with online clothing stores and a third recruitment of users to test. On a general level, the study provides an example on how to investigate critical topics in online fashion through the so-called design research. Such research needs to be interdisciplinary and span technology and social science.

The Svalbard Treaty, one of the few inter-governmental treaties in the Arctic area, has drawn global attention. Currently, the dispute focuses mainly on its scope of applicability. Different interpretations of the issue, directly affect each contracting party’s interests in Svalbard, intensifying its debate. China signed the Svalbard Treaty on July 1, 1925, becoming one of its first contracting parties. China has attached great importance to non-discriminatory rights under the treaty, such as scientific research, resource exploitation, fishing, hunting and commercial activities, etc. Therefore, the final determination of the treaty’s applicable scope has a profoundly direct impact on China’s interests in the Arctic area. This research is to analyze the Chinese position on the Svalbard Treaty and to demonstrate the legitimacy of China’s viewpoint from a treaty interpretation perspective.