Structure and Properties of Nanocrystalline Oxide Powders

The crystalline and porous structure of superfine powders and fibers made of alumina and zirconia doped with yttria is investigated. The particle sizes were determined by the methods of coherent dispersion and scanning transmission electron microscopy. Based on data on the sizes of crystallites of the metal oxides, which were obtained by different methods, it is found that crystalline transformations of the oxides lead to dispersion of the materials. The structural transformations of the superfine oxides are accompanied by changes in crystallite sizes and in the character and size of pores. The laws established allow one to purposefully control the process of producing nanostructured oxide powders and fibers, which can be utilized as active fillers for composite materials based on various matrices. __________ Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 41, No. 6, pp. 831–840, November–December, 2005.     

Rigid isotopy classification of real algebraic curves of bidegree (3,3) on quadrics

A rigid isotopy of nonsingular real algebraic curves on a quadric is a path in the space of such curves of a given bidegree. We obtain the rigid isotopy classification of nonsingular real algebraic curves of bidegree (3, 3) on a hyperboloid and on an ellipsoid. We also study of the space of real algebraic curves of bidegree (3, 3) with a single node or cusp. Translated fromMatematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 66, No. 6, pp. 810–815, December, 1999.     

Effects of permeability and viscosity in linear polymeric gels

We propose and analyze a mathematical model of the mechanics of gels, consisting of the laws of balance of mass and linear momentum of the polymer and liquid components of the gel. We consider a gel to be an immiscible and incompressible mixture of a nonlinearly elastic polymer and a fluid. The problems that we study are motivated by predictions of the life cycle of body‐implantable medical devices. Scaling arguments suggest neglecting inertia terms, and therefore, we consider the quasi‐static approximation to the dynamics. We focus on the linearized system about stress‐free states, uniform expansions, and compressions and derive sufficient conditions for the solvability of the time‐dependent problems. These turn out to be conditions that guarantee local stability of the equilibrium solutions. We also consider non‐stress free equilibria and states with residual stress and derive an energy law for the corresponding time‐dependent system. The conditions that guarantee stability of solutions provide a selection criteria of the material parameters of devices. The boundary conditions that we consider are of two types, displacement‐traction and permeability of the gel surface to the fluid. We address the cases of viscous and inviscid solvent, assume Newtonian dissipation for the polymer component, and establish existence of weak solutions for the different boundary permeability conditions and viscosity assumptions. We present two‐dimensional, finite element numerical simulations to study stress concentration on edges, this being the precursor to debonding of the gel from its substrate. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Variation of the structure and permeability of tensioned fiber layers during impregnation with a thermoplastic polymer melt

The influence of displacements of tensioned fibers on the impregnation of fibrous layers with a polymer melt and on the final composite structure is studied. Using computer simulation, it is shown that, during impregnation, the structure of tensioned fibrous layers changes considerably depending on the initial arrangement and tensioning of fibers. The consolidated regions formed under the melt front move inside the impregnated layer with the advancing melt front. Displacement of the tensioned fibers as well as the formation of “washouts” favors the impregnation of internal layers, but cause significant inhomogeneity of the polymer structure. The surface (on the side of the melt flow) regions are more saturated with the polymer than the internal ones. A difference in the melt percolation mechanisms at various impregnation regimes is revealed. The effective permeability coefficients of a tensioned fiber layer are not constant but depend on the conditions and regimes of impregnation. Submitted to the 11th Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, June 11–15, 2000). Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 259–270, March–April, 2000.     

Best approximation by downward sets with applications

We develop a theory of downward sets for a class of normed ordered spaces. We study best approximation in a normed ordered space X by elements of downward sets, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for any element of best approximation by a closed downward subset of X. We also characterize strictly downward subsets of X, and prove that a downward subset of X is strictly downward if and only if each its boundary point is Chebyshev. The results obtained are used for examination of some Chebyshev pairs （W,x）, where ∈ X and W is a closed downward subset of X     

Creep of polymer concrete in the nonlinear region

Two polyester-based polymer concretes with various volume content of diabase as an extender and aggregate are tested in creep under compression at different stress levels. The phenomenological and structural approaches are both used to analyze the experimental data. Common features of changes in the instantaneous and creep compliances are clarified, and a phenomenological creep model which accounts for the changes in the instantaneous compliance and in the retardation spectrum depending on the stress level is developed. It is shown that the model can be used to describe the experimental results of stress relaxation and creep under repeated loading. Modeling of the composite structure and subsequent solution of the optimization problem confirm the possibility of the existence of an interphase layer more compliant than the binder. A direct correlation between the interphase volume content and the instantaneous compliance of the composite is revealed. It is found that the distinction in nonlinearity of the viscoelastic behavior of the two polymer concretes under investigation can be due to the difference in their porosity. Submitted to the 11th International Conference on Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, June 11–15, 2000.) Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 147–164, 2000.     

Toward eudaimonology: notes on a quantitative framework for the study of happiness

After noting factors (concern for others, ignorance, irrationality) accounting for the divergences between preference and happiness, the question of representing the preference of an individual by a utility function is discussed, taking account of lexicographic ordering, imperfect discrimination and the corresponding concepts of semiorder and sub-semiorder. Methods to improve upon the interpersonal comparability of measures of happiness such as pinning down the dividing line of zero happiness and the use of a just perceivable increment of happiness are discussed. The relation of social welfare to individual welfare (i.e. happiness) is then considered. Some reasonable set of axioms ensuring that social welfare is a separable function of and indeed an unweighted sum of individual welfares are reviewed. Finally, happiness is regarded as a function of objective, institutional and subjective factors; an interdisciplinary approach is needed even for an incomplete analysis.     

Lie algebraic characterization of manifolds

Results on characterization of manifolds in terms of certain Lie algebras growing on them, especially Lie algebras of differential operators, are reviewed and extended. In particular, we prove that a smooth (real-analytic, Stein) manifold is characterized by the corresponding Lie algebra of linear differential operators, i.e. isomorphisms of such Lie algebras are induced by the appropriate class of diffeomorphisms of the underlying manifolds. The research of Janusz Grabowski supported by the Polish Ministry of Scientific Research and Information Technology under the grant No. 2 P03A 020 24, that of Norbert Poncin by grant C.U.L./02/010.     

Cocyclic Codes of Length 40

There are 5 groups of order 20. This paper reports on the search for binary self-dual codes of length 40, cocyclic over any one of the first four groups, using cocyclic Hadamard matrices and the [I, A] construction. The fifth group is not investigated here. A total of 28 classes of extremal cocyclic self-dual codes were found—27 of these are doubly-even and one singly-even. The majority of these classes arise from the dihedral-cocyclic Hadamard matrices. There is also a class of dihedral-cocyclic Hadamard matrices which gives a large collection of [40, 20] codes with only one codeword of length 4.     

The use of phase portraits to visualize and investigate isolated singular points of complex functions

ABSTRACT

Undergraduate students usually study Laurent series in a standard course of Complex Analysis. One of the major applications of Laurent series is the classification of isolated singular points of complex functions. Although students are able to find series representations of functions, they may struggle to understand the meaning of the behaviour of the function near isolated singularities. In this paper, I briefly describe the method of domain colouring to create enhanced phase portraits to visualize and study isolated singularities of complex functions. Ultimately this method for plotting complex functions might help to enhance students' insight, in the spirit of learning by experimentation. By analysing the representations of singularities and the behaviour of the functions near their singularities, students can make conjectures and test them mathematically, which can help to create significant connections between visual representations, algebraic calculations and abstract mathematical concepts.     

Survey on path and cycle embedding in some networks

To find a cycle (resp. path) of a given length in a graph is the cycle (resp. path) embedding problem. To find cycles of all lengths from its girth to its order in a graph is the pancyclic problem. A stronger concept than the pancylicity is the panconnectivity. A graph of order n is said to be panconnected if for any pair of different vertices x and y with distance d there exist xy-paths of every length from d to n. The pancyclicity or the panconnectivity is an important property to determine if the topology of a network is suitable for some applications where mapping cycles or paths of any length into the topology of the network is required. The pancyclicity and the panconnectivity of interconnection networks have attracted much research interest in recent years. A large amount of related work appeared in the literature, with some repetitions. The purpose of this paper is to give a survey of the results related to these topics for the hypercube and some hypercube-like networks.      

On a class of Riemann surfaces

It is considered the class of Riemann surfaces with dimT1 = 0, where T1 is a subclass of exact harmonic forms which is one of the factors in the orthogonal decomposition of the spaceΩH of harmonic forms of the surface, namely The surfaces in the class OHD and the class of planar surfaces satisfy dimT1 = 0. A.Pfluger posed the question whether there might exist other surfaces outside those two classes. Here it is shown that in the case of finite genus g, we should look for a surface S with dimT1 = 0 among the surfaces of the form Sg\K , where Sg is a closed surface of genus g and K a compact set of positive harmonic measure with perfect components and very irregular boundary.     

Boundary-Value Problems of the Theory of Thin and Nonthin Orthotropic Shells with Account of Nonlinearly Elastic Properties and Low Shear Rigidity of Composite Materials

The basic geometric and physical relations and resolving equations of the theory of thin and nonthin orthotropic composite shells with account of nonlinear properties and low shear rigidity of their materials are presented. They are derived based on two theories, namely the theory of anisotropic shells employing the Timoshenko or Kirchhoff-Love hypothesis and the nonlinear theory of elasticity and plasticity of anisotropic media in combination with the Lagrange variational principle. The procedure and algorithm for the numerical solution of nonlinear (linear) problems are based on the method of successive approximations, the difference-variational method, and the Lagrange multiplier method. Calculations of the stress-strain state for a spherical shell with a circular opening loaded with internal pressure are presented. The effect of transverse shear strains and physical nonlinearity of the material on the distribution of maximum deflections and circumferential stresses in the shell, obtained according to two variants of the shell theories, is studied. A comparison of the results of the problem solution in linear and nonlinear statements with and without account of the shell shear strains is given. The numerical data obtained for thin and nonthin (medium thick) composite shells are analyzed.     

Absolute Continuity of Measures in the Class of Markov and Semi-Markov Processes of Diffusion Type

The property of absolute continuity of measures in the class of one-dimensional semi-Markov processes of diffusion type is investigated. The measure of such a process can be composed of two measures. The first one is a distribution of a random track, and the second one is a conditional distribution of a time run along the track. The desired density is represented in the form of product of two corresponding densities.     

Torsional vibrations and dispersion of torsional waves in orthotropic composite rods

The Barr’s refined theory of torsional vibrations of isotropic rods of noncircular cross section is generalized for an orthotropic material. An analysis of natural frequencies of torsional vibration of free-free orthotropic prismatic rods of rectangular cross section is carried out with the help of an exact solution of the frequency equation. For orthotropic CFRP and GFRP rods, the improved theory, which takes into account the normal stresses and inertia forces in the axial direction, in some cases, predicts a noticeable raise in the natural frequencies compared with those following from the Saint-Venant classical theory. A good agreement is obtained between the experimental and calculated values of natural frequencies of torsional vibrations of rectangular quartz and fiber glass rods. The dispersion of torsional waves in an orthotropic quasi-homogeneous rod is considered. __________ Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 165–182, March–April, 2008.     

Comparison principle and analogues of the phragmen—lindelöf theorem for solutions of parabolic inequalities

It is well known that a Monotonicity Condition and a Coerciveness Condition principally lie in the basis of most results of the Theory of PDE's. The necessity of these important assumptions for the validity of a comparison principle and analogues of the Phragmen-Lindelöf theorem for solutions of quasilinear parabolic inequalities is discussed in the paper. In the first part of the work we introduce a new concept of monotonicity for nonlinear differential operators-nonlinear monotonicity concept-and on its basis we obtain new phenomena for solutions, subsolutions and supersolutions of the well-known quasilinear differential equations. In the second part we omit the current coerciveness condition and change it by a weaker one. In spite of this we obtain a series of new qualitative properties of solutions for wide classes of quasilinear parabolic inequalities. Most of these properties are also new for solutions of the well-known equations, which we consider in the paper.     

Finding Optimal Targets for Change Agents: A Computer Simulation of Innovation Diffusion

We introduce a diffusion of innovation model based on a network threshold approach. Realistic network and threshold data were gathered regarding the diffusion of new software tools within part of a large organization. Novel model features are a second threshold for innovation rejection and a memory that allows actors to take trends into account. Computer simulations produce expected outcomes, such as the S-shaped diffusion curve, but also diffusion breakdown and oscillations. We define and compute the quality of change agent targets in terms of the impact targeted actors have on the diffusion process. Our simulations reveal considerable variance in the quality of actors as change agent targets. Certain actors can be singled out as especially important to the diffusion process. Small changes in the distribution of thresholds and changes in some parameters, such as the sensitivity for trends, lead to significant changes in the target quality measure. To illustrate these interdependencies we outline how the impact of an actor targeted by a change agent spreads through the network. We thus can explain why a good change agent target does not necessarily need to be an opinion leader. Simulations comparing the effectiveness of randomly selected targets versus a group of good change agent targets indicate that the selection of good targets can accelerate innovation diffusion.     

Paths and cycles of hypergraphs

Hypergraphs are the most general structures in discrete mathematics. Acyclic hypergraphs have been proved very useful in relational databases. New systems of axioms for paths, connectivity and cycles of hypergraphs are constructed. The systems suit the structure properties of relational databases. The concepts of pseudo cycles and essential cycles of hypergraphs are introduced. They are relative to each other. Whether a family of cycles of a hypergraph is dependent or independent is defined. An enumeration formula for the maximum number of independent essential cycles of a hypergraph is given.     

Structural constraints on communication: The diffusion of the homomorphic signal analysis technique through scientific fields

Within an organizational environment there are a variety of communication channels through which information can and does diffuse. One's view about the nature of information affects which type of communication channel is expected to be most effective for diffusion. Further, each type of communication channel defines a structure within the organization. In order to determine the relative impact of various communication channels on the diffusion of information within science the diffusion of a particular method, Homomorphic Signal Analysis, is explored relative to a set of organizational structures for the relevant scientific community. Findings include the following. Methods, as information, have a map rather than a grammatical production nature. Consequently, organizational structures that combine both shared knowledge and potential for interaction are most effective in the diffusion of methods. Generalist journals and the working connections between opinion leaders play dominant roles in the diffusion of methods.     

Schreier rewriting beyond the classical setting

Using actions of free monoids and free associative algebras, we establish some Schreiertype formulas involving ranks of actions and ranks of subactions in free actions or Grassmann-type relations for the ranks of intersections of subactions of free actions. The coset action of the free group is used to establish a generalization of the Schreier formula in the case of subgroups of infinite index. We also study and apply large modules over free associative and free group algebras. This work was supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Grant No. 227060-04), Yuri Bahturin, National Science Foundation (Grant No. DMS-0700811) and Russian Fund for Basic Research (Grant No. 08-01-00573), Alexander Olshanskii