Social Limits to Planning

Professor Ackoff's planning paradigm of participation, continuity and holism is reviewed in terms of the practical problems of attempting to implement these ideal principles. His proposal of using the paradigm to design ideal-seeking systems is compared with the market-based approaches advocated by Professor Friedman. That comparison draws on Professor Hirsch's critique of the efficiency and moral content of the market and uses that critique on Professor Ackoff's suggested alternatives.     

The non-linear susceptibility of an arbitrary spin Ising model with competing interactions using an effective field approach

We present the predictions of an effective field treatment of an arbitrary spin Ising model with a Gaussian distribution of exchange coupling strengths, with emphasis on the region j < 1.0 where a spin glass state is formed. Detailed numerical calculations indicate severe limitations on the range of applied field values which can be used to extract the leading field dependence in the non-linear susceptibility above, at, and below the spin glass temperature T_SG.     

Function-Oriented and Modular (+/−)-cis-Pseudoguaianolide Synthesis: Discovery of New Nrf2 Activators and NF-κB Inhibitors

Described herein is a function-oriented synthesis route and biological evaluation of pseudoguaianolide analogues. The 10-step synthetic route developed retains the topological complexity of the natural product, installs functional handles for late-stage diversification, and forges the key bioactive Michael acceptors early in the synthesis. The analogues were found to be low-micromolar Nrf2 activators and micromolar NF-κB inhibitors and dependent on the local environment of the Michael acceptor moieties.     

Workshop on “very bright infrared sources and applications”

The study of electronic excitations by inelastic X-ray scattering (IXS) has a rich history. Very early IXS work, for example, provided seminal demonstrations of the validity of relativistic kinematics and the quantum hypothesis [1] and of Fermi-Dirac statistics [2]. While there have been many important results in the interim [3], it has been the development of the third generation light sources together with continuing innovations in the manufacture and implementation [4–6] of dispersive X-ray optics that has led to the rapid growth of IXS studies of electronic excitations.     

Is a Griffiths phase a prerequisite for colossal magnetoresistance?

Detailed measurements of the magnetic and transport behavior of the two La(1-x)Ca(x)MnO(3) single crystals exhibiting colossal magnetoresistance are summarized. The x=0.21 sample exhibits unusual exponents (delta = 20+/-1, gamma = 1.71+/-0.1, beta = 0.09+/-0.01, T(C) = 182+/-1 K) and, more importantly, a Griffiths phase characterized by an exponent lambda = 0.70+/-0.2. By contrast, the x=0.20 specimen displays Heisenberg model behavior with no evidence of such a phase. Thus while a Griffiths phase accounts for the behavior of La(1-x)Ca(x)MnO(3) near optimal doping, it does not appear to be a prerequisite for colossal magnetoresistance in this system.     

Role of polydispersity in anomalous interactions in electrostatically levitated colloidal systems

In this paper, we investigate the effects of using inverse analyses developed for monodisperse particles to extract particle-particle and particle-surface potentials from simulated interfacial colloidal configurations having finite-size polydispersity. Forward Monte Carlo simulations are used to generate three-dimensional equilibrium configurations of log normal-distributed polydisperse particles confined by gravity near an underlying surface. Particles remain levitated above the substrate and stabilized against aggregation by repulsive electrostatic Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek pair potentials. An inverse Ornstein-Zernike analysis and an inverse Monte Carlo simulation method are used to obtain interactions from simulated distribution functions as a function of polydispersity (sigma), relative range of repulsion (kappa a), and projected interfacial concentration (rho). Both inverse analyses successfully recover input potentials for all monodisperse cases, but fail for polydispersities often encountered in experiments. For different conditions (sigma, kappa a, and rho), our results indicate softened short-range repulsion, anomalous long-range attraction, and apparent particle overlaps, which are similar to commonly reported observations in optical microscopy measurements of quasi-two-dimensional interfacial colloidal ensembles. By demonstrating signatures of, and limitations due to, polydispersity when extracting pair potentials from measured distribution functions, our specific goal is to provide a basis to objectively interpret and resolve the effects of polydispersity in optical microscopy experiments.     

Closure-based density functional theory applied to interfacial colloidal fluids

The behavior of dense colloidal fluids near surfaces can now be probed in great detail with experimental techniques like confocal microscopy. In fact, we are approaching a point where quantitative comparisons of experiment with particle-level theory, such as classical density functional theory (DFT), are appropriate. In a forward sense, we may use a known surface potential to predict a particle density distribution function from DFT; in an inverse sense, we may use an experimentally measured particle density distribution function to predict the underlying surface potential from DFT. In this paper, we tested the ability of the closure-based DFT of Zhou and Ruckenstein (J. Chem. Phys. 2000, 112, 8079-8082) to perform forward and inverse calculations on potential models commonly employed for colloidal particles and surfaces. To reduce sources of uncertainty in this initial study, Monte Carlo simulation results played the role of experimental data. The combination of Rogers-Young and modified-Verlet closures consistently performed well across the different potential models. For a reasonable range of choices of the density, temperature, and potential parameters, the inversion procedure yielded particle-surface potentials to an accuracy on the order of 0.1kT.     

Fixed point theorems of upper semicontinuous multivalued mappings with applications in hyperconvex metric spaces

In the present paper, we establish two fixed point theorems for upper semicontinuous multivalued mappings in hyperconvex metric spaces and apply these to study coincidence point problems and minimax problems.