What is a design? How should we classify them?

Design theory crosses the boundary between mathematics and statistics, and includes a wide range of disparate types of design. In this paper we present a classification scheme which aims to include as many important types as possible, based on a balance among concept, representation and use.     

New isothermal equation of state of solids applied to high pressures

In the present paper, a new two-parameter inverted equation of state (EOS) is developed which is found to be working very well in the high-pressure region. To check its success and validity, this EOS has been applied in a number of solids. The computed volume compression is found to be in very good agreement with the experimental data in the whole range of pressure in all the solids. The minimum and the maximum pressure range used in the present study is 0–320 kbar and 0–3000 kbar, respectively.     

Asymptotic conditions for the electromagnetic form factors of hadrons represented by the VMD model

A system of linear homogeneous algebraic equations for the coupling constant ratios of vector mesons to hadrons is derived by imposing the assumed asymptotic behavior upon the VMD pole parameterization of an hadron electromagnetic form factor. A similar system of equations with a simpler structure of the coefficients, taken as even powers of the vector-meson masses, is derived by means of integral superconvergent sum rules for the imaginary part of the considered form factor using its appropriate -function approximation. Although both systems have been derived starting from different properties of the electromagnetic form factor and they each have their own appearances, it is shown explicitly that they are fully equivalent. Received: 20 March 2002 / Revised version: 3 December 2002 / Published online: 7 March 2003     

Vanishing of local homology

 We study the vanishing properties of local homology of complexes of modules without assuming that its homology is artinian. Using vanishing results for local homology and cohomology we prove new vanishing results for Ext- and Tor-modules. Received: 1 August 2002; in final form: 23 September 2002 / Published online: 16 May 2003 Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 13C12, 13D07, 13D45.     

A column generation approach for the timetabling problem of Greek high schools

A column generation (CG) approach for the solution of timetabling problems is presented. This methodology could be used for various instances of the timetabling problem, although in this paper the solution of the high-school situation in Greece is presented. The results obtained show clearly that the CG approach that has been extremely successful in recent years in the solution of airline crew scheduling problems could also be very efficient and robust for the solution of timetabling problems. Several large timetabling problems corresponding to real problems have been successfully solved, with the solutions obtained feasible and of very high quality in accordance with the problem definition. In addition, none of the solutions contained any idle hour for any of the teachers, which was one of the main goals of this optimization effort.     

20-relative neighborhood graphs are hamiltonian

For any two points p and q in the Euclidean plane, define LUN_pq = { v | v ∈ R², d_pv < d_pq and d_qv < d_pq}, where d_uv is the Euclidean distance between two points u and v . Given a set of points V in the plane, let LUN_pq(V) = V ∩ LUN_pq. Toussaint defined the relative neighborhood graph of V, denoted by RNG(V) or simply RNG, to be the undirected graph with vertices V such that for each pair p,q ∈ V, (p,q) is an edge of RNG(V) if and only if LUN_pq (V) = ?. The relative neighborhood graph has several applications in pattern recognition that have been studied by Toussaint. We shall generalize the idea of RNG to define the k-relative neighborhood graph of V, denoted by kRNG(V) or simply kRNG, to be the undirected graph with vertices V such that for each pair p,q ∈ V, (p,q) is an edge of kRNG(V) if and only if | LUN_pq(V) | < k, for some fixed positive number k. It can be shown that the number of edges of a kRNG is less than O(kn). Also, a kRNG can be constructed in O(kn₂) time. Let E_c = {e_pq| p ∈ V and q ∈ V}. Then G_c = (V,E_c) is a complete graph. For any subset F of E_c, define the maximum distance of F as max_epq∈Fd_pq. A Euclidean bottleneck Hamiltonian cycle is a Hamiltonian cycle in graph G_c whose maximum distance is the minimum among all Hamiltonian cycles in graph G_c. We shall prove that there exists a Euclidean bottleneck Hamiltonian cycle which is a subgraph of 20RNG(V). Hence, 20RNGs are Hamiltonian.     

Synthesis of 5-azaadenine derivatives from N-(1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)amidines

A method is proposed for the synthesis of N-substituted 5-azaadenines. The condensation of N-(1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)amidines with trichloroacetonitrile gives trichloromethyl derivatives of 1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]-1,3,5-triazines, which are converted by the action of primary or secondary amines into N-alkylamino- or N,N-dialkylamino-1,2,4-triazolo-[1,5-a]-1,3,5-triazines (5-azaadenines).Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1, pp. 241–243, January, 1991.     

The existence of equilibria in certain games,separation for families of convex functions and a theorem of Borsuk-Ulam type

The existence of a Nash equilibrium in the undiscounted repeated two-person game of incomplete information on one side is established. The proof depends on a new topological result resembling in some respect the Borsuk-Ulam theorem.     

Note on a conjecture of toft

A conjecture of Toft [17] asserts that any 4-critical graph (or equivalently, every 4-chromatic graph) contains a fully odd subdivision ofK ₄. We show that if a graphG has a degree three nodev such thatG-v is 3-colourable, then eitherG is 3-colourable or it contains a fully oddK ₄. This resolves Toft's conjecture in the special case where a 4-critical graph has a degree three node, which is in turn used to prove the conjecture for line-graphs. The proof is constructive and yields a polynomial algorithm which given a 3-degenerate graph either finds a 3-colouring or exhibits a subgraph that is a fully odd subdivision ofK ₄. (A graph is 3-degenerate if every subgraph has some node of degree at most three.)