Geostatistical computing of acoustic maps in the presence of barriers

Acoustic maps are the main diagnostic tools used by authorities for addressing the growing problem of urban acoustic contamination. Geostatistics models phenomena with spatial variation, but restricted to homogeneous prediction regions. The presence of barriers such as buildings introduces discontinuities in prediction areas. In this paper we investigate how to incorporate information of a geographical nature into the process of geostatistical prediction. In addition, we study the use of a Cost-Based distance to quantify the correlation between locations.     

Computer-aided design of nanostructured materials containing trisaza-bridged [60]fullerene

A novel fullerene-based building block for the synthesis of nanostructured materials has been designed with the aid of electronic structure theory calculations and molecular modeling. The building block consists of four trisaza-bridged C₆₀ fullerene molecules linked to a central cubane (C₈) unit. Each C₆₀ unit is located on the vertex of a tetrahedron with edge of 2.2 nm. One possible packing mode of the building blocks to yield the nanostructured material is suggested.     

Characterizing PSPACE with pointers

This paper gives an implicit characterization of the class of functions computable in polynomial space by deterministic Turing machines – PSPACE. It gives an inductive characterization of PSPACE with no ad‐hoc initial functions and with only one recursion scheme. The main novelty of this characterization is the use of pointers (also called path information) to reach PSPACE. The presence of the pointers in the recursion on notation scheme is the main difference between this characterization of PSPACE and the well‐known Bellantoni‐Cook characterization of the polytime functions – PTIME. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Quantum mechanical ab initio simulation of the electron screening effect in metal deuteride crystals

In antecedent experiments the electron screening energies of the d+d reactions in metallic environments have been determined to be enhanced by an order of magnitude in comparison to the case of gaseous deuterium targets. The analytical models describing averaged material properties have not been able to explain the experimental results so far. Therefore, a first effort has been undertaken to simulate the dynamics of reacting deuterons in a metallic lattice by means of an ab initio Hartree-Fock calculation of the total electrostatic force between the lattice and the successively approaching deuterons via path integration. The calculations have been performed for Li and Ta, clearly showing a migration of electrons from host metallic to the deuterium atoms. However, in order to avoid more of the necessary simplifications in the model the utilization of a massive parallel supercomputer would be required.     

A comparative study of modeling and solution approaches for the coordinated lot-size problem with dynamic demand

In the coordinated lot-size problem, a major setup cost is incurred when at least one member of a product family is produced and a minor setup cost for each different item produced. This research consolidates the various modeling and algorithmic approaches reported in the literature for the coordinated replenishment problem with deterministic dynamic demand. For the two most effective approaches, we conducted extensive computational experiments investigating the quality of the lower bound associated with the model’s linear programming relaxation and the computational efficiency of the algorithmic approaches when used to find heuristic and optimal solutions. Our findings indicate the superiority of the plant location type problem formulation over the traditional approach that views the problem as multiple single-item Wagner and Whitin problems that are coupled by major setup costs. Broader implications of the research suggest that other classes of deterministic dynamic demand lot-size problems may also be more effectively modeled and solved by adapting plant location type models and algorithms.     

Universality in two‐dimensional enhancement percolation

We consider a type of dependent percolation introduced in 2 , where it is shown that certain “enhancements” of independent (Bernoulli) percolation, called essential, make the percolation critical probability strictly smaller. In this study we first prove that, for two‐dimensional enhancements with a natural monotonicity property, being essential is also a necessary condition to shift the critical point. We then show that (some) critical exponents and the scaling limit of crossing probabilities of a two‐dimensional percolation process are unchanged if the process is subjected to a monotonic enhancement that is not essential. This proves a form of universality for all dependent percolation models obtained via a monotonic enhancement (of Bernoulli percolation) that does not shift the critical point. For the case of site percolation on the triangular lattice, we also prove a stronger form of universality by showing that the full scaling limit 12 , 13 is not affected by any monotonic enhancement that does not shift the critical point. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2008     

Computational methods in lattice-subspaces of with applications in portfolio insurance

In this article, we develop a computational method for an algorithmic process first posed by Polyrakis in 1996 in order to check whether a finite collection of linearly independent positive functions in C[a,b] forms a lattice-subspace. Lattice-subspaces are closely related to a cost minimization problem in the theory of finance that ensures the minimum-cost insured portfolio and this connection is further investigated here. Finally, we propose a computational method in order to solve the minimization problem and to calculate the minimum-cost insured portfolio. All of the numerical work is performed using the Matlab high-level language.     

The computational complexity of basic decision problems in 3-dimensional topology

We study the computational complexity of basic decision problems of 3-dimensional topology, such as to determine whether a triangulated 3-manifold is irreducible, prime, ∂-irreducible, or homeomorphic to a given 3-manifold M. For example, we prove that the problem to recognize whether a triangulated 3-manifold is homeomorphic to a 3-sphere, or to a 2-sphere bundle over a circle, or to a real projective 3-space, or to a handlebody of genus g, is decidable in nondeterministic polynomial time (NP) of size of the triangulation. We also show that the problem to determine whether a triangulated orientable 3-manifold is irreducible (or prime) is in PSPACE and whether it is ∂-irreducible is in coNP. The proofs improve and extend arguments of prior author’s article on the recognition problem for the 3-sphere.