Synthesis and characterization of oxidized cellulose

Samples of oxidized cellulose (OC) with various carboxyl contents and degrees of crystallinity were obtained by the oxidation of native and mercerized cellulose with a solution of nitrogen(IV) oxide in CCl₄. A detailed characterization of these OC samples was performed. The effect of oxidation conditions (concentration of N₂O₄ in the solution and oxidation time) and starting cellulose material on OC characteristics (carboxyl, carbonyl and nitrogen content, degree of crystallinity and polymerization, surface area and swelling, and acidic properties) was investigated. Reactivity in the oxidation process was higher in mercerized cellulose than in native cellulose. The action of dilute solutions (10–15%) of N₂O₄ did not affect the degree of crystallinity of cellulose samples. Under these conditions, the oxidation took place mainly in amorphous regions and on the surface of crystallites. Oxidation in a concentrated (40%) N₂O₄ solution led to the destruction of crystallites, which increased the surface area and swelling of cellulose in water. The surface area and the swelling of OC samples increased with a decrease in the index of crystallinity. The acidic properties of OC were shown to increase with an increase of swelling in water. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 4785–4791, 2004     

The canonical solution operator of $ {\bar \partial } $ on weighted spaces with holomorphic coefficients

On weighted spaces with strictly plurisubharmonic weightfunctions the canonical solution operator of and the ‐Neumann operator are bounded. In this paper we find a class of strictly plurisubharmonic weightfunctions with certain growth conditions, so that they are Hilbert‐Schmidt operators between weighted spaces with different weightfunctions, if they are restricted to forms with holomorphic coefficients. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Factorization of operator valued Lp for 0 ≤ p < 1

In [5], it is proved that a bounded linear operator u, from a Banach space Y into an L_p(S, ν) factors through L_p1 (S, ν) for some p₁ > 1, if Y* is of finite cotype; (S, ν) is a probability space for p = 0, and any measure space for 0 < p < 1. In this paper, we generalize this result to uv, where u : Y → L_p(S, ν) and v : X → Y are linear operators such that v* is of finite Ka?in cotype. This result gives also a new proof of Grothendieck's theorem. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

On many‐sorted algebraic closure operators

A theorem of Birkhoff‐Frink asserts that every algebraic closure operator on an ordinary set arises, from some algebraic structure on the set, as the corresponding generated subalgebra operator. However, for many‐sorted sets, i.e., indexed families of sets, such a theorem is not longer true without qualification. We characterize the corresponding many‐sorted closure operators as precisely the uniform algebraic operators. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Minimal expansions in redundant number systems: Fibonacci bases and Greedy algorithms

We study digit expansions with arbitrary integer digits in base q (q integer) and the Fibonacci base such that the sum of the absolute values of the digits is minimal. For the Fibonacci case, we describe a unique minimal expansion and give a greedy algorithm to compute it. Additionally, transducers to calculate minimal expansions from other expansions are given. For the case of even integer bases q, similar results are given which complement those given in [6].     

Deciding confluence of certain term rewriting systems in polynomial time

We present a characterization of confluence for term rewriting systems, which is then refined for special classes of rewriting systems. The refined characterization is used to obtain a polynomial time algorithm for deciding the confluence of ground term rewrite systems. The same approach also shows the decidability of confluence for shallow and linear term rewriting systems. The decision procedure has a polynomial time complexity under the assumption that the maximum arity of a function symbol in the signature is a constant.     

Delta and singular delta locus for one‐dimensional systems of conservation laws

This work gives a condition for existence of singular and delta shock wave solutions to Riemann problem for 2×2 systems of conservation laws. For a fixed left‐hand side value of Riemann data, the condition obtained in the paper describes a set of possible right‐hand side values. The procedure is similar to the standard one of finding the Hugoniot locus. Fluxes of the considered systems are globally Lipschitz with respect to one of the dependent variables. The association in a Colombeau‐type algebra is used as a solution concept. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.     

Artificial boundary conditions for Petrovsky systems of second order in exterior domains and in other domains of conical type

The approximation of solutions to boundary value problems on unbounded domains by those on bounded domains is one of the main applications for artificial boundary conditions. Based on asymptotic analysis, here a new method is presented to construct local artificial boundary conditions for a very general class of elliptic problems where the main asymptotic term is not known explicitly. Existence and uniqueness of approximating solutions are proved together with asymptotically precise error estimates. One class of important examples includes boundary value problems for anisotropic elasticity and piezoelectricity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Low‐gain adaptive stabilization of semilinear second‐order hyperbolic systems

In this paper low‐gain adaptive stabilization of undamped semilinear second‐order hyperbolic systems is considered in the case where the input and output operators are collocated. The linearized systems have an infinite number of poles and zeros on the imaginary axis. The adaptive stabilizer is constructed by a low‐gain adaptive velocity feedback. The closed‐loop system is governed by a non‐linear evolution equation. First, the well‐posedness of the closed‐loop system is shown. Next, an energy‐like function and a multiplier function are introduced and the exponential stability of the closed‐loop system is analysed. Some examples are given to illustrate the theory. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.