What is the optimal cutoff surface for ore bodies with more than one mineral?

In mine planning problems, cutoff grade optimization defines a threshold at every time period such that material above this value is processed, and the rest is considered waste. In orebodies with multiple minerals, which occur in practice, the natural extension is to consider a cutoff surface. We show that in two dimensions the optimal solution is a line, and in n dimensions it is a hyperplane.     

Mechanism of BPh3-Catalyzed N-Methylation of Amines with CO2 and Phenylsilane: Cooperative Activation of Hydrosilane

BPh₃ catalyzes the N-methylation of secondary amines and the C-methylenation (methylene-bridge formation between aromatic rings) of N,N-dimethylanilines or 1-methylindoles in the presence of CO₂ and PhSiH₃; these reactions proceed at 30–40 °C under solvent-free conditions. In contrast, B(C₆F₅)₃ shows little or no activity. ¹¹B NMR spectra suggested the generation of [HBPh₃]⁻. The detailed mechanism of the BPh₃-catalyzed N-methylation of N-methylaniline ( 1 ) with CO₂ and PhSiH₃ was studied by using DFT calculations. BPh₃ promotes the conversion of two substrates (N-methylaniline and CO₂) into a zwitterionic carbamate to give three-component species [Ph(Me)(H)N⁺CO₂⁻⋅⋅⋅BPh₃]. The carbamate and BPh₃ act as the nucleophile and Lewis acid, respectively, for the activation of PhSiH₃ to generate [HBPh₃]⁻, which is used to produce key CO₂-derived species, such as silyl formate and bis(silyl)acetal, essential for the N-methylation of 1 . DFT calculations also suggested other mechanisms involving water for the generation of [HBPh₃]⁻ species.     

白云石制备似立方体状方解石型碳酸钙晶体及其机理研究

以轻烧白云石粉、氯化铵和二氧化碳为原料,在未使用晶型控制剂的情况下,通过蒸氨-沉钙过程制备出了似立方体状碳酸钙。研究了反应温度、溶液中钙离子浓度、通气速率、搅拌速度以及陈化时间对碳酸钙中方解石相含量以及晶体形貌的影响,并探索了沉钙反应的晶型控制机理。结果表明,在反应温度40 ℃、钙离子浓度0.05 mol/L、通碳速率100 mL/min、搅拌速度400 r/min和陈化时间2 h的条件下,制备出形貌规整、粒径分布均匀的似立方体状碳酸钙,平均粒径为5~10 μm。该研究为提升白云石的使用价值、生产高附加价值的碳酸钙产品,以及提高白云石资源的利用率提供理论基础。     

Conformational change-modulated spin transport at single-molecule level in carbon systems

Controlling the spin transport at the single-molecule level, especially without the use of ferromagnetic contacts, becomes a focus of research in spintronics. Inspired by the progress on atomic-level molecular synthesis, through first-principles calculations, we investigate the spin-dependent electronic transport of graphene nanoflakes with side-bonded functional groups, contacted by atomic carbon chain electrodes. It is found that, by rotating the functional group, the spin polarization of the transmission at the Fermi level could be switched between completely polarized and unpolarized states. Moreover, the transition between spin-up and spin-down polarized states can also be achieved, operating as a dual-spin filter. Further analysis shows that, it is the spin-dependent shift of density of states, caused by the rotation, that triggers the shift of transmission peaks, and then results in the variation of spin polarization. Such a feature is found to be robust to the length of the nanoflake and the electrode material, showing great application potential. Those findings may throw light on the development of spintronic devices.     

Group completion in the K-theory and Grothendieck–Witt theory of proto-exact categories

We study the algebraic K-theory and Grothendieck–Witt theory of proto-exact categories, with a particular focus on classes of examples of ${\mathbb{F}}_1$-linear nature. Our main results are analogues of theorems of Quillen and Schlichting, relating the K-theory or Grothendieck–Witt theory spaces of proto-exact categories defined using the (hermitian) Q-construction and group completion.     

Collective Strategy Condensation: When Envy Splits Societies

Human societies are characterized by three constituent features, besides others. (A) Options, as for jobs and societal positions, differ with respect to their associated monetary and non-monetary payoffs. (B) Competition leads to reduced payoffs when individuals compete for the same option as others. (C) People care about how they are doing relatively to others. The latter trait—the propensity to compare one’s own success with that of others—expresses itself as envy. It is shown that the combination of (A)–(C) leads to spontaneous class stratification. Societies of agents split endogenously into two social classes, an upper and a lower class, when envy becomes relevant. A comprehensive analysis of the Nash equilibria characterizing a basic reference game is presented. Class separation is due to the condensation of the strategies of lower-class agents, which play an identical mixed strategy. Upper-class agents do not condense, following individualist pure strategies. The model and results are size-consistent, holding for arbitrary large numbers of agents and options. Analytic results are confirmed by extensive numerical simulations. An analogy to interacting confined classical particles is discussed.     

汽配件颜色喷涂顺序问题的TSP转化与建模

汽配件颜色喷涂顺序问题通常以生产线上相邻汽配件颜色切换次数少为最优目标,以进一步降低生产成本.该类问题具有所有汽配件都必须喷涂一次且只喷涂一次的特点,为此提出了TSP转化与建模的方法.将待喷涂汽配件定义为TSP顶点,任意两个待喷涂汽配件的颜色切换定义为顶点的距离,仿照TSP问题构建0-1规划模型;类似于顶点距离,将某些汽配件的颜色或类别不相邻要求定义为0-1矩阵,巧妙地构造了喷涂生产的约束条件.该建模方法简单快速,通用性高,适用于具有类似特点的各类生产实践问题.