Novel complex phenomena in ferroelectric nanocomposites

A first-principles-based effective Hamiltonian is used to investigate finite-temperature properties of ferroelectric nanocomposites made of periodic arrays of ferroelectric nanowires embedded in a matrix formed by another ferroelectric material. Novel transitions and features related to flux-closure configurations are found. Examples include (i)?a vortex core transition, that is characterized by the change of the vortex cores from being axisymmetric to exhibiting a 'broken symmetry'; (ii)?translational mode of the vortex cores; (iii)?striking zigzag dipolar chains along the vortex core axis; and (iv)?phase-locking of ferroelectric vortices accompanied by ferroelectric antivortices. These complex phenomena are all found to coexist with a spontaneous electrical polarization aligned along the normal of the plane containing the vortices.     

Constraint programming for stochastic inventory systems under shortage cost

One of the most important policies adopted in inventory control is the replenishment cycle policy. Such a policy provides an effective means of damping planning instability and coping with demand uncertainty. In this paper we develop a constraint programming approach able to compute optimal replenishment cycle policy parameters under non-stationary stochastic demand, ordering, holding and shortage costs. We show how in our model it is possible to exploit the convexity of the cost-function during the search to dynamically compute bounds and perform cost-based filtering. Our computational experience show the effectiveness of our approach. Furthermore, we use the optimal solutions to analyze the quality of the solutions provided by an existing approximate mixed integer programming approach that exploits a piecewise linear approximation for the cost function.     

Synthesis,characterization and coordination chemistry of substituted β-amino dicarbonyls

An efficient and facile method for the synthesis of novel structurally diverse β-amino dicarbonyl compounds is described by exploring the aza-Michael addition reaction in an aqueous medium as a key step. Thereby, 2-(aryl-disubstituted-amino-1-yl-methyl)-malonic acid diethyl esters were achieved in a good to excellent yields. These products were easily isolated with enough purity just by using simple recrystallization. The crystals of the compounds (17) and (24) have been obtained and studied by X-ray crystallographic analyses.     

New Cu-based catalysts supported on TiO2 films for Ullmann S(N)Ar-type C-O coupling reactions

New routes for the preparation of highly active TiO(2)-supported Cu and CuZn catalysts have been developed for C-O coupling reactions. Slurries of a titania precursor were dip-coated onto glass beads to obtain either structured mesoporous or non-porous titania thin films. The Cu and CuZn nanoparticles, synthesized using a reduction by solvent method, were deposited onto calcined films to obtain a Cu loading of 2 wt%. The catalysts were characterized by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy, temperature-programmed oxidation/reduction (TPO/TPR) techniques, (63)Cu nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM-EDX) and X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS). The activity and stability of the catalysts obtained have been studied in the C-O Ullmann coupling of 4-chloropyridine and potassium phenolate. The titania-supported nanoparticles retained catalyst activity for up to 12 h. However, catalyst deactivation was observed for longer operation times due to oxidation of the Cu nanoparticles. The oxidation rate could be significantly reduced over the CuZn/TiO(2) catalytic films due to the presence of Zn. The 4-phenoxypyridine yield was 64% on the Cu/nonporous TiO(2) at 120 °C. The highest product yield of 84% was obtained on the Cu/mesoporous TiO(2) at 140 °C, corresponding to an initial reaction rate of 104 mmol g(cat) (-1) s(-1). The activation energy on the Cu/mesoporous TiO(2) catalyst was found to be (144±5) kJ mol(-1), which is close to the value obtained for the reaction over unsupported CuZn nanoparticles (123±3 kJ mol(-1)) and almost twice the value observed over the catalysts deposited onto the non-porous TiO(2) support (75±2 kJ mol(-1)).     

Numerical simulations of water–gas flow in heterogeneous porous media with discontinuous capillary pressures by the concept of global pressure

We present an approach and numerical results for a new formulation modeling immiscible compressible two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media with discontinuous capillary pressures. The main feature of this model is the introduction of a new global pressure, and it is fully equivalent to the original equations. The resulting equations are written in a fractional flow formulation and lead to a coupled degenerate system which consists of a nonlinear parabolic (the global pressure) equation and a nonlinear diffusion–convection one (the saturation equation) with nonlinear transmission conditions at the interfaces that separate different media. The resulting system is discretized using a vertex-centred finite volume method combined with pressure and flux interface conditions for the treatment of heterogeneities. An implicit Euler approach is used for time discretization. A Godunov-type method is used to treat the convection terms, and the diffusion terms are discretized by piecewise linear conforming finite elements. We present numerical simulations for three one-dimensional benchmark tests to demonstrate the ability of the method to approximate solutions of water–gas equations efficiently and accurately in nuclear underground waste disposal situations.     

Radial orthogonality and Lebesgue constants on the disk

In polynomial interpolation, the choice of the polynomial basis and the location of the interpolation points play an important role numerically, even more so in the multivariate case. We explore the concept of spherical orthogonality for multivariate polynomials in more detail on the disk. We focus on two items: on the one hand the construction of a fully orthogonal cartesian basis for the space of multivariate polynomials starting from this sequence of spherical orthogonal polynomials, and on the other hand the connection between these orthogonal polynomials and the Lebesgue constant in multivariate polynomial interpolation on the disk. We point out the many links of the two topics under discussion with the existing literature. The new results are illustrated with an example of polynomial interpolation and approximation on the unit disk. The numerical example is also compared with the popular radial basis function interpolation.     

Methyl 3‐para‐anisyl‐4‐(2‐hydroxy­benzoyl)­isoxazole‐5‐carboxyl­ate

The title compound, C₁₉H₁₅NO₆, contains a planar isoxazole ring. An intramolecular hydrogen bond is formed between the OH group attached to a phenyl ring and a carbonyl O atom.     

Hybrid Modelling for Robust Solving

We study a balanced academic curriculum problem and an industrial steel mill slab design problem. These problems can be modelled in different ways, using both Integer Linear Programming (ILP) and Constraint Programming (CP) techniques. We consider the utility of each model. We also propose integrating the models to create hybrids that benefit from the complementary strengths of each model. Experimental results show that hybridization significantly increases the domain pruning and decreases the run-time on many instances. Furthermore, a CP/ILP hybrid model gives a more robust performance in the face of varying instance data.     

Characterization of the flow for a single fluid in an excavation damaged zoneCaractérisation de l'écoulement d'un fluide monophasique en zone endommagée

The aim of this Note is to quantify the change of characteristics of the media of an Excavated Damaged Zone (EDZ) affected by several fractures. For this, we consider Darcy flow through matrix blocks and fractures with permeability of order ε²δ^θ and 1 respectively. ε is the size of a typical porous block, δ representing the relative size of the fracture and θ is a parameter characterising the permeability ratio. We derive the global behavior from the limit as ε and δ tend to zero. The resulting homogenized equation is of dual-porosity type for θ=2, but it is a simple-porosity model with effective coefficients for θ>2, and there is no flow at the macroscopic level when 0<θ<2. To cite this article: B. Amaziane et al., C. R. Mecanique 332 (2004).