Radiochemistry in chemistry and chemistry related undergraduate programmes in Argentina

Summary The evolution of education in Argentina at the university level is described. The detailed search of the educational offer shows that less than half of the universities (35 out of 92) include chemistry and chemistry related undergraduate programmes in their curriculum. The revision of the position of radiochemistry in these programmes reveals that only seven courses on radiochemistry are currently offered. Radiochemistry is included only in few programmes in chemistry and biochemistry. With respect to the programmes in chemical engineering the situation is worse. This offer is strongly concentrated in Buenos Aires and its surroundings.     

Almost global existence for Hamiltonian semilinear Klein‐Gordon equations with small Cauchy data on Zoll manifolds

This paper is devoted to the proof of almost global existence results for Klein‐Gordon equations on Zoll manifolds (e.g., spheres of arbitrary dimension) with Hamiltonian nonlinearities, when the Cauchy data are smooth and small. The proof relies on Birkhoff normal form methods and on the specific distribution of eigenvalues of the Laplacian perturbed by a potential on Zoll manifolds. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Developing professional judgement with the aid of a ‘low-profile’ group support system

This paper reports positive results from an application of one type of group support system (GSS) to a training application. Reviews of the findings of other trials of GSS have been mixed, and inconclusive. We describe the results of a series of seven training sessions in a field-based application of group process support. The subjects were professionals working in various agencies concerned with the welfare of older people. A ‘low-profile’ type of group support system, based on wireless handsets, was used. This design enabled responses from each participant to be input and displayed anonymously. Each session was aimed at stimulating a dialogue focused on the reasons for differences of judgement, as displayed on a single projected feedback screen. Changes of individual judgements were recorded for subsequent analysis and comparison with already known ‘expert judgements’. Frequent changes of judgement were recorded. A significant proportion of these were related to an improvement, which could not be explained as simply the result of conforming behaviour. We propose that the mode of operation and design of a ‘low-profile’ GSS have the potential to create a learning environment by reducing personal anxieties while encouraging group-based learning with focussed conversation. We conclude that this type of GSS design is particularly suited to ‘selective’-type tasks in groups.     

On Lattices of Uniformities

We study lattice theoretical properties of lattices of uniformities such as modularity, distributive laws and the existence of (relative) complements. For this the concepts of permutable uniformities (see Definition 3.1) and independent uniformities (see Definition 4.1) are important. Moreover, we show that e.g. the lattice of all lattice uniformities on a lattice L is a closed sublattice of the lattice of all uniformities on L.     

Condensation film on an inclined rotating disk

The three dimensional problem of steady fluid deposition on an inclined rotating disk is solved by similarity transform. For a given spraying rate there may be one, two or no steady state solution. The inclination causes a downward draining flow and a lateral flow. Perturbation solutions compare well with exact similarity solutions when the fluid film is thin.     

Zn-doping effect on the energy barrier to magnetization reversal in superparamagnetic nickel ferrite nanoparticles

Measurements of ac-susceptibility and dc-magnetization were carried out on samples of Ni_1-xZn_xFe₂O₄ nanoparticles (x=0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75) with average diameters 〈D〉≈7 nm. Values of the superparamagnetic blocking temperature T̄_B were obtained from the characteristic temperature behavior of the imaginary susceptibility χ_imag. An Arrhenius-type law, which accurately describes the relationship between the observation time τ_obs and the blocking temperature, was used to determine the effective energy barrier to magnetization reversal U_eff. A Zn-content dependence of the energy barrier is observed, where U_eff changes little for 0≤x≤0.25, it peaks at x=0.5, and decreases back upon further Zn-doping. The large increase of U_eff at x=0.5 is attributed to an enhanced magnetic anisotropy induced by the crossover between two spatial arrangements of spins in the A and B sub-lattices of the ferrimagnetic inverse spinel. PACS 75.50.Bb; 75.50.Gg; 75.30.Et     

Quotient probabilistic normed spaces and completeness results

We introduce the concept of quotient in PN spaces and give some examples. We prove some theorems with regard to the completeness of a quotient.     

Order conditions for linearly implicit fractional step Runge Kutta methods

^{In this paper, we study the consistency of a variant of fractionalstep Runge–Kutta methods. These methods are designed tointegrate efficiently semi-linear multidimensional parabolicproblems by means of linearly implicit time integration processes.Such time discretization procedures are also related to a splittingof the space differential operator (or the spatial discretizationof it) as a sum of ‘simpler’ linear differentialoperators and a nonlinear term.}     

A dynamic scorecard for monitoring baseline performance with application to tracking a mortgage portfolio

A principled technique for monitoring the performance of a consumer credit scorecard through time is derived from Kalman filtering. Standard approaches sporadically compare certain characteristics of the new applicants with those predicted from the scorecard. The new approach systematically updates the scorecard combining new applicant information with the previous best estimate. The dynamically updated scorecard is tracked through time and compared to limits calculated by sequential simulation from the baseline scorecard. The observation equation of the Kalman filter is tailored to take the results of fitting local scorecards by logistic regression to batches of new clients that arrive in the current time interval. The states in the Kalman filter represent the true or underlying score for each attribute in the card: the parameters of the logistic regression. Their progress in time is modelled by a random walk and the filter provides the best estimate of the scores using past and present information. We illustrate the technique using a commercial mortgage portfolio and the results indicate significant emerging deficiencies in the baseline scorecard.     

Einstein relation in chemically doped organic semiconductors

Based on the assumption of Gaussian energy distributions of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), analytical expressions of generalized Einstein relation in chemically doped organic semiconductor are developed, by approximation of Coulomb traps with a rectangle potential well. Numerical calculations show that traditional Einstein relations do not hold for chemically doped organic semiconductors. Similar to physical doping, the dependence of diffusion coefficient to mobility D/μ ratio on the carrier concentration has a maximum. An essential difference between chemical doping and physical doping is that, the D/μ ratio in chemically doped organic semiconductors depends not only on carrier concentration and doping concentration, but also on the applied electric field. PACS 71.20.Rv; 72.90.+y; 73.50.-h