Determination of the similarities between a sample and the likeness of microparticle size distribution in a disperse system

A method is proposed for determining the similarities and differences between the experimental distribution of particles in a disperse system with respect to a significant feature-particle size (sample) and the corresponding distribution (likeness), selected from the diversity of theoretical distributions with positive and negative asymmetry. The aim of the comparison is to extract the necessary information about the nature of the internal processes in the disperse system evolving as a result of the Ostwald reaction coagulation of microparticles. The procedure of comparing the distributions is illustrated on the example of the histogram of disperse Al₃Mg₂ particles of an aluminum-magnesium alloy heated isothermally at 430°C.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 12, pp. 80–84, December, 1991.     

Stowage planning in maritime container transportation

We consider a stowage-planning problem of arranging containers on a container ship in the maritime transportation system. Since containers are accessible only from the top of the stack, temporary unloading and reloading of containers, called shifting, is unavoidable if a container required to be unloaded at the current port is stacked under containers to be unloaded at later ports on the route of the ship. The objective of the stowage planning problem is to minimize the time required for shifting and crane movements on a tour of a container ship while maintaining the stability of the ship. For the problem, we develop a heuristic solution method in which the problem is divided into two subproblems, one for assigning container groups into the holds and one for determining a loading pattern of containers assigned to each hold. The former subproblem is solved by a greedy heuristic based on the transportation simplex method, while the latter is solved by a tree search method. These two subproblems are solved iteratively using information obtained from solutions of each other. To see the performance of the suggested algorithm, computational tests are performed on problem instances generated based on information obtained from an ocean container liner. Results show that the suggested algorithm works better than existing algorithms.     

Torsion and interaction of polarized photons

The contribution of the interacting vector and pseudovector torsion components to the interaction of polarized photons in an atomic sodium vapor is investigated. Estimates are obtained for the parameters of the gauge-theoretical model of gravitation.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 12, pp. 50–55, December, 1991.     

Necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of exponential dichotomy of impulsive equations

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an exponential dichotomy of impulsive differential equations in a Hilbert space are found.     

Excitation of middle-IR range hollow metallic waveguides

The results of the efficiency of low-mode excitation of a parallel-plate hollow metallic waveguides (HMW) as a function of beam and waveguide parameters are represented. Coupling of two waveguides is also discussed.     

Conversion of single-stranded oligonucleotides into cloned duplexes and its consecutive application to short artificial genes.

A general method to convert single-stranded, chemically synthesized oligonucleotides into cloned duplexes is described. Oligonucleotides supplied with 3'-terminal extensions that are complementary to 3'-protruding ends obtained by certain restriction enzymes can be cloned either directly or with the help of an adapter molecule into double-stranded vectors. Two methods have also been developed for consecutive cloning applications. According to these methods, the synthetic oligonucleotides (and their enzymatically prepared complementary strands) are joined, one after the other, inside a cloning vector, each joining requiring one cloning step. Synthetic genes are thus built up from oligonucleotides corresponding to only one strand of the DNA. The sequential assembly of the cloned duplex takes place in the 5' to 3' direction. Each oligonucleotide is supplied with a four-nucleotide-long 3'-terminal extension, but this sequence is eliminated when the joining takes place, leaving no limiting sequence between the oligonucleotides. The two consecutive cloning methods, the adapter and the polycloning site methods, are illustrated by the assembly of short artificial genes.     

On nonlinear programming with support functions

Optimality conditions are derived for a nonliear program in which a support function appears in the objective as well as in each constraint function. Wolfe and Mond-Weir type duals to this program are presented and various dualityresults are established under suitable convexity and generalized convexity assumptions. Special cases that often occur in the literature are those in which a support function is the square root of a positive semidefinite quadratic form or anLp norm. It is pointed out that these special cases can easily be generated from our results.     

Dynamics of liquid membranes. II: Adaptive finite difference methods

Two domain-adaptive finite difference methods are presented and applied to study the dynamic response of incompressible, inviscid, axisymmetric liquid membranes subject to imposed sinusoidal pressure oscillations. Both finite difference methods map the time-dependent physical domain whose downstream boundary is unknown onto a fixed computational domain. The location of the unknown time-dependent downstream boundary of the physical domain is determined from the continuity equation and results in an integrodifferential equation which is non-linearly coupled with the partial differential equations which govern the conservation of mass and linear momentum and the radius of the liquid membrane. One of the finite difference methods solves the non-conservative form of the governing equations by means of a block implicit iterative method. This method possesses the property that the Jacobian matrix of the convection fluxes has an eigenvalue of algebraic multiplicity equal to four and of geometric multiplicity equal to one. The second finite difference procedure also uses a block implicit iterative method, but the governing equations are written in conservation law form and contain an axial velocity which is the difference between the physical axial velocity and the grid speed. It is shown that these methods yield almost identical results and are more accurate than the non-adaptive techniques presented in Part I. It is also shown that the actual value of the pressure coefficient determined from linear analyses can be exceeded without affecting the stability and convergence of liquid membranes if the liquid membranes are subjected to sinusoidal pressure variations of sufficiently high frequencies.     

Structural instability during rolling of tungsten in terms of nonlinear thermodynamics

Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 3, pp. 47–55, March, 1991.