Bayesian demand updating in the lost sales newsvendor problem: A two-moment approximation

We consider Bayesian updating of demand in a lost sales newsvendor model with censored observations. In a lost sales environment, where the arrival process is not recorded, the exact demand is not observed if it exceeds the beginning stock level, resulting in censored observations. Adopting a Bayesian approach for updating the demand distribution, we develop expressions for the exact posteriors starting with conjugate priors, for negative binomial, gamma, Poisson and normal distributions. Having shown that non-informative priors result in degenerate predictive densities except for negative binomial demand, we propose an approximation within the conjugate family by matching the first two moments of the posterior distribution. The conjugacy property of the priors also ensure analytical tractability and ease of computation in successive updates. In our numerical study, we show that the posteriors and the predictive demand distributions obtained exactly and with the approximation are very close to each other, and that the approximation works very well from both probabilistic and operational perspectives in a sequential updating setting as well.     

Do large molecules ionize?

A possible mechanism for the ionization or lack thereof in large molecules is discussed. The experimental observation is that the ionization efficiency rapidly decreases with increasing weight, whether one uses electron impact, single-photon or multi-photon ionization. Possible mechanisms for this decline in the yield of ions are considered. It is suggested that in larger molecules ionization occurs through the intermediate formation of charge pairs which can ionize in a unimolecular-like fashion due to an energy fluctuation. A more probable route is however for the charge pairs to recombine. Possible experimental tests of the proposed mechanism are considered and a scaling law for the mass-dependence is derived and shown to fit the available data.     

Isolation of pure disubstituted E olefins through Mo-catalyzed Z-selective ethenolysis of stereoisomeric mixtures

Monoaryloxide-pyrrolide (MAP) complexes of molybdenum were employed for the selective ethenolysis of 1,2-disubstituted Z olefins in the presence of the corresponding E olefins. Reactions were performed in the presence of 0.02-3.0 mol % catalyst at 22 °C under 20 atm ethylene. We have demonstrated that the Z isomer of an easily accessible E:Z mixture can be destroyed through ethenolysis and the E alkene thereby isolated readily in high yield and exceptional stereoisomeric purity.     

Anomalies in supercooled NaCl aqueous solutions: a microscopic perspective

In this work we studied the effect of NaCl on the thermodynamic and dynamic properties of supercooled water, for salt concentrations between 0.19 and 1.33 mol?kg(-1), using molecular dynamic simulations for TIP5P∕E water model and ion parameters specially designed to be used in combination with this potential. We studied the isobaric heat capacity (C(p)) temperature dependence and observed a maximum in C(p), occurring at T(m), that moves to lower temperature values with increasing salt concentration. Many characteristic changes were observed at scaled temperature T∕T(m) ～ 0.96, namely a minimum in the density of the system, a reduction of the slope of the number of hydrogen bonds vs. temperature, and a crossover from Vogel-Tamman-Fulcher to Arrhenius dynamics. Finally, at low temperatures we observed that water dynamics become heterogeneous with an apparently common relationship between the fraction of immobile molecules and T/T(m) for all studied systems.     

Stereocontrol of attosecond time-scale electron dynamics in ABCU using ultrafast laser pulses: a computational study

The attosecond time-scale electronic dynamics induced by an ultrashort laser pulse is computed using a multi configuration time dependent approach in ABCU (C(10)H(19)N), a medium size polyatomic molecule with a rigid cage geometry. The coupling between the electronic states induced by the strong pulse is included in the many electron Hamiltonian used to compute the electron dynamics. We show that it is possible to implement control of the electron density stereodynamics in this medium size molecule by varying the characteristics of the laser pulse, for example by polarizing the electric field either along the N-C axis of the cage, or in the plane perpendicular to it. The excitation produces an oscillatory, non-stationary, electronic state that exhibits localization of the electron density in different parts of the molecule both during and after the pulse. The coherent oscillations of the non-stationary electronic state are also demonstrated through the alternation of the dipole moment of the molecule.     

The weight twoK-theory of fields

We verify the weight-two portion of the Quillen-Lichtenbaum conjectures, relating the modn weight-twoK-groups of a field with the appropriate étale cohomology groups. This extends the work of Merkurjev and Suslin onK ₂ of a field, and the works of Suslin and the author on the indecomposableK ₃ of a field.Partially supported by the NSF.     

Relativistic field formulation of simultaneous quantum measurement

The simultaneous measurement of Dirac field operators is formulated in analogy to the work of von Neumann and Arthurs-Kelly. Meter fields are coupled to the system field with a relativistically invariant bilinear interaction. Measurement of vacuum meter field expectation values provides for the simultaneous measurement of noncommuting system components. It is shown that two meter coupling allows for a simultaneous minimum in the variance of the subsequent meter measurements. A pseudoscalar self-interaction of the Dirac field is shown to allow simultaneous measurement of positive energy field operators with negative energy meters. The simultaneous measurement ofn noncommuting field operators is obtained by coupling the system ton fermionic fields. Also, in this paper the related concept of mutual simultaneous measurement is developed. This requires that any operators in the enlarged Hilbert space are measurable by the remaining fields as meters. System embedding into a larger Hilbert space results in added noise due to the zero point motion of the meter fields. By the negentropy principle of Brillouin, the added noise is equivalent to entropy. A criterion determining the interaction among fields is that the averaged added noise in the components of each quantum field is minimized. This criterion defines an optimum fermionic mass matrix through the determination of the entangling interaction.1. This work was sponsored by the Department of the Air Force under contract F19628-90-C-0002.     

Fluorescence lifetime imaging of oxygen in living cells

The usefulness of the fluorescent probe ruthenium tris(2,2′-dipyridyl) dichloride hydrate (RTDP) for the quantitative imaging of oxygen in single cells was investigated utilizing fluorescence lifetime imaging. The results indicate that the fluorescence behavior of RTDP in the presence of oxygen can be described by the Stem-Volmer equation. This shows that fluorescence quenching by oxygen is a dynamic quenching process. In addition, it was demonstrated that the fluorescence lifetime of RTDP is insensitive to pH, ion concentration, and cellular contents. This implies that a simple calibration procedure in buffers can be used to quantify oxygen concentrations within cells. First fluorescence imaging experiments on J774 macrophages show a nonuniform fluorescence intensity and a uniform fluorescence lifetime image. This indicates that the RTDP is heterogeneously partitioned throughout the cells, while the oxygen concentration is constant.