Transport of Neutrally Buoyant and Dense Variably Sized Colloids in a Two-Dimensional Fracture with Anisotropic Aperture

The transport of monodisperse as well as polydisperse colloid suspensions in a two-dimensional, water saturated fracture with spatially variable and anisotropic aperture is investigated with a particle tracking model. Both neutrally buoyant and dense colloid suspensions are considered. Although flow and transport in fractured subsurface formations have been studied extensively by numerous investigators, the transport of dense, polydisperse colloid suspensions in a fracture with spatially variable and anisotropic aperture has not been previously explored. Simulated snapshots and breakthrough curves of ensemble averages of several realizations of a log-normally distributed aperture field show that polydisperse colloids exhibit greater spreading than monodisperse colloids, and dense colloids show greater retardation than neutrally buoyant colloids. Moreover, it is demonstrated that aperture anisotropy oriented along the flow direction substantially increases colloid spreading; whereas, aperture anisotropy oriented transverse to the flow direction retards colloid movement.     

Thermal conductivity of crystalline chrysotile asbestos

The thermal conductivity of crystalline chrysotile asbestos made up of hollow tubular Mg₃Si₂O₅(OH)₄ filaments is measured in the range 5–300 K. The paper discusses the possibility of using this material in studies of the thermal conductivity of thin filaments of metals and semiconductors incorporated into the channels of crystalline chrysotile asbestos tubes.     

NMR Detection of Phase Transition in a ZSM-5 Silicalite Caused by the Adsorbed Hexane and Decane Molecules

Times of longitudinal T _1b and transverse T _2b magnetic relaxation of hexane and decane molecules in micropores of ZSM-5 silicalite were measured as functions of the content of these liquid n-alkanes in zeolite and of temperature. The stepwise changes in the T _1b and T _2b times were revealed in the region of 8% content of hydrocarbons. The observed changes in the concentration and temperature dependences of T _1b and T _2b times are explained by the rearrangement of silicalite crystal lattice under the action of adsorbed molecules.     

Crystallization and morphology of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) blends. I. Spherulitic morphology and growth by polarized microscopy

The development of the poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) morphology in the presence of already existent poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) spherulites was studied by two‐stage solidification with two separate crystallization temperatures. PVDF formed irregular dendrites at lower temperatures and regular, banded spherulites at elevated temperatures. The transition temperature of the spherulitic morphology from dendrites to regular, banded spherulites increased with increasing PVDF content. A remarkable amount of PHB was included in the PVDF dendrites, whereas PHB was rejected into the remaining melt from the banded spherulites. When PVDF crystallized as banded spherulites, PHB could consequently crystallize only around them, if at all. In contrast, PHB crystallized with a common growth front, starting from a defined site in the interfibrillar regions of volume‐filling PVDF dendrites. It formed by itself dendritic spherulites that included a large number of PVDF spherulites. For blends with a PHB content of more than 80 wt %, for which the PVDF dendrites were not volume‐filling, PHB first formed regular spherulites. Their growth started from outside the PVDF dendrites but could later interpenetrate them, and this made their own morphology dendritic. These PHB spherulites melted stepwise because the lamellae inside the PVDF dendrites melted at a lower temperature than those from outside. This reflected the regularity of the two fractions of the lamellae because that of those inside the dendrites of PVDF was controlled by the intraspherulitic order of PVDF, whereas that from outside was only controlled by the temperature and the melt composition. The described morphologies developed without mutual nucleating efficiency of the components. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 873–882, 2003     

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On Bayes and unbiased estimators of loss

We consider estimation of loss for generalized Bayes or pseudo-Bayes estimators of a multivariate normal mean vector, θ. In 3 and higher dimensions, the MLEX is UMVUE and minimax but is inadmissible. It is dominated by the James-Stein estimator and by many others. Johnstone (1988, On inadmissibility of some unbiased estimates of loss,Statistical Decision Theory and Related Topics, IV (eds. S. S. Gupta and J. O. Berger), Vol. 1, 361–379, Springer, New York) considered the estimation of loss for the usual estimatorX and the James-Stein estimator. He found improvements over the Stein unbiased estimator of risk. In this paper, for a generalized Bayes point estimator of θ, we compare generalized Bayes estimators to unbiased estimators of loss. We find, somewhat surprisingly, that the unbiased estimator often dominates the corresponding generalized Bayes estimator of loss for priors which give minimax estimators in the original point estimation problem. In particular, we give a class of priors for which the generalized Bayes estimator of θ is admissible and minimax but for which the unbiased estimator of loss dominates the generalized Bayes estimator of loss. We also give a general inadmissibility result for a generalized Bayes estimator of loss. Research supported by NSF Grant DMS-97-04524.