Operational Research and Regulation: Theory and Practice

In this Blackett Lecture, Professor Littlechild, Director General of Electricity Supply in the UK's Office of Electricity Regulation, renews acquaintance with some models he has developed over the years, introduces some models he has recently met, and discusses models that it would seem to be worthwhile developing. He concludes that for all concerned in the electricity industry, success depends on ever improving decision-making, in which OR has a vital role.     

Hydroxyl ion conduction in ytterbium-doped strontium cerate at T<580 K in H2O/air atmosphere

Open circuit voltage (OCV) measurements in H₂O/air concentration cells at T<580 K using Yb-doped SrCeO₃ electrolyte indicate that under these conditions, protons are transported through the electrolyte as -ve ions, possibly as hydroxyl (OH⁻) ions. The H⁺ ionic transport, which is generally reported, becomes the dominant mode for H₂O/air concentration cells at temperatures greater than 750 K or when H₂O/air electrodes are replaced by H₂/Ar, and the anomalous OCV sign disappears. The combination of low temperature and the presence of hydrogen and oxygen as provided by the H₂O/air system appears to be necessary for the postulated hydroxyl ion electrode reactions to take place. In addition to OCV measurements, results from impedance spectroscopy are used to provide evidence in support of the suggested hydroxyl ion mode of protonic transport under the specified conditions. These findings are directly relevant in the development of novel humidity sensors in the temperature range 450–580K and is reported in a separate paper in this conference. Paper presented at the 3rd Euroconference on Solid State Ionics, Teulada, Sardinia, Italy, Sept. 15–22, 1996     

Spectral boundary controllability of networks of strings

In this Note we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the spectral controllability from one simple node of a general network of strings that undergoes transversal vibrations in a sufficiently large time. This condition asserts that no eigenfunction vanishes identically on the string that contains the controlled node. The proof combines the Beurling–Malliavin's theorem and an asymptotic formula for the eigenvalues of the network. The optimal control time may be characterized as twice the sum of the lengths of all the strings of the network. To cite this article: R. Dáger, E. Zuazua, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 334 (2002) 545–550.     

An M/G/1 Retrial Queueing System with Two-Phase Service and Preemptive Resume

An M/G/1 retrial queueing system with additional phase of service and possible preemptive resume service discipline is considered. For an arbitrarily distributed retrial time distribution, the necessary and sufficient condition for the system stability is obtained, assuming that only the customer at the head of the orbit has priority access to the server. The steady-state distributions of the server state and the number of customers in the orbit are obtained along with other performance measures. The effects of various parameters on the system performance are analysed numerically. A general decomposition law for this retrial queueing system is established.     

On Series of Ordinals and Combinatorics

This paper deals mainly with generalizations of results in finitary combinatorics to infinite ordinals. It is well-known that for finite ordinals ∑_bT<αβ is the number of 2-element subsets of an α-element set. It is shown here that for any well-ordered set of arbitrary infinite order type α, ∑_bT<αβ is the ordinal of the set M of 2-element subsets, where M is ordered in some natural way. The result is then extended to evaluating the ordinal of the set of all n-element subsets for each natural number n ≥ 2. Moreover, series ∑_β<αf(β) are investigated and evaluated, where α is a limit ordinal and the function f belongs to a certain class of functions containing polynomials with natural number coefficients. The tools developed for this result can be extended to cover all infinite α, but the case of finite α appears to be quite problematic.     

Evolved gas analysis (EGA) of brick clays

Using a system based on non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) detectors, evolved gas analysis (EGA) was able to identify and quantify the principal volatiles produced by heating powdered samples of UK brick clays. From these results, atmospheric emissions likely to result from brick production can be predicted. In addition, EGA results for extruded brick clay test pieces are significantly different from those of powdered samples. Within an extruded brick clay body, evolved gases are contained within a pore system and evolved gas-solid phase reactions also occur. This EGA study provides further evidence on the nature of firing reactions within brick clay bodies. The qualitative and quantitative influence of heating rate — a key process condition in brick manufacture — on gas release is also outlined.Dedicated to Dr. Robert Mackenzie on the occasion of his 75th birthday     

Synthesis, structure, and antimetastatic activity of thetrans-[Pt(NC5H4C(O)NHC2H4ONO2)2Cl2] complex

Thetrans-[Pt(NC₅H₄C(O)NHC₂H₄ONO₂)₂Cl₂] complex (2) was prepared by the reaction of nicorandyl (N-nitroethoxynicotinamide), which is widely used in cardiology, with K₂PtCl₄ in water. The structure of2 was established by X-ray structural analysis. It was found that complex2 exhibits high antitumor activity, in particular, antimetastatic activity, unlike the analogous Cu^II complex with bromine atoms. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 9, pp. 1672–1675, September, 1997.     

Large offset far infrared laser lines generation from the C-O stretching Q-branch of 13CD3OD

2 laser of wide tunability to pump ¹³CD₃OD we could observe 10 new far infrared laser lines ranging from 109 μm to 472 μm. The lines were generated by pumping infrared absorbing transitions of large offset appertaining to the C-O stretching Q-branch. All lines were characterised in wavelength, polarisation, optimum pressure of operation and precise offset measurements. Received: 17 September 1996/Revised version: 18 November 1996