Über die dilatometrisch indizierten Titrationen

The changes of the volume which appear during the titration of some metall ions with Titriplex III are continuously controlled by means of a dilatometer and are used for the determination of the end point of the reaction. Over a range of 0.1<×<15 mMol all determinations can be reproduced with a standard deviation of <0.2%. For the complex formation between Mg²⁺ and Titriplex III the dependence of the change of volume of the overall reaction on the concentration is discussed.     

Subgraphs of hypercubes and subdiagrams of boolean lattices

In this paper we extensively treat the following problems: When is a given graph a subgraph (resp. induced subgraph) of a hypercube and when is an ordered set a subdiagram (resp. induced subdiagram) of a Boolean lattice? We present characterizations for that in terms of suitable edge-colorings of the graphs and, for ordered sets, of their covering graphs.     

Semidefinite and linear programming integrality gaps for scheduling identical machines

Sherali and Adams (SIAM J Discrete Math 3:411–430, 1990) and Lovász and Schrijver (SIAM J Optim 1:166–190, 1991) developed systematic procedures to construct the hierarchies of relaxations known as lift-and-project methods. They have been proven to be a strong tool for developing approximation algorithms, matching the best relaxations known for problems like Max-Cut and Sparsest-Cut. In this work we provide lower bounds for these hierarchies when applied over the configuration LP for the problem of scheduling identical machines to minimize the makespan. First we show that the configuration LP has an integrality gap of at least 1024/1023 by providing a family of instances with 15 different job sizes. Then we show that for any integer n there is an instance with n jobs in this family such that after \(\varOmega (n)\) rounds of the Sherali–Adams (\(\text {SA}\)) or the Lovász–Schrijver (\(\text {LS}_+\)) hierarchy the integrality gap remains at least 1024/1023.     

Improving biorefinery planning: Integration of spatial data using exact optimization nested in an evolutionary strategy

Biorefineries can provide a product portfolio from renewable biomass similar to that of crude oil refineries. To operate biorefineries of any kind, however, the availability of biomass inputs is crucial and must be considered during planning. Here, we develop a planning approach that uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to account for spatially scattered biomass when optimizing a biorefinery’s location, capacity, and configuration. To deal with the challenges of a non-smooth objective function arising from the geographic data, higher dimensionality, and strict constraints, the planning problem is repeatedly decomposed by nesting an exact nonlinear program (NLP) inside an evolutionary strategy (ES) heuristic, which handles the spatial data from the GIS. We demonstrate the functionality of the algorithm and show how including spatial data improves the planning process by optimizing a synthesis gas biorefinery using this new planning approach.