Transformation of wealth produced into quality of life: analysis of the social efficiency of nation-states with the DEA’s triple index approach

Although an essential condition for the occurrence of human development, economic growth is not always efficiently converted into quality of life by nation-states. Accordingly, the objective of this study is to measure the social efficiency—the ability of a nation-state to convert its produced wealth into quality of life—of a set of 101 countries. To achieve this goal, the Data Envelopment Analysis method was used in its standard, cross-multiplicative and inverted form, by means of a new approach called ‘triple index’. The main results indicated that the former Soviet republics and Eastern European countries stood out in terms of social efficiency. The developed countries, notwithstanding their high social indicators, did not excel in efficiency; however, the countries of south of Africa, despite having the worst social conditions, were also the most inefficient.     

An Ant Colony Optimisation algorithm for solving the asymmetric traffic assignment problem

In this paper we propose an Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) algorithm for defining the signal settings on urban networks following a local approach. This consists in optimising the signal settings of each intersection of an urban network as a function only of traffic flows at the accesses to the same intersection, taking account of the effects of signal settings on costs and on user route choices. This problem, also known as Local Optimisation of Signal Settings (LOSS), has been widely studied in the literature and can be formulated as an asymmetric assignment problem. The proposed ACO algorithm is based on two kinds of behaviour of artificial ants which allow the LOSS problem to be solved: traditional behaviour based on the response to pheromones for simulating user route choice, and innovative behaviour based on the pressure of an ant stream for solving the signal setting definition problem. Our results on real-scale networks show that the proposed approach allows the solution to be obtained in less time but with the same accuracy as in traditional MSA (Method of Successive Averages) approaches.     

Numerical approximation of elliptic control problems with finitely many pointwise constraints

We study the numerical approximation of elliptic control problems with finitely many pointwise state constraints and control bounds. Results for the continuous problem are collected and a complete study of the discrete problems is carried out, including, existence of solutions, optimality conditions, convergence to solutions of the continuous problem and error estimates. A numerical example is provided.     

Duality in reconstruction systems

We consider reconstruction systems (RS’s), which are G-frames in a finite dimensional setting, and that includes the fusion frames as projective RS’s. We describe the spectral picture of the set of RS operators for the projective systems with fixed weights. We also introduce a functional defined on dual pairs of RS’s, called the joint potential, and study the structure of the minimizers of this functional. In the case of irreducible RS’s the minimizers are characterize as the tight systems. In the general case we give spectral and geometric characterizations of the minimizers of the joint potential. At the end of the paper we show several examples that illustrate our results.     

Segmentation of Pulmonary Nodule Images Using 1-Norm Minimization

Total variation minimization (in the 1-norm) has edge preserving and enhancing properties which make it suitable for image segmentation. We present Image Simplification, a new formulation and algorithm for image segmentation. We illustrate the edge enhancing properties of 1-norm total variation minimization in a discrete setting by giving exact solutions to the problem for piecewise constant functions in the presence of noise. In this case, edges can be exactly recovered if the noise is sufficiently small. After optimization, segmentation is completed using edge detection. We find that our image segmentation approach yields good results when applied to the segmentation of pulmonary nodules.     

Mechanistic and synthetic aspects of 2-aza-1,3-diene preparation through N-(1-triethylsilylallyl)imine protodesilylation

Features of a novel method for preparation of 2-aza-1,3-dienes involving CsF induced protodesilylation of N-(1-triethylsilylallyl)imines is described.Substances containing the 2-aza-1,3-diene grouping represent a unique class of compounds as a result of their potentially interesting excited- and ground- state chemistry. Particularly significant is the Diels-Alder reactivity of these substances.¹ Several procedures with varying and often limited generality have been developed to prepare 2-aza-1,3-dienes.² In recent efforts designed to explore the chemistry of 2-aza-1,3-dienes,^1c we have explored a potentially versatile method to prepare these substances (Scheme 1) involving N-(1-trialkylsilylallyl)-imine protodesilylation reactions.     

Existence of the displacements field for an elasto-plastic body subject to Hencky's law and Von Mises yield condition

We give necessary and sufficient conditions on body and traction forces for the existence of the displacements field for an elasto-plastic body subject to Hencky's law and Von Mises yield condition.     

General synthetic methods for the preparation of 1-substituted-vinyl-2-pyridones

General methods for the preparation of a variety of 1-substituted vinyl-2-pyridones are described. Synthetic routes followed involve (1) nucleophilic substitution reaction of the 2-hydroxy-pyridyl anion of haloolefins containing β-activating groups, such as carbonyl and phenyl, (2) elimination reactions of ester derivatives of 1-pyridonyl-2-ethanols and (3) base catalyzed isomerizations of 1-allyl-2-pyridones. The details involved with each of the synthetic methods and purification of the derived 1-vinyl-2-pyridones are described. Additionally important spectroscopic properties of compounds in this series are discussed in terms of preferred conformations about the nitrogen-exocyclic vinyl carbon bond.