Chaos and reproduction in sea level

Prediction of sea-level is an important task for navigation, coastal engineering and geodetic applications, as well as recreational activities. This study presents a comparison of Chaos theory and Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) techniques for sea level modelling for daily, weekly, 10-day and monthly time scale at the Cocos (Keeling) islands from 1992 to 2001. The state space reconstruction of the unknown underlying process is directly employed from time series data, through Takens delay embedding method: optimal embedding dimension and delay time are obtained from false nearest neighbours and average mutual information techniques, respectively. Optimal values are then used for the estimation of the correlation dimension and the largest Lyapunov exponent, for inspecting possible signatures of chaotic dynamics. We find a positive Lyapunov exponent an evident feature of chaos. Indeed, the nonlinear prediction of sea level, in the period ranging from January 2001 to December 2001, is in an excellent agreement with the data for the same period, evidencing the nonlinear nature of the process. ARIMA method is also used for sea level modelling, for the same time scales; the performances of the two models are compared using such statistical indices as the root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (CC). The comparative analyses show that the chaos theory model has a slight edge over ARIMA while both models are in principal acceptable.     

Hilbert $$C^*$$-modules as a subcategory of operator systems and injectivity

In this paper, we study a category whose objects are Hilbert \(C^*\)-modules and whose morphisms are completely semi-\(\phi \)-maps. We give a characterization of injective objects in this category. In fact, we investigate extendability of completely semi-\(\phi \)-maps on Hilbert \(C^*\)-modules, leading to an analog of the Arveson’s extension theorem for completely semi-\(\phi \)-maps (in contrast with \(\phi \)-maps). This theorem together with previous results suggest that the completely semi-\(\phi \)-maps are proper generalizations of the completely positive maps.     

Numerical implementation of the QMR algorithm by using discrete stochastic arithmetic

In each step of the quasi-minimal residual (QMR) method which uses a look-ahead variant of the nonsymmetric Lanczos process to generate basis vectors for the Krylov subspaces induced byA, it is necessary to decide whether to construct the Lanczos vectorsv _n +1 andw _n +1 as regular or inner vectors. For a regular step it is necessary thatD _k =W _k ^T V _k is nonsingular. Therefore, in the floating-point arithmetic, the smallest singular value of matrix D_k,σ _min (D _k ), is computed and an inner step is performed ifσ _min (D _k )<∈, where ∈ is a suitably chosen tolerance. In practice it is absolutely impossible to choose correctly the value of the tolerance ∈. The subject of this paper is to show how discrete stochastic arithmetic remedies the problem of this tolerance, as well as the problem of the other tolerances which are needed in the other checks of the QMR method with the estimation of the accuracy of some intermediate results. Numerical examples are used to show the good numerical properties.     

Flow in a waterfall with large Froude number

An approximate method is developed to solve the full nonlinear equations governing two-dimensional irrotational flow in a free waterfall, falling under the influence of gravity, at high Froude number based on conditions far upstream. Schwarz—Christoffel transformation is used to map the region, in the complex potential-plane, onto the upper half-plane. The Hilbert transformation as well as the perturbation technique, for large Froude number, are used as a basis for the approximate solution of the problem. A complete solution, up to second-order approximation, for the downstream free-surfaces profiles, for different Froude number, is discussed and illustrated. The obtained approximate solutions are compared with those of other authors. Favourable agreement with other results suggests that this method is effective in dealing with flow problems strongly influenced by gravity and high Froude number. The results obtained by this method are sufficiently accurate for practical purposes.     

Decision making under uncertainty with fuzzy targets

This paper discusses the issue of how to use fuzzy targets in the target-based model for decision making under uncertainty. After introducing a target-based interpretation of the expected value on which it is shown that this model implicitly assumes a neutral behavior on attitude about the target, we examine the issue of using fuzzy targets considering different attitudes about the target selection of the decision maker. We also discuss the problem for situations on which the decision maker’s attitude about target may change according to different states of nature. Especially, it is shown that the target-based approach can provide an unified way for solving the problem of fuzzy decision making with uncertainty about the state of nature and imprecision about payoffs. Several numerical examples are given for illustration of the discussed issues.     

Study of the interglobular structure of metal powders obtained by a borohydride reduction process

The effect of borohydride reduction duration and magnetic field in the specific surface area, metal particle size and form, and form and dimensions of the textural arrangement of pores in metal powders is investigated. It is established that the particle chains formed involve interglobular voids, i.e. the chains may be considered as consisting of successivly ordered globule layers. The interglobular void is found to possess definite dimensions and configuration. Powders obtained in a magnetic field have tetrahedral voids, while octahedral voids correspond to powders prepared without a magnetic field. The magnetic parameters of the powders have displayed a similar difference which needs additional studies.     

Rapid crystallization of amorphous silicon utilizing a radio-frequency thermal plasma torch

The rapid crystallization of amorphous silicon utilizing the radio-frequency (rf) inductive coupling thermal plasma torch of argon is demonstrated. Highly-crystallized Si films were fabricated on thermally grown (th-)SiO₂ and textured a-Si:H:B/SnO₂/glass by adjusting a distance between the tip of the silica tube and the substrate stage and the translational velocity of the substrate stage. The crystallization was promoted efficiently from the bottom to front surface during the solidification and crystallization of liquid Si.     

Local Thermodynamic Description of Isothermal Single-Phase Flow in Simple Porous Media

Transport in Porous Media - Darcy’s law for porous media transport is given a new local thermodynamic basis in terms of the grand potential of confined fluids. The local effective pressure...