Piezoelectricity and pyroelectricity of polyvinylidene fluoride corona-poled at elevated temperature

X-ray diffraction, thermally stimulated depolarization, and piezoelectric and pyroelectric current measurements have been carried out on biaxially oriented polyvinylidene fluoride film, corona-poled both negatively and positively, at elevated temperature. Larger piezoelectric and pyroelectric coefficients are obtained at lower values of the poling field, when corona charging takes place at elevated temperature rather than room temperature. Negative charging is more effective than positive. The polarization mechanism is dipole alignment, and a conversion of Form-II crystallites to Form I. The large space-charge injected by the corona, and trapped in the material, acts through creation of high internal fields, and shows little, if any, piezoelectric and pyroelectric effects of its own.     

Pricing decisions in a dual supply chain of organic and conventional agricultural products

Annals of Operations Research - We analyze a dual-channel supply chain comprising two suppliers that offer vertically-differentiated agricultural products; specifically, one offers an organic...     

Jensen's inequality for a convex vector-valued function on an infinite-dimensional space

Jensen's inequality f(EX) ≤ Ef(X) for the expectation of a convex function of a random variable is extended to a generalized class of convex functions f whose domain and range are subsets of (possibly) infinite-dimensional linear topological spaces. Convexity of f is defined with respect to closed cone partial orderings, or more general binary relations, on the range of f. Two different methods of proof are given, one based on geometric properties of convex sets and the other based on the Strong Law of Large Numbers. Various conditions under which Jensen's inequality becomes strict are studied. The relation between Jensen's inequality and Fatou's Lemma is examined.     

INDUCTION OF Trichoderma SPORULATION BY NANOSECOND LASER PULSES: EVIDENCE AGAINST CRYPTOCHROME CYCLING

An important question in the study of photoreceptor action in morphogenesis is whether the chromophore is unidirectionally photobleached, or whether it is recycled, allowing each receptor molecule to be counted more than once. The common soil fungus Trichoderma harzianum grows vegetatively in the dark and sporulates in response to a pulse of blue or UV-A light. Colonies were grown at 26 degrees C, transferred to 3 degrees C, illuminated with non-saturating light, and then put back at 26 degrees C to sporulate. The fluence-response curves for photoinduction in the cold and at 26 degrees C were identical, indicating that there are no enzymatic transduction processes during irradiation. Regions of the perimeter of dark-grown colonies were given single pulses (maximum duration, 30 ns) at 355 nm with a neodymium laser. We obtained a complete fluence-response curve for the laser pulses, which agreed with data for irradiations in the second to minute range. Photoinduction at 3 degrees C, and validity of Bunsen-Roscoe reciprocity from nanoseconds to minutes, support the hypothesis that the inductive event is a simple first-order photobleaching reaction.     

Fracture of thick laminated composites

The fracture of thick laminated graphite/epoxy composites has been the subject of an extensive research program. The program was divided into three major areas of investigation which included laminate thickness, laminate stacking sequence, and part-through surface flaws. The results from this program are reviewed with emphasis placed on their applicability to the design of thick laminated composite structures. Paper was presented at 1985 SEM Spring Conference on Experimental Mechanics held in Las Vegas on June 9–14, 1985.     

Normal Linear Regression Models With Recursive Graphical Markov Structure

A multivariate normal statistical model defined by the Markov properties determined by an acyclic digraph admits a recursive factorization of its likelihood function (LF) into the product of conditional LFs, each factor having the form of a classical multivariate linear regression model (≡WMANOVA model). Here these models are extended in a natural way to normal linear regression models whose LFs continue to admit such recursive factorizations, from which maximum likelihood estimators and likelihood ratio (LR) test statistics can be derived by classical linear methods. The central distribution of the LR test statistic for testing one such multivariate normal linear regression model against another is derived, and the relation of these regression models to block-recursive normal linear systems is established. It is shown how a collection of nonnested dependent normal linear regression models (≡Wseemingly unrelated regressions) can be combined into a single multivariate normal linear regression model by imposing a parsimonious set of graphical Markov (≡Wconditional independence) restrictions.     

Group-invariant analogues of Hadamard's inequality

A wide class of inequalities for the determinant and other real-valued functions of an n × n complex Hermitian (or real symmetric) matrix H≡(h_jk) may be obtained by generalizing Marshall and Olkin's proof of Hadamard's inequality

$\text{det}\text{H?}\text{∏}\text{j=1}\text{n}\text{h}{}_{\mathrm{jj}}$

for positive definite (pd) H. We shall see that each subgroup G of the group U_n of n x n unitary matrices not only determines an analogue of (1) for det H, but also provides inequalities for a large family of unitarily invariant functions of H (not necessarily pd).     

Application of the EXAFS method to Jahn—Teller ions: static and dynamic behavior of Cu(H2O)62+ and Ci(H2O)2+6 in aqueous solution

EXAFS measurements have been made on the octahedral Jahn—Teller complexes, Cu(H₂O)₆²⁺ and Cr(H₂O)₆²⁺, in aqueous solution. Two distinct metal—oxygen bond lengths are not clearly resolvable in the EXAFS Fourier transforms for each species; lengths and Deuye—Waller factors obtained suggest that the axial ligands are loosely bonded.