Structural,Magnetic and Catalytic Properties of a New Vacancy Ordered Perovskite Type Barium Cobaltate BaCoO2.67

A new vacancy ordered, anion deficient perovskite modification with composition of BaCoO_2.67 (Ba₃Co₃O₈□₁) has been prepared via a two-step heating process. Combined Rietveld analysis of neutron and X-ray powder diffraction data shows a novel ordering of oxygen vacancies not known before for barium cobaltates. A combination of neutron powder diffraction, magnetic measurements, and density functional theory (DFT) studies confirms G-type antiferromagnetic ordering. From impedance measurements, the electronic conductivity of the order of 10⁻⁴ S cm⁻¹ is determined. Remarkably, the bifunctional catalytic activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is found to be comparable to that of Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3–y, confirming that charge-ordered anion deficient non-cubic perovskites can be highly efficient catalysts.     

Understanding the Buoy Effect of Surface-Enriched Pt Complexes in Ionic Liquids: A Combined ARXPS and Pendant Drop Study**

Recently, we demonstrated that Pt catalyst complexes dissolved in the ionic liquid (IL) [C₄C₁Im][PF₆] can be deliberately enriched at the IL surface by introducing perfluorinated substituents, which act like buoys dragging the metal complex towards the surface. Herein, we extend our previous angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS) studies at complex concentrations between 30 and 5 %_mol down to 1 %_mol and present complementary surface tension pendant drop (PD) measurements under ultraclean vacuum conditions. This combination allows for connecting the microscopic information on the IL/gas interface derived from ARXPS with the macroscopic property surface tension. The surface enrichment of the Pt complexes is found to be most pronounced at 1 %_mol. It also displays a strong temperature dependence, which was not observed for 5 %_mol and above, where the surface is already saturated with the complex. The surface enrichment deduced from ARXPS is also reflected by the pronounced decrease in surface tension with increasing concentration of the catalyst. We furthermore observe by ARXPS and PD a much stronger surface affinity of the buoy-complex as compared to the free ligands in solution. Our results are highly interesting for an optimum design of IL-based catalyst systems with large contact areas to the surrounding reactant/product phase, such as in supported IL phase (SILP) catalysis.     

Dirichlet forms for singular one-dimensional operators and on graphs

We treat the time evolution of states on a finite directed graph, with singular diffusion on the edges of the graph and glueing conditions at the vertices. The operator driving the evolution is obtained by the method of quadratic forms on a suitable Hilbert space. Using the Beurling–Deny criteria we describe glueing conditions leading to positive and to submarkovian semigroups, respectively.     

Dynamic programming based metaheuristics for the dial-a-ride problem

The organization of a specialized transportation system to perform transports for elderly and handicapped people is usually modeled as dial-a-ride problem. Users place transportation requests with specified pickup and delivery locations and times. The requests have to be completed under user inconvenience considerations by a specified fleet of vehicles. In the dial-a-ride problem, the aim is to minimize the total travel times respecting the given time windows, the maximum user ride times, and the vehicle restrictions. This paper introduces a dynamic programming algorithm for the dial-a-ride problem and demonstrates its effective application in (hybrid) metaheuristic approaches. Compared to most of the works presented in literature, this approach does not make use of any (commercial) solver. We present an exact dynamic programming algorithm and a dynamic programming based metaheuristic, which restricts the considered solution space. Then, we propose a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm which integrates the dynamic programming based algorithms into a large neighborhood framework. The algorithms are tested on a given set of benchmark instances from the literature and compared to a state-of-the-art hybrid large neighborhood search approach.     

Bonus or flat wage? An experiment into the principal-agent problem

We conduct a simple principal-agent experiment in order to find the effects of information asymmetry on compensation. Our aim is the analysis of the appropriate compensation and its impact on employee’s effort. Furthermore we want to compare the offered compensation and the supplied effort in the version without communication and we want to know whether the experimental observations are consistent with the theoretical considerations.The experimenters found out that compensations observed during the experiment were different from those suggested by the theory and although they were theoretically not enough to induce high effort, we could observe high performance supplied by the agents.     

Optimal dynamic control of predator–prey models

Central European Journal of Operations Research - This paper combines work to use a decision support tool for sustainable economic development, while acknowledging interdependent dynamics of...     

Class numbers of definite binary quadratic lattices over algebraic function fields

Let k be an algebraic function field of one variable X having a finite field GF(q) of constants with q elements, q odd. Confined to imaginary quadratic extensions $\text{K}\text{k}$, class number formulas are developed for both the maximal and nonmaximal binary quadratic lattices L on (K, N), where N denotes the norm from K to k. The class numbers of L grow either with the genus g(k) of k (assuming the fields under consideration have bounded degree) or with the relative genus $\text{g(}\text{K}\text{k}\text{)}$ (assuming the lattices under consideration have bounded scale). In contrast to analogous theorems concerning positive definite binary quadratic lattices over totally real number fields, k is not necessarily totally real.     

S-Structures for k-Linear Categories and the Definition of a Modular Functor

Ideas from string theory and quantum field theory have beenthe motivation for new invariants of knots and 3-dimensionalmanifolds which have been constructed from complex algebraicstructures such as Hopf algebras [17, 22], monoidal categorieswith additional structure [24], and modular functors [14, 23].These constructions are closely related. Here we take a unifyingcategorical approach based on a natural 2-dimensional generalisationof a topological field theory in the sense of Atiyah [1], andshow that the axioms defining these complex algebraic structuresare a consequence of the underlying geometry of surfaces.