Magnetic resonance imaging: a new window into industrial processing.

Although the most important use of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) continues to be for diagnostic medicine, recognition is being gained for many nonmedical applications. Examples include the following areas: petrogeology, food, agriculture, polymers and polymer-composites, and pharmaceuticals. These areas all involve studies of species that have short spin-spin relaxation times, and consequently need far fast gradient switching. These technical details are discussed and typical applications given.     

A Primitive Non-symmetric 3-Class Association Scheme on 36 Elements with p11 = 0 Exists and is Unique

In this paper we construct a primitive, non-symmetric 3-class association scheme with parameters v = 36, v₁ = 7, p¹₁₁ = 0 and p²₁₁ = 4 and show that such a scheme is determined by its parameters.     

Detailed nuclear structure studies far from stability

State-of-the-art spectroscopy of nuclei far from stability has achieved an extraordinary level of sophistication and detail in the last ten years. In principle, if a state can be populated, it can be characterized by its energy, spin, parity, and major decay paths. Sometimes its lifetime can be measured. In practice, one is confronted with enormous complexity. To convert raw spectroscopic data into nuclear structure data involves a complex process of disentangling gamma rays and conversion electrons into decay schemes. Specifically, coincidence techniques, especially coincidence intensities, play a crucial role in this process. Recent examples and methods from work done at UNISOR are presented.     

Dielectric relaxation in polar nematic liquid crystals

The relationship between the complex dielectric permittivity tensor of a polar nematic liquid crystal and the autocorrelation matrix for the permanent dipole moment of a molecule is obtained. The theory is applicable to the whole frequency range which characterizes orientational relaxation in liquid crystals (up to ∼ 5 THz). The models of rotational diffusion and extended rotational diffusion in a mean field nematic potential are used to evaluate the dielectric absorption and dispersion in nematics.     

Expression of theSU(2) rotation matrices D( j ) in terms of normalized irreducible tensorial matrices

TheSU(2) rotation matricesD ^(j), specified in terms of axis and angle of rotation, are expressed as linear combination of normalized irreducible tensorial matricces (NITM) of rankl = 0 to 2j rotated to the polar angles of the axis. The rotated NITM are constructed from spherical harmonics of the same rank. Since this formulation requires no matrix products, it may be computationally more efficient than Euler angle formulas, particularly for largej. Rotated NITM and formulas for theD ^(j) withj = 1/2 andj = 1 are written out explicitly. A formula for the structure constants of the products of conformable NITM is also given in terms of 3-j and 6-j symbols.     

Silver nitrate-acetonitrile and iodine-benzene complexes as studied by NMR in thermotropic liquid crystals

Silver nitrate-acetonitrile and π iodine-benzene complexes in thermotropic liquid crystals have been studied by ¹H, ²H, and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and by optical microscopy. Evidence for at least two silver complexes in each liquid crystal is presented.     

The elastoplastic stressed state of a half-plane under local nonstationary heating

We solve the thermoplastic problem for a semi-infinite plate under local nonstationary heating by heat sources. The physical equations are taken to be the relations of the nonisothermic theory of plastic flow associated with the Mises fluidity condition. The solution of the problem is constructed by the method of integral equations and the self-correcting method of sequential loading, where time is taken as the loading parameter. We carry out numerical computations of the stresses in the case of heating a plate with heat output by normal-circular heat sources. We study the problem of optimization of heating regimes in order to introduce favorable residual compressive stresses (from the point of view of hardness) in a given region of a half-plane. Two figures.Translated fromMatematicheskie Metody i Fiziko-Mekhanicheskie Polya, Issue 27, 1988, pp. 29–34.     

Extended convergence results for the method of multipliers for nonstrictly binding inequality constraints

In this paper, we extend the classical convergence and rate of convergence results for the method of multipliers for equality constrained problems to general inequality constrained problems, without assuming the strict complementarity hypothesis at the local optimal solution. Instead, we consider an alternative second-order sufficient condition for a strict local minimum, which coincides with the standard one in the case of strict complementary slackness. As a consequence, new stopping rules are derived in order to guarantee a local linear rate of convergence for the method, even if the current Lagrangian is only asymptotically minimized in this more general setting. These extended results allow us to broaden the scope of applicability of the method of multipliers, in order to cover all those problems admitting loosely binding constraints at some optimal solution. This fact is not meaningless, since in practice this kind of problem seems to be more the rule rather than the exception.In proving the different results, we follow the classical primaldual approach to the method of multipliers, considering the approximate minimizers for the original augmented Lagrangian as the exact solutions for some adequate approximate augmented Lagrangian. In particular, we prove a general uniform continuity property concerning both their primal and their dual optimal solution set maps, a property that could be useful beyond the scope of this paper. This approach leads to very simple proofs of the preliminary results and to a straight-forward proof of the main results.The author gratefully acknowledges the referees for their helpful comments and remarks. This research was supported by FONDECYT (Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Technológico de Chile).     

Variational aspects of Faddeev calculations

We examine differences between³H binding energies obtained by solving the Faddeev equations using standard partial-wave expansion procedures and results from solving the Schrödinger equation by means of the coupled-rearrangement-channel variational method. Variational bounds generated from Faddeev solutions for several contemporary, realistic potential models are presented as a function of the number of partial waves retained in the potential expansion. We demonstrate that the Faddeev wave function yields an optimal variational bound for the partial-wave truncated potential from which it is generated, but it does not yield optimal bounds for the full Hamiltonian or when the potential is partial-wave truncated at a different level. Finally, qualitative differences between³H solutions for static models such as the AV14 and RSC potentials and for momentum-dependent models such as the Nijmegen soft-core and Paris potentials are explored, and comparison is made with solutions for the RSC/TM two-body-force plus three-body-force model.