Slim Near Polygons

In this paper we initiate the study of hybrid slim near hexagons. These are near hexagons which are not dense and not a generalized hexagon in which each line is incident with exactly three points. In the present paper, we will emphasize slim near hexagons with at least one W(2)-quad or Q(5, 2)-quad. Such near hexagons are finite if there are no special points, i.e. points which lie at distance at most 2 from any other point. We will determine upper bounds for the number of lines through a fixed point. We will also look at the special case where the near hexagon has an order. We will determine all slim near hexagons with an order which contain at least one (necessarily big) Q(5,2)-quad, or at least one big W(2)-quad.AMS Classification 05B25, 51E12Communicated by: M.J. de ResminiPostdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation–Flanders.     

Modeling churn using customer lifetime value

The definition and modeling of customer loyalty have been central issues in customer relationship management since many years. Recent papers propose solutions to detect customers that are becoming less loyal, also called churners. The churner status is then defined as a function of the volume of commercial transactions. In the context of a Belgian retail financial service company, our first contribution is to redefine the notion of customer loyalty by considering it from a customer-centric viewpoint instead of a product-centric one. We hereby use the customer lifetime value (CLV) defined as the discounted value of future marginal earnings, based on the customer’s activity. Hence, a churner is defined as someone whose CLV, thus the related marginal profit, is decreasing. As a second contribution, the loss incurred by the CLV decrease is used to appraise the cost to misclassify a customer by introducing a new loss function. In the empirical study, we compare the accuracy of various classification techniques commonly used in the domain of churn prediction, including two cost-sensitive classifiers. Our final conclusion is that since profit is what really matters in a commercial environment, standard statistical accuracy measures for prediction need to be revised and a more profit oriented focus may be desirable.     

Logarithmic residues, generalized idempotents, and sums of idempotents in Banach algebras

In a commutative Banach algebraB the set of logarithmic residues (i.e., the elements that can be written as a contour integral of the logarithmic derivative of an analyticB-valued function), the set of generalized idempotents (i.e., the elements that are annihilated by a polynomial with non-negative integer simple zeros), and the set of sums of idempotents are all the same. Also, these (coinciding) sets consist of isolated points only and are closed under the operations of addition and multiplication. Counterexamples show that the commutativity condition onB is essential. The results extend to logarithmic residues of meromorphicB-valued functions.     

On Weaknesses of Non–surjective Round Functions

We propose a new attack on Feistel ciphers with a non-surjective round function such as the CAST cipher family and LOKI91. We extend the attack towards block ciphers that use a non-uniformly distributed round function and apply the extended attack to the CAST family. This attack demonstrates that the round function of a Feistel cipher with six to eight rounds needs to be surjective and sufficiently uniform.     

Supplier quality improvement: The value of information under uncertainty

We consider supplier development decisions for prime manufacturers with extensive supply bases producing complex, highly engineered products. We propose a novel modelling approach to support supply chain managers decide the optimal level of investment to improve quality performance under uncertainty. We develop a Poisson–Gamma model within a Bayesian framework, representing both the epistemic and aleatory uncertainties in non-conformance rates. Estimates are obtained to value a supplier quality improvement activity and assess if it is worth gaining more information to reduce epistemic uncertainty. The theoretical properties of our model provide new insights about the relationship between the degree of epistemic uncertainty, the effectiveness of development programmes, and the levels of investment. We find that the optimal level of investment does not have a monotonic relationship with the rate of effectiveness. If investment is deferred until epistemic uncertainty is removed then the expected optimal investment monotonically decreases as prior variance increases but only if the prior mean is above a critical threshold. We develop methods to facilitate practical application of the model to industrial decisions by a) enabling use of the model with typical data available to major companies and b) developing computationally efficient approximations that can be implemented easily. Application to a real industry context illustrates the use of the model to support practical planning decisions to learn more about supplier quality and to invest in improving supplier capability.     

The pseudo-hyperplanes and homogeneous pseudo-embeddings of the generalized quadrangles of order (3, t)

In the paper “as reported by De Bruyn (Adv Geom, to appear)”, we introduced the notions of pseudo-hyperplane and pseudo-embedding of a point-line geometry and proved that every generalized quadrangle of order (s, t), 2 ≤ s < ∞, has faithful pseudo-embeddings. The present paper focuses on generalized quadrangles of order (3, t). Using the computer algebra system GAP and invoking some theoretical relationships between pseudo-hyperplanes and pseudo-embeddings obtained in “De Bruyn (Adv Geom, to appear)”, we are able to give a complete classification of all pseudo-hyperplanes of ${\mathcal{Q}}$ . We hereby find several new examples of tight sets of generalized quadrangles, as well as a complete classification of all 2-ovoids of ${\mathcal{Q}}$ . We use the classification of the pseudo-hyperplanes of ${\mathcal{Q}}$ to obtain a list of all homogeneous pseudo-embeddings of ${\mathcal{Q}}$ .     

Path components of the space of gradient vector fields on the two-dimensional disc

We present a short proof that if two gradient maps on the two-dimensional disc have the same degree, then they are gradient homotopic.     

Phase transitions of [M(H2O)6](MnO4)2 polycrystalline compounds,where M=Mg2+,Ni2+,Zn2+,Cd2+, studied by DSC

Phase transitions of [M(H₂O)₆](MnO₄)₂, where M=Mg, Ni, Zn and Cd, have been studied at 100–400 K by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). One solid–solid phase transition for the compounds with M=Mg and Ni and two solid–solid phase transitions for these with M=Zn and Cd have been discovered. Additionally, three phase transitions, connected with three-stage melting process of these compounds, were also found. Thermodynamic parameters of the all detected phase transitions were calculated.     

Newly Detected Hydroxyls in Zeolite Mordenite by 1H MAS Spin Echo NMR Spectroscopy

The study of the acidic sites in zeolites is important to understand the nature of the acidic catalytic function.