Acoustic waveguide filters made up of rigid stacked materials with elastic joints

Meccanica - The acoustic dispersion properties of monodimensional waveguide filters can be assessed by means of the simple prototypical mechanical system made of an infinite stack of periodic...     

Fracture behavior and mechanical,thermal, and rheological properties of biodegradable films extruded by flat die and calender

The development of biodegradable materials for tailored applications, particularly in the field of polymeric films and sheets, is a challenging technological goal as well as a contribution to help protect the environment. Poly(lactic) acid (PLA) is a promising substitute for several oil-based polymers; however, to overcome its thermal and mechanical drawbacks, researchers have developed solutions such as blending PLA with polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), which is capable of increasing the ductility of the final material. In this study, PLA/PBAT binary blends, with minimum possible content of nonrenewable materials, were examined from processing, thermal, morphological, and rheological perspective. An optimized PLA/PBAT ratio was chosen as the polymeric basis to obtain a biodegradable formulation by adding a biobased plasticizer and appropriate fillers to produce a micrometer film with tailored flexibility and tear resistance. The processing technology involved flat-die extrusion, followed by calendering. The tearing resistance of the produced film was investigated, and the results were compared with literature data. A study on the essential work of fracture was implemented to explore the mode III out-of-plane fracture resistance starting from a trouser tear test.     

A Novel [OSSO]-Type Chromium(III) Complex as a Versatile Catalyst for Copolymerization of Carbon Dioxide with Epoxides

A new chromium(III) complex, bearing a bis-thioether-diphenolate [OSSO]-type ligand, was found to be an efficient catalyst in the copolymerization of CO₂ and epoxides to achieve poly(propylene carbonate), poly(cyclohexene carbonate), poly(hexene carbonate) and poly(styrene carbonate), as well as poly(propylene carbonate)(cyclohexene carbonate) and poly(propylene carbonate)(hexene carbonate) terpolymers.     

A Mechanistically and Operationally Simple Route to Metal–N-Heterocyclic Carbene (NHC) Complexes

We have been puzzled by the involvement of weak organic and inorganic bases in the synthesis of metal–N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes. Such bases are insufficiently strong to permit the presumed required deprotonation of the azolium salt (the carbene precursor) prior to metal binding. Experimental and computational studies provide support for a base-assisted concerted process that does not require free NHC formation. The synthetic protocol was found applicable to a number of transition-metal- and main-group-centered NHC compounds and could become the synthetic route of choice to form M–NHC bonds.     

Analysis of spectral Hamiltonian boundary value methods (SHBVMs) for the numerical solution of ODE problems

Numerical Algorithms - Recently, the numerical solution of stiffly/highly oscillatory Hamiltonian problems has been attacked by using Hamiltonian boundary value methods (HBVMs) as spectral methods...     

On some auxiliary mappings generated by nonexpansive and strictly pseudo-contractive mappings

Starting by a finite family of mappings, we define the concept of procedure with Lipschitzian dependence of the coefficients. We give seven concrete examples of such procedures and prove the strong convergence of two viscosity methods.     

Some noncoercive parabolic equations with lower order terms in divergence form

This paper deals with existence and regularity results for the problem $ \cases{u_t-\mathrm{div}(a(x,t,u )\nabla u)=-\mathrm{div}(u\,E) \qquad in \Omega\times (0,T),\cr u=0 \qquad on \partial \Omega\times (0,T), \cr u (0)= u_0 \qquad in \Omega ,\cr} $ under various assumptions on E and $ u_0 $. The main difculty in studying this problem is due to the presence of the term div(uE), which makes the differential operator non coercive on the "energy space" $ L^2 (0, T; H_0^1 (\Omega)) $.AMS Subject Classification: 35K10, 35K15, 35K65.     

On a discrimination problem for a class of stochastic processes with ordered first‐passage times

Consider the Bayes problem in which one has to discriminate if the random unknown initial state of a stochastic process is distributed according to either of two preassigned distributions, on the base of the observation of the first‐passage time of the process through 0. For processes whose first‐passage times to state 0 are increasing in the initial state according to the likelihood ratio order, such problem is solved by determining the Bayes decision function and the corresponding Bayes error. The special case of fixed initial values including a family of first‐passage times with proportional reversed hazard functions is then studied. Finally, various applications to birth‐and‐death and to diffusion processes are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The electrostatics of Einstein’s unified field theory

When sources are added at their right-hand sides, and g_(ik) is a priori assumed to be the metric, the equations of Einstein’s Hermitian theory of relativity were shown to allow for an exact solution that describes the general electrostatic field of n point charges. Moreover, the injunction of spherical symmetry of g_(ik) in the infinitesimal neighbourhood of each of the charges was proved to yield the equilibrium conditions of the n charges in keeping with ordinary electrostatics. The tensor g_(ik), however, cannot be the metric of the theory, since it enters neither the eikonal equation nor the equation of motion of uncharged test particles. A physically correct metric that rules both the behaviour of wave fronts and of uncharged matter is the one indicated by Hély.In the present paper it is shown how the electrostatic solution predicts the structure of the n charged particles and their mutual positions of electrostatic equilibrium when Hély’s physically correct metric is adopted.