Exact tail asymptotics in a priority queue—characterizations of the non-preemptive model

This is a companion paper to Li and Zhao (Queueing Syst. 63:355–381, 2009) recently published in Queueing Systems, in which the classical preemptive priority queueing system was considered. In the current paper we consider the classical non-preemptive priority queueing system with two classes of independent Poisson customers and a single exponential server serving the two classes of customers at possibly different rates. A complete characterization of the regions of system parameters for exact tail asymptotics is obtained through an analysis of generating functions. This is done for the joint stationary distribution of the queue length of the two classes of customers, for the two marginal distributions and also for the distribution of the total number of customers in the system, respectively. This complete characterization is supplemental to the existing literature, which would be useful to researchers.     

The study of organic semiconductor/ferromagnet interfaces in organic spintronics: A short review of recent progress

An overview is given on recent results in organic spintronic research. In particular, so‐called spinterfaces, spin‐injecting interfaces involving organic semiconductor (OSC) molecules and ferromagnetic metals, are discussed. The interfaces are classified in different categories depending on the type and strength of interface interaction and the relevant physics concerning energy level alignment and spin polarization of interface states are explained. Examples are given on characterization of both interface energetics and spin‐related properties obtained from a wide variety of experimental techniques, highlighting the different ways contacting can modify the electronic and magnetic properties of the OSC molecules and the ferromagnetic metals at the resulting spinterfaces. Finally, models for spin injection at spinterfaces are presented and discussed, followed by some speculations on consequences for device design and performance. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2012     

Manipulation of the phase structure of vinyl-functionalized phenylene bridging periodic mesoporous organosilica

A series of vinyl-functionalized periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs) were prepared by co-condensation of 1,4-bis (triethoxysilyl) benzene (BTEB) and triethoxyvinylsilane (TEVS) using the triblock copolymer Pluronic P123 as a template under acid conditions. It is found that the mesophases of resultant PMOs can be controlled via altering the fraction of organosilanes in the synthesis mixture and catalyst HCl concentration. With increasing fraction of TEVS, mesophase of the PMOs materials changed from p6mm to Ia3d, and then becomes a disordered material. For PMOs with 15 molar percentage of TEVS, the increase of HCl concentration can induce a transformation of mesophases from hexagonal p6mm to cubic Ia3d, whereas, a mixture of p6mm/disordered structure forms at lower acid concentration for the PMOs containing 5 % TEVS. The mechanisms of mesophase transformation were discussed based on the adsorption of TEVS into the micelles, influence of acid concentration on the hydrolysis and condensation rate, and the relative reactivities of the organosilane precursors.     

Study of Morita contexts

Matrix congruence can be used to mimic linear maps between homogeneous quadratic polynomials in n variables. We introduce a generalization, called standard-form congruence, which mimics affine maps between non-homogeneous quadratic polynomials. Canonical forms under standard-form congruence for three-by-three matrices are derived. This is then used to give a classification of algebras defined by two generators and one degree two relation. We also apply standard-form congruence to classify homogenizations of these algebras.     

Uniquely Clean Elements in Rings

It is well known that every uniquely clean ring is strongly clean. In this article, we investigate the question of when this result holds element-wise. We first construct an example showing that uniquely clean elements need not be strongly clean. However, in case every corner ring is clean the uniquely clean elements are strongly clean. Further, we classify the set of uniquely clean elements for various classes of rings, including semiperfect rings, unit-regular rings, and endomorphism rings of continuous modules.     

Multi-period price promotions in a single-supplier, multi-retailer supply chain under asymmetric demand information

This paper considers a two-stage supply chain in which a supplier serves a set of stores in a retail chain. We consider a two-stage Stackelberg game in which the supplier must set price discounts for each period of a finite planning horizon under uncertainty in retail-store demand. As a mechanism to stimulate sales, the supplier offers periodic off-invoice price discounts to the retail chain. Based on the price discounts offered by the supplier, and after store demand uncertainty is resolved, the retail chain determines individual store order quantities in each period. Because the supplier offers store-specific prices, the retailer may ship inventory between stores, a practice known as diverting. We demonstrate that, despite the resulting bullwhip effect and associated costs, a carefully designed price promotion scheme can improve the supplier’s profit when compared to the case of everyday low pricing (EDLP). We model this problem as a stochastic bilevel optimization problem with a bilinear objective at each level and with linear constraints. We provide an exact solution method based on a Reformulation-Linearization Technique (RLT). In addition, we compare our solution approach with a widely used heuristic and another exact solution method developed by Al-Khayyal (Eur. J. Oper. Res. 60(3):306–314, 1992) in order to benchmark its quality.     

Right ideals generated by an idempotent of finite rank

Let R be a K-algebra acting densely on V_D, where K is a commutative ring with unity and V is a right vector space over a division K-algebra D. Let f(X₁,…,X_t) be an arbitrary and fixed polynomial over K in noncommuting indeterminates X₁,…,X_t with constant term 0 such that for some μK occurring in the coefficients of f(X₁,…,X_t). It is proved that a right ideal ρ of R is generated by an idempotent of finite rank if and only if the rank of f(x₁,…,x_t) is bounded above by a same natural number for all x₁,…,x_tρ. In this case, the rank of the idempotent that generates ρ is also explicitly given. The results are then applied to considering the triangularization of ρ and the irreducibility of f(ρ), where f(ρ) denotes the additive subgroup of R generated by the elements f(x₁,…,x_t) for x₁,…,x_tρ.     

Theoretical study on the improvement of the doping efficiency of Al in 4H-SiC by co-doping group-ⅣB elements

The p-type doping efficiency of 4H silicon carbide(4H-SiC)is rather low due to the large ionization energies of p-type dopants.Such an issue impedes the explora...