Thermal stability and the behaviour in organic solvents of some poly(ester-siloxane)urethanes

Three new chemically crosslinked polyurethanes were synthesized. Their behaviour in organic solvents and in dynamic heating conditions was studied. Predictions regarding the thermal stability have been made by using the isoconversion kinetic method.     

Continuous version of Filippov’s theorem for fractional differential inclusions

Using Bressan-Colombo results, concerning the existence of continuous selections of lower semicontinuous multifunctions with decomposable values, we prove a continuous version of Filippov’s theorem for a fractional differential inclusion.     

Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters (FAEE): A New,Green and Renewable Solvent for the Extraction of Carotenoids from Tomato Waste Products

Currently there is a drive towards the minimisation and reclamation of valuable materials from the waste products of the food and beverage industry. This can be achieved through the extraction of residual nutraceuticals from such materials. Tomato pomace contains carotenoids and other chemicals which can be extracted directly into edible oils to improve the health-giving properties of such oils. We report here a novel green solvent, fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE), which is significantly more effective than sunflower oil and hexane for the extraction of lycopene and beta-carotene from tomato skin waste. FAEE are a non-toxic renewable resource that is environmentally friendly and to our knowledge has never been used as a vegetal extraction fluid. The efficiency of FAEE extraction was significantly improved relative to both sunflower oil and hexane under ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) conditions. In addition, FAEE have the additional and significant advantage that once enriched with the extracted nutraceuticals can be used directly as a food additive.     

Completely J —positive linear systems of finite order

Completely J — positive linear systems of finite order are introduced as a generalization of completely symmetric linear systems. To any completely J — positive linear system of finite order there is associated a defining measure with respect to which the transfer function has a certain integral representation. It is proved that these systems are asymptotically stable. The observability and reachability operators obey a certain duality rule and the number of negative squares of the Hankel operator is estimated. The Hankel operator is bounded if and only if a certain measure associated with the defining measure is of Carleson type. We prove that a real symmetric operator valued function which is analytic outside the unit disk has a realization with a completely J — symmetric linear space which is reachable, observable and parbalanced. Uniqueness and spectral minimality of the completely J — symmetric realizations are discussed.     

Quantum fidelity of Gaussian states in open systems

Using the expression of the fidelity for the most general Gaussian quantum states, the behaviour of the quantum fidelity is described for the states of a harmonic oscillator interacting with an environment, in particular with a thermal bath. By taking a correlated squeezed Gaussian state as initial state, we calculate the quantum fidelity for both kinds of undisplaced and displaced states, and for different values of the squeezing and correlation parameters and of the environment temperature.     

Nonlinear Multigrid Methods for Numerical Solution of the Variably Saturated Flow Equation in Two Space Dimensions

The need of accurate and efficient numerical schemes to solve Richards’ equation is well recognized. This study is carried out to examine the numerical performances of the nonlinear multigrid method for numerical solving of the two-dimensional Richards’ equation modeling water flow in variably saturated porous media. The numerical approach is based on an implicit, second-order accurate time discretization combined with a vertex centered finite volume method for spatial discretization. The test problems simulate infiltration of water in 2D saturated–unsaturated soils with hydraulic properties described by van Genuchten–Mualem models. The numerical results obtained are compared with those provided by the modified Picard–preconditioned conjugated gradient (Krylov subspace) approach.     

Wigner Functions and Spin Tomograms for Qubit States

We establish the relation of the spin tomogram to the Wigner function on a discrete phase space of qubits. We use the quantizers and dequantizers of the spin tomographic star-product scheme for qubits to derive the expression for the kernel connecting Wigner symbols on the discrete phase space with the tomographic symbols.     

Index formulae for subspaces of Kreîn spaces

For a subspaceS of a Kreîn spaceK and an arbitrary fundamental decompositionK=K ^?[+]K ⁺ ofK, we prove the index formula $$\kappa ^ - \left( \mathcal{S} \right) + \dim \left( {\mathcal{S}^ \bot \cap \mathcal{K}^ + } \right) = \kappa ^ + \left( {\mathcal{S}^ \bot } \right) + \dim \left( {\mathcal{S} \cap \mathcal{K}^ - } \right)$$ where κ^±(S) stands for the positive/negative signature ofS. The difference dim(S∩K ^?)?dim(S ^⊥∩K ⁺), provided it is well defined, is called the index ofS. The formula turns out to unify other known index formulac for operators or subspaces in a Kreîn space.