Some experiences in controlling contamination of environmental materials during sampling and processing for low-level actinide analysis

Selected experiences in the control of contamination and the threat it poses to the quality of analytical date are discussed in the context of the whole analytical process from collection of marine environmental samples, through handling and radiochemical separation, to the final interpretation of results. Examples include a demonstration of the contamination introduced during sediment core sectioning, contamination of sea water by a ship's pumping system, and the effect of filtration on the apparent partitioning of radionuclides between solid and liquid phases of sea water.     

Determination of lithium in wines by atomic absorption spectrometry

Lithium (10–150 ng ml^?1) in wine is determined by atomic absorption spectrometry by direct nebulization and after digestion with mixed acids. The results of methods are similar. Thirty-four wines from various Spanish provinces are analysed.     

Evaluating the Efficiency of US Air Force Real-Property Maintenance Activities

The objective of this research is to evaluate a new methodology, data envelopment analysis (DEA), as a tool for measuring and evaluating the operational efficiency of US Air Force organizations. This study involves the application of DEA to locate possible inefficiencies in the performance of US Air Force real-property maintenance activities. Dynamic behaviour, as exhibited via window analyses, is reviewed along with static counterparts. The testing was done in close coordination with Air Force officials, who reviewed the results for accuracy, validity and relevance. We conclude that this type of efficiency analysis does have value for the Air Force, where it can serve as a guide to auditors, budget programmers, managers and others in measuring, evaluating and enhancing operational efficiency.     

Wechselnde Bindungen in einem Zweikörpersystem mit trockener Reibung

Übersicht Betrachtet wird ein zwangserregtes Zweikörpersystem mit wechselnden Bindungen infolge trockener Reibung. Stationäre Bewegungen werden als Grenzfall instationärer Einschwingvorgänge berechnet. Abhängig von den Systemparametern ergeben sich drei typische Bewegungsformen. Ihnen entsprechen dauernde Haftzustände, wechselnde Haft-Gleitzustände oder dauernde Gleitzustände an der Berührfläche beider Körper.

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Intermittant constraints in a two-body-system with dry friction

Summary An externally excited two-body-system with intermittant constraints due to dry friction is considered. Stationary motions are calculated as limit cases of instationary transients. Depending on the parameters of the system, three typical modes are of interest. These correspond to permanent sticking, slipstick behaviour, or to permanent slipping in the contact surface of the bodies, respectively.

     

Exact soliton solutions of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We study matter-wave solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates of ultracold gaseous atoms with spin degrees of freedom and present a class of exact solutions based on the inverse scattering method. The one-soliton solutions are classified with respect to the spin states. We analyze collisional effects between solitons in the same or different spin state(s), which reveals a very interesting possibility: we can manipulate the spin dynamics by controlling the parameters of colliding solitons.     

Global fit analysis including the ν9 + ν4 − ν4 hot band of ethane: Evidence of an interaction with the ν12 fundamental

The ν₉ fundamental band of ethane occurs in the 12 μm region. It is the strongest band of ethane in a terrestrial window and is commonly used for the identification of ethane in the Jovian planets. The ν₉ + ν₄ − ν₄ band occurs in the same region; neither can be analysed as an isolated band, since both are embedded in the torsional bath of the ground vibrational state. We report here two global fit models including data from both of these bands as well as the ν₃ fundamental and the ν₄, 2ν₄ − ν₄, and 3ν₄ torsional transitions. The first is restricted to −5 ? KΔK ? 15 in the hot band and gives an excellent fit to the included data. Three resonant interactions are identified in this fit—a Coriolis interaction with two resonant cases between the ν₉ torsional stack and that of the ground vibrational state (gs) and a resonant Fermi interaction between the ν₃ fundamental and the gs. Hot band lines with KΔK < −5 are influenced by a fourth perturbation, with a crossing at −11 < KΔK < −10, which has been attributed to an interaction with the ν₁₂ fundamental. A second fit, demonstrating a promising treatment of this interaction, is also presented.     

Two modifications of the least cost per period heuristic for dynamic lot-sizing

This paper proposes two constructive heuristics for the well-known single-level uncapacitated dynamic lot-sizing problem. The proposed heuristics, called net least period cost (nLPC) and nLPC(i), are developed by modifying the average period cost concept from Silver and Meal's heuristic, commonly known as least period cost (LPC). An improved tie-breaking stopping rule and a locally optimal decision rule are proposed in the second heuristic to enhance performance. We test the effectiveness of the proposed heuristics by using 20 benchmarking test problems frequently used in the literature. Furthermore, we perform a large-scale simulation study involving three factors, 50 experimental conditions, and 100?000 randomly generated problems to evaluate the proposed heuristics against LPC and six other well-known constructive heuristics in the literature. The simulation results show that both nLPC and nLPC(i) produce average holding and setup costs lower than or equal to those of LPC in every one of the 50 experimental conditions. The proposed heuristics also outperform each of the six other heuristics evaluated in all experimental conditions, without an increase in computational requirements. Lastly, considering that both nLPC and nLPC(i) are fairly simple for practitioners to understand and that lot-sizing heuristics have been commonly used in practice, there should be a very good chance for practical applications of the proposed heuristics.