Optimal Discrete Approximations for Continuous Outcomes with Applications in Decision and Risk Analysis

In decision and risk analysis, it is common to use discrete probability distributions to approximate uncertain events with continuous outcomes. This paper discusses how these approximations may be selected. A class of approximations based on a modification to Taguchi's work on tolerance analysis is shown to be optimal under assumptions of independent uncertainties with normally distributed outcomes. The approximation procedure is shown to be robust in many other situations and is extremely easy to use in practice. We also show how the approximation may be integrated into the process of subjective probability estimation by a ‘subject-matter expert’.     

Optimal Inventory Policies with Service-Level Constraints

In a practical situation it is often difficult to determine the value of the shortage costs for use in in ventory-control systems. However, in cost-minimization problems including service-level constraints, shortage costs are implicitly prevailing. With the purpose of exploring these relations, a continuous review (Q, r) stock-control system is considered, where the order points and lot sizes are computed simultaneously. Instead of explicitly expressing the shortage cost in the objective function, it is taken into consideration through a service-level constraint. The shadow price of this constraint can in some sense be interpreted as the shortage cost corresponding to the requested service level. By changing the value of the service level, interesting relations between shortage costs and service levels can be viewed for different sets of other inventory parameters. In order to investigate the sensitivity for probabilistic variations in the input data, two different probability distributions are used to describe the lead-time demand.     

Sensitivity of hydrodynamic system of the Obukhov type

The paper deals with the regime of advanced Bénard instabilities (described usually by the Lorenz system) in a more general system formulated firstly by Obukhov. It has been shown that triplet co-operation leads to characteristic courses where some new regularities occur.     

Influence of metastable-metastable collisions on electron distribution function in afterglow

The time dependence of the electron distribution function in helium afterglow, for pressures of 60–260 Pa, is calculated for the case in which metastable-metastable reactions are present. The time variation of the shape of the distribution function shows that careful consideration must be made of the time derivative of the distribution function in the Boltzmann equation for the calculation of the rate constant of such reactions from experimentally determined distribution function.     

Softening during and after the hot deformation of the AISI 321 steel with respect to practical applications

The softening processes during and after the hot deformation (850–1180 C) in AISI 321 stainless steel were studied with respect to true strains _D and true strain rates . The analysis of deformation curves indicates the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization for values of Zener-Hollomon parameterZ10¹⁵ s^–1. The retardation of static recrystallization by fine Ti(N, C) precipitates is documented by microstructure studies and by variations of annealing conditions.     

From dilute to dense self-avoiding walks on hypercubic lattices

A field-theoretic representation is presented to count the number of configurations of a single self-avoiding walk on a hypercubic lattice ind dimensions with periodic boundary conditions. We evaluate the connectivity constant as a function of the fractionf of sites occupied by the polymer chain. The meanfield approximation is exact in the limit of infinite dimensions, and corrections to it in powers ofd ^–1 can be systematically evaluated. The connectivity constant and the site entropy calculated throughout second order compare well with known results in two and three dimensions. We also find that the entropy per site develops a maximum atf1–(2d)^–1. Ford=2 (d=3), this maximum occurs atf~0.80 (f~0.86) and its value is about 50% (30%) higher than the entropy per site of a Hamiltonian walk (f=1).     

Stationary axisymmetric solutions in the vacuum Jordan-Brans-Dicke theory

It is shown that any stationary axisymmetric solution to the vacuum field equations of the Jordan-Brans-Dicke (JBD) theory may be obtained from a composition of any stationary axisymmetric vacuum Einstein spacetime with the Weyl class of metrics. Thus, generating solution techniques can be used to obtain any stationary axisymmetric JBD vacuum solution. In this manner, C. B. G. McIntosh's results concerning this topic are improved upon.