Studies aimed at the synthesis of morphine V an economic approach to (±)-reticuline from 3,4-dihydropapaverine

Regioselective demethylation of 3,4-dihydropapaveraldine ($\text{2}$a) at 7 and 3' positions affords a properly substituted diphenolic key intermidiate ($\text{2}$d) for the synthesis of reticuline and N-norreticuline.     

Some empirical relations for electron mobility in II–VI compound semiconductors

Electron mobility has been calculated in a number of binary II–VI compound semiconductors using a displaced Maxwellian distribution function and taking the various scattering mechanisms into consideration at different lattice temperatures and for various amounts of ionized impurity concentrations. It is observed that the low field mobility values can be expressed by a cubic power relationship with lattice temperature and with ionized impurity concentration using a least mean square fit technique with an accuracy better than 5 per cent. Similarly, the field dependence of mobility can also be expressed as a power series of the applied electric field. It is suggested that these equations can be profitably used for a quick estimation of mobility values as a check on experiments and also as sufficiently accurate formulae for simulation and modelling purposes.     

Theory of interfacial phase transitions in surfactant systems

The spin-1 Ising model, which is equivalent to the three-component lattice gas model, is used to study wetting transitions in three-component surfactant systems consisting of an oil, water, and a nonionic surfactant. Phase equilibria, interfacial profiles, and interfacial tensions for three-phase equilibrium are determined in mean field approximation, for a wide range of temperature and interaction parameters. Surfactant interaction parameters are found to strongly influence interfacial tensions, reducing them in some cases to ultralow values. Interfacial tensions are used to determine whether the middle phase, rich in surfactant, wets or does not wet the interface between the oil-rich and water-rich phases. By varying temperature and interaction parameters, a wetting transition is located and found to be of the first order. Comparison is made with recent experimental results on wetting transitions in ternary surfactant systems.This paper is dedicated to J. K. Percus in honor of his 65th birthday.     

Applying Stochastic Algorithms to a Locomotive Scheduling Problem

This paper addresses a problem common to all railway networks. Given a fixed train timetable and locomotives (or other forms of traction) of various types, each train must be allocated a locomotive. This paper examines the use of stochastic algorithms for such a problem. Two types of algorithm are used—a simple ‘local improvement’ method, performed successively from randomly chosen starting points, and a ‘simulated annealing’ approach. Both are found to give considerably better results than a deterministic method in current use, and the annealing approach is probably the better stochastic method.     

Dissociative excitation cross sections of the lead atom in collisions between electrons and PbI2 molecules

Dissociative excitation of the lead atom in e-PbI₂ collisions has been studied experimentally. 27 excitation cross sections were measured for an energy of the exciting electrons equal to 100 eV. Nine optical excitation functions were recorded with variation of the electron energy in the range 0–100 eV. The most probable reaction channels for low electron energies are discussed, as well as the ratio of the dissociative excitation cross sections for the lead atom in e-PbI₂ and e-PbCl₂ collisions. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 73, No. 6, pp. 701–706, November–December, 2006.     

The application of a vehicle routing model to a waste-collection problem: two case studies

In this paper we suggest a unique model for estimating the operating cost of each of three waste-collection systems. Under the traditional system, which is widely used, waste is typically collected in plastic bags and a three-man crew is needed on each vehicle. The other two systems require a one-man crew for vehicle collecting street containers. The side-loader system with fixed body automatically empties street containers into the vehicle body and empties the load at the disposal site. The side-loader system with demountable body allows the separation of the waste collection phase from transport to the disposal site, since the vehicle body can be demounted. We also present two case studies and show how the estimation of operating costs is a critical issue in decisions regarding the type of system to be used for waste collection.     

The Markov power moment problem in problems of controllability and frequency extinguishing for the wave equation on a half-axis

In this paper necessary and sufficient conditions of null-controllability and approximate null-controllability are obtained for the wave equation on a half-axis. Controls solving these problems are found explicitly. Moreover, bang-bang controls solving the approximate null-controllability problem are constructed with the aid of solutions of a frequency extinguishing problem in the restricted band (−a,a) for this equation and the Markov power moment problem.     

Characterization and Computation of Canonical Tight Windows for Gabor Frames

Let (\gnm)_{n,m ? \Zst}(\gnm)_{n,m\in\Zst} be a Gabor frame for \LtR\LtR for given window gg. We show that the window \ho = \SQI g\ho=\SQI g that generates the canonically associated tight Gabor frame minimizes ||g-h||\|g-h\| among all windows hh generating a normalized tight Gabor frame. We present and prove versions of this result in the time domain, the frequency domain, the time-frequency domain, and the Zak transform domain, where in each domain the canonical \ho\ho is expressed using functional calculus for Gabor frame operators. Furthermore, we derive a Wiener--Levy type theorem for rationally oversampled Gabor frames. Finally, a Newton-type method for a fast numerical calculation of \ho\ho is presented. We analyze the convergence behavior of this method and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm by some numerical examples.