Selecting an agricultural technology package based on the flexible and interactive tradeoff method

Annals of Operations Research - The aim of this paper is to solve an agricultural technology packages selection problem by considering multiple dimensions which influence a maize producer’s...     

Measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry of charm and bottom quarks at theZ pole usingD*± mesons

The forward-backward asymmetries for the processes and at theZ resonance are measured using identifiedD ^*± mesons. In 905,000 selected hadronic events, taken in 1991 and 1992 with the DEL-PHI detector at LEP, 4757D ^*+D ⁰⁺ decays are reconstructed. Thec andb quark forward-backward asymmetries are determined to be:

A precision measurement of the average lifetime ofB hadrons

The average lifetime ofB hadrons was measured using data collected with the DELPHI detector at the LEP collider during 1991 and 1992. The measurement was performed using two different anayses. The first method was an improvement on a previous technique, which used charged particle impact parameter distributions. This analysis measured an average lifetime forB hadrons of

Conformational Study of Naringenin in the Isolated and Solvated States by Semiempirical and Ab Initio Methods

Naringenin is a natural widespread flavanone occurring in different foodstuffs that presents several important biological activities. Although its properties are well documented, its mechanisms of action are still controversial. The present article reports a conformational analysis of naringenin, using the semiempirical AM1 and ab initio methods, at the Hartree–Fock level of theory. The 3-21G, 3-21G*, 6-31G, and 6-31G** basis sets were used. The electron correlation effects were included through the Møller–Plesset second-order perturbation theory. The solvation of naringenin has been investigated through the standard SCRF, the supermolecule (SM), and the combined SM/SCRF models. The results have shown that there are two degenerate forms of naringenin, differing mainly by the orientation of a hydroxyl group (C4—OH). The energy barrier for the interconversion between them is ca. 6 kcal.mol^–1, suggesting some conjugation between the -system of the aromatic B ring and the hydroxyl group (C4—OH).     

Atomistic Modeling of Silica Based Sol-Gel Processes

Density Functional Theory is used to study water, methanol, ethanol, TMOS, and TEOS molecules and the most important silica clusters participating in sol-gel processes. Calculated bond lengths, bond angles and electric dipole moments compare well with experimental data. The energy of these molecules is reported and used to discuss the energetics of the hydrolysis and condensation reactions. Molecular Dynamics is employed to simulate liquid water, methanol, ethanol, TMOS, TEOS and experimental sol-gel solutions. Calculated densities and enthalpies of vaporisation compare well with experimental data. Preliminary results are presented for MD simulations of sol-gel solutions.     

The particle structure ofv-dimensional Ising models at low temperatures

In this work we study thev-dimensional Ising model at low temperatures and establish the existence of an upper gap in the energy-momentum spectrum of the two-point function forv3. Forv=2, it is known that this gap is absent.Supported in part by Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq-Brazil), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil) and the National Science Foundation under Grant PHY76-17191