Thermodynamic parameters of urethane formation reactions and concomitant processes

Thermodynamic parameters of reactions of methyl and phenyl isocyanates with a series of compounds were determined by quantum-chemical calculations. The products of these reactions model for various functional groups present in commercial polyurethanes. The thermodynamic stability series for compounds formed from aliphatic and aromatic isocyanates were constructed.     

Adaptive server staffing in the presence of time-varying arrivals: a feed-forward control approach

We study the short-term staffing problem of systems that experience random, non-stationary demand. The typical method to accommodate changes in arrival rate is to use historical data to identify peak periods and associated forecasting for upcoming time windows. In this paper, we develop a method that instead detects change as it happens. Motivated by an automatic call distributor system in a call centre with time-varying arrivals, we propose a change detection algorithm based upon non-homogeneous Poisson processes. The proposed method is general and may be thought of as a feed-forward strategy, in which we detect a change in the arrival process, estimate the new magnitude of the arrival rate, and assign an appropriate number of servers to the tasks. The generalized likelihood ratio statistic is used and a recommendation for its decision limit is developed. Simulation results are used to evaluate the performance of the detector in the context of a telephone call centre.     

Receiver set partitioning and sequencing for multicasting traffic in a WDM lightwave single-hop network

This paper considers a receiver set partitioning and sequencing problem in a wavelength division multiplexing single-hop lightwave network for multicasting traffic. The problem is analysed in the approach of uncapacitated single batch-processing machine scheduling. In the analysis, several solution properties are characterized with respect to a mean flow time measure, based upon which two heuristic algorithms are developed, along with a dynamic programming algorithm. Several numerical experiments show that the heuristic algorithms generate good schedules. The problem is extended to consider two measures simultaneously including the mean flow time and the number of transmissions, for which the proposed algorithms also perform well.     

Low-frequency internal friction in complex composite strands

Conclusion A method was proposed which makes it possible to study the low-frequency internal friction of complex fibers. This method was used to study the internal friction of complex composite fibers based on PCA and PE. We observed a relaxation process which is typical of the composite and is absent in the pure materials.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 1, pp. 11–15, January–February, 1989.     

Effect of rare-earth oxides on the magnetic properties of anisotropic barium ferrites

The effect of rare-earth oxides on the properties of anisotropic barium ferrites has been studied by x-ray structural and Mössbauer methods. Additions of SrCO₃, as well as SrCO₃ and La₂O₃, SrCO₃ and Pr₆O₁₁, SrCO₃ and Nd₂O₃, SrCO₃ and Sm₂O₃ in amounts of 7.5 mole % Sr and 10 mole % rare-earth element to grade-A barium powder results in the substitution of barium ions by Sr and rare-earth ions; consequently, the energy of magnetic anisotropy changes and the technically important parameters B_r and (BH)_max increase.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 1, pp. 34–39, January, 1989.     

Continuously coupled parametric generators and their quantum statistics

In this paper the quantum-statistical properties of light beams propagating in a directional nonlinear coupler are investigated. This device is composed of a pair of linearly coupled nonlinear waveguides operating by means of degenerate parametric downconversion. The possibility of generation of nonclassical states of light in single and compound modes, using the short-length approximation, is discussed. Influence of linear and nonlinear mismatches for generation of nonclassical light is taken into account. This work was supported by Project LN00A015, Research Project No. CEZ: J14/98 and the COST project OC P11.003 of the Czech Ministry of Education.     

Loading aircraft for military operations

In this paper, we describe an aircraft loading problem submitted by the French military agency (DGA) as part of a more general military airlift planning problem. It can be viewed as a kind of bi-dimensional bin-packing problem, with heterogeneous bins and several additional constraints. We introduce two-phase methods for solving this NP-hard problem. The first phase consists in building good initial solutions, thanks to two fast algorithms: a list-based heuristic and a loading pattern generation method. Both algorithms call a constraint-based subroutine, able to determine quickly if the items already loaded can be reshuffled to accommodate a new object. The second phase improves these preliminary solutions using local search techniques. Results obtained on real data sets are presented.     

ON THE RATE OF WEIGHTED Lp CONVERGENCE BY THE GRUENWALD INTERPOLATORY OPERATORS

This paper gives the weighted Lp convergence rate estimations of the Gruenwald interpolatory polynomials based on the zeros of Chebyshev polymomials of the first kind,and proves that the order of the estimations is optimal for p≥1.     

Asymptotics of collision integral matrix elements in the isotropic case

The method of nonlinear moments, when used to solve the Boltzmann equation, necessitates the calculation of collision integral matrix elements. The matrix elements are hard to calculate numerically, especially at large indices. The asymptotics of the matrix elements are constructed. In terms of the model of pseudopower particle interaction, a formula free of summation is derived. This makes it possible to find the asymptotic behavior of linear and nonlinear elements when two indices are large. For an arbitrary interaction cross section, asymptotic expansions of linear and nonlinear matrix elements in one index are obtained. For Maxwellian molecules, asymptotic formulas are derived for three large indices.     

Reply to Nathan: How to reconstruct the causal argument

Nicholas Nathan tries to resist the current version of the causal argument for sense-data in two ways. First he suggests that, on what he considers to be the correct re-construction of the argument, it equivocates on the sense of proximate cause. Second he defends a form of disjunctivism, by claiming that there might be an extra mechanism involved in producing veridical hallucination, that is not present in perception. I argue that Nathan’s reconstruction of the argument is not the appropriate one, and that, properly interpreted, the argument does not equivocate on proximate cause. Furthermore, I claim that his postulation of a modified mechanism for hallucinations is implausibly ad hoc.