Skew partitions in perfect graphs

We discuss some new and old results about skew partitions in perfect graphs.     

Physikalische Papieruntersuchung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Wavelength division (de)multiplexing based on dispersive self-imaging

We proposed and experimentally demonstrated wavelength division (de)multiplexers (WDMs) utilizing the wavelength dispersive nature of self-imaging multimode interferometers. Proof-of-principle devices fabricated on the silicon-on-insulator platform operated as 4-channel WDMs with a free spectral range of >90 nm, an averaging cross talk of <-20 dB for a 1 nm band, and an insertion loss of <2.0 dB. The potential for higher channel counts and smaller channel wavelength spacing was also predicted. This type of WDM is easy to design and fabricate. The underlying concept is applicable to all planar waveguide platforms.     

Queues in tandem with customer deadlines and retrials

We study queues in tandem with customer deadlines and retrials. We first consider a 2-queue Markovian system with blocking at the second queue, analyze it, and derive its stability condition. We then study a non-Markovian setting and derive the stability condition for an approximating diffusion, showing its similarity to the former condition. In the Markovian setting, we use probability generating functions and matrix analytic techniques. In the diffusion setting, we consider expectations of the first hitting times of compact sets.     

COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS APPLIED TO WILDERNESS PRESERVATION—OPTION VALUE UNCERTAINTY AND DITONICITY

It has been recognized for some time that when cost-benefit analysis is applied to irreversible environmental decisions, such as that of developing or preserving wilderness land, there can be an option value associated with the preservation decision, which arises when there is future uncertainty with respect to the benefits of development or preservation. In this paper the provenance of option value is examined and it is shown that an important cause is a special kind of uncertainty, viz. the possibility of reversals in direction of the relative valuations of wilderness land and developed land, a property we refer to as ditonicity. It is shown that the more ditonic the relative valuation process the greater the deviance between the certainty-equivalence development policy and the stochastically optimal one, and thus by implication the greater the option value. In the two cases with zero ditonicity, when relative wilderness valuations always increase or always decrease (even though in a stochastic fashion), there is zero option value. The model used assumes that service flows from wilderness and developed land are size-dependent, with future relative values known only in terms of a stochastic process, which can take jumps up or down of the same proportional size, at random times. Development can be partial or total and can occur in impulses at any time over an infinite time horizon.