Optimal systems for equipment maintenance and replacement under Markovian deterioration

Deterioration of equipment is modeled as a multistate discrete time controlled Markov process. The states are classified according to the degree of deterioration. The problem of design of optimal systems for equipment maintenance and replacement is considered when the decision-maker may take, in each stage, one of many available maintenance actions, classified according to their “stochastic effectiveness”; no action and replacement are included as alternatives. It is assumed that the transition probabilities satisfy two conditions which effectively describe a trend for monotonically increasing expected deterioration and rate of deterioration. Under these assumptions it is proved in the paper that the optimal (cost minimizing) decision system in an infinite horizon is of the control limit rule type, rapidly obtained by policy improvement algorithms. A numerical example is presented for a specific practical application; detailed data are available from the authors on request.     

On comparing optimum Alternating Direction Preconditioning and Extrapolated Alternating Direction Implicit schemes

The purpose of this paper is to show the equivalence of Alternating Direction Preconditioning and Extrapolated Alternating Direction Implicit methods in the case of two-level one-parameter optimized schemes as far as convergence rates are concerned, and also to give optimum parameters for the numerical solution of the self-adjoint second-order elliptic partial differential equation and the biharmonic equation.     

Two-dimensional lattice gases for regular binary mixtures

This paper reports on the development of two-dimensional lattice gas models for regular binary mixtures. In particular, results are reproduced concerning equilibrium solutions and an expression for the diffusion coefficient. In our model, a volume force is incorporated, and the system of macroscopic evolution equations resembles the Boussinesq approximation in convection theory. As an example, a lattice gas Rayleigh-Bénard system is considered. We conclude with a few remarks on implementation and optimisation of the program using a SIMD parallel computer.     

Hydration studies in polymer hydrogels

Polymer hydrogels have attracted much interest in recent years based on numerous applications mainly in biotechnology and medicine. For the knowledge‐based design and development of new materials for these and similar applications, it is essential to understand better the hydration properties of hydrogels and of polymers in general. With this term, we mean the particular organization of water in the hydrogel, which determines the properties of the water component, typically different than those of bulk water, and the impact of water on the properties of the polymer matrix itself. In this review, we focus on recent work with hydrogels based on poly(hydroxyethyl acrylate), mostly copolymers with a second hydrophobic polymer and silica nanocomposites. The combination of water sorption/diffusion, thermal and dielectric studies, by fully exploiting the capabilities of each individual technique, proves essential in providing significant information on particular aspects of hydration, such as water uptake, water organization, and diffusion coefficients; glass transition and plasticization; water and polymer dynamics; protonic conductivity, and in revealing interesting correlations between these particular aspects. In the outlook similarities and differences to other related systems, such as protein‐water and polymer solutions in non‐polar solvents, are stressed in the perspective of a broader study. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2013     

Facile and Low-Cost SPE Modification Towards Ultra-Sensitive Organophosphorus and Carbamate Pesticide Detection in Olive Oil

Despite the fact that a considerable amount of effort has been invested in the development of biosensors for the detection of pesticides, there is still a lack of a simple and low-cost platform that can reliably and sensitively detect their presence in real samples. Herein, an enzyme-based biosensor for the determination of both carbamate and organophosphorus pesticides is presented that is based on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) immobilized on commercially available screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPEs) modified with carbon black (CB), as a means to enhance their conductivity. Most interestingly, two different methodologies to deposit the enzyme onto the sensor surfaces were followed; strikingly different results were obtained depending on the family of pesticides under investigation. Furthermore, and towards the uniform application of the functionalization layer onto the SPEs’ surfaces, the laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) technique was employed in conjunction with CB functionalization, which allowed a considerable improvement of the sensor’s performance. Under the optimized conditions, the fabricated sensors can effectively detect carbofuran in a linear range from 1.1 × 10^?9 to 2.3 × 10^?8 mol/L, with a limit of detection equal to 0.6 × 10^?9 mol/L and chlorpyrifos in a linear range from 0.7 × 10^?9 up to 1.4 × 10^?8 mol/L and a limit of detection 0.4 × 10^?9 mol/L in buffer. The developed biosensor was also interrogated with olive oil samples, and was able to detect both pesticides at concentrations below 10 ppb, which is the maximum residue limit permitted by the European Food Safety Authority.     

Dielectric and dynamic mechanical studies on homogeneous PBA/PBMA interpenetrating polymer networks

Broadband dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS, 10⁻²‐10⁹ Hz), thermally stimulated depolarization currents (TSDC) techniques and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) were employed to investigate the dynamic glass transition and, thus, phase morphology in sequential IPNs of poly(butyl acrylate) (PBA) and poly(butyl methacrylate) (PBMA) with 10 weight % of ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as branching agent. In a parallel investigation, similar IPNs with only 0.1% branching agent showed clearly phase separation. In the highly branched IPNs, forced compatibilization induces miscibility of the two components. The results are discussed in terms of suppression of cooperativity and dynamic heterogeneity in the IPNs.     

On set theoretic complete intersections in P k 3

We prove that smooth monomial curves of degree greater than three are not set theoretic complete intersections on a wide class of surfaces, called bihonogeneous surfaces.     

The solution of the linear complementarity problem by the matrix analogue of the accelerated overrelaxation iterative method

The Linear Complementarity Problem (LCP), with an H₊?matrix coefficient, is solved by using the new “(Projected) Matrix Analogue of the AOR (MAAOR)” iterative method; this new method constitutes an extension of the “Generalized AOR (GAOR)” iterative method. In this work two sets of convergence intervals of the parameters involved are determined by the theories of “Perron-Frobenius” and of “Regular Splittings”. It is shown that the intervals in question are better than any similar convergence intervals found so far by similar iterative methods. A deeper analysis reveals that the “best” values of the parameters involved are those of the (projected) scalar Gauss-Seidel iterative method. A theoretical comparison of the “best” (projected) Gauss-Seidel and the “best” modulus-based splitting Gauss-Seidel method is in favor of the former method. A number of numerical examples support most of our theoretical findings.     

On the average volume of sections of convex bodies

The average section functional as(K) of a star body in Rn is the average volume of its central hyperplane sections: \(as\left( k \right) = \int_{{S^{n - 1}}} {\left| {K \cap {\xi ^ \bot }} \right|} d\sigma \left( \xi \right)\). We study the question whether there exists an absolute constantC > 0 such that for every n, for every centered convex body K in R ⁿ and for every 1 ≤ k ≤ n ? 2,

$$as\left( K \right) \leqslant {C^k}{\left| K \right|^{\frac{k}{n}}}\mathop {\max }\limits_{|E \in G{r_{n - k}}} {\kern 1pt} as\left( {K \cap E} \right)$$

. We observe that the case k = 1 is equivalent to the hyperplane conjecture. We show that this inequality holds true in full generality if one replaces C by CL _K orCd_ovr(K, BP _k ⁿ ), where L _K is the isotropic constant of K and dovr(K, BP _k ⁿ ) is the outer volume ratio distance of K to the class BP _k ⁿ of generalized k-intersection bodies. We also compare as(K) to the average of as(K ∩ E) over all k-codimensional sections of K. We examine separately the dependence of the constants on the dimension when K is in some classical position. Moreover, we study the natural lower dimensional analogue of the average section functional.