An elementary proof of the uniqueness of invariant product measures for some infinite dimensional processesUne preuve élémentaire de l'unicité des mesures invariantes produits pour certains processus en dimension infinie

Consider an infinite dimensional diffusion process with state space , where T is the circle, and defined by an infinitesimal generator L which acts on local functions f as . Suppose that the coefficients a_i and b_i are smooth, bounded, of finite range, have uniformly bounded second order partial derivatives, that a_i are uniformly bounded from below by some strictly positive constant, and that a_i is a function only of η_i. Suppose that there is a product measure ν which is invariant. Then if ν is the Lebesgue measure or if d=1,2, it is the unique invariant measure. Furthermore, if ν is translation invariant, it is the unique invariant, translation invariant measure. The proofs are elementary. Similar results can be proved in the context of an interacting particle system with state space , with uniformly positive bounded flip rates which are finite range. To cite this article: A.F. Ram??rez, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 334 (2002) 139–144     

Envelope expansion methods for speech enhancement

The last decade has seen increasing interest in techniques for the enhancement of digital speech signals. Significant gains have been made in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and quality, but few techniques have produced improvements in intelligibility. A method for speech enhancement based on nonlinear expansion of the spectral envelope is presented. The expansion is consistent with both the long-term spectrum of the speech and with the probability that speech is present in a given sample. Objective SNR measures are used to compare this algorithm with the well-known spectral subtraction method, with an alternative expansion scheme, and with limiting SNRs resulting from perfect recovery of the amplitude spectrum. For the purpose of intelligibility assessments, a simplified version of the algorithm has been implemented on a Texas Instruments TMS320-C25 system. Listening trials with this real-time system, conducted using a modified rhyme test, have produced small, but consistent, improvements in articulation scores.     

Polybenzimidazoles containing anthracene photodimer

Polybenzimidazoles that contained anthracene photodimer were prepared. The molecular weights of the polymers prepared by the photopolymerization of bis-anthrylbenzimidazoles were limited by the precipitation of the resulting polymers from the reaction organic solvents. Higher molecular weight polymers were obtained by the photopolymerization of bis-anthryl-Schiff's bases, followed by the oxidation of the resulting polymers. These polymers were soluble in acidic solvents such as formic and sulfuric acids but were insoluble in organic solvents.     

Low-temperature reaction of magnesium with fluorobenzene

The low-temperature reaction of magnesium with fluorobenzene has been investigated. Joint condensation of magnesium and fluorobenzene vapours at low temperatures quantitatively gave phenylmagnesium fluoride in one stage.     

A Successful Implementation of Locating Passive Cooling Facilities: The Case of Northern Thailand

This paper reports the actual implementation of a location-allocation study, which is one aspect of the overall Passive Cooling (Thailand) Project conducted in Northern Thailand since 1985. The goal has been to generate decision supports for ‘optimal’ placements of cooling facilities and the assignment of sites to these facilities as part of the post-harvest handling-chain operation of agricultural products. The basic questions addressed in this work are the issues of how many facilities to set up and where to locate them for maximum utility. Our selected approach is to use discrete location-allocation modelling, as, among other reasons, the problem at hand has a most natural network setting. Direct methods as well as efficient heuristics are examined, and sample numerical results are reported as illustrations of the continual implementation.     

On bulk-service MAP/PH L,N /1/N G-Queues with repeated attempts

We consider a retrial queue with a finite buffer of size N, with arrivals of ordinary units and of negative units (which cancel one ordinary unit), both assumed to be Markovian arrival processes. The service requirements are of phase type. In addition, a PH^L,N bulk service discipline is assumed. This means that the units are served in groups of size at least L, where 1≤ L≤ N. If at the completion of a service fewer than L units are present at the buffer, the server switches off and waits until the buffer length reaches the threshold L. Then it switches on and initiates service for such a group of units. On the contrary, if at the completion of a service L or more units are present at the buffer, all units enter service as a group. Units arriving when the buffer is full are not lost, but they join a group of unsatisfied units called “orbit”. Our interest is in the continuous-time Markov chain describing the state of the queue at arbitrary times, which constitutes a level dependent quasi-birth-and-death process. We start by analyzing a simplified version of our queueing model, which is amenable to numerical calculation and is based on spatially homogeneous quasi-birth-and-death processes. This leads to modified matrix-geometric formulas that reveal the basic qualitative properties of our algorithmic approach for computing performance measures. AMS Subject Classification: Primary 60K25 Secondary 68M20 90B22.     

Pomeron-Odderon interference effects in electroproduction of two pions

We study Pomeron-Odderon interference effects giving rise to charge and single-spin asymmetries in diffractive electroproduction of a pair. We calculate these asymmetries, originating from both longitudinal and transverse polarizations of the virtual photon, in the framework of QCD and in the Born approximation, in a kinematical domain accessible to HERA experiments. We predict a sizable charge asymmetry with a characteristic dependence on the invariant mass of the pair, which makes this observable very important for establishing the magnitude of the Odderon exchange in hard processes. The single-spin asymmetry turns out to be rather small. We briefly discuss future improvements of our calculations and their possible effects on the results. Received: 18 July 2002 / Published online: 25 October 2002