Inventory problems with perishable items: Fixed lifetimes and backlogging

Our model deals with a single-product and a single-stock location with Poisson demand. The replenishment leadtime from the external supplier is fixed. The lifetime of the product is also fixed, and aging is assumed to begin when the order is placed. When the age of a unit has reached its lifetime, the unit is useless and thus discarded from the system. The replenishment policy is assumed to be an order-up-to S-policy. Demand that cannot be met immediately is backordered. We consider three different cases where the service requirements are represented by: (1) backorder costs per unit, (2) a service level constraint, (3) backorder costs per unit and time unit. Cases 1 and 2 are solved exactly, while an approximation is developed for case 3. We show how the results from an earlier paper assuming lost sales can be used to solve the considered problems. Our results are compared to the results in a related paper considering (Q, r)-policies.     

Directed assembly of gold nanoparticles

As a complement to common “top–down” lithography techniques, “bottom–up” assembly techniques are emerging as promising tools to build nanoscale structures in a predictable way. Gold nanoparticles that are stable and relatively easy to synthesize are important building blocks in many such structures due to their useful optical and electronic properties. Programmed assembly of gold nanoparticles in one, two, and three dimensions is therefore of large interest. This review focuses on the progress from the last three years in the field of directed gold nanoparticle and nanorod assembly using, for example, DNA or specific chemical interactions as template.     

The Regio‐ and Stereoselective Synthesis of trans‐2,3‐Dihydropyridine N‐oxides and Piperidines

Reactivity N? Own : Pyridine N‐oxides can be used for the complete regio‐ and stereoselective synthesis of trans‐substituted piperidines. The sequential addition of Grignard reagents and aldehydes or ketones to pyridine N‐oxides yields a complete regio‐ and stereoselective trans 2,3‐addition reaction in high yields, and the substituted 2,3‐dihydropyridine N‐oxide can be reduced to form 2,3‐trans‐substituted piperidines (see scheme).

     

Interfacial behavior of cubic liquid crystalline nanoparticles at hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces

The adsorption behavior of self-assembled lipid liquid crystalline nanoparticles at different model surfaces was investigated in situ by use of ellipsometry. The technique allows time-resolved monitoring of the adsorbed amount and layer thickness under transient and steady-state conditions. The system under study was cubic-phase nanoparticle (CPNP) dispersions of glycerol monooleate stabilized by a nonionic block copolymer, Pluronic F-127. Depending on the surface properties and presence of electrolytes, different adsorption scenarios were discerned: At hydrophilic silica thick surface layers of CPNPs are generated by particle adsorption from dispersions containing added electrolyte, but no adsorption is observed in pure water. Adsorption at the hydrophobic surface involves extensive structural relaxation and formation, which is not electrolyte sensitive, of a classic monolayer structure. The different observations are rationalized in terms of differences in interactions among the CPNP aggregates, their unimer constituents, and the surface and show a strong influence of interfacial interactions on structure formation. Surface self-assembly structures with properties similar to those of the corresponding bulk aggregates appear exclusively in the weak interaction limit. This observation is in agreement with observations for surfactant self-assembly systems, and our findings indicate that this behavior is applicable also to complex self-assembly structures such as the CPNP structures discussed herein.     

Synthesis of multi ring-fused 2-pyridones via an acyl-ketene imine cyclocondensation

[STRUCTURE: SEE TEXT] Polycyclic ring-fused 2-pyridones (5a-e and 9a-e) have been prepared via a microwave-assisted acyl-ketene imine cyclocondensation. Starting from 3,4-dihydroisoquinolines (4a-b) or 3,4-dihydroharman (8), fused 2-pyridones could be prepared in a one-step procedure. By using either Meldrum's acid derivatives (1a-d) or 1,3-dioxine-4-ones (7a-b) as acyl-ketene sources, mono- or disubstitution of the fused 2-pyridone ring could be accomplished. As an application of the method, a formal synthesis of the indole alkaloid sempervilam was performed.     

Photospin-orbit coupling in photonic structures

We show that the inclusion of nonlocality in the constitutive relations in photonic structures has important repercussions in their eigenmode configuration and distribution. In the case of optical activity, the primary manifestation of nonlocality, these features are traced to a photospin-orbit interaction analogous to the electron spin-orbit interaction in asymmetric semiconducting compounds; its impact can be assimilated to that of a magnetic field whose magnitude and direction follow that of the photon quasimomentum, with implications in photospin transport and photospintronics.     

The quiver of projectives in hereditary categories with Serre duality

Let k be an algebraically closed field and A a k-linear hereditary category satisfying Serre duality with no infinite radicals between the preprojective objects. If A is generated by the preprojective objects, then we show that A is derived equivalent to for a so-called strongly locally finite quiver Q. To this end, we introduce light cone distances and round trip distances on quivers which will be used to investigate sections in stable translation quivers of the form ZQ.     

Strong convergence of the finite element method with truncated noise for semilinear parabolic stochastic equations with additive noise

We consider a semilinear parabolic PDE driven by additive noise. The equation is discretized in space by a standard piecewise linear finite element method. We show that the orthogonal expansion of the finite-dimensional Wiener process, that appears in the discretized problem, can be truncated severely without losing the asymptotic order of the method, provided that the kernel of the covariance operator of the Wiener process is smooth enough. For example, if the covariance operator is given by the Gauss kernel, then the number of terms to be kept is the quasi-logarithm of the number of terms in the original expansion. Then one can reduce the size of the corresponding linear algebra problem enormously and hence reduce the computational complexity, which is a key issue when stochastic problems are simulated.