PIAD — A computer code for peak identification and activity determination

A Peak Identification and Activity Determination (PIAD) computer program has been developed. A new concept of peak significance is introduced and a great change has been made to the currently used associated gamma lines technique in calculating the confidence index; confidence factor is also given to the gamma line of a nuclide that is not seen in the spectrum. The program is written in Fortran IV under the operating system of RSX-11M.     

Status of activation analysis and its applications in Korea

Brief history and current status of activation analysis in Korea are described. About 120 papers have been published since the first paper was reported in 1960. They are sorted out into 5 consecutive periods according to the publication year, and typical feature of each period is described.     

A novel method for determination of inorganic oxyanions by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry using dehydration reactions

Novel methods for the determination of inorganic oxyanions by electrospray (ES) ionization mass spectrometry have been developed using dehydration reactions between oxyanions and carboxylic acids at the ES interface. Twelve oxyanions (VO₃^?, CrO₄^2?, MoO₄^2?, WO₄^2?, BO₃^3?, SiO₃^2?, SiO₄^4?, AsO₄^4?, AsO₂^?, SeO₄^2?, SeO₃^2? and NO₂^?), out of 16 tested, reacted with at least one of four aminopolycarboxylic acids, i.e. iminodiacetic acid (IDA), nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA), trans‐1,2‐diaminocyclohexane‐N,N,N′,N′‐tetraacetic acid and triethylenetetramine‐N,N,N′,N″,N′″,N′″‐hexaacetic acid, at the ES interface to produce the dehydration products that gave intense mass ion responses, sufficient for trace analysis. As examples, trace determinations of Cr^VI and silica in water samples were achieved after online ion exchange chromatography, where the dehydration product of CrO₄^2? and NTA (m/z 290) and that of SiO₄^4? and IDA (m/z 192) were measured. The limits of detection of the respective methods were 17 nM (0.83 ng Cr/ml) for Cr^VI and 0.17 μM (4.8 ng Si/mL) for SiO₄^4?. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The potential use of electrospun polylactic acid nanofibers as alternative reinforcements in an epoxy composite system

This pilot study elaborates the development of novel epoxy/electrospun polylactic acid (PLA) nanofiber composites at the fiber contents of 3, 5, and 10 wt % to evaluate their mechanical and thermal properties using flexural tests and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The flexural moduli of composites increase remarkably by 50.8 and 24.0% for 5 and 10 wt % fiber contents, respectively, relative to that of neat epoxy. Furthermore, a similar trend is also shown for corresponding flexural strengths being enhanced by 31.6 and 4.8%. Fractured surface morphology with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirms a full permeation of cured epoxy matrix into nanofiber structures and existence of nondestructive fibrous networks inside large void cavities. The glass transition temperature (T_g) of composites increases up to 54–60 °C due to embedded electrospun nanofibers compared to 50 °C for that of epoxy, indicating that fibrous networks may further restrict the intermolecular mobility of matrix in thermal effects. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 618–623     

A stochastic expectation-maximization algorithm for the analysis of system lifetime data with known signature

Statistical estimation of the model parameters of component lifetime distribution based on system lifetime data with known system structure is discussed here. We propose the use of stochastic expectation-maximization (SEM) algorithm for obtaining the maximum likelihood estimates of model parameters based on complete and censored system lifetimes. Different ways of implementing the SEM algorithm are also studied. We have shown that the proposed methods are feasible and are easy to implement for various families of component lifetime distributions. The proposed methodologies are then illustrated with two popular lifetime models—the Weibull and Birnbaum-Saunders distributions. Monte Carlo simulation is then used to compare the performance of the proposed methods with the corresponding estimation by direct maximization. Finally, two illustrative examples are presented along with some concluding remarks.     

A multi-stage financial hedging approach for the procurement of manufacturing materials

This paper addresses the problem of mitigating procurement risk that arises from volatile commodity prices by proposing a hedging strategy within a multi-stage time frame. The proposed multi-stage hedging strategy requires a commodity futures position to be correctly initialised and rebalanced with adequate volumes of short/long positions, so as to reduce the volatility in the total procurement cost that would otherwise be generated by varying commodity spot prices. The novelty in the approach is the introduction of the rebalancing of commodity futures position at defined intermediate stages. To obtain an efficient or near optimal multi-stage hedging strategy, a discrete-time stochastic control model (DSCM) is developed. Numerical experiments and Monte Carlo simulation are used to show that the proposed multi-stage hedging strategy compares favourably with the minimal-variance hedge and the one-stage hedge. A close-form optimal solution is also presented for the case when procurement volume and price are independent.     

Exact Meromorphic Stationary Solutions of the Real Cubic Swift‐Hohenberg Equation

We show that all meromorphic solutions of the stationary reduction of the real cubic Swift‐Hohenberg equation are elliptic or degenerate elliptic. We then obtain them all explicitly by the subequation method, and one of them appears to be a new elliptic solution.     

1,4-Addition Reactions of Alkynyl Fischer Carbene Complexes with Azides-Synthesis of β-Amino Alkenyl Carbene Complexes

Seredipitious 1, 4-additon reactions of alkynyl tungsten Fischer carbene complex with azides with the exclusion of nitrogen to form βamino carbene complexes were found.