Direct ion beam deposition of polymeric styrene films and in situ characterization by electron spectroscopy

Polymeric styrene films with thicknesses ranging from about one nm up to a few m have been deposited by means of a direct ion beam deposition (IBD) technique. The deposition energy, which can be chosen independently of the parameters which govern the plasma conditions, has been varied between few eV and 1000 eV. The correlation between the deposition parameters and the resulting film properties in terms of the electronic structure is discussed. The in situ characterization by electron spectroscopy has proved to be a very useful characterization method and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy in particular revealed an extremely high sensitivity to structural differences in the deposited films. The polymeric films have also been characterized by scanning electron microscopy and optical spectroscopy. These techniques have also served to compare films prepared by the direct IBD technique with films obtained by standard rf plasma polymerization (RFPP) in a tubular reactor. Significant differences have been found which are dependent on the deposition parameters; these are discussed in detail.Department of Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 327 Beijing, 100081 Beijing, P.R. China     

Kantorovich-type inequalities and the measures of inefficiency of the glse

In this paper we introduce some Kantorovich inequalities for the Euclidean norm of a matrix, that is, the upper bounds to (X'B ^–1 X) ^–1 X'B ^–1 AB ^–1 X(X'B ^–1X)^–1 X' BX(X'AX) ^–1 X'CX² are given, where A²=trace (A'A). In terms of these inequalities the upper bounds to the three measures of inefficiency of the generalized least squares estimator (GLSE) in general Gauss-Markov models are also established.Project supported partially by the Third World Academy of Sciences under contract TWASRG 87-46 and by the National Natural Science Foundation.     

Asymptotic expansions andL ∞-error estimates for mixed finite element methods for second order elliptic problems

Summary Asymptotic expansions for mixed finite element approximations of the second order elliptic problem are derived and Richardson extrapolation can be applied to increase the accuracy of the approximations. A new procedure, which is called the error corrected method, is presented as a further application of the asymptotic error expansion for the first order BDM approximation of the scalar field. The key point in deriving the asymptotic expansions for the error is an establishment ofL ¹-error estimates for mixed finite element approximations for the regularized Green's functions. As another application of theL ¹-error estimates for the regularized Green's functions, we shall present maximum norm error estimates for mixed finite element methods for second order elliptic problems.     

Multiple impulse solutions to McKean's caricature of the nerve equation. I—existence

McKean's caricature of the nerve equation: is considered. The H in (1) is the Heaviside function. We prove the existence of multiple impulse solutions consisting of any finite number of pulses. These solutions are referred to as n-ple impulse solutions, where n is an arbitrary positive integer.     

Essay on gravitation: Present-time variation of Newton's gravitational constant in superstring theories

Superstring theories provide an appropriate framework for studying the time variation of fundamental coupling constants. The present time variation of coupling constants in Superstring theories with currently favorable internal backgrounds critically depends on the shape of the potential for the size of internal space. If the potential is almost flat, as in perturbation theory to all orders, the present value of ¦/G¦ for Newton's gravitational constant is calculable and estimated to be 1×10^–11±1yr^–1, which is just at the edge of the present observational bound for/G. If the potential has a minimum with finite curvature due to unknown nonperturbative effects,/G will become unobservably small. The improvement of the measurement of/G of 1 or 2 orders of magnitude would discriminate between the two situations. Problems with the time variation of other coupling constants are also discussed.This essay received the fourth award from the Gravity Research Foundation for the year 1987-Ed.