Selective grafting of amine groups on polyethylene by means of NH3−H2 RF glow discharges

Plasma treatments in Radio Frequency Glow Discharges fed with NH₃−H₂ mixtures have been performed for modifying polyethylene surfaces. Treatment kinetics and the role of species present in the glow have been investigated. Actinometric Optical Emission Spectroscopy has been utilized as a plasma diagnostic technique. Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis has been utilized for studying surface composition of treated substrates, which have been examined both astreated and after derivatization of amine-functionalities with 4-trifluoromethylbenzaldehyde vapors. It has been found that experimental plasma parameters and plasma density of active species can be controlled to achieve selective grafting of-NH₂ among all other nitrogen-containing groups.     

Individual behavior and macro social properties. An agent-based model

The paper aims at presenting an agent-based modeling exercise to illustrate how small differences in the cognitive properties of agents can generate very different macro social properties. We argue that it is not necessary to assume highly complicated cognitive architectures to introduce cognitive properties that matter for computational social science purposes. Our model is based on different simulation settings characterized by a gradual sophistication of behavior of agents, from simple heuristics to macro-micro feedback and other second-order properties. Agents are localized in a spatial interaction context. They have an individual task but are influenced by a collective coordination problem. The simulation results show that agents can generate efficiency at a macro level particularly when socio-cognitive sophistication of their behavior increases.

Some remarks on the identity between a variational integral and its relaxed functional

Summary Letf: (x, z)∈R ⁿ×Rⁿ→f(x, z)∈[0, +∞] be measurable inx and convex inz. It is proved, by an example, that even iff verifies a condition as|z| ^p≤f(x, z)≤Λ(a(x)+|z|^q) with 1<p<q,a∈L _loc ^s (R ⁿ),s>1, the functional that isL ¹(Ω)-lower semicontinuous onW ^1,1(Ω), does not agree onW ^1,1(Ω) with its relaxed functional in the topologyL ¹(Ω) given by inf

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Riassunto Siaf: (x, z)∈R ⁿ×Rⁿ→f(x, z)∈[0, +∞] misurabile inx e convessa inz. Si mostra con un esempio che anche sef verifica una condizione del tipo|z| ^p≤f(x, z)≤Λ(a(x)+|z|^q) con 1<p<q,a∈L _loc ^s (R ⁿ),s>1, il funzionale , che èL ¹(Ω)-semicontinuo inferiormente suW ^1,1(Ω), non coincide suW ^1,1(Ω) con il suo funzionale rilassato nella topologiaL ¹(Ω) definito da inf

     

Existence and multiplicity of solutions for elliptic equations with jumping nonlinearities

In this paper we are concerned with a semilinear elliptic Dirichlet problem with jumping nonlinearity and, using a completely variational method, we show that the number of solutions may be arbitrarily large provided the number of jumped eigenvalues is large enough. In order to prove this fact, we show that for every positive integer k, when a suitable parameter is large enough, there exists a solution which presents k peaks. Under the assumptions we consider in this paper, new (unexpected) phenomena are observed in the study of this problem and new methods are required to construct the k-peaks solutions and describe their asymptotic behavior (weak limits of the rescaled solutions, localization of the concentration points of the peaks, asymptotic profile of the rescaled peaks, etc.).     

Value at Ruin and Tail Value at Ruin of the Compound Poisson Process with Diffusion and Efficient Computational Methods

We analyze the insurer risk under the compound Poisson risk process perturbed by a Wiener process with infinite time horizon. In the first part of this article, we consider the capital required to have fixed probability of ruin as a measure of risk and then a coherent extension of it, analogous to the tail value at risk. We show how both measures of risk can be efficiently computed by the saddlepoint approximation. We also show how to compute the stabilities of these measures of risk with respect to variations of probability of ruin. In the second part of this article, we are interested in the computation of the probability of ruin due to claim and the probability of ruin due to oscillation. We suggest a computational method based on upper and lower bounds of the probability of ruin and we compare it to the saddlepoint and to the Fast Fourier transform methods. This alternative method can be used to evaluate the proposed measures of risk and their stabilities with heavy-tailed individual losses, where the saddlepoint approximation cannot be used. The numerical accuracy of all proposed methods is very high and therefore these measures of risk can be reliably used in actuarial risk analysis.     

Algebraic obstructions and a complete solution of a rational retraction problem

For each compact smooth manifold containing at least two points we prove the existence of a compact nonsingular algebraic set and a smooth map such that, for every rational diffeomorphism and for every diffeomorphism where and are compact nonsingular algebraic sets, we may fix a neighborhood of in which does not contain any regular rational map. Furthermore is not homotopic to any regular rational map. Bearing in mind the case in which is a compact nonsingular algebraic set with totally algebraic homology, the previous result establishes a clear distinction between the property of a smooth map to represent an algebraic unoriented bordism class and the property of to be homotopic to a regular rational map. Furthermore we have: every compact Nash submanifold of containing at least two points has not any tubular neighborhood with rational retraction.

     

Evolving timetabling heuristics using a grammar-based genetic programming hyper-heuristic framework

This paper introduces a Grammar-based Genetic Programming Hyper-Heuristic framework (GPHH) for evolving constructive heuristics for timetabling. In this application GP is used as an online learning method which evolves heuristics while solving the problem. In other words, the system keeps on evolving heuristics for a problem instance until a good solution is found. The framework is tested on some of the most widely used benchmarks in the field of exam timetabling and compared with the best state-of-the-art approaches. Results show that the framework is very competitive with other constructive techniques, and did outperform other hyper-heuristic frameworks on many occasions.