Synthesis and magnetic properties of multilayer Ni/Cu and NiFe/Cu nanowires

Highly ordered composite nanowires with multilayer Ni/Cu and NiFe/Cu have been fabricated by pulsed electrodeposition into nanoporous alumina membrane. The diameter of wires can be easily varied by pore size of alumina, ranging from 30 to 100 nm. The applied potential and the duration of each potential square pulse determine the thickness of the metal layers. The nanowires have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), magnetic force microscopy (MFM), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements. The MFM images indicate that every ferromagnetic layer separated by Cu layer was present as single isolated domain-like magnet. This technique has potential use in the measurement and application of magnetic nanodevices.     

Practical stopping criteria for validating safety-critical software by estimating impartial reliability

In this research, we investigate stopping rules for software testing and propose two stopping rules from the aspect of software reliability testing based on the impartial reliability model. The impartial reliability difference (IRD-MP) rule considers the difference between the impartial transition-probability reliabilities estimated for both software developer and consumers at their predetermined prior information levels. The empirical–impartial reliability difference (EIRD-MP) rule suggests stopping a software test when the computed empirical transition reliability is tending to its estimated impartial transition reliability. To insure the high-standard requirement for safety-critical software, both rules take the maximum probability (MP) of untested paths into account.     

Numerical flow visualization of first cycle and cyclic motion of a rigid fling-clapping wing

A flow visualization of the two-dimensional rigid fling-clap motions of the flat-plate wing is performed to get the knowledge of fling-clapping mechanism that might be employed by insects during flight. In this numerical visualization, the time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations are solved for two types of wing motion; ‘fling followed by clap and pause motion’ and ‘cyclic fling-clapping motion’. The result is observed regarding the main flow features such as the sequential development of the two families of separation vortex pairs and their movement. For the ‘fling followed by clap and pause motion’, a strong separation vortex pair of counterrotation develops in the opening between the wings in the fling phase and they then move out from the opening in the following clap phase. For ‘the cyclic fling-clapping motion’, the separation vortex pair developed in the outside space in the clap phase move into the opening in the following fling phase. The separation vortex pair in the opening developed in the fling phase of the cyclic motion is observed to be stronger than those of the ‘fling followed by clap and pause motion’. Regarding the strong fling separation vortex and the weak clap separation vortex above it in the opening, the flow pattern of the fling phase of the cyclic fling and clap motion is different to that of the fling phase of the first cycle. The flow pattern of the third cycle of the cyclic fling-clapping motion is observed to be almost same as that of the second cycle. Therefore, a periodicity of the flow pattern is established after the second cycle.     

Allocating unfunded liability in pension valuation under uncertainty

This paper studied the cost allocation for the unfunded liability in a defined benefit pension scheme incorporating the stochastic phenomenon of its returns. In the recent literature represented by Cairns and Parker [Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 21 (1997) 43], Haberman [Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 11 (1992) 179; Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 13 (1993) 45; Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 14 (1994) 219; Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 14 (1997) 127], Owadally and Haberman [North American Actuarial Journal 3 (1999) 105], the fund level is modeled based on the plan dynamics and the returns are generated through several stochastic processes to reflect the current realistic economic perspective to see how the contribution changed as the cost allocation period increased. In this study, we generalize the previous constant value assumption in cost amortization by modeling the returns and valuation rates simultaneously. Taylor series expansion is employed to approximate the unconditional and conditional moments of the plan contribution and fund level. Hence the stability of the plan contribution and the fund size under different allocation periods could be estimated, which provide valuable information adding to the previous works.     

Anchoring Properties of Nematic Liquid Crystals Studied Using the Attenuated Total Reflection Method

By using the attenuated total reflection method associated with the excitation of surface plasmons, the tilt angle of the liquid crystal director and its gradient at the surface are measured in a planar nematic cell as a function of the applied voltage. The surface anchoring anisotropy δπ of the liquid crystal and the surface elastic constant k_s, are found to be δπ = 0.288 erg/cm and k_s, = 9·12 × 10^-11 erg, respectively, when the boundary condition suggested by Barbero et al is used. The theoretical and experimental values obtained with this boundary condition and that of Mada are discussed. The results show that the boundary condition proposed by Barbero et al is in better agreement with the experiment.     

The Newton filtration and d-determination of bifurcation problems related to C~0 contact equivalence

In this paper, from the Newton filtration's point of view, we construct the singular Riemannian metric and use the method in singular theory to study the bifurcation problems, and give the sufficient condition of d-determination of bifurcation problems with respect to C0 contact equivalence. The special cases of the main result in this paper are the results of Sun Weizhi and Zou Jiancheng.     

A completion of the spectrum for large sets of disjoint transitive triple systems

In this paper, we give a recursive construction from an LTTS(v + 2) to an LTTS(16v + 2) for v 3. Furthermore, the existence of LTTS(2ⁿ + 2) is proved. Thereby, we completely solve the existence problem of LTTS)(v) (large set of pairwise disjoint transitive triple systems of order v).     

On the existence of nontrivial extremal metrics on complete noncompact surfaces

In this paper, we consider the 2-dimensional local Calabi flow on a complete noncompact surface . Then, based on the Harnack-type estimate, we show the long-time existence and asymptotic convergence of a subsequence of solutions of such a flow on with and bounded from above by a negative constant on a ball. For its applications, this will lead to the existence of extremal metrics on a complete noncompact surface of finite topological type. In particular, there exists an extremal metric of nonconstant Gaussian curvature on or Received: 21 June 2001 / 18 January 2002 / Published online: 27 June 2002 Research supported in part by NSC and NCTS.     

完全可分的三元系TS(v,4)的支撑集

§ 1　 IntroductionA triple system of order v and indexλ,denoted by TS(v,λ) ,is a collection of3- ele-mentsubsets Aof a v- set X,so thatevery 2 - subsetof X appears in preciselyλ subsets of A.L etλ≥ 2 and (X,A) be a TS(v,λ) .If Acan be partitioned into t(≥ 2 ) parts A1,A2 ,...,Atsuch that each (X,Ai) is a TS(v,λi) for 1≤ i≤ t,then (X,A) is called de-composable.Otherwise it is indecomposable.If t=λ,λi=1for 1≤ i≤ t,the TS(v,λ) (X,A) is called completely decomposable.It …