Structural and Thermodynamic Peculiarities of Core-Shell Particles at Fluid Interfaces from Triangular Lattice Models

A triangular lattice model for pattern formation by core-shell particles at fluid interfaces is introduced and studied for the particle to core diameter ratio equal to 3. Repulsion for overlapping shells and attraction at larger distances due to capillary forces are assumed. Ground states and thermodynamic properties are determined analytically and by Monte Carlo simulations for soft outer- and stiffer inner shells, with different decay rates of the interparticle repulsion. We find that thermodynamic properties are qualitatively the same for slow and for fast decay of the repulsive potential, but the ordered phases are stable for temperature ranges, depending strongly on the shape of the repulsive potential. More importantly, there are two types of patterns formed for fixed chemical potential—one for a slow and another one for a fast decay of the repulsion at small distances. In the first case, two different patterns—for example clusters or stripes—occur with the same probability for some range of the chemical potential. For a fixed concentration, an interface is formed between two ordered phases with the closest concentration, and the surface tension takes the same value for all stable interfaces. In the case of degeneracy, a stable interface cannot be formed for one out of four combinations of the coexisting phases, because of a larger surface tension. Our results show that by tuning the architecture of a thick polymeric shell, many different patterns can be obtained for a sufficiently low temperature.     

The anomalous spectral dependence of polarization in comets

We have found an anomalous (negative) spectral dependence of polarization for split comet 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 3, i.e. polarization degree in the I filter is systematically less (4%) than that in the R filter for both B and C subnuclei of the comet. Earlier we revealed a similar effect for comets 21P/Giacobini–Zinner, C/1999 S4 (LINEAR), and 9P/Tempel 1. Together with comet C/1989 X1 (Austin), for which the similar spectral dependence of polarization was also observed, these comets form a group characterized by some peculiar properties of their dust. Since atypical organic composition is a characteristic feature for all these comets, the anomalous spectral dependence of polarization may indicate specifics of origin of these comets. Really, most of these comets (but not all) originated from the Kuiper Belt. Also, most (but not all) of these comets belong to the group of comets depleted in carbon species in the gas phase, which is typical for comets formed in the giant-planet area of the solar system. On the other hand, all of the comets with negative spectral gradient of polarization have the dust dominated by large particles and most of them belong to the Jupiter family. This may indicate that anomalous spectral dependence of their polarization is a result of their evolution. To identify the reason of anomalous polarization, systematic spectropolarimetric observations of Jupiter-family comets are necessary.     

Hippocampal activity during the transverse patterning task declines with cognitive competence but not with age

Background  

The hippocampus is a brain region that is particularly affected by age-related morphological changes. It is generally assumed that a loss in hippocampal volume results in functional deficits that contribute to age-related cognitive decline. In a combined cross-sectional behavioural and magnetoencephalography (MEG) study we investigated whether hippocampal-associated neural current flow during a transverse patterning task - which requires learning relational associations between stimuli - correlates with age and whether it is modulated by cognitive competence.     

Construction of inclusions with vanishing generalized polarization tensors by imperfect interfaces

We investigate the problem of planar conductivity inclusion with imperfect interface conditions. We assume that the inclusion is simply connected. The presence of the inclusion causes a perturbation in the incident background field. This perturbation admits a multipole expansion of which coefficients we call as the generalized polarization tensors (GPTs), extending the previous terminology for inclusions with perfect interfaces. We derive explicit matrix expressions for the GPTs in terms of the incident field, material parameters, and geometry of the inclusion. As an application, we construct GPT-vanishing structures of general shape that result in negligible perturbations for all uniform incident fields. The structure consists of a simply connected core with an imperfect interface. We provide numerical examples of GPT-vanishing structures obtained by our proposed scheme.     

An Adaptive Algorithm for Vector Partitioning

The vector partition problem concerns the partitioning of a set A of n vectors in d-space into p parts so as to maximize an objective function c which is convex on the sum of vectors in each part. Here all parameters d, p, n are considered variables. In this paper, we study the adjacency of vertices in the associated partition polytopes. Using our adjacency characterization for these polytopes, we are able to develop an adaptive algorithm for the vector partition problem that runs in time O(q(L)v) and in space O(L), where q is a polynomial function, L is the input size and v is the number of vertices of the associated partition polytope. It is based on an output-sensitive algorithm for enumerating all vertices of the partition polytope. Our adjacency characterization also implies a polynomial upper bound on the combinatorial diameter of partition polytopes. We also establish a partition polytope analogue of the lower bound theorem, indicating that the output-sensitive enumeration algorithm can be far superior to previously known algorithms that run in time polynomial in the size of the worst-case output.     

On Hadamard Inequality for Log-Concave Functions

Some improvements and generalizations of Finks results about Hadamards inequality for log-concave functions are given.AMS Subject Classification: 26D07, 26D15, 26A51.     

On performance comparison of MR/GI/1 queues

In this paper we are interested in the effect that dependencies in the arrival process to a queue have on queueing properties such as mean queue length and mean waiting time. We start with a review of the well known relations used to compare random variables and random vectors, e.g., stochastic orderings, stochastic increasing convexity, and strong stochastic increasing concavity. These relations and others are used to compare interarrival times in Markov renewal processes first in the case where the interarrival time distributions depend only on the current state in the underlying Markov chain and then in the general case where these interarrivai times depend on both the current state and the next state in that chain. These results are used to study a problem previously considered by Patuwo et al. [14].Then, in order to keep the marginal distributions of the interarrivai times constant, we build a particular transition matrix for the underlying Markov chain depending on a single parameter,p. This Markov renewal process is used in the Patuwo et al. [14] problem so as to investigate the behavior of the mean queue length and mean waiting time on a correlation measure depending only onp. As constructed, the interarrival time distributions do not depend onp so that the effects we find depend only on correlation in the arrival process.As a result of this latter construction, we find that the mean queue length is always larger in the case where correlations are non-zero than they are in the more usual case of renewal arrivals (i.e., where the correlations are zero). The implications of our results are clear.     

Character formulas for some classes of atypical gl(m+nε)- and p(m)-modules

If p is an arbitrary parabolic subsuperalgebra of g = gl(m + n), p(m), a character formula for the generic finite-dimensional irreducible g-module, such that p is the stabilizer of its lowest weight space, is announced. Furthermore, an estimate for the character of any finite-dimensional irreducible g-module in terms of its highest weight with respect to a distinguished Borel subsuperalgebra is presented (inequality (4)) and a sufficient condition for this to be an equality is found. In this way, two generalizations of the Kac character formula for typical modules are obtained: a formula concerning an arbitrary Borel subsuperalgebra ((1)) and a more effective formula ((3)) for the special case of a distinguished Borel subsuperalgebra. The complete proofs will appear in [14].Partially supported by Contract 911/11.04.88 with the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, Science, and Education.