The stress concentration near a rigid line inclusion in a prestressed, elastic material. Part I.: Full-field solution and asymptotics

A lamellar (zero-thickness) rigid inclusion, so-called ‘stiffener’, is considered embedded in a uniformly prestressed (or prestrained), incompressible and orthotropic elastic sheet, subject to a homogeneous far-field deformation increment. This problem is solved under the assumption of plane strain deformation, with prestress principal directions and orthotropy axes aligned with the stiffener. A full-field solution is obtained solving the Riemann-Hilbert problem for symmetric incremental loading at infinity (while for shear deformation the stiffener leaves the ambient field unperturbed). In addition to the full-field solution, the asymptotic Mode I near-tip representation involving the corresponding incremental stress intensity factor are derived and these results are complemented with the Mode II asymptotic solution. For null prestress, the full-field stress state is shown to match correctly with photoelastic experiments performed by us (on two-part epoxy resin samples containing an aluminum lamina). Our experiments also confirm the fracture patterns for a brittle material containing a stiffener, which do not obey a hoop-stress criterion and result completely different from those found for cracks. Issues related to shear band formation and evaluation of energy release rate for a stiffener growth (or reduction) are deferred to Part II of this article.     

Electrocatalytic Nanostructured Ferric Tannates: Characterization and Application of a Polyphenol Nanosensor

A novel core–shell hybrid nanomaterial composed of peculiar maghemite nanoparticles (surface‐active maghemite nanoparticles (SAMNs)) as the core and tannic acid (TA) as the shell was developed by self‐assembly of ferric tannates onto the surface of SAMNs by simple incubation in water. The hybrid nanomaterial (SAMN@TA) was characterized by using UV/Vis, FTIR, and Mössbauer spectroscopies, magnetization measurements, and X‐ray powder diffraction, which provide evidence of a drastic reorganization of the iron oxide surface upon reaction with TA and the formation of an outer shell that consists of a cross‐linked network of ferric tannates. According to a Langmuir isotherm analysis, SAMN@TA offers one of most stable iron complexes of TA reported in the literature to date. Moreover, SAMN@TA was characterized by using electrical impedance spectroscopy, voltammetry, and chronoamperometry. The nanostructured ferric tannate interface showed improved conductivity and selective electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of polyphenols. Finally, a carbon‐paste electrode modified with SAMN@TA was used for the determination of polyphenols in blueberry extracts by square‐wave voltammetry.     

A note on the solution of the electro-elastic boundary-value problem for rank-two laminates at finite strains

Recent research has shown that hierarchical laminated composites can be profitably employed to improve the actuation performance of electrically-activated soft dielectric transducers. This note focuses on two types of rank-two layouts composed of ideal dielectric phases which follow nonlinear hyper-elastic mechanical behaviour and aims at providing a simplified set of solving equations for voltage-controlled actuation. We obtain such equations by analytical manipulations allowing to partly uncouple the set of equations usually employed within this theoretical framework. By focusing on neo-Hookean hyper-elasticity, we validate the proposed methodology with the results available in literature for one layout. For the other layout, we obtain new configurations by maximising the axial stretch. In both cases, we study the sensitivity of the optimal actuation stretch to changes of the parameters characterising the rank-two meso- and micro-structures. In average, the computational time required to reach a convergent solution with the new methodology is one order of magnitude lower than that necessary to solve the whole set of nonlinear coupled equations.

     

Support effect in high activity gold catalysts for CO oxidation

In this work, we present a detailed study concerning the evaluation of the metal-support interaction in high activity gold catalysts for CO oxidation. Using the colloidal deposition method, model catalysts were prepared, which allow the isolation of the effect of the support on the catalytic activity. Prefabricated gold particles were thus deposited on different support materials. Since the deposition process did not change the particle sizes of the gold particles, only the influence of the support could be studied. TiO2, Al2O3, ZrO2, and ZnO were used as support materials. Catalytic tests and high resolution transmission electron microscopy clearly show that the support contributes to the activity. However, our results are not in line with the distinction between active and passive supports based on the semiconducting properties of the oxidic material. The most active catalysts were obtained with TiO2 and Al2O3, while ZnO and ZrO2 gave substantially less active catalysts. Furthermore, the effect of other important parameters on the catalytic activity (i.e., particles size distribution, calcination temperature, and aging time for a Au/TiO2 catalyst) has also been studied. Using this preparation route, the catalysts show high-temperature stability, size dependent activity, and a very good long-term stability.     

Periodic Solutions of Nonlinear Wave Equations with General Nonlinearities

We present a variational principle for small amplitude periodic solutions, with fixed frequency, of a completely resonant nonlinear wave equation. Existence and multiplicity results follow by min-max variational arguments. Supported by M.U.R.S.T. Variational Methods and Nonlinear Differential Equations.     

Nontrivial Solutions for One-Dimensional Fourth-Order Kirchhoff-Type Equations

Using variational methods and critical point theory, we establish multiplicity results of nontrivial solutions for one-dimensional fourth-order Kirchhoff-type equations.     

Asset allocation strategies based on penalized quantile regression

Computational Management Science - It is well known that the quantile regression model used as an asset allocation tool minimizes the portfolio extreme risk whenever the attention is placed on the...     

Modeling the time-changing dependence in stock markets

The time-changing dependence in stock markets is investigated by assuming the multifractional process with random exponent (MPRE) as model for actual log price dynamics. By modeling its functional parameter S(t, ω) via the square root process (S.R.) a twofold aim is obtained. From one hand both the main financial and statistical properties shown by the estimated S(t) are captured by surrogates, on the other hand this capability reveals able to model the time-changing dependence shown by stocks or indexes. In particular, a new dynamical approach to interpreter market mechanisms is given. Empirical evidences are offered by analysing the behaviour of the daily closing prices of a very known index, the Industrial Average Dow Jones (DJIA), beginning on March,1990 and ending on February, 2005.     

Multiobjective programming with new invexities

(Φ, ρ)-invexity and (Φ, ρ) ^w -invexity generalize known invexity type properties and have been introduced with the intent of extending most of theoretical results in mathematical programming. Here, we push this approach further, to obtain authentic extensions of previously known optimality and duality results in multiobjective programming.