Hospital Waiting List Management Models

This paper describes work carried out with hospital consultants in Lancaster District Health Authority to develop and use computerized waiting list management models. The ‘what if?’ models produced have been found to be a very useful tool in the constructive debate about problems faced by consultants and managers, and of the options available to them.     

Exact solutions to linear programming problems

The use of floating-point calculations limits the accuracy of solutions obtained by standard LP software. We present a simplex-based algorithm that returns exact rational solutions, taking advantage of the speed of floating-point calculations and attempting to minimize the operations performed in rational arithmetic. Extensive computational results are presented.     

Another independent self-dual basis for the trivial variety

We give a new independent self-dual 3-basis for the trivial variety with two binary operations. Received October 24, 2006; accepted in final form January 25, 2007.     

Correlation of Plasma Sprayed Coating Deposition Efficiency with Volume Flux Measurements by Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA)

The use of phase-Doppler anemometry (PDA) to characterize the detail in-flight plasma sprayed particle behavior has been demonstrated previously [Ma et al. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 24(1):85; 25(1):56] The present articles shows further that a direct relationship may exist between the PDA measured particle volume flux and the coating microstructure and deposition efficiency (DE). In the situation when the precise particle temperature information is not available, the PDA measured particle volume flux may provide an alternative to predict quantitatively the variation of the coating microstructure and the DE. By monitoring the in-flight particle volume flux variations, instead of the particle velocity, size and temperature individually and simultaneously, the optimal settings of the plasma spraying parameters may also be determined conveniently. However, it is noted that the effective applications of such approach depend largely on the particle surface morphology and the pre-determination of the particle size range.     

Theoretical insight of adsorption thermodynamics of multifunctional molecules on metal surfaces

Adsorption thermodynamics based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations are exposed for the interaction of several multifunctional molecules with Pt and Au(1 1 0)-(1 × 2) surfaces. The Gibbs free adsorption energy explicitly depends on the adsorption internal energy, which is derived from DFT adsorption energy, and the vibrational entropy change during the chemisorption process. Zero-point energy (ZPE) corrections have been systematically applied to the adsorption energy. Moreover the vibrational entropy change has been computed on the basis of DFT harmonic frequencies (gas and adsorbed phases, clean surfaces), which have been extended to all the adsorbate vibrations and the metallic surface phonons. The phase diagrams plotted in realistic conditions of temperature (from 100 to 400 K) and pressure (0.15 atm) show that the ZPE corrected adsorption energy is the main contribution. When strong chemisorption is considered on the Pt surface, the multifunctional molecules are adsorbed on the surface in the considered temperature range. In contrast for weak chemisorption on the Au surface, the thermodynamic results should be held cautiously. The systematic errors of the model (choice of the functional, configurational entropy and vibrational entropy) make difficult the prediction of the adsorption-desorption phase boundaries.     

Preparation and Mechanical Properties of Fe3Al Nanostructured Intermetallics

Nanostructured Fe₃Al intermetallic compounds were produced by using hydrogen arc plasma method. The transmission electron microscopy experiments showed that the average particle size of the as-synthesized was about 40-nm. The change in hardness of Fe₃Al nanostructured intermetallic compounds with annealing temperatures was observed and evaluated.     

General Quantization

In the Darwinian evolution of physical theories, stability (genericity) has survival value. To convert a singular physical theory based on Lie algebras of several levels into a generic quantum theory with the same levels and nearly the same predictions and symmetries in a limited correspondence domain, it suffices to simplify the algebra of each level by a small homotopy (general quantization). This extends and unifies special relativization, general relativization, and canonical quantization. For exercise I general-quantize the scalar meson field in Minkowski space-time. The predictions of the resulting theory are finite, including its zero-point energy.This updates part of a talk given at Glafka 2005, Athens. quant-ph/0601002