Conditions for the production of a single conducting nanostructure by electroforming

The process of electroforming (the production of a carboniferous conducting medium when the current flows through an organic material under a high electric field) in open sandwichlike structures with an insulating gap several tens of nanometers in width is considered. It is shown experimentally that there are factors that both favor (external ballast resistor) and prevent (local spreading resistance and the presence of the initial conductivity in the insulating gap) the production of a single conducting element between the electrodes. A simple model of the process in terms of the equivalent electric circuit is proposed. The model helps to find the trade-off between these factors and to construct an I-V diagram, which exhibits a region within which a single conducting nanostructure can be electroformed. An expression that relates the minimum permissible resistance of the nanostructure to its geometric parameters is derived.     

Inclusion of cinnamaldehyde in modified γ-cyclodextrins

This work deals with the formation of inclusion complexes between cinnamaldehyde and two synthetic alkylcarbonates of γ-cyclodextrin, namely ethylcarbonate-γ-CD and octylcarbonate-γ-CD. Complexation was monitored by phase-solubility studies, by FT-IR spectroscopy and by DSC and TG analysis. The diffusion of cinnamaldehyde through a cellulose membrane was investigated in the absence and in the presence of each of the two γ-CD alkylcarbonates. Studies on photostability and stability over time were carried out on different cosmetic formulations containing pure cinnamaldehyde or an equivalent amount of cinnamaldehyde complexed with the two alkylcarbonates. Phase-solubility diagrams, DSC, FTIR and TGA analysis suggested the formation of inclusion complexes. The diffusion of cinnamaldehyde through the cellulose membrane decreased in the presence of the two alkylcarbonates confirming the interaction of this molecule with the inclusion agents. Moreover the stability of cinnamaldehyde to light and heat resulted increased by complexing this fragrance material with the two alkylcarbonates.     

On the capacitated vehicle routing problem

 We consider the Vehicle Routing Problem, in which a fixed fleet of delivery vehicles of uniform capacity must service known customer demands for a single commodity from a common depot at minimum transit cost. This difficult combinatorial problem contains both the Bin Packing Problem and the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) as special cases and conceptually lies at the intersection of these two well-studied problems. The capacity constraints of the integer programming formulation of this routing model provide the link between the underlying routing and packing structures. We describe a decomposition-based separation methodology for the capacity constraints that takes advantage of our ability to solve small instances of the TSP efficiently. Specifically, when standard procedures fail to separate a candidate point, we attempt to decompose it into a convex combination of TSP tours; if successful, the tours present in this decomposition are examined for violated capacity constraints; if not, the Farkas Theorem provides a hyperplane separating the point from the TSP polytope. We present some extensions of this basic concept and a general framework within which it can be applied to other combinatorial models. Computational results are given for an implementation within the parallel branch, cut, and price framework SYMPHONY. Received: October 30, 2000 / Accepted: December 19, 2001 Published online: September 5, 2002 Key words. vehicle routing problem – integer programming – decomposition algorithm – separation algorithm – branch and cut Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 20E28, 20G40, 20C20     

Isotopic production cross sections of residues in reactions induced by relativistic heavy ions with protons and deuterons

The isotopic production cross sections of heavy residues in relativistic heavy-ion collisions have been investigated in inverse kinematics. The primary reaction products were fully identified in mass and atomic number prior to beta decay using the fragment separator FRS. The huge collection of data obtained helps in the understanding of the two main reaction mechanisms involved: fragmentation and fission. These data provide basic information for future radioactive ion beam facilities and for technical applications like intense neutron sources by means of spallation targets.     

A manifestation of magnetism of bismuth in iron garnet films

Bismuth iron garnet films prepared through electron-beam and laser-induced evaporation on (001)-oriented substrates of scandium gallium gadolinium garnet are investigated using ferromagnetic resonance. It is assumed that the additional minima observed in the angular dependence of the resonance field can be associated with the magnetic moment of bismuth ions.     

Recording and reading of three-dimensional optical memory in glasses

We report on three-dimensional (3D) optical memory recording and reading in glass by femtosecond pulses. Optically induced dielectric breakdown of glass is a mechanism of recording. The formulae of dielectric breakdown presented are applicable, in principle, for any crystalline or amorphous dielectric material. Scaling dependences of the probabilities of multi-photon and impact ionization are given. The measured threshold of an in-bulk dielectric breakdown of silica was reproduced numerically by implementing the ionization potential of Si (8.15 eV) for calculations. Exact measures of focal spot size and pulse duration at the focus allowed us to evaluate the intensity of a pulse during recording of 3D optical memory bits with high accuracy. The readout of the 3D optical memory was carried out by the white-light continuum generated from the previously damaged sites (recorded memory bits). The mechanism of the readout was a four-photon parametric interaction. PACS 42.65.Jx; 42.65.Ky; 42.70.Ce; 42.79.Vb     

Banach-stone theorems and separating maps

LetC(X,E) andC(Y,F) denote the spaces of continuous functions on the Tihonov spacesX andY, taking values in the Banach spacesE andF, respectively. A linear mapH:C(X,E)→C(Y,F) isseparating iff(x)g(x)=0 for allx inX impliesHf(y)Hg(y)=0 for ally inY. Some automatic continuity properties and Banach-Stone type theorems (i.e., asserting that isometries must be of a certain form) for separating mapsH between spaces of real- and complex-valued functions have already been developed. The extension of such results to spaces of vector-valued functions is the general subject of this paper. We prove in Theorem 4.1, for example, for compactX andY, that a linear isometryH betweenC(X,E) andC(Y,F) is a “Banach-Stone” map if and only ifH is “biseparating (i.e,H andH ⁻¹ are separating). The Banach-Stone theorems of Jerison and Lau for vector-valued functions are then deduced in Corollaries 4.3 and 4.4 for the cases whenE andF or their topological duals, respectively, are strictly convex. Research supported by the Fundació Caixa Castelló, MI/25.043/92