Kinetics and mechanism of polymerization of methyl methacrylate initiated by stibonium ylide

Homopolymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was carried out in the presence of triphenylstibonium 1,2,3,4-tetraphenyl-cyclopentadienylide as an initiator in dioxane at 65°C±0·l°C. The system follows non-ideal radical kinetics (R _p ∝ [M]^1·4 [I]^0·44 @#@) due to primary radical termination as well as degradative chain-transfer reaction. The overall activation energy and average value ofk ₂ ^p /k _t were 64 kJmol⁻¹ and 0.173 × 10⁻³ 1 mol⁻¹ s⁻¹ respectively     

Analysis of a Duopoly Supply Chain and its Application in Electricity Spot Markets

This paper studies a supply chain consisting of two suppliers and one retailer in a spot market, where the retailer uses the newsvendor solution as its purchase policy, and suppliers compete for the retailer’s purchase. Since each supplier’s bidding strategy affects the other’s profit, a game theory approach is used to identify optimal bidding strategies. We prove the existence and uniqueness of a Nash solution. It is also shown that the competition between the supplier leads to a lower market clearing price, and as a result, the retailer benefits from it. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of the obtained results by deriving optimal bidding strategies for power generator plants in the deregulated California energy market. Supported in part by RGC (Hong Kong) Competitive Earmarked Research Grants (CUHK4167/04E and CUHK4239/03E), a Distinguished Young Investigator Grant from the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China, and a grant from Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.     

Formation of metallic NbSe2 nanotubes and nanofibers

We succeed in synthesizing NbSe₂ nanotubes along with nanofibers by chemical vapor transportation. They are stable crystalline systems and can be synthesized reproducibly in a nearly equilibrium reacting process. We have investigated these nanosize structures of NbSe₂ by transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction. Both of the structures have a similar size of 100–200 nm in diameter. While nanotubes consist of rolled-up NbSe₂ layers, nanofibers are a pile of thin flat layers. We propose a mechanism of the formation of NbSe₂ nanotubes and nanofibers on the basis of deseleniditive transition from a NbSe₃ fiber-shaped crystal. We also measured electrical resistance of the nanofibers with conductive atomic force microscopy and demonstrated that the material show metallic behavior at room temperature.     

Quantum-Chemical Study of the Profiles of Reactions that Form Pyrrole Anion N-Adducts with CS<Subscript>2</Subscript> and CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>

The profiles of reactions leading to pyrrole anion N-adducts with CO₂ and CS₂ have been studied by the ab initio (RHF/6-31+G*, MP2/6-31+G*) and density functional (B3LYP/6-31+G*) methods. Addition of the pyrrole anion to the carbon disulfide molecule is accompanied by the appearance of a minimum corresponding to a pre-reaction complex. The transformation of the complex to the N-pyrrolyldithiocarboxylate anion occurs via a low activation barrier, which is due to repolarization of the C=S bonds. The profile of the reaction leading to the pyrrole anion N-adduct with CO₂ does not contain any intermediate stationary points throughout the whole route from reagents to products.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by V. B. Kobychev, N. M. Vitkovskaya, I. L. Zaitseva, and B. A. Trofimov__________Translated from Zhurnal Strukturnoi Khimii, Vol. 45, No. 6, pp. 990–993, November–December, 2004.     

Mechanism of the thermal decomposition of nitrates from graphite furnace mass spectrometry studies

A basically new mechanism of the thermal decomposition of solids is proposed to explain the mass spectral observations of gaseous molecules of CoO, CuO, Cu₂O, NiO, PbO and Mg(OH)₂ during the low-temperature decomposition of the anhydrous and hydrated nitrates of these metals. The mechanism consists of two stages: congruent gasification of all reaction products irrespective of their saturated vapor pressure and subsequent condensation of the low-volatility species (oxides and hydroxides). The partial pressures of these species at the appearance temperatures calculated from this theory for the first stage of the process (1–50 mPa) are in agreement with the detection limits of the quadrupole mass spectrometers used in these experiments. The proposed mechanism is supported by other available data obtained by thermal analysis.     

Allocation of jobs and identical resources with two pooling centers

We examine the resource allocation problem of partitioning identical servers into two parallel pooling centers, and simultaneously assigning job types to pooling centers. Each job type has a distinct Poisson arrival rate and a distinct holding cost per unit time. Each pooling center becomes a queueing system with an exponential service time distribution. The goal is to minimize the total holding cost. The problem is shown to be polynomial if a job type can be divided between the pooling centers, and NP-hard if dividing job types is not possible. When there are two servers and jobs cannot be divided, we demonstrate that the two pooling center configuration is rarely optimal. A heuristic which checks the single pooling center has an upper bound on the relative error of 4/3. The heuristic is extended for the multiple server problem, where relative error is bounded above by the number of servers.      

Synthesis and characterization of poly(ethylene oxide‐co‐ethylene carbonate) macromonomers and their use in the preparation of crosslinked polymer electrolytes

Methacrylate‐functionalized poly(ethylene oxide‐co‐ethylene carbonate) macromonomers were prepared in two steps by the anionic ring‐opening polymerization of ethylene carbonate at 180 °C, with potassium methoxide as the initiator, followed by the reaction of the terminal hydroxyl groups of the polymers with methacryloyl chloride. The molecular weight of the polymer went through a maximum after approximately 45 min of polymerization, and the content of ethylene carbonate units in the polymer decreased with the reaction time. A polymer having a number‐average molecular weight of 2650 g mol^?1 and an ethylene carbonate content of 28 mol % was selected and used to prepare a macromonomer, which was subsequently polymerized by UV irradiation in the presence of different concentrations of lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide salt. The resulting self‐supportive crosslinked polymer electrolyte membranes reached ionic conductivities of 6.3 × 10^?6 S cm^?1 at 20 °C. The coordination of the lithium ions by both the ether and carbonate oxygens in the polymer structure was indicated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 2195–2205, 2006     

On the behavior of ECN/RED gateways under a large number of TCP flows: Limit theorems

We consider a discrete-time stochastic model of an ECN/RED gateway where competing TCP sources share the link capacity. As the number of competing flows becomes large, the asymptotic queue behavior (normalized by the number of flows) at the gateway can be described by a simple recursion and the throughput behavior of individual TCP flows becomes asymptotically independent. A Central Limit Theorem complement is also presented, yielding a more accurate characterization of the asymptotic queue size. These results suggest a scalable yet accurate model of this complex large-scale stochastic feedback system, and crisply reveal the sources of queue fluctuations. This work was prepared through collaborative participation in the Communications and Networks Consortium sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory under the Collaborative Technology Alliance Program, Cooperative Agreement DAAD19-01-2-0011. This work was also supported by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center—San Diego under Contract No: N66001-00-C-8063. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Army Research Laboratory or the U.S. Government.     

Recent studies on phosphorus-bridging carbonyl derivatives: organophosphorus analogs of aldehydes and ketones

Reactions of disodium tetracarbonylferrate, Na₂Fe(CO)₄, with sterically hindered dialkylaminodichlorophosphines, R₂NPCl₂ (R₂N=diisopropylamino, dicyclohexylamino, and 2,2, 6, 6-tetramethylpiperidino) in diethyl ether lead to the air-stable phosphorus-bridging carbonyl derivatives (R₂NP)₂COFe₂(CO)₆ as the major products. The phosphorus-bridging carbonyl group in (i-Pr₂NP)₂COFe₂(CO)₆ has been found to undergo the following types of reactions: 1)Reduction, 2)Acylation, 3)Extrusion of the carbonyl group. The mechanisms of the reactions have been considered.This work was presented at the Workshop «The Modern Problems of Heteroorganic Chemistry» held on the ship «Nikolai Bauman» during the period May 8–13, 1993.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 11, pp. 1858–1867, November, 1993.     

Solving multiple-objective problems in the objective space

Projection and relaxation techniques are employed to decompose a multiobjective problem into a two-level structure. The basic manipulation consists in projecting the decision variables onto the space of the implicit tradeoffs, allowing the definition of a relaxed multiobjective master problem directly in the objective space. An additional subproblem tests the feasibility of the solution encountered by the relaxed problem. Some properties of the relaxed problem (linearity, small number of variables, etc.) render its solution efficient by a number of methods. Representatives of two different classes of multiobjective methods [the Geoffrion, Dyer, Feinberg (GDF) method and the fuzzy method of Baptistella and Ollero] are implemented and applied within this context to a water resources allocation problem. The results attest the computational viability of the overall procedure and its usefulness for the solution of multiobjective problems.This work was partially sponsored by grants from CNP_q and FAPESP, Brazil. The authors are indebted to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.