Processing optimization: A way to improve the ionic conductivity and dielectric loss of electroactive polymers

Electro‐active polymers (EAPs) such as P(VDF‐TrFE‐CTFE) are greatly promising in the field of flexible sensors and actuators, but their low dielectric strength driven by ionic conductivity is a main concern for achieving high electrostrictive performance. It is well known that there is a quadratic dependence of the strain response and mechanical energy density on the applied electric field. This dependence highlights the importance of improving the electrical breakdown EAPs while reducing the dielectric losses. This article demonstrates that it is possible to dramatically increase the electrical breakdown and decrease the dielectric losses by controlling processing parameters of the polymer synthesis and fabrication procedure. As a result, an enhancement of around 70% is achieved in both the strain and blocking force. The effects on the dielectric losses of the polymer crystallinity, molecular weight, solvent purity, and crystallization temperature are also investigated. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2018 , 56, 1164–1173     

Nonlinear programming without a penalty function or a filter

A new method is introduced for solving equality constrained nonlinear optimization problems. This method does not use a penalty function, nor a filter, and yet can be proved to be globally convergent to first-order stationary points. It uses different trust-regions to cope with the nonlinearities of the objective function and the constraints, and allows inexact SQP steps that do not lie exactly in the nullspace of the local Jacobian. Preliminary numerical experiments on CUTEr problems indicate that the method performs well.      

Optimal portfolios: new variations of an old theme

We survey some recent developments in the area of continuous-time portfolio optimization. These will include the use of options and of defaultable assets as investment classes and the presentation of a worst-case investment approach that takes the possibility of stock market crashes into account.      

Pricing strategies for perishable products: the case of Vienna and the hotel reservation system hrs.com

Consider a retailer who sells perishable products for which there is uncertain demand. Yield management with dynamic pricing is a standard practice that firms use for revenue management. For perishable products, recent analysis has focused on the distribution of flight capacity, referred to as ticket sales. Other non- storable, non-transportable, immaterial hospitality products include hotel capacity. The article discusses the extent to which hotel pricing strategies vary within the internet distribution system hrs.com. This study focuses on the distribution of hotel rooms available for booking on the internet for Vienna and gives an outlook to Euroland capitals. The main research interests are the underlying pricing models and the setting of the end price. Data was taken from hrs.com, which is the most important specialist for hotel room internet distribution in Germany according to recent studies by KMPG and others. The results include the identification of different pricing strategy clusters with regard to hotel category and hotel availability over a 22-day period for Vienna and one city from all Euroland countries (the capitals were studied for all cases except for the Netherlands, for which data was collected for Amsterdam). The study took the arrival days Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays into account, and used data for all these days from the 11th of July, 2005, to the 10th of October, 2005, for Vienna, and the first and the last of these dates as a comparison base for the other Euroland cities.     

SUPER EFFICIENCY AND ITS SCALARIZATION IN TOPOLOGICAL VECTOR SPACE

1. Introduction and PreliminariesRecently, Borwein and Zhuang[1,21 introduced the concept of super efficiency in normedlinear space. Super efficiency refines the notion of efficiency and other kinds of properefficiency; they provided concise scalar characterizations and duality results when the underlying decision problem is convex. They also established a Lagrange Multiplier Theoremfor super efficiency in convex settings and expressed super efficient points as saddle pointsof appropriate L…     

A Piecewise Line-Search Technique for Maintaining the Positive Definitenes of the Matrices in the SQP Method

A technique for maintaining the positive definiteness of the matrices in the quasi-Newton version of the SQP algorithm is proposed. In our algorithm, matrices approximating the Hessian of the augmented Lagrangian are updated. The positive definiteness of these matrices in the space tangent to the constraint manifold is ensured by a so-called piecewise line-search technique, while their positive definiteness in a complementary subspace is obtained by setting the augmentation parameter. In our experiment, the combination of these two ideas leads to a new algorithm that turns out to be more robust and often improves the results obtained with other approaches.     

On the resolution and optimization of a system of fuzzy relational equations with sup-T composition

This paper provides a thorough investigation on the resolution of a finite system of fuzzy relational equations with sup-T composition, where T is a continuous triangular norm. When such a system is consistent, although we know that the solution set can be characterized by a maximum solution and finitely many minimal solutions, it is still a challenging task to find all minimal solutions in an efficient manner. Using the representation theorem of continuous triangular norms, we show that the systems of sup-T equations can be divided into two categories depending on the involved triangular norm. When the triangular norm is Archimedean, the minimal solutions correspond one-to-one to the irredundant coverings of a set covering problem. When it is non-Archimedean, they only correspond to a subset of constrained irredundant coverings of a set covering problem. We then show that the problem of minimizing a linear objective function subject to a system of sup-T equations can be reduced into a 0–1 integer programming problem in polynomial time. This work generalizes most, if not all, known results and provides a unified framework to deal with the problem of resolution and optimization of a system of sup-T equations. Further generalizations and related issues are also included for discussion.     

Intensity‐Carrying Modes in Raman and Raman Optical Activity Spectroscopy

We describe a quantum‐chemical approach for the determination of modes with maximum Raman and Raman optical activity (ROA) intensity by maximizing the intensities with respect to the Raman and Raman optical activity intensity, respectively, which is shown to lead to eigenvalue equations. The intensity‐carrying modes are in general hypothetical modes and do not directly correspond to a certain normal mode in the spectrum. However, they provide information about those molecular distortions leading to intense bands in the spectrum. Modes with maximum Raman intensity are presented for propane‐1,3‐dione, propane‐1,3‐dionate, and Λ‐tris(propane‐1,3‐dionato)cobalt(III). Moreover, the mode with highest ROA intensity is examined for this chiral cobalt complex and also for the (chiral) amino acid L ‐tryptophan. The Raman and ROA high‐intensity modes are an optimal starting guess for intensity‐tracking calculations, in which selectively normal modes with high Raman or ROA intensity are converged. We present the first Raman and ROA intensity‐tracking calculations. These reveal a high potential for large molecules, for which the selective calculation of normal modes with high intensity is desirable in view of the large computational effort required for the calculation of Raman and ROA polarizability property tensors.     

Multi-step nonlinear conjugate gradient methods for unconstrained minimization

Conjugate gradient methods are appealing for large scale nonlinear optimization problems, because they avoid the storage of matrices. Recently, seeking fast convergence of these methods, Dai and Liao (Appl. Math. Optim. 43:87–101, 2001) proposed a conjugate gradient method based on the secant condition of quasi-Newton methods, and later Yabe and Takano (Comput. Optim. Appl. 28:203–225, 2004) proposed another conjugate gradient method based on the modified secant condition. In this paper, we make use of a multi-step secant condition given by Ford and Moghrabi (Optim. Methods Softw. 2:357–370, 1993; J. Comput. Appl. Math. 50:305–323, 1994) and propose two new conjugate gradient methods based on this condition. The methods are shown to be globally convergent under certain assumptions. Numerical results are reported.     

The vertex isoperimetric problem for the powers of the diamond graph

We introduce a new graph for all whose cartesian powers the vertex isoperimetric problem has nested solutions. This is the fourth kind of graphs with this property besides the well-studied graphs like hypercubes, grids, and tori. In contrast to the mentioned graphs, our graph is not bipartite. We present an exact solution to the vertex isoperimetric problem on our graph by introducing a new class of orders that unifies all known isoperimetric orders defined on the cartesian powers of graphs.