Quadratic data envelopment analysis

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) offers a piece-wise linear approximation of the production frontier. The approximation tends to be poor if the true frontier is not concave, eg in case of economies of scale or of specialisation. To improve the flexibility of the DEA frontier and to gain in empirical fit, we propose to extend DEA towards a more general piece-wise quadratic approximation, called Quadratic Data Envelopment Analysis (QDEA). We show that QDEA gives statistically consistent estimates for all production frontiers with bounded Hessian eigenvalues. Our Monte-Carlo simulations suggest that QDEA can substantially improve efficiency estimation in finite samples relative to standard DEA models.     

Jack van Lint (1932-2004): A survey of his scientific work

When Jack van Lint was appointed as full professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology at the age of 26 he combined a PhD in number theory with a very open scientific mind. It took a sabbatical visit to Bell Laboratories in 1966 to make him understand that a new and fascinating field of applied mathematics was emerging: discrete mathematics. It fascinated and inspired him for the rest of his life. When he passed away on September 28, 2004, he left behind a legacy of 18 books and 177 articles, covering many aspects of coding theory, combinatorics, and finite geometry.van Lint was also a strong international advocate of the role that discrete mathematics ought to play in modern applied mathematics curricula. Quite a few departments sought his advice. Years later, four different universities showed their appreciation by awarding him an honorary degree.This overview is an homage to van Lint's academic achievements and can serve as an introduction to his work for younger generations.     

On the Spectra of Carbon Nano-Structures

An explicit derivation of dispersion relations and spectra for periodic Schrödinger operators on carbon nano-structures (including graphene and all types of single-wall nano-tubes) is provided.     

Fluid-fluid phase separation in colloid-polymer mixtures studied with small angle light scattering and light microscopy

Mixtures of colloidal silica spheres and polydimethylsiloxane in cyclohexane with a colloid-polymer size ratio of about one were found to phase separate into two fluid phases, one which is colloid-rich and one which is colloid-poor. In this work the phase separation kinetics of this fluid-fluid phase separation is studied for different compositions of the colloid-polymer mixtures, and at several degrees of supersaturation, with small angle light scattering and with light microscopy. The small angle light scattering curve exhibits a peak that grows in intensity and that shifts to smaller wave vector with time. The characteristic length scale that is obtained from the scattering peak is of the order of a few μm, in agreement with observations by light microscopy. The domain size increases with time as , which might be an indication of coarsening by diffusion and coalescence, like in the case of binary liquid mixtures and polymer blends. For sufficiently low degrees of supersaturation the angular scattering intensity curves satisfy dynamical scaling behavior.     

A class of Nevanlinna functions related to singular Sturm-Liouville problems

The class of Nevanlinna functions consists of functions which are holomorphic off the real axis, which are symmetric with respect to the real axis, and whose imaginary part is nonnegative in the upper halfplane. The Kac subclass of Nevanlinna functions is defined by an integrability condition on the imaginary part. In this note a further subclass of these Kac functions is introduced. It involves an integrability condition on the modulus of the Nevanlinna functions (instead of the imaginary part). The characteristic properties of this class are investigated. The definition of the new class is motivated by the fact that the Titchmarsh-Weyl coefficients of various classes of Sturm-Liouville problems (under mild conditions on the coefficients) actually belong to this class.

     

Determination of calcium in water by flow injection analysis — inductively coupled plasma (FIA-ICP) emission spectrometry

Summary Using an 11 ml centrifugal type spray chamber, a rapid sample introduction rate of 320 injections per hour may be achieved when interfacing flow injection analysis and inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometric techniques. Calcium was determined in water samples with a relative standard deviation of better than 3.5% over the analytical range of 10 to 200 mg · l^–1 Ca. Mean recovery was 97%.

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Calciumbestimmung im Wasser mit dem Flow-injection-Prinzip kombiniert mit der Induktions-gekoppelten Plasma-Emissions-Spektrometrie (FIA-ICP)