Relations between subclasses of greedoids

In previous papers many different classes and constructions of greedoids have been defined and studied. This paper documents inclusion relations among all subclasses of greedoids which are known so far. It will be shown that all inclusion relations are proper and that all but one subclasses of interval greedoids are distinct.

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Zusammenfassung In früheren Arbeiten wurden viele verschiedene Klassen und Konstruktionen für Greedoide eingeführt und studiert. In dieser Arbeit werden alle bekannten Inklusionsbeziehungen zwischen Unterklassen von Greedoiden dokumentiert. Es wird gezeigt, daß alle Inklusionsbeziehungen echt und alle Unterklassen mit einer Ausnahme tatsächlich verschieden sind.

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Supported by the joint research project Algorithmic Aspects of Combinatorial Optimization of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia) and the German Research Association (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB 21). Part of this research was done while the first author was visiting the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization, University of Waterloo.     

Application of Supercritical fluid Extraction For Analysis of Organophosphates in Cereals

Abstract

Application of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) utilizing pure carbon dioxide for selective isolation of organophosphates from contaminated cereals has been tested.

At the beginning of the experiments the extractability of added standards from an empty extraction vessel (thimble) and from various materials such as filter paper, sand, Celite and anhydrous sodium sulfate was tested to estimate the behavior of organophosphates. Further method development was carried out using a spiked sample of flour, which was analyzed within the proficiency testing for organophosphorus pesticides analysis (round 7) organized by Food Analysis Performance Assessment Scheme (FAPAS, MAFF-UK).

Comparison of the SFE method with a classical method currently employed for sample preparation (i.e. extraction with acetone/methanol mixture followed by gel permeation chromatographic clean up) showed advantages of the SFE technique such as simplification of the sample preparation step and thereby significant speeding up of the determination of organophosphates in cereals.     

Chip-Firing Games on Directed Graphs

We consider the following (solitary) game: each node of a directed graph contains a pile of chips. A move consists of selecting a node with at least as many chips as its outdegree, and sending one chip along each outgoing edge to its neighbors. We extend to directed graphs several results on the undirected version obtained earlier by the authors, P. Shor, and G. Tardos, and we discuss some new topics such as periodicity, reachability, and probabilistic aspects.Among the new results specifically concerning digraphs, we relate the length of the shortest period of an infinite game to the length of the longest terminating game, and also to the access time of random walks on the same graph. These questions involve a study of the Laplace operator for directed graphs. We show that for many graphs, in particular for undirected graphs, the problem whether a given position of the chips can be reached from the initial position is polynomial time solvable.Finally, we show how the basic properties of the probabilistic abacus can be derived from our results.     

Ear-decompositions of matching-covered graphs

We call a graphmatching-covered if every line belongs to a perfect matching. We study the technique of “ear-decompositions” of such graphs. We prove that a non-bipartite matching-covered graph containsK ₄ orK ₂⊕K ₃ (the triangular prism). Using this result, we give new characterizations of those graphs whose matching and covering numbers are equal. We apply these results to the theory of τ-critical graphs.     

On some combinatorial properties of algebraic matroids

It was proved implicitly by Ingleton and Main and explicitly by Lindström that if three lines in the algebraic matroid consisting of all elements of an algebraically closed field are not coplanar, but any two of them are, then they pass through one point. This theorem is extended to a more general result about the intersection of subspaces in full algebraic matroids. This result is used to show that the minimax theorem for matroid matching, proved for linear matroids by Lovász, remains valid for algebraic matroids.     

Optimization of the thickness of layers of sandwich conical shells

We deal with an optimal control problem for variational inequalities, where the linear operators as well as the convex sets of possible states depend on the control parameter. The existence theorem for optimal control is applied to optimal design problems for sandwich conical shells where a variable thickness of given layers appears as a control variable.     

Use of ZSM-5 catalyst in deoxygenation of waste cooking oil

This study investigated the potential use of waste cooking oil (WCO) in the production of engine fuels and valuable chemicals via catalytic cracking. WCO was processed in its pure form and in a mixture with hydrotreated vacuum gas oil (HVGO). Catalytic cracking experiments were performed using a microactivity test (MAT) (simulation of the fluid catalytic cracking environment). In cracking over the standard fluid catalytic cracking equilibrium catalyst (FCC-ECAT), the oxygen contained in the feed was consumed in the formation of CO and CO₂, water and into oxygenated organic compounds (phenolics, esters, carboxylic acids, etc.), which were found in the organic phase of the liquid product. In order to remove the unwanted organic oxygenates, the catalytic system based on pure FCC-ECAT was modified by addition of the ZSM-5-based FCC catalyst. By using the mixture containing FCC-ECAT and 10 mass % of FCC-ZSM-5, it was possible to reduce the amount of organic oxygenates to almost the feasible minimum when cracking pure WCO. The effect of the catalyst mixture on cracking the feed mixture of the vacuum gas oil with 10 vol. % of WCO was manifested in the practically zero formation of organic oxygenates and in a gasoline yield comparable with vacuum gas oil (VGO) cracking.     

On Conway's Thrackle Conjecture

A thrackle is a graph drawn in the plane so that its edges are represented by Jordan arcs and any two distinct arcs either meet at exactly one common vertex or cross at exactly one point interior to both arcs. About 40 years ago, J. H. Conway conjectured that the number of edges of a thrackle cannot exceed the number of its vertices. We show that a thrackle has at most twice as many edges as vertices. Some related problems and generalizations are also considered. Received July 11, 1995, and in revised form April 16, 1996.