Optical properties of stages 1 and 2 potassium mercurographitides

We have measured the reflectivity spectra of stages 1 and 2 graphite intercalated with KHg amalgam (KHgC₄ and KHgC₈) from 0.5–6eV, and compared them to the corresponding stages 1 and 2 binary compounds, KC₈ and KC₂₄. Plasma edges for the ternaries appear at about the same energies as in the binaries, but differences are observed in the reflectivity values at the minima. Kramers-Kroenig analysis yields thresholds for the onset of interband transitions at 1.3eV and 1.2eV for KHgC₄ and KHgC₈, compared to 2.7eV and 1.7eV for KC₈ and KC₂₄. The thresholds are explained in terms of interband transitions in the mercurographitides involving the Hg levels. A model for these transitions is presented based on the Mott metal-semiconductor transition in mercury. This model is shown to be consistent with the hypothesis that the mercury layers are negatively charged.     

Artificial intelligence-based inventory management: a Monte Carlo tree search approach

The coordination of order policies constitutes a great challenge in supply chain inventory management as various stochastic factors increase its complexity. Therefore, analytical approaches to determine a policy that minimises overall inventory costs are only suitable to a limited extent. In contrast, we adopt a heuristic approach, from the domain of artificial intelligence (AI), namely, Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS). To the best of our knowledge, MCTS has neither been applied to supply chain inventory management before nor is it yet widely disseminated in other branches of operations research. We develop an offline model as well as an online model which bases decisions on real-time data. For demonstration purposes, we consider a supply chain structure similar to the classical beer game with four actors and both stochastic demand and lead times. We demonstrate that both the offline and the online MCTS models perform better than other previously adopted AI-based approaches. Furthermore, we provide evidence that a dynamic order policy determined by MCTS eliminates the bullwhip effect.