Determination of trace amounts of nickel by atomic-absorption spectrometry after carbonyl generation

A sensitive and reliable method for the atomic-absorption spectrometric determination of micro-amounts of Ni in organic and inorganic samples has been developed, with separation of nickel by carbonyl generation. Foreign anions and cations do not interfere. Only metallic iron hampers the generation of Ni(CO)(4) but this interference can be avoided if the latter is formed in nitric acid medium. In the range 0.02-0.1 mug, Ni can be determined with a precision of about 10%. The detection limit of the proposed method is 10 ng in the aliquot used.     

Buffer sizing in multi-product multi-reactor batch processes: Impact of allocation and campaign sizing policies

This paper studies the impact of management policies, such as product allocation and campaign sizing, on the required size of the finished goods inventories in a multi-product multi-reactor batch process. Demand, setup and batch processing times for these products are assumed to be stochastic, and the inventory buffer for every product type needs to be such that target customer service levels are met. To perform this analysis, we develop a queueing model that allows us to explicitly estimate service levels as a function of the buffer size, and the allocation/campaign sizing policies. This model can be used to evaluate the service level given an existing buffer configuration, as well as to determine the buffer sizes required across products to meet a pre-specified service level. It also allows us to formulate a number of insights into how product allocation decisions and campaign planning policies affect buffer sizing decisions in symmetric production systems.     

Explicit portfolio for unit-linked life insurance contracts with surrender option

Introducing a surrender option in unit-linked life insurance contracts leads to a dependence between the surrender time and the financial market. [J. Barbarin, Risk minimizing strategies for life insurance contracts with surrender option, Tech. rep., University of Louvain-La-Neuve, 2007] used a lot of concepts from credit risk to describe the surrender time in order to hedge such types of contracts. The basic assumption made by Barbarin is that the surrender time is not a stopping time with respect to the financial market.The goal of this article is to make the hedging strategies more explicit by introducing concrete processes for the risky asset and by restricting the hazard process to an absolutely continuous process.First, we assume that the risky asset follows a geometric Brownian motion. This extends the theory of [T. Møller, Risk-minimizing hedging strategies for insurance payment processes, Finance and Stochastics 5 (2001) 419–446], in that the random times of payment are not independent of the financial market. Second, the risky asset follows a Lévy process.For both cases, we assume the payment process contains a continuous payment stream until surrender or maturity and a payment at surrender or at maturity, whichever comes first.     

A Queueing Framework for Routing Problems with Time-dependent Travel Times

Assigning and scheduling vehicle routes in a dynamic environment is a crucial management problem. Despite numerous publications dealing with efficient scheduling methods for vehicle routing, very few addressed the inherent stochastic and dynamic nature of travel times. In this paper, a vehicle routing problem with time-dependent travel times due to potential traffic congestion is considered. The approach developed introduces the traffic congestion component based on queueing theory. This is an innovative modelling scheme to capture the stochastic behavior of travel times as it generates an analytical expression for the expected travel times as well as for the variance of the travel times. Routing solutions that perform well in the face of the extra complications due to congestion are developed. These more realistic solutions have the potential to reduce real operating costs for a broad range of industries which daily face routing problems. A number of datasets are used to illustrate the appropriateness of the novel approach. Moreover it is shown that static (or time-independent) solutions are often infeasible within a congested traffic environment which is generally the case on European road networks. Finally, the effect of travel time variability (obtained via the queueing approach) is quantified for the different datasets.      

Vehicle routing with dynamic travel times: A queueing approach

Transportation is an important component of supply chain competitiveness since it plays a major role in the inbound, inter-facility, and outbound logistics. In this context, assigning and scheduling vehicle routes is a crucial management problem. In this paper, a vehicle routing problem with dynamic travel times due to potential traffic congestion is considered. The approach developed introduces mainly the traffic congestion component based on queueing theory. This is an innovative modeling scheme to capture travel times. The queueing approach is compared with other approaches and its potential benefits are described and quantified. Moreover, the optimization of the starting times of a route at the distribution center is evaluated. Finally, the trade-off between solution quality and calculation time is discussed. Numerous test instances are used, both to illustrate the appropriateness of the approach as well as to show that time-independent solutions are often unrealistic within a congested traffic environment, which is usually the case on European road networks.     

IUPAC critical evaluation of the rotational-vibrational spectra of water vapor. Part II: Energy levels and transition wavenumbers for HDO, HDO, and HDO

This is the second of a series of articles reporting critically evaluated rotational-vibrational line positions, transition intensities, pressure dependences, and energy levels, with associated critically reviewed assignments and uncertainties, for all the main isotopologues of water. This article presents energy levels and line positions of the following singly deuterated isotopologues of water: HD¹⁶O, HD¹⁷O, and HD¹⁸O. The MARVEL (measured active rotational-vibrational energy levels) procedure is used to determine the levels, the lines, and their self-consistent uncertainties for the spectral regions 0-22 708, 0-1674, and 0-12 105 cm⁻¹ for HD¹⁶O, HD¹⁷O, and HD¹⁸O, respectively. For HD¹⁶O, 54 740 transitions were analyzed from 76 sources, the lines come from spectra recorded both at room temperature and from hot samples. These lines correspond to 36 690 distinct assignments and 8818 energy levels. For HD¹⁷O, only 485 transitions could be analyzed from three sources; the lines correspond to 162 MARVEL energy levels. For HD¹⁸O, 8729 transitions were analyzed from 11 sources and these lines correspond to 1864 energy levels. The energy levels are checked against ones determined from accurate variational nuclear motion computations employing exact kinetic energy operators. This comparison shows that the measured transitions account for about 86% of the anticipated absorbance of HD¹⁶O at 296 K and that the transitions predicted by the MARVEL energy levels account for essentially all the remaining absorbance. The extensive list of MARVEL lines and levels obtained are given in the Supplementary Material of this article, as well as in a distributed information system applied to water, W@DIS, where they can easily be retrieved. In addition, the transition and energy level information for H₂¹⁷O and H₂¹⁸O, given in the first paper of this series [Tennyson, et al. J Quant Spectr Rad Transfer 2009;110:573-96], has been updated.     

Fourier Transform Spectroscopy of the O(2) Herzberg Bands

From absorption spectra obtained at high resolution by coupling a Fourier transform spectrometer to a long-path multiple reflection cell [A. Jenouvrier, M.-F. Mérienne, B. Coquart, M. Carleer, S. Fally, A. C. Vandaele, C. Hermans, and R. Colin, J. Mol. Spectrosc. 198, 136-162 (1999)] the intensities of the O(2) Herzberg bands (A(3)Sigma(+)(u)-X(3)Sigma(-)(g), c(1)Sigma(-)(u)-X(3)Sigma(-)(g), A'( 3)Delta(u)-X(3)Sigma(-)(g)) have been studied at ambient temperature. The integrated cross section values are given for the lines of the (v'-0) bands in the A(3)Sigma(+)(u)-X(3)Sigma(-)(g), c(1)Sigma(-)(u)-X(3)Sigma(-)(g), and A'( 3)Delta(u)-X(3)Sigma(-)(g) transitions with v' = 0-11, v' = 2-19, and v' = 2-12, respectively. The band oscillator strengths have been deduced and transition moments have been calculated. The total absorption values in the region of the Herzberg bands together with the photoabsorption values determined previously above the dissociation limit can be modeled by a single curve, in agreement with the continuity relationship of the cross sections through the dissociation limit. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.