Mod 2 cohomology of combinatorial Grassmannians

Matroid bundles, introduced by MacPherson, are combinatorial analogues of real vector bundles. This paper sets up the foundations of matroid bundles. It defines a natural transformation from isomorphism classes of real vector bundles to isomorphism classes of matroid bundles. It then gives a transformation from matroid bundles to spherical quasifibrations, by showing that the geometric realization of a matroid bundle is a spherical quasifibration. The poset of oriented matroids of a fixed rank classifies matroid bundles, and the above transformations give a splitting from topology to combinatorics back to topology. A consequence is that the mod 2 cohomology of the poset of rank k oriented matroids (this poset classifies matroid bundles) contains the free polynomial ring on the first k Stiefel-Whitney classes.     

The flow of a variable viscosity fluid between parallel plates with shear heating

A model for the flow of a fluid through a channel with parallel plates is investigated. The channel is narrow, so that the lubrication approximation may be applied. The channel walls are maintained at a constant temperature. Shear heating effects are included and the fluid viscosity decreases exponentially with temperature. When the flow is driven solely by shear stress or imposed velocity at the top, analytical progress is possible. When pressure gradient also drives the flow the problem is solved numerically.     

取向聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯纤维的非等温结晶动力学

取向聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯纤维的非等温结晶动力学张志英，赵家森（天津纺织工学院材料科学系天津３００１６０）关键词取向高聚物，聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯，非等温结晶，结晶动力学研究高聚物结晶动力学常用的等温方法有光透射法、密度法、显微镜法、Ｘ－射线衍射法、差示扫描...     

剪切流动对共混物相行为影响的研究进展

介绍了国外８０年代以来开展的剪切流动对聚合物共混物相容性影响的研究概况，并着重介绍了采用最新的二维小角激光散射流变仪和光学显微流变仪对共混物体系在剪切应力作用下相行为的研究结果，反映了该前沿领域的最新进展。     

Shear and NMR experiments of materials with flow behaviour depending on the deformation history

Oxide ceramic masses react to simple shearing with hardening (peptisation: increase in the shear stress with the shear deformation). In the present study the correlation between the increase in the shear stress and the porosity, agglomeration processes and the type of flow are analysed. For this purpose oxide ceramic masses are tested in a shear device especially developed for pastes and analysed by rheometric experiments, NMR methods and particle size analysis. The results support the hypothesis that structural changes (hardening, increase in the mean porosity) of the material during the peptisation mainly depend on the magnitude and not on the kind of the energy input and thus of the type of flow. The fraction of bound (more generally, the immobilised) water increases with the shear displacement. Also crushing of primary particles could be observed. Both the crushing of solid particles causing an increased solid surface and the formation of a three-dimensional gel structure are microscopic effects capable of resulting in the binding or retaining water. On a macroscopic scale these phenomena cause hardening. Magnetic resonance imaging visualises flow-induced agglomerates, which form owing to the shear flow and increase the porosity averaged over the whole sample. After the shear experiment rolls of paste can be seen which indicate that the general assumption of a plane shear flow in the shear device is not warrantable. Received: 19 July 2001 Accepted: 25 October 2001     

高抗冲聚苯乙烯的增韧机理

概述了以高抗冲聚苯乙烯（ＨＩＰＳ）为中心的有关橡胶增韧机理的理论，并且总结了界面，性能、粒子尺寸、粒 距及缠结密度等因素对橡胶／高分子共混体系性能的影响。     

Comparison of a pump-around, a diffusion-driven, and a shear-driven system for the hybridization of mouse lung and testis total RNA on microarrays

In the present study, we demonstrate the benefits of a shear-driven rotating microchamber system for the enhancement of microarray hybridizations, by comparing the system with two commonly used hybridization techniques: purely diffusion-driven hybridization under coverslip and hybridization using a fully automated hybridization station, in which the sample is pumped in an oscillating manner. Starting from the same amount of DNA for the three different methods, a series of hybridization experiments using mouse lung and testis DNA is presented to demonstrate these benefits. The gain observed using the rotating microchamber is large: both in terms of analysis speed (up to tenfold increase) and in final spot intensity (up to sixfold increase). The gain is due to the combined effect of the hybridization chamber miniaturization (leading to a sample concentration increase if comparing iso-mass conditions) and the transport enhancement originating from the rotational shear-driven flow induced by the rotation of the chamber bottom wall.     

On Tutte polynomial expansion formulas in perspectives of matroids and oriented matroids

We introduce the active partition of the ground set of an oriented matroid perspective (or morphism, or quotient, or strong map) on a linearly ordered ground set. The reorientations obtained by arbitrarily reorienting parts of the active partition share the same active partition. This yields an equivalence relation for the set of reorientations of an oriented matroid perspective, whose classes are enumerated by coefficients of the Tutte polynomial, and a remarkable partition of the set of reorientations into Boolean lattices, from which we get a short direct proof of a 4-variable expansion formula for the Tutte polynomial in terms of orientation activities. This formula was given in the last unpublished preprint by Michel Las Vergnas; the above equivalence relation and notion of active partition generalize a former construction in oriented matroids by Michel Las Vergnas and the author; and the possibility of such a proof technique in perspectives was announced in the aforementioned preprint. We also briefly highlight how the 5-variable expansion of the Tutte polynomial in terms of subset activities in matroid perspectives comes in a similar way from the known partition of the power set of the ground set into Boolean lattices related to subset activities (and we complete the proof with a property which was missing in the literature). In particular, the paper applies to matroids and oriented matroids on a linearly ordered ground set, and applies to graph and directed graph homomorphisms on a linearly ordered edge-set.     

Oriented hypergraphs: Balanceability

An oriented hypergraph is an oriented incidence structure that extends the concepts of signed graphs, balanced hypergraphs, and balanced matrices. We introduce hypergraphic structures and techniques that generalize the circuit classification of the signed graphic frame matroid to any oriented hypergraphic incidence matrix via its locally-signed-graphic substructure. To achieve this, Camion's algorithm is applied to oriented hypergraphs to provide a generalization of reorientation sets and frustration that is only well-defined on balanceable oriented hypergraphs. A simple partial characterization of unbalanceable circuits extends the applications to representable matroids demonstrating that the difference between the Fano and non-Fano matroids is one of balance.     

Influence of operational parameters on retention of ultra-high molecular weight polystyrenes in thermal field-flow fractionation

Summary The influence of various parameters (concentration of the injected polymer solution, flow rate, temperature gradient, relaxation conditions) on the retention and shape of the fractogram of ultra-high molecular weight polystyrenes in thermal field-flow fractionation was investigated. Under the operating conditions adopted, reproducible oscillations in the peak shape are observed for molecular weights larger than a few millions, especially at relatively high polymer concentration. They are attributed to some hydrodynamic instabilities. The retention of ultra-high molecular weight polystyrenes at high flow rate is strongly dependent on the initial relaxation period. All of the investigated operational variables have a complex effect on the resulting shape of the fractogram. Consequently, the confirmation of the shear-induced focusing of macromolecules across the channel thickness requires further study. Experiments on reinjection of fractions collected after an initial high speed pass through the separation system leads to the conclusion that shear degradation of the ultra-high molecular weight polymers did not occur under the investigated experimental conditions even at the highest flow rates.