Synthesis of spherical nanoparticles of Cu2L2O5 (L=Ho, Er) from W/O microemulsions

Nanoparticles of Cu₂L₂O₅ (L=Ho, Er) (15–25 nm in size) were synthesised by the intermediate use of W/O microemulsions. In this process the aqueous cores of water/cetyltrimethylammonium bromide/n-octane/1-butanol microemulsions were used as microreactors for the precipitation of Cu₂Ho₂(CO₃)₄(OH)₂ (25–30 nm) and Cu₂Er₂(CO₃)₄(OH)₂ (10–40 nm) as precursors. These mixed salts were separated and further decomposed to the corresponding mixed oxides at 900°C for 16 h. All solids were characterised by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, IR, XRPD, ICP-OES, TGA, XPS measurements and elemental analyses.     

Numerical integration over polygons using an eight-node quadrilateral spline finite element

In this paper, a cubature formula over polygons is proposed and analysed. It is based on an eight-node quadrilateral spline finite element [C.-J. Li, R.-H. Wang, A new 8-node quadrilateral spline finite element, J. Comp. Appl. Math. 195 (2006) 54–65] and is exact for quadratic polynomials on arbitrary convex quadrangulations and for cubic polynomials on rectangular partitions. The convergence of sequences of the above cubatures is proved for continuous integrand functions and error bounds are derived. Some numerical examples are given, by comparisons with other known cubatures.     

A distributed combustion solver for engine simulations on grids

Multi-dimensional models for predictive simulations of modern engines are an example of multi-physics and multi-scale mathematical models, since lots of thermofluiddynamic processes in complex geometrical configurations have to be considered. Typical models involve different submodels, including turbulence, spray and combustion models, with different characteristic time scales. The predictive capability of the complete models depends on the accuracy of the submodels as well as on the reliability of the numerical solution algorithms. In this work we propose a multi-solver approach for reliable and efficient solution of the stiff Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) systems arising from detailed chemical reaction mechanisms for combustion modeling. Main aim was to obtain high-performance parallel solution of combustion submodels in the overall procedure for simulation of engines on distributed heterogeneous computing platforms. To this aim we interfaced our solver with the CHEMKIN-II package and the KIVA3V-II code and carried out multi-computer simulations of realistic engines. Numerical experiments devoted to test reliability of the simulation results and efficiency of the distributed combustion solver are presented and discussed.     

Γ-Limit of Periodic Obstacles

We compute the -limit of a sequence obstacle functionals in the case of periodic obstacles.     

An Existence Result for a Problem with Critical Growth and Lack of Strict Convexity

We prove the existence of a nontrivial solution for a quasilinear elliptic equation involving a nonlinearity having critical growth and a convex principal part, which is not required to be strictly convex. Supported by MURST, Project “Variational Methods and Nonlinear Differential Equations”.     

A tail dependence-based dissimilarity measure for financial time series clustering

In this paper we propose a clustering procedure aimed at grouping time series with an association between extremely low values, measured by the lower tail dependence coefficient. Firstly, we estimate the coefficient using an Archimedean copula function. Then, we propose a dissimilarity measure based on tail dependence coefficients and a two-step procedure to be used with clustering algorithms which require that the objects we want to cluster have a geometric interpretation. We show how the results of the clustering applied to financial returns could be used to construct defensive portfolios reducing the effect of a simultaneous financial crisis.     

MgB2/Fe带材Jc的各向异性及MgB2芯织构和成分不均一性的研究

本文研究了在不同磁场方向和温度下非原位Fe包套MgB2单芯带Jc的各向异性,通过对各种工艺条件下带材中MgB2芯的X-ray衍射图进行拟合分析和计算,比较了MgB2芯在Fe-MgB2界面和中心处的织构度和成份不均一性.研究发现带材Jc的各向异性受初始粉末颗粒尺寸的影响.由于受套管材料强度和形变加工工艺的影响,MgB2芯在Fe-MgB2界面处比在中心处有较强的织构.在MgB2-Fe的界面处,700℃淬火样品的X-ray衍射图中发现了由中间相Fe23B6生成的金属间化合物Fe2B.另外还研究了MgB4和MgO等主要杂质相的形成原因.