Ramsey Goodness and Beyond

In a seminal paper from 1983, Burr and Erdos started the systematic study of Ramsey numbers of cliques vs. large sparse graphs, raising a number of problems. In this paper we develop a new approach to such Ramsey problems using a mix of the Szemeredi regularity lemma, embedding of sparse graphs, Turan type stability, and other structural results. We give exact Ramsey numbers for various classes of graphs, solving all but one of the Burr-Erdos problems.Comment: A new reference is adde

Space station molecular sieve development

An essential function of a space environmental control system is the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere to control the partial pressure of this gas at levels lower than 3 mm Hg. The use of regenerable solid adsorbents for this purpose was demonstrated effectively during the Skylab mission. Earlier sorbent systems used zeolite molecular sieves. The carbon molecular sieve is a hydrophobic adsorbent with excellent potential for space station application. Although carbon molecular sieves were synthesized and investigated, these sieves were designed to simulate the sieving properties of 5A zeolite and for O2/N2 separation. This program was designed to develop hydrophobic carbon molecular sieves for CO2 removal from a space station crew environment. It is a first phase effort involved in sorbent material development and in demonstrating the utility of such a material for CO2 removal on space stations. The sieve must incorporate the following requirements: it must be hydrophobic; it must have high dynamic capacity for carbon dioxide at the low partial pressure of the space station atmosphere; and it must be chemiclly stable and will not generate contaminants

Development of a solar-powered residential air conditioner: System optimization preliminary specification

Investigations aimed at the optimization of a baseline Rankine cycle solar powered air conditioner and the development of a preliminary system specification were conducted. Efforts encompassed the following: (1) investigations of the use of recuperators/regenerators to enhance the performance of the baseline system, (2) development of an off-design computer program for system performance prediction, (3) optimization of the turbocompressor design to cover a broad range of conditions and permit operation at low heat source water temperatures, (4) generation of parametric data describing system performance (COP and capacity), (5) development and evaluation of candidate system augmentation concepts and selection of the optimum approach, (6) generation of auxiliary power requirement data, (7) development of a complete solar collector-thermal storage-air conditioner computer program, (8) evaluation of the baseline Rankine air conditioner over a five day period simulating the NASA solar house operation, and (9) evaluation of the air conditioner as a heat pump

Reduction of the COSMOS Southern Sky galaxy survey data to the RC3 standard system

After having cross-identified a subsample of LEDA galaxies in the COSMOS database, we defined the best relations to convert COSMOS parameters (coordinates, position angle, diameter, axis ratio and apparent magnitude) into RC3 system used in the LEDA database. Tiny secondary effects can be tested: distance to plate cenetrs effect and air-mass effect. The converted COSMOS parameters are used to add missing parameters on LEDA galaxies. Key words: galaxies - catalogue - photometryComment: 5 pages, postcript including figures, to appear in MNRAS, reprint requests: [email protected]

Evaluation of an urban NMHC emission inventory by measurements and impact on CTM results

This paper presents an evaluation of the consistency of an urban state-of-the-art hydrocarbon (HC) emission inventory. The evaluation was conducted through the comparison of this inventory with hourly HC measurements during two summer months in the centre of Marseille, on the Mediterranean French coast. Factors of under or overestimation could be calculated for each compound on the basis of a systematic HC to HC ratio analysis. These results, associated with a deep analysis of the speciation profiles, show that most of the common and highly concentrated hydrocarbons (such as butanes) are too much predominant in the emission speciation, while the heavy and less common species (branched alkanes, substituted aromatics) are under-represented in the inventory. The urban diffuse sources appear here as one critical point of the inventories. The disagreements were shown to have a strong incidence on the representation of the air mass reactivity. In a last step, the identified uncertainties in emissions were implemented in an air-quality model for sensitivity studies. It was shown that the observed biases in the inventory could affect the regional ozone production, with a probable impact on ozone peaks of 2-10 ppbv over the area. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd

Nondegenerate linearizable centres of complex planar quadratic and symmetric cubic systems in C2

In this paper we consider complex differential systems in the plane, which are linearizable in the neighborhood of a nondegenerate centre. We find necessary and sufficient conditions for linearizability for the class of complex quadratic systems and for the class of complex cubic systems symmetric with respect to a centre. The sufficiency of these conditions is shown by exhibiting explicitly a linearizing change of coordinates, either of Darboux type or a generalization of it

Dietary strategies to treat hyperhomocysteinaemia based on the biochemistry of homocysteine: a review

Hyperhomocysteinaemia is implicated in various diseases, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Several conditions influence the concentration of homocysteine (Hcy), including demographic, genetic and lifestyle factors. With regard to the latter, dietary components may be manipulated as Hcy can be remethylated to methionine by folate, or metabolised by other one-carbon nutrients, such as betaine and its precursor, choline. This metabolic interplay enables the nutritionist or dietitian to be able to lower Hcy concentrations cost-effectively by tailoring an individual’s diet, or by food enrichment and fortification strategies. Evidence supports the safety and benefits of Hcy reduction by simple dietary intervention. B vitamins, and betaine and choline intake lower Hcy, whereas methionine and certain beverages (coffee, tea and alcohol) increase it. Therefore, dietary determinants of Hcy raise the prospect of a simple, inexpensive and safe means of treating and/or preventing diseases contingent on this sulphur- containing protein. Keywords: alcohol, B vitamins, coffee, homocysteine, lipotropics, te