On the Enforcement of a Class of Nonlinear Constraints on Petri Nets

International audienceThis paper focuses on the enforcement of nonlinear constraints in Petri nets. First, a supervisory structure is proposed for a nonlinear constraint. The proposed structure consists of added places and transitions. It controls the transitions in the net to be controlled only but does not change its states since there is no arc between the added transitions and the places in the original net. Second, an integer linear programming model is proposed to transform a nonlinear constraint to a minimal number of conjunc-tive linear constraints that have the same control performance as the nonlinear one. By using a place invariant based method, the obtained linear constraints can be easily enforced by a set of control places. The control places consist to a supervisor that can enforce the given nonlinear constraint. On condition that the admissible markings space of a nonlinear constraint is non-convex, another integer linear programming model is developed to obtain a minimal number of constraints whose disjunctions are equivalent to the nonlinear constraint. Finally, a number of examples are provided to demonstrate the proposed approach

Assessing the influence of the Merzbacher Lake outburst floods on discharge using the hydrological model SWIM in the Aksu headwaters, Kyrgyzstan/NW China

Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) often have a significant impact on downstream users. Including their effects in hydrological models, identifying past occurrences and assessing their potential impacts are challenges for hydrologists working in mountainous catchments. The regularly outbursting Merzbacher Lake is located in the headwaters of the Aksu River, the most important source of water discharge to the Tarim River, northwest China. Modelling its water resources and the evaluation of potential climate change impacts on river discharge are indispensable for projecting future water availability for the intensively cultivated river oases downstream of the Merzbacher Lake and along the Tarim River. The semi-distributed hydrological model SWIM was calibrated to the outlet station Xiehela on the Kumarik River, by discharge the largest tributary to the Aksu River. The glacial lake outburst floods add to the difficulties of modelling this high-mountain, heavily glaciated catchment with poor data coverage and quality. The aims of the study are to investigate the glacier lake outburst floods using a modelling tool. Results include a two-step model calibration of the Kumarik catchment, an approach for the identification of the outburst floods using the measured gauge data and the modelling results and estimations of the outburst flood volumes. Results show that a catchment model can inform GLOF investigations by providing ‘normal’ (i.e. without the outburst floods) catchment discharge. The comparison of the simulated and observed discharge proves the occurrence of GLOFs and highlights the influences of the GLOFs on the downstream water balance. © 2013 The Authors. Hydrological Processes Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Anharmonic multi-phonon nonradiative transition: An ab initio calculation approach

Nonradiative carrier recombinations at deep centers in semiconductors are of great importance for both fundamental physics and device engineering. In this article, we provide a revised analysis of Huang’s original nonradiative multi-phonon (NMP) theory with ab initio calculations. First, we confirmed at the first-principles level that Huang’s concise formula gives the same results as the matrix-based formula, and that Huang’s high-temperature formula provides an analytical expression for the coupling constant in Marcus theory. Secondly, we correct for anharmonic effects by taking into account local phonon-mode variations for different charge states of a defect. The corrected capture rates for defects in GaN and SiC agree well with experiments

Double-diffusive Marangoni convection in a rectangular cavity : onset of convection

2009-2010 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Radiative lifetimes and Lande factors of Rydberg 6pnp and 6pnf states of PbI by multichannel-quantum-defect theory

Multichannel-quantum-defect theory analyses of J = 0, 1, and 2 even-parity Rydberg series 6pnp and 6pnf of neutral lead have been performed for the experimental energy levels, The channel admixture coefficients were deduced and used to evaluate theoretical lifetimes and Lande (g(J)) factors. Lifetime and g(J) values for higher-lying excited states have also been predicted

Visualization of facet-dependent pseudo-photocatalytic behavior of TiO2 nanorods for water splitting using In situ liquid cell TEM

We report an investigation of the pseudo-photocatalytic behavior of rutile TiO2 nanorods for water splitting observed with liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The electron beam serves as a “light” source to initiate the catalytic reaction and a “water-in-salt” aqueous solution is employed as the electrolyte. The observation reveals that bubbles are generated preferentially residing near the {110} facet of a rutile TiO2 nanorod under a low electron dose rate (9.3–18.6 e-/Å2·s). These bubbles are ascribed to hydrogen gas generated from the pseudo-photocatalytic water splitting. As the electron beam current density increases to 93 e-/Å2 ·s, bubbles are also found at the {001} and {111} facets as well as in the bulk liquid solution, demonstrating the dominant effects of water electrolysis by electron beam under higher dose rates. The facet-dependent pseudo-photocatalytic behavior of rutile TiO2 nanorods is further validated using density functional theory (DFT)calculation. Our work establishes a facile liquid cell TEM setup for the study of pseudo-photocatalytic water splitting and it may also be applied to investigation of other photo-activated phenomena occurring at the solid-liquid interfaces

Trends and Determinants of Dividend Policy: A Study of London Stock Exchange, FTSE 350 Index

This paper aims to investigate the stability and dominant determinants of dividend policy for a total of 242 UK dividend-paying companies listed on London Stock Exchange during the sample period 2002-2011. Particularly, the study examines if managers of UK listed firms tend to smooth dividends by conducting Lintner’s (1956) partial adjustment model. The results demonstrate that UK firms extensively rely on past dividend payments but partially on earnings to adjust their dividend decision-making. The analysis further implies that UK listed companies have a relatively clear and stable dividend policy and tend to pay cash dividends rather than stock dividends. A slight upward trend in the proportion of UK dividend payers is observed during the sample period. In addition, the research tests the determining factors that drive dividend policy using Fixed-effect regression model in a panel manner. The results highlight the importance of firms’ profitability position, and demonstrate that UK mangers prefer distributing cash dividends rather than stock dividends. Also, the author finds support for free cash flow and life-cycle hypotheses. Additionally, agency problems in United Kingdom are found to be quite series. However, the author does not observe significant impacts of firms’ leverage and liquidity level, investment opportunity or firm size on dividend payments

Stochastic analysis of a deterministic and seasonally forced SEI model for improved disease spread simulation

The geographic distribution of different viruses has developed widely, giving rise to an escalating number of cases during the past two decades. The deterministic Susceptible, Exposed, Infectious (SEI) models can demonstrate the spatio-temporal dynamics of the diseases and have been used extensively in modern mathematical and mechano-biological simulations. This article presents a functional technique to model the stochastic effects and seasonal forcing in a reliable manner by satisfying the Lipschitz criteria. We have emphasized that the graphical portrayal can prove to be a powerful tool to demonstrate the stability analysis of the deterministic as well as the stochastic modeling. Emphasis is made on the dynamical effects of the force of infection. Such analysis based on the parametric sweep can prove to be helpful in predicting the disease spread in urban as well as rural areas and should be of interest to mathematical biosciences researchers

Magnetic flux penetration in polycrystalline SmFeO0.75F0.2As

The recently discovered Fe-As superconducting materials which show high potential ability to carry current due to their low anisotropy have attracted a great number of attentions to understand their superconductivity mechanism and explore their applications. This paper presents a method to synthesis SmFeO0.75F0.20As polycrystalline by hot press in detail. The magnetization at different temperatures and applied fields obtained by a superconducting quantum interference device are also discussed. In addition, the local magnetization process is presented by magneto-optical imaging technique at the conditions of zero-field-cooling and field-cooling. It is found that the collective magnetization process of the newly discovered Fe-As superconductors is very similar to that of high-Tc cuprates. For instance, the Fe-As superconductors and high-Tc cuprates have the same magnetization features due to strong pining and intergrain weak link. The global supercurrent is significantly lower than local grain supercurrent due to the weak line between the grains