Synthesis and applications of heterobifunctional poly(ethylene oxide) oligomers

Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) oligomers are employed extensively in pharmaceutical and biomedical arenas mainly due to their excellent physical and biological properties, including solubility in water and organic solvents, lack of toxicity, and absence of immunogenicity. PEO can be chemically modified and reacted with, or adsorbed onto, other molecules and surfaces. Sophisticated applications for PEO have increased the demand for PEO oligomers with tailored functionalities, and heterobifunctional PEOs are often needed. This review discusses the synthesis and applications of heterobifunctional PEO oligomers possessing amine, carboxylate, thiol, and maleimide functional groups.     

Plasma power can make better powders

It may be a truism to say that round powders pack better, but spheroidisation of powder particles is one of the successful commercial applications of induction plasma technology and can play a key role in substantial improvement of powder quality and fluidity…     

Parametric circles and spheres

Formulations for parametric circles and spheres in terms of rational Gaussian (RaG) curves and surfaces are introduced. With the proposed formulations, a full circle is generated by interpolating a closed RaG curve to the vertices of an equilateral triangle, and a full sphere is generated by interpolating a closed RaG surface to the vertices of an octahedron with equilateral triangular faces. Generation of circles and spheres in this manner is very intuitive and easy to remember as the weights are all 1 and the nodes are all unique and uniformly spaced.     

Stability analysis of network-based cooperative resource allocation strategies

Resource allocation involves deciding how to divide a resource of limited availability among multiple demands in a way that optimizes current objectives. In this brief paper we focus on one type of distributed resource allocation problem where via an imperfect communication network multiple processors can share the load presented by multiple task types. We introduce asynchronous “cooperative” resource allocation strategies, and show that they lead to a bounded cumulative demand.     

Nonpathological Lyapunov functions and discontinuous Carathéodory systems

Differential equations with discontinuous right-hand side and solutions intended in Carathéodory sense are considered. For these equations, sufficient conditions which guarantee both Lyapunov stability and asymptotic stability in terms of nonsmooth Lyapunov functions are given. An invariance principle is also proven.     

Finding feasible mold parting directions using graphics hardware

We present new programmable graphics hardware accelerated algorithms to test the 2-moldability of geometric parts and assist with part redesign. These algorithms efficiently identify and graphically display undercuts as well as minimum and insufficient draft angles. Their running times grow only linearly with respect to the number of facets in the solid model, making them efficient subroutines for our algorithms that test whether a tessellated CAD model can be manufactured in a two-part mold. We have developed and implemented two such algorithms to choose candidate directions to test for 2-moldability using accessibility analysis and Gauss maps. The efficiency of these algorithms lies in the fact that they identify groups of candidate directions such that if any one direction in the group is undercut-free, all are, or if any one is not undercut-free, none are. We examine trade-offs between the algorithms' speed, accuracy, and whether they guarantee that an undercut-free direction will be found for a part if one exists.     

Bullwhip reduction for ARMA demand: The proportional order-up-to policy versus the full-state-feedback policy

A ‘proportional’ order-up-to policy reacting to ARMA demand is analyzed using stochastic optimal control theory. This policy is compared with a full-state-feedback order-up-to policy. Necessary conditions for an optimum of a weighted sum of the inventory and the ordering variances for both policies are formulated. Based on this a relatively simple expression for the ‘full-state’ policy is derived. The comparison between the two policies demonstrates that the ‘intuitively’ designed proportional policy does not fulfill the objective of controlling both the inventory and ordering variance for all parameter values of the demand model as well as the full-state-feedback policy. The full-state-feedback policy outperforms the proportional policy in several aspects.