Search results for "Modular"
showing 10 items of 288 documents
Assembly and Speed in Ion-Exchange-Based Modular Phoretic Microswimmers.
2017
We report an experimental study on ion-exchange-based modular microswimmers in low-salt water. Cationic ion-exchange particles and passive cargo particles assemble into self-propelling complexes, showing self-propulsion at speeds of several micrometers per second over extended distances and times. We quantify the assembly and speed of the complexes for different combinations of ion-exchange particles and cargo particles, substrate types, salt types and concentrations, and cell geometries. Irrespective of the experimental boundary conditions, we observe a regular development of the assembly shape with increasing number of cargo. Moreover, the swimming speed increases stepwise upon increasing…
A modular approach towards functional supramolecular aggregates - subtle structural differences inducing liquid crystallinity.
2016
Herein we report an efficient modular approach to supramolecular functional materials. Hierarchical self-assembly of azopyridine derivatives and hydrogen-bond donors yielded discotic assemblies. Subtle differences in the core units introduced mesomorphic behaviour and fast photo-response of the liquid crystals based on phloroglucinol. The presented results prove the benefits of a modular methodology towards highly responsive materials with tailor-made properties.
Imidazolium-based liquid crystals: a modular platform for versatile new materials with finely tuneable properties and behaviour
2011
Ionic liquid Crystals constitute highly versatile materials that have drawn much interest these past few years in the fields of academic research and industrial development. In this respect, the present article is intended as an update of K. Binnemans review published in 2005, but focusing exclusively on the imidazolium cation - the most widely studied. Herein, imidazolium-containing thermotropic liquid crystalline materials will be sorted by molecular structure (mono-, bis-, poly-imidazolium compounds, with symmetrical and non-symmetrical structures) and discussed. Their physico-chemical properties will be exposed in order to adduce the relevancy and potential of the imidazolium platform i…
An all-organic steroid–D–π-A modular design drives ferroelectricity in supramolecular solids and nano-architectures at RT
2011
Confluence of a modular design approach and self-assembly with a 'steroid-D-π-A' module generates spontaneous polarization in solids and for the first time in nano-architectures constituted from organogels, at room temperature (RT).
Electrical connections and driving electronics for piezo-actuated x-ray thin glass optics
2016
Use of thin glass modular optics is a technology currently under study to build light, low cost, large area X-ray telescopes for high energy astrophysics space missions. The angular resolution of such telescopes is limited by local deviations from the ideal shape of the mirrors. One possible strategy to improve it consists in actively correcting the mirror profile by gluing thin ceramic piezo-electric actuators on the back of the glasses. A large number of actuators, however, requires several electrical connections to drive them with the different needed voltages. We have developed a process for depositing conductive paths directly on the back of non-planar thin foil mirrors by means of a p…
Team Theory and Person-by-Person Optimization with Binary Decisions
2012
In this paper, we extend the notion of person-by-person (pbp) optimization to binary decision spaces. The novelty of our approach is the adaptation to a dynamic team context of notions borrowed from the pseudo-boolean optimization field as completely local-global or unimodal functions and submodularity. We also generalize the concept of pbp optimization to the case where groups of $m$ decisions makers make joint decisions sequentially, which we refer to as $m$b$m$ optimization. The main contribution is a description of sufficient conditions, verifiable in polynomial time, under which a pbp or an $m$b$m$ optimization algorithm converges to the team-optimum. As a second contribution, we prese…
Optimal Switches in Multi–inventory Systems
2007
Given a switched multi-inventory system we wish to find the optimal schedule of the resets to maintain the system in a safe operating interval, while minimizing a function related to the cost of the resets. We discuss a family of instances that can be solved in polynomial time by linear programming. We do this by introducing a set-covering formulation with a totally unimodular constraint matrix.
Incremental bipartite drawing problem
2001
Abstract Layout strategies that strive to preserve perspective from earlier drawings are called incremental. In this paper we study the incremental arc crossing minimization problem for bipartite graphs. We develop a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) for this problem. We have also developed a branch-and-bound algorithm in order to compute the relative gap to the optimal solution of the GRASP approach. Computational experiments are performed with 450 graph instances to first study the effect of changes in grasp search parameters and then to test the efficiency of the proposed procedure. Scope and purpose Many information systems require graphs to be drawn so that these syst…
Homogeneous Weyl connections of non-positive curvature
2015
We study homogenous Weyl connections with non-positive sectional curvatures. The Cartesian product $\mathbb S^1 \times M$ carries canonical families of Weyl connections with such a property, for any Riemmanian manifold $M$. We prove that if a homogenous Weyl connection on a manifold, modeled on a unimodular Lie group, is non-positive in a stronger sense (streched non-positive), then it must be locally of the product type.
Complex group algebras of finite groups: Brauer's Problem 1
2007
Abstract Brauer's Problem 1 asks the following: What are the possible complex group algebras of finite groups? It seems that with the present knowledge of representation theory it is not possible to settle this question. The goal of this paper is to present a partial solution to this problem. We conjecture that if the complex group algebra of a finite group does not have more than a fixed number m of isomorphic summands, then its dimension is bounded in terms of m . We prove that this is true for every finite group if it is true for the symmetric groups. The problem for symmetric groups reduces to an explicitly stated question in number theory or combinatorics.