Hybrid abstractions of affine systems

This paper considers the problem of building a set of hybrid abstractions for affine systems in order to compute over approximations of the reachable space. Each abstraction is based on a decomposition of the continuous state space that is defined by hyperplanes generated by linear combinations of two vectors. The choice of these vectors is based on consideration of the dynamics of the system and uses, for example, the left eigenvectors of the matrix that defines these dynamics. We show that the reachability calculus can then be performed on a combination of such abstractions and how its accuracy depends on the choice of hyperplanes that define the decomposition.     

Time evolution of non-Hermitian quantum systems and generalized master equations

We inquire into the time evolution of quantum systems associated with pseudo-or quasi-Hermitian Hamiltonians. We obtain, in the pseudo-Hermitian case, a generalized Liouville-von Neumann equation for closed systems. We show that quantum systems with quasi-Hermitian Hamiltonians admit the proper interpretation in terms of open quantum system and derive a generalized Lindblad-Kossakowski equation. Finally, we extend such formalism to the study of decaying systems. Partially supported by PRIN “Sintesi”.     

Charge transport in a polypeptide chain

Charge transport is one important example of signal transduction in a protein which is responsible for action at a distance, and is a fundamental process in biochemical action. A model is presented in which electronic effects interact with motional processes to combine into a bifunctional model. This model is investigated with new detailed molecular dynamics calculations and successfully explains such action at a distance. Received 1st February 2002 / Received in final form 26 May 2002 Published online 13 September 2002     

Spray Freeze-drying – The Process of Choice for Low Water Soluble Drugs?

Most of the novel highly potent drugs, developed on the basis of modern molecular medicine, taking into account cell surface recognition techniques, show poor water solubility. A chemical modification of the drug substance enhancing the solubility often decreases the pharmacological activity. Thus, as an alternative an increase of the solubility can be obtained by the reduction of the size of the drug particles. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to obtain micro or nanosized drug particles by classical or more advanced crystallization using supercritical gases or by milling techniques. In addition, nanosized particles are often not physically stable and need to be stabilized in an appropriate matrix. Thus, it may be of interest to manufacture directly nanosized drug particles stabilized in an inert hydrophilic matrix, i.e. nanostructured and nanocomposite systems. Solid solutions and solid dispersions represent nanostructured and nanocomposite systems. In this context, the use of the vacuum-fluidized-bed technique for the spray-drying of a low water soluble drug cosolubilized with a hydrophilic excipient in a polar organic solvent is discussed. In order to avoid the use of organic solvents, a special spray-freeze-drying technique working at atmospheric pressure is presented. This process is very suitable for temperature and otherwise sensitive drugs such as pharmaproteins.     

A search technique for global optimization in a chaotic environment

We describe a new algorithm which uses the trajectories of a discrete dynamical system to sample the domain of an unconstrained objective function in search of global minima. The algorithm is unusually adept at avoiding nonoptimal local minima and successfully converging to a global minimum. Trajectories generated by the algorithm for objective functions with many local minima exhibit chaotic behavior, in the sense that they are extremely sensitive to changes in initial conditions and system parameters. In this context, chaos seems to have a beneficial effect: failure to converge to a global minimum from a given initial point can often be rectified by making arbitrarily small changes in the system parameters.     

On a poisson reduction for Gel'fand-Zakharevich manifolds

We formulate and discuss a reduction theorem for Poisson pencils associated with a class of integrable systems, defined on bi-Hamiltonian manifolds, recently studied by Gel'fand and Zakharevich. The reduction procedure is suggested by the bi-Hamiltonian approach to the separation of variables problem.     

GAUSSIAN WHITE NOISE CALCULUS OF GENERALIZED EXPANSION

A new framework of Gaussian white noise calculus is established, in line with generalized expansion in [3, 4, 7]. A suitable frame of Fock expansion is presented on Gaussian generalized expansion functionals being introduced here, which provides the integral kernel operator decomposition of the second quantization of Koopman operators for chaotic dynamical systems, in terms of annihilation operators dt and its dual, creation operators t*.     

Finding the response matrix to the external action from a subspace for a discrete linear stochastic dynamical system

For a discrete linear stochastic dynamical system, computation of the response matrix to the external action from a subspace using given observational data is examined. An algorithm is proposed and substantiated that makes it possible to improve the numerical accuracy and to reduce the amount of observational data compared to the general case where an arbitrary external action is allowed. As an illustration, a discrete system arising in the analysis of a linear stochastic dynamical continuous-time system is considered more thoroughly. Some numerical results are presented.     

Towards a general solution of the Hamiltonian constraints of General Relativity

The present work has a double aim. On the one hand, we call attention on the relationship existing between the Ashtekar formalism and other gauge-theoretical approaches to gravity, in particular the Poincaré Gauge Theory. On the other hand, we study two kinds of solutions for the constraints of General Relativity, consisting of two mutually independent parts, namely a general three-metric-dependent contribution to the extrinsic curvature K _ab in terms of the Cotton–York tensor, and besides it further metric independent contributions, which we analyze in particular in the presence of isotropic three-metrics.