Evaluation of synthetic phospholipid ultrasound contrast agents

The echogenic properties of synthetic, phospholipid encapsulated, air-filled microbubbles with various carbon-chain length as ultrasound contrast agents are investigated through the use of a flow-through laboratory ultrasound system. Specifically, we investigate the effect of shell carbon-chain length on the ultrasonic signal for a variety of flow rates. Averaged, integrated backscatter power measurements from the lipid encapsulated agents are benchmarked against those of Albunex (Albunex is a registered trademark of Molecular Biosystems, Inc., San Diego, CA), a commercially available, air-filled protein microbubbles contrast agent, approved for clinical use in echocardiography in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration. We find that the lipid encapsulated agents sustain less damage leading to gas dissolution or particle destruction as compared to Albunex in the slow-flow studies performed. The carbon-chain length of the encapsulating lipid molecule is shown not to observably affect the backscattered amplitude of ultrasound at flow velocities exceeding 7 mm/s.     

The law of one price in data envelopment analysis: Restricting weight flexibility across firms

The Law of One Price (LoOP) states that all firms face the same prices for their inputs and outputs under market equilibrium. Taken here as a normative condition for ‘efficiency prices’, this law has powerful implications for productive efficiency analysis, which have remained unexploited thus far. This paper shows how LoOP-based weight restrictions can be incorporated in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Utilizing the relation between industry-level and firm-level cost efficiency measures, we propose to apply a set of input prices that is common for all firms and that maximizes the cost efficiency of the industry. Our framework allows for firm-specific output weights and for variable returns-to-scale, and preserves the linear programming structure of the standard DEA. We apply the proposed methodology to the evaluation of the research efficiency of economics departments of Dutch Universities. This application shows that the methodology is computationally tractable for practical efficiency analysis, and that it helps in deepening the DEA analysis.     

Concrete Hilbert spaces for quantum systems with infinitely many degrees of freedom

We demonstrate a method to describe quantum systems with infinitely many degrees of freedom in concrete Hilbert spaces, using the electromagnetic radiation field as a well-known example of such a system. Since our method is not only applicable to the case of countably many but even to the case of uncountably many degrees of freedom, there is no need for a finite quantization volume in radiation theory.     

Semi-parametric Estimation of the Second Order Parameter in Statistics of Extremes

We present a class of semi-parametric estimators for the second order parameter related to a probability distribution with a regularly varying tail. The second order parameter plays an important role whenever dealing with optimization problems in statistics of extreme values. Consistency and asymptotic normality are proven under appropriate conditions.     

Multiple quantum well structures and high-power lasers of gaas- algaas grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE)1

GaAs/AlGaAs GRIN-SCH type multiple quantum well lasers with four wells of 11 nm GaAs, grown in an MOVPE chimney reactor, exhibit an output power as high as 110 mW/facet (CW, 30°C; 5 μm stripe) and 1.3 W/facet (pulsed, 30°C; 53 μm stripe) until catastrophic optical damage occurs. 2000 hours life tests conducted at 60°C and 15 mW CW show no noticeable degradation for the 5 μm stripe laser with a reflective coating on both facets. Raman spectroscopy on similar multiple quantum well structures with 65 GaAs wells is used to ascertain that the wells have minimum residual aluminum- content.     

Efficient near-UV photosensitization of the Tb(III) green luminescence by use of 2-hydroxyisophthalate ligands

The first examples of lanthanide complexes with a 2-hydroxyisophthalate ligand are reported; the blue-emitting ligand acts as a very efficient sensitizer of the Tb(III) green emissions and does so in the near-UV region.     

Independent assessment of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) sample preparation quality: A novel statistical approach for quality scoring

Preparation of samples according to an optimized method is crucial for accurate determination of polymer sample characteristics by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI) analysis. Sample preparation conditions such as matrix choice, cationization agent, deposition technique or even the deposition volume should be chosen to suit the sample of interest. Many sample preparation protocols have been developed and employed, yet finding the optimal sample preparation protocol remains a challenge. Because an objective comparison between the results of diverse protocols is not possible, “gut-feeling” or “good enough” is often decisive in the search for an optimum. This implies that sub-optimal protocols are used, leading to a loss of mass spectral information quality. To address this problem a novel analytical strategy based on MALDI imaging and statistical data processing was developed in which eight parameters were formulated to objectively quantify the quality of sample deposition and optimal MALDI matrix composition and finally sum up to an overall quality score of the sample deposition. These parameters can be established in a fully automated way using commercially available mass spectrometry imaging instruments without any hardware adjustments. With the newly developed analytical strategy the highest quality MALDI spots were selected, resulting in more reproducible and more valuable spectra for PEG in a variety of matrices. Moreover, our method enables an objective comparison of sample preparation protocols for any analyte and opens up new fields of investigation by presenting MALDI performance data in a clear and concise way.