The conditional gambler’s ruin problem with ties allowed

We determine the distribution of duration in the gambler’s ruin problem given that one specific player wins. In this version we allow ties in the single games. We present a unified approach which uses generating functions to prove and extend some results that were obtained in [Frederick Stern, Conditional expectation of the duration in the classical ruin problem, Math. Mag. 48 (4) (1975) 200–203; S.M. Samuels, The classical ruin problem with equal initial fortunes, Math. Mag. 48 (5) (1975) 286–288; W.A. Beyer, M.S. Waterman, Symmetries for conditioned ruin problems, Math. Mag. 50 (1) (1977) 42–45].     

3,4,9,10-Perylenetetracarboxylicdiimide as an interlayer for ultraviolet organic light emitting diodes

Ultraviolet organic light emitting diodes with 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylicdiimide (PTCDI) interlayer have been achieved. The emission spectrum and intensity were strongly dependent on the thickness of PTCDI interlayer, in spite of the fact that PTCDI has neither much lower HOMO nor much higher LUMO level, which is considered necessary for efficient charge blocking layers. The influence of PTCDI layer was investigated in three different device configurations and obtained results are discussed. For optimal device configuration, OLED with emission centered at 370 nm and turn-on voltage of 4.5 V is obtained.     

Multi-scale finite element analyses of sheet metals by using SEM-EBSD measured crystallographic RVE models

In this study, two multi-scale analyses codes are newly developed by combining a homogenization algorithm and an elastic/crystalline viscoplastic finite element (FE) method (Nakamachi, E., 1988. A finite element simulation of the sheet metal forming process. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Eng. 25, 283–292; Nakamachi, E., Dong, X., 1996. Elastic/crystalline viscoplastic finite element analysis of dynamic deformation of sheet metal. Int. J. Computer-Aided Eng. Software 13, 308–326; Nakamachi, E., Dong, X., 1997. Study of texture effect on sheet failure in a limit dome height test by using elastic/crystalline viscoplastic finite element analysis. J. Appl. Mech. Trans. ASME(E) 64, 519–524; Nakamachi, E., 1998. Elastic/crystalline viscoplastic finite element modeling based on hardening–softening evaluation equation. In: Proc. of the 6th NUMIFORM, pp. 315–321; Nakamachi, E., Hiraiwa, K., Morimoto, H., Harimoto, M., 2000a. Elastic/crystalline viscoplastic finite element analyses of single- and poly-crystal sheet deformations and their experimental verification. Int. J. Plasticity 16, 1419–1441; Nakamachi, E., Xie, C.L., Harimoto, M., 2000b. Drawability assessment of BCC steel sheet by using elastic/crystalline viscoplastic finite element analyses. Int. J. Mech. Sci. 43, 631–652); (1) a “semi-implicit” finite element (FE) code and (2) a “dynamic explicit” FE code. These were applied to predict the plastic strain induced yield loci and the formability of sheet metal in the macro scale, and simultaneously the crystal texture and hardening evolutions in the micro scale. The isotropic and kinematical hardening laws are employed in the crystalline plasticity constitutive equation. For the multi-scale structure, two-scales are considered. One is a microscopic polycrystal structure and the other a macroscopic elastic plastic continuum. We measure crystal morphologies by using the SEM-EBSD apparatus with a unit of about 3.8 μm voxel, and define a three dimensional (3D) representative volume element (RVE) for the micro polycrystal structure, which satisfy the periodicity condition of crystal orientation distribution. A “micro” finite element modeling technique is newly established to minimize the total number of finite elements in the micro scale. Next, the “semi-implicit” crystallographic homogenization FE code, which employs the SEM-EBSD measured RVE, is applied to the 99.9% pure-iron uni-axial tensile problem to predict the texture evolution and the subsequent yield loci in the various strain paths. These “semi implicit” results reveal that the plastic strain induced anisotropy in the micro and macro levels can be predicted by our FE analyses. The kinematical hardening law leads a distinct plastic strain induced anisotropy. Our “dynamic-explicit” FE code is applied to simulate the limit dome height (LDH) test problem of the mild steel DQSK, the high strength steel HSLA and the aluminum alloy AL6022 sheet metals, which were adopted as the NUMISHEET2005 Benchmark sheet metals (Smith, L.M., Pourboghrat, F., Yoon, J.-W., Stoughton, T.B., 2005. NUMISHEET2005. In: Proc. of 6th Int. Conf. Numerical Simulation of 3D Sheet Metal Forming Processes, PART A and B(Benchmark), pp. 409–451) to estimate formability. The “dynamic explicit” results reveal that the initial crystal orientation distribution has a large affects to a plastic strain induced texture and anisotropic hardening evolutions and sheet formability.     

High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatographic Assessment of Thermally Modified Wood

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC -     

CCl<Subscript>4</Subscript> Decomposition in RF Thermal Plasma in Inert and Oxidative Environments

The decomposition of carbon tetrachloride was investigated in an RF inductively coupled thermal plasma reactor in inert CCl₄–Ar and in oxidative CCl₄–O₂–Ar systems, respectively. The exhaust gases were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The kinetics of CCl₄ decomposition at the experimental conditions was modeled in the temperature range of 300–7,000 K. The simulations predicted 67.0 and 97.9% net conversions of CCl₄ for CCl₄–Ar and for CCl₄–O₂–Ar, respectively. These values are close to the experimentally determined values of 60.6 and 92.5%. We concluded that in RF thermal plasma much less CCl₄ reconstructed in oxidative environment than in an oxygen-free mixture.     

Chiral discrimination of β‐3‐homo‐amino acids using the kinetic method

Chiral discrimination of seven enantiomeric pairs of β‐3‐homo‐amino acids was studied by using the kinetic method and trimeric metal‐bound complexes, with natural and unnatural α‐amino acids as chiral reference compounds and divalent metal ions (Cu²⁺ and Ni²⁺) as the center ions. The β‐3‐homo‐amino acids were selected for this study because, first of all, chiral discrimination of β‐amino acids has not been extensively studied by mass spectrometry. Moreover, these β‐3‐homo‐amino acids studied have different aromatic side chains. Thus, the emphasis was to study the effect of the side chain (electron density of the phenyl ring, as well as the difference between phenyl and benzyl side chains) for the chiral discrimination. The results showed that by the proper choice of a metal ion and a chiral reference compound, all seven enantiomeric pairs of β‐3‐homo‐amino acids could be differentiated. Moreover, it was noted that the β‐3‐homo‐amino acids with benzyl side chains provided higher enantioselectivity than the corresponding phenyl ones. However, increasing or decreasing the electron density of the aromatic ring by different substituents in both the phenyl and benzyl side chains had practically no role for chiral discrimination of β‐3‐homo‐amino acids studied. When copper was used as the central metal, the phenyl side chain containing reference molecules (S)‐2‐amino‐2‐phenylacetic acid (L ‐Phg) and (S)‐2‐amino‐2‐(4‐hydroxyphenyl)‐acetic acid (L ‐4′‐OHPhg) gave rise to an additional copper‐reduced dimeric fragment ion, [Cu^I(ref)(A)]⁺. The inclusion of this ion improved noticeably the enantioselectivity values obtained. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermo‐ and Acid‐Responsive Photochromic Spironaphthoxazine‐Containing Organogelators

A series of photochromic spironaphthoxazine derivatives has been designed, synthesized, and characterized by using ¹H NMR spectroscopy, FAB mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis. Their photophysical and photochromic behavior have been investigated. Two of the compounds (G¹²‐en‐SA‐SO and G¹⁶‐en‐SA‐SO) have been shown to be capable of forming stable thermoreversible organogels in organic solvents, tested by the “stable‐to‐inversion of a test tube” method. Addition of p‐toluenesulfonic acid was found to induce the formation of stable organogels at concentrations below that of the critical gelation concentration (c.g.c.), with a concomitant change in color from colorless to purple. Transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy of the xerogels showed typical fibrous structures in the micrometer scale. The activation parameters for the bleaching reaction of G⁸‐en‐SA‐SO in the solution state and G¹⁶‐en‐SA‐SO in the gel state have been determined in ethanol through kinetic studies at various temperatures. The results showed that the rate of the bleaching reaction in the gel state was much slower than that in the solution state.     

Ultra-short distributed feedback fiber laser with sub-kilohertz linewidth for sensing applications

A low-noise, ultra-short linear-cavity distributed feedback fiber laser (DFB-FL) with extremely narrow linewidth is presented. The FL has a total length of 17 mm, which is, to our knowledge, the shortest DFB-FL being reported. It has a measured linewidth of merely 250 Hz without active stabilization. It has a polarization beat frequency of 101 MHz, which is several times lower than that of most FLs. The relaxation oscillation frequency and relative peak are 110 kHz and −76.5 dB/Hz, respectively. The FL exhibited low-noise characteristics, with an intensity noise of −107 dB/Hz at 1 MHz. Due to low dopant concentration of the EDF and low splice loss with ordinary single-mode fibers, the net insertion loss amounts to only 0.45 dB. Such low pump power loss greatly enhances the capability of multiplexing a large number of FL sensors. Thus, these ultra-short DFB-FLs open up new opportunities for the development of compact-sized point sensor array systems for large-scale high sensitivity sensing applications.