Principles and applications of quality control by near infrared spectroscopy using the example of polymer additives

Due to its easy application, modern Near Infrared instrumentation is paid increasing attention when considering quality control in the chemical plant. The philosophy of spectrometric quality control and its possibilities and limitations are discussed on the basis of information theory considerations. Considering a group of 74 polymer additives it is shown how, by differentiated calibration with the aid of principal component analysis (PCA), a system could be designed for successfully controlling the quality of incoming products.     

Banking behaviour after the lifecycle event of “moving in together”: An exploratory study of the role of marketing investments

This study addresses an important issue for both managers and researchers: whether it is advantageous for financial services providers to invest in youth marketing. More specifically, the effectiveness of these investments is evaluated in terms of retention proneness once youngsters enter the lifecycle event of “moving in together”. The study identifies eight constructs of youth marketing and contrasts their impact against the best deal when youngsters decide to move in together and consequently experience the need to buy their first collectivized financial products, such as a joint account or a mortgage for their new home. Furthermore, the influence of the partner, prior patronage behaviour, customer demographics and psychographic variables are tested for. The findings of the study reveal that: (i) individuals are likely to change their banking behaviour during crucial lifetime events such as moving in together, (ii) not all youth marketing investments are equally effective, while (iii) the best deal components (e.g. convenience, price conditions, etc.) have a major impact.     

Linear Convergence of Iterative Soft-Thresholding

In this article a unified approach to iterative soft-thresholding algorithms for the solution of linear operator equations in infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces is presented. We formulate the algorithm in the framework of generalized gradient methods and present a new convergence analysis. As main result we show that the algorithm converges with linear rate as soon as the underlying operator satisfies the so-called finite basis injectivity property or the minimizer possesses a so-called strict sparsity pattern. Moreover it is shown that the constants can be calculated explicitly in special cases (i.e. for compact operators). Furthermore, the techniques also can be used to establish linear convergence for related methods such as the iterative thresholding algorithm for joint sparsity and the accelerated gradient projection method.     

Synthesis of carbohydrate‐segmented polydimethylsiloxanes by hydrosilylation

Carbohydrate‐modified polysiloxanes have been presented several times within the last decade. In this work, a new route to carbohydrate‐segmented polysiloxanes is presented. A series of allyl‐group‐containing bifunctional carbohydrate derivatives was synthesized and reacted with hydrodimethylsilyl‐terminated polysiloxane in hydrosilylation reactions with Speier's catalyst. The carbohydrate monomers and the resulting materials were fully characterized with ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 3814–3822, 2005