Chemical analysis and distribution investigation of trace elements in indium matrix by spark source mass spectrometry

Summary High-purity indium was analysed by spark source mass spectrometry, using electrical and photoplate detection. For the calibration of the differences in elemental sensitivity, a standard sample was prepared in which 10 impurities were determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. In this way accuracies of less than 40% were obtained for relatively homogeneous elements at ppm and sub-ppm level. About 40 elements could be determined with detection limits of 10 to 30 ppb. Two pattern recognition methods, principal component analysis and clustering analysis, were applied to obtain information on trace element distribution, which indicated that a number of elements were strongly spatially correlated in the analysed sample.

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Chemische Analyse und Verteilungsbestimmung von Spurenelementen in Indium-Matrix durch Funkenquellen-Massenspektrometrie

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On leave from: Department of Chemistry, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China     

Lot-sizing with fixed charges on stocks: the convex hull

In this paper, we examine a variant of the uncapacitated lot-sizing model of Wagner–Whitin that includes fixed charges on the stocks. Such a model is natural in a production environment where stocking is a complex operation, and appears as a subproblem in more general network design problems.

Linear-programming formulations, a dynamic program, the convex hull of integer solutions and a separation algorithm are presented. All these turn out to be very natural extensions of the corresponding results of Barany et al. (Math. Programming Stud. 22 (1984) 32) for the uncapacitated lot-sizing problem. The convex hull proof is based on showing that an extended facility location formulation is tight and by projecting it onto the original space of variables.     

Charge manipulation and imaging of the Mn acceptor state in GaAs by cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy

An individual Mn acceptor in GaAs is mapped by cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy (X-STM) at room temperature and a strongly anisotropic shape of the acceptor state is observed. An acceptor state manifests itself as a cross-like feature which we attribute to a valence hole weakly bound to the Mn ion forming the (Mn²⁺3d⁵+hole) complex. We propose that the observed anisotropy of the Mn acceptor wavefunction is due to the d-wave present in the acceptor ground state.     

Relevance of Reflection in Static and Dynamic Light Scattering Experiments

Using a monodisperse PMMA dispersion, it was shown that light reflection at the sample cuvette walls may greatly influence the results of both static (SLS) and dynamic (DLS) light scattering experiments. Considering SLS, this reflection phenomenon mostly causes an overestimation of the scattered intensity at high scattering angles, which may give rise to the emergence of an additional, artificial peak in the lower region of the particle size distribution. On the other hand, the influcence of reflection on DLS measurements was shown to be particularly important in the upper region of the particle size distribution. The experimentally observed phenomena were explained from the basic principles of both particle sizing methods. Finally, it was shown that the disturbing effect of reflection could be avoided by modifying either the hardware or the software of the static and dynamic light scattering technique.     

The core of discontinuous games

The traditional design of cooperative games implicitly assumes that preferences are continuous. However, if agents implement tie breaking procedures, preferences are effectively lexicographic and thus discontinuous. This rouses concern over whether classic core nonemptiness theorems apply in such settings. We show that balanced NTU games may have empty cores when agents have discontinuous preferences. Moreover, exchange economies may lack coalitionally rational trades when consumers implement tie breaking rules, even if these rules are themselves continuous and convex as are all first order preferences. Results are more positive when “utility” is transferable. We prove that balancedness is necessary and sufficient to ensure a nonempty core in lexicographic TU games.     

High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of morphine and its 3- and 6-glucuronide metabolites: improvements to the method and application to stability studies

Improvements to previously reported methods for the determination of morphine, morphine-3-glucuronide (M3G) and morphine-6-glucuronide (M6G) in human plasma are described. The improved methods involve the use of a solid-phase extraction cartridge and a chromatographic system which uses paired-ion reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with a radially compressed column. Only one cartridge is used to prepare each sample for chromatography and each cartridge may be used for at least fourteen 1-ml plasma samples. The recovery is greater than 85%. The improvements to the method of sample pretreatment and in the chromatographic conditions have allowed determination of morphine, M3G and M6G in human plasma down to 13.3 nmol/l (coefficient of variation = 9.3%), 108 nmol/l (6.6%) and 41 nmol/l (6.7%), respectively, using ultraviolet detection alone. It was shown that all three compounds were stable in plasma for up to 101 weeks when stored at -20 degrees C.