Exact and heuristic algorithms for the Travelling Salesman Problem with Multiple Time Windows and Hotel Selection

We introduce and study the Travelling Salesman Problem with Multiple Time Windows and Hotel Selection (TSP-MTWHS), which generalises the well-known Travelling Salesman Problem with Time Windows and the recently introduced Travelling Salesman Problem with Hotel Selection. The TSP-MTWHS consists in determining a route for a salesman (eg, an employee of a services company) who visits various customers at different locations and different time windows. The salesman may require a several-day tour during which he may need to stay in hotels. The goal is to minimise the tour costs consisting of wage, hotel costs, travelling expenses and penalty fees for possibly omitted customers. We present a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model for this practical problem and a heuristic combining cheapest insert, 2-OPT and randomised restarting. We show on random instances and on real world instances from industry that the MILP model can be solved to optimality in reasonable time with a standard MILP solver for several small instances. We also show that the heuristic gives the same solutions for most of the small instances, and is also fast, efficient and practical for large instances.     

Chemische und pharmakologische Studien über Derivate des Benzo[de]chinolins. II. 10.Mitteilung über natürliche und synthetische Isochinolinderivate

Chemical and Pharmacological Studies on Derivatives of Benzo[de]quinoline, II Spirocompounds of type V ( 12–18 ) were synthesized by a carbenium ion cyclization reaction of the intermediates 7 and 11 , respectively. 7 was prepared from 2-oxocyclopentanepropionic acid via 1, 2 , and 4–6; 11 from the same starting material via 1, 2 , and 8–10 . - The spiro[7H-benzo[de]quinolin-7,1′-cyclohexan]-2′-one 27 and other compounds of type VI could be synthesized from the (1-isoquinolinyl)ethyl-cyclohexanone 25: 25 is hydroxylated to the hydroxyketone 26 ; treatment of 26 with a mixture of sulfuric acid and oleum gives 27 . The structure of 27 has been proved by transformation into the known spirocyclohexane 33 . - Aporphine analogues of type VII ( 38, 39 ) were synthesized from the cyclic ketone 34 via either the formylketone 35 and its methyl vinyl ketone adducts 36 and 37 or the methyl ethynyl ketone adduct 40 . Compound 40 has also been cyclized to the 10-hydroxy-aporphine 42 . 9 compounds of the types mentioned have been screened for hypotensive action in rats, and partly in cats and dogs. Only compound 13 · HCl proved to be (moderately) active in rats and dogs.     

High-throughput synthesis and characterization of bulk ceramics from dry powders

A high-throughput experimental (HTE) setup using conventional powders as raw materials was developed to synthesize and characterize ceramic bulk samples avoiding the customary liquid- or vapor-phase synthesis routes. Its functionality was verified using the well-known binary material system ZrO2-Y2O3. Libraries of 0.5 mol % yttria resolution were prepared using varying boundary systems as well as a number of liquid mixing aids. Automated powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) was applied to check the monoclinic phase content retained after heat-treatment on various positions for each sample. This phase information was used for comparison with a reference library comprising conventionally prepared samples by means of a regression analysis and mean deviation of monoclinic phase percentage. Out of the eight HTE libraries, three showed a significant comparability to the reference library.     

Folate content in sea buckthorn berries and related products (Hippophaë rhamnoides L. ssp. rhamnoides): LC-MS/MS determination of folate vitamer stability influenced by processing and storage assessed by stable isotope dilution assay

A stable isotope dilution assay was adopted for quantitation of folate vitamers in sea buckthorn berries, juice, and concentrate using fourfold labeled folate isotopologues of the folate derivatives as the internal standards and reversed-phase liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization (LC-ESI-MS/MS). Processing effects and storage stability were investigated during juice and concentrate production from sea buckthorn berries (Hippopha? rhamnoides). The technological processing of the berries caused a total degradation of tetrahydrofolate and 5-formyltetrahydrofolate in the generated juice. The content of the main folate vitamer 5-methyltetrahydrofolate remained approximately unchanged during the whole processing from the berries to the concentrate. Sea buckthorn juice was stored under two household storage conditions (6 degrees C, 25 degrees C), and also under accelerated aging conditions (40 degrees C) for up to 7 days to determine the effects of storage temperature on the stability of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate. The content of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate was nearly unchanged during the storage at 6 degrees C after 7 days. The juice showed almost identical degradation of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate of about 17-20% at 25 degrees C and 40 degrees C after 7 days of storage. [figure: see text]     

Separation of betalains from berries of Phytolacca americana by ion-pair high-speed counter-current chromatography

The first preparative fractionation of betalain pigments by means of ion-pair high-speed counter-current chromatography (IP-HSCCC) from berry extracts of Phytolacca americana (Phytolaccaceae) is presented. A novel HSCCC solvent system consisting of 1-butanol-acetonitrile-water (5:1:6, v/v/v) was applied using ion-pair forming trifluoroacetic acid at low concentration (0.7%, v/v). Affinity of polar betacyanins and betaxanthins to the organic stationary phase of the biphasic HSCCC solvent mixture was considerably improved. Partitioning coefficient values and influence of increasing trifluoroacetic acid additions to the biphasic solvent mixture were measured for all identified betacyanins and betaxanthins. Gentle separation by IP-HSCCC of the injected pigment extract (900 mg) yielded sufficient amounts of the principal pigments 15S-betanin/15R-isobetanin. The pure epimers separated by C18-HPLC were immediately studied by one- and two-dimensional NMR. In the recovered fractions, minor concentrated betacyanins and betaxanthins were significantly enriched by IP-HSCCC and were detected for the first time in the extracts of P. americana. IP-HSCCC and C18-HPLC were shown to be complementary techniques in the isolation procedure of recovering minor concentrated, highly polar and chemically instable betacyanins and betaxanthin from complex plant matrices. Altogether, identification of 17 betalains was achieved by HPLC-diode array detection-electrospray ionization MS/MS in the HSCCC fractions with their respective isomers, also resulting in the tentative elucidation of betacyanins with novel salicylic acid substitution pattern in the berry extracts of P. americana.     

A Useful Extension of Ito＇s Formula with Applications to Optimal Stopping

Given a continuous semimartingale M = （Mt）t≥〉0 and a d-dimensional continuous process of locally bounded variation V = （V^1,……, V^d）, the multidimensional Ito Formula states that f（Mt, Vt） - f（M0, V0） = ∫[0, t] Dx0f（Ms, Vs）dMs＋∑i=1^d∫[0, t] Dxi F（Ms, Vs）dVs^i＋1/2∫[0, t] Dx0^2 f（Ms, Vs）d 〈M〉s if f（x0,……,xd） is of C^2-type with respect to x0 and of C^1-type with respect to the other arguments This formula is very useful when solving various optimal stopping problems based on Brownian motion. However, in such application the function f typically fails to satisfy the stated conditions in that its first partial derivative with respect to x0 is only absolutely continuous. We prove that the formula remains true for such functions and demonstrate its use with two examples from Mathematical Finance.     

Magnetotunneling into Fock–Darwin‐like quantum dot states: Lateral matrix elements and the role of selection rules

We study theoretically the magnetotunneling transport through quantum dots formed by thermal diffusion of charged manganese interstitials in the vicinity of a GaAs quantum well [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 , 226807 (2008)]. In particular, we examine the lateral matrix elements between Landau subbands in the contact and Fock–Darwin‐like states of an individual dot at high magnetic fields. We explicitly demonstrate the effect of spatial deformation of the dot on the wave function's overlap. The comparison with measured data suggests a selection rule similar to angular momentum conservation for tunneling into perfect Fock–Darwin states. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Target-guided separation of Bougainvillea glabra betacyanins by direct coupling of preparative ion-pair high-speed countercurrent chromatography and electrospray ionization mass-spectrometry

In this study, preparative ion-pair high-speed countercurrent chromatography was directly coupled to an electrospray ionization mass-spectrometry device (IP-HSCCC/ESI-MS-MS) for target-guided fractionation of high molecular weight acyl-oligosaccharide linked betacyanins from purple bracts of Bougainvillea glabra (Nyctaginaceae). The direct identification of six principal acyl-oligosaccharide linked betacyanins in the mass range between m/z 859 and m/z 1359 was achieved by positive ESI-MS ionization and gave access to the genuine pigment profile already during the proceeding of the preparative separation. Inclusively, all MS/MS-fragmentation data were provided during the chromatographic run for a complete analysis of substitution pattern. On-line purity evaluation of the recovered fractions is of high value in target-guided screening procedures and for immediate decisions about suitable fractions used for further structural analysis. The applied preparative hyphenation was shown to be a versatile screening method for on-line monitoring of countercurrent chromatographic separations of polar crude pigment extracts and also traced some minor concentrated compounds. For the separation of 760 mg crude pigment extract the biphasic solvent system tert.-butylmethylether/n-butanol/acetonitrile/water 2:2:1:5 (v/v/v/v) was used with addition of ion-pair forming reagent trifluoroacetic acid. The preparative HSCCC-eluate had to be modified by post-column addition of a make-up solvent stream containing formic acid to reduce ion-suppression caused by trifluoroacetic acid and later significantly maximized response of ESI-MS/MS detection of target substances. A variable low-pressure split-unit guided a micro-eluate to the ESI-MS-interface for sensitive and direct on-line detection, and the major volume of the effluent stream was directed to the fraction collector for preparative sample recovery. The applied make-up solvent mixture significantly improved smoothness of the continuously measured IP-HSCCC-ESI-MS base peak ion trace in the experimental range of m/z 50–2200 by masking stationary phase bleeding and generating a stable single solvent phase for ESI-MS/MS detection. Immediate structural data were retrieved throughout the countercurrent chromatography run containing complete MS/MS-fragmentation pattern of the separated acyl-substituted betanidin oligoglycosides. Single ion monitoring indicated clearly the base-line separation of higher concentrated acylated betacyanin components.     

57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy on multiwalled carbon nanotubes with metal filling

M?ssbauer measurements at different temperatures are reported for MWCNTs with metallic encapsulations ("nanowires"). The spectra can reasonably be refined with two subpatterns: one providing clear evidence of an iron carbide Fe(3)C (cementite) phase as the main nanowire component and the other yielding a relaxation doublet most probably belonging to the same phase. Whereas the former one displays a well resolved magnetic hyperfine spectrum with Brillouin type temperature dependence, the latter one gains importance with rising temperature or onset of an inhomogeneous external magnetic field. The comparably large incoherent scattering is attributed to the graphene layers of the tube walls. The experimental results are discussed on the background of an interpretation model trying to explain unusual magnetometric results published elsewhere.