Monitoring of ionic concentrations in airborne particles and rain water in an urban area of central Germany

The primary objective of this investigation was to document fluctuations of levels of ions in airborne particles and in rain water with the help of ion chromatography. The environmental emission situation in the investigated geographic area is characterized by a widespread use of domestic coal-burning furnaces. The use of a parallel impactor for particulate sampling permits the results to be interpreted additionally in terms of particle size. The anions and cations were extracted from the filters in the sampling devices into ethanol-water mixtures by sonication. Rain water samples were analysed after a simple dilution step. The data obtained on ionic fluctuations are compared with similar data sets published by other laboratories.     

Range convexity,continuity, and strategy-proofness of voting schemes

A voting scheme assigns to each profile of alternatives reported byn individuals a compromise alternative. A voting scheme is strategy-proof if no individual is better off by lying, i.e., not reporting a best alternative. In this paper the main results concern the case where the set of alternatives is the Euclidean plane and the preferences are Euclidean. It is shown that for strategy-proof voting schemes continuity is equivalent to convexity of the range of the voting scheme. Using a result by Kim and Roush (1984), this leads to characterizations of surjective or unanimous, anonymous, strategy-proof voting schemes.Furthermore, the paper contains an extensive discussion of related results in the area.     

Recognition of ring pairs in the data analysis of Cherenkov detectors

We present a new algorithm for the identification of ring pairs in Cherenkov detectors. The approach combines linear regression methods for the construction of an appropriate reference quantity, methods from statistics for the evaluation of hypotheses and Monte Carlo simulation runs for the tuning of threshold levels.     

Preservation mechanisms of trehalose in food and biosystems

The stability or shelf-life of food and biomaterials has always been a critical issue in the food and pharmaceutical industry. Trehalose (alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-alpha-D-glucopyranoside), a non-reducing diglucose sugar found in nature, confers to certain plant and animal cells the ability to survive dehydration for decades and to restore activity soon after rehydration. The interaction between trehalose and cell membranes or proteins, however, remains a debated subject, and a significant amount of work has been done to elucidate the mechanisms resulting in this unique behavior of preservation. This study shows how an interfacial phenomena approach has led to the use of trehalose as an excipient during freeze drying of a variety of products in the pharmaceutical industry. It also suggests opportunities as an ingredient for dried and processed food, as well as a non-toxic cryoprotectant of vaccines and organs for surgical transplants.     

Luteochrome; spektroskopische,chiroptische und chromatographische Eigenschaften

Two Optically Active Luteochromes: Preparation, Spectra and Chiroptical and Chromatographic Properties Selective rearrangement of (5R,6S,5′ R,6′S)-5,6:5′, 6′ -diepoxy-5,6,5′, 6′ -tetrahydro- β,β -carotene with the aid ofan ethereal solution of malonic acid leads to the mixture of the C(8′)-epimeric luteochromes. HPLC separation gave the pure isomers. This is the first report on th preparation of optically active luteochromes.