Limiting shapes of birth-and-death processes on Young diagrams

We consider a family of birth processes and birth-and-death processes on Young diagrams of integer partitions of n. This family incorporates three famous models from very different fields: Rost?s totally asymmetric particle model (in discrete time), Simon?s urban growth model, and Moran?s infinite alleles model. We study stationary distributions and limit shapes as n tends to infinity, and present a number of results and conjectures.     

Maximal spanning trees,asset graphs and random matrix denoising in the analysis of dynamics of financial networks

We study the time dependence of maximal spanning trees and asset graphs based on correlation matrices of stock returns. In these networks the nodes represent companies and links are related to the correlation coefficients between them. Special emphasis is given to the comparison between ordinary and denoised correlation matrices. The analysis of single- and multi-step survival ratios of the corresponding networks reveals that the ordinary correlation matrices are more stable in time than the denoised ones. Our study also shows that some information about the cluster structure of the companies is lost in the denoising procedure. Cluster structure that makes sense from an economic point of view exists, and can easily be observed in networks based on denoised correlation matrices. However, this structure is somewhat clearer in the networks based on ordinary correlation matrices. Some technical aspects, such as the random matrix denoising procedure, are also presented.     

Quantaloids,enriched categories and automata theory

This article is intended to be an survey article outlining how the theory of quantaloids and categories enriched in them provides an effective means of analyzing both automata and tree automata. The emphasis is on the unification of concepts and how categorical methods provide insight into various calculations and theorems, both illuminating the original presentation as well as yielding conceptually simpler proofs. Proofs will be omitted and the emphasis is on providing the reader (even a relatively inexperienced one) with an understanding of the basic constructions and results.     

Electron ionization and chemical ionization fragmentation of o/p isomers of bisphenol-A with tandem mass spectrometry

The fragmentation of o/p isomers of bisphenol-A was examined by using collisionally activated decomposition and the tanden mass spectrometric techniques. Also chemical ionization was performed using methane, isobutane and ammonia. The o/p position of the hydroxy groups in the bisphenol-A molecule directed the fragmentation both in electron and chemical ionization.     

Polygon Posets and the Weak Order of Coxeter Groups

We explore the connection between polygon posets, which is a class of ranked posets with an edge-labeling which satisfies certain polygon properties, and the weak order of Coxeter groups. We show that every polygon poset is isomorphic to a join ideal in the weak order, and for Coxeter groups where no pair of generators have infinite order the converse is also true.The class of polygon posets is seen to include the class of generalized quotients defined by Björner and Wachs, while itself being included in the class of alternative generalized quotients also considered by these authors. By studying polygon posets we are then able to answer an open question about common properties of these two classes.     

FREE RADICALS FROM PHOTODECOMPOSITION OF BISPHENOL-A

Abstract— Irradiation of 2,2-bis-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-propane (bisphenol-A) with UV light causes photo-decomposition of the compound. Spin-trapping with α-phenyl-N-tert-butyl-nitrone showed that free radicals were cleaved from the molecule. No direct ESR-spectroscopic information concerning the structure of the remaining radical skeleton could be obtained. Gas chromatographic mass spectrometric analysis of the decomposition products indicated the existence of a semiquinone structure following cleavage of a methyl radical from 2,2-bis-4–(hydroxyphenyl)-propane. The capacity of 2,2-bis-(4- hydroxyphenyl)-propane to give rise to radicals might explain its photoallergenic properties.     

Promotion of wound healing by Plantago major L. leaf extracts – ex-vivo experiments confirm experiences from traditional medicine

The wound-healing properties of Plantago major L. (plantain) were evaluated using an ex-vivo porcine wound-healing model. Ethanol- and water-based extracts were prepared from greenhouse-grown and freeze-dried leaves of P. major. Both types of extracts stimulated wound healing in porcine skin, but the ethanol-based extracts had a somewhat stronger effect. A concentration of 1.0 mg/mL (on dry weight basis) produced the best results for both types of extracts.     

Interpretation of Lagrange multipliers in nonlinear pricing problem

We present well-known interpretations of Lagrange multipliers in physical and economic applications, and introduce a new interpretation in nonlinear pricing problem. The multipliers can be interpreted as a network of directed flows between the buyer types. The structure of the digraph and the fact that the multipliers usually have distinctive values can be used in solving the optimization problem more efficiently. We also find that the multipliers satisfy a conservation law for each node in the digraph, and the non-uniqueness of the multipliers are connected to the stability of the solution structure.