A new apparatus for the extraction of organic compounds from aqueous solutions

A new apparatus for the extraction of organic compounds from sea water is described. With this apparatus it is possible to extract 54 standard compounds with high recovery percentages from 9 1 of sea water with 3 ml ofn-hexane. The analysis time (about 1 h) is appreciably lower than those of the extraction methods based on RP-18 and Carbopack-B adsorption (about 15 h). Furthermore, it is possible to analyze samples without filtration. An application of this method to the analysis of Tirreno sea water is reported.     

Recognizing near-bipartite Pfaffian graphs in polynomial time

A matching covered graph is a non-trivial connected graph in which every edge is in some perfect matching. A non-bipartite matching covered graph G is near-bipartite if there are two edges e₁ and e₂ such that G−e₁−e₂ is bipartite and matching covered. In 2000, Fischer and Little characterized Pfaffian near-bipartite graphs in terms of forbidden subgraphs [I. Fischer, C.H.C. Little, A characterization of Pfaffian near bipartite graphs, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 82 (2001) 175-222.]. However, their characterization does not imply a polynomial time algorithm to recognize near-bipartite Pfaffian graphs. In this article, we give such an algorithm.We define a more general class of matching covered graphs, which we call weakly near-bipartite graphs. This class includes the near-bipartite graphs. We give a polynomial algorithm for recognizing weakly near-bipartite Pfaffian graphs. We also show that Fischer and Little’s characterization of near-bipartite Pfaffian graphs extends to this wider class.     

Nonsingular systems of generalized Sylvester equations: An algorithmic approach

We consider the uniqueness of solution (i.e., nonsingularity) of systems of r generalized Sylvester and ?‐Sylvester equations with n×n coefficients. After several reductions, we show that it is sufficient to analyze periodic systems having, at most, one generalized ?‐Sylvester equation. We provide characterizations for the nonsingularity in terms of spectral properties of either matrix pencils or formal matrix products, both constructed from the coefficients of the system. The proposed approach uses the periodic Schur decomposition and leads to a backward stable O(n³r) algorithm for computing the (unique) solution.     

Equivariant quantum cohomology of the odd symplectic Grassmannian

Mathematische Zeitschrift - The odd symplectic Grassmannian $$\mathrm {IG}:=\mathrm {IG}(k, 2n+1)$$ parametrizes k dimensional subspaces of $${\mathbb {C}}^{2n+1}$$ which are isotropic with respect...     

The movement towards a more experimental approach to problem solving in mathematics using coding

Motivated by a problem proposed in a coding competition for secondary students, I will show on this paper how coding substantially changed the problem-solving process towards a more experimental approach.     

Delta shock wave for a 3 × 3 hyperbolic system of conservation laws

We study the one-dimensional Riemann problem for a hyperbolic system of three conservation laws of Temple class. The system is a simplification of a recently proposed system of five conservations laws by Bouchut and Boyaval that models viscoelastic fluids. An important issue is that the considered 3×3 system is such that every characteristic field is linearly degenerate. We study theRiemann problemfor this system and under suitable generalized Rankine-Hugoniot relation and entropy condition, both existence and uniqueness of particular delta shock type solutions are established.     

Invariant convex sets in polar representations

We study a compact invariant convex set E in a polar representation of a compact Lie group. Polar representations are given by the adjoint action of K on p, where K is a maximal compact subgroup of a real semisimple Lie group G with Lie algebra g = k ⊕ p. If a ? p is a maximal abelian subalgebra, then P = E ∩ a is a convex set in a. We prove that up to conjugacy the face structure of E is completely determined by that of P and that a face of E is exposed if and only if the corresponding face of P is exposed. We apply these results to the convex hull of the image of a restricted1 momentum map.