Quantification of trace elements in human serum fractions by liquid chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

On‐line coupling of LC and ICP‐MS has been used for fractionation and detection of species of Cu, Fe, I, Se and Zn in human serum. It has been shown that anion exchange chromatography provided better separation capability (both intra‐ and inter‐element) than size‐exclusion chromatography. The mobile phases for ion exchange chromatography consisted of Tris–HNO₃ buffer and ammonium salt (nitrate, acetate or formate). Formate was found to be the best mobile phase counter ion, enabling good chromatographic separation, and is acceptable for mass spectrometry too. The quantitative evaluation of element concentrations adhering to individual fractions was performed by the peak area normalization method. The repeatability of results ranged from 3 to 15% (depending on the element concentration level) and represented the main part of the result uncertainty. The accuracy of Cu and Zn fraction determinations was confirmed by comparison with the isotope dilution technique. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finitely additive integration and local integration with respect to upper integrals

Summary We study the integration theory for general integral metrics when restricted to upper integrals q, finding improvements in the relation between the classes of the q-integrable and the q_l-integrable functions. We give new results and notions which lead to the desirable characterizations of q-integrable functions as q_l-integrable f with q(|f|) < ∞, and of q_l-integrable functions via the integrability of their upper truncations, under natural conditions which are fulfilled in most finitely additive integration theories.     

Hilbert Space of Probability Density Functions Based on Aitchison Geometry

The set of probability functions is a convex subset of L1 and it does not have a linear space structure when using ordinary sum and multiplication by real constants. Moreover, difficulties arise when dealing with distances between densities. The crucial point is that usual distances are not invariant under relevant transformations of densities. To overcome these limitations, Aitchison＇s ideas on compositional data analysis are used, generalizing perturbation and power transformation, as well as the Aitchison inner product, to operations on probability density functions with support on a finite interval. With these operations at hand, it is shown that the set of bounded probability density functions on finite intervals is a pre-Hilbert space. A Hilbert space of densities, whose logarithm is square-integrable, is obtained as the natural completion of the pre-Hilbert space.     

Category with a natural cone

Generally, in homotopy theory a cylinder object (or, its dual, a path object) is used to define homotopy between morphisms, and a cone object is used to build exact sequences of homotopy groups. Here, an axiomatic theory based on a cone functor is given. Suspension objects are associated to based objects and cofibrations, obtaining homotopy groups referred to an object and relative to a cofibration, respectively. Exact sequences of these groups are built. Algebraic and particular examples are given. We point out that the main results of this paper were already stated in [3], and the purpose of this article is to give full details of the foregoing.     

The LPCTrap experiment: measurement of the β–ν angular correlation in 6He using a transparent Paul trap

We report on the status of the LPCTrap experiment, devoted to measure the β–ν angular correlation in the pure Gamow–Teller decay of ⁶He. This measurement is motivated by the search for the presence of tensor type contributions to the weak interaction. The ⁶He ions are confined in a novel transparent Paul trap. The β particles and the recoil ions are detected in coincidence to deduce the angular correlation parameter. The commissioning run performed in 2005 has given the proof of principle of this experiment. Up to 10⁵ coincidences were recorded during a second run in 2006.     

Heuristic Rejection in Interval Global Optimization

Based on the investigation carried out in Ref. 1, this paper incorporates new studies about the properties of inclusion functions on subintervals while a branch-and-bound algorithm is solving global optimization problems. It is found that the relative place of the global minimum value within the inclusion function value of the objective function at the current interval indicates mostly whether the given interval is close to a minimizer point. This information is used in a heuristic interval rejection rule that can save a considerable amount of computation. Illustrative examples are discussed and an extended numerical study shows the advantages of the new approach.     

Hysteresis and Eddy-current Relaxation in SiFe Materials

The rate-dependent effects in metallic ferromagnetic materials with magnetization processes attributed to domain-walls motion were studied. The experimental method for eddy-current relaxation time determination was proposed. Some discrepancies between the data and theoretical predictions were observed and discussed. The origin of these discrepancies is accounted for by the decrease of viscous-type relaxation process as the rate of change of averaged magnetization is approaching zero.     

Confidence regions in a multivariate regression model with constraints II

The multivariate model, where not only parameters of the mean value of the observation matrix, but also some other parameters occur in constraints, is considered in the paper. Some basic inference is presented under the condition that the covariance matrix is either unknown, or partially unknown, or known. Supported by the grant of the Council of Czech Republic MSM 6 198 959 214.     

Interpretation of the polyelectrolyte and antipolyelectrolyte effects of poly(N‐vinylimidazole‐co‐sodium styrenesulfonate) hydrogels

Hydrogels of N‐vinylimidazole (VI) and sodium styrenesulfonate (SSS) were synthesized in aqueous solution by radical crosslinking copolymerization with N,N′‐methylene‐bis(acrylamide) as crosslinker. Swelling in several saline solutions was measured for hydrogel samples synthesized with different comonomer concentrations (C_T = 10, 25, or 40%) and with SSS mole fractions covering a broad range (f_SSS = 0–0.7), while the crosslinker ratio was 2 wt % in all cases. The degree of swelling in aqueous solution with a specific ionic strength (μ), plotted versus the SSS composition of the feed, shows a minimum for any set of samples synthesized with a fixed C_T. The dependence of swelling on μ shows both polyelectrolyte (f_SSS beyond the minimum) and antipolyelectrolyte behaviors (in the low f_SSS limit). It was found that the nonGaussian factor of the crosslinking density and the polymer‐solvent interaction parameter increase with f_SSS for any C_T. Moreover, in the low f_SSS limit, the osmotic swelling pressure is governed not only by the ionic contribution, but also by the polymer‐solvent mixing and, the concentration of mobile counterions inside the gel is not proportional to the net fixed charge but to the addition of cationic and anionic side groups, what discards the formation of ionic pairs. The antipolyelectrolyte effect is interpreted as due to the increasing protonation of VI as μ goes up. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1683–1693, 2007