Emergence of self-similarity in football dynamics

The multiplayer dynamics of a football game is analyzed to unveil self-similarities in the time evolution of player and ball positioning. Temporal fluctuations in both the team-turf boundary and the ball location are uncovered to follow the rules of fractional Brownian motion with a Hurst exponent of H ~ 0.7. The persistence time below which self-similarity holds is found to be several tens of seconds, implying a characteristic time scale that governs far-from-equilibrium motion on a playing field.     

Rapid determination of five antibiotic residues in swine wastewater by online solid-phase extraction–high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A simple and quick online solid-phase extraction (SPE) coupled to liquid chromatography (LC)/tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) for the determination of the five antibiotics (florfenicol, FF; lincomycin, LCM; oxytetracyclin, OTC; tylosin, TS; valnemulin, VLM) in swine wastewater has been developed. After filtration, aliquots (100 μl) of wastewater samples were directly injected to a column-switching LC system. Some matrix interference was removed by washing up SPE column with 0.2% formic acid solution and acetonitrile. Antibiotics eluted from SPE column were separated on analytical column by converting switching valve and were detected by MS/MS. Calibration curves using the method of standard addition had very good correlation coefficients (r > 0.99) in the range of 0.1 to 2 ng/ml. The intra-day precision of the method was less than 12% and the inter-day precision was between 6 to 17%. The detection limits were 0.01–0.1 ng/ml. When this method was applied to wastewater samples in swine facilities, four compounds (LCM, OTC, TS, and VLM) were detected.     

Quantum chemical study of the interaction of the short-chain poly(oxyethylene)s CH3(OCH2CH2)mOCH3 (C1EmC1; m = 1 and 2) with a water molecule in the gas phase and in solutions

It is well-known that the role of the oxygen atom of the hydrophilic unit of poly(oxyethylene) (POE) is one of the important factors of the high solubility of POE in water. In the present study, we focused on the hydration of the oxyethylene OCH2CH2O unit of POE, CH3(OCH2CH2)mOCH3 (C1EmC1), and theoretically examined the role of the water molecule on the stability of POE using the short-chain POE, 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) CH3(OCH2CH2)OCH3 (C1E1C1) and diglyme CH3(OCH2CH2)2OCH3 (C1E2C1). The relative energies of the important conformers of the model POE with and without a water molecule in the gas phase and the solvent have been calculated by the second-order M?ller-Plesset perturbation (MP2) method using the 6-311G basis set. We found three types of H-bonding of a water molecule with the POE chain for the TTT and the TGT conformers of C1E1C1 and for the TTTTTT, the TGTTGT, and the TGTTG'T conformers of C1E2C1, which are classified into the monodentate and the bidentate H-bonding. The conformers including the gauche form of the OCH2CH2O unit without the intramolecular electrostatic interaction are less stable in energy than the trans conformers in the gas phase for both C1E1C1 and C1E2C1. However, this order in the stability is reversed by the hydration. It is also found that the H-bond between POE and a water molecule is strengthened in the solvent. The stability of the conformers of POE in the gas phase and in the solvent is discussed in detail.     

Pareto law of the expenditure of a person in convenience stores

We study the statistical laws of the expenditure of a person in convenience stores by analyzing around 100 million receipts. The density function of expenditure exhibits a fat tail that follows a power law. Using the Lorenz curve, the Gini coefficient is estimated to be 0.70; this implies that loyal customers contribute significantly to a store’s sales. We observe the Pareto principle where both the top 25% and 2% of the customers account for 80% and 25% of the store’s sales, respectively.     

Why Stratification of Networks Emerges in Innovative Society: Intelligent Poly-Agent Systems Approach

This paper rigorously shows in the framework of poly-agent systems theory that it is very natural for an innovative society to emerge stratification of networks to cope with complexity intelligent decision makers of it have to deal with. Before introducing poly-agent systems theory, I will first refer to empirical observations of emergence of stratification of networks in innovative societies, which motivate this research. I, then, theoretically show that coexistence of both networks and hierarchies is reasonable and inevitable for a tightly interrelated society because it can provide the decision makers with mediation, which is beneficial for the decision makers as well as the society as a whole. Finally, I will go back again to implications from our theoretical study.     

Chemical synthesis of human adiponectin(19–107) bearing post-translational glycosylation

Human adiponectin(19–107), which consists of the variable region and the collagenous domain bearing post-translational modifications including glycosylation, was chemically synthesized for the first time. A glycoside of 5-hydroxylysine (Hyl) was incorporated using an α-d-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-β-d-galactopyranosyl/Hyl-Gly building block in a benzyl-protected form by solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS). The molecule was assembled from four segments prepared by SPPS via native chemical ligation (NCL) and thioester methods.     

Pricing of Ratchet equity-indexed annuities under stochastic interest rates

We consider the valuation of simple and compound Ratchet equity-indexed annuities (EIAs) in the presence of stochastic interest rates. We assume that the equity index follows a geometric Brownian motion and the short rate follows the extended Vasicek model. Under a given forward measure, we obtain an explicit multivariate normal characterization for multiple log-returns on the equity index. Using such a characterization, closed-form price formulas are derived for both simple and compound Ratchet EIAs. An efficient Monte Carlo simulation scheme is also established to overcome the computational difficulties resulting from the evaluation of high-dimensional multivariate normal cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) embedded in the price formulas as well as the consideration of additional complex contract features. Finally, numerical results are provided to illustrate the computational efficiency of our simulation scheme and the effects of various model and contract parameters on pricing.     

Integrated catalytic C-H transformations for one-pot synthesis of 1-arylisoindoles from isoindolines via palladium-catalyzed dehydrogenation followed by C-H arylation

A one-pot conversion of isoindolines to 1-arylisoindoles was established from palladium-catalyzed cascade C-H transformations, that is, the dehydrogenation of isoindolines to give isoindoles, with subsequent C-H arylation of the isoindoles.     

Collective purchase behavior toward retail price changes

By analyzing a huge amount of point-of-sale data collected from Japanese supermarkets, we find power law relationships between price and sales numbers. The estimated values of the exponents of these power laws depend on the category of products; however, they are independent of the stores, thereby implying the existence of universal human purchase behavior. The rate of sales numbers around these power laws are generally approximated by log-normal distributions implying that there are hidden random parameters, which might proportionally affect the purchase activity.     

Generalised Central Limit Theorems for Growth Rate Distribution of Complex Systems

We introduce a solvable model of randomly growing systems consisting of many independent subunits. Scaling relations and growth rate distributions in the limit of infinite subunits are analysed theoretically. Various types of scaling properties and distributions reported for growth rates of complex systems in a variety of fields can be derived from this basic physical model. Statistical data of growth rates for about 1 million business firms are analysed as a real-world example of randomly growing systems. Not only are the scaling relations consistent with the theoretical solution, but the entire functional form of the growth rate distribution is fitted with a theoretical distribution that has a power-law tail.