Thin chip microsprayer system coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer for glycoconjugate analysis

A thin chip polymer-based microsprayer has been coupled to a hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (QTOF MS) and introduced in carbohydrate research. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated for mapping, sequencing and structural elucidation of glycoconjugates originating from human body fluids and tissues such as a glycopeptide mixture from normal human urine and an isolated and purified GT1 ganglioside fraction from normal adult human brain. The optimization procedure required by each glycoconjugate category is described and the advantages of the system in terms of flexibility and adaptability to QTOF MS, stability of the ESI MS signal, carbohydrate ionization and sequencing, sensitivity, speed of analysis and sample consumption are discussed.     

Microencapsulation of osmium tetroxide in polyurea

[reaction: see text] Osmium tetroxide has been microencapsulated in a polyurea matrix using an in situ interfacial polymerization approach. These microcapsules have been effectively used as recoverable and reusable catalysts in the dihydroxylation of olefins     

Procedure for background estimation in energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectra

A method for semi-automatic background estimation in energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectra is outlined. Two cubic splines were investigated and the spline called the Butland interpolant was chosen for further investigation. Prior to the calculation of the spline, peak regions are set up, and suitable knots are defined outside the peak regions. To set up the peak regions, an automatic peak-search routine and a calibration equation are used. For a given peak, the latter relates the full width at half maximum (FWHM) to the peak centre. In turn, the size of the peak regions are defined by the FWHM multiplied by a constant given by the user. The method was tested on several types of spectra. It was found that the optimal size of the peak region decreased with increasing peak density. Reproducibility tests showed that the standard deviation of the summation of counts within a peak region and after background subtraction was less than would be expected from the counting statistics.     

Compact causal data interpolation

Consider a Hilbert space equipped with a time-structure, i.e., a resolution E of the identity on defined on subsets of some linearly ordered set Λ. For which x and y in is it possible to find a causal (time respecting) compact operator T, so that Tx = y? When T is required to be a Hilbert-Schmidt operator and (Λ, E) is sufficiently regular, this question is answered in terms of the “time-densities” of x and y. The condition is that the integral ∝_gLμ_x({s t})⁻¹ dμ_y(t) should be finite, where μ_x and μ_y are the measures on Λ given by μ_x(Ω) = ¦|E(Ω)x¦|² and μ_y(Ω) = ¦|E(Ω)y¦|². Further a solution is given for the related problem of minimizing the sum of ¦|Tx − y¦|² and the squared Hilbert-Schmidt norm ¦|R¦|₂² of T.     

Solving a non-linear stochastic pseudo-differential equation of Burgers type

In this paper, we study the initial value problem for a class of non-linear stochastic equations of Burgers type of the following form

_∂tu+q(x,D)u+_∂xf(t,x,u)=_h1(t,x,u)+_h2(t,x,u)_Ft,x${\partial }_{t}u+q(x,D)u+{\partial }_{x}f(t,x,u)=h_1(t,x,u)+h_2(t,x,u)F_{t,x}$

for u:(t,x)∈(0,∞)×R?u(t,x)∈R$u:(t,x)\in (0,\infty )\times \mathbb{R}?u(t,x)\in \mathbb{R}$, where q(x,D)$q(x,D)$ is a pseudo-differential operator with negative definite symbol of variable order which generates a stable-like process with transition density, f,_h1,_h2:[0,∞)×R×R→R$f,h_1,h_2:[0,\infty )\times \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}$ are measurable functions, and _Ft,x$F_{t,x}$ stands for a Lévy space-time white noise. We investigate the stochastic equation on the whole space R$\mathbb{R}$ in the mild formulation and show the existence of a unique local mild solution to the initial value problem by utilising a fixed point argument.     

Convex subrings of partially ordered rings

The relationship between a poring and a convex subring has been studied most successfully for porings with bounded inversion. The best conceivable results are known for real closed rings. The present paper focuses on the connections between the prime spectra and between the real spectra of a poring and a convex subring. Examples show that for arbitrary porings one may not expect a very close relationship. But with the assumption of bounded inversion or spectral compatibility the results are similar to those for real closed rings (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The effective heat conduction of short fibre reinforced materials considering the fibre distribution

This contribution focuses on the effective heat conductivity of short fibre reinforced materials. For this purpose, a representative volume element (RVE), which is able to represent all possible fibre orientation distributions, is introduced and modelled in ABAQUS. Subsequently, the effective heat conductivity of the RVE is derived, employing a numerical homogenisation scheme, and a phenomenological material model is fitted to those results. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)