Convex ordering criteria for Lévy processes

Modelling financial and insurance time series with Lévy processes or with exponential Lévy processes is a relevant actual practice and an active area of research. It allows qualitatively and quantitatively good adaptation to the empirical statistical properties of asset returns. Due to model incompleteness it is a problem of considerable interest to determine the dependence of option prices in these models on the choice of pricing measures and to establish nontrivial price bounds. In this paper we review and extend ordering results of stochastic and convex type for this class of models. We also extend the ordering results to processes with independent increments (PII) and present several examples and applications as to α-stable processes, NIG-processes, GH-distributions, and others. Criteria are given for the Lévy measures which imply corresponding comparison results for European type options in (exponential) Lévy models.     

Frequency fine-tuning in Class IV flextensional transducers

Class IV flextensional transducers (FTs) are the best-known FTs in literature. These are light-weight projectors (compared to the conventional Tonpilz designs) with capability for high power delivery at low frequencies. The resonance frequencies of this type of transducers are known to be dominantly dependent on the characteristics of the outer shell than on the driver stack. Consequently, the method of achieving fine-tuning of the transducer by modifying the characteristics of the stack, as practiced in the case of Tonpilz designs, is not very effective. This paper describes a method for fine-tuning of the frequency of a Class IV FT, which involves only a modification of a pair of small components used for coupling the stack to the transducer. The effectiveness of the method is examined by finite element modelling using the package ATILA, in the case of a 3 kHz aluminium shell transducer. Experimental results are also presented.     

Cationic poly(methacryl oxyethyl trimethylammonium) and its poly(ethylene glycol)‐grafted analogue as capillary coating materials in electrophoresis

Cationic polyelectrolytes were synthesized and used as semipermanent coating materials for capillaries in electrophoresis. The polyelectrolytes used were a homopolymer of poly(methacryl oxyethyl trimethylammonium chloride) (PMOTAC) and its poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)‐grafted analogue. Two PMOTAC polyelectrolytes, with molar masses of 85,000 and 300,000 g/mol, and PEG‐grafted PMOTAC with a molar mass of 280,000 g/mol were synthesized and then characterized by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Attachment of the polyelectrolytes to the wall of the fused silica capillary for electrophoresis caused the electroosmotic flow (EOF) to reverse. The polyelectrolyte coatings were tested over the pH range 2–11 at different buffer ionic strengths, and the most stable and strongest anodic EOFs were obtained at acidic pH values with low ionic strength buffers. Between runs the capillary is merely rinsed for 2 or 3 min with the background electrolyte solution. With the PMOTAC coatings at pH values ≤5, the RSDs of the EOFs were less than 2.9% after 60 injections. The effects of the molar mass of the polycation and of PEGylation of PMOTAC on the interactions between the polycations and basic proteins were studied at acidic pH values. The differences in the effective electrophoretic mobilities, resolution values, and plate numbers of the proteins with the different coatings were due to the EOF, as demonstrated through calculations of reduced mobilities, relative resolution values, and relative plate numbers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 2655–2663, 2007     

Protonation constant of salicylidene (N-benzoyl)glycyl hydrazone and its coordination behaviour towards some bivalent metal ions

Protonation constant of an unsymmetrical Schiff base, salicylidene(N-benzoyl)glycyl hydrazone (SalBzGH), and formation constants of its complexes have been determined potentiometrically at different temperatures in aqueous dioxane medium. Complexes of SalBzGH with VO(IV), Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Hg(II) have been prepared. Elemental analyses, pH-metric, molar conductance, magnetic susceptibility, electronic, IR, ESR, XRD (powder) and NMR studies have been carried out to study the coordination behaviour of SalBzGH toward these metal ions. pH-metric and 1H NMR studies show the presence of two dissociable protons in the ligand. IR and NMR spectra suggest the tridentate nature of the ligand, coordinating as a uninegative species in the Mn(II) complex and as a dinegative species in all the other complexes. Presence of two different conformers of the ligand at room temperature and stabilization of a single conformer upon complex formation have been established from¹H NMR spectra of the metal-free ligand, Zn(II) and Hg(II) complexes recorded at 296 K. Electronic and ESR spectra indicate highly distorted tetragonal geometry for VO(IV) and Cu(II) complexes. XRD powder patterns of the Zn(II) complexes are indexed for an orthorhombic crystal system.     

Experimental verification of drop/impact simulation for a cellular phone

Conducting drop tests to investigate impact behavior and identify failure mechanisms of small-size electronic products is generally expensive and time-consuming. Nevertheless, strict drop/impact performance criteria for hand-held electronic products such as cellular phones play a decisive role in the design because they must withstand unexpected shocks. The design of product durability on impact has heavily relied on the designer's intuition and experience. In this study, a reliable drop/impact simulation for a cellular phone is carried out using the explicit code LS-DYNA. Subsequently globallocal experimental verification is accomplished by means of high-speed photography and impact response measurement. Using this methodology, we predict potential damage locations in a cellular phone and compare them with real statistical data. It is envisaged that development of a reliable methodology of drop/impact simulation will provide us with a powerful and efficient vehicle for improvement of the design quality and reduction of the product development cycle.     

Ab initio study of the electronic structures and conduction properties of some novel low band-gap donor-acceptor polymers

The results of the electronic structures and conduction properties of four novel donor-acceptor polymers based on polysilole, obtained on the basis of ab initio Hartree-Fock crystal orbital method using their optimized geometries, are reported. The repeat unit of these polymers consists of bicyclopentadisilole unit bridged by an electron-accepting group Y(Y=CCH₂ in PSICH, CO in PSICF, CCF₂ and CC(CN)₂ in PSICN). All the polymers on the basis of their geometries and π-bond order values are found to have benzenoid-type electronic structures. Comparison of the important electronic properties such as ionization potential, electron affinity and band-gap of these polymers indicates PSICN to be the best candidate for intrinsic conductivity and reductive (n-) doping while PSICH is predicted to be the best candidate for oxidative (p-) doping. All these polymers are estimated to have band-gap values ranging between 1 and 2 eV. The low band-gap values of these polymers are rationalised on the basis of the patterns of their frontier orbitals.