Discounted and finitely repeated minority games with public signals

We consider a repeated game where at each stage players simultaneously choose one of the two rooms. The players who choose the less crowded room are rewarded with one euro. The players in the same room do not recognize each other, and between the stages only the current majority room is publicly announced, hence the game has imperfect public monitoring. An undiscounted version of this game was considered by Renault et al. [Renault, J., Scarlatti, S., Scarsini, M., 2005. A folk theorem for minority games. Games Econom. Behav. 53 (2), 208–230], who proved a folk theorem. Here we consider a discounted version and a finitely repeated version of the game, and we strengthen our previous result by showing that the set of equilibrium payoffs Hausdorff-converges to the feasible set as either the discount factor goes to one or the number of repetition goes to infinity. We show that the set of public equilibria for this game is strictly smaller than the set of private equilibria.     

Enhancement of Enzymatic IDE Biosensor Response Using Gold Nanoparticles. Example of the Detection of Urea

A new conductometric biosensor based on interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) has been developed for the detection of enzymatic substrates using gold nanoparticles (GNPs), synthesized bellowing the citrate process, with an average diameter of 23 nm and functionalized with urease using layer‐by‐layer technique. A detection limit of 100 µM of urea is obtained when cross‐linked urease is directly immobilized on top of the IDEs (interdigitated distance: 20 µm) whereas a detection limit of 2 µM is obtained when urease functionalized gold nanoparticles are deposited on the top of the IDEs. The use of gold nanoparticles allows the increase of the sensitivity of detection (from 10 µS/mM to 107 µS/mM) due to the decrease of the thickness of probed zone.     

New perspectives for microbial glycolipid fractionation and purification processes

Microbial glycolipids produced from renewable sources are of considerable interest in light of their promising biological activities and surfactant characteristics when compared to petroleum derived surfactants. Intense research efforts are currently being made to reduce their production costs and optimize recovery as selected mixtures through downstream processes. Due to the high complexity of natural glycolipid mixtures, efficient purification techniques are also required to examine the biological mechanisms of individual species towards human systems for their application in health-related areas. This review deals with recent advances in the development of glycolipid extraction, fractionation and purification methods, with a particular focus on solid support-free liquid-liquid separation techniques including centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) and counter-current chromatography (CCC). These techniques offer promising perspectives for the preparative or large-scale separation of glycolipids from complex crude extracts, mainly because of their flexibility in solvent system selection and applicability to a diversity of structures of any polarity.     

Non-identical particle correlations in STAR

The correlation function of non-identical particles is sensitive to the relative space-time asymmetries in particle emission. Analysing pion-kaon, pion-proton and kaon-proton correlation functions, measured in the Au+Au collisions by the STAR experiment at RHIC, we show that pions, kaons and protons are not emitted at the same average space-time coordinates. The shifts between pion, kaon and proton sources are consistent with the picture of a transverse collective flow. Results of the first measurement of proton-lambda correlations at STAR are in agreement with recent CERN and AGS data.     

Oxadiazole‐2‐thiol Adsorption on Gold Nanorods: A Joint Theoretical and Experimental Study by Using SERS,XPS, and DFT

The chemisorption of 1,3,4‐oxadiazole‐2‐thiol (ODT) on gold nanorods has been investigated by using surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and density functional theory (DFT). Although most of the SERS spectra have remarkable similarity to the normal Raman spectra of the pure analyte, the adsorption of ODT on a gold surface leads to a drastic change in its Raman spectrum and distinct vibrational features are obtained with gold nanorods and spherical nanoparticles. Simulated Raman spectra for hybrid systems that consist of an oxadiazole moiety coordinated to a Au₂₀ gold cluster provided valuable information about the coordination mode and enabled us to assign vibration modes.     

Chlorpromazine Electro‐oxidation at BDD Electrode Modified with nZVI Nanoparticles Impregnated NiAl LDH

Nanocomposite of nanoscale zero‐valent iron (nZVI) and layered double hydroxide (LDH) was used as modifier for boron‐doped diamond electrode in determination of anti‐psychotic drug chlorpromazine (CPZ). nZVI nanoparticles were prepared by liquid phase reduction of ferric chloride with sodium borohydride on the surface of NiAl LDH matrix owing to the strong exchange and confinement efficiency of LDH. The structure, binding and surface properties of the nZVI@LDH nanocomposite were monitored using powder X‐ray diffractometry, FT‐IR spectroscopy, scanning and transmission microscopy and BET techniques. The electrochemical properties of the modified electrode were investigated by CV and EIS, performed in a phosphate buffer containing ferro/ferricyanide as redox probe. The modified electrode exhibited excellent electrochemical performance compared with unmodified electrode. As regard potential application of the nanocomposite surface to the CPZ detection, square‐wave voltammetric signals showed a good linear correlation over CPZ concentrations in a broad range from 0.1 to 8.0 μM with low detection limit of 0.005 μM. Nevertheless, these results suggest that the proposed nanocomposite modifier surface provides exceptional synergy and significant enhancement effect to the voltammetric response of CPZ and thus could be applied as highly efficient and stable platform of sensors in clinical analysis.     

Capacitive Sensing of Amino Acids Using Caliraxene‐Coated Silicon Transducers

The possibility of using capacitance and flat band voltage as measurable quantities for determining amino acids that are neither electroactive nor with strong UV‐vis absorption has been explored. The sensors were fabricated by immobilizing calixarene derivatives on Si/SiO₂/Si₃N₄ transducers. The measurements were made in sulfuric acid media of ca. pH 1 and in physiological buffer of pH 7.4. The different calixarene derivatives showed varying sensitivities to the amino acids ranging from 8 to 137 mV/decade.     

Evaluation of polyketones with N-cyclic structure as electrode material for electrochemical energy storage: case of pyromellitic diimide dilithium salt

Pyromellitic diimide dilithium salt was selected to complete our database on redox-active polyketones with a N-cyclic structure. Although never reported to date, such a lithiated salt was readily synthesized making its electrochemical evaluation in a Li battery possible. Preliminary data show that this novel material reversibly inserts two Li per formula unit at a relatively low potential giving a stable capacity value of 200 mAh g(-1).