Relevance of Reflection in Static and Dynamic Light Scattering Experiments

Using a monodisperse PMMA dispersion, it was shown that light reflection at the sample cuvette walls may greatly influence the results of both static (SLS) and dynamic (DLS) light scattering experiments. Considering SLS, this reflection phenomenon mostly causes an overestimation of the scattered intensity at high scattering angles, which may give rise to the emergence of an additional, artificial peak in the lower region of the particle size distribution. On the other hand, the influcence of reflection on DLS measurements was shown to be particularly important in the upper region of the particle size distribution. The experimentally observed phenomena were explained from the basic principles of both particle sizing methods. Finally, it was shown that the disturbing effect of reflection could be avoided by modifying either the hardware or the software of the static and dynamic light scattering technique.     

The core of discontinuous games

The traditional design of cooperative games implicitly assumes that preferences are continuous. However, if agents implement tie breaking procedures, preferences are effectively lexicographic and thus discontinuous. This rouses concern over whether classic core nonemptiness theorems apply in such settings. We show that balanced NTU games may have empty cores when agents have discontinuous preferences. Moreover, exchange economies may lack coalitionally rational trades when consumers implement tie breaking rules, even if these rules are themselves continuous and convex as are all first order preferences. Results are more positive when “utility” is transferable. We prove that balancedness is necessary and sufficient to ensure a nonempty core in lexicographic TU games.     

A floating-point genetic algorithm for solving the unit commitment problem

This paper proposes a floating-point genetic algorithm (FPGA) to solve the unit commitment problem (UCP). Based on the characteristics of typical load demand, a floating-point chromosome representation and an encoding–decoding scheme are designed to reduce the complexities in handling the minimum up/down time limits. Strategic parameters of the FPGA are characterized in detail, i.e., the evaluation function and its constraints, population size, operation styles of selection, crossover operation and probability, mutation operation and probability. A dynamic combination scheme of genetic operators is formulated to explore and exploit the FPGA in the non-convex solution space and multimodal objective function. Experiment results show that the FPGA is a more effective technique among the various styles of genetic algorithms, which can be applied to the practical scheduling tasks in utility power systems.     

High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of morphine and its 3- and 6-glucuronide metabolites: improvements to the method and application to stability studies

Improvements to previously reported methods for the determination of morphine, morphine-3-glucuronide (M3G) and morphine-6-glucuronide (M6G) in human plasma are described. The improved methods involve the use of a solid-phase extraction cartridge and a chromatographic system which uses paired-ion reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with a radially compressed column. Only one cartridge is used to prepare each sample for chromatography and each cartridge may be used for at least fourteen 1-ml plasma samples. The recovery is greater than 85%. The improvements to the method of sample pretreatment and in the chromatographic conditions have allowed determination of morphine, M3G and M6G in human plasma down to 13.3 nmol/l (coefficient of variation = 9.3%), 108 nmol/l (6.6%) and 41 nmol/l (6.7%), respectively, using ultraviolet detection alone. It was shown that all three compounds were stable in plasma for up to 101 weeks when stored at -20 degrees C.     

KINETICS OF LUMINESCENCE QUENCHING IN MICELLAR ASSEMBLIES INCLUDING EXCHANGE OF PROBE and QUENCHER*

The luminescence decay of excited probes in micelles in the presence of a Poisson distribution of quenchers is considered under conditions where both probe and quencher within the lifetime of the excited probe may exchange between the micelles. Analytical and numerical results show that the luminescence decay can be expressed by a generalized self convolution product of a multiexponential decay function.