Topological convexities, selections and fixed points

A convexity on a set X is a family of subsets of X which contains the whole space and the empty set as well as the singletons and which is closed under arbitrary intersections and updirected unions. A uniform convex space is a uniform topological space endowed with a convexity for which the convex hull operator is uniformly continuous. Uniform convex spaces with homotopically trivial polytopes (convex hulls of finite sets) are absolute extensors for the class of metric spaces; if they are completely metrizable then a continuous selection theorem à la Michael holds. Upper semicontinuous maps have approximate selections and fixed points, under the usual assumptions.     

Transient and First Passage Time Distributions of First- and Second-order Multi-regime Markov Fluid Queues via ME-fication

We propose a numerical method to obtain the transient and first passage time distributions of first- and second-order Multi-Regime Markov Fluid Queues (MRMFQ). The method relies on the observation that these transient measures can be computed via the stationary analysis of an auxiliary MRMFQ. This auxiliary MRMFQ is constructed from the original one, using sample path arguments, and has a larger cardinality stemming from the need to keep track of time. The conventional method to approximately model the deterministic time horizon is Erlangization. As an alternative, we propose the so-called ME-fication technique, in which a Concentrated Matrix Exponential (CME) distribution replaces the Erlang distribution for approximating deterministic time horizons. ME-fication results in much lower state-space dimensionalities for the auxiliary MRMFQ than would be with Erlangization. Numerical results are presented to validate the effectiveness of ME-fication along with the proposed numerical method.

     

Migration-driven instability in the chlorite-tetrathionate reaction

We have studied the lateral stability of planar reaction-diffusion fronts in an autocatalytic reaction between aqueous ions in an externally imposed electric field. In our experiments, migration drives the pattern formation leading to cellular structures where the sufficiently greater migrational flux of the reactant with respect to that of the autocatalyst is the driving force. The difference in electric field strength between the two sides of the thin reaction front results from the significant increase in conductivity during the reaction. The results of the theoretical analysis based on the empirical rate-law model of the reaction reproduce the behavior observed experimentally.     

Pion mass effects on axion emission from neutron stars through NN bremsstrahlung processes

The rates of axion emission by nucleon–nucleon bremsstrahlung are calculated with the inclusion of the full momentum contribution from a nuclear one pion exchange (OPE) potential. The contributions of the neutron–neutron (nn), proton–proton ( pp) and neutron–proton (np) processes in both the non-degenerate and degenerate limits are explicitly given. We find that the finite-momentum corrections to the emissivities are quantitatively significant for the non-degenerate regime and temperature-dependent, and should affect the existing axion mass bounds. The trend of these nuclear effects is to diminish the emissivities.     

Selfstarting femtosecond operation and transient dynamics of a diode-endpumped Cr:LiSGaF laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

Received: 16 July 1997/Revised version: 24 September 1997     

Measurement of 3-hydroxyisovaleric acid in urine from marginally biotin-deficient humans by UPLC-MS/MS

Measurement of 3-hydroxyisovaleric acid (3HIA) in human urine has been shown to be a useful indicator of biotin status for a variety of clinical situations, including pregnancy. The work described herein presents a novel UPLC-MS/MS method for accurate and precise quantitation of urinary 3HIA. This method utilizes sample preparation prior to quantitation that has been simplified compared to the previous GC-MS method. To demonstrate the suitability of the UPLC-MS/MS method for human bio-monitoring, this method was used to measure 3-HIA in 64 human urine samples from eight healthy adults in whom marginal biotin deficiency had been induced experimentally by egg white feeding. 3HIA was detected in all specimens; the mean concentration [±standard deviation (SD)] was 80.6 ± 51 μM prior to inducing biotin deficiency. Mean excretion rate for 3HIA (expressed per mol urinary creatinine) before beginning the biotin-deficient diet was 8.5 ± 3.2 mmol 3HIA per mol creatinine and the mean increased threefold with deficiency. These specimens had been previously analyzed by GC-MS; the two data sets showed strong linear relationship with a correlation coefficient of 0.97. These results provide evidence that this method is suitable for bio-monitoring of biotin status in larger populations.     

Efficient Nash equilibria on semilattices

This contribution introduces the so-called quasi-Leontief functions. In the framework and the language of tropical algebras, our quasi-Leontief functions are the additive functions defined on a semimodule with values in the semiring of scalars. This class of functions encompasses as a special case the usual Leontief utility function. We establish the existence of efficient Nash equilibria when the strategy spaces are compact and pathconnected topological semilattices.     

Time-resolved measurement of emission profiles in pulsed radiofrequency glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy: Investigation of the pre-peak

Radiofrequency glow discharge coupled to optical emission spectroscopy has been used in pulsed mode in order to perform a detailed study of the measured temporal emission profiles for a wide range of copper transitions. Special attention has been paid to the early emission peak (or so-called pre-peak), observed at the beginning of the emission pulse profile. The effects of the important pulse parameters such as frequency, duty cycle, pulse width and power-off time, have been studied upon the Cu pulse emission profiles. The influence of discharge parameters, such as pressure and power, was studied as well.