Total harmonic distortion analysis for direct methanol fuel cell anode

In this study, total harmonic distortion (THD) analysis is put forward to illustrate nonlinear behavior of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) anode. THD simulations by means of different methanol oxidation kinetics as well as its experimental validation are both carried out. It is shown that the THD model adopting a three-step methanol oxidation mechanism with Kauranen–Frumkin/Temkin kinetics can be used to illustrate the THD variation for DMFC anode qualitatively. The experimental THD response at the frequency range from 0.063 Hz to 0.4 Hz is identified as the reflection of the nonlinearity variation of those kinetic steps involving intermediates in the methanol oxidation. In such a frequency domain, THD value decrease monotonously with decreasing methanol concentration, which notices its accessibility on methanol concentration detection.     

Residue analysis of triazine herbicides in soil: Comparison of a capillary gas chromatographic and a high-performance liquid chromatographic method

Summary Two methods for the determination of triazines in soil were developed and compared. After extraction of the residues with methanol and clean-up by gel permeation chromatography, the samples evaporated were analysed for triazines by splitless capillary gas-chromatography with NP-detector (GC-NPD) and microbore high performance liquid chromatography with UV detector (HPLC-UV) at 222 nm. Both methods gave similar results. The microbore HPLC method was suitable for the analysis of a number of triazines at 10 ppb whereas capillary GC method was used for the analysis of triazines at 5 ppb. Satisfactory average recoveries for the two methods were obtained at 80 ppb and 20 ppb, respectively.

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Rückstandsanalytik von Triazin-Herbiciden im Boden: Vergleich zwischen einer capillar-gas-chromatographischen und einer hochleistungs-flüssig-chromatographischen Methode

Zusammenfassung Zwei Methoden zur Bestimmung von Triazinen im Boden wurden entwickelt und miteinander verglichen. Nach der Extraktion der Rückstände mit Methanol und clean-up durch Gelpermeations-Chromatographie wurden die Proben eingeengt und auf Triazin-Rückstände hin untersucht. Zur Detektion wurden die splitlose Capillar-Gas-Chromatographie mit NP-Detektor (GC-NPD) und die Microbore-Hochdruckflüssig-Chromatographie mit UV-Detektor (HPLC-UV) bei 222 nm verwendet. Beide Methoden ergaben vergleichbare Ergebnisse bei einem Minimum an Zeit- und Materialaufwand und der Möglichkeit der Automatisation der Rückstandsanalytik. Die Microbore-HPLC-Methode erreichte nach einfachem GPC clean-up eine Nachweisgrenze von 10 ppb im Vergleich zu 5 ppb bei der Capillar-GC-Methode. Zufriedenstellende Wiederfindungsraten wurden für beide Methoden bei 80 ppb und 20 ppb ermittelt.

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On leave from: Institute of Hydrobiology, Academia Sinica, Wuhan, P. R. China     

Analyzing the sustainability of harvesting behavior and the relationship to personality traits in a simulated Lotka–Volterra biotope

For the analysis presented in this paper we use experiments to study human behavior in a simulation environment based on a simple Lotka–Volterra predator–prey ecology. The aim is to study the influence of different harvesting strategies and of certain personality traits derived from the Hamburg Personality Inventory (HPI) [Andresen, B., 2002. HPI – Hamburger Persönlichkeitsinventar. Hogrefe, Göttingen] on the outcome in terms of sustainability and economic performance.     

Approximation of conformal mappings by circle patterns

A circle pattern is a configuration of circles in the plane whose combinatorics is given by a planar graph G such that to each vertex of G corresponds a circle. If two vertices are connected by an edge in G, the corresponding circles intersect with an intersection angle in (0, π). Two sequences of circle patterns are employed to approximate a given conformal map g and its first derivative. For the domain of g we use embedded circle patterns where all circles have the same radius decreasing to 0 and with uniformly bounded intersection angles. The image circle pattern has the same combinatorics and intersection angles and is determined from boundary conditions (radii or angles) according to the values of g′ (|g′| or arg g′). For quasicrystallic circle patterns the convergence result is strengthened to C ^∞-convergence on compact subsets.