Humidity adsorption kinetics of a trypsin gel film

This study focuses on the humidity adsorption kinetics of an isopropanol-induced and pH-triggered bovine pancreatic trypsin gel (BPTG). The BPTG was adsorbed on a gold coated Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) substrate with a thickness of 376 nm. The morphology of the film was characterized using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). QCM was used to investigate the humidity sensing properties of the BPTG film. The response of the humidity sensor was explained using the Langmuir model. The average values of adsorption and desorption rates between 11% RH (relative humidity) and 97% RH were calculated as 2482.5 M(-1) s(-1) and 0.02 s(-1), respectively. The equilibrium constant and average Gibbs Free Energy of humidity adsorption and desorption cycles were obtained as 133,000 and -11.8 kJ/mol, respectively.     

A closed-form solution of the Black–Litterman model with conditional value at risk

We consider a portfolio optimization problem of the Black–Litterman type, in which we use the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) as the risk measure and we use the multi-variate elliptical distributions, instead of the multi-variate normal distribution, to model the financial asset returns. We propose an approximation algorithm and establish the convergence results. Based on the approximation algorithm, we derive a closed-form solution of the portfolio optimization problems of the Black–Litterman type with CVaR.     

An Experimental/Numerical Investigation on Drag Reduction by Dimples

The paper is concerned with experimental and numerical investigations of the turbulent flow over dimpled surfaces. Shallow dimples distributed regularly over the wall of a plane channel with large aspect ratio are used to study their effect on the skin-friction drag. The resulting pressure drop in the channel was measured for smooth and dimpled walls. In addition to these investigations on internal flows, an external flow study was performed and boundary-layer profiles were measured using a Pitot-tube rake. Complementary to the measurements, direct numerical simulations for the internal flow configuration with and without dimples were carried out for two different grid resolutions and analyzed in detail. The objective was to clarify whether or not dimples cause reduction of the skin-friction drag. (© 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)