Overcoming the boundary effects in surface spline interpolation

Surface spline interpolation when the domain is all of R^d isknown to converge much faster to the data function f than inthe case when the domain is the unit ball. This difference isunderstood to be due to boundary effects which, as will be shown,also affect the size of the surface spline's coefficients. Wepropose a modified form of surface spline interpolation which,to a great extent, overcomes these boundary effects. This modifiedsurface spline interpolant uses only the values of f at thegiven interpolation points.     

Existence and regularity properties of non-isotropic singular elliptic equations

We establish existence and sharp regularity results for solutions to singular elliptic equations of the order u ^−β , 0 < β < 1, with gradient dependence and involving a forcing term λ f(x, u). Our approach is based on a singularly perturbed technique. We show that if the forcing parameter λ > 0 is large enough, our solution is positive. For λ small solutions vanish on a nontrivial set and therefore they exhibit free boundaries. We also establish regularity results for the free boundary and study the asymptotic behavior of the problem as b\searrow 0{\beta\searrow 0} and b\nearrow 1{\beta\nearrow 1}. In the former, we show that our solutions u _β converge to a C ^1,1 function which is a solution to an obstacle type problem. When b\nearrow 1{\beta\nearrow 1} we recover the Alt-Caffarelli theory.     

Uniform global asymptotic stability of adaptive cascaded nonlinear systems with unknown high-frequency gains

We study adaptive tracking problems for nonlinear systems with unknown control gains. We construct controllers that yield uniform global asymptotic stability for the error dynamics, and hence tracking and parameter estimation for the original systems. Our result is based on a new explicit, global, strict Lyapunov function construction. We illustrate our work using a brushless DC motor turning a mechanical load. We quantify the effects of time-varying uncertainties on the motor electric parameters.     

Thermofield dynamics and Casimir effect for fermions

A generalization of the Bogoliubov transformation is developed to describe a space compactified fermionic field. The method is the fermionic counterpart of the formalism introduced earlier for bosons [Phys. Rev. A 66 (2002) 052101], and is based on the thermofield dynamics approach. We analyze the energy-momentum tensor for the Casimir effect of a free massless fermion field in a d-dimensional box at finite temperature. As a particular case the Casimir energy and pressure for the field confined in a three-dimensional parallelepiped box are calculated. It is found that the attractive or repulsive nature of the Casimir pressure on opposite faces changes depending on the relative magnitude of the edges. We also determine the temperature at which the Casimir pressure in a cubic box changes sign and estimate its value when the edge of the cube is of the order of the confining lengths for baryons.     

A dynamic study of earthworm feeding ecology -using stable isotopes

Changes in the specific diet of earthworms with time in relation to landuse changes and two different climates were studied by analysing (13)C and (15)N natural abundance in soils and animals. Soil samples from three depths (0-10, 10-20 and 20-30 cm) and earthworms were collected from two sites: Santiago (Northwest Spain) and North Wyke (Southwest England) both consisting of replicated long-term grasslands and recently converted to maize plots. Earthworms were hand-sorted in the field at the peak of the maize growth and after harvesting at both sites. In the Spanish plots, nine and eight earthworm species, all belonging to the three ecological categories (epigeic, anecic and endogeic), were found under maize and permanent pasture, whereas at the English site five and seven different species were, respectively, identified. At both sites (13)C isotopic values of the earthworm tissues reflected changes in diet from C(3) to C(4) with epigeic and epi/anecic worms in the maize plots showing one delta unit difference in relation to the ones found in the grassland plots. Anecic worms seemed to be less responsive to landuse changes. The higher (13)C values of the Spanish soils were also reflected in the earthworm tissues when compared with the English samples. (15)N values showed no clear relationship with the cropping treatments but were clearly related to the ecological grouping, with endogeic worms reaching the highest values whereas for the epigeic and epi/anecic species the lowest values were obtained. This finding was also previously recorded by other authors1 and suggests that, in the future, stable isotope techniques could also be a useful tool in taxonomic studies. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Secondary ion yields produced by keV atomic and polyatomic ion impacts on a self-assembled monolayer surface

A suite of keV polyatomic or 'cluster' projectiles was used to bombard unoxidized and oxidized self-assembled monolayer surfaces. Negative secondary ion yields, collected at the limit of single ion impacts, were measured and compared for both molecular and fragment ions. In contrast to targets that are orders of magnitude thicker than the penetration range of the primary ions, secondary ion yields from polyatomic projectile impacts on self-assembled monolayers show little to no enhancement when compared with monatomic projectiles at the same velocity. This unusual trend is most likely due to the structural arrangement and bonding characteristics of the monolayer molecules with the Au(111). Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple ionization of argon in coincidence with projectile ions in 60–120 MeV Si q+-Ar collisions

A projectile ion-recoil ion coincidence technique has been employed to study the multiple ionization and the charge transfer processes in collisions of 60–120 MeV Si ^q+ (q = 4−14) ions with neutral argon atoms. The relative contribution of different ionization channels, namely; direct ionization, electron capture and electron loss leading to the production of slow moving multiply charged argon recoil ions have been investigated. The data reported on the present collision system result from a direct measurement in the considered impact energy for the first time. The total ionization cross-sections for the recoil ions are shown to scale as q ^1.7/E _p ^0.5 , where E _p is the energy in MeV of the projectile and q its charge state. The recoil fractions for the cases of total- and direct ionizations are found to decrease with increasing recoil charge state j. The total ionization fractions of the recoils are seen to depend on q and to show the presence of a ‘shell-effect’ of the target. Further, the fractions are found to vary as 1/j ² upto j = 8+. The average recoil charge state 〈j〉 increases slowly with q and with the number of lost or captured electrons from or into the projectile respectively. The projectile charge changing cross-sections σ _qq′ are found to decrease with increasing q for loss ionization and to increase with q for direct-and capture ionization processes respectively. The physics behind various scaling rules that are found to follow our data for different ionization processes is reviewed and discussed.     

Determination of Picoxystrobin and Pyraclostrobin by MEKC with On-Line Analyte Concentration

Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography was used for the determination of picoxystrobin and pyraclostrobin. The background electrolyte consisted of borate buffer (40 mmol L⁻¹ pH 8.5), SDS (30 mmol L⁻¹) and acetonitrile (15% in volume). Runs were made at 25 °C with 25 kV applied potential. The developed method was applied to analyte fortified urine samples. On-line analyte concentration, combined with a capillary of a longer optical path length, allowed limits of quantification of 8.6 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹ for picoxystrobin and 1.8 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ for pyraclostrobin.

     

Determination of seven selected antipsychotic drugs in human plasma using microextraction in packed sorbent and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A method using microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS) and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) is described for the determination of seven antipsychotic drugs in human plasma. The studied compounds were chlorpromazine (CPZ), haloperidol (HAL), cyamemazine, quetiapine, clozapine, olanzapine (OLZ), and levomepromazine; promazine, protriptyline, and deuterated CPZ were used as internal standards. The validation parameters included selectivity, linearity and limits of detection and quantitation, intra- and interday precision and trueness, recovery, and stability and were studied according to internationally accepted guidelines. The method was found to be linear between the lower limit of quantitation and 1000 ng/mL, except for OLZ and HAL (200 ng/mL), with determination coefficients higher than 0.99 for all analytes, and extraction efficiencies ranged from 62 to 92 %. Intra- and interday precision ranged from 0.24 to 10.67 %, while trueness was within a ±15 % interval from the nominal concentration for all analytes at all studied levels. MEPS has shown to be a rapid procedure for the determination of the selected antipsychotic drugs in human plasma, allowing reducing the handling time and the costs of analysis. Furthermore, GC-MS/MS has demonstrated to be a powerful tool for the simultaneous quantitation of the studied compounds, enabling obtaining adequate selectivity and sensitivity using a sample volume of as low as 0.25 mL.     

The role of alternative specimens in toxicological analysis

The use of alternative specimens in the field of toxicology was first described in 1979, when hair analysis was used to document chronic drug exposure. Since then, the use of these 'alternative' samples has gained tremendous importance in forensic toxicology, as well as in clinic toxicology, doping control and workplace drug testing. It is not surprising, therefore, that a large number of papers dealing with the determination of several classes of drugs in saliva, sweat, meconium and hair have been published ever since, owing to the fact that chromatographic equipment is becoming more and more sensitive, mass spectrometry (and tandem mass spectrometry) being the most widely used analytical tool, combined with gas or liquid chromatography. 'Alternative' specimens present a number of advantages over the 'traditional' samples normally used in toxicology (e.g. blood, urine and tissues), namely the fact that their collection is not invasive, their adulteration is difficult, and they may allow increased windows of detection for certain drugs. The main disadvantage of this kind of samples is that drugs are present in very low concentrations, and therefore high-sensitivity techniques are required to accomplish the analysis. This paper reviews a series of publications on the use of alternative specimens, with special focus on the main analytical and chromatographic problems that these samples present, as well on their advantages and disadvantages over traditional samples in documenting drug exposure.