Determination of amphetamines in human urine by liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection using a solid-phase extraction procedure

A precise and feasible HPLC method has been developed for the analysis of amphetamine (AMPH), methamphetamine (MAMPH) and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) in human urine. A chromatographic run on a C8 Genesis (150 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) column maintained at 30 degrees C lasts about 17 min, using a mobile phase composed of ACN (12%) and a pH 2.5 phosphate buffer (88%) containing 0.3% triethylamine. Mirtazapine was used as the internal standard. Good linearity was found in the 100-2000 ng/mL concentration range for AMPH and MAMPH and in the 12-2000 ng/mL concentration range for MDMA. The pretreatment of urine samples was carried out by means of a careful SPE procedure on C2 cartridges. The extraction yields were very satisfactory for all analytes, with average values greater than 97%. The leading conditions allowed the determination of AMPH, MAMPH and MDMA with satisfactory precision and accuracy. The method has been successfully applied to the determination of the analytes in urine of AMPH users.     

A segmentation procedure of the pervious area of the aorta artery from CT images without contrast medium

In this paper, we develop an algorithm for the segmentation of the pervious lumen of the aorta artery in computed tomography (CT) images without contrast medium, a challenging task due to the closeness gray levels of the different zones to segment. The novel approach of the proposed procedure mainly resides in enhancing the resolution of the image by the application of the algorithm deduced from the mathematical theory of sampling Kantorovich operators. After the application of suitable digital image processing techniques, the pervious zone of the artery can be distinguished from the occluded one. Numerical tests have been performed using 233 CT images, and suitable numerical errors have been computed and introduced ex novo to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The above procedure is completely automatic in all its parts after the initial region of interest (ROI) selection. The main advantages of this approach relies in the potential possibility of performing diagnosis concerning vascular pathologies even for patients with severe kidney diseases or allergic problems, for which CT images with contrast medium cannot be achieved.     

ACUTA: A novel method for eliciting additive value functions on the basis of holistic preference statements

In multiple criteria decision aiding, it is common to use methods that are capable of automatically extracting a decision or evaluation model from partial information provided by the decision maker about a preference structure. In general, there is more than one possible model, leading to an indetermination which is dealt with sometimes arbitrarily in existing methods. This paper aims at filling this theoretical gap: we present a novel method, based on the computation of the analytic center of a polyhedron, for the selection of additive value functions that are compatible with holistic assessments of preferences. We demonstrate the most important characteristics of this technique with an experimental and comparative study of several existing methods belonging to the UTA family.     

THE REDUCED BASIS TECHNIQUE AS A COARSE SOLVER FOR PARAREAL IN TIME SIMULATIONS

In this paper, we extend the reduced basis methods for parameter dependent problems to the parareal in time algorithm introduced by Lions et al. [12] and solve a nonlinear evolutionary parabolic partial differential equation. The fine solver is based on the finite element method or spectral element method in space and a semi-implicit Runge-Kutta scheme in time. The coarse solver is based on a semi-implicit scheme in time and the reduced basis approximation in space. Of[line-online procedures are developed, and it is proved that the computational complexity of the on-line stage depends only on the dimension of the reduced basis space （typically small）. Parareal in time algorithms based on a multi-grids finite element method and a multi-degrees finite element method are also presented. Some numerical results are reported.     

A boundary integral equation procedure for the mixed boundary value problem of the vector helmholtz equation

A boundary integral method is developed for the mixed boundary value problem for the vector Helmholtz equation in R³. The obtained boundary integral equations for the unknown Cauchy data build a strong elliptic system of pseudodifferential equations which can therefore be used for numerical computations using Galerkin's procedure. We show existence, uniqueness and regularity of the solution of the integral equations. Especially we give the local "edge" behavior of the solution near the submanifold which divides the Dirichlet boundary from the Neumann boundary     

A Localized Implementation of the Iterative Proportional Scaling Procedure for Gaussian Graphical Models

In this article, we propose localized implementations of the iterative proportional scaling (IPS) procedure by the strategy of partitioning cliques for computing maximum likelihood estimations in large Gaussian graphical models. We first divide the set of cliques into several nonoverlapping and nonempty blocks, and then adjust clique marginals in each block locally. Thus, high-order matrix operations can be avoided and the IPS procedure is accelerated. We modify the Swendsen–Wang Algorithm and apply the simulated annealing algorithm to find an approximation to the optimal partition which leads to the least complexity. This strategy of partitioning cliques can also speed up the existing IIPS and IHT procedures. Numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the competitive performance of our new implementations and strategies.     

超导电缆的性能检测方法研究

超导电缆与常规电缆在电磁特性上有很大差异。因此,有必要对其试验内容、性能检测方法和试验设备进行研究和规范。文中从超导电缆的电磁特性出发,探讨了超导电缆的试验内容及性能检测方法,并重点介绍了超导电缆交流损耗的测量方法。     

Mixed eigenvalues of discrete p-Laplacian

This paper deals with the principal eigenvalue of discrete p-Laplacian on the set of nonnegative integers. Alternatively, it is studying the optimal constant of a class of weighted Hardy inequalities. The main goal is the quantitative estimates of the eigenvalue. The paper begins with the case having reflecting boundary at origin and absorbing boundary at infinity. Several variational formulas are presented in different formulation： the difference form, the single summation form, and the double summation form. As their applications, some explicit lower and upper estimates, a criterion for positivity （which was known years ago）, as well as an approximating procedure for the eigenvalue are obtained. Similarly, the dual case having absorbing boundary at origin and reflecting boundary at presented at the end of Section 2 to infinity is also studied. Two examples are illustrate the value of the investigation.     

Subword complexity of the Fibonacci–Thue–Morse sequence: The proof of Dekking’s conjecture

Recently F. M. Dekking conjectured the form of the subword complexity function for the Fibonacci–Thue–Morse sequence. In this note we prove his conjecture by purely computational means, using the free software Walnut.     

大处着眼，小处入手——基金委化学科学部2019年基金项目会议评审工作的几点尝试和思考

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) is a vital government agency supporting basic research and people to create knowledge and meet major national needs, where a rigorous and objective merit-based peer review mechanism is the key to funding the most promising research proposals. This invited comment overviews some recent attempts aimed at bettering the academic evaluation environment at the Department of Chemical Science in 2019, through measures such as grouped panel committee meetings, standardized panel committee meeting procedures, and review process refinement to improve the project review at panel committee meeting levels.