The prediction of coal properties using compressed infrared data from osculating polynomials

Reduction of the representation of infrared spectra from coal samples by osculating polynomials of degree nine is discussed. The reduced representation contains polynomial coefficients of order zero to four. Mathematical models of the original spectra are obtained by linear combination of the coefficients. These compressed models are statistically correlated to coal properties, namely, volatile matter, fixed carbon, ash content, heating value, hydrogen, carbon, sulphur, nitrogen, and maximum vitrinite reflectance, and the results are compared with those previously obtained from second derivatives of the same spectra. The use of compressed data, while giving slightly better correlations for some of the properties, has the advantage of requiring less computational time.     

Imidazol(in)ium carboxylates as N-heterocyclic carbene ligand precursors for Suzuki-Miyaura reactions

Simple catalysts formed in situ from palladium acetate and a variety of imidazolium and imidazolinium carboxylates and dithiocarboxylates have been screened in the coupling of aryl halides with trans-2-phenylvinylboronic acid. Imidazol(in)ium carboxylates show an excellent activity, which compares to that displayed by the parent imidazol(in)ium chlorides, whereas imidazol(in)ium dithiocarboxylates are poorly efficient. Interestingly, the base employed exerts a profound influence on the trans/cis stereochemistry of the coupling product.     

New fir laser lines and frequency measurements from optically pumped13CD3OH3

We report the discovery of 57 new fir laser lines from¹³CD₃OH molecule optically pumped by a waveguide CO₂ laser of 300 MHz tunability. For all lines, precise frequency offset measurements between the CO₂ line center and the center of the absorbing¹³CD₃OH line were performed using the transferred Lamb-Dip technique. We have also measured directly the frequency of seven FIR laser lines by heterodyning with already known laser lines. We present a complete list of all known laser lines (134) and frequency measurements (24) for this molecule.Work supported by CNPq, FAPESP, FAEP-Brasil, and CNR-Italia     

An Approach to Fuzzy Noncooperative Nash Games

Systems that involve more than one decision maker are often optimized using the theory of games. In the traditional game theory, it is assumed that each player has a well-defined quantitative utility function over a set of the player decision space. Each player attempts to maximize/minimize his/her own expected utility and each is assumed to know the extensive game in full. At present, it cannot be claimed that the first assumption has been shown to be true in a wide variety of situations involving complex problems in economics, engineering, social and political sciences due to the difficulty inherent in defining an adequate utility function for each player in these types of problems. On the other hand, in many of such complex problems, each player has a heuristic knowledge of the desires of the other players and a heuristic knowledge of the control choices that they will make in order to meet their ends.In this paper, we utilize fuzzy set theory in order to incorporate the players' heuristic knowledge of decision making into the framework of conventional game theory or ordinal game theory. We define a new approach to N-person static fuzzy noncooperative games and develop a solution concept such as Nash for these types of games. We show that this general formulation of fuzzy noncooperative games can be applied to solve multidecision-making problems where no objective function is specified. The computational procedure is illustrated via application to a multiagent optimization problem dealing with the design and operation of future military operations.     

Limit Regimes of Braking of Disc-Type Composite Flywheels Made by Filament Winding

A set of invariants describing the limit regimes of braking disk-type wound composite flywheels is suggested. The limit regime is determined by using a linear failure criterion. It is shown that, for generating short-time impulses of very high power, a set of small identical flywheels is more effective than one large flywheel with an equivalent mass. Particular examples illustrating the theory considered are discussed.     

Study of interactions of various ionic species with solvents toward the design of receptors

In earlier studies, the interactions of isolated ionic species with various solvents were investigated using ab initio calculations. The ionic species investigated included cations (proton, hydronium, ammonium, and metal cations) and anions (single electron, hydroxide, and halide anions). However in the present study, we investigate the interactions of these ionic species with the solvent in the presence of other competing ionic species. We also elaborate on how the information obtained from these extensive studies have been employed in designing and synthesizing various kinds of novel ionophores and receptors.     

Screening and analytical confirmation of sulfonamide residues in milk by capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry

A new methodology is proposed to automate the monitoring of sulfonamide residues in milk samples. It combines a screening unit for the total amount of sulfonamide with capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) equipment for processing the samples containing a detectable level of sulfonamide. The screening unit consists of continuous-flow system (CFS) to precipitate the proteins connected on-line to the CE-MS equipment, in which a common characteristic ion of all sulfonamides was monitored with the MS detector by flushing the sample through the capillary. The confirmatory method is based on the purification and preconcentration of sulfonamides in a CFS unit and posterior analysis by CE-MS. The sample treatment unit was also on-line connected to the CE-MS equipment. In order to increase sensitivity, the flow rate of the sheath liquid was diminished from 0.5 to 0.2 microL.min(-1) by increasing the content in water from 0 to 50% and the formic acid from 0.5 to 1.5% in this liquid and by applying an overimposed pressure of 5 mbar during the electrophoretic separation. The method allowed the analysis of 30 samples per hour.     

Synthesis of some dibenzodiazepinone derivatives as potent and m2-selective antimuscarinic compounds

Two series of 5-[[4-[4-(dialkylamino)butyl]-l-cyclohexyl]acetyl], and 5-[(dialkylamino)acyl]-10,11-dihydro-5H- dibenzo[b,e][1,4]diazepin-11-ones were synthesized as potential m2-selective ligands 1,2. Their affinity and selectivity for the muscarinic cholinergic receptor m-AChR subtypes were determined. Replacing a nitrogen with CH in the piperidine ring of 5-[[4-[4-(dialkylamino)butyl]-l-piperidinyl]acetyl]-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo-[b,e][1,4]diazepin-11-ones 3 significantly altered the affinity and selectivity to the muscarinic receptor subtypes.     

Biosensor based on paraffin/graphite modified with sweet potato tissue for the determination of hydroquinone in cosmetic cream in organic phase

An organic-phase biosensor based on paraffin/graphite modified with sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) tissue as the source of peroxidase was developed and used for determining hydroquinone in cosmetic creams. This enzyme in the presence of hydrogen peroxide catalyses the oxidation of hydroquinone to p-quinone which electrochemical reduction back to hydroquinone was obtained at a peak potential of -0.22 V. The recovery of hydroquinone from two samples ranged from 99.1 to 104.1% and a rectilinear analytical curve for hydroquinone concentration from 7.5x10(-5) to 1.6x10(-3) M (r=0.9991) were obtained. The detection limit was 8.1x10(-6) M and relative standard deviation was <1.0% for a solution containing 7.3x10(-4) M hydroquinone and 1.0x10(-3) M hydrogen peroxide in 0.10 M tetrabutylammonium bromide methanol-phosphate buffer solution (95:5% v/v) (n=10). The results obtained for hydroquinone in cosmetic creams using the proposed biosensor are in close agreement with those obtained using a Pharmacopoeia procedure at the 95% confidence level.     

A new regularization of equilibrium problems on Hadamard manifolds: applications to theories of desires

In this paper, we introduce a new proximal algorithm for equilibrium problems on a genuine Hadamard manifold, using a new regularization term. We first extend recent existence results by considering pseudomonotone bifunctions and a weaker sufficient condition than the coercivity assumption. Then, we consider the convergence of this proximal-like algorithm which can be applied to genuinely Hadamard manifolds and not only to specific ones, as in the recent literature. A striking point is that our new regularization term have a clear interpretation in a recent “variational rationality” approach of human behavior. It represents the resistance to change aspects of such human dynamics driven by motivation to change aspects. This allows us to give an application to the theories of desires, showing how an agent must escape to a succession of temporary traps to be able to reach, at the end, his desires.