The honors class: hilbert’s problems and their solvers

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Outflow refreshment angiography: A bright blood, bright static tissue technique

A new “bright blood” strategy, outflow refreshment imaging, is introduced in which a number of overlapping slices are excited in rapid succession. Flowing spins that refresh each overlapped slice portion contribute a bright signal. Additionally, static tissue in each non-overlapped slice portion also yields a bright signal. However, the flow/static contrast is comparable to that produced in inflow refreshment images, and angiograms can be generated by conventional maximum intensity projection processing. The dual ability to visualize angiograms and static tissue images is a major benefit of the strategy. Computer simulations of flow sensitivities and in vivo results are presented which compare the outflow and inflow refreshment imaging strategies.     

Succinic acid adsorption from fermentation broth and regeneration

More than 25 sorbents were tested for uptake of succinic acid from aqueous solutions. The best resins were then tested for successive loading and regeneration using hotwater. The key desired properties for an ideal sorbent are high capacity, complete stable regenerability, and specificity for the product. The best resins have a stable capacity of about 0.06 g of succinic acid/g of resin at moderate concentrations (1–5 g/L) of succinic acid. Several sorbents were tested more exhaustively for uptake of succinic acid and for successive loading and regeneration using hot water. One resin, XUS 40285, has a good stable isotherm capacity, prefers succinate over glucose, and has good capacities at both acidic and neutral pH. Succinic acid was removed from simulated media containing salts, succinic acid, acetic acid, and sugar using a packed column of sorbent resin, XUS 40285. The fermentation byproduct, acetate, was completely separated from succinate. A simple hot water regeneration successfully concentrated succinate from 10 g/L (inlet) to 40–110 g/L in the effluent. If successful, this would lower separation costs by reducing the need for chemicals for the initial purification step. Despie promising initial results of good capacity (0.06 g of succinic/g of sorbent), 70% recovery using hot water, and a recovered concentration of >100 g/L, this regeneration was not stable over 10 cycles in the column. Alternative regeneration schemes using acid and base were examined. Two (XUS 40285 and XFS-40422) showed both good stable capacities for succinic acid over 10 cycles and >95% recovery in a batch operation using a modified extraction procedure combining acid and hot water washes. These resins showed comparable results with actual broth.     

Information and asymptotic efficiency of the case-cohort sampling design in Cox's regression model

Efficiencies of the maximum pseudolikelihood estimator and a number of related estimators for the case-cohort sampling design in the proportional hazards regression model are studied. The asymptotic information and lower bound for estimating the parametric regression parameter are calculated based on the effective score, which is obtained by determining the component of the parametric score orthogonal to the space generated by the infinite-dimensional nuisance parameter. The asymptotic distributions of the maximum pseudolikelihood and related estimators in an i.i.d. setting show that these estimators do not achieve the computed asymptotic lower bound. Simple guidelines are provided to determine in which instances such estimators are close enough to efficient for practical purposes.     

Crystallographic report: Crystal structure of 1‐bromo‐1′‐[(2S)‐N‐(1‐hydroxy‐3‐methylbutane‐2‐yl)]‐ferroceneamide

For the unsymmetrical title compound, 1‐bromo‐1′‐[(2S)‐N‐(1‐hydroxy‐3‐methylbutane‐2‐yl)]‐ferroceneamide, two independent molecules were found in the asymmetric unit. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Selection and Scheduling of Advanced Missions for NASA Using 0-1 Integer Linear Programming

A 0-1 integer linear programme for the selection and scheduling of US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions over a long planning horizon is presented. This model was formulated to allow a higher-level user-interaction with an advanced missions database currently being developed. The model implicitly considers the multi-objective nature of the problem, which results from the desire to maximize benefits in several categories as well as from the desire to minimize cost. In addition, the model allows the planner much flexibility in the selection process. This is accomplished by allowing the planner the ability to specify long- or short-term budget constraints, precursor/follow-on mission requirements, or any number of other idiosyncratic constraints which might be of importance in the decision process. Small example problems are solved in order to illustrate the approach, and areas for further research are discussed.