Cycle and circle tests of balance in gain graphs: Forbidden minors and their groups

We examine two criteria for balance of a gain graph, one based on binary cycles and one on circles. The graphs for which each criterion is valid depend on the set of allowed gain groups. The binary cycle test is invalid, except for forests, if any possible gain group has an element of odd order. Assuming all groups are allowed, or all abelian groups, or merely the cyclic group of order 3, we characterize, both constructively and by forbidden minors, the graphs for which the circle test is valid. It turns out that these three classes of groups have the same set of forbidden minors. The exact reason for the importance of the ternary cyclic group is not clear. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

Characterization of low molecular weight hydrocarbon oligomers by laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry using a solvent-free sample preparation method.

A new solvent-free sample preparation method using silver trifluoroacetate (AgTFA) was developed for the analysis of low molecular weight paraffins and microcrystalline waxes by laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LDI-TOFMS). Experiments show that spectral quality can be enhanced by dispersing AgTFA directly in liquid paraffins without the use of additional solvents. This preparation mixture is applied directly to the MALDI probe. Solid waxes could be examined by melting prior to analysis. The method also provides sufficiently reproducible spectra that peak area ratios between mono- and bicyclic alkane peaks indicated variations in the cycloalkane content of paraffin samples. Dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons observed during the desorption/ionization process was studied by analysis of alkane standards.     

Design of neutral, mono- or di-cationic water-soluble trihydrazidophosphoradamantanes

The versatile behavior of a trihydrazidophosphoradamantane allowing the synthesis of a variety of neutral, mono- or di-cationic water-soluble molecules of potential interest for biphasic catalysis is reported.     

IFS attractors and Cantor sets

We build a metric space which is homeomorphic to a Cantor set but cannot be realized as the attractor of an iterated function system. We give also an example of a Cantor set K in R³ such that every homeomorphism f of R³ which preserves K coincides with the identity on K.     

Integral Inequalities and Global Solutions of Semilinear Evolution Equations

A criterion for the nonexplosion of solutions to semilinear evolution equations on Banach spaces is proved. The result is obtained by applying a modification of the Bihari type inequality to the case of a weakly singular nonlinear integral inequality.     

Asymptotic Analysis of the Current-Voltage Curve of a pnpn Semiconductor Device

We consider the one-dimensional steady-state semiconductor deviceequations modelling a pnpn device. There are two relevant scalingsof the equations corresponding to small and large applied voltages.In both scalings, the semiconductor equations can be consideredas singularly perturbed. It turns out that the small-voltagescaling breaks down for current values between two saturationcurrents. In that interval, the large-voltage scaling has tobe employed. For both scalings, we derive the first-order termsof an asymptotic expansion and show that the reduced problemhas a solution. An example verifies that the current-voltagecurves obtained have the expected qualitative structure.     

Zero-sum constrained stochastic games with independent state processes

We consider a zero-sum stochastic game with side constraints for both players with a special structure. There are two independent controlled Markov chains, one for each player. The transition probabilities of the chain associated with a player as well as the related side constraints depend only on the actions of the corresponding player; the side constraints also depend on the player’s controlled chain. The global cost that player 1 wishes to minimize and that player 2 wishes to maximize, depend however on the actions and Markov chains of both players. We obtain a linear programming formulations that allows to compute the value and saddle point policies for this problem. We illustrate the theoretical results through a zero-sum stochastic game in wireless networks in which each player has power constraints