Influence of the sulfonate countercation on the thermal stability of nafion perfluorosulfonate membranes

We report a strong dependence of the thermal stability of Nafion® perfluorosulfonate ionomer on the nature of the counterion associated with the fixed sulfonate site. These results were obtained using thermal gravimetric analysis on a series of alkali metal and alkyl ammonium cation-exchanged Nafion films. We have found that the temperature of decomposition of Nafion is inversely dependent on the size of the exchanged cation; i.e., Nafion films show improved thermal stability as the size of the counter cation decreases. We attribute this inverse relationship of thermal stability with counterion size to an initial decomposition reaction which is strongly influenced by the strength of the sulfonate-coun-terion interaction. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

2‐Amino‐4‐chloro‐6‐[N‐methyl‐N‐(4‐methylphenyl)amino]pyrimidine: formation versus fragmentation of hydrogen‐bonded chains of edge‐fused R22(8) rings in 4,6‐disubstituted 2‐aminopyrimidines

Molecules of the title compound, C₁₂H₁₃ClN₄, are linked by two independent N—H...N hydrogen bonds into a chain of edge‐fused R₂²(8) rings. The significance of this study lies in its attempt to rationalize the patterns of supramolecular aggregation in the title compound and in a range of analogous 4,6‐disubstituted 2‐aminopyrimidines.     

High performance liquid chromatographic separation of polar and non-polar chlorophyll pigments from algae using a wide pore polymeric octadecylsilica column

A method employing a wide pore polymeric reversed phase column has been developed for the separation of most of the chlorophylls and related compounds previously described as occurring in marine microalgae. The high selectivity toward molecular shape of this kind of stationary phase has enabled compounds of very similar structure, such as chlorophylls c₁, c₂ and Mg-divinylpheoporphyrin a₅ monomethyl ester, and chlorophyll a and the phytol-substituted chlorophyll c-like pigments, which commonly coelute on monomeric bonded phases, to be resolved in a single run. Some of these pigments, formerly thought to be a single compound, have, in fact, been demonstrated to be groups of two or more. The method has been successfully applied to both algal cultures and natural sea water samples. When visible light absorbance detection was used, the method proved suitable for separation of various carotenoids.     

Optimal Investment in a Levy Market

In this paper we consider the optimal investment problem in a market where the stock price process is modeled by a geometric Levy process (taking into account jumps). Except for the geometric Brownian model and the geometric Poissonian model, the resulting models are incomplete and there are many equivalent martingale measures. However, the model can be completed by the so-called power-jump assets. By doing this we allow investment in these new assets and we can try to maximize the expected utility of these portfolios. As particular cases we obtain the optimal portfolios based in stocks and bonds, showing that the new assets are superfluous for certain martingale measures that depend on the utility function we use.     

Finitely additive integration and local integration with respect to upper integrals

Summary We study the integration theory for general integral metrics when restricted to upper integrals q, finding improvements in the relation between the classes of the q-integrable and the q_l-integrable functions. We give new results and notions which lead to the desirable characterizations of q-integrable functions as q_l-integrable f with q(|f|) < ∞, and of q_l-integrable functions via the integrability of their upper truncations, under natural conditions which are fulfilled in most finitely additive integration theories.     

Heuristic Algorithms and Scatter Search for the Cardinality Constrained P||Cmax Problem

We consider the generalization of the classical P||C_max problem (assign n jobs to m identical parallel processors by minimizing the makespan) arising when the number of jobs that can be assigned to each processor cannot exceed a given integer k. The problem is strongly NP-hard for any fixed k > 2. We briefly survey lower and upper bounds from the literature. We introduce greedy heuristics, local search and a scatter search approach. The effectiveness of these approaches is evaluated through extensive computational comparison with a depth-first branch-and-bound algorithm that includes new lower bounds and dominance criteria.     

Letter: Models of Relativistic Particle with Curvature and Torsion Revisited

Models, describing relativistic particles, where Lagrangian densities depend linearly on both the curvature and the torsion of the trajectories, are revisited in D=3 space forms. The moduli spaces of trajectories are completely and explicitly determined using the Lancret program. The moduli subspaces of closed solitons in the three sphere are also determined.     

Existence and characterization of regions minimizing perimeter under a volume constraint inside Euclidean cones

We study the problem of existence of regions separating a given amount of volume with the least possible perimeter inside a Euclidean cone. Our main result shows that nonexistence for a given volume implies that the isoperimetric profile of the cone coincides with the one of the half-space. This allows us to give some criteria ensuring existence of isoperimetric regions: for instance, local convexity of the cone at some boundary point.

We also characterize which are the stable regions in a convex cone, i.e., second order minima of perimeter under a volume constraint. From this it follows that the isoperimetric regions in a convex cone are the euclidean balls centered at the vertex intersected with the cone.

     

Nash Equilibria in Noncooperative Predator-Prey Games

A noncooperative game governed by a distributed-parameter predator-prey system is considered, assuming that two players control initial conditions for predator and prey, respectively. Existence of a Nash equilibrium is shown under the condition that the desired population profiles and the environmental carrying capacity for the prey are sufficiently small. A conceptual approximation algorithm is proposed and analyzed. Finally, numerical simulations are performed, too.