Development and Validation of LC-ESI-MS/MS Method for the Determination of Alfuzosin in Human Plasma

Journal of Analytical Chemistry - A new liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for alfuzosin quantification in...     

Capillary gas chromatography of amines with ammonia as carrier gas

The use of ammonia as a carrier gas for the chromatography of aliphatic and aromatic amines has been investigated. As compared to nitrogen, ammonia gave drastically improved peak symmetry and lower capacity factors (k′) for primary and secondary amines on polar (Polyethylene glycol) and medium Polar (methylphenylcyanopropylsilicone) stationary Phases. The effect of ammonia was more Pronounced at low column temperatures. Considerably better detection limits of primary and secondary amines were obtained with ammonia as carrier gas than with nitrogen. No detrimental effects of using ammonia were observed on the gas chromatograph or on the columns over a period of about one year.     

Finite Difference Approximations for Stochastic Control Systems with Delay

Abstract

This article considers the computation issues of the infinite dimensional HJB equation arising from the finite horizon optimal control problem of a general system of stochastic functional differential equations with a bounded memory treated in [2 Chang , M.H. , Pang , T. , and Pemy , M. accepted. Optimal control of functional stochastic differential equations with a bounded memory. Stochastics 80 ( 1 ): 69 – 96 . [Google Scholar]]. The finite difference scheme, using the result in [1 Barles , G. , and Souganidis , P.E. 1991 . Convergence of approximative schemes for fully nonlinear second order equations . J. Asymptotic Analysis 4 : 557 – 579 . [Google Scholar]], is obtained to approximate the viscosity solution of the infinite dimensional HJB equation. The convergence of the scheme is proved using the Banach fixed point theorem. The computational algorithm also is provided based on the scheme obtained.     

Liouville Theorems for a General Class of Nonlocal Operators

In this paper, we study the equation \(\mathcal {L} u=0\) in \(\mathbb {R}^{N}\), where \(\mathcal {L}\) belongs to a general class of nonlocal linear operators which may be anisotropic and nonsymmetric. We classify distributional solutions of this equation, thereby extending and generalizing recent Liouville type theorems in the case where \(\mathcal {L}= (-{\Delta })^{s}\), s ∈ (0, 1) is the classical fractional Laplacian.     

Ensuring population diversity in genetic algorithms: A technical note with application to the cell formation problem

The entropy-based measure has been used in previous works to compute the population diversity in solving the cell formation problem with the genetic algorithm. Population diversity is crucial to the genetic algorithm’s ability to continue fruitful exploration as it may be used in choosing an initial population, in defining a stopping criterion, in evaluating the population convergence, and in making the search more efficient throughout the selection of crossover operators or the adjustment of various control parameters (e.g., crossover or mutation rate, population size). We show in this note that, when a non-ordinal chromosome representation corresponding to the allocation of machines to cells is used, the current way of measuring the population diversity is inaccurate. Consequently, it leads to wrong conclusions when, at various iterations, carrying out fruitful exploration or an efficient search of the solution space is guided by the perceived population diversity degree. An alternative approach based on computing the distance and the similarity between chromosomes is discussed.     

Optimal stock liquidation in a regime switching model with finite time horizon

This paper is concerned with a finite-horizon optimal selling rule. A set of geometric Brownian motions coupled by a finite-state Markov chain is used to characterize stock price movements. Given a fixed transaction fee, the optimal selling rule can be obtained by solving an optimal stopping problem. The corresponding value function is shown to be the unique viscosity solution to the associated HJB equations. Numerical solutions to these equations and their convergence are obtained. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the results.     

Effect of ammonia carrier gas on the response of the flame ionization detector

The effect of using ammonia as a carrier gas on the response of the flame ionization detector (FID) has been investigated. It was found that the FID response, calculated as the effective carbon number (ECN), increased for all the compounds studied when ammonia, rather than helium, was used. The change was 0–0. 9 carbon atom for hydrocarbons, one carbon atom for alcohols and diphenyl ether, and 0.4–1 carbon atom for phenols and ketones. The increase in ECN was larger for amines (0. 8–5 carbon atoms), but these numbers also reflected an improvement in chromatographic performance as a result of reduced adsorption on the column. The largest change in signal-to-noise ratio, a six-fold increase, was obtained for octyl-amine; ratios for hexyl methyl ketone, diisobutyl ketone, dihexyl-amine, dibutylamine, and N-methyloctylamine increased by a factor of 2–3 when ammonia was used as carrier gas. To determine the extent to which the effect on detector response was solely attributable to ammonia, a mixture of 5 % ammonia in nitrogen was used as detector make-up gas with helium as carrier gas. Under these conditions the noise in the FID increased but for most of the compounds studied the signal-to-noise ratio also increased.     

Gradient Estimates in Fractional Dirichlet Problems

We obtain some fine gradient estimates near the boundary for solutions to fractional elliptic problems subject to exterior Dirichlet boundary conditions. Our results provide, in particular, the sign of the normal derivative of such solutions near the boundary of the underlying domain.

     

Isomerisation des ions alcools ethyleniques phenyles en phase gazeuse

Ethylenic alcohols isomerise by hydrogen, phenyl and methyl shifts before cleavage.