A Network Simulation of High-congestion Road-traffic Flows in Cities with Marine Container Terminals

Port cities where marine cargo terminals are located are generally near urban areas characterized by high-congestion road traffic. Changes in cargo traffic volumes into a marine terminal, or in the surrounding traffic arteries, which carry this traffic, can significantly affect the terminal's operations. Conversely, activity at the terminal can have an impact on the traffic levels and congestion for a considerable distance from the terminal. This paper demonstrates a methodology useful for studying the impact of road traffic flows on marine container terminals located in highly congested areas. This model was developed at the request of the Virginia Center for World Trade and was used to answer three planning questions in the port of Hampton Roads, Virginia, USA-what would be the impact of: opening a new section of interstate highway, a projected doubling of container traffic at one terminal, and a daily unit train in the vicinity of another terminal. The problem was made more challenging by limited data-collection funds. None the less, the model was deemed valid by a panel of traffic experts and officials from several major state and private agencies involved in marine traffic management. The model results were subsequently a factor in two major decisions related to terminal management.     

Partitioning Boolean lattices into chains of subsets

We prove that the Boolean lattice of all subsets of an n-set can be partitioned into chains of size four if and only if n9.Research supported in part by N.S.F. grant DMS-8401281.Research supported in part by N.S.F. grant DMS-8406451.     

PHOTOREACTIVATING ENZYME FROM NEUROSPORA CRASSA*

Abstract— Extracts of Neurospora crassa contain photoreactivating enzyme by the criteria of ability to split thymine-containing dimers and to increase the transforming ability of u.v.-irradiated Hemophilus influenzae DNA. The latter activity is heat-labile and is destroyed by trypsin. The action spectrum of such in vitro photoreactivation is a simple one (with a single maximum at 405 nm in the range 313 to 436 nm), differing from the more complicated in vitro spectra for yeast and Escherichia coli. However, the in vitro Neurospora spectrum coincides closely with the in vivo spectrum for this organism, suggesting that there is little or no “indirect” photoreactivation in Neurospora. It is concluded that the Neurospora photoreactivating enzyme is probably of a different type than those of yeast and Escherichia coli.     

Laser induced fluorencence matrix study of 1,3-difluorobenzene radical cation

Laser induced fluorescence excitation and resolved emission spectra of 1,3-C₆H₄F⁺₂ are obtained in a Ne matrix with high signal/noise despite the ion's low emission quantum yield. The ground state vibrational structure is mostly regular but that of the upper is very irregular suggesting nearly degenerate, mutually perturbing, excited states.     

An evaluation of the performance of porous polymer monolith assisted electrospray

A novel electrospray interface, which has distinct advantages over conventional pulled silica emitters, has been developed. This novel interface can be easily fabricated by forming a porous polymer monolith (PPM) at the end of a fused-silica capillary that facilitates a stable electrospray over a wide range of flow rates with only a modest increase in back-pressure. A comparison was made between the PPM-assisted electrospray and a commercial nanosprayer in terms of sensitivity, stability and robustness. A PPM-filled electrospray tip produced a day-to-day signal variation of 23% relative standard deviation (RSD) over a 3-day period when spraying a 1.0 microM test peptide solution. Furthermore, three different capillaries fabricated by the same process produced a signal variation of 17% RSD, indicating that the fabrication process shows good reproducibility. The multiple flow paths of the PPM function to split the flow and reduce clogging. Even following the accumulation of debris after prolonged use, a stable spray could still be generated with the PPM-filled capillary while the commercial nanosprayer ceased to function properly. In terms of sensitivity, PPM-assisted electrospray showed an enhancement in sensitivity at infusion flow rates between 100 to 1000 nL/min while commercial nanosprayers performed slightly better at flow rates below 100 nL/min. A sample purification step can be combined with the PPM-assisted sprayer, using the PPM as a stationary phase to desalt and preconcentrate samples prior to mass spectrometric detection.     

Measurement of PCDDs, PCDFs, and non-ortho-PCBs by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-isotope dilution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC x GC-IDTOFMS)

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with isotope-dilution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-IDTOFMS) was used to measure polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (PCDD), polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDF), and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyl (cPCB) concentrations in ash, sediment, vegetation, and fish samples. The GC × GC capability was achieved by using a quad jet, dual stage, thermal modulator. Zone compression of the GC peaks from modulation resulted in a significant increase of the signal intensity over classical GC-IDTOFMS. The GC × GC column set used an Rtx-Dioxin 2 phase as the first dimension (¹D) and an Rtx-500 as the second dimension (²D). The chromatographic separation of the 17 PCDD/Fs and the 4 cPCBs was attained in ¹D except for 2,3,7,8-TCDD and CB126 for which deconvoluted ion currents (DIC) were required to be reported separately. The Rtx-500 phase separated the bulk matrix interfering compounds from the target analytes in ²D. The instrumental limit of detection (iLODs) was 0.5 pg for 2,3,7,8-TCDD. The calibration curves showed good correlation coefficients for all the compounds investigated in the concentration range of 0.5–200 pg. GC × GC-IDTOFMS results compared favorably to those from conventional isotope-dilution one-dimensional gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (GC-IDHRMS). The comprehensive mass analysis of the TOFMS further permitted the identification of other contaminants of concern in the samples.