Relaxation methods in control theory

Two different relaxed problems associated with a problem of optimal control theory, governed by an ODE, are considered: the first is obtained by Young's methods and the second by semicontinuity arguments. A formula which relates the two relaxed functionals to each other is given.     

Ion chromatography-electrospray mass spectrometry for the identification of low-molecular-weight organic acids during the 2,4-dichlorophenol degradation

End-product identification of organic pollutants during oxidation water treatments is of environmental concern due to their potential toxicity. In this work the coupling of ion chromatography (IC), equipped with a membrane ion suppressor, and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) has been successfully exploited for the identification of novel low molecular weight organic acids formed as final by-products of 2,4-dichloro-phenol (DCP) degradation by Fenton's reagent, an oxidation method widely employed to degrade recalcitrant organic pollutants in industrial wastewater. The IC-ESI-MS analytical set-up not only allowed the detection of known organic acids but also the identification of 13 new low molecular weight organic acids as a result of extensive oxidation of the parent organic pollutant. Some of the novel organic acids were shown to be chlorine containing by-products and, consequently, of environmental concern. The analytical set-up could be used for characterizing the unknown organic carbon fraction arising from oxidation water treatments.     

Endogenous growth of the population of reverse micelles

The coupling reaction between cetylbromide (CB) and trimethylamine (TMA) to yield the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) is studied in the system chloroform/isooctane (2/1,v/v)/water in which CTAB forms reverse micelles. This system affords an endogenous micelle population growth, i.e., an increase of the concentration of the micelles due to appearance of the surfactant in situ. The reaction is studied in the presence of preexisting CTAB reverse micelles. The rate of CTAB formation is measured by NMR spectroscopy, and the endogenous micelle population growth is directly monitored by time-resolved fluorescence quenching analysis. Under our experimental conditions, a 100% yield of the chemical reaction brings about a fourfold increase in the population of the reverse micelles. Since the water concentration is constant during chemical reaction, the newly formed water pools are formed at the expense of the initial ones, which brings about a decrease of the average water pool radius during micellar growth. The implication of the endogenous micelle population growth as a model for biological systems is briefly discussed.     

Combined IR and XPS analysis of the native (1 0 0) surface of single‐crystalline silicon after HFaq etching

A combined analysis, based on angle‐resolved X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and multiple‐internal‐reflection infrared spectroscopy, of the (1 0 0) silicon surface after etching in dilute aqueous solution of HF is presented. The analysis shows that the surface is mainly formed by a heterogeneous distribution of SiH, SiH₂ and SiH₃ terminations, but contains (in addition to sub‐stoichiometric oxidized silicon) a form of reduced silicon, not consistent with the currently accepted picture of the native HF_aq‐etched surface. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New perspective on the determination of flame retardants in sewage sludge by using ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry with different ion sources

Analysis of 11 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), tetrabromobisphenol A bis 2,3-dibromopropylether (TBBPA-bis), tetrachlorobisphenol A (TCBPA), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) and hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) was optimized by ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) operating in negative ion (NI) mode. Electrospray ionization (ESI), atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) sources were tested and for PBDEs APCI gave higher sensitivity than APPI while for TBBPA-bis APCI and APPI showed similar performance. ESI was the best option for TCBPA, TBBPA and HBCDs. Detection limits were between 20 and 59 fg for the compounds analyzed by ESI, 0.10 and 0.72 pg for PBDEs and 6 pg for TBBPA-bis. The matrix effect of sewage sludge extract was also tested showing negligible ion suppression for APCI and an increase of the background level of all investigated pollutants leading to a worsening of the limits of quantification by a factor between 1.2 and 3.3. The UPLC-APCI/MS/MS method for PBDEs, after pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), was validated by comparison with the concentration values from the NIST 1944 standard reference material. The advantages of the methods include low detection limits, PBDE congeners specificity using selected multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) transitions, and the absence of thermal degradation of higher PBDE congeners, especially BDE-209. The methods were applied for the determination of the above reported flame retardants in sewage sludge in order to get more information about the degradation on PBDEs (in particular BDE-209) during municipal wastewater treatments.     

Existence of minimizers for a class of quasi-convex functionals with non-standard growth

We study the lower semicontinuity properties of non-autonomous variational integrals whose energy densities satisfy general growth conditions. We apply these results to solve Dirichlet’s boundary value problems for such functionals. Received: June 14, 2000; in final form: November 25, 2000 Published online: December 19, 2001     

Proprietà spettrali di una classe di operatori quasi ellittici

Riassunto In questo lavoro ci occupiamo di problemi al contorno per una classe di operatori lineari quasi ellittici del tipoA+σ, dove σ è una perturbazione assegnata; proviamo che l'operatore associato al problema è di Fredholm con indice zero e studiamo le proprietà spettrali dell'operatore associato al problema con condizioni al contorno omogenee.

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Summary In this paper we study boundary value problems for linear quasi elliptic (A+σ)-type operators, where σ is an assigned perturbation; we prove that the related operator is a Fredholm operator whose index is zero. Then we study spectral properties of the operator related to the problem with homogeneous boundary conditions.

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Lavoro eseguito nell'Istituto di Scienze dell'Informazione dell'Università di Salerno, nell'ambito del Gruppo Nazionale per l'Analisi Funzionale e le sue Applicazioni del C.N.R.     

Medicinal plants with anti-inflammatory activities

Medicinal plants have been the main remedy to treat various ailments for a long time and nowadays, many drugs have been developed from traditional medicine. This paper reviews some medicinal plants and their main constituents which possess anti-inflammatory activities useful for curing joint inflammation, inflammatory skin disorders, cardiovascular inflammation and other inflammatory diseases. Here, we provide a brief overview of quick and easy reading on the role of medicinal plants and their main constituents in these inflammatory diseases. We hope that this overview will shed some light on the function of these natural anti-inflammatory compounds and attract the interest of investigators aiming at the design of novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of various inflammatory conditions.     

On the possibility to measure the π0→γγ decay width and the γ?γ→π0 transition form factor with the KLOE-2 experiment

A possibility of KLOE-2 experiment to measure the width \varGamma_{p⁰ ?gg}\varGamma_{\pi^{0} \to\gamma\gamma} and the π ⁰ γγ ^∗ form factor F(Q ²) at low invariant masses of the virtual photon in the space-like region is considered. This measurement is an important test of the strong interaction dynamics at low energies. The feasibility is estimated on the basis of a Monte-Carlo simulation. The expected accuracy for \varGamma_{p⁰ ?gg}\varGamma_{\pi^{0} \to\gamma\gamma} is at a per cent level, which is better than the current experimental world average and theory. The form factor will be measured for the first time at Q ²≤0.1 GeV² in the space-like region. The impact of these measurements on the accuracy of the pion-exchange contribution to the hadronic light-by-light scattering part of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon is also discussed.