Mental representations of important real-life decisions

Two studies investigated how decision makers characterize alternatives in important real-life decisions, which they themselves had made (to leave a partner, to choose an education and to choose a home). First, the participants indicated a very high degree of involvement in the decisions studied and about half of the participants gave maximum involvement ratings for the partner decision. Second, the results showed that concepts that are essential in most decision theories, such as, consequence, probability and value were important characteristics of the decisions. Third, emotion, positive and negative affect were also important characteristics. Fourth, value and emotion were uncorrelated. Fifth, the patterns of characteristics of decisions made in the past did not differ markedly from the characteristics given to future decisions. Principal component analyses were performed on the ratings of applicability of the different characteristics across participants for each decision situation. Three factors were extracted. There was one factor for positive affect/emotions and another factor for negative affect/emotions verified in oblique solutions. Thus, different scales are needed to represent emotion/affect components (and not bipolar scales) in real-life important decisions. The third factor represented the way in which a decision was represented (moving pictures dialogue etc.). An analysis restricted to the participants who rated 100% involvement showed an additional fourth factor with “what others would think”, “similar situations”, “values” and “money” as the most prominent characteristics. This points to the importance of controlling for participant involvement in studies of human decision making to enable generalizations to real-life decisions.     

河南省城市居民消费结构比较研究

本文主要应用聚类分析方法 ,对河南省 17个地市级城市居民的消费结构进行了比较统计分析 ,从而得到了各城市居民消费结构的一些特点和规律 ,并进一步探讨了其消费结构、可支配收入与总消费支出之间的关系     

Biosensors based on highly sensitive acetylcholinesterases for enhanced carbamate insecticides detection

This paper presents the construction of amperometric biosensors for the highly sensitive detection of carbamate insecticides based on the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE). This enzyme was immobilised by entrapment in an optimised sol-gel matrix on TCNQ-modified screen-printed electrodes. The enzyme activity was estimated by measuring the thiocholine produced by the enzymatic hydrolysis of the acetylthiocholine using TCNQ as mediator. Wild and genetically engineered AChEs from Drosophila melanogaster (Dm) were chosen for their high sensitivity towards insecticides, which substantially improves the LOD compared with cholinesterases from other sources. The wild type and three mutant enzymes were tested against three carbamate insecticides: carbaryl, carbofuran and pirimicard. The best LOD were obtained with the Y370A mutant for carbaryl (1 × 10⁻⁸ M), the E69W mutant for pirimicarb (2 × 10⁻⁸ M) and the I161V mutant for carbofuran (8 × 10⁻¹⁰ M). The biosensors were applied to the analysis of two potable water samples.     

A Disposable Homemade Screen Printed Electrochemical Sensor for Vitamin B1 Determination in Multivitamin Ampoules: Potentiometric and Surface Morphology Studies

Thiamine chloride hydrochloride (TCH) is one of the B‐complex vitamins which resemble a very biologically important group of biomolecules. The first screen‐printed graphite ion‐selective sensor for the determination of TCH was prepared and characterized. The sensor is based on TCH‐tetraphenylborate as electrode material. A number of parameters such as the type of solvent mediator, weight percent of the ion‐exchanger, test solution temperature and possible interferences were extensively studied. Moreover, the surface morphology of the prepared sensor was studied using scanning electron microscopy. The sensor shows a Nernstian slope of 30.60±0.07 mV/decade, a low LOD of 5.08×10⁻⁶ mol/L and a wide applicability range of 5.96×10⁻⁶‐1.00×10⁻² mol/L. The sensing graphite ink remains usable for at least one month. Fast potentiometric response was obtained within 5 s and remains stable for at least 60 s. The sensor was applied to the analysis of TCH in pure solutions and multivitamin ampoules from the Egyptian market using the standard addition method and high recovery values of 97–102 % were obtained. Low %RSD values (0.27‐1.30) indicate high precision of the proposed sensor. Our sensor provides the advantages of disposability, simple preparation procedures, sensitivity and easy storage and transportation.     

Electrochemical Determination of the Effect of Caffeic Acid onto the Interaction between Idarubicin and DNA by Single‐use Disposable Electrodes

Now it is well known, antioxidant may affect the interaction of anticancer drugs and DNA. This study aims to investigate the interaction between Idarubicin and DNA and the effect of caffeic acid on this interaction. Disposable, inexpensive, easy handle electrodes were used in this study to investigate the interaction of idarubicin and DNA electrochemically. Idarubicin (IDR) is an anthracyline antitumor antibiotic, which used against one or more types of leukemia. Electrochemical behaviour of IDR was investigated by using cyclic voltammetry. The interaction between anticancer drug, IDR and calf thymus double‐stranded DNA (ctdsDNA) was investigated by using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) technique in the absence and presence of caffeic acid.     

Current approaches to trace analysis of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment

A large number of xenobiotics including pharmaceuticals and personal care products are continuously released into the environment. Effluents from sewage treatment plants are well known to be the major source for introduction of pharmaceuticals and personal care products into the aquatic system. In recent years, reliable methods have been established for residue analysis of these pollutants down to low ng/L levels. In this review, the different approaches to their trace determination are reviewed with special attention being paid to sample preparation procedures, state-of-the-art high-performance separation methods hyphenated with mass spectrometry, and immunochemical methods.     

Disposable pipette tips extraction: Fundamentals,applications and state of the art

Disposable pipette tips extraction consists of a solid‐phase extraction in which the sorbent is poorly dispersed in a pipette tip, which allows a quick and dynamic contact between the aspirated analyte from the sample and the solid phase. It is a technique used particularly in food and forensic analysis, since it requires a small amount of sample and solvent. This article highlights the principles, advantages and disadvantages of the disposable pipette tips extraction method and reviews recent applications.     

Privacy and pricing personal information

The issues we address here are – How should a firm (e.g. Internet service provider (ISP)) that is capable of collecting personal information (browsing information, purchase history, etc.) about consumers, price its service, given that consumers vary in their valuation for privacy, and also vary in terms of the value of their personal information to a third party (firms that need consumer information)? Should the firm have a blanket policy of never collecting, or a policy of always collecting and revealing information? Surprisingly we find that in some cases the collector of information may be no worse off in the asymmetric information case than in the full information case. The paper provides a justification for the strategy of some firms such as ISP’s which never collect information and also for the strategy of other firms, like grocery stores that do. We also find that it is non-optimal for the firm to design contracts where the consumer can choose an intermediate level of privacy.