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A novel approach to serial cost sharing, called decreasing serial mechanism, was designed in an effort to provide an efficient means of analyzing economies of scale, where changes in returns and consumer behavior are both prevalent. The concept of decreasing serial mechanism primarily centers on the allocation of the largest surplus to the agent with the greatest demand, in order to evaluate incentive properties with a great degree of efficiency. Unlike conventional cost sharing approach, the proposed mechanism outlines a decision-making procedure in analyzing quasi-linear utility functions.

Through the use of fused-silica capillaries it was shown that reducing the liquid volume of an enzyme-amplified immunological assay increases the rate of amplification and sensitivity of the assay by several orders of magnitude. Human immunoglobulin G (hIgG) captured on protein G-coated 100-micrometers-i.d. columns was saturated with F(ab) anti-hIgG conjugated to alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Conjugated enzyme captured by the antigen was subsequently assayed in a stop-flow incubation with p-nitrophenyl phosphate. p-Nitrophenol produced in the stop-flow incubation was then swept to the detector and quantitated at 405 nm. The detection limit in the stop-flow mode was approximately 3 fmol. Three problems were identified in this flow-through, capillary assay format. The first was that the rate of immunological complex formation within the capillary was too slow. Preforming the immunological complex before application to the column increased the sensitivity by 2 orders of magnitude. Another problem was that the rate of mass transfer within the capillary limited capture of the preformed immunological complex. This problem was solved by stop-flow incubation of the complex in the column. The combination of preformation of the immunological complex and stop-flow binding within the column reduced the detection limit to approximately 3 amol. Finally, reducing the amount of F(ab)-ALP used in the assay minimized nonspecific binding of the conjugated enzyme and reduced the detection limit further to 333 zmol.

Background: The therapeutic role of humor and hospital clowns has become a focus of interest in recent decades. Most of the research in the area has focused on children; here, we explore the influence of clown performances on adult cancer patients, their companions, and health-care staff. Methods: Ninety-nine cancer patients and 113 companions were assessed pre- and post-interventions performed by professional clowns; 31 health professionals were asked about the possible influence of the presence of clowns in hospital on their work. Results: Patients felt that clowning performances helped to reduce their level of psychological symptoms, but not their physical symptoms. Companions reported improvements in all the psychological symptoms explored. Health professionals reported that the presence of clowns in the workplace improved their well-being. Conclusions: Clowning performances helped to improve psychological functioning in all the populations studied, especially in companions. Adult hospitals should consider promoting clowning interventions to improve general well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dissociation of tellurium cluster ions containing up to 40 atoms has been studied using unimolecular decay of thermoexcited clusters. Clusters with less than 10 atoms dissociate mainly by Te2 loss. Larger clusters fragment by loss of Te5, Te6, or Te7 species. As the cluster size increases, Te5 loss becomes the predominent channel, showing a dissociation which smoothly evolves to the bulk behavior. The dissociation energies of mass selected Te+n, with n=5–35, are deduced from the relative branching ratios of the competitive fragmentation channels. The changes in the observed neutral products are correlated to changes in the dissociation energies which are minima for cluster ion parents containing 13–25 atoms. © 1995 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preferential dissociation channels of singly and doubly charged antimony clusters have been determined from the unimolecular dissociation of energy rich cluster ions, using an ion stopping technique. It is found that singly charged Sb+n clusters with 5≤n≤80 dissociate by loss of neutral molecules. Neutral dimer loss is observed for n=5, 6, 7 whereas for n≥8, Sb+n loses Sb4. The fragmentation of doubly charged Sb++n has been investigated above the critical size n++c=24 from which doubly charged clusters are detectable in mass spectra. On the time scale of the experiment, which is 1 μs≤t≤100 μs with respect to photoionization, the delayed Coulombic fission into two singly charged clusters competes with the evaporation of Sb4. It is shown that for the smaller Sb++n clusters with 26≤n≤36 the fission to two singly charged clusters is of relatively asymmetrical character, leading to the detachment of five and seven atom cationic fragments. In larger clusters n≥40 the fission is of more symmetrical character and the difference in the fission products is less than 30%. Such a behavior totally deviates from the drop model predictions. © 1995 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium oxide clusters Li2n+pOn+ are generated by combining reactive nucleation in a gas aggregation source and photoionization. Unimolecular dissociation of mass selected cluster ions provides evidence that the excess of metal atoms evaporates first leading to the most stable species Li+(Li2O)n, which then evaporate Li2O molecules. The evaporation rate behavior as a function of cluster size demonstrates that Li+(Li2O)n can be prepared with different temperatures. It is discussed how metal evaporation from metal-rich oxide clusters leads to oxygen saturated clusters with a lower temperature. An estimate of the dissociation energies of Li+(Li2O)n are given for small sizes n≤10 from photoevaporation experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaporative cooling of internal energy rich potassium cluster ions K+n (5

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