Electroanalytical investigation and determination of pefloxacin in pharmaceuticals and serum at boron-doped diamond and glassy carbon electrodes

The anodic behavior and determination of pefloxacin on boron-doped diamond and glassy carbon electrodes were investigated using cyclic, linear sweep, differential pulse and square wave voltammetric techniques. In cyclic voltammetry, pefloxacin shows one main irreversible oxidation peak and additional one irreversible ill-defined wave depending on pH values for both electrodes. The results indicate that the process of pefloxacin is irreversible and diffusion controlled on boron-doped diamond electrode and irreversible but adsorption controlled on glassy carbon electrode. The peak current is found to be linear over the range of concentration 2 × 10⁻⁶ to 2 × 10⁻⁴ M in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ at about +1.20 V (versus Ag/AgCl) for differential pulse and square wave voltammetric technique using boron-doped diamond electrode. The repeatability, reproducibility, precision and accuracy of the methods in all media were investigated. Selectivity, precision and accuracy of the developed methods were also checked by recovery studies. The procedures were successfully applied to the determination of the drug in pharmaceutical dosage forms and humans serum samples with good recovery results. No electroactive interferences from the excipients and endogenous substances were found in the pharmaceutical dosage forms and biological samples, respectively.     

Nonlinear Response of Cylindrical Shells to Random Excitation

An analytical study of nonlinear flexural vibrations of cylindrical shells to random excitation is presented. Donnell's thin-shell theory is used to develop the governing equations of motion. Thermal effects for a uniform temperature rise through the shell thickness are included in the formulation. A Monte Carlo simulation technique of stationary random processes, multi-mode Galerkin-like approach and numerical integration procedures are used to develop nonlinear response solutions of simply-supported cylindrical shells. Numerical results include time domain response histories, root-mean-square values and histograms of probability density. Comparison of Monte Carlo results is made to those obtained by statistical linearization and the Fokker–Planck equation.     

Multilevel Deep Feature Generation Framework for Automated Detection of Retinal Abnormalities Using OCT Images

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images coupled with many learning techniques have been developed to diagnose retinal disorders. This work aims to develop a novel framework for extracting deep features from 18 pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNN) and to attain high performance using OCT images. In this work, we have developed a new framework for automated detection of retinal disorders using transfer learning. This model consists of three phases: deep fused and multilevel feature extraction, using 18 pre-trained networks and tent maximal pooling, feature selection with ReliefF, and classification using the optimized classifier. The novelty of this proposed framework is the feature generation using widely used CNNs and to select the most suitable features for classification. The extracted features using our proposed intelligent feature extractor are fed to iterative ReliefF (IRF) to automatically select the best feature vector. The quadratic support vector machine (QSVM) is utilized as a classifier in this work. We have developed our model using two public OCT image datasets, and they are named database 1 (DB1) and database 2 (DB2). The proposed framework can attain 97.40% and 100% classification accuracies using the two OCT datasets, DB1 and DB2, respectively. These results illustrate the success of our model.     

An investigation of influencing of Sb and Bi contents on surface tensions associated with Pb-free Sn-Zn-Sb-Bi quaternary and sub-quaternary solder alloys

The surface tensions of ternary and quaternary systems of Sn-based Pb-free solder alloys have been calculated using geometric models, such as Muggianu, Kohler, Chou’s general solution model (GSM), Toop, Guggenheim, ideal Butler and Butler models. It is observed from the calculation carried out in the present work that Sb and Bi contents decrease the surface tension of the solder alloys Sn-Zn-Sb-Bi. It is inferred from the statistical analysis that the best agreement between the experimental results and the corresponding calculated values of the surface tensions is generally observed in GSM and Muggianu models among the geometric models. Whereas Muggianu model is the most appropriate. Relatively good agreements have been observed between models considered in this study and experimental data.     

Ionic and electronic conductivity of nitrogen-doped YSZ single crystals

The ionic and electronic charge transport was studied for single crystals of 9.5 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia with additional nitrogen doping (YSZ:N) of up to 7.5 at.% (referred to the anion sublattice and formula unit Zr_0.83Y_0.17O_1.91) as a function of temperature and nitrogen content. The total conductivity being almost equivalent to the oxygen ion conductivity has been measured by AC impedance spectroscopy under vacuum conditions in order to prevent re-oxidation and loss of nitrogen. The electronic conductivity has been determined by Hebb–Wagner polarization using ion-blocking Pt microelectrodes in N₂ atmosphere. The ionic conductivity of YSZ:N decreases in the presence of nitrogen at intermediate temperatures up to 1000 °C. The mean activation energy of ionic conduction strongly increases with increasing nitrogen content, from 1.0 eV for nitrogen-free YSZ up to 1.9 eV for YSZ containing 7.3 at.% N. Compared to nitrogen-free YSZ, the electronic conductivity first decreases at nitrogen contents of 2.17 and 5.80 at.%, but then increases again for a sample with 7.53 at.%. At temperatures of 850 °C and above, the presence of the N^3? dopant fixes the electrode potential and thus the oxygen partial pressure at the Pt electrode to very low values. This corresponds to a pinning of the Fermi level at a relatively high energy in the upper half of the band gap. At 7.53 at.% N and 950 °C, the oxygen partial pressure in YSZ:N corresponds to p_O2 = 3 × 10^? 18 bar. At temperatures above 850 °C, even in the presence of a very small oxygen concentration in the surrounding gas phase, the nitrogen ion dopant becomes highly mobile and thus diffuses to the surface where it is oxidized to gaseous N₂. The results are discussed in terms of the ionic and electronic defect structures and the defect mobilities in YSZ:N.     

Biomimetic mineralization of hydroxyapatite crystals on the copolymers of vinylphosphonic acid and 4-vinilyimidazole

In the present work, copolymers of vinylphosphonic acid and 4-vinilyimidazole (poly(4-VIm-co-VPA)) were found to be substrates favoring the precipitation of nanohydroxyapatite (HAP) crystals from stable supersaturated solutions at pH 7.4 and 37 degrees C. Deposition kinetics were studied by the constant composition technique. The rates of crystallization both on HAP seed crystals as reference and on the copolymer in powder form were investigated at constant supersaturation conditions. The rates of HAP crystal growth on the polymeric substrate were found to depend on the amount of seed material and on the phosphate content of the copolymer.     

Spectrophotometric determination of trace amounts of tungsten in geological samples after preconcentration on Amberlite XAD-1180

A method for the preconcentration of trace amounts of tungsten as its thiocyanate complex, using a column filled with Amberlite XAD-1180 resin, is proposed. After elution with a small volume of acetone, the analyte was determined spectrophotometrically with potassium thiocyanate and stannous chloride. The influence of several ions, as interferents, is discussed. The proposed method was applied to the determination of tungsten in geological samples with good analytical results, such as recoveries of 95% or above, relative standard deviations of 6% or below (n = 10) and a detection limit of 12 mugl(-1).