Determination of Total Iron in Environmental Samples by Solid Phase Extraction with Dimethyl(E)‐2‐(2‐Methoxyphenoxy)‐2‐Butenedioate

A novel solid phase extraction technique for determination of total iron in environmental water samples was developed. The method is based on sorption of Fe(III) ions on octadecyl silica membrane disk modified with a new synthetic ligand dimethyl(E)‐2‐(2‐methoxyphenoxy)‐2‐butenedioate (I). Iron(III) is quantitatively retained on the disk in the pH range of 3–7 at a flow rate of 1–7 mL min⁻¹. The Fe(III) eluted with 10 mL of 0.01 M EDTA and than was measured by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) at 248.3 nm. The maximum capacity disk modified by 7 mg of ligand was found to be 197 ± 2 μg of iron(III). The breakthrough volume was greater than 2000 mL. The iron(III) was completely recovered (> 99%) from water with a preconcentration factor of more than 200. The limit of detection of the proposed method was 1.00 ng mL⁻¹. The various cationic and anionic interferences had no effect on the recovery of iron(III) from the binary mixtures. The proposed method was successfully applied to determination of total iron from three different water samples.     

Polymeric conjugates for drug delivery

The field of polymer therapeutics has evolved over the past decade and has resulted in the development of polymer-drug conjugates with a wide variety of architectures and chemical properties. Whereas traditional non-degradable polymeric carriers such as poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and N-(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylamide) (HPMA) copolymers have been translated to use in the clinic, functionalized polymer-drug conjugates are increasingly being utilized to obtain biodegradable, stimuli-sensitive, and targeted systems in an attempt to further enhance localized drug delivery and ease of elimination. In addition, the study of conjugates bearing both therapeutic and diagnostic agents has resulted in multifunctional carriers with the potential to both "see and treat" patients. In this paper, the rational design of polymer-drug conjugates will be discussed followed by a review of different classes of conjugates currently under investigation. The design and chemistry used for the synthesis of various conjugates will be presented with additional comments on their potential applications and current developmental status.     

Common tripled fixed point results in cone metric type spaces

In this paper, we prove some common tripled fixed point and tripled coincidence point results for contractive conditions in a cone metric type space. Our results extend, unify and generalize well-known results in the literature, in particular the recent results of Aydi et al. (Fixed Point Theory Appl 2012:134, 2012). Some examples are also presented to validate our obtained results and new concepts.     

Sensitivity Analysis of Merit Function in Solving Nonlinear Equations by Optimization

To solve nonlinear equations by an optimization method, scaling is very important. Two types of poor scaling where: (a) the variables differ greatly in magnitude; (b) the merit function of system is highly sensitive to small changes in certain variables and relatively insensitive to changes in other variables. If poor scaling is ignored, the algorithm may produce solutions with poor quality. To solve (a), we can change units of variables. A numerical solution of the nonlinear equations produced by the finite volume method in the forced convective heat transfer of a nanofluid, as a case study, indicates that the poor scaling (b) is solved by using the Euclidean norm of columns of the Jacobian matrix as scaling data, while some researchers proposed diagonal elements of the Hessian matrix as scaling data.     

Synthesis and characterization of new optically active copoly(amid-imide)s based on N-phthalimido-L-aspartic acid and aromatic diamines

<正>In this article,six new optically active copoly(amide-imide)s(10a-f) were synthesized through the direct polycondensation reaction of N-phthalimido-L-aspartic acid(4) with 1,5-diamino naphthalene(8),3,4-diamino benzophenone(9) in the presence of therphthahc acid(7),fumaric acid(6) and adipic acid(5) as a second diacid in a medium consisting of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone,triphenyl phosphite, calcium chloride and pyridine.The resulting copolymers were fully characterized by means of FT-IR spectroscopy,elemental analyses, inherent viscosity,solubility tests and UV-vis spectroscopy.Thermal properties of resulting copolymers(10a-c) containing three different second diacid in the main chain were compared by using TGA and DTG thermograms.     

A novel acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene/poly(ethylene glycol) membrane: preparation,characterization, and gas permeation study

Polymeric membranes were prepared by blending different grades of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as the added polymer with acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene as the backbone structure. The membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, X‐ray diffractometry, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, the gas permeation and separation properties of CO₂/CH₄ were studied. In addition, the effect of pressure (1–8 bar) and the effect of PEG content (0–40 wt%) on CO₂ and CH₄ permeability/selectivity were investigated. The results showed that, in more cases, with the introduction of PEG molecules, CO₂/CH₄ selectivity increases without significant changes in CH₄ permeability, indicating that the incorporation of intermolecular interaction is suitable for the separation of gas pairs with no molecular size domination but the solution–diffusion. From the viewpoint of gas separation applications, the resultant data are in the commercially attractive region. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

PT-Symmetric Talbot Effects

We show that complex PT-symmetric photonic lattices can lead to a new class of self-imaging Talbot effects. For this to occur, we find that the input field pattern has to respect specific periodicities dictated by the symmetries of the system. While at the spontaneous PT-symmetry breaking point the image revivals occur at Talbot lengths governed by the characteristics of the passive lattice, at the exact phase it depends on the gain and loss parameter, thus allowing one to control the imaging process.     

First Report of a Lipopeptide Biosurfactant from Thermophilic Bacterium Aneurinibacillus thermoaerophilus MK01 Newly Isolated from Municipal Landfill Site

A biosurfactant-producing thermophile was isolated from the Kahrizak landfill of Tehran and identified as a bacterium belonging to the genus Aneurinibacillus. A thermostable lipopeptide-type biosurfactant was purified from the culture medium of this bacterium and showed stability in the temperature range of 20–90 °C and pH range of 5–10. The produced biosurfactant could reduce the surface tension of water from 72 to 43 mN/m with a CMC of 1.21 mg/mL. The strain growing at a temperature of 45 °C produces a substantial amount of 5 g/L of biosurfactant in the medium supplemented with sunflower oil as the sole carbon source. Response surface methodology was employed to optimize the biosurfactant production using sunflower oil, sodium nitrate, and yeast extract as variables. The optimization resulted in 6.75 g/L biosurfactant production, i.e., 35 % improved as compared to the unoptimized condition. Thin-layer chromatography, FTIR spectroscopy, ¹H-NMR spectroscopy, and biochemical composition analysis confirmed the lipopeptide structure of the biosurfactant.     

Removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewaters using amine-functionalized nanoporous carbon as a novel sorbent

Nano-porous carbon (NPC) was synthesized by hydrothermal condensation of fructose and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction and also nitrogen adsorption analysis. It was then modified with amino groups and used as a sorbent for the removal of heavy metal ions. The formation of amino-modified NPC was confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric and elemental analysis. NPC was applied for removal of Pb(II), Cd(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) ions. The effects of sample pH and the adsorption kinetics were studied, and the adsorption capacity was determined. The sorbent was applied to the removal of heavy metal ions in industrial waste water samples.