A Facile Strategy for Construction of Sensor for Detection of Ondansetron and Investigation of its Redox Behavior and Thermodynamic Parameters

A sodium dodecylsulfate‐doped polypyrrole (SDS‐PPy) film was elaborated on glassy carbon electrode (GCE) by an electrodeposition method in phosphate buffer solution (pH 2.0) containing pyrrole (Py) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). SDS‐PPy/GCE was used for the construction of sensor, which showed excellent electrochemical response for the detection of ondansetron (OND) compared to conventional PPy. The application of the square wave (SW), with the adsorptive accumulation, indicates a maximum response at 1.33 V in H₂SO₄ (0.5 M). The influence of experimental parameters on determination of OND is discussed. The adsorptive stripping technique showed to be more sensitive, giving responses twice as big as those of non‐accumulated OND. The substantial improvement of response permits the development of an electroanalytical technique with a linear concentration in the range (1.0–80 μM), low detection (0.09 μM), and quantification limits (0.3 μM), and acceptable relative standard deviations of repeatability (0.59 %), and reproducibility (1.51 %). Consequently, this electrode is promising candidate for an accurate electroanalytical determination of OND in pharmaceutical samples with high sensitivity and selectivity, good accuracy and precision. The electrooxidation of OND at SDS‐PPy/GCE at various temperatures were studied by cyclic voltammetry to evaluate both the kinetic (k_s and E_a) and thermodynamic (ΔG*, ΔH* and ΔS*) parameters.     

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.     

Length-based encoding of binary data in DNA

We developed a system to encode digital information in DNA polymers based on the partial restriction digest (PRD). Our encoding method relies on the length of the fragments obtained by the PRD rather than the actual content of the nucleotide sequence, thus eliminating the need for expensive sequencing machinery. In this letter, we report on the encoding of 12 bits of data in a DNA fragment of 110 nucleotides and the process of recovering the data.     

On the concept of exact solution for nonlinear differential equations of fractional‐order

In this article, the new exact travelling wave solutions of the nonlinear space‐time fractional Burger's, the nonlinear space‐time fractional Telegraph and the nonlinear space‐time fractional Fisher equations have been found. Based on a nonlinear fractional complex transformation, certain fractional partial differential equations can be turned into ordinary differential equations of integer order in the sense of the Jumarie's modified Riemann–Liouville derivative. The ‐expansion method is effective for constructing solutions to the nonlinear fractional equations, and it appears to be easier and more convenient by means of a symbolic computation system. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adsorption of polyvinylimidazole onto kaolinite

The adsorption of polyvinylimidazole (PVI) onto kaolinite from aqueous solutions has been investigated systematically as a function of parameters such as calcination temperature of kaolinite, pH, ionic strength, and temperature. According to the experimental results, the adsorption of PVI increases with pH from 8.50 to 11.50, temperature from 25 to 55 degrees C, and ionic strength from 0 to 0.1 mol L(-1). The kaolinite sample calcined at 600 degrees C has a maximum adsorption capacity. Adsorption isotherms of PVI onto kaolinite have been determined and correlated with common isotherm equations such as Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The Langmuir isotherm model appeared to fit the isotherm data better than the Freundlich isotherm model. The physical properties of this adsorbent are consistent with the parameters obtained from the isotherm equations. Furthermore, the zeta potentials of kaolinite suspensions have been measured in aqueous solutions of different PVI concentrations and pH. From the experimental results, (i) pH strongly alters the zeta potential of kaolinite; (ii) kaolinite has an isoelectric point at about pH 2.35 in water and about pH 8.75 in 249.9 ppm PVI concentration; (iii) PVI changes the interface charge from negative to positive for kaolinite. The study of temperature effect has been quantified by calculating various thermodynamic parameters such as Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and entropy changes. The dimensionless separation factor (RL) has shown that kaolinite can be used for adsorption of PVI from aqueous solutions.     

Electric-field induced strain in biological tissues

This paper reports a new effect whereby a physiological-level direct-current electrical field (at 1.4 V/cm) can induce time-varying mechanical strain in various types of biological tissues and gel phantoms. This effect cannot be explained by the piezoelectric effect, tissue contraction, temperature changes, and electrorestriction. The induced strain in tissues was analyzed by processing ultrasound echo signals. The sample expanded perpendicularly to the applied electric field. The expansion rate depended on the history of the applied electric field. The speed of sound changed little compared with the expansion. The new effect might be related to electrokinetic effects.     

Density-Dependent Conformable Space-time Fractional Diffusion-Reaction Equation and Its Exact Solutions

In this article, a special type of fractional differential equations(FDEs) named the density-dependent conformable fractional diffusion-reaction(DDCFDR) equation is studied. Aforementioned equation has a significant role in the modelling of some phenomena arising in the applied science. The well-organized methods, including the exp(-φ(ε))-expansion and modified Kudryashov methods are exerted to generate the exact solutions of this equation such that some of the solutions are new and have been reported for the first time. Results illustrate that both methods have a great performance in handling the DDCFDR equation.     

Electrochemical DNA biosensor for the determination of benzo[a]pyrene–DNA adducts

The metabolites of the environmental pollutant, benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) are carcinogenic and mutagenic agents. Thus, the determination of additional products (adducts) of the interaction between DNA and BaP, attracts great interest in cancer research.

In this study, the determination of interaction between BaP and calf thymus double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) was performed by using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and constant current chronopotentiometric stripping analysis (PSA) in connection with carbon paste electrode (CPE) or glassy carbon electrode (GCE). As a result of interaction of BaP with dsDNA, the signal obtained from the oxidation of guanine decreased and a new adduct signal at a more positive potential appeared. This new peak is attributed to the formation of an adduct from the interaction of guanine with BaP. The chemically prepared anti-7,8,9,10-tetrahydrobenzo[a]pyrene-7,8-diol-9,10-epoxide (BPDE) adduct by using iodine oxidation was analyzed and the electrochemical signal of the adduct was observed. When the dsDNA modified GCE was immersed into various concentrations of BaP solution, the oxidation peak of guanine decreased and the adduct peak increased with the increasing BaP concentration. The partition coefficient was also obtained from the peak of BaP with dsDNA. The results revealed that the formation of adducts could be determined by using electrochemical DNA biosensors, which are fast, simple and cost-effective devices. Furthermore, this study promises that the analysis of other important adducts would benefit from the introduction of electrochemical methods.