Solid phase extraction for analysis of biogenic carbonates by electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ETV-ICP-MS): an investigation of rare earth element signatures in otolith microchemistry

Uptake of trace elements into fish otoliths is governed by several factors such as life histories and environment in addition to stock and species differences. In an attempt to elucidate the elemental signatures of rare earth elements (REEs) in otoliths, a solid phase extraction (SPE) protocol was used in combination with electrothermal vaporization (ETV) as a sample introduction procedure for the determinations by inductively coupled plasma quadrupole mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Effects of various parameters, such as carrier gas flow rate, atomization temperature and chemical modification, were examined for optimization of the conditions by ETV-ICP-MS. Atomization was achieved at 2800 °C. Lower temperatures (i.e. 2600 °C) resulted in severe memory problems due to incomplete atomization. Palladium was used as a chemical modifier. It was found that an increase in Pd concentration up to 0.5 μg in the injection volume (70 μl) led up to four-fold enhancement in the integrated signals. This phenomenon is attributed to the carrier effect of Pd rather than the stabilization since no significant losses were observed for high temperature drying around 700 °C even in the absence of Pd. Preconcentration was performed on-line at pH 5 by using a mini-column of Toyopearl AF-Chelate 650M chelating resin, which also eliminated the calcium matrix of otolith solutions. After preconcentration of 6.4 ml of solution, the concentrate was collected in 0.65 ml of 0.5% (v/v) HNO₃ in autosampler cups, and then analyzed by ETV-ICP-MS. The method was validated with the analysis of a fish otolith certified reference material (CRM) of emperor snapper, and then applied to samples. Results obtained from otoliths of fish captured in the same habitat indicated that otolith rare earth element concentrations are more dependent on environmental conditions of the habitat than on species differences.     

Association Behavior of 4-Acylpyrazolone Derivative and Tertiary Amine of High Molecular Weight in Antagonistic Synergistic Extraction of Palladium

To find an effective extraction and removal method for palladium(II), which is one of the main fission products from an acidic nuclear spent fuel solution, the extraction behavior of palladium(II) from a nitric acid medium by an acidic chelating extractant, 1-phenyl-3-methyl-4-trifluoroacetylpyrazolone-5-one (HPMTP) and a tertiary amine of high molecular weight, tri-n-octylamine (TOA), has been studied by spectrophotometry. A noticeable antagonistic extraction effect was observed in the extraction system under the given conditions. To understand this phenomenon, a preliminary investigation was performed to explain the mechanism of this reaction. According to the theory of corresponding solutions (TCS), the association reaction between HPMTP and TOA is proposed in the organic phase. An associated species, HPMTP·TOA, formed through hydrogen bonding in a chloroform medium might be the main reason why an antagonistic extraction effect occurred. The association constant between HPMTP and TOA was calculated to be 2.86±0.05.     

Widrow-cellular neural network and optoelectronic implementation

A new type of optoelectronic cellular neural network has been developed by providing the capability of coefficients adjusment of cellular neural network (CNN) using Widrow based perceptron learning algorithm. The new supervised cellular neural network is called Widrow-CNN. Despite the unsupervised CNN, the proposed learning algorithm allows to use the Widrow-CNN for various image processing applications easily. Also, the capability of CNN for image processing and feature extraction has been improved using basic joint transform correlation architecture. This hardware application presents high speed processing capability compared to digital applications. The optoelectronic Widrow-CNN has been tested for classic CNN feature extraction problems. It yields the best results even in case of hard feature extraction problems such as diagonal line detection and vertical line determination.     

一种利用Gabor小波特征的目标跟踪方法

小波特征跟踪是一种新的目标跟踪方法。这种方法利用Gabor小波提取目标的边界特征来组成特征模板,并由小波滤波器系数组成特征向量。在跟踪过程中不断优化特征模板的旋转、尺度及平移等几何变形参数,使得小波特征向量值在最小平方和的意义上与初始值相匹配,从而实现目标旋转、尺度及平移等几何变形时的自动跟踪。实验表明,该方法能够有效地跟踪飞机、车辆等目标,并且能够抵抗全局亮度的变化和局部遮挡的干扰。     

磁流体密封泄放压与外磁场变化关系的研究

根据实验室研制的磁流体密封装置，采用自制煤油基磁流体，通过多次实验初步探索到磁体泄放压与外磁场之间的变化规律。     

Internal standardization for the determination of cadmium,cobalt, chromium and manganese in saline produced water from petroleum industry by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry after cloud point extraction

In the present paper a procedure is proposed for the determination of traces of Cd, Co, Mn and Cr in petroleum industry produced water by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The procedure is based on cloud point extraction of these metals, as their dithizonate complexes, into the surfactant-rich phase of octylphenoxypolyethoxyethanol surfactant (Triton X-114). Extractions were carried out in solutions with salinities between 10‰ and 70‰. Since residual salinity in the surfactant-rich phase caused differences in its transport to the plasma, yttrium was used as an internal standard to correct for this effect. The simultaneous metal extraction procedure was optimized by response surface methodology using a Doehlert design and desirability function. Enhancement factors of 21, 21, 9 and 19, along with limits of quantification of 0.093, 0.20, 0.73 and 1.2 μg L^− 1, and precision expressed as relative standard deviation (n = 8, 20.0 μg L^− 1) of 5.8, 1.2, 1.7 and 5.7% were obtained for Cd, Co, Mn and Cr, respectively. The accuracy was evaluated by spike recovery tests on the high salinity water samples with salinity of 40 and 63‰.     

Homogenization of two-phase flow: high contrast of phase permeabilityHomogénéisation d'écoulement diphasique : grand contraste de perméabilité d'une phase

The steady-state two-phase flow non-linear equation is considered in the case when one of phases has low effective permeability in some periodic set, while on the complementary set it is high; the second phase has no contrast of permeabilities in different zones. A homogenization procedure gives the homogenized model with macroscopic effective permeability of the second phase depending on the gradient and on the second order derivatives of the macroscopic pressure of the first phase. This effect cannot be obtained by classical (one small parameter) homogenization. To cite this article: G.P. Panasenko, G. Virnovsky, C. R. Mecanique 331 (2003).     

Effect of Deborah number and phase difference on peristaltic transport of a third-order fluid in an asymmetric channel

The effect of a third-order fluid on the peristaltic transport in an asymmetric channel is studied. The wavelength of the peristaltic waves is assumed to be large compared to the varying channel width, whereas the wave amplitudes need not be small compared to the varying channel width. The channel asymmetry is produced by choosing the peristaltic wave train on the walls to have different amplitudes and phase. The flow is investigated in a wave frame of reference moving with velocity of the wave. The effects of Deborah number, phase difference, varying channel width and wave amplitudes on the pumping characteristics, streamline pattern and trapping phenomena are investigated. It is observed that the trapping regions increase as the channel becomes more and more symmetric and the trapped bolus volume decreases for increasing Deborah number, phase difference and varying channel width whereas it increases for increasing flow rate and wave amplitudes. Furthermore, the obtained results could also have applications to a range of peristaltic flows for a variety of non-Newtonian fluids such as aqueous solutions of high-molecular weight polyethylene oxide and polyacrylamide.