Internal plasticization of poly(vinyl) chloride using glutamic acid as a branched linker to incorporate four plasticizers per anchor point

Internal plasticization of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) using thermal azide‐alkyne Huisgen dipolar cycloaddition between azidized PVC and electron‐poor acetylenediamides incorporating a branched glutamic acid linker resulted in incorporation of four plasticizing moieties per attachment point on the polymer chain. A systematic study incorporating either alkyl or polyethylene glycol esters provided materials with varying degrees of plasticization, with depressed T_g values ranging from ?1 °C to 62 °C. Three interesting trends were observed. First, T_g values of PVC bearing various internal plasticizers were shown to decrease with increasing chain length of the plasticizing ester. Second, branched internal plasticizers bearing triethylene glycol chains had lower T_g values compared to those with similar length long‐chain alkyl groups. Finally, thermogravimetric analysis of these internally plasticized PVC samples revealed that these branched internal plasticizers bearing alkyl chains are more thermally stable than similarity branched plasticizers bearing triethylene glycol units. These internal tetra‐plasticizers were synthesized and attached to PVC‐azide in three simple synthetic steps. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019 , 57, 1821–1835     

Cetyl‐alcohol‐reinforced hollow fiber solid/liquid‐phase microextraction and HPLC–DAD analysis of ezetimibe and simvastatin in human plasma and urine

A new cetyl‐alcohol‐reinforced hollow fiber solid/liquid‐phase microextraction (CA–HF–SLPME) followed by high‐performance liquid chromatography–diode array detection (HPLC–DAD) method was developed for simultaneous determination of ezetimibe and simvastatin in human plasma and urine samples. To prepare the CA–HF–SLPME device, the cetyl‐alcohol was immobilized into the pores of a 2.5 cm hollow fiber micro‐tube and the lumen of the micro‐tube was filled with 1‐octanol with the two ends sealed. Afterwards, the prepared device was introduced into 10 mL of the sample solution containing the analytes with agitation. Under optimized conditions, calibration curves plotted in spiked plasma and urine samples were linear in the ranges of 0.363–25/0.49–25 μg L^?1 for ezetimibe/simvastatin and 0.193–25/0.312–25 μg L^?1 for ezetimibe/simvastatin in plasma and urine samples, respectively. The limit of detection was 0.109/0.174 μg L^?1 for ezetimibe/simvastatin in plasma and 0.058/0.093 μg L^?1 for ezetimibe/simvastatin in urine. As a potential application, the proposed method was applied to determine the concentration of selected analytes in patient plasma and urine samples after medication and satisfactory results were achieved. In comparison with reference methods, the CA–HF–SLPME–HPLC–DAD method demonstrates considerable potential in the biopharmaceutical analysis of selected drugs.     

Two-step Estimation for Longitudinal Data When the Working Correlation Matrix is a Linear Combination of Some Known Matrices

Acta Mathematicae Applicatae Sinica, English Series - The generalized estimating equations(GEE) approach is perhaps one of the most widely used methods for longitudinal data analysis. While the GEE...     

An Inexact Modified Newton Method for Viscc and Application in Grasping Force

Acta Mathematicae Applicatae Sinica, English Series - For the variational inequality with symmetric cone constraints problem, we consider using the inexact modified Newton method to efficiently...     

Multiple positive solutions for Schrödinger‐Poisson system involving singularity and critical exponent

In this paper, the existence and multiplicity of positive solutions is established for Schrödinger‐Poisson system of the form where 0 ∈ Ω is a smooth bounded domain in , , and λ > 0 is a real parameter. Combining with the variational method and Nehari manifold method, two positive solutions of the system are obtained.     

The spectral analysis and exponential stability of a bi‐directional coupled wave‐ODE system

In this paper, an unstable linear time invariant (LTI) ODE system is stabilized exponentially by the PDE compensato—a wave equation with Kelvin‐Voigt (K‐V) damping. Direct feedback connections between the ODE system and wave equation are established: The velocity of the wave equation enters the ODE through the variable v_t(1,t); meanwhile, the output of the ODE is fluxed into the wave equation. It is found that the spectrum of the system operator is composed of two parts: point spectrum and continuous spectrum. The continuous spectrum consists of an isolated point , and there are two branches of asymptotic eigenvalues: the first branch approaches to , and the other branch tends to ?∞. It is shown that there is a sequence of generalized eigenfunctions, which forms a Riesz basis for the Hilbert state space. As a consequence, the spectrum‐determined growth condition and exponential stability of the system are concluded.     

Electrochemical Monitoring of Methotrexate Anticancer Drug in Human Blood Serum by Using in situ Solvothermal Synthesized Fe3O4/ITO Electrode

Here, we reported on a one‐step fabrication of magnetite Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles/indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode based on the direct growing of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles on the ITO surface by using a solvothermal process. The modified electrode was used as electrochemical methotrexate (MTX) biosensor with high sensitivity based on cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry techniques. The results demonstrated a linear relationship between the MTX concentration and its oxidation current peak over a wide range from 10^?5 to 10^?14 mole/L with a limit of detection of 0.4×10^?15 M based on the square wave voltammetry (SWV) technique. In addition, Fe₃O₄/ITO electrode showed a good capability for measuring very low concentrations of MTX drug dissolved in human serum solution. Also, Fe₃O₄/ITO electrode was used for detecting MTX in blood serum samples collected from patients after their treatment with MTX. The prepared electrode showed the higher sensitivity that higher than the Viva‐E instrument, which opens the door for developing a cheap, simple and higher sensitive MTX sensor.     

Highly Sensitive AdSV Method for Fe(III) Determination in Presence of Solochrome Violet RS on Renewable Amalgam Film Electrode

The new DP AdSV method for high sensitive Fe(III) determination in the presence of Solochrome Violet RS was developed. The use of an innovative renewable amalgam film electrode Hg(Ag)FE allowed to obtain high sensitivity and significantly minimize the mercury consumption. The best results were obtained for surface area of Hg(Ag)FE equal to 11.8 mm². Instrumental parameters were optimized. The optimal results were obtained using differential pulse technique for the following values: sampling and waiting time ts=tw=10 ms, step potential Es=5 mV, pulse amplitude ΔE=50 mV. Measurements were conducted in 0.05 M acetate buffer (pH 5.6), the concentration of SVRS was equal to 5 μM. Deposition step was carried out at the potential ?400 mV for 20 s. Calculated detection limit for 40 s preconcentration time was equal to 1.4 nM (78 ng L^?1). The influence of the common in environment, organic and inorganic interferences was studied. The developed method for Fe(III) determination was successfully applied and validated by investigation of certified reference material SPS‐SW2 Batch 118 and recovery of Fe(III) from various spiked samples as snow, tap water and bottom sediments. The repeatability (for 50 nM of Fe(III)) of the developed method expressed as CV was equal 3.1 % (n=5).