Multi-analyte HPLC–DAD Method for Concurrent Analysis of Six Antimicrobials and Three Proton Pump Inhibitors Frequently used in Management of Helicobacter pylori Infection: Application to Simulated Intestinal Fluid Samples

Chromatographia - The present work deals with the optimization, validation and application of a versatile HPLC–DAD method for concurrent estimation of nine antimicrobials and proton pump...     

Quantum State Sharing Under Noisy Environment

International Journal of Theoretical Physics - Quantum state sharing (QSS) plays significant role in transmitting quantum secret information. However, in practical quantum communication situation,...     

Experimental study for adsorption and photocatalytic reaction of ethyl methylphosphonate molecule as organophosphorus compound adsorbed at surface of titanium dioxide under UV irradiation in ambient condition

The adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of Ethyl methylphosphonate (EMPA) on powdery TiO₂ film has experimentally investigated using attenuated total reflection-infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) in ambient condition. Characteristic IR frequency as P-O-C vibration mode as EtO was observed by EMPA adsorbed at the surface of TiO₂. By TiO₂ photocatalysis, the adsorbed EMPA was decomposed to methyl phosphonic acid and phosphoric acid. The increment of IR intensity of which is assigned to Ti–O-P-O-Ti of EMPA was accompanied with increasing the IR peak intensity assigned to MPA. About that, we suggest that the appearance of the Ti–O-P-O-Ti of EMPA by the TiO₂ photocatalysis is regarded as acceleration of the hydrolysis of EMPA by the surface OH groups of TiO₂. The plausible adsorption structure and the photocatalytic reaction mechanism of EMPA at the surface of TiO₂ photocatalyst were elucidated.

     

Lignin and Lignin-Derived Compounds for Wood Applications—A Review

Improving the environmental performance of resins in wood treatment by using renewable chemicals has been a topic of interest for a long time. At the same time, lignin, the second most abundant biomass on earth, is produced in large scale as a side product and mainly used energetically. The use of lignin in wood adhesives or for wood modification has received a lot of scientific attention. Despite this, there are only few lignin-derived wood products commercially available. This review provides a summary of the research on lignin application in wood adhesives, as well as for wood modification. The research on the use of uncleaved lignin and of cleavage products of lignin is reviewed. Finally, the current state of the art of commercialization of lignin-derived wood products is presented.     

Impedance Response of a Thin Film on an Electrode: Deciphering the Influence of the Double Layer Capacitance

The different contributions of the interfacial capacitance are identified in the case of passive materials or thin protective coatings deposited on the electrode surface. The method is based on a graphical analysis of the EIS results to determine both the passive-film capacitance in the high-frequency domain and the double-layer capacitance in the low-frequency domain. The proposed analysis is shown to be independent of the physicochemical origins of the frequency dispersion of the interfacial capacitances which results, from an analysis point of view of the experimental results, in the use of a constant-phase element However, for a correct evaluation of the thin-film properties such as its thickness, the high-frequency data must be corrected for the double-layer contribution. In particular, it is shown that if the double-layer capacitance gives a frequency-dispersed response, it is necessary to correct the high-frequency part for the double-layer constant-phase elements. This is first demonstrated on synthetic data and then used for the determination of the thickness of thin oxide film formed on Al in neutral pH solution.     

Adaptive Fourier decomposition‐based Dirac type time‐frequency distribution

The Dirac‐type time‐frequency distribution (TFD), regarded as ideal TFD, has long been desired. It, until the present time, cannot be implemented, due to the fact that there has been no appropriate representation of signals leading to such TFD. Instead, people have been developing other types of TFD, including the Wigner and the windowed Fourier transform types. This paper promotes a practical passage leading to a Dirac‐type TFD. Based on the proposed function decomposition method, viz., adaptive Fourier decomposition, we establish a rigorous and practical Dirac‐type TFD theory. We do follow the route of analytic signal representation of signals founded and developed by Garbo, Ville, Cohen, Boashash, Picinbono, and others. The difference, however, is that our treatment is theoretically throughout and rigorous. To well illustrate the new theory and the related TFD, we include several examples and experiments of which some are in comparison with the most commonly used TFDs. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two Novel Characterizations of Self-Decomposability on the Half-Line

Two novel characterizations of self-decomposable Bernstein functions are provided. The first one is purely analytic, stating that a function \(\varPsi \) is the Bernstein function of a self-decomposable probability law \(\pi \) on the positive half-axis if and only if alternating sums of \(\varPsi \) satisfy certain monotonicity conditions. The second characterization is of probabilistic nature, showing that \(\varPsi \) is a self-decomposable Bernstein function if and only if a related d-variate function \(C_{\psi ,d}\), \(\psi :=\exp (-\varPsi )\), is a d-variate copula for each \(d \ge 2\). A canonical stochastic construction is presented, in which \(\pi \) (respectively \(\varPsi \)) determines the probability law of an exchangeable sequence of random variables \(\{U_k\}_{k\in {\mathbb {N}}}\) such that \((U_1,\ldots ,U_d) \sim C_{\psi ,d}\) for each \(d \ge 2\). The random variables \(\{U_k\}_{k\in {\mathbb {N}}},\) are i.i.d. conditioned on an increasing Sato process whose law is characterized by \(\varPsi \). The probability law of \(\{U_k\}_{k \in {\mathbb {N}}}\) is studied in quite some detail.     

A variable neighborhood search for the network design problem with relays

Given a set of commodities to be routed over a network, the network design problem with relays involves selecting a route for each commodity and determining the location of relays where the commodities must be reprocessed at certain distance intervals. We propose a hybrid approach based on variable neighborhood search. The variable neighborhood algorithm searches for the route for each commodity and the optimal relay locations for a given set of routes are determined by an implicit enumeration algorithm. We show that dynamic programming can be used to determine the optimal relay locations for a single commodity. Dynamic programming is embedded into the implicit enumeration algorithm to solve the relay location problem optimally for multiple commodities. The special structure of the problem is leveraged for computational efficiency. In the variable neighborhood search algorithm, the routes of the current solution are perturbed and reconstructed to generate neighbor solutions using random and greedy construction heuristics. Computational experiments on three sets of problems (80 instances) show that the variable neighborhood search algorithm with optimal relay allocations outperforms all existing algorithms in the literature.     

Comprehensive H2O Molecules Regulation via Deep Eutectic Solvents for Ultra-Stable Zinc Metal Anode

The corrosion, parasitic reactions, and aggravated dendrite growth severely restrict development of aqueous Zn metal batteries. Here, we report a novel strategy to break the hydrogen bond network between water molecules and construct the Zn(TFSI)₂-sulfolane-H₂O deep eutectic solvents. This strategy cuts off the transfer of protons/hydroxides and inhibits the activity of H₂O, as reflected in a much lower freezing point (<−80 °C), a significantly larger electrochemical stable window (>3 V), and suppressed evaporative water from electrolytes. Stable Zn plating/stripping for over 9600 h was obtained. Based on experimental characterizations and theoretical simulations, it has been proved that sulfolane can effectively regulate solvation shell and simultaneously build the multifunctional Zn-electrolyte interface. Moreover, the multi-layer homemade modular cell and 1.32 Ah pouch cell further confirm its prospect for practical application.     

Coordinating the Edge Defects of Bismuth with Sulfur for Enhanced CO2 Electroreduction to Formate

Bismuth-based materials have been recognized as promising catalysts for the electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction reaction (ECO₂RR). However, they show poor selectivity due to competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this study, we have developed an edge defect modulation strategy for Bi by coordinating the edge defects of bismuth (Bi) with sulfur, to promote ECO₂RR selectivity and inhibit the competing HER. The prepared catalysts demonstrate excellent product selectivity, with a high HCOO⁻ Faraday efficiency of ≈95 % and an HCOO⁻ partial current of ≈250 mA cm⁻² under alkaline electrolytes. Density function theory calculations reveal that sulfur tends to bind to the Bi edge defects, reducing the coordination-unsaturated Bi sites (*H adsorption sites), and regulating the charge states of neighboring Bi sites to improve *OCHO adsorption. This work deepens our understanding of ECO₂RR mechanism on bismuth-based catalysts, guiding for the design of advanced ECO₂RR catalysts.