Nanomaterials for electrochemical detection of pollutants in water: A review

The survival of living beings, including humanity, depends on a continuous supply of clean water. However, due to the development of industry, agriculture, and population growth, an increasing number of wastewaters is discarded, and the negative effects of such actions are clear. The first step in solving this situation is the collection and monitoring of pollutants in water bodies to subsequently facilitate their treatment. Nonetheless, traditional sensing techniques are typically laboratory-based, leading to potential diminishment in analysis quality. In this paper, the most recent developments in micro- and nano-electrochemical devices for pollutant detection in wastewater are reviewed. The devices reviewed are based on a variety of electrodes and the sensing of three different categories of pollutants: nutrients and phenolic compounds, heavy metals, and organic matter. From these electrodes, Cu, Co, and Bi showed promise as versatile materials to detect a grand variety of contaminants. Also, the most commonly used material is glassy carbon, present in the detection of all reviewed analytes.     

Addendum to “On the Riesz potential operator of variable order from variable exponent Morrey space to variable exponent Campanato space”, Math Meth Appl Sci. 2020; 1–8

In the paper mentioned in the title, it is proved the boundedness of the Riesz potential operator of variable order α(x) from variable exponent Morrey space to variable exponent Campanato space, under certain assumptions on the variable exponents p(x) and λ(x) of the Morrey space. Assumptions on the exponents were different depending on whether $\frac{\alpha (x)p(x)?n+\lambda (x)}{p(x)}$ takes or not the critical values 0 or 1. In this note, we improve those results by unifying all the cases and covering the whole range $0?\frac{\alpha (x)p(x)?n+\lambda (x)}{p(x)}?1$. We also provide a correction to some minor technicality in the proof of Theorem 2 in the aforementioned paper.     

Temperature-Controlled Stereodivergent Synthesis of 2,2′-Biflavanones Promoted by Samarium Diiodide

In this work, the first example of a radical stereodivergent reaction directed towards the stereoselective synthesis of both (R*,R*)- and (R*,S*)-2,2′-biflavanones promoted by samarium diiodide is reported. Control experiments showed that the selectivity of this reaction was exclusively controlled by the temperature. It was possible to generate a variety of 2,2′-biflavanones bearing different substitution patterns at the aromatic ring in good-to-quantitative yields, being both stereoisomers of the desired compounds obtained with total or high control of selectivity. A mechanism that explains both the generation of the corresponding 2,2′-biflavanones and the selectivity is also discussed. The structure and stereochemistry determination of each isomer was unequivocally elucidated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments.     

An indefinite concave-convex equation under a Neumann boundary condition I

We investigate the problem (P _λ) ?Δu = λb(x)|u| ^q?2 u + a(x)|u| ^p?2 u in Ω, ?u/?n = 0 on ?Ω, where Ω is a bounded smooth domain in R ^N (N ≥ 2), 1 < q < 2 < p, λ ∈ R, and a, b ∈ \({C^\alpha }\left( {\overline \Omega } \right)\) with 0 < α < 1. Under certain indefinite type conditions on a and b, we prove the existence of two nontrivial nonnegative solutions for small |λ|. We then characterize the asymptotic profiles of these solutions as λ → 0, which in some cases implies the positivity and ordering of these solutions. In addition, this asymptotic analysis suggests the existence of a loop type component in the non-negative solutions set. We prove the existence of such a component in certain cases, via a bifurcation and a topological analysis of a regularized version of (P _λ).     

A study of the Immune Epitope Database for some fungi species using network topological indices

In the last years, the encryption of system structure information with different network topological indices has been a very active field of research. In the present study, we assembled for the first time a complex network using data obtained from the Immune Epitope Database for fungi species, and we then considered the general topology, the node degree distribution, and the local structure of this network. We also calculated eight node centrality measures for the observed network and compared it with three theoretical models. In view of the results obtained, we may expect that the present approach can become a valuable tool to explore the complexity of this database, as well as for the storage, manipulation, comparison, and retrieval of information contained therein.     

Production of metakaolin from industrial cellulose waste

Research focused on the transformation and utilization of industrial wastes into products of commercial interest plays an increasingly important role. Residual pulp can become useful in the manufacture of different materials, providing high value to this waste and reducing its environmental impact when disposed of improperly in the environment. The main constituents of this waste are kaolin and calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). Starting from kaolin, metakaolin can be produced by calcination of the residue at 630?°C for 2?h in a rotary reactor with air flow, followed by solubilization with hydrochloric acid to remove the CaCO₃. The development of technological alternatives aimed at the reuse of certain wastes can result in applications of real economic interest to the chemical industry and ceramics and glass, which is the case in this study. The raw material and metakaolin obtained were analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis and derivative thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy with promising results. This is because metakaolin was obtained free of contamination by other materials.     

Unified QSAR & network‐based computational chemistry approach to antimicrobials. II. Multiple distance and triadic census analysis of antiparasitic drugs complex networks

In the previous work, we reported a multitarget Quantitative Structure‐Activity Relationship (mt‐QSAR) model to predict drug activity against different fungal species. This mt‐QSAR allowed us to construct a drug–drug multispecies Complex Network (msCN) to investigate drug–drug similarity (González‐Díaz and Prado‐Prado, J Comput Chem 2008, 29, 656). However, important methodological points remained unclear, such as follows: (1) the accuracy of the methods when applied to other problems; (2) the effect of the distance type used to construct the msCN; (3) how to perform the inverse procedure to study species–species similarity with multidrug resistance CNs (mdrCN); and (4) the implications and necessary steps to perform a substructural Triadic Census Analysis (TCA) of the msCN. To continue the present series with other important problem, we developed here a mt‐QSAR model for more than 700 drugs tested in the literature against different parasites (predicting antiparasitic drugs). The data were processed by Linear Discriminate Analysis (LDA) and the model classifies correctly 93.62% (1160 out of 1239 cases) in training. The model validation was carried out by means of external predicting series; the model classified 573 out of 607, that is, 94.4% of cases. Next, we carried out the first comparative study of the topology of six different drug–drug msCNs based on six different distances such as Euclidean, Chebychev, Manhattan, etc. Furthermore, we compared the selected drug–drug msCN and species–species mdsCN with random networks. We also introduced here the inverse methodology to construct species–species msCN based on a mt‐QSAR model. Last, we reported the first substructural analysis of drug–drug msCN using Triadic Census Analysis (TCA) algorithm. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 2010