A novel carbon/chitosan paste electrode for electrochemical detection of normetanephrine in the urine

Normetanephrine is a marker for pheochromocytoma, a rare catecholamine-secreting and neuroendocrine tumor, that arises from sympathetic and parasympathetic paraganglia. In this work, a novel carbon/chitosan electrode paste was used for sensitive voltammetric determination of normetanephrine and dopamine in the presence of ascorbic acid and uric acid. The modified electrode has shown an increase in the effective area of up to 68%, well-separated oxidation peaks, and an excellent electrocatalytic activity. The electrochemical response characteristics were investigated by cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry. Interestingly, high sensitivity and selectivity in the linear range of normetanephrine, dopamine, ascorbic acid, and uric acid concentrations were observed. The present method was applied in the urine sample and satisfactory results were obtained showing that this electrode is very suitable in pharmaceutical and clinical preparations.     

Influence of anions on the dimensionality of extended networks based on Cu I cations and 1,4,5,8,9,12-hexaazatriphenylene (HAT) ligands

Reactions of Cu I salts with 1,4,5,8,9,12-hexaazatriphenylene (HAT) afford three types of cationic coordination polymers depending on the anion present in the reaction solution. In the crystal structure of {[Cu(HAT)][BF4]x1/3(C6H6)}infinity, (1), Cu ions and HAT molecules form extended layers that are best described as strongly distorted honeycomb nets. The space between the layers is occupied by [BF4]- anions and solvent molecules. {[Cu(HAT)][PF6]}infinity, (2), crystallizes as a chiral (10,3)-a net with [PF6]- anions residing in the cavities of the three-dimensional metal-organic framework. The crystal structure of {[Cu4(HAT)3][SbF6]4x3C6H6}infinity, (3), is based on unique extended [Cu4(HAT)3]infinity "nanotubules" filled with solvent molecules and [SbF6]- anions.     

Aryl to aryl palladium migration in the Heck and Suzuki coupling of o-halobiaryls

A novel 1,4-palladium migration between the o- and o'-positions of biaryls has been observed in organopalladium intermediates derived from o-halobiaryls. The organopalladium intermediates generated by this migration have been trapped either by a Heck reaction employing ethyl acrylate or by Suzuki cross-coupling using arylboronic acids. This palladium migration can be activated or deactivated by choosing the appropriate reaction conditions. Chemical and computational evidence supports the presence of an equilibrium that correlates with the C-H acidity of the available arene positions.     

Structural and magnetic properties of iron(II) complexes with 1,4,5,8,9,12-hexaazatriphenylene (HAT)

Reactions of Fe(II) salts with the ligand 1,4,5,8,9,12-hexaazatriphenylene (HAT) led to the isolation and characterization of four new compounds: [Fe3(HAT)(H2O)12](SO4)3.3.3H2O (1), [Fe2(HAT)(SO4)(H2O)5](SO4).2H2O.CH3OH (2), [Fe2(HAT)(SO4)(H2O)5](SO4).3H2O (3), and [Fe3Cl5(HAT)(CH3OH)4(H2O)]Cl (4). Compound 1 crystallizes as a trinuclear cluster in which HAT acts as a tris-chelating ligand. Compounds 2 and 3 are two polymorphs of an infinite one-dimensional structure in which the Fe atoms are coordinated to HAT and then connected into the chain through bridging sulfate anions. Compound 4 exhibits a similar chain structure, but with bridging chloride ligands. The magnetic behavior of the new compounds is indicative of weak antiferromagnetic coupling between the Fe(II) centers through the HAT ligand.     

Improved locally adaptive least-squares detection of differences in images

We introduce a method for change detection under nonuniform changes of intensity using an improved least-squares method. A locally adaptive normalizing window is correlated with the two images, and a morphological postprocessing is then applied to isolate objects that have been added or removed from the scene. We use a modification of the least-squares solution to get rid of clutter caused by intensity changes that do not satisfy the model assumed for the least-squares solution.     

SOURCE TERM IDENTIFICATION WITH DISCONTINUOUS DUAL RECIPROCITY APPROXIMATION AND QUASI-NEWTON METHOD FROM BOUNDARY OBSERVATIONS

This paper deals with discontinuous dual reciprocity boundary element method for solving an inverse source problem.The aim of this work is to determine the source term in elliptic equations for nonhomogenous anisotropic media,where some additional boundary measurements are required.An equivalent formulation to the primary inverse problem is established based on the minimization of a functional cost,where a regularization term is employed to eliminate the oscillations of the noisy data.Moreover,an efficient algorithm is presented and tested for some numerical examples.     

Effect of Cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica) and Acacia (Acacia seyal) Gums on the Pasting,Thermal, Textural,and Rheological Properties of Corn,Sweet Potato,and Turkish Bean Starches

This study was planned to explore the locally available natural sources of gum hydrocolloids as a natural modifier of different starch properties. Corn (CS), sweet potato (SPS), and Turkish bean (TBS) starches were mixed with locally extracted native or acetylated cactus (CG) and acacia (AG) gums at 2 and 5% replacement levels. The binary mixtures (starch–gums) were prepared in water, freeze dried, ground to powder, and stored airtight. A rapid viscoanalyzer (RVA), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), texture analyzer, and dynamic rheometer were used to explore their pasting, thermal, textural, and rheological properties. The presence of acetylated AG or CG increased the final viscosity (FV) in all three starches when compared to starch pastes containing native gums. Plain SPS dispersion had a higher pasting temperature (PT) than CS and TBS. The addition of AG or CG increased the PT of CS, SPS, and TBS. The thermograms revealed the overall enthalpy change of the starch and gum blends: TBS > SPS > CS. The peak temperature (T_p) of starches increased with increasing gum concentration from 2 to 5% for both AG and CG native and modified gums. When compared to the control gels, the addition of 2% CG, either native or modified, reduced the syneresis of starch gels. However, further addition (5% CG) increased the gels’ syneresis. Furthermore, the syneresis for the first cycle on the fourth day was higher than the second cycle on the eighth day for all starches. The addition of native and acetylated CG reduced the hardness of starch gels at all concentrations tested. All of the starch dispersions had higher G′ than G″ values, indicating that they were more elastic and less viscous with or without the gums. The apparent viscosity of all starch gels decreased as shear was increased, with profiles indicating time-dependent thixotropic behavior. All of the starch gels, with or without gums, showed a non-Newtonian shear thinning trend in the shear stress vs. shear rate graphs. The addition of acetylated CG gum to CS resulted in a higher activation energy (Ea) than the native counterparts and the control. More specifically, starch gels with a higher gum concentration (5%) provided greater Ea than their native counterparts.     

Isoscalar NN spin-orbit potential from a Skyrme model with scalar mesons

As a first step toward circumventing the difficulty to obtain an attractive isospin-independent NN spin-orbit force from Skyrme-type models involving only pions, we investigate an improved Skyrme Lagrangian that incorporates the scalar-isoscalar meson ε which can be viewed as the cause behind the enhancement of the ππ S-wave. We find that at large distances, the main contribution to the spin-orbit potential comes from the scalar Lagrangian and it is found to be attractive. We briefly discuss how to pursue this work to finally obtain a medium-range attractive interaction.