A cohesive zone model for fatigue crack growth allowing for crack retardation

A damage-based cohesive model is developed for simulating crack growth due to fatigue loading. The cohesive model follows a linear damage-dependent traction–separation relation coupled with a damage evolution equation. The rate of damage evolution is characterized by three material parameters corresponding to common features of fatigue behavior captured by the model, namely, damage accumulation, crack retardation and stress threshold. Good agreement is obtained between finite element solutions using the model and fatigue test results for an aluminum alloy under different load ratios and for the overload effect on ductile 316 L steel.     

Microquantitative determination of hesperidin by pulse perturbation of the oscillatory reaction system

A simple and reliable kinetic method for the determination of hesperidin (Hesp) is developed. It is based on potentiometric monitoring of the concentration perturbations of the matrix reaction system which is in a stable non-equilibrium stationary state close to the bifurcation point. The Bray–Liebhafsky oscillatory reaction is used as the matrix system. The response of the matrix to perturbations by different concentrations of Hesp is followed by using a Pt electrode. A linear relationship between maximal potential shift and the logarithm of Hesp concentrations is obtained between 7.5 and 599.4 g mL^–1. The limit of detection is 0.65 g mL^–1. The described procedure has been successfully applied to the determination of Hesp from different sources (capsules, industrial and hand-squeezed orange juice, and white wine).     

Kinetic determination of morphine by means of Bray-Liebhafsky oscillatory reaction system using analyte pulse perturbation technique

A novel kinetic method for micro-quantitative determinations of morphine (MH) is proposed and validated. The method is based on the potentiometric monitoring of the concentration perturbations of the oscillatory reaction system being in a stable non-equilibrium stationary state close to the bifurcation point between stable and oscillatory state. The response of the Bray-Liebhafsky (BL) oscillatory reaction as a matrix system, to the perturbations by different concentrations of morphine, is followed by a Pt-electrode. The proposed method relies on the linear relationship between maximal potential shift, ΔE_m, and the logarithm of the added morphine amounts in the range of 0.004-0.18 μmol. Under optimum conditions, the sensitivity of the proposed method (as the limit of detection) is 0.001 μmol and the method is featured by good precision (R.S.D. = 1.6%) as well as the excellent sample throughput (45 samples h⁻¹). In addition to standard solution analysis, this approach was successfully applied for quantitative determination of morphine in a typical pharmaceutical dosage form. Some aspects of the possible mechanism of morphine action on the BL oscillating chemical system are discussed in detail.     

A novel terbium composite nanoparticles: Preparation and selective fluorescence determination of chromium(VI)

A highly efficient ultrasonic-assisted method was successfully applied to prepare the strong fluorescence Tb/acetyl acetone (acac)/poly (2-Acrylamidoglycolic acid monohydrate) (PAAM) composite nanoparticles. Based on the fluorescence quenching of Tb/acac/PAAM by Cr(VI), an assay for the selective determination of Cr(VI), without separation of Cr(III), was developed. It is characteristic of very few interferences, stable fluorescence signals (at least 2 h), simple instrument (common spectrofluorometer) and simple step. Under optimal experimental conditions, the fluorescence intensity of the system is linearly proportional to the concentration of Cr(VI) in concentration range of 5-800 ng mL⁻¹ with a correlation coefficient of 0.9983. The limit of detection was found to be 0.5 ng mL⁻¹.The proposed method has been applied to the selective quantification of Cr(VI) in synthetic samples with satisfactory results.