Effects of anthropological factors on the metal accumulation profiles of sea cucumbers in near industrial and residential coastlines of İzmir,Turkey

This study details the metal and metalloid accumulation profiles of three species of sea cucumbers (Holothuriamammata, Holothuriapolii and Holothuriatubulosa) native to Alia?a and Ild?r (?zmir, Turkey), two regions that are representative of industrial and residential districts, respectively. A total of 11 elements were analysed (Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Cr, Co, V, Ni, Cd, Pb and As) from gut and body wall tissues of holothurians and in sediment samples. The Mann–Whitney U analysis revealed statistical difference between locations and tissues. Accumulations of Alia?a samples were significantly higher than Ild?r samples with respect to Zn, V, Mn, Cr, Fe and Co while accumulations were significantly higher in the gut than body wall regardless of the region for all elements tested. The correlation analysis showed more and stronger correlations in the gut than in the body wall. In addition, metal(loid) concentrations in the sediment were found to correlate strongly with these in the sea cucumber gut. The cluster analysis displayed totally different element accumulation pattern for Alia?a and Ild?r in the both tissues which indicate that anthropogenic effects start to alter the bioaccumulation of metal(loids). Biota-sediment accumulation factors (BSAF) and metal contamination index were calculated to determine the extent of metal(loid) uptake and to compare total elemental accumulation at each region. Gut tissue elemental BSAF is higher than body wall for all elements at both areas. Cd has the highest value with 5.582 (gut tissue) and the lowest are Ni, V and Cr with 0.001 (body wall tissue). In addition, sediment results were compared with previous studies and sediment quality guidelines and found to exceed the lowest effect level (LEL) values for As and Ni.     

Dispersive Solid-Phase Extraction of Rhodium from Water,Street Dust,and Catalytic Converters Using a Cellulose–Graphite Oxide Composite

A cellulose–graphite oxide composite was synthesized and characterized as an adsorbent for dispersive solid-phase extraction of rhodium from various samples before atomic absorption detection. The pH, adsorbent volume, centrifugation time and rate, eluent concentration, volume and type, adsorption and elution contact time, sample volume, and matrix interferences were optimized. The developed method is simple, rapid, and inexpensive. The tolerance limits for rhodium were 10,000?mg?L^?1 sodium, 25,000?mg?L^?1 potassium, 10,000?mg?L^?1 magnesium, and 20,000?mg?L^?1 calcium. The recovery for rhodium exceeded 95%. Elution was performed with 10?mL of 2.5?mol?L^?1 H₂SO₄. The adsorption and elution contact times were 30 and 60?s, respectively. The detection limit of the method for rhodium was 5.4?µg?L^?1 and the precision as the relative standard deviation was 1.6%. A certified reference material 2556 (used auto catalyst pellets) and fortified samples were analyzed to evaluate the accuracy of the method. The optimized method was used for the preconcentration of rhodium from tap water, well water, wastewater, seawater, catalytic converters, and street dust.     

An efficient grouping genetic algorithm for U-shaped assembly line balancing problems with maximizing production rate

U-type assembly line is one of the important tools that may increase companies’ production efficiency. In this study, two different modeling approaches proposed for the assembly line balancing problems have been used in modeling type-II U-line balancing problems, and the performances of these models have been compared with each other. It has been shown that using mathematical formulations to solve medium and large size problem instances is impractical since the problem is NP-hard. Therefore, a grouping genetic and simulated annealing algorithms have been developed, and a particle swarm optimization algorithm is adapted to compare with the proposed methods. A special crossover operator that always obtains feasible offspring has been suggested for the proposed grouping genetic algorithm. Furthermore, a local search procedure based on problem-specific knowledge was applied to increase the intensification of the algorithm. A set of well-known benchmark instances was solved to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed and existing methods. Results showed that while the mathematical formulations can only be used to solve small size instances, metaheuristics can obtain high quality solutions for all size problem instances within acceptable CPU times. Moreover, grouping genetic algorithm has been found to be superior to the other methods according to the number of optimal solutions, or deviations from the lower bound values.     

Synthesis and characterization of new thiadiazole derivatives bearing a pyrazole moiety

A series of thidiazole derivatives (4, 7) from pyrazole-3-carboxylic acid chloride (2) and pyrazole-3,4-dicarboxylic acid chloride derivatives (6) were synthesized and characterized. The structures of the new compounds were confirmed byelemental analysis, NMR (¹H and ¹³C) and IR spectra. The molecular and crystal structure of 4-benzoyl-N-[5-(methylthio)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl]-1,5-di-phenyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxamide(4d)was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction method.     

A new sensitive method for the determination of trace mercury by differential pulse polarography: Application to raw salt sample

A new indirect differential pulse polarographic (DPP) method is established for the trace determination of mercury(II). Because of its toxic effects on human health, trace determination of mercury is very important. An indirect method had to be used since no polarographic peak is observed in its direct determination. According to the standard potentials, the reaction between Sn(II) and Hg(II) was found suitable. The peak of Sn(II) at about ?0.40 V is sharp, high and very reproducible, which enables the determination of low concentrations of Hg(II). For this purpose, to a known amount of Sn(II) present in the polarographic cell (acetic acid, HAc, pH 1–2), the unknown Hg(II) sample is added and the quantitative reaction takes place directly in the cell. The Hg(II) concentration is calculated simply from the decrease of the Sn(II) peak. The limit of detection (LOD) was found as 2 × 10^?7 M for S/N = 3. Interferences of some common cations, such as Fe, Cd, Cu, Zn and Pb and anions have been investigated. Only Pb had an overlapping peak with Sn(II). This peak overlap was eliminated simply by working at pH 2 (HAc electrolyte), because of the shift of the Pb peak in the Ac complex to ?0.7 V. This method was successfully applied to synthetic samples and raw salt sample taken from a salt lake in Turkey.     

Synthesis,spectroscopy and X-ray studies of [N′-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)-4-methylbenzenesulfonohydrazide]uranyl(IV)

The C₃₀H₃₀N₄O₁₀S₂U complex (I) has been investigated and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction (CIF file CCDC no. 970349), IR and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques. X-ray results show that the title compound crystallizes in the monoclinic system, space group P2₁/c with a = 14.8219(14), b = 11.6177(11), c = 20.0854(15) Å, β = 104.268(9)°, V = 3351.9(5) ų and Z = 4. In the title structure, the U atom has a distorted pentagonal-bipyramidal geometry with a tetradentate Schiff base ligand in the equatorial plane and oxo atoms in the axial positions. The C-S-N(H)-N linkage is non-planar, the torsion angle being ?98.7(15)° and the S atom showing a tetrahedral environment. The crystal packing occurs intra-inter molecular N-H?O and C-H?O hydrogen bonds.     

Barrier properties of polylactic acid/layered silicate nanocomposites for food contact applications

Polylactic acid/layered silicate nanocomposite films were prepared by solution casting technique. Four types of organo modified montmorillonite and an unmodified bentonite were used as inorganic fillers. The structural characterizations were done by FTIR/ATR and dispersion of the layered silicates was determined by XRD. XRD results showed that the prepared nanocomposites showed flocculated, intercalated and exfoliated structure. The highest crystallinity degree obtained was 28. Overall migration tests were studied with food simulants included distilled water, 3% acetic acid, 95% ethanol. The migration values of all the prepared films were found to be below the allowed limit (10 mg/dm²). The best result in oxygen gas transmission and water vapor transmission rates were 233.4 cm³ mm/m² day MPa and 98.3 g/m² day, respectively. Consequently the oxygen barrier property has increased by 34% and water vapor barrier property increment was 65% when compared to pure PLA film.