Anionic forensic signatures for sample matching of potassium cyanide using high performance ion chromatography and chemometrics

Potassium cyanide was used as a model toxicant to determine the feasibility of using anionic impurities as a forensic signature for matching cyanide salts back to their source. In this study, portions of eight KCN stocks originating from four countries were separately dissolved in water and analyzed by high performance ion chromatography (HPIC) using an anion exchange column and conductivity detection. Sixty KCN aqueous samples were produced from the eight stocks and analyzed for 11 anionic impurities. Hierarchal cluster analysis and principal component analysis were used to demonstrate that KCN samples cluster according to source based on the concentrations of their anionic impurities. The Fisher-ratio method and degree-of-class separation (DCS) were used for feature selection on a training set of KCN samples in order to optimize sample clustering. The optimal subset of anions needed for sample classification was determined to be sulfate, oxalate, phosphate, and an unknown anion named unk5. Using K-nearest neighbors (KNN) and the optimal subset of anions, KCN test samples from different KCN stocks were correctly determined to be manufactured in the United States. In addition, KCN samples from stocks manufactured in Belgium, Germany, and the Czech Republic were all correctly matched back to their original stocks because each stock had a unique anionic impurity profile. The application of the Fisher-ratio method and DCS for feature selection improved the accuracy and confidence of sample classification by KNN.     

Non-relativistic self-consistent-field theory. I

A reformulation of the general self-consistent-field formalism is presented.

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Zusammenfassung Es wird eine Umformulierung des allgemeinen self-consistent-field-Formalismus angegeben.

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Résumé Le formalisme de la méthode du champ «gauto-cohérent» est reformulé.

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This work has been supported in part by the National Research Council of Canada.     

An Informational Theory of Counterfactuals

Backtracking counterfactuals are problem cases for the standard, similarity based, theories of counterfactuals e.g., Lewis (Noûs13.4, 455–476, 1979). These theories usually need to employ extra-assumptions to deal with those cases (e.g., Lewis’ “standard resolution of vagueness”). Hiddleston (Noûs 39(4), 632–657, 2005) proposes a causal theory of counterfactuals that, supposedly, deals well with backtracking. The main advantage of the causal theory is that it provides a unified account for backtracking and non-backtracking counterfactuals (no extra-assumption is needed). In this paper, I present a backtracking counterfactual that is a problem case for Hiddleston’s account. Then I propose an informational theory of counterfactuals, which deals well with this problem case while maintaining the main advantage of Hiddleston’s account (the unified account for backtracking and non-backtracking counterfactuals). In addition, the informational theory offers a general theory of backtracking that provides clues for the semantics and epistemology of counterfactuals. I propose that backtracking is reasonable when the (possibly non-actual) state of affairs expressed in the antecedent of a counterfactual transmits less information about an event in the past than the actual state of affairs.     

Further experimental evidences of thermal spreading of tungsten oxide on zirconia

The effects brought about by the time of thermal treatment as well as the water content in the gas phase during the thermal spreading of WO₃ on zirconia were investigated. Diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy evidenced the thermal spreading phenomenon and revealed the formation of polymeric tungsten dispersed species. Neither the thermal treatment time nor the water content showed to influence the nature of the dispersed species, which reveal to present thermodynamically preferential molecular structures. Infrared spectroscopy analysis of adsorbed pyridine evidenced that the polytungstate species lead to the generation of Brönsted acid sites. Lewis acid sites stronger than those naturally present on zirconia could also be detected in addition to weaker Lewis sites, which were associated to the WO₃ still present in the catalysts as showed by X-ray diffraction.     

Physicochemical Characterization of BADGE <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> = 0/Zinc Meso-tetra(4-pyridyl) Porphyrin Resin

In this work we introduce the zinc 5,10,15,20-tetra(4-pyridyl)-21H,23H-porphine (ZnTPyP) macrocycle as a crosslinking agent of the epoxy resin BADGE n = 0. NMR, TEM and FTIR confirm that both homopolymerization and heteropolymerization (resulting in the formation of a pyridone) are taken place. DSC evidences two exothermic signals at 170 and 290°C, with enthalpy values of 262.3 and–20.7 J/g, respectively. Crystal powder diffraction supports that the second one corresponds to a physical process. The introduction of the ZnTPyP into the epoxy network improves the thermal stability of the material, which, although very weakly, shows ferromagnetic properties.     

Vitrification during the isothermal cure of thermosets

The process of vitrification that occurs during the isothermal cure of a cross-linking system at temperatures below T _g∞, the glass transition temperature of the fully cured resin, has been studied by TOPEM, a new temperature modulated DSC (TMDSC) technique based upon the use of stochastic temperature pulses. A comparison is made between TOPEM and another TMDSC technique, and some advantages of TOPEM are considered. The TOPEM technique is used to show that the mobility factor is not always a reliable approach to predicting the cure rate during vitrification, in view of its frequency dependence. Also, the dependence of the apparent vitrification time on frequency is examined. There appears to be a non-linear relationship between the apparent vitrification time and log(frequency), which is further discussed in the second part of this series.