Functionalized nanoparticles based solid‐phase membrane micro‐tip extraction and high‐performance liquid chromatography analyses of vitamin B complex in human plasma

Iron nanoparticles were prepared by a green method following functionalization using 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium bromide. 1‐Butyl‐3‐methylimidazole iron nanoparticles were characterized using FTIR spectroscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence, X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The nanoparticles were used in solid‐phase membrane micro‐tip extraction to separate vitamin B complex from plasma before high‐performance liquid chromatography. The optimum conditions obtained were sorbent (15 mg), agitation time (30 min), pH (9.0), desorbing solvent [water (5 mL) + methanol (5 mL) + sodium hydroxide (0.1 N) + acetic acid (d = 1.05 kg/L, pH 5.5), desorbing volume (10 mL) and desorption time (30 min). The percentage recoveries of all the eight vitamin B complex were from 60 to 83%. A high‐performance liquid chromatography method was developed using a PhE column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5.0 μm) and water/acetonitrile (95:5, v/v; pH 4.0 with 0.1% formic acid) mobile phase. The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min with detection at 270 and 210 nm. The values of the capacity, separation and resolution factor were 0.57–39.47, 1.12–6.00 and 1.84–26.26, respectively. The developed sample preparation and chromatographic methods were fast, selective, inexpensive, economic and reproducible. The developed method can be applied for analyzing these drugs in biological and environmental matrices.     

Spatial and Temporal Control Over Multilayer Bio‐Polymer Film Assembly and Composition

Biosensing applications have taken advantage of lab‐on‐a‐chip technologies for sample handling and sensors integration for highly sensitive, specific detection with high throughput. These systems are based on 2.5D fabrication principles with sensing elements restricted to an array format in two dimensions. In this report, a sensing platform that recovers biosensing capabilites in three spatial dimensions is presented. This is achieved by leveraging chitosan, a stimulus responsive polyaminosaccharide that undergoes a sol–gel transition driven by a change of pH. This process can be repeated, resulting in a multilayered hydrogel stack where each layer carries a unique chemical identity. In addition, the functionality of chitosan can be modified prior to or during the assembly process. This is demonstrated by introducing both a carboxylic acid functionality and additional primary amines to the base chitosan polymer. The assembly process is shown to be compatible with microfluidic dimensions.     

On the analysis of a kind of nonlinear Sobolev equation through locally applied pseudo‐spectral meshfree radial point interpolation

In this study, we develop an approximate formulation for two‐dimensional nonlinear Sobolev problems by focusing on pseudospectral meshless radial point interpolation (PSMRPI) which is a kind of locally applied radial basis function interpolation and truthfully a meshless approach. In the PSMRPI method, the nodal points do not need to be regularly distributed and can even be quite arbitrary. It is easy to have high order derivatives of unknowns in terms of the values at nodal points by constructing operational matrices. The convergence and stability of the technique in some sense are studied via some examples to show the validity and trustworthiness of the PSMRPI technique.     

Laser heating of solid matter by light-pressure-driven shocks at ultrarelativistic intensities

The heating of solid targets irradiated by 5 x 10(20) W cm(-2), 0.8 ps, 1.05 microm wavelength laser light is studied by x-ray spectroscopy of the K-shell emission from thin layers of Ni, Mo, and V. A surface layer is heated to approximately 5 keV with an axial temperature gradient of 0.6 microm scale length. Images of Ni Ly(alpha) show the hot region has 100 G bar light pressure compresses the preformed plasma and drives a shock into the solid, heating a thin layer.     

Functional neural network analysis in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease using EEG and graph theory

Background  

Although a large body of knowledge about both brain structure and function has been gathered over the last decades, we still have a poor understanding of their exact relationship. Graph theory provides a method to study the relation between network structure and function, and its application to neuroscientific data is an emerging research field. We investigated topological changes in large-scale functional brain networks in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) by means of graph theoretical analysis of resting-state EEG recordings. EEGs of 20 patients with mild to moderate AD, 15 FTLD patients, and 23 non-demented individuals were recorded in an eyes-closed resting-state. The synchronization likelihood (SL), a measure of functional connectivity, was calculated for each sensor pair in 0.5–4 Hz, 4–8 Hz, 8–10 Hz, 10–13 Hz, 13–30 Hz and 30–45 Hz frequency bands. The resulting connectivity matrices were converted to unweighted graphs, whose structure was characterized with several measures: mean clustering coefficient (local connectivity), characteristic path length (global connectivity) and degree correlation (network 'assortativity'). All results were normalized for network size and compared with random control networks.     

Entanglement Generation Between Two Mechanical Resonators in Two Optomechanical Cavities

A standard model is suggested to explore correlation features of two spatially separated optomechanical cavities. The cavities are coupled through the photon-hopping process. In particular, we investigate the generation of entanglement between mechanical resonators in the strong coupling regime and the two cavities are assumed to be driven by a coherent laser field. In order to quantify entanglement we use the logarithmic negativity. The analytical solutions are presented for the system in a parameter regime very close to the current experimental results. We show that in the presence of the photon hopping process between the cavities, the two mechanical resonators and the field modes can be entangled. This shows clearly that the entanglement can be transfer via radiation pressure of a photon hopping coupling from the intracavity photon-phonon entanglements to an inter-cavity photon-photon or phonon-phonon entanglement.     

Delineating sources of groundwater recharge and carbon in Holocene aquifers of the central Gangetic basin using stable isotopic signatures

Stable isotopes of water (δ²H, δ¹⁸O) and δ¹³C_TIC were used as a tool to trace the recharge processes, natural carbon (organic and inorganic) source and dynamics in the aquifers of the central Gangetic basin, India. Stable isotope (δ²H, δ¹⁸O) record of groundwater (n?=?105) revealed that the groundwater of Piedmont was recharged by meteoric origin before evaporation, while aquifers of the older and younger alluvium were recharged by water that had undergone evaporation loss. River Ganges and its tributaries passing through this area have very little contribution in recharging while ponds play no role in the recharging of adjacent aquifers. The connectivity of shallow aquifers of aquitard formation (comprised of clay/sandy clay with thin patches of fine grey sand), i.e. 25–60?m below ground level (bgl) with the main upper aquifer (at a depth of >120?m?bgl) was found to be higher in older and younger alluvium. Negative values of δ¹³C_TIC (median ?9.6 ‰; range ?13.2 to ?5.4 ‰) and high TIC (median 35?mM; range 31–46?mM) coupled with low TOC (median 1.35?mg/L; range 0.99–1.77?mg/L) indicated acceleration in microbial activity in the younger alluvium, especially in the active floodplain of river Ganges and its proximity.     

Electronic structure and fourier transformed compton profiles of crystalline semiconductors

Model calculations for the Fourier transformed Compton profiles of tetrahedrally coordinated semiconductors are presented based on the Weaire-Thorpe model Hamiltonian and Gaussian LCAO ansatz functions. The results show that the information content of Compton profiles is complementary to that of the density of states. They are almost independent of parameters in the Hamiltonian and depend only on the shape of the ansatz functions. The position of the zeroes of the Fourier transformed Compton profile are seen to be determined by the Bravais lattice structure and the number of valence electrons in the unit cell.