Axial vector nuclear sum rules and exchange effects

The nuclear pionic vertex and its relation to the π-nuclear (charge exchange) scattering length are investigated using dispersion techniques. The aim is to extract information on mesonic (exchange current) effects in the pionic vertex and in the axial vector current matrix element.     

On the Weak Invariance Principle for Stationary Sequences under Projective Criteria

In this paper, we study the central limit theorem and its weak invariance principle for sums of a stationary sequence of random variables, via a martingale decomposition. Our conditions involve the conditional expectation of sums of random variables with respect to the distant past. The results contribute to the clarification of the central limit question for stationary sequences. Magda Peligrad is supported in part by a Charles Phelps Taft research support grant at the Univeristy of Cincinnati and the NSA grant H98230-05-1-0066.     

The Antibacterial Activity of Egyptian Wasp Chitosan-Based Nanoparticles against Important Antibiotic-Resistant Pathogens

The current work discusses the production and characterization of new biodegradable nanoparticles for biomedical applications based on insect chitosan. Chitosan has numerous features due to the presence of primary amine groups in repeating units, such as antibacterial and anticancer activities. When polyanion tripolyphosphate is added to chitosan, it creates nanoparticles with higher antibacterial activity than the original chitosan. In this study, the ionic gelation technique was used to make wasp chitosan nanoparticles (WCSNPs) in which TEM and FTIR were used to investigate the physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles. In addition, the antibacterial activities of chitosan nanoparticles against extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)- and carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were evaluated. The extracted wasp chitosan exhibited high solubility in acetic acid and met all standard criteria of all characterization testes for nanoparticles; the zeta potential indicated stable WCSNPs capable of binding to cellular membrane and increasing the cellular uptake. The produced WCSNPs showed growth inhibition activity against all tested strains, and the bacterial count was lower than the initial count. The inhibition percent of WCSNPs showed that the lowest concentration of WCSNPs was found to be effective against tested strains. WCSNPs’ antibacterial activity implies that they could be used as novel, highly effective antibacterial agents in a variety of biological applications requiring antibacterial characteristics.     

Magnetic resonance study of (GdxY1−x)Co2 compounds

The results of magnetic resonance studies on ferrimagnetic (Gd_xY_1?x)Co₂ compounds, both below and above the Curie points, are presented. The ferrimagnetic resonance measurements show that the effective g values can be described by using the Wangsness relation. The spectroscopic splitting factors of cobalt atoms are not composition dependent. In the paramagnetic range the thermal variation of the linewidth is not linear and the g values are a function of temperature. This behavior is analyzed in correlation with the magnetic data.     

Subtractive anodic stripping voltammetry with twin identical mercury-film electrodes differing in their convection transport during deposition

Subtractive anodic stripping voltammetry based on the use of different convection rates at the surface of two identical working electrodes during the deposition step is described. Twin mercury-film glassy-carbon disc electrodes, one rotated and one stationary, are used to demonstrate this technique. All background currents arising from nonconvective-dependent sources are effectively compensated. Deposition times of 3–5 min suffice for measuring heavy metal ions at sub-μg ml^-1 concentration levels.     

A hybrid collocation method for a nonlinear Volterra integral equation with weakly singular kernel

This work is concerned with the numerical solution of a nonlinear weakly singular Volterra integral equation. Owing to the singular behavior of the solution near the origin, the global convergence order of product integration and collocation methods is not optimal. In order to recover the optimal orders a hybrid collocation method is used which combines a non-polynomial approximation on the first subinterval followed by piecewise polynomial collocation on a graded mesh. Some numerical examples are presented which illustrate the theoretical results and the performance of the method. A comparison is made with the standard graded collocation method.     

Chemometric analysis for optimizing derivatization in gas chromatography‐based procedures

This paper focuses on the application of principal component analysis (PCA) to facilitate the optimization of the derivatization of oestrogenic steroids—estrone, 17β‐estradiol, estriol, 17α‐ethinylestradiol and diethylstilbestrol—in order to achieve (1) the complete derivatization of all the hydroxyl groups contained in the structure of the compounds and (2) the greatest effectiveness of this reaction. Six different derivatization reagents were used in this study, whereas 2‐methyl‐anthracene was applied as the internal standard to evaluate the effectiveness of the reactions. The experimental data were subjected to PCA. With PCA, the dimensionality of the original multivariable data set could be reduced and the selection of optimum conditions for derivatization facilitated. The mixture of 99% N,O‐bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide + 1% trimethylchlorosilane and pyridine (1:1, v/v) at 60 °C for 30 min has been established as the most convenient and efficient means of derivatizing the aforementioned oestrogenic steroids and diethylstilbestrol; the N‐methyl‐N‐(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide + pyridine (1:1, v/v) mixture seems to be a promising alternative. The application of PCA for optimizing the derivatization procedure, proposed for the first time in this study, is particularly useful in the development of multicomponent methods across several chemical classes of compounds. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.