Gold Nanoparticle Modified Screen Printed Electrodes for the Trace Sensing of Arsenic(III) in the Presence of Copper(II)

Gold ensembles for the trace level sensing of arsenic(III) in the presence of copper(II) are reported. The gold ensembles are fabricated using citrate capped gold nanoparticles which are chemically synthesised in an aqueous solution with an aliquot of this simply cast onto an economical and disposable screen printed electrode. After drying at room temperature, the gold ensembles are ready for use. The gold ensembles are explored towards the sensing of arsenic(III) in the presence of copper(II) using anodic stripping voltammetry where the corresponding stripping peaks are well resolved and using this protocol it is possible to readily detect 3 µg L^?1 (3 ppb) with a detection limit of 0.4 µg L^?1 (0.4 ppb). Proof‐of‐concept is also shown for the sensing of arsenic(III) in a canal water sample. Given the low cost of the sensor and ease of fabrication, the gold ensembles hold promise for the sensing of arsenic(III) in water samples where copper(II) may be present.     

Cosmetic Electrochemistry II: Rapid and Facile Production of Metallic Electrocatalytic Ensembles

We demonstrate a facile methodology for the production of metallic electrocatalytic microdomain ensembles for a range of analytical sensing challenges. A commercially available off‐the‐shelf cosmetic product can change the voltammetric characteristics of a metallic macro‐electrode created electrolytically into that of a random ensemble of metallic microelectrode domains. Proof‐of‐concept is shown for three examples: a palladium ensemble for hydrazine sensing, a gold ensemble for arsenic(III) detection via anodic stripping voltammetry and platinum ensembles for the direct oxidation of arsenic(III). Last we demonstrate that the fabrication of metallic microdomains can be simplified by sputter coating screen printed electrochemical sensing platforms which are beneficially constructed using this cosmetic methodology. Given the facile fabrication and low cost of the underlying electrode substrate and the cosmetic modifier, the widespread implementation of this novel fabrication methodology is expected.     

Selective kinetic spectrophotometric method for determination of gatifloxacin based on formation of its N-vinyl chlorobenzoquinone derivative

A selective and simple kinetic spectrophotometric has been developed, for the first time, for the determination of gatifloxacin (GAT) in its dosage forms. The method was based on the formation of a colored N-vinyl chlorobenzoquinone derivative of GAT by its reaction with 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone in presence of acetaldehyde. The formation of the colored product was monitored spectrophotometrically by measuring the absorbances at 655 nm. The factors affecting the reaction were studied and optimized. The stoichiometry of the reaction was determined, and the reaction pathway was postulated. Under the optimized conditions, the initial rate and fixed time (at 5 min) methods were utilized for constructing the calibration graphs. The graphs were linear in the concentration ranges of 2–100 and 10–140 μg ml^?1 with limits of detection of 0.84 and 3.5 μg ml^?1 for the initial rate and fixed time methods, respectively. The analytical performance of both methods was fully validated, and the results were satisfactory. The proposed methods were successfully applied to the determination of GAT in its commercial dosage forms. The label claim percentages were 99.7–100.5 and 98.2–99.5% for the initial rate and fixed time methods, respectively. Statistical comparison of the results with those of the reference method showed excellent agreement and proved that there was no significant difference in the accuracy and precision between the reference and the proposed methods. The proposed methods are superior to all the previously reported spectrophotometric methods in terms of the procedure simplicity and assay selectivity.     

Towards An Intelligent Maintenance Optimization System

This paper is concerned with the evaluation and enhancement of the maintenance routines of large and complex technical systems. An ‘intelligent decision support system’ approach is suggested as a method for overcoming the difficulties associated with the scale, variability and changeability of such systems. The main features of the proposed intelligent maintenance optimization system (IMOS) are identified. A prototype system is then presented and its main mathematical models of maintenance are introduced. Some sample test data and the results produced from them are presented. Other aspects discussed include dealing with censored data, optimization criteria, the development of a maintenance model selection rule base, the recognition of data patterns and models' robustness. Results of IMOS system validation against expert advice have shown a high measure of consistency.     

A Validated TLC-Densitometric Method for the Simultaneous Determination of Formoterol Fumarate and Budesonide in Pressurized Metered-Dose Inhaler

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - A simple and robust thin-layer chromatography (TLC) method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous quantitative...     

Solitary wave solution of the generalized Hirota–Satsuma coupled KdV system

In this research, we find the exact traveling wave solutions involving parameters of the generalized Hirota–Satsuma couple KdV system according to the modified simple equation method with the aid of Maple 16. When these parameters are taken special values, the solitary wave solutions are derived from the exact traveling wave solutions. It is shown that the modified simple equation method provides an effective and a more powerful mathematical tool for solving nonlinear evolution equations in mathematical physics. Comparison between our results and the well-known results will be presented.     

Multi-objective Geometry Optimization of a Gas Cyclone Using Triple-Fidelity Co-Kriging Surrogate Models

Cyclone separators are widely used in a variety of industrial applications. A low-mass loading gas cyclone is characterized by two performance parameters, namely the Euler and Stokes numbers. These parameters are highly sensitive to the geometrical design parameters defining the cyclone. Optimizing the cyclone geometry therefore is a complex problem. Testing a large number of cyclone geometries is impractical due to time constraints. Experimental data and even computational fluid dynamics simulations are time-consuming to perform, with a single simulation or experiment taking several weeks. Simpler analytical models are therefore often used to expedite the design process. However, this comes at the cost of model accuracy. Existing techniques used for cyclone shape optimization in literature do not take multiple fidelities into account. This work combines cheap-to-evaluate well-known mathematical models of cyclones, available data from computational fluid dynamics simulations and experimental data to build a triple-fidelity recursive co-Kriging model. This model can be used as a surrogate with a multi-objective optimization algorithm to identify a Pareto set of a finite number of solutions. The proposed scheme is applied to optimize the cyclone geometry, parametrized by seven design variables.     

Indecomposable decomposition of tensor products of modules over Drinfeld doubles of Taft algebras

In this paper, we study the tensor product structure of the category of finite dimensional modules over Drinfeld doubles of Taft Hopf algebras. Tensor product decomposition rules for all finite dimensional indecomposable modules are explicitly given.     

Construction and Validation of New Electrochemical Carbon Nanotubes Sensors for Determination of Acebutolol Hydrochloride in Pharmaceuticals and Biological Fluids

A simple, rapid and a highly selective method for direct electrochemical determination of acebutolol hydrochloride (AC) was developed. The developed method was based on the construction of three types of sensors conventional polymer (I), carbon paste (II) and modified carbon nanotubes (MCNTs) carbon paste (III). The fabricated sensors depend mainly on the incorporation of acebutolol hydrochloride with phosphotungstic acid (PTA) forming ion exchange acebutolol‐phosphotungstate (AC‐PT). The performance characteristics of the proposed sensors were studied. The sensors exhibited Nernstian responses (55.6 ± 0.5, 57.14 ± 0.2 and 58.6 ± 0.4 mV mol L^?1) at 25 °C over drug concentration ranges (1.0 × 10^?6‐1.0 × 10^?2, 1.0 × 10^?7‐1.0 × 10^?2 and 5.0 × 10^?8‐1.0 × 10^?2 mol L^?1 with lower detection limits of (5.0 × 10^?7, 5.0 × 10^?8 and 2.5 × 10^?8 mol L^?1 for sensors (I), (II) and (III), respectively. The influence of common and possible interfering species, pharmaceutical additives and some related pharmacological action drugs was investigated using separate solution method and no interference was found. The stability indicating using forced degradation of acebutolol hydrochloride was studied. The standard addition method was used for determination of the investigated drug in its pharmaceutical dosage forms and biological fluids. The results were validated and statistically analysed and compared with those from previously reported methods.