Determination of uranium using a flow system with reagent injection. Application to the determination of uranium in ore leachates

The determination of uranium by a flow system with reagent injection is based on the reaction of U(IV) with Arsenazo III in 3.6 M HCl; U(IV) is generated by reduction of uranyl ion in a lead reductor minicolumn installed in the sample channel of the manifold. The interference effect caused by several ions is studied. The calibration graph is linear up to 1.0 × 10^?5 M (2.4 mg l^?1) and the detection limit is 2.8 × 10^?8 M (6.6 μg l^?1). The modification of the manifold by including a second valve to by-pass the reducing column allows the measurement of the difference in peak heights, which makes the method specific for uranium.     

Solvent extraction of cadmium as a previous step for its determination in biological samples by electrothermal atomization atomic absorption spectrometry

A method is proposed for the solvent extraction of cadmium using 1,5-bis(di-2-pyridylmethylene)thiocarbohydrazide (DPTH) as extractant. The optimum extraction conditions were evaluated from a critical study of the effect of pH, concentration of extractant, shaking time and ionic strength. The maximum volume ratio of the aqueous to organic phase was 30:1 for a single-stage extraction of99-100% of the metal ion. The detection limit is 0.01 ng/ml cadmium, and the calibration is linear from 0.1 to 5 ng/ml. The relative standard deviation for 10 replicate measurements is 1.8% for 2 ng/ml cadmium. The extraction method was applied to the determination of cadmium in some biological materials using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry.     

Simultaneous determination of cobalt,nickel and iron by multi-wavelength spectrophotometry

A method for the simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of cobalt, nickel and iron based on the formation of their complexes with 1,5-bis(di-2-pyridylmethylene) thiocarbonohydrazide is proposed. The absorption curves of these complexes overlap severely in the scanning range 390–510 nm. The analyte concentrations are calculated by a least squares fit of the pure spectra to the mixture spectra, which therefore makes the simultaneous determination of these metallic ions possible without tedious pretreatment. The detection limits afforded by the proposed method range from 0.05 g/ml for Fe and Ni to 0.1 g/ml for Co. Root-mean-squared errors of prediction of 0.085 g/ml for Co, 0.048 g/ml for Ni and 0.1172 g/ml for Fe were obtained using the wavelength range 400–510 nm and 0.147 g/ml for Co, 0.107 g/ml for Ni and 0.127 g/ml for Fe using the wavelength range 420–434 nm. The effect of interferences is studied and the proposed method is applied to analysis for the above elements in synthetic samples and real samples, such as biological materials and alloys.     

电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法测定钛酸钡纳米粉体中7种杂质元素

钛酸钡纳米粉体样品用盐酸溶解,在所得样品溶液中用电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法测定了以氧化物存在于样品中的7种杂质元素(包括镁、锶、钾、钠、铝、硅及铁),对测定的光谱条件进行了试验并优化达到上述各元素的测定上限为0.1%(质量分数).测得方法的检出限(3S/b)为(单位μg·L-1):2.0(铝),1.0(铁),20.0(钾),0.2(镁),4.0(钠),3.0(硅)及0.5(锶).应用此方法分析了两件实样,所得结果的相对标准偏差(n=6)小于等于2.0%,对其中4种杂质元素(镁、钾、钠和锶)同时用HG/T 3587-1999标准中的方法作分析校核,所得结果与此方法结果一致.     

Lagrange approach to the optimal control of diffusions

A new approach to the optimal control of diffusion processes based on Lagrange functionals is presented. The method is conceptually and technically simpler than existing ones. A first class of functionals allows to obtain optimality conditions without any resort to stochastic calculus and functional analysis. A second class, which requires Ito's rule, allows to establish optimality in a larger class of problems. Calculations in these two methods are sometimes akin to those in minimum principles and in dynamic programming, but the thinking behind them is new. A few examples are worked out to illustrate the power and simplicity of this approach.Research performed at the Mathematisches Seminar der Universität Kiel with support provided by an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship.     

An efficient algorithm for maximum entropy extension of block-circulant covariance matrices

This paper deals with maximum entropy completion of partially specified block-circulant matrices. Since positive definite symmetric circulants happen to be covariance matrices of stationary periodic processes, in particular of stationary reciprocal processes, this problem has applications in signal processing, in particular to image modeling. In fact it is strictly related to maximum likelihood estimation of bilateral AR-type representations of acausal signals subject to certain conditional independence constraints. The maximum entropy completion problem for block-circulant matrices has recently been solved by the authors, although leaving open the problem of an efficient computation of the solution. In this paper, we provide an efficient algorithm for computing its solution which compares very favorably with existing algorithms designed for positive definite matrix extension problems. The proposed algorithm benefits from the analysis of the relationship between our problem and the band-extension problem for block-Toeplitz matrices also developed in this paper.     

Derivative ultraviolet-visible region absorption spectrophotometry and its analytical applications

Theoretical aspects, instrumental devices and analytical applications of derivative ultraviolet-visible region absorption spectrophotometry are reviewed.