Comparison of the performance of pyridine-functionalized nanoporous silica particles for the extraction of gold(III) from natural samples

We have developed a technique for the solid-phase extraction of gold using various kinds of pyridine-functionalized nanoporous silica prior to its determination in various samples using FAAS. The effects of solution pH, sample and eluent flow rate, sample volume and of potentially interfering ions are compared. The limits of detections vary from 28 to 53?pg?mL^?1. The accuracy and precision are between 99.8% and 98.3?% and 0.7 to 1.6?% (RSD), respectively. The method was successfully applied to several standard reference materials.

Theoretical studies of 1,4-dihydropyridine-3,5-dicarboxamides as possible inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis enoyl reductase

Abstract  

The binding affinity of some novel 1,4-dihydropyridine-3,5-dicarboxamides to enoyl-ACP reductase (InhA) from M. tuberculosis was studied by the docking method. A molecular dynamics simulation lasting 230 ns in total was performed for 19 ligand–enzyme complexes to calculate the binding free energies of these ligands to the enzyme. All of the studied compounds stayed in the active site. An energetics analysis revealed that the van der Waals share is more important than electrostatic in binding of all ligands to the active site.     

Novel modified nanoporous silica for oral drug delivery: loading and release of clarithromycin

Nanoporous silica SBA-15 was prepared to evaluate its application as an oral drug delivery system. A series of surface-functionalized nanopore materials as efficient clarithromycin delivery carriers was investigated. An efficient pH-responsive carrier system was constructed by hydrogen bond interaction between carboxyl and hydroxyl groups in the clarithromycin and the amine group in modified SBA-15. HPLC analyses of clarithromycin were run on a C₁₈ column using a mobile phase comprised of potassium dihydrogen phosphate, acetonitrile and methanol (30:40:30, v/v/v). Active molecules such as clarithromycin could be stored and released from the pore voids of SBA-15 by changing the pH. The amount of clarithromycin stored in the pores of nanoporous silica based on TREN [tris(2-aminoethyl) amine]-modified SBA-15 rods was up to 46 ± 4.8 wt% at pH 8. In addition, when the pH was below 4, clarithromycin was steadily released from the pores of SBA-15 (up to 97 wt% in simulated gastric medium).     

Activity Coefficient Prediction for Binary and Ternary Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions at Different Temperatures and Concentrations

The mean spherical approximation (MSA) model, coupled with two hard sphere models, was used to predict the activity coefficients of mixtures of electrolyte solutions at different temperatures and concentrations. The models, namely the Ghotbi-Vera-MSA (GV-MSA) and Mansoori et al.-MSA (BMCSL-MSA), were directly used without introducing any new adjustable parameters for mixing of electrolyte solutions. In the correlation step, the anion diameters were considered to be constant, whereas the cation diameters were considered to be concentration dependent. The adjustable parameters were determined by fitting the models to the experimental mean ionic activity coefficients for single aqueous electrolytes at fixed temperature. The results showed that the studied models predict accurately the activity coefficients for single electrolyte aqueous solutions at different temperatures. In the systems of binary aqueous electrolyte solutions with a common anion, the GV-MSA model has slightly better accuracy in predicting the activity coefficients. Also, it was observed that the GV-MSA model can more accurately predict the activity coefficients for ternary electrolyte solutions with a common anion, especially at higher concentrations.     

Removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewaters using amine-functionalized nanoporous carbon as a novel sorbent

Nano-porous carbon (NPC) was synthesized by hydrothermal condensation of fructose and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction and also nitrogen adsorption analysis. It was then modified with amino groups and used as a sorbent for the removal of heavy metal ions. The formation of amino-modified NPC was confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric and elemental analysis. NPC was applied for removal of Pb(II), Cd(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) ions. The effects of sample pH and the adsorption kinetics were studied, and the adsorption capacity was determined. The sorbent was applied to the removal of heavy metal ions in industrial waste water samples.

A Mazur–Ulam theorem in non-Archimedean normed spaces

The classical Mazur–Ulam theorem which states that every surjective isometry between real normed spaces is affine is not valid for non-Archimedean normed spaces. In this paper, we establish a Mazur–Ulam theorem in the non-Archimedean strictly convex normed spaces.     

Modified Camassa–Holm and Degasperis–Procesi Equations Solved by Adomian’s Decomposition Method and Comparison with HPM and Exact Solutions

Many physical and scientific phenomena are modeled by nonlinear partial differential equations (NPDEs); it is difficult to handle nonlinear part of these equations. Recently some analytical methods are applied to solve such equations. In this work, modified Camassa–Holm and Degasperis–Procesi equation is studied. Adomian’s decomposition method (ADM) is applied to obtain solution of this equation. The results are compared to those of homotopy perturbation method (HPM) and exact solution. The study highlights the significant features of the employed method and its ability to handle nonlinear partial differential equations.     

Static and dynamic performance optimisation of a 1.3 μm GaInNAs ridge waveguide laser

In this work, we perform a multi-parameter design study to improve the performance of an uncooled directly modulated 1.3 μm GaInNAs ridge waveguide laser for high speed operation especially at high temperature. The static and dynamic performance of the improved design is analyzed using an accurate in-house 2D electro-opto-thermal laser simulator. The improved structure is shown to have a lower threshold current, higher thermal roll-over limit and higher modulation bandwidth—especially under high temperature operation. The improved structure also has a lower vertical beam divergence compared to a reference structure with a conventional design.     

Conditioning of the matrix-matrix exponentiation

If A has no eigenvalues on the closed negative real axis, and B is arbitrary square complex, the matrix-matrix exponentiation is defined as A ^B := e ^log(A)B . It arises, for instance, in Von Newmann’s quantum-mechanical entropy, which in turn finds applications in other areas of science and engineering. In this paper, we revisit this function and derive new related results. Particular emphasis is devoted to its Fréchet derivative and conditioning. We propose a new definition of bivariate matrix function and derive some general results on their Fréchet derivatives, which hold, not only to the matrix-matrix exponentiation but also to other known functions, such as means of two matrices, second order Fréchet derivatives and some iteration functions arising in matrix iterative methods. The numerical computation of the Fréchet derivative is discussed and an algorithm for computing the relative condition number of A ^B is proposed. Some numerical experiments are included.     

A non-commutative cryptosystem based on quaternion algebras

We propose BQTRU, a non-commutative NTRU-like cryptosystem over quaternion algebras. This cryptosystem uses bivariate polynomials as the underling ring. The multiplication operation in our cryptosystem can be performed with high speed using quaternions algebras over finite rings. As a consequence, the key generation and encryption process of our cryptosystem is faster than NTRU in comparable parameters. Typically using Strassen’s method, the key generation and encryption process is approximately 16 / 7 times faster than NTRU for an equivalent parameter set. Moreover, the BQTRU lattice has a hybrid structure that makes inefficient standard lattice attacks on the private key. This entails a higher computational complexity for attackers providing the opportunity of having smaller key sizes. Consequently, in this sense, BQTRU is more resistant than NTRU against known attacks at an equivalent parameter set. Moreover, message protection is feasible through larger polynomials and this allows us to obtain the same security level as other NTRU-like cryptosystems but using lower dimensions.