Synthesis and characterization of vanadium oxide/hexadecylamine membrane and its application as pH-EGFET sensor

Vanadium oxide/hexadecylamine (V₂O₅/HDA) sensing membrane was deposited on the glassy carbon substrate and used as the sensing layer of the extended gate H⁺-ion sensitive field effect transistor (EGFET) device. The structural and morphological features of V₂O₅/HDA were studied by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transformed-infrared spectroscopy and Scanning electronic microscopy images; and the electrochemical behavior was analyzed by cyclic voltammogram. V₂O₅/HDA presents a lamellar structure as well as several rod formations. The material stabilizes electrochemically after several cycles and leads to reproducibility of Li⁺ ion insertion/de-insertion into the vanadium oxide structure. The material was investigated as a pH sensor in the pH range 2–12 and presented a sensitivity of 38.1 mV/pH. The sensitive membrane structure is simple to fabricate and the measurement is fast for application as a disposable sensor.     

Criteria for efficiency in vector optimization

We consider unconstrained finite dimensional multi-criteria optimization problems, where the objective functions are continuously differentiable. Motivated by previous work of Brosowski and da Silva (1994), we suggest a number of tests (TEST 1–4) to detect, whether a certain point is a locally (weakly) efficient solution for the underlying vector optimization problem or not. Our aim is to show: the points, at which none of the TESTs 1–4 can be applied, form a nowhere dense set in the state space. TESTs 1 and 2 are exactly those proposed by Brosowski and da Silva. TEST 3 deals with a local constant behavior of at least one of the objective functions. TEST 4 includes some conditions on the gradients of objective functions satisfied locally around the point of interest. It is formulated as a Conjecture. It is proven under additional assumptions on the objective functions, such as linear independence of the gradients, convexity or directional monotonicity. This work was partially supported by grant 55681 of the CONACyT.     

Thermochemical data for n-alkylmonoamines functionalization into lamellar silicate Al-kanemite

Al-kanemite was synthesized by using inorganic salts as a source for silicon and aluminum in the hydrothermal synthesis of the material. The resulting solid was used as hosts for functionalization of polar n-alkylamine molecules of the general formula H₃C(CH₂)_n?NH₂ (n = 1 to 5) in aqueous solution. The compound was calorimetrically titrated with amine in 1,2-dichloroethane, requiring three independent operations: (i) titration of matrix with amine, (ii) matrix salvation, and (iii) dilution of the amine solution. From those thermal effects the variation in enthalpy was calculated as: (?6.81, ?7.76, ?8.97, ?9.94, and ?11.83) kJ · mol^?1, for n = 1 to 5, respectively. The exothermic enthalpy values reflected a favorable energetic process of amine-host functionalization in 1,2-dichloroethane. The original and modified Al-kanemite samples were characterized by elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopic (SEM), and nuclear magnetic nuclei of silicon-29 and carbon-13. The negative Gibbs free energy results supported the spontaneity of all these functionalization reactions. The positive favorable entropic values, as carbon chain size increased, are in agreement with the free solvent molecules in the solution, as the amines are progressively bonded to the crystalline inorganic matrix at the solid/liquid interface.     

A New,Practical Formulation of the Multicomponent Copolymerization Equation

A general and rigorous new formulation of the multicomponent extension to the Mayo Lewis copolymerization equation is presented based in matrix notation. In contrast to the original Walling and Briggs formulation, which was based on determinants and difficult to apply in practice, this new formulation is explicit, easy to implement, and introduces a natural scaling to the problem. The approach is illustrated with calculation of instantaneous composition and compositional drift with conversion for 4 and 6 monomers.

     

Synthesis and structural characterisation of neutral pentacoordinate silicon(IV) complexes with a tridentate dianionic N,N,S chelate ligand

A series of novel neutral pentacoordinate silicon(IV) complexes with SiClSN(2)C, SiBrSN(2)C, SiSN(3)C, SiSON(2)C, SiS(2)N(2)C, SiSeSN(2)C and SiTeSN(2)C skeletons (compounds 1-12) was synthesised, starting from PhSiCl(3), PhSiBr(3), PhSi(NCO)(3), MeSiCl(3) or C(6)F(5)SiCl(3). Compounds 1-12 contain (i) a tridentate dianionic N,N,S chelate ligand (derived from 2-{[(pyridin-2-yl)methyl]amino}benzenethiol), (ii) a phenyl, methyl or pentafluorophenyl group and (iii) a monodentate monoanionic ligand (Cl, Br, NCO, NCS, N(3), OS(O)(2)CF(3), OPh, SPh, SePh, TePh). The pentacoordinate silicon(iv) complexes 1-12 were characterised by elemental analyses, NMR spectroscopic studies in the solid state and in solution and crystal structure analyses. These experimental investigations were complemented by computational studies.     

Increasing antibiotic activity against a multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter spp by essential oils of Citrus limon and Cinnamomum zeylanicum

The genus Acinetobacter has gained importance in recent years due to involvement in serious infections and antimicrobial resistance. Many plants have been evaluated not only for direct antimicrobial activity, but also as resistance modifying agents. The Essential oil of Citrus limon (EOCL) addition at 156.25?μgmL(-1) (MIC/8) sub-inhibitory concentration in the growth medium led to MIC decrease for amikacin, imipenem and meropenem. The Essential oil of Cinnamomum zeylanicum (EOCZ) addition at 78.125?μg?mL(-1) (MIC/8) sub-inhibitory concentrations in the growth medium caused drastic MIC reduction of amikacin. Results of combining antibiotics and essential oils had shown us a synergistic effect with both essential oils/amikacin combinations. An additive effect was observed with the combinations of both essential oils and gentamicin. The results of this study suggest that essential oil of C. limon and C. zeylanicum may suppress the growth of Acinetobacter species and could be a source of metabolites with antibacterial modifying activity.     

Hyperbolic Balance Laws with a Non Local Source

This paper is devoted to hyperbolic systems of balance laws with non local source terms. The existence, uniqueness and Lipschitz dependence proved here comprise previous results in the literature and can be applied to physical models, such as Euler system for a radiating gas and Rosenau regularization of the Chapman–Enskog expansion.     

Dynamic transition from modelike patterns to turbulentlike patterns in a broad-area Nd:YAG laser

We report the first experimental observation to our knowledge of a dynamic transition from modelike patterns to completely disordered patterns in a large-aspect-ratio Nd:YAG laser. Recordings of near-field patterns with an integration time as small as 1 ns allow us to follow the evolution of the transverse intensity profile along the output pulse of the laser.     

Clustering of polarity reversals of the geomagnetic field

Often in nature the temporal distribution of inhomogeneous stochastic point processes can be modeled as a realization of renewal Poisson processes with a variable rate. Here we investigate one of the classical examples, namely, the temporal distribution of polarity reversals of the geomagnetic field. In spite of the commonly used underlying hypothesis, we show that this process strongly departs from a Poisson statistics, the origin of this failure stemming from the presence of temporal clustering. We find that a Lévy statistics is able to reproduce paleomagnetic data, thus suggesting the presence of long-range correlations in the underlying dynamo process.