Fractional wavelet analysis for the simultaneous quantitative analysis of lacidipine and its photodegradation product by continuous wavelet transform and multilinear regression calibration

Fractional wavelet transform (FWT) was applied to the original absorption spectra of lacidipine (LAC) and its photodegradation product (LACD), and the resulting FWT spectra were processed by continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and multilinear regression calibration (MLRC) for the simultaneous quantitative analysis of both products in their binary mixtures. These methods do not require any chemical separation step and chemical complex reaction to obtain a detectable signal for the degradation product. By using the Mexican hat function, 2 calibration functions for LAC and LACD were obtained by measuring the CWT transformed signals at 416.1 nm for LAC and 414.6 nm for LACD, after FWT processing of the original absorption spectra. The calibration graphs were linear in the concentration range of 5.08-40.64 microg/mL for LAC and 0.51-8.16 microg/mL for LACD. The limit of detection and the limit of quantitation were found to be 0.289 and 0.956 microg/mL for LAC and 0.036 and 0.118 microg/mL for LACD, respectively. For comparison, the MLRC algorithm was applied to the linear regression functions for the individual drug and its photoproduct. In this approach, a set of linear regression functions was obtained from the relationship between concentrations and FWT signals in the wavelength range 411.0-412.4 nm. Both methods were applied to the quantitative evaluation of LAC and LACD in laboratory and pharmaceutical samples, and produced very satisfactory results.     

Atomic absorption spectrophotometric determination of trace copper in waters, aluminium foil and tea samples after preconcentration with 1-nitroso-2-naphthol-3,6-disulfonic acid on Ambersorb 572

An atomic absorption spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace copper after adsorption of its 1-nitroso-2-naphthol-3,6-disulfonic acid chelate on Ambersorb 572 has been developed. This chelate is adsorbed on the adsorbent in the pH range 1–8. The copper chelate is eluted with 5 ml of 0.1 mol l⁻¹ potassium cyanide and determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The selectivity of the proposed procedure was also evaluated. Results show that iron(III), zinc(II), manganese(II) and cobalt(II) at the 50 μg l⁻¹ level and sodium(I), potassium(I), magnesium(II), calcium(II) and aluminium(III) at the 1000 μg l⁻¹ level did not interfere. A high enrichment factor, 200, was obtained. The detection limit (3σ) of copper was 0.34 μg l⁻¹. The precision of the method, evaluated by seven replicate analyses of solutions containing 5 μg of copper was satisfactory and the relative standard deviation was 1.7%. The adsorption of copper onto Ambersorb 572 can formally be described by a Langmuir equation with a maximum adsorption capacity of 14.3 mg g⁻¹ and a binding constant of 0.00444 l mg⁻¹. The accuracy of the method is confirmed by analysing tomatoes leaves (NIST 1573a) and lead base alloy (NBS 53e). The results demonstrated good agreement with the certified values. This procedure was applied to the determination of copper in waters (tap, river and thermal waters), aluminium foil and tea samples.     

Spectrophotometric multicomponent determination of sunset yellow, tartrazine and allura red in soft drink powder by double divisor-ratio spectra derivative, inverse least-squares and principal component regression methods

Double divisor-ratio spectra derivative (graphical method), classical least-squares and principal component regression (two numerical methods) methods were developed for the spectrophotometric multicomponent analysis of soft drink powders and synthetic mixtures containing three colorants without any chemical separation. The graphical method is based on the use of derivative signals of the ratio spectra using double divisor. In this method, the linear determination ranges were 2-8 mug ml(-1) sunset yellow, 4-18 mug ml(-1) tartrazine and 2-8 mug ml(-1) allura red in 0.1 M HCl. In the numerical methods, a training set was randomly prepared by using 18 samples containing between 0 and 8 mug ml(-1) of sunset yellow, 0-18 mug ml(-1) of tartrazine and 0-8 mug ml(-1) of allura red. The chemometric calibrations were calculated by using the prepared training set and its absorbances at seven points (from 375.0 to 550.0 nm) in the spectral region 325-584 nm. The proposed methods were validated by using synthetic ternary mixtures and applied to the simultaneous determination of three colorants in soft drink powders. The obtained results were statistically compared with each other.     

Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy study of polyvinylpyrrolidone-added polyvinylidene fluoride membranes: Investigation of free volume and permeation relationships

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes were prepared via the phase inversion method from casting solutions containing PVDF, dimethylformamide (DMF), and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as pore former. PVP was used in the casting solution in a range of 0–5 wt % and extracted. The effect on membranes of using PVP in the casting process was analyzed by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, viscosity, and water permeability techniques. With an increase of PVP from 0 to 5 wt %, the PVDF casting solution viscosities increased from 858 to 1148 cP; the resulting PVDF membrane thickness increased; and the crystallinity of PVDF membranes decreased from 40.0 to 33.3%, which indicates that the addition of PVP inhibits the degree of crystallization in the PVDF membranes. SEM results revealed the shape and size of macropores in the membranes; these macropores changed after PVP addition to the casting solutions. The impact of structural changes on free-volume properties was evaluated using positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) studies. PALS analysis indicated no effect on the average radius (~3.4 Å) of membrane free-volume holes from the addition of PVP to the casting solution. However, the percentage of o-Ps pick-off annihilation intensity, I₃, increased from 1.7 to 5.1% with increased PVP content. Further, increasing the PVP content from 0.5 to 5% resulted in an increased final pure water permeability flux. For instance, the 210 min flux for a 14% PVDF + 0.5% PVP membrane was found to be 3.3 times greater than a control membrane having the same PVDF concentration. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 58, 589–598     

The Semi-Infinite q-Boson System with Boundary Interaction

Upon introducing a one-parameter quadratic deformation of the q-boson algebra and a diagonal perturbation at the end point, we arrive at a semi-infinite q-boson system with a two-parameter boundary interaction. The eigenfunctions are shown to be given by Macdonald’s hyperoctahedral Hall–Littlewood functions of type BC. It follows that the n-particle spectrum is bounded and absolutely continuous and that the corresponding scattering matrix factorizes as a product of two-particle bulk and one-particle boundary scattering matrices.     

An approach to best proximity points results via simulation functions

In this paper, we investigate of the existence of the best proximity points of certain mapping defined via simulation functions in the frame of complete metric spaces. We consider the uniqueness criteria for such mappings. The obtained results unify a number of the existing results on the topic in the literature.     

Determination of fingerprints contents of different extracts and parts of six endemic Salvia taxa by GC–MS: Source species for valuable compounds with drug or drug potential

Public use of Salvia species and their importance in the scientific world is continually increasing. It is known that this use and the importance of Salvia species are mostly due to the terpenoid compounds that they contain. In this context, the terpenoid–steroid–flavonoid contents of extracts of six endemic Salvia (S. kurdica, S. pseudeuphratica, S. rosifolia, S. siirtica, S. cerino-pruinosa var. cerino-pruinosa and S. cerino-pruinosa var. elazigensis) species prepared with different solvents were determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Within the framework of the ingredient analysis, content analysis of the ethanol extracts of the root, branch, leaf and flower parts of the species collected in the same period between 2015 and 2017 years was performed. In general, extracts prepared with chloroform and ethanol were found to contain a wide variety of compounds while petroleum ether extracts were found to contain much less varied compounds. In addition, in general, root extracts are richer in terpenoid compounds than aerial part extracts. Some species can be used as source species in terms of ferruginol, cryptanol, 6,7-dehydroroyleanone, lup-(20)29-ene-2α-hydroxy-3β-acetate, salvigenin and β-sitosterol contents (52,114.28, 75,979.08, 101,247.41, 40,071.29, 33,952.13 and 34,010.90 μg analyte/g extract, respectively).     

Systematic Encoding and Shortening of PAC Codes

Polarization adjusted convolutional (PAC) codes are a class of codes that combine channel polarization with convolutional coding. PAC codes are of interest for their high performance. This paper presents a systematic encoding and shortening method for PAC codes. Systematic encoding is important for lowering the bit-error rate (BER) of PAC codes. Shortening is important for adjusting the block length of PAC codes. It is shown that systematic encoding and shortening of PAC codes can be carried out in a unified framework.     

X-ray-induced production of gold nanoparticles on a SiO(2)/Si system and in a poly(methyl methacrylate) matrix

Prolonged exposure to X-rays of HAuCl(4) deposited from an aqueous solution onto a SiO(2)/Si substrate or into a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) matrix induces reduction of the Au(3+) ions to Au(0) and subsequent nucleation to gold nanoclusters as recorded by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The corresponding major oxidation product is determined as chlorine {HAuCl(4)(ads) + X-rays --> Au(ads) + (3/2)Cl(2)(ads) + HCl(ads)}, which is initially adsorbed onto the surface but eventually diffuses out of the system into the vacuum. The reduced gold atoms aggregate (three-dimensionally) into gold nanoclusters as evidenced by the variation in the binding energy during X-ray exposure, which starts as 1.3 eV but approaches a value that is 0.5 eV higher than that of the bulk gold. The disappearance of the oxidation product (Cl2p signal) and the growth of the nanoclusters (related to the measured binding energy difference between the Si2p of the oxide and Au4f of the reduced gold) exhibit first-order kinetics which is approximately 3 times slower than the reduction of Au(3+), indicating that both of the former processes are diffusion controlled. Similarly, gold ions incorporated into PMMA can also be reduced and aggregated to gold nanoclusters using 254 nm deep UV irradiation in air evidenced by UV-vis-NIR absorption spectrocopy.