Radioimmunoassay of Human Follicle Stimulating Hormone /HFSH/

A method for determining Human FSH in blood/serum by RIA is described. The radioiodination of FSH with¹²⁵I is carried out under carefully controlled conditions such as, amount of initial activity of¹²⁵I take for iodination, the reaction volume, and the reaction time, etc. The tracer FSH obtained thus is with minimum damage and optimum specific activity which is ideally suited for RIA. The shelf-life of the tracer is enhanced by the addition of benzyl alchol. The tracer can be conveniently stored at+4–6°C upto 10 weeks, avoiding the repeated freezing and thawing process. Antiserum to FSH is raised in rabbits by repeated injections via intramuscular route. The method utilizes polyethylene glycol /PEG/ as the separation system. Using this method, a number of control samples of men and women of reproductive age group are screened. This sensitive assay has a good validity and has an inter-assay variation less than 15%.     

The structure of some classes of <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis>-contact manifolds

We study projective curvature tensor in K-contact and Sasakian manifolds. We prove that (1) if a K-contact manifold is quasi projectively flat then it is Einstein and (2) a K-contact manifold is ξ-projectively flat if and only if it is Einstein Sasakian. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a K-contact manifold to be quasi projectively flat and φ-projectively flat are obtained. We also prove that for a (2n + 1)-dimensional Sasakian manifold the conditions of being quasi projectively flat, φ-projectively flat and locally isometric to the unit sphere S ²ⁿ⁺¹ (1) are equivalent. Finally, we prove that a compact φ-projectively flat K-contact manifold with regular contact vector field is a principal S ¹-bundle over an almost Kaehler space of constant holomorphic sectional curvature 4.     

Three-stage auto-ignition of n-heptane and methyl-cyclohexane mixtures at lean conditions in a flat piston rapid compression machine

One approach to enhancing the thermal efficiency of combustion systems is to burn fuels at ultra-lean conditions (equivalence ratio below 0.5). It has been recently reported that the auto-ignition of some hydrocarbon fuels, under specific temperature, pressure, and mixture conditions, releases heat in three distinctive stages. The three auto-ignition stages can be divided as a first low-temperature auto-ignition stage with conventional low temperature, and a high-temperature stage separated into two sub-stages. This study presents ignition delay time measurements of n-heptane and methyl-cyclohexane (MCH) mixtures in a flat piston rapid compression machine (RCM) under ultra-lean conditions. It provides experimental evidence of three-stage auto-ignition. This phenomenon of delayed high-temperature heat release is seldom reported in the literature and this is the first time to be reported for these types of fuels. The experiments cover two binary n-heptane/MCH mixtures of 15/85 and 70/30 by volume, pressures of 11 bar and 16 bar, temperature range of 700 to 900 K, and equivalence ratio of 0.4. The RCM optical access was utilized for high-speed chemiluminescence imaging. Detailed chemical kinetic simulations in a homogenous batch reactor with variable volume were conducted to further interrogate the three-stage auto-ignition phenomenon. Chemiluminescence shows that three-stage auto-ignition occurs in the adiabatically compressed end-gas, which indicates that this phenomenon is chemically-driven and is not induced by a thermal stratification in the RCM experiments. The model predicts the features of three-stage auto-ignition, which were experimentally observed at temperatures approximately below 750 K. As expected, significant discrepancies are observed in the ignition delays of experiment and simulation in the negative temperature coefficient (NTC) region. The simulation of the n-heptane/MCH 70/30 mixture shows better agreement with experiments in the Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) region compared to the 15/85 mixture.     

Polymeric membrane coated graphite cesium selective electrode based on 4′,4″(5′) di–tert-butyl di-benzo-18-crown-6

A new PVC membrane coated graphite electrode for cesium ion based on 4′,4″(5′)di–tert-butyl di-benzo-18-crown-6 (DTBDB18C6) as ionophore was prepared. The electrode shows a near Nernstian response of 57.0 ± 1.8 mV decade^?1 over a wide activity range of 6.0 × 10^?6–1.0 × 10^?1 mol L^?1 with a limit of detection 4.0 × 10^?6 mol L^?1. The proposed electrode is suitable for use in aqueous solution in the pH range of 3.0–9.5. It has a fast response time of 10 s and can be used for at least 1 month without any considerable divergence in potential. The selectivity coefficients for Cs⁺ ion with respect to ammonium, alkali, alkaline earth and some selected transition metal ions were determined and showed a superior selectivity over Li⁺, Na⁺ and alkaline earth metal ions. The new electrode was applied for determination of Cs⁺ in spiked tap water. The electrode was also used as indicator electrode in potentiometric titration of Cs⁺ with sodium tetraphenyl borate.     

Combination of ionic liquid-based dispersive liquid-liquid micro-extraction with stopped-flow spectrofluorometry for the pre-concentration and determination of aluminum in natural waters, fruit juice and food samples

In this research, we combined ionic liquid-based dispersive liquid-liquid micro-extraction (IL-based DLLME) with stopped-flow spectrofluorometry (SFS) to evaluate the concentration of aluminum in different real samples at trace level. 1-Hexylpyridinium hexafluorophosphate [Hpy][PF₆] ionic liquid and 8-hydroxyquinoline (oxine), which forms a highly fluorescent complex with Al³⁺, were chosen as the extraction solvent and chelating agent, respectively. The hydrophobic Al-oxine complex was extracted into the [Hpy][PF₆] and separated from the aqueous phase. Then, the concentration of the enriched aluminum in the sediment phase was determined by SFS. Some effective parameters that influence the SFS signals and the micro-extraction efficiency, such as the suction and sending time, the concentration of the chelating agent, pH, the amount of the ionic liquid, the type of disperser solvent and diluting agent, ionic strength, extraction time, equilibration temperature and centrifugation time were investigated and optimized. In the optimum experimental conditions, the limit of detection (3 s) and enrichment factor were 0.05 μg L⁻¹ and 100, respectively. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for six replicate determinations of 6 μg L⁻¹ Al was 1.7%. The calibration graph using the pre-concentration system was linear in the range of 0.06-15 μg L⁻¹ with a correlation coefficient of 0.9989. The developed method was validated by the analysis of certified reference materials and applied successfully to the determination of aluminum in several water, fruit juice and food samples.     

The salting-out effect and phase separation in aqueous solutions of tri-sodium citrate and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide

The aim of this work is to obtain further evidence about the salting-out effect produced by the addition of tri-sodium citrate to aqueous solutions of water miscible ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([C₄mim][Br]) by evaluating the effect of tri-sodium citrate on the thermodynamic properties of aqueous solutions of this ionic liquid. Experimental measurements of density and sound velocity at different temperatures ranging from (288.15 to 308.15) K, the refractive index at 308.15 K and the liquid–liquid phase diagram at different temperatures ranging from (288.15 to 338.15) K for aqueous solutions containing 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([C₄mim][Br]) and tri-sodium citrate (Na₃Cit) are taken. The apparent molar volume of transfer of [C₄mim][Br] from water to aqueous solutions of Na₃Cit have positive values and it increases by increasing salt molality. Although at high IL molality, the apparent molar isentropic compressibility shows similar behaviour with that of the apparent molar volume. However at low concentrations of IL, the apparent molar isentropic compressibility of transfer of [C₄mim][Br] from water to aqueous solutions of Na₃Cit have negative values. The effects of temperature and the addition of Na₃Cit and [C₄mim][Br] on the liquid–liquid phase diagram of the investigated system have been studied. It was found that an increase in temperature caused the expansion of the one-phase region. The presence of Na₃Cit triggers a salting-out effect, leading to significant upward shifts of the liquid–liquid de-mixing temperatures of the system. The effect of temperature on the phase-forming ability in the system investigated has been studied based on a salting-out coefficient obtained from fitting the binodal values to a Setschenow-type equation for each temperature. Based on cloud point values, the energetics of the clouding process have been estimated and it was found that both of entropy and enthalpy are the driving forces for biphasic formation.     

Nanofibrous polyaniline thin film prepared by plasma‐induced polymerization technique for detection of NO2 gas

A nanofibrous polyaniline (PANI) thin film was fabricated using plasma‐induced polymerization method and explored its application in the fabrication of NO₂ gas sensor. The effects of substrate position, pressure, and the number of plasma pulses on the PANI film growth rate were monitored and an optimum condition for the PANI thin film preparation was established. The resulting PANI film was characterized with UV–visible spectrophotometer, FTIR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The PANI thin film possessed nanofibers with a diameter ranging from 15 to 20 nm. The NO₂ gas sensing behavior was studied by measuring the change in electrical conductivity of PANI film with respect to NO₂ gas concentration and exposure time. The optimized sensor exhibited a sensitivity factor of 206 with a response time of 23 sec. The NO₂ gas sensor using nanofibrous PANI thin film as sensing probe showed a linear current response to the NO₂ gas concentration in the range of 10–100 ppm. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficient visible-light-induced photocatalytic degradation of MO on the Cr-nanocrystalline titania-S

In order to improve visible light photocatalytic activities of the nanometer TiO₂, a novel and efficient Cr,S-codoped TiO₂ (Cr-TiO₂-S) photocatalyst was prepared by precipitation-doping method. The crystalline structure, morphology, particle size, and chemical structure of Cr-TiO₂-S were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) techniques, respectively. Results indicate that the doping of Cr and S, cause absorption edge shifts to the visible light region (λ > 420 nm) compare to the pure TiO₂, reduces average size of the TiO₂ crystallites, enhances desired lattice distortion of Ti, promotes separation of photo-induced electron and hole pair, and thus improves pollutant decomposition under visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic activities of Cr-TiO₂-S nanoparticles were evaluated using the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) as probe reaction under the irradiation of UV and visible light and it was observed that the Cr-TiO₂-S photocatalyst shows higher visible photocatalytic activity than the pure TiO₂. The optimal Cr-TiO₂-S concentration to obtain the highest photocatalytic activity was 5 mol% for both of Cr and S.     

Measurement of water activities of alanine + tri-potassium citrate + water system at temperatures between 293.15 and 313 K—Experimental and modeling

Water activity measurements by isopiestic method have been carried out on the aqueous solutions of alanine + tri-potassium citrate (K₃Cit) over a range of temperatures at atmospheric pressure. From these measurements, values of the vapor pressure of solutions were determined. The effect of temperature on the vapor–liquid equilibrium of alanine + K₃Cit + H₂O systems has been studied. The experimental water activities have been correlated successfully with the segment-based local composition Wilson and NRTL models. The agreement between the correlations and the experimental data is good.