Speciation analysis of chromium in drinking water samples by ion-pair reversed-phase HPLC–ICP-MS: validation of the analytical method and evaluation of the uncertainty budget

The approach presented in this article refers to the modification of a method for the detection and quantitative determination of chromium species in water by high-performance liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The main aim of this work was to establish a detailed validation of the analytical procedure and an estimation of the budget of measurement uncertainty which was helpful in recognizing the critical points of the presented method. As a result of the method validation experiment, the obtained limit of quantification, repeatability and intermediate precision were satisfied for the quantification Cr(III) and Cr(VI) in water matrices. The trueness of the method was verified via an estimation of the recovery of the spiked real samples. The recovery rate of both determined analytes was found to be between 93 and 115 %. Considering that the validation of the method and the evaluation of measurement uncertainty are crucial for quantitative analysis, the above-mentioned assessment of the uncertainty budget was performed in two different ways: a modelling approach and a single-laboratory validation approach. The measurement uncertainties of the results were found to be 4.4 and 7.8 % for Cr(III), 4.2 and 7.9 % for Cr(VI) using the classical concept and method validation data, respectively. This paper is the first publication to presenting all the steps needed to evaluate the measurement uncertainty for the speciation analysis of chromium species. In summary, the obtained results demonstrate that the method can be applied effectively for its intended use.     

Crystal and molecular structure of bis(aminomethylphosphonate)copper(II)

The crystal and molecular structure of bis(aminomethylphosphonate)-copper(II), C₂H₁₀N₂O₆P₂Cu, has been determined from MoK diffractometer data. The compound crystallizes in the monoclinic space groupP2₁/n witha =7.571(2),b = 4.943(1),c = 11.212(3) Å, = 105.84(2) °, andZ = 2. The structure was solved by the heavy-atom technique and refined by full-matrix least-squares methods toR = 0.041, using 1084 reflections for which ¦F _o¦ > 3.92 (¦F _o¦). In this complex, the Cu atom is square-planar coordinated by four O atoms from four phosphonic groups, and not by the amino group. The Cu-O bond lengths are 1.928(3) and 1.937(3) Å, and the phosphonic groups bridge adjacent Cu atoms in polymeric chains. The infrared spectrum of this complex is reported.     

Relations Between Relaxation Modulus and Creep Compliance in Anisotropic Linear Viscoelasticity

The results obtained previously for scalar and class P completely monotone relaxation moduli are extended to arbitrary anisotropy. It is shown for general anisotropic viscoelastic media that, if the relaxation modulus is a locally integrable completely monotone function, then the creep compliance is a Bernstein function and conversely. The elastic and equilibrium limits of the two material functions are related to each other. The relaxation modulus or its derivative can be singular at 0. A rigorous general formulation of the relaxation spectrum in an anisotropic viscoelastic medium is given. The effect of Newtonian viscosity on creep compliance is examined. Put some makeup on him and lay him to rest. Anonymous     

Close-packed monolayers of charged Janus-type nanoparticles at the air-water interface

Two DNA-block copolymers, poly(caprolactone)-DNA and poly(methyl metacrylate)-DNA, were synthesized by conjugation of a short single strand of DNA (12 or 22 mer) to a single reactive group at one end of the synthetic polymer. These polymers self-assemble in water, without the need of any cosolvent, forming micelle-like aggregates that were imaged by TEM. The solution behavior of the bioconjugated polymers was investigated by surface tension measurements. In the direction of dilution, the surface tension was measured using a down-scaled Wilhelmy plate method. To proceed in the reverse direction (concentration), we measured the surface tension of a sessile drop during its evaporation. This latter method was firstly validated using ionic and non-ionic surfactants, including polymeric surfactants. It was then applied to investigate the unimer to micelles transition of the DNA-block copolymers. In all cases, a reversible transition was observed demonstrating the existence of a critical micellar concentration, close to 0.01 mmol L⁻¹ for all the conjugates. The CMC was only slightly influenced by the length of the hydrophilic DNA block.     

Scaling Properties of the Number of Random Sequential Adsorption Iterations Needed to Generate Saturated Random Packing

The properties of the number of iterations in random sequential adsorption protocol needed to generate finite saturated random packing of spherically symmetric shapes were studied. Numerical results obtained for one, two, and three dimensional packings were supported by analytical calculations valid for any dimension d. It has been shown that the number of iterations needed to generate finite saturated packing is subject to Pareto distribution with exponent \(-1-1/d\) and the median of this distribution scales with packing size according to the power-law characterized by exponent d. Obtained results can be used in designing effective random sequential adsorption simulations.     

Locking entanglement with a single qubit

We study the loss of entanglement of a bipartite state subjected to discarding or measurement of one qubit. Examining behavior of different entanglement measures, we find that entanglement of formation, entanglement cost, logarithmic negativity, and one-way distillable entanglement are lockable measures in that they can decrease arbitrarily after measuring one qubit. We prove that any convex and asymptotically noncontinuous measure is lockable. As a consequence, all the convex-roof measures can be locked. The relative entropy of entanglement is shown to be a nonlockable measure.     

The group of local biholomorphisms of ℂ1 and conformal field theory in the operator formalism

Motivated by the operator formulation of conformal field theory on Riemann surfaces, we study the properties of the infinite dimensional group of local biholomorphic transformations (conformal reparametrizations) of ¹ and develop elements of its representation theory.     

Stability investigations of laser with saturable absorber

Stability of steady solutions of semiclassical laser-absorber model is investigated. It is found that the solutions exhibit instabilities for all values of cavity losses and, for some values of parameters, additional instability, connected with phase, appears. It is also shown by a numerical calculation that in an unstable region periodic and erratic motion can exist above criticallity.Supported in part by the Polish Ministery of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Project M.R.I.7