Screen-printed electrochemical sensors for label-free potentiometric and impedimetric detection of human serum albumin

Herein, two electrochemical methods based on potentiometric and impedimetric transductions were presented for albumin targeting, employing screen-printed platforms (SPEs) to make easy and cost-effective sensors with good detection merits. The SPEs incorporated ion-to-electron multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) transducer. Sensors were constructed using either tridodecyl methyl-ammonium chloride (TDMACl) (sensor I) or aliquate 336S (sensor II) in plasticized polymeric matrices of carboxylated poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC-COOH). Analytical performances of the sensors were evaluated using the above-mentioned electrochemical techniques. For potentiometric assay, constructed sensors responded to albumin with −81.7 ± 1.7 (r² = 0.9986) and −146.2 ± 2.3 mV/decade (r² = 0.9991) slopes over the linearity range 1.5 μM–1.5 mM with 0.8 and 1.0 μM detection limits for respective TDMAC- and aliquate-based sensors. Interference study showed apparent selectivity for both sensors. Impedimetric assays were performed at pH = 7.5 in 10 mM PBS buffer solution with a 0.02 M [Fe(CN)₆]^−3/−4 redox-active electrolyte. Sensors achieved detection limits of 4.3 × 10⁻⁸ and 1.8 × 10⁻⁷ M over the linear ranges of 5.2×10⁻⁸–1.0×10⁻⁴ M and 1.4×10⁻⁶–1.4×10⁻³ M, with 0.09 ± 0.004 and 0.168 ± 0.009 log Ω/decade slopes for sensors based on TDMAC and aliquate, respectively. These sensors are characterized with simple construction, high sensitivity and selectivity, fast response time, single-use, and cost-effectiveness. The methods were successfully applied to albumin assessment in different biological fluids.     

Proprietor and customer costs in the incomplete hub location-routing network topology

The hub location problem finds the location of hubs and allocates the other nodes to them. It is widely supposed the network created with the hub nodes is complete in the extensive literature. Relaxation of this basic supposition forms the present work. The model minimizes the cost of the proprietor, including the fixed costs of hubs, hub links and spoke links. Costs of hub and spoke links are contemplated as fixed cost or maintenance cost. Moreover, the model considers routing costs of customers who want to travel from origins to destinations. In this study, we offer a model to the multiple allocations of the hub location problems, under the incomplete hub location-routing network design. This model is easily transformed to other hub location problems using one or more constraints. No network format is dictated on the hub network. We suggest a set of valid inequalities for the formulation. Some lower bounds are developed using a Lagrangian relaxation approach and the valid inequalities. Computational analyses evaluate the performances of the lower bounding implementations and valid inequalities. Furthermore, we explore the effects of several factors on the design and solution time of the problem formulation.     

Subordination Results for p-Valent Meromorphic Functions Associated with a Linear Operator

In this paper, by making use of the Hadamard products, we obtain some subordination results for certain family of meromorphic functions defined by using a new linear operator.     

Generalized inverses and the maximal radius of regularity of a Fredholm operator

Operators possessing analytic generalized inverses satisfying the resolvent identity are studied. Several characterizations and necessary conditions are obtained. The maximal radius of regularity for a Fredholm operatorT is computed in terms of the spectral radius of a generalized inverse ofT. This provides a partial answer to a conjecture of J. Zemánek.     

Analysis of an optimal control problem for the tridomain model in cardiac electrophysiology

In the present paper, an optimal control problem constrained by the tridomain equations in electrocardiology is investigated. The state equations consisting in a coupled reaction–diffusion system modeling the propagation of the intracellular and extracellular electrical potentials, and ionic currents, are extended to further consider the effect of an external bathing medium. The existence and uniqueness of solution for the tridomain problem and the related control problem is assessed, and the primal and dual problems are discretized using a finite volume method which is proved to converge to the corresponding weak solution. In order to illustrate the control of the electrophysiological dynamics, we present some preliminary numerical experiments using an efficient implementation of the proposed scheme.     

A trust region method for solving the decentralized static output feedback design problem

The shortest-paths problem is a fundamental problem in graph theory and finds diverse applications in various fields. This is why shortest path algorithms have been designed more thoroughly than any other algorithm in graph theory. A large number of optimization problems are mathematically equivalent to the problem of finding shortest paths in a graph. The shortest-path between a pair of vertices is defined as the path with shortest length between the pair of vertices. The shortest path from one vertex to another often gives the best way to route a message between the vertices. This paper presents anO(n ²) time sequential algorithm and anO(n ²/p+logn) time parallel algorithm on EREW PRAM model for solving all pairs shortest paths problem on circular-arc graphs, wherep andn represent respectively the number of processors and the number of vertices of the circular-arc graph.     

Analysis of a meshless method for the time fractional diffusion-wave equation

In this paper a numerical technique is proposed for solving the time fractional diffusion-wave equation. We obtain a time discrete scheme based on finite difference formula. Then, we prove that the time discrete scheme is unconditionally stable and convergent using the energy method and the convergence order of the time discrete scheme is \(\mathcal {O}(\tau ^{3-\alpha })\). Firstly, we change the main problem based on Dirichlet boundary condition to a new problem based on Robin boundary condition and then, we consider a semi-discrete scheme with Robin boundary condition and show when \(\beta \rightarrow +\infty \) solution of the main semi-discrete problem with Dirichlet boundary condition is convergent to the solution of the new semi-discrete problem with Robin boundary condition. We consider the new semi-discrete problem with Robin boundary condition and use the meshless Galerkin method to approximate the spatial derivatives. Finally, we obtain an error bound for the new problem. We prove that convergence order of the numerical scheme based on Galekin meshless is \(\mathcal {O}(h)\). In the considered method the appeared integrals are approximated using Gauss Legendre quadrature formula. The main aim of the current paper is to obtain an error estimate for the meshless Galerkin method based on the radial basis functions. Numerical examples confirm the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed scheme.