Characterization and elimination of the interfering effects of foreign species in the atomic-absorption determination of iron

The inhibition-release titration method has been used to study interference effects in flame atomic-absorption determination of iron. Interferences from anions, cations and complexing agents with the atomic-absorption of iron when a stoichiometric air-acetylene flame is used, can be obviated by a preliminary treatment of the sample solution with sulphosalicylic acid to convert the iron into the same complex before aspiration, thus giving a constant environment for the iron in the flame processes.     

Stability analysis of methods employing reducible rules for Volterra integral equations

The concept of (A ₀,S)-stability, for numerical methods approximating solutions of Volterra integral equations, is formally defined. New stability polynomials for the recent multi-lag type methods are obtained. (A ₀, 1)-stability of these and other methods employing reducible quadrature rules are also investigated.     

Circuits with totally-fluctuating reactive elements

Summary Considered here first is a circuit consisting of resistanceR, inductanceL, capacitanceK, in series with a periodically variable capacitanceC(1 + cos t), with maximum value 2C and minimum value zero (i.e. open circuit). The exact solution of the Hill-type differential equation for the charge on the condensers is shown to be expressible in terms of associated Legendre functions of general degree and order. However, considerable analytical simplification is effected by appropriate choice of the value of capacitanceK, for then the solution (likewise exact) is in terms of more elementary functions. It is found that the value of the angular frequency , in relation to the circuit parameters, influences the character of the solution, which varies considerably with . Secondly, a lossless circuit consisting of a variable inductanceM(1+cos t), shunted by a fixed inductanceL and a capacitanceC, is considered. As before, appropriate choice ofL simplifies the solution functions. Actually, the circulating charge in the variable-inductance case has the same mathematical expression as that for the current in the variable-capacitance case.     

Shifting From Ziegler–Natta to Philips‐Type Catalyst? A Simple and Safe Access to Reduced Titanium Systems for Ethylene Polymerization

Silica‐supported titanium(IV) chloride is readily reduced by Mashima and co‐workers' reagent (1‐methyl‐3,6‐bis(trimethylsilyl)‐1,4‐cyclohexadiene) to afford materials active in ethylene polymerisation without need of aluminum alkyl cocatalyst.     

Band selection of hyperspectral-image based weighted indipendent component analysis

Huge amounts of data in hyperspectral images have been caused to represent approaches for the band selection of these images. In this paper, a new approach based on independent component analysis (ICA) is proposed. The idea of projection pursuit is used to order the bands on the basis of a non-gaussianity distribution. Applying a negentropy function to weight bands is a novel idea that leads to the selection of bands with minimum mutual information (MI) and besides maximum entropy, with respected to the bands selected using other methods.     

Detection and dosimetry of gamma ray emitted from thallium-201 and technetium-99m based on chemiluminescence technique

This report describes the detection and dosimetry of gamma ray emitted from Thallium-201 (²⁰¹Tl) and Technetium-99m (^99mTc) based on chemiluminescence technique. H₂O₂ produced by two gamma emitter radioisotopes of ²⁰¹Tl and ^99mTc were quantitatively measured by chemiluminescence method. Upon producing H₂O₂ in a luminol alkaline solution, in the presence of diperiodatocuprate, as catalyst a chemical reaction was accrued and consequently the emitted light was measured. The determined H₂O₂ concentration was correlated with the gamma ray detection and dosimetry. The sensitivity of chemiluminescence technique for ²⁰¹Tl and ^99mTc dosimetry was determined to be 0.20 and 0.08 MBq/l (Mega Becquerel per liter) respectively (R.S.D. = %5, N = 3). The plotted calibration curves showed detection limits of 3.24 and 1.76 MBq/l for ²⁰¹Tl and ^99mTc, respectively.     

Studying variations in the PCDD/PCDF profile across various food products using multivariate statistical analysis

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF) are widely recognized by the scientific community as persistent organic pollutants due to their toxicity and adverse effects on wildlife and human health. The actual regulation dedicated to the monitoring of dioxins in food is based on the measurement of 17 congener concentrations. The final result is reported as a toxic equivalent value that takes into account the relative toxicity of each congener. This procedure can minimize the qualitative information available from the abundances of each PCDD/PCDF congener: the characteristic contamination profile of the sample. Multivariate statistical techniques, such as principal component analysis (PCA) or linear discriminant analysis (LDA), represent an interesting way to investigate this qualitative information. Nevertheless, they have only been applied to the analysis of contamination data from food products and biological matrices infrequently. The objective of the present study was to analyze a large data set from dioxin analyses performed on various food products of animal origin. The results demonstrate the existence of differences in congener-specific patterns between the analyzed samples. Variability was first demonstrated in terms of the food type (fish, meat, milk, fatty products). Then a variability was observed that was related to the specific animal species for meat and milk samples (bovine, ovine, porcine, caprine and poultry). Some practical applications of these results are discussed. The origin(s) of the observed differences, as well as their significance, now remain to be investigated, both in terms of environmental factors and transfer through living organisms. A better knowledge of the relation between a contamination profile and its specific source and/or food product should be of great interest to scientists working in the fields of contaminant analysis, toxicology and metabolism, as well as to regulatory bodies and risk assessors in charge of final decisions regarding the eventual hazards associated with theses substances.