Teaching ideas and activities for classroom: integrating technology into the pedagogy of integral calculus and the approximation of definite integrals

The purpose of this article is to offer teaching ideas in the treatment of the definite integral concept and the Riemann sums in a technology-supported environment. Specifically, the article offers teaching ideas and activities for classroom for the numerical methods of approximating a definite integral via left- and right-hand Riemann sums, along with midpoint and trapezoidal Riemann sums. The activities demonstrate innovative and creative ways of integrating technology, in particular, GeoGebra dynamic software, into the pedagogy of college-level integral calculus. It also provides, among other things, interesting and original teaching ideas incorporating technology, and an evaluation of these activities by the students themselves who experienced these activities with the GeoGebra dynamic software.     

Beaming of light and enhanced transmission via surface modes of photonic crystals

We report beaming and enhanced transmission of electromagnetic waves by use of surface corrugated photonic crystals. The modes of a finite-size photonic crystal composed of dielectric rods in free space have been analyzed by the plane-wave expansion method. We show the existence of surface propagating modes when the surface of the finite-size photonic crystal is corrugated. We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that the transmission through photonic crystal waveguides can be substantially increased by the existence of surface propagating modes at the input surface. In addition, the power emitted from the photonic crystal waveguide is confined to a narrow angular region when an appropriate surface corrugation is added to the output surface of the photonic crystal.     

SERS‐based assays for sensitive detection of modafinil

In this paper, we proposed two sensitive surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy assays for the determination of modafinil in urine matrix. In the first assay, modafinil was extracted by solid phase extraction and determined after sandwiching with silver nanoparticles. In the second assay, modafinil was extracted by non‐specific interaction with magnetic gold nanoparticles and determined by sandwiching with magnetic gold and silver nanoparticles. The non‐specific magnetic extraction does not require any analyte specific agent like antibody, aptamer, or molecularly imprinted polymer, therefore, the cost and complexity of the assay is very low. Both assays are capable for application to urine samples with the detection limits under the minimum required performance limit of modafinil. The assays were validated in terms of accuracy, precision, detection limits, and ranges. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Silver Nanoparticle Based Analysis of Aminoglycosides

Colorimetric silver nanoparticle sensor was developed for determination of aminoglycosides in milk. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized by using sodium borohydride as reducing agent and sodium dodecyl sulfate as stabilizer. Yellow color of silver turned into orange and red in proportion to the concentrations of analytes. Quantitative analyses were performed by using decrease in absorbance of silver nanoparticles at 394 nm. Linear ranges were 20–60 ng mL^?1, 23–60 ng mL^?1, and 60–100 ng mL^?1 for gentamicin, tobramycin, and amikacin, respectively. The method was optimized in terms of pH, ionic strength, and time. This simple and validated method was applied to milk samples and pharmaceutical preparations.     

Kinetic and mechanistic features of carbon dioxide reforming of methane over Co–Ce/ZrO2 catalysts

Carbon dioxide reforming of methane (CDRM) is an effective route to utilize CO₂ and CH₄, the most abundant, thermodynamically stable and hazardous greenhouse gases. To overcome the economical impediments to favor CDRM's industrial applicability, its mechanistic features need to be revealed both for developing efficient catalysts and optimizing operational conditions. In this context, this work aims to obtain power-law type CDRM kinetic expressions over 5%Co–2%Ce/ZrO₂ and 10%Co–2%Ce/ZrO₂ catalysts and compare and analyze mechanistic routes to elucidate the effect of the Co:Ce ratio on kinetics. The empirical power-law type rate expressions were estimated with the reaction orders of 1.63 and 1.12 for CH₄ and 0.29 and –0.12 for CO₂ for 5%Co–2%Ce/ZrO₂ and 10%Co–2%Ce/ZrO₂ catalysts, respectively. Limited CH₄ activation and, thus, carbon formation due to low Co loading lead to accumulation of surface oxygen on ZrO₂ as redox ability of Ce becomes suppressed. This causes higher CO₂ activation barrier. The presence of H₂ in the feed slows down mechanistic steps involving CH_x. The reactions including CH₄ activation, most probably reversible direct CH₄ dissociation, are found to be rate determining.     

An electrochemical signal switch–based (on–off) aptasensor for sensitive detection of insulin on gold-deposited screen-printed electrodes

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Insulin hormone is of great importance for many diseases, especially for diabetes management. Therefore, different detection strategies have been used for...     

Optimisation and validation of liquid chromatographic and partial least-squares-1 methods for simultaneous determination of enalapril maleate and nitrendipine in pharmaceutical preparations

Simultaneous determination of enalapril maleate (ENA) and nitrendipine (NIT) in pharmaceutical preparations was performed using liquid chromatography (LC) and the partial least-squares-1 (PLS-1) method. In LC, the separation was achieved on a C8 column and the optimum mobile phase for good separation in a gradient elution programme was found to be acetonitrile-water (φ _r = 81: 19) and optimum flow-rate, temperature, injection volume, and detection wavelength were set at 1.0 mL min⁻¹, 25°C, 10 μL, and 210 nm, respectively. Dienogest was selected as an internal standard. In the spectrophotometry, a PLS-1 chemometric method was used. The absorbance data matrix related to the concentration data matrix was established by measurement of absorbances in their zero order spectra with an increment of Δλ = 1 nm in the 220–290 nm range for ENA and with Δλ = 1 nm in the 230–290 nm range for NIT in the PLS-1 method. Following this step, calibration was established by using this data matrix to predict the unknown concentrations of ENA and NIT in their binary mixture. These optimised methods were validated and successfully applied to a pharmaceutical preparation in tablet form and the results were subjected to comparison.     

Experimental demonstration of subwavelength focusing of electromagnetic waves by labyrinth-based two-dimensional metamaterials

We studied focusing in a two-dimensional metamaterial that was based on a labyrinth structure. We theoretically showed that the labyrinth-based metamaterial exhibits negative indices of refraction between 6 and 6.4 GHz. We experimentally studied the focusing effect by measuring electric field intensities on the output side of the metamaterial when the source was placed in front of the input side of the metamaterial. Our experimental results showed that it is in fact possible to focus the source field with half-widths as small as wavelength/4 by using the labyrinth-based metamaterial.