Electroanalytical and chromatographic determination of pentachlorophenol and related molecules in a contaminated soil: a real case example

Electroanalytical and chromatographic methodologies have been applied for the determination of pentachlorophenol (PCP) and some of its derivatives in real soil samples contaminated by industrial discharge. The analytes were extracted with hexane from soil samples collected at different points of the site and mixed to produce a representative sample. Square wave voltammetry (SWV) experiments were carried out on either a boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode or a gold ultramicroelectrode (Au-UME) in an analyte composed by the Britton-Robinson (B-R) buffer at pH 5.5 with the direct addition of proper amounts of the extract. The voltammetric responses revealed an irreversible anodic peak at approximately 0.80 V vs. Ag/AgCl with a peak current showing a linear dependence on PCP concentration. This linear relationship yielded a detection limit (DL) of 2×10⁻⁸ mol l⁻¹ (or 5.5 μg l⁻¹) for the BDD electrode and 6.9×10⁻⁸ mol l⁻¹ (18.4 μg l⁻¹) for the Au-UME, while the independently measured HPLC detection limit was 1.1×10⁻⁸ mol l⁻¹ (3.0 μg l⁻¹). The application of electroanalytical and chromatographic methodologies in the analysis of soil extracts revealed, besides the PCP responses, signals for some related molecules such as o-tetrachlorobenzoquinone (o-chloranil), hexachlorobenzene and tetrachlorophenol. Recovering experiments for PCP showed a concentration of 27.5 mg kg⁻¹ for the electroanalytical determinations and 26.8 mg kg⁻¹ for the HPLC analysis, values exceedingly high if considering that the maximum residue limit established for natural waters by the Brazilian Environmental Agency is 10 μg l⁻¹.     

On the measure of the spectrum for the almost Mathieu operator

We obtain partial results on the conjecture that for the almost Mathieu operator at irrational frequency, , the measure of the spectrum,S(, , )=|4–2|. For ||2 we show that if _n is rational and irrational, then .Dedicated to Res Jost and Arthur WightmanResearch partially supported by U.S. NSF grant number DMS-8801918 and by BSF under grant number 88-00325     

Endomorphism valued cohomology and gauge-neutral matter

For several physically interesting Calabi-Yau manifolds, we count and parametrize gauge-neutral matter particles occurring in corresponding superstring compactifications. To this end, we use the technique of exact and spectral sequences and then describe and discuss our results in the more familiar tensor notation.Supported by the Robert A. Welch Foundation and the NSF Grant: PHY 8605978. On leave of absence from the Ruder Bokovi Institute, Bijenika 54, YU-41000 Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia     

Nonlocality and Gleason's lemma. Part I. Deterministic theories

J. S. Bell's classic 1966 review paper on the foundations of quantum mechanics led directly to the Bell nonlocality theorem. It is not widely appreciated that the review paper contained the basic ingredients needed for a nonlocality result which holds in certain situations where the Bell inequality is not violated. We present in this paper a systematic formulation and evaluation of an argument due to Stairs in 1983, which establishes a nonlocality result based on the Bell-Kochen-Specker paradox in quantum mechanics.     

Inclusive\bar K^{0*} (892) andK 0*(892) production on silicon by 200 GeVK − andπ −

The production of the neutralK ^? (892) resonances by 200 GeVK ^? andπ ^? has been studied over the kinematic range 0.0<x _f<1.0 andp _t ² <5.0 GeV². Longitudinal and transverse momentum distributions are presented. In addition the decay angular distributions inK ^? fragmentation to \(\bar K^{0*} \) have been investigated.     

A193Ir Mössbauer study of Pt−Ir catalysts prepared by impregnantion of silica with H2MCl6

The state of iridium on Pt?Ir catalysts prepared by impregnation of amorphous silica with H₂IrCl₆ and H₂PtCl₆ was studied by¹⁹³Ir Mössbauer spectroscopy after different steps of preparation. The Ir is adsorbed in its trivalent state, presumably as [IrCl₆]^3?. Calcination in air at 450°C converts this to IrO₂. The metallic clusters formed by subsequent reduction in H₂ at 200°C show a strong tendency towards segregation of Ir and Pt and re-oxidize partially when exposed to air at ambient temperature. In both respects the behaviour is similar to that of samples prepared by co-exchange from [Ir(NH₃)₅Cl]Cl₂ and Pt(NH₃)₄Cl₂. H₂O.     

Plunger measurements on highly stripped O-ions as tool for detecting electron polarization on emergence from thin ferromagnetic layers

From hyperfine interaction studles on free single electron¹⁶O(3⁻) ions. in a time differential mode using the recoil distance technique. It is shown that these ions are polarized when emerging from magnetized thin layers of Fe. The observed degree of polarization , however, is smaller than expected from transient field measurements.     

An analysis of reduced Hessian methods for constrained optimization

We study the convergence properties of reduced Hessian successive quadratic programming for equality constrained optimization. The method uses a backtracking line search, and updates an approximation to the reduced Hessian of the Lagrangian by means of the BFGS formula. Two merit functions are considered for the line search: the ₁ function and the Fletcher exact penalty function. We give conditions under which local and superlinear convergence is obtained, and also prove a global convergence result. The analysis allows the initial reduced Hessian approximation to be any positive definite matrix, and does not assume that the iterates converge, or that the matrices are bounded. The effects of a second order correction step, a watchdog procedure and of the choice of null space basis are considered. This work can be seen as an extension to reduced Hessian methods of the well known results of Powell (1976) for unconstrained optimization.This author was supported, in part, by National Science Foundation grant CCR-8702403, Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant AFOSR-85-0251, and Army Research Office contract DAAL03-88-K-0086.This author was supported by the Applied Mathematical Sciences subprogram of the Office of Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy, under contracts W-31-109-Eng-38 and DE FG02-87ER25047, and by National Science Foundation Grant No. DCR-86-02071.