A rapid and sensitive extractive spectrophotometric determination of copper(II) in pharmaceutical and environmental samples using benzildithiosemicarbazone.

Benzildithiosemicarbazone (BDTSC) is proposed as a sensitive and selective analytical reagent for the extractive spectrophotometric determination of copper(II). BDTSC reacts with copper(II) in the pH range 1.0-7.0 to form a yellowish complex. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range 0.5-0.4 microg cm(-3). The yellowish Cu(II)-BDTSC complex in chloroform shows a maximum absorbance at 380 nm, with molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity values of 1.63 x 10(4) dm3 mol(-1) cm(-1) and 0.00389 microg cm(-2), respectively. A repetition of the method is checked by finding the relative standard deviation (RSD) (n = 10), which is 0.6%. The composition of the Cu(II)-BDTSC complex is established as 1:1 by slope analysis, molar ratio and Asmus' methods. An excellent linearity with a correlation coefficient value of 0.98 is obtained for the Cu(II)-BDTSC complex. The instability constant of the complex calculated from Edmond and Birnbaum's method is 7.70 x 10(-4) and that of Asmus' method is 7.66 x 10(-4), at room temperature. The method is successfully employed for the determination copper(II) in pharmaceutical and environmental samples. The reliability of the method is assured by analyzing the standard alloys (BCS 5g, 10g, 19e, 78, 32a, 207 and 179) and by inter-comparison of experimental values, using an atomic absorption spectrometer.     

On the dispersion of a solute in oscillating flow of a non-Newtonian fluid in a channel

The paper presents an exact analysis of the dispersion of an immiscible solute in a non-Newtonian fluid (known as an incompressible second-order fluid which shows viscoelastic behaviour) flowing slowly in a parallel plate channel in the presence of a periodic pressure gradient. Using a generalized dispersion model which is valid for all times after the solute injection, the diffusion coefficients K _i (τ)(i=1,2,3,…) are obtained as functions of time τ in the case when the initial solute distribution is in the form of a slug of finite extent. The analysis leads to the novel result that K ₂(τ) (which is a measure of the longitudinal dispersion coefficient of the solute) has a steady part S in addition to a fluctuating part D ₂(τ) due to the pulsatility of the flow. It is found that S decreases with increase in the viscoelastic parameter M for given values of the amplitude λ and frequency ω of the pressure pulsation. On the other hand, it is found that at a fixed instant τ, the amplitude of D ₂(τ) increases with increase in M for given values of λ and ω. Further it is shown that at a given instant τ, the amplitude of D ₂(τ) decreases with increase in ω for given λ and M and the profile for D ₂(τ) becomes progressively flatter with increase in ω. Finally the axial distribution of the average concentration θ _m of the solute over the channel cross-section is determined at different instants after the solute injection for several values of M, λ and ω. The present study is likely to have important bearing on the problem of dispersion of tracers in blood flow through arteries.     

Diastereoselective formation of 2-aryl-3-arenesulfonyl 4-ethyl-1,3-oxazolidines: An X-ray crystallographic and H NMR study

N-Arylsulfonamides of (R)- and (S)-2-amino-1-butanol, on condensation with aromatic aldehydes produced diastereomerically pure 2-aryl-3-arenesulfonyl 4-ethyl-1,3-oxazolidines. The absolute configurations of one enantiomeric pair have been determined from two fully refined X-ray structures, supplemented by nmr data.     

Test Generation for Crosstalk-Induced Faults: Framework and Computational Results

Due to technology scaling and increasing clock frequency, problems due to noise effects lead to an increase in design/debugging efforts and a decrease in circuit performance. This paper addresses the problem of efficiently and accurately generating two-vector tests for crosstalk induced effects, such as pulses, signal speedup and slowdown, in digital combinational circuits. These noise effects can propagate through a circuit and create a logic error in a latch or at a primary output. We have developed a mixed-signal test generator, called XGEN, that incorporates classical static values as well as dynamic signals such as transitions and pulses, and timing information such as signal arrival times, rise/fall times, and gate delay. In this paper we first discuss the general framework of the test generation algorithm followed by computational results. Comparison of results with SPICE simulations confirms the accuracy of this approach.     

Cems characterization of SnO2 films obtained by sputtering and sol-gel route

Conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) has been used to study tin oxide films prepared by sol-gel dipping and sputtering. The spectra of films prepared by sol-gel route result close to that of crystalline SnO₂ after heat treatment at a temperature as low as 150°C. The Mössbauer parameters of as sputter deposited films indicate that the structure of the deposited stannic oxide has an amorphous character more pronounced for thinner samples. The structure becomes predominantly that of crystalline SnO₂ by heating at 550°C for 30 min provided the film thickness is higher than 10 nm.     

Plasma immersion ion implantation for SOI synthesis: SIMOX and ion-cut

We have demonstrated feasibility to form silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates using plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) for both separation by implantation of oxygen and ion-cut. This high throughput technique can substantially lower the high cost of SOI substrates due to the simpler implanter design as well as ease of maintenance. For separation by plasma implantation of oxygen wafers, secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis and cross-sectional transmission electron micrographs show continuous buried oxide formation under a single-crystal silicon overlayer with sharp Si/SiO₂ interfaces after oxygen plasma implantation and high-temperature (1300°C) annealing. Ion-cut SOI wafer fabrication technique is implemented for the first time using PIII. The hydrogen plasma can be optimized so that only one ion species is dominant in concentration and there are minimal effects by other residual ions on the ion-cut process. The physical mechanism of hydrogen induced silicon surface layer cleavage has been investigated. An ideal gas law model of the microcavity internal pressure combined with a two-dimensional finite element fracture mechanics model is used to approximate the fracture driving force which is sufficient to overcome the silicon fracture resistance.     

Quantitative dependence of MR signal intensity on tissue concentration of Gd(HP-DO3A) in the nephrectomized rat.

Cardiac-gated SE 20/224 +/- 20 MR images were obtained from nephrectomized rats before and after intravenously administering 153Gd-Gd(HP-DO3A). The concentration of Gd, [Gd], was linear in dose in myocardium, skeletal muscle, and blood. Under steady-state conditions, where d[Gd]/dt = 0, image intensities (IIN) in regions of interest were compared with the measured [Gd]. IIN was linear in myocardium at less than or equal to 0.61 mumol/g-myocardium (less than or equal to 0.5 mmol/kg dose) and in skeletal muscle at less than or equal to 0.63 mumol/g-muscle (less than or equal to 0.75 mmol/kg). Above 0.6 mumol Gd/g-tissue, IIN did not increase further. The in vivo data were consistent with measured ex vivo and in vivo relaxivities. A 29% greater slope for IIN versus [Gd] in myocardium [14,439 +/- 4350 IIN (mumol/g)] than in muscle [10,258 +/- 5,296 IIN/(mumol/g)] was attributed to a significant difference in blood content: 25% versus 2% weight blood in myocardium and skeletal muscle, respectively. Two components were apparent from plots of ex vivo 1/T1 versus [Gd] in myocardium and muscle, and only one for blood.     

On composition of some general fractional integral operators

In the present paper we derive three interesting expressions for the composition of two most general fractional integral oprators whose kernels involve the product of a general class of polynomials and a multivariableH-function. By suitably specializing the coefficients and the parameters in these functions we can get a large number of (new and known) interesting expressions for the composition of fractional integral operators involving classical orthogonal polynomials and simpler special functions (involving one or more variables) which occur rather frequently in problems of mathematical physics. We have mentioned here two special cases of the first composition formula. The first involves product of a general class of polynomials and the Fox’sH-functions and is of interest in itself. The findings of Buschman [1] and Erdélyi [4] follow as simple special cases of this composition formula. The second special case involves product of the Jacobi polynomials, the Hermite polynomials and the product of two multivariableH-functions. The present study unifies and extends a large number of results lying scattered in the lierature. Its findings are general and deep.     

A finite range failure model

In the present article the characterstics of a finite range failure time distribution, that includes the rectangular distribution as a particular case, are studied. When shape parameter surpass unity then the distribution is IFR otherwise it always remains IFRA. A graphic shape of the distribution is also formed for certain admissible values of the constants.     

Vapour and plasma ignition thresholds for visible pulsed-laser ablation of metallic targets

The coupling of visible nanosecond laser pulses to metallic targets irradiated in vacuum is studied. The expressions of the vapour and plasma ignition times are obtained. Two cases for vapour breakdown in the plasma ignition process are considered. The first case is that 40 generations of new electrons are born in vapour generation time before plasma formation as assumed in the literature. The second case is that 10 generations of new electrons are born in vapour generation time. Molybdenum (Mo), niobium (Nb) and aluminium (Al) targets are considered for illustrations of our results. The expression of the plasma ignition time for the Al target is substantially different from that reported in the literature. The vapour and plasma ignition threshold laser intensities are calculated and compared with those reported in the literature. Reasons for disagreement are discussed. The plasma ignition threshold estimated in the second case is noted to be in good agreement with the reported experimental result.