Analytical chemistry and the cone penetrometer: In situ chemical characterization of the subsurface

The development of novel microanalytical techniques forin situ chemical characterization of the terrestrial subsurface environment has grown significantly over the last decade, particularly those instruments that are interfaced to the cone penetrometer. Cone penetrometer testing (CPT) has emerged as an effective means to introduce samplers and probes forin situ analysis of contaminants in soil and groundwater matrices. A variety ofin situ chemical samplers for CPT have been developed that can be driven into the subsurface to collect soil gas, groundwater, or soil samples at depth, thus providing a means of determining the vertical and horizontal extent of contamination. Cone penetrometer testing is also being explored as a means to deliverin situ subsurface sensor probes, including probes based on laser-induced fluorescence, Raman, and infrared spectroscopies for organics; on laser-induced breakdown and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopies for heavy metals; and on passive gamma-ray spectroscopy for radionuclides. The range of analytical technologies used in CPT for the determination of organic and inorganic species in the subsurface is described.     

A new approach in assessing microbiological results in water analysis proficiency testing

Due to the relatively large spread in the results of microbiological proficiency tests, the z-scores are often not able to detect zero or low results as being ‘bad’ results. This paper describes an adapted z-score based on the average or the standard deviation of the 50% ‘highest’ results. The combination of the adapted z-scores of four samples enables a better judgement of the performance of each laboratory. Papers published in this section do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editors, the Editorial Board or the Publisher.     

Capillary liquid chromatography as a tool for separation of hydrophobic basic drugs. Relation between tests for column characterization and real analysis

Two capillary columns for reversed phase (RP) capillary liquid chromatography (CLC), viz. Nucleosil 100‐5 C18 and LiChrosorb RP‐select B, were characterized by the Walters test, i.e. the chromatographic test proposed for RP stationary phases. Hydrophobicity indices were determined not only in acetonitrile/water mobile phase, as proposed in the test, but they were also measured in buffered systems. This approach was used to quantify the influence of mobile phase composition on the modification of the surface of the stationary phases. In the next step, small basic compounds differing in their hydrophobicity and basicity were selected and their retention on the stationary phases in mobile phases of the same composition as used for column testing was examined. Furthermore, the retention of newly synthesized drugs, chemotherapeutics derived from thioacridine and pyridoquinoline, differing in their structures, basicity, and hydrophobicity, was also studied. The composition of the mobile phases had to be shifted to higher contents of organic modifiers – acetonitrile or methanol – in order to elute these hydrophobic compounds from the columns. The question we wanted to answer was: How is the method for testing of reversed phases related to retention, separation efficiency, and peak symmetry of various analytes?     

Detection of stress whitening in plastics with the help of X-ray dark field imaging

The processing of thermoplastics can induce a wide range of defects such as stress whitening, cavitation and porosity, which can adversely affect the reliability of the final products. Hence, fast and effective non-destructive detection methods for such defects are highly important for quality assurance on production lines. In this paper, X-ray dark field imaging is presented as a new non-destructive testing method that allows the visualization of stress whitening or cavitation efficiently. The performance of the method is demonstrated for the case of an injection-moulded polyvinylidene fluoride part that exhibits stress whitening. Whereas the stress whitening could not be detected by conventional X-ray imaging, it was localized by an X-ray dark field image acquired within a few minutes. Once the precise location of the stress whitening was known, it was possible to verify the result by local micro X-ray computed tomography and by a micro section image.     

痰涂片阳性肺结核患者分枝杆菌培养及药敏结果743例分析

目的研究衢州地区痰涂片阳性肺结核患者对常用抗结核药物的耐药情况,为结核病控制和临床用药提供对策.方法对衢州地区的743例痰涂片阳性肺结核患者痰标本进行酸性改良罗氏培养基痰培养,将培养阳性菌株以硝基苯甲酸(PNB)培养基和噻吩-2-2羧酸肼(TCH)培养基进行菌种鉴定,采用绝对浓度间接法对异烟肼(INH)、利福平(RFP)、链霉素(SM)、氧氟沙星(OFLX)、乙胺丁醇(EMB)、卡那霉素(KM)6种抗结核药物进行敏感性试验.结果743例获得菌种鉴定和药物敏感试验结果者中有结核分枝杆菌复合群728例(97.98%),非结核分枝杆菌15例(2.02%).728例结核分枝杆菌复合群中总耐药率为26.63%,初治耐药率为19.35%,复治耐药率为57.32%;总耐多药率为5.36%,初治耐多药率1.39%,复治耐多药率36.59%.6种抗结核药物的耐药顺序依次为INH 8.20%、SM 7.74%、OFLX 4.80%、RFP 1.86%、KM 1.24%、EMB 1.08%.结论衢州地区肺结核患者中耐药情况较为严重,应开展分枝杆菌培养和药敏试验并根据药敏结果组成个体化化疗方案,同时进一步落实和提高非住院肺结核患者全面监督化学治疗(DOTS)质量,提高各类患者的治愈率,减少各种耐药的发生概率.     

Importance of verifying queue model assumptions before planning with simulation software

This case study uses empirical data gathered at an Australian refinery to verify the assumptions for queue distributions before using special-purpose software to plan the off-road-truck hauling of titanium dioxide to a refinery (n = 773). Easy-to-use spreadsheet software is utilized to verify assumptions for queue models. Managers are able to make decisions based on economic implications of queue models to avoid making costly planning mistakes. Analysts can use nonparametric hypothesis-testing techniques to verify distribution assumptions for optimization without having to write hard-to-maintain and complex algebraic linear equations or nonlinear search routines.     

Sealed Sources. Some Aspects of Development and Production in the German Democratic Republic

Industrially advanced countries and inereasingly also agricultural countries today use radioisotopes as labelled compounds or scaled sources in order to solve their scientific and technological problems.     

Zur Ermittlung der günstigsten Integrationszeitkonstanten bei der Durchstrahlungsprüfung

Bei der kontinuierlichen Durchstrahlungsprüfung von Werkstücken werden überwiegend Meßeinrichtungen, bestehend aus ⁶⁰Co-Strahlungsquelle, Szintillationsdetektor und schreibendem Meßgerät, verwendet 1.     

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Homogeneity of variance and correlation coefficients is one of assumptions in the analysis of longitudinal data.However, the assumption can be challenged. In this paper, we mainly propose and analyze nonlinear mixed effects models for longitudinal data with exponential correlation covariance structure, intend to introduce Huber's function in the log likelihood function and get robust estimation (M-estimation) by Fisher scoring method. Score test statistics for homogeneity of variance and correlation coefficient based on M-estimation are then studied. A simulation study is carried to assess the performance of test statistics and the method we proposed in the paper is illustrated by an actual data example.     

Simple laser vision sensor calibration for surface profiling applications

Due to the relatively large structures in the Oil and Gas industry, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have been implementing custom-designed laser vision sensor (LVS) surface profiling systems as part of quality control in their manufacturing processes. The rough manufacturing environment and the continuous movement and misalignment of these custom-designed tools adversely affect the accuracy of laser-based vision surface profiling applications. Accordingly, Oil and Gas businesses have been raising the demand from the OEMs to implement practical and robust LVS calibration techniques prior to running any visual inspections. This effort introduces an LVS calibration technique representing a simplified version of two known calibration techniques, which are commonly implemented to obtain a calibrated LVS system for surface profiling applications. Both calibration techniques are implemented virtually and experimentally to scan simulated and three-dimensional (3D) printed features of known profiles, respectively. Scanned data is transformed from the camera frame to points in the world coordinate system and compared with the input profiles to validate the introduced calibration technique capability against the more complex approach and preliminarily assess the measurement technique for weld profiling applications. Moreover, the sensitivity to stand-off distances is analyzed to illustrate the practicality of the presented technique.