Separation and determination of arsenic(V) and arsenic(III) in sea-water by solvent extraction and atomic-absorption spectrophotometry by the hydride-generation technique

Arsenic(V) and arsenic(III) in sea-water have been separated by complexing the arsenic(III) with ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (APDC) in the range 4.0-4.5 and extracting the complex with chloroform. The organic phase is then wet-ashed with a 1:1 mixture of concentrated nitric acid and perchloric acid to get rid of all organics, and the arsenic(III) is determined by hydride generation and atomic-absorption spectrophotometry. Total arsenic is determined by first reducing arsenic(V) to arsenic(III) with potassium iodide and then applying the method used for arsenic(III). The arsenic(V) content is determined by difference. The low detection limit of 0.031 ng ml and the high sensitivity and precision make the method suitable for analysis of open ocean waters.     

Practical asymmetric enzymatic reduction through discovery of a dehydrogenase-compatible biphasic reaction media

[reaction: see text] An enzyme-compatible biphasic reaction media for the asymmetric biocatalytic reduction of ketones with in situ cofactor regeneration has been developed. In this biphasic reaction media, which is advantageous for reactions at higher substrate concentrations, both enzymes (alcohol dehydrogenase and FDH from Candida boidinii) remain stable. The reductions with poorly water-soluble ketones were carried out at substrate concentrations of 10-200 mM, and the optically active (S)-alcohols were formed with moderate to good conversions and with up to >99% ee.     

Gap Space Optimization for NO Removal in a Non‐thermal Plasma Discharge

Given the operational constraints of aerospace ground equipments (AGE), the nonthermal plasma discharge (NTPD) has been identified as a promising technology for their NO_x removal. As part of a program to optimize an NTPD system for this particular application, an investigation of the effect of discharge gap spacing on the electrical and chemical processes that occur in NTPDs was initiated. A number of experiments were performed to examine how the gap spacing affects the NO removal efficiency, discharge characteristics, and chemical reactions in a NTPD device. Gap spacings ranging from 0.8 to 4.0 mm were investigated in this study. An optimum gap spacing for NO removal was observed at approximately 2 mm and, based on the experimental data, a physical explanation for the optimum was developed. The experiments, results and conclusions are discusssed in detail in this paper.     

Noncooperative exchange using money and broker-dealers

This paper presents a model of exchange where a single commodity serves as a means of payment and trade must pass through designated brokers. Broker buy and sell prices, trader allocations, and broker profits depend on the buy and sell decisions of all the market participants, and the exchange problem is described as a noncooperative game. The existence of an equilibrium is established and bounds are placed on the price spread on each commodity. Finally, the properties of the noncooperative equilibria under replication are examined.     

On the absence of an s-band energy gap in niobium

No evidence for a superconducting tunneling s-band energy gap in single crystal Nb has been observed for any of the main symmetry directions investigated in Nb-oxide-Pb_0.7Bi_0.3 and Nb-oxide-In junctions.     

Amplification of terahertz radiation in carbon nanotubes

We investigate theoretically the feasibility of amplification of terahertz radiation in aligned achiral carbon nanotubes, a zigzag (12,0) and an armchair (10,10) in comparison with a superlattice using a combination of a constant direct current (dc) and a high-frequency alternate current (ac) electric fields. The electric current density expression is derived using the semiclassical Boltzmann transport equation with a constant relaxation time. The electric field is applied along the nanotube axis. Analysis of the current density versus electric field characteristics reveals a negative differential conductivity behavior at high frequency, as well as photon assisted peaks. The photon assisted peaks are about an order of magnitude higher in the carbon nanotubes compared to the superlattice. These strong phenomena in carbon nanotubes can be used to obtain domainless amplification of terahertz radiation at room temperature.     

Group-wise sufficient dimension reduction with principal fitted components

Sufficient dimension reduction methodologies in regressions of Y on a p-variate X aim at obtaining a reduction \(R(X) \in {\mathbb R}^{d}, d \le p\), that retains all the regression information of Y in X. When the predictors fall naturally into a number of known groups or domains, it has been established that exploiting the grouping information often leads to more effective sufficient dimension reduction of the predictors. In this article, we consider group-wise sufficient dimension reduction based on principal fitted components, when the grouping information is unknown. Principal fitted components methodology is coupled with an agglomerative clustering procedure to identify a suitable grouping structure. Simulations and real data analysis demonstrate that the group-wise principal fitted components sufficient dimension reduction is superior to the standard principal fitted components and to general sufficient dimension reduction methods.     

Thermodynamic,thermogravimetric and permittivity studies of hausmannite (Mn<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript>) in air

Some manganese oxides are considered hyperactive under microwave irradiation because of their extremely high heating rates in air. In order to further understand this hyperactivity, thermodynamic calculations, thermogravimetric analysis and both real and imaginary permittivity determinations were performed for hausmannite (Mn₃O₄) as a function of temperature in an air atmosphere. The thermodynamic results demonstrated reasonable agreement with the thermogravimetric analysis data. A comparison of the derivative thermogravimetric analysis data with the derivative of both the real and the imaginary permittivities confirmed that the extremely high values of the permittivities were due to the conversion of the hausmannite to bixbyite (Mn₂O₃). The microwave hyperactivity of the manganese oxides in air is explained in terms of the high permittivities of bixbyite.     

Injectable hydrogels for targeted delivering of therapeutic molecules for tissue engineering and disease treatment

Hydrogels are cross‐linked three‐dimensional polymeric networks that play a vital role in solving the pharmacological and clinical limitations of the existing systems due to their unique physical properties such as affinity for biological fluids, tunable porous nature, high water content, ease of preparation, flexibility, and biocompatibility. Hydrogel also mimics the living natural tissue, which opens several opportunities for its use in biomedical areas. Injectable hydrogel allows temporal control and exceptional spatial arrangements and can offset hitches with established hydrogel‐based drug delivery systems. Here, we review the recent development of injectable hydrogels and their significance in the delivery of therapeutics such as cells, genes, and drug molecules and how these innovatory systems can complement the current delivery systems.