Investigation of the atomization mechanisms of copper, platinum, iridium and manganese in graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

Atomization mechanisms of copper, platinum, iridium and manganese were studied by taking into account several parameters affecting the number of gaseous atoms present in the atomizer. The contributions of thermal expansion and diffusion to the dissipation rate of atoms were investigated. It was observed that the dissipation process cannot be described by diffusion only. Thermal expansion substantially contributed to the removal of atoms from the furnace and should not be ignored. It was possible to decide to what extent the several processes affect the concentration of the gaseous atoms at any time. From the E_a values obtained for the elements studied, the last step leading to gaseous atoms for copper, platinum and iridium was found to be the thermal dissociation of dimers in the gas phase; for manganese this was the dissociation of its monoxide in the gas phase.     

Reconstructing visible regions from visible segments

An algorithm is presented for reconstructing visible regions from visible edge segments in object space. This has applications in hidden surface algorithms operating on polyhedral scenes and in cartography. A special case of reconstruction can be formulated as a graph problem: Determine the faces of a straight-edge planar graph given in terms of its edges. This is accomplished inO(n logn) time using linear space for a graph withn edges, and is worst-case optimal. The graph may have separate components but the components must not contain each other. The general problem of reconstruction is then solved by applying our algorithm to each component in the containment relation.Research of this author is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. ECS-8351942, and by the Schlumberger-Doll Research Labs, Ridgefield, Connecticut.     

Direct determination of manganese in vitamin-mineral tablets using solid sampling electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Manganese in vitamin-minerals tablets was determined by solid sampling electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (SS-ETAAS) using three different calibration methods, namely calibration against aqueous standards, standard addition with aqueous standards on solid samples and calibration against solid certified standards. Samples were only finely ground and introduced directly into the furnace by means of solid autosampler system without any dissolving process. Effects of different calibration techniques, temperatures and heating rates of atomization and pyrolysis steps on the accuracy and precision of the analyte elements were investigated. After optimization of the experimental parameters, there is good agreement (at 95% confidence level) between the results obtained by solid sampling and those obtained by acid digestion of samples.     

Preconcentration and separation of copper(II), cadmium(II) and chromium(III) in a syringe filled with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane supported on silica gel

In this study, a syringe was filled with silica gel loaded with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, for the separation and preconcentration of copper, cadmium and chromium prior to their determination by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) in seawater. For this purpose, a syringe was filled with 0.5 g of modified silica gel and the sample solution was drawn into the syringe and ejected back again. The analyte elements were quantitatively retained at pH 5. Then, the elements sorbed by the silica gel were eluted with 2.0 M of HCl and determined by GFAAS. At optimum conditions, the recovery of Cu, Cd and Cr were 96-98%. Detection limits (3delta) were 6.6, 7.5 and 6.0 micro g L(-1) for Cu, Cd and Cr, respectively. The elements could be concentrated by drawing and discharging several portions of sample successively but eluting only once. Cu, Cd and Cr added to a seawater sample were quantitatively recovered (>95%) in the range of the 95% confidence level. The method proposed in this paper was compared with a column technique. Optimum experimental conditions, reproducibility, precision and recoveries of both techniques are the same, but the syringe technique is much faster, easier and more practical than the column technique. It is a portable system and allows one to make the sorption process in the source of sample. In addition, the risk of contamination is less than in the column technique.     

PHA-L lectin and carbohydrate relationship: conjugation with CdSe/CdS nanoparticles, radiolabeling and in vitro affinities on MCF-7 cells

This research aims to investigate the interaction between phytohemagglutinin-L (PHA-L) and sialic acid, which is abundant on the breast cancer cell (MCF-7) surface and displays monosaccharide characteristics, by experimental and computational methods. Experimentally, CdSe/CdS nanoparticles (QDs) were synthesized; PHA-L was conjugated with QDs and labeled with ¹²⁵I. Radiolabeling yield was found to be 97 ± 1.2 %. Afterwards, in vitro bioaffinities of radiolabeled PHA-L conjugated QDs have been investigated on MCF-7 cells and it has been observed that the cell incorporation increased with time. The results indicated that ¹²⁵I labeled QD-PHA-L conjugates represent significant affinity on MCF-7 cells. In the second step of the study, the crystal structure of carbohydrate interaction surface of PHA-L was extracted from the crystal structure of PHA-L. The interactions between this surface and sialic acid were calculated by computational tools. These calculations revealed specific interactions between PHA-L and sialic acid. Semi-empirical methods, PM3 and AM1, were used in these calculations. Significant outcomes have been obtained from the experimental and computational studies and these results demonstrated that PHA-L may be an effective agent for imagining MCF-7 cells.     

Effects on molecular orientation and phase transition of addition of carbon nanotubes into liquid crystalline matrix

For practical guest–host applications, it is important to choose dyes with a high ability of orientation in the liquid crystal (LC) matrix. In this experimental work, two different azo-structured dyes (disperse yellow 3 and 7) were separately doped to each of two different nematic LCs (E7 and ZLI-1132). Their solubilities, textures, phase transition temperatures and order parameters were determined. At the second stage, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in a small amount were separately added to each of these solutions, and the experiments were repeated as similar to the previous ones. The solubilities of dyes in the LC E7 were lower than those of ZLI-1132. Moreover, the highest order parameter value was attained with yellow 7 dye in ZLI-1132 nematic host. Co-use of nanoparticles (CNTs) as dopant resulted in notable increases in order parameters. These dyes and CNTs did not significantly destabilise the mesomorphic phase of nematic hosts. An appreciable change in textures was not monitored with addition of dopant(s). In addition, it was observed that the narrowing on the temperature range of the LC did not take place with the addition of dopants to the crystal; on the contrary, an increase was recorded.     

Total Synthesis of the Anti‐inflammatory and Pro‐resolving Lipid Mediator MaR1n−3 DPA Utilizing an sp3–sp3 Negishi Cross‐Coupling Reaction

The first total synthesis of the lipid mediator MaR1_{n?3 DPA} ( 5 ) has been achieved in 12 % overall yield over 11 steps. The stereoselective preparation of 5 was based on a Pd‐catalyzed sp³–sp³ Negishi cross‐coupling reaction and a stereocontrolled Evans–Nagao acetate aldol reaction. LC‐MS/MS results with synthetic material matched the biologically produced 5 . This novel lipid mediator displayed potent pro‐resolving properties stimulating macrophage efferocytosis of apoptotic neutrophils.     

Estimation of coefficient of variation in a weighted inverse Gaussian model

The coefficient of variation is an important parameter in many physical, biological and medical sciences. In this paper we study the estimation of the square of the coefficient of variation in a weighted inverse Gaussian model which is a mixture of the inverse Gaussian and the length biased inverse Gaussian distribution. This represents a rich family of distributions for different values of the mixing parameter and can be used for modelling various life testing situations. The maximum likelihood as well as the Bayes estimates of the parameters are obtained. These estimates are used to derive the estimates of the square of the coefficient of variation of the model under study. Several important data sets are analysed to illustrate the results. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Genetic algorithms with shrinking population size

A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is an evolutionary computation technique inspired by the principle of biological evolution via natural selection. It employs the fundamental components of evolution, such as selection, mating, and mutation, which continue from generation to generation, creating better solutions as time progresses. Although it is mostly used as an optimization tool, GA enjoys a wide spectrum of applications in diverse fields such as engineering, medicine, and ecology, among others. In this study, we propose three different population size reduction methods for a typical GA optimization, aiming to increase efficiency. Additionally, we compare the accuracy and precision of these methods using Monte Carlo simulations.