Adsorptive Cathodic Stripping Voltammetry for Quantification of Alprazolam

A simple and highly sensitive electrochemical sensor was developed for adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry of alprazolam. Based on an electrochemically pretreated glassy carbon electrode, the sensor demonstrated good adsorption and electrochemical reduction of alprazolam. The morphology of the glassy carbon electrode and the electrochemically pretreated glassy carbon electrode were characterized by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The electrochemical behaviors of alprazolam were determined by cyclic voltammetry, and the analytical measurements were studied by adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry. Optimized operational conditions included the concentration and deposition time of sulfuric acid in the electrochemical pretreatment, preconcentration potential, and preconcentration time. Under optimal conditions, the developed alprazolam sensor displayed a quantification limit of 0.1 mg L⁻¹, a detection limit of 0.03 mg L⁻¹, a sensitivity of 67 µA mg⁻¹ L cm⁻² and two linear ranges: 0.1 to 4 and 4 to 20 mg L⁻¹. Sensor selectivity was excellent, and repeatability (%RSD < 4.24%) and recovery (82.0 ± 0.2 to 109.0 ± 0.3%) were good. The results of determining alprazolam in beverages with the developed system were in good agreement with results from the gas chromatography–mass spectrometric method.     

Sandwich semigroups in locally small categories I: foundations

Fix (not necessarily distinct) objects i and j of a locally small category S, and write \(S_{ij}\) for the set of all morphisms \(i\rightarrow j\). Fix a morphism \(a\in S_{ji}\), and define an operation \(\star _a\) on \(S_{ij}\) by \(x\star _ay=xay\) for all \(x,y\in S_{ij}\). Then \((S_{ij},\star _a)\) is a semigroup, known as a sandwich semigroup, and denoted by \(S_{ij}^a\). This article develops a general theory of sandwich semigroups in locally small categories. We begin with structural issues such as regularity, Green’s relations and stability, focusing on the relationships between these properties on \(S_{ij}^a\) and the whole category S. We then identify a natural condition on a, called sandwich regularity, under which the set \({\text {Reg}}(S_{ij}^a)\) of all regular elements of \(S_{ij}^a\) is a subsemigroup of \(S_{ij}^a\). Under this condition, we carefully analyse the structure of the semigroup \({\text {Reg}}(S_{ij}^a)\), relating it via pullback products to certain regular subsemigroups of \(S_{ii}\) and \(S_{jj}\), and to a certain regular sandwich monoid defined on a subset of \(S_{ji}\); among other things, this allows us to also describe the idempotent-generated subsemigroup \(\mathbb E(S_{ij}^a)\) of \(S_{ij}^a\). We also study combinatorial invariants such as the rank (minimal size of a generating set) of the semigroups \(S_{ij}^a\), \({\text {Reg}}(S_{ij}^a)\) and \(\mathbb E(S_{ij}^a)\); we give lower bounds for these ranks, and in the case of \({\text {Reg}}(S_{ij}^a)\) and \(\mathbb E(S_{ij}^a)\) show that the bounds are sharp under a certain condition we call MI-domination. Applications to concrete categories of transformations and partial transformations are given in Part II.     

Sandwich semigroups in locally small categories II: transformations

Fix sets X and Y, and write \(\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}\) for the set of all partial functions \(X\rightarrow Y\). Fix a partial function \({a:Y\rightarrow X}\), and define the operation \(\star _a\) on \(\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}\) by \(f\star _ag=fag\) for \(f,g\in \mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}\). The sandwich semigroup \((\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY},\star _a)\) is denoted \(\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}^a\). We apply general results from Part I to thoroughly describe the structural and combinatorial properties of \(\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}^a\), as well as its regular and idempotent-generated subsemigroups, \({\text {Reg}}(\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}^a)\) and \(\mathbb E(\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}^a)\). After describing regularity, stability and Green’s relations and preorders, we exhibit \({\text {Reg}}(\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}^a)\) as a pullback product of certain regular subsemigroups of the (non-sandwich) partial transformation semigroups \(\mathcal P\mathcal T_X\) and \(\mathcal P\mathcal T_Y\), and as a kind of “inflation” of \(\mathcal P\mathcal T_A\), where A is the image of the sandwich element a. We also calculate the rank (minimal size of a generating set) and, where appropriate, the idempotent rank (minimal size of an idempotent generating set) of \(\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}^a\), \({\text {Reg}}(\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}^a)\) and \(\mathbb E(\mathcal P\mathcal T_{XY}^a)\). The same program is also carried out for sandwich semigroups of totally defined functions and for injective partial functions. Several corollaries are obtained for various (non-sandwich) semigroups of (partial) transformations with restricted image, domain and/or kernel.     

Regularity and Green’s relations on semigroups of transformations with restricted range that preserve an equivalence

Let Y be a subset of X and T(X, Y) the set of all functions from X into Y. Then, under the operation of composition, T(X, Y) is a subsemigroup of the full transformation semigroup T(X). Let E be an equivalence on X. Define a subsemigroup $$T_E(X,Y)$$ of T(X, Y) by $$\begin{aligned} T_E(X,Y)=\{\alpha \in T(X,Y):\forall (x,y)\in E, (x\alpha ,y\alpha )\in E\}. \end{aligned}$$Then $$T_E(X,Y)$$ is the semigroup of all continuous self-maps of the topological space X for which all E-classes form a basis carrying X into a subspace Y. In this paper, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for $$T_E(X,Y)$$ to be regular and characterize Green’s relations on $$T_E(X,Y)$$. Our work extends previous results found in the literature.     

Iterative approaches to solving convex minimization problems and fixed point problems in complete CAT(0) spaces

In this paper, we propose a new modified proximal point algorithm for finding a common element of the set of common minimizers of a finite family of convex and lower semi-continuous functions and the set of common fixed points of a finite family of nonexpansive mappings in complete CAT(0) spaces, and prove some convergence theorems of the proposed algorithm under suitable conditions. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the proposed method and convergence result. Our results improve and extend the corresponding results existing in the literature.