The adsorption and condensed film formation of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide at the mercury/electrolyte interface

The adsorption of cetyltrimethyammonium bromide (CTAB) on a hanging mercury electrode is studied in various electrolyte systems and temperatures. A condensed film is formed at negative potentials and at room temperature only in the presence of KBr. The decrease of the temperature favors the formation of the condensed film. Hysterisis phenomena are observed during the potential scans at both directions. Capacity time curves at the potentials where the film is formed show a nucleation and growth mechanism, with induction time depending on potential, which has been investigated using Avrami formulation and has been explained as a progressive one-dimensional nucleation with constant growth rate. The nucleation rate increases while moving toward more negative potentials. A linear decrease of the capacitance with time was observed in some cases independent of the measuring potential in a relative large potential range. The different types of micelles can affect the adsorption of CTAB on mercury. An unusual capacitance transient observed at a very narrow negative potential range is attributed to the formation of hemicylinders. The condensed film in the presence of the other electrolytes is observed only at high concentrations (1 M) and very low temperatures (5 degrees C).     

Arrangements on Parametric Surfaces I: General Framework and Infrastructure

We introduce a framework for the construction, maintenance, and manipulation of arrangements of curves embedded on certain two-dimensional orientable parametric surfaces in three-dimensional space. The framework applies to planes, cylinders, spheres, tori, and surfaces homeomorphic to them. We reduce the effort needed to generalize existing algorithms, such as the sweep line and zone traversal algorithms, originally designed for arrangements of bounded curves in the plane, by extensive reuse of code. We have realized our approach as the Cgal package Arrangement_on_surface_2. We define a compact and modular interface for our framework; for a given application a required small subset of the interface can be identified. Then, only this subset must be implemented. A companion paper describes concretizations for several types of surfaces and curves embedded on them, and applications. This is the first implementation of a generic algorithm that can handle arrangements on a large class of parametric surfaces.     

Arrangements on Parametric Surfaces II: Concretizations and Applications

We describe the algorithms and implementation details involved in the concretizations of a generic framework that enables exact construction, maintenance, and manipulation of arrangements embedded on certain two-dimensional orientable parametric surfaces in three-dimensional space. The fundamentals of the framework are described in a companion paper. Our work covers arrangements embedded on elliptic quadrics and cyclides induced by intersections with other algebraic surfaces, and a specialized case of arrangements induced by arcs of great circles embedded on the sphere. We also demonstrate how such arrangements can be used to accomplish various geometric tasks efficiently, such as computing the Minkowski sums of polytopes, the envelope of surfaces, and Voronoi diagrams embedded on parametric surfaces. We do not assume general position. Namely, we handle degenerate input, and produce exact results in all cases. Our implementation is realized using Cgal and, in particular, the package that provides the underlying framework. We have conducted experiments on various data sets, and documented the practical efficiency of our approach.     

Analysis of anaesthetics and analgesics in human urine by headspace SPME and GC

The determination of widely used anaesthetic and analgesic drugs in biological fluids is of major clinical importance. Typical methods used for sample preparation employ liquid–liquid extraction protocols which are complex, costly, not handy and not amenable to automation. In the present communication, we report the development of a methodology that employs headspace solid‐phase microextraction (HS‐SPME) for the determination of four anaesthetic (lidocaine, midazolam, diazepam and ketamine) and three analgesic drugs (fentanyl, remifentanyl and codeine) in human urine. Important parameters controlling SPME were studied: selection of SPME fibre, type and amount of salt added, preheating and extraction time, extraction temperature, sample volume and desorption time. GC with nitrogen phosphorus detection (GC‐NPD) facilitates sensitive and selective detection of the anaesthetics. The developed method renders an efficient tool for the precise and sensitive determination of the anaesthetics and analgesics in human urine (RSDs ranged from 7.7 to 12.6%, whereas LODs ranged from 0.01 to 1.5 ng/mL). The method was applied to the determination of the anaesthetics and analgesics in human urine from patients that had undergone coronary by‐pass surgery operations. The proposed protocol can function as an attractive alternative for clinical acute intoxications and medico‐legal cases.     

On the Exact Maximum Complexity of Minkowski Sums of Polytopes

We present a tight bound on the exact maximum complexity of Minkowski sums of polytopes in ?³. In particular, we prove that the maximum number of facets of the Minkowski sum of k polytopes with m ₁,m ₂,…,m _k facets, respectively, is bounded from above by \(\sum_{1\leq i. Given k positive integers m ₁,m ₂,…,m _k , we describe how to construct k polytopes with corresponding number of facets, such that the number of facets of their Minkowski sum is exactly \(\sum_{1\leq i. When k=2, for example, the expression above reduces to 4m ₁ m ₂?9m ₁?9m ₂+26.     

Monitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Levels in Mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) from Aquaculture Farms in Central Macedonia Region,Greece, Using Gas Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry Method

A new sensitive and selective gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) method was developed for the analysis of 26 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including 16 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 15 + 1 European Union (EU) PAHs, in mussel samples from aquaculture farms in Thermaikos and Strymonian Gulf, Central Macedonia Region, in three sampling periods. Concentrations were found at moderate to low values at all sampling sites, without exceeding maximum levels set by EU. Low molecular weight PAHs were predominant in all samples. Seasonal variation of the concentrations was observed; values were slightly higher in the winter period. Use of diagnostic ratios for potential sources of PAHs showed both petrogenic and pyrolitic origin. In comparison to other related studies of mussels from the Mediterranean Sea, Greek mussels cultivated in the studied gulfs are low in contaminants due to minimal environmental pollution effects. Low concentrations of PAHs are in compliance with the low values of other POPs which were found in the mussels.     

Hydrodynamic singularities and clustering in a freely cooling inelastic gas

We employ hydrodynamic equations to follow the clustering instability of a freely cooling dilute gas of inelastically colliding spheres into a well-developed nonlinear regime. We simplify the problem by dealing with a one-dimensional coarse-grained flow. We observe that at a late stage of the instability the shear stress becomes negligibly small, and the gas flows solely by inertia. As a result the flow formally develops a finite-time singularity, as the velocity gradient and the gas density diverge at some location. We argue that flow by inertia represents a generic intermediate asymptotic of unstable free cooling of dilute inelastic gases.     

On the adsorption and condensed film formation of binary mixtures of dodecyl-, tetradecyl-, hexadecyl-, and octadecyl-trimethylammonium bromides at the mercury–electrolyte interface

The adsorption and condensed film formation on mercury at the negative potential region for binary mixtures of dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB), tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), octadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (OTAB) is studied in KBr at various temperatures from 5 to 45 °C. The formation of the CTAB condensed film is hindered with the addition of DTAB and TTAB. There are interactions between unlike hydrophobic chains. The strong interactions between the CTAB molecules do not take place when DTAB or TTAB is present above a certain concentration. This hindering is more pronounced in the case of TTAB compared to the same DTAB concentration, i.e. the increase of the chain length hinders the film formation. The initially adsorbed molecules play a templating role in the kinetics of the film formation and in the self-assembling of the molecules. The initial induction time strongly depends on the temperature. The less surface active CTAB can hinder the OTAB film formation in binary mixtures. Also, increased interaction between OTAB and CTAB can be observed, indicating synergy effects in the film formation in some cases. The temperature range that the film is formed can be changed using mixtures of surfactants. Thus, the development of the film can become impossible, more difficult or even easier. Hysteresis phenomena are observed. The capacity versus time curves in the case that condensed film is formed are treated with the Avrami plot formulation, giving values between 1.5 and 2 indicating a progressive one dimensional nucleation with constant growth rate or a decrease of the nucleation rate during the overall film formation. There is generally a marked effect of the chain length of the alkyl chain on the film formation.     

Crystals of Benzamide,the First Polymorphous Molecular Compound,Are Helicoidal

The growth of spontaneously twisted crystals is a common but poorly understood phenomenon. An analysis of the formation of twisted crystals of a metastable benzamide polymorph (form II ) crystallizing from highly supersaturated aqueous and ethanol solutions is given here. Benzamide, the first polymorphic molecular crystal reported (1832), would have been the first helicoidal crystal observed had the original authors undertaken an analysis by light microscopy. Polymorphism and twisting frequently concur as they are both associated with high thermodynamic driving forces for crystallization. Optical and electron microscopies as well as electron and powder X‐ray diffraction reveal a complex lamellar structure of benzamide form II needle‐like crystals. The internal stress produced by the overgrowth of lamellae is shown to be able to create a twist moment that is responsible for the observed non‐classical morphologies.