Contribution to the Detection of Poor Quality Sildenafil Drugs in Burkina Faso Using High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography

In substandard drugs enforcement, there is a need to develop reliable, fast, and inexpensive analytical methods. Due to its very characteristics, HPTLC offers opportunities for the development of methods that meet these requirements. This technique was used to develop and validate a method for the determination of sildenafil in pharmaceutical formulations from the licit and illicit supply chain in Burkina Faso. Taking into account optimization parameters such as measurement wavelength and mobile phase composition, the best elution quality is found at the maximum signals of spots on silica plates at 305 nm, using a mixture of dichloromethane-methanol mixture 9 : 1 (v/v) proportions. The method developed under these conditions was validated using the accuracy profile as a decision tool. The establishment of the response function curves allowed the choice of the polynomial function applied to the peak areas. This mathematical model provides a validity range between 0.4 and 0.6 mg/mL. The application of the developed and validated method to collected samples allowed the detection of two substandard drugs and confirmed the poor quality of drugs in the illicit market. More data using this approach in a variety of drug molecules could lead to the establishment of databases of counterfeit drugs in Burkina Faso.

UV-Vis Spectrophotometric Determination of Selected Heavy Metals (Pb, Cr, Cd and As) in Environmental, Water and Biological Samples with Synthesized Glutaraldehyde Phenyl Hydrazone as the Chromogenic Reagent

A simple, sensitive, selective, and non-extractive UV-Vis spectrophotometric method for the determination of cadmium, lead, chromium, and arsenic in biological, soil and water samples using synthesized and characterized phenyl hydrazone; glutaraldehydephenyl hydrazone (GPH) as the chromogenic reagent was developed. GPH was synthesized as new chromogenic analytical reagents for the direct UV-Vis spectrophotometric determination of the selected metals of interest in a slightly acidic pH of 6.5-7.5 and 20 % dimethylformamide (DMF) solution to give stable coloured metal-ligand complexes. The reactions were instantaneous; the wavelengths of maximum absorptions were followed spectrophotometrically and noted. The reagent GPH revealed a wavelength of maximum absorption between 360.0 (Cr) to 395.0 nm for (Pb and As) at a working pH of 6.5 to 7.5 room temperature (37 °C). The reagent GPH had a molar absorptivity (L mol-1 cm-1) ranging from 2.213×104 (Pb) to 2.460×104 (As), a mole ratio of metal to ligand of 2:1, the detection limit (µg/g) ranging from 0.3432 (As) to 0.5250 (Pb) and the metal-ligand complex was stable for 0-48 hours. The reagents had a Beer’s law validity range (mg L-1) of 0.001 to 100. The Sandell’s sensitivities (µg/cm2) ranged from 0000409 (As) to 0.00499 (Pb) for APDH and 0.00406 (As) to 0.00452 (Pb) respectively. Large excess of cations and anions as possible interferences up to 15 folds were studied and do not interfere with the determination of the selected metals of interest. The developed method is highly selective for Cd, Pb, and Cr and As and was successfully used for the determination for the said elements in soil, water, and biological samples. The results of the developed methods were comparable with AAS and were found to be in good agreement. The method had very high precision and very good accuracy.

Effective field theory versus UV-complete model: vector boson scattering as a case study

Effective field theories (EFT) are commonly used to parameterize effects of BSM physics in vector boson scattering (VBS). For Wilson coefficients which are large enough to produce presently observable effects, the validity range of the EFT represents only a fraction of the energy range covered by the LHC, however. In order to shed light on possible extrapolations into the high energy region, a class of UV-complete toy models, with extra SU(2) multiplets of scalars or of fermions with vector-like weak couplings, is considered. By calculating the Wilson coefficients up to energy-dimension eight, and full one-loop contributions to VBS due to the heavy multiplets, the EFT approach, with and without unitarization at high energy, is compared to the perturbative prediction. For high multiplicities, e.g. nonets of fermions, the toy models predict sizable effects in transversely polarized VBS, but only outside the validity range of the EFT. At lower energies, dimension-eight operators are needed for an adequate description of the models, providing another example that dimension-eight can be more important than dimension-six operators. A simplified VBFNLO implementation is used to estimate sensitivity of VBS to such BSM effects at the LHC. Unitarization captures qualitative features of the toy models at high energy but significantly underestimates signal cross sections in the threshold region of the new particles.

Comparison of the Von Kármán and Kirchhoff models for the post-buckling and vibrations of elastic beams

International audience We compare different models describing the buckling, post-buckling and vibrations of elastic beams in the plane. Focus is put on the first buckled equilibrium solution and the first two vibration modes around it. In the incipient post-buckling regime, the classic Woinowsky-Krieger model is known to grasp the behavior of the system. It is based on the von Kármán approximation, a 2nd order expansion in the strains of the buckled beam. But as the curvature of the beam becomes larger, the Woinowsky-Krieger model starts to show limitations and we introduce a 3rd order model, derived from the geometrically-exact Kirchhoff model. We discuss and quantify the shortcomings of the Woinowsky-Krieger model and the contributions of the 3rd order terms in the new model, and we compare them both to the Kirchhoff model. Different ways to nondi-mensionalize the models are compared and we believe that, although this study is performed for specific boundary conditions, the present results have a general scope and can be used as abacuses to estimate the validity range of the simplified models.

New Improved Method for Heat Transfer Calculation Inside Rough Pipes

An improved method for heat transfer calculation inside rough tubes is provided. The model has been obtained from a second assessment developed early by the authors on fluid flow in single-phase inside rough tubes. The proposed correlation has been verified by comparison with a total of 1666 experimental available data of 34 different fluids, including air, gases, water and organic liquids. The proposal model covers a validity range for Prandtl number ranging from 0.65 to 4.52?×10?^4, values of Reynolds number from 2.4×?10?^(3 )to 8.32×?10?^6, a range of relative roughness ranging from 5×?10?^(-2 )to 2×?10?^(-6 ), and viscosity ratio from 0.0048 to 181.5. The proposed model provides a good correlation for ?10?^4=Re and Re<?10?^4, with an average error of 18.3% for 70.4% of the data and 16.6% for 74.8% of the data, respectively. The method presents a satisfactory agreement with the experimental data in each interval evaluated; therefore, the model can be considerate accurate enough for practical application. At the present time, in the available technical literature, a method with similar characteristics is unknown.

Studi Komparatif Mengenai Mindset antara Pria/Wanita yang Terikat Pernikahan dan Pria/Wanita yang Bercerai di Kota Bandung

This research was conducted to determine the differences about mindset between married man/woman and divorced man/woman in Bandung. Respondents in this study are man/woman who are married to only one person and man/woman who are divorced and have not remarried and are domiciled in Bandung. The sample in this study amounted to 100 people, 50 people who were married and 50 people who were divorced. The sampling technique used was snow ball sampling. Measurements were conducted with Mindset in Relationship measuring instrument which consists of 27 items. This measuring instrument has a validity range of 0,38 – 0,73 and reliability of 0,91. This study used the independent t-test technique to see the differences between mindset of married man/woman and divorced man/woman in Bandung. The results showed that there was a difference in the mindset between married man/woman and divorced man/woman in Bandung. The conclusion of this research is that married man/woman in Bandung have mindset that tends to be more growth, while divorced man/woman in Bandung have a more fixed mindset.

Modeling the motion of a Taylor bubble in a microchannel through a shear-thinning fluid

Applications of multiphase flows in microchannels as chemical and biological reactors and cooling systems for microelectronic devices typically present liquid slugs alternated with bubbles of elongated shape, the Taylor bubbles. These occupy almost entirely the cross-section of the channel and present a hemispherical front and a liquid layer, the lubrication film, which separates the gas from the tube wall. The Taylor bubble perturbs the surrounding fluids activating many transport mechanisms in the proximity of the gas-liquid interface; therefore, the bubble motion significantly influences the heat and mass transfer rates. Although many works deeply investigate the bubble hydrodynamics in Newtonian fluids, the knowledge about the relation between bubble hydrodynamics and rheological properties is insufficient, and studies where the continuous phase exhibits a shear-thinning behavior are missing. Our numerical analysis tries to fill this gap by investigating the motion of a Taylor bubble in a non-Newtonian shear-thinning fluid, modeled by the Carreau viscosity model. First, we validate the results against the Newtonian case and a recent theory for shear-thinning fluids (Picchi et al., Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2021, 918). Then, we investigate the bubble hydrodynamics far from the validity range of the current models. Finally, we study the scaling of the bubble velocity and lubrication film thickness, extending the current theory to shear-thinning fluids.

Electromyography Pattern Likelihood Analysis for Flexion-Relaxation Phenomenon Evaluation

The myoelectric activity of the back muscles can be studied to evaluate the flexion-relaxation phenomenon and find differences between electromyography patterns on different subjects. In this paper, we propose an algorithm able to provide a myoelectric silence evaluation based on the data acquired from a wireless body sensor network consisting of surface electromyography sensors in association with a wearable inertial measurement unit. From the study group was chosen a gold standard subject, a healthy control with the best regular patterns, as a reference to find a first validity range. Through the subsequent iterations, the range was modified to include the other healthy subjects who showed muscle relaxation according to the previous ranges. Through this likelihood analysis, we want to compare patterns on different channels, identified by the electromyography root mean squared values, to study and find with iterations a validity range for the myoelectric activity silence identification and classification. The proposed algorithm was tested by processing the data collected in an acquisition campaign conducted to evaluate the flexion-relaxation phenomenon on the back muscles of subjects with and without lower back pain. The results show that the submitted method is significant for the clinical assessment of electromyography activity patterns to evaluate which are the subjects that have patterns near or far from the gold standard. This analysis is useful both for prevention and for assessing the progress of subjects with low back pain undergoing physiotherapy.

Reconstruction of palaeoenvironmental variability based on an inter-comparison of four lacustrine archives on the Peloponnese (Greece) for the last 5000 years

A high quantity of well-dated, high-resolution, continuous geoarchives is needed to connect palaeoenvironmental reconstructions with socio-environmental and cultural transformations in a geographically heterogeneous region such as southern Greece. However, detailed and continuous palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental archives from the NE Peloponnese are still sparse. Here, we present two new palaeolake archives of Pheneos and Kaisari covering the last 10 500 and 6500 years, respectively. For the last 5000 years, we compare them with sediment records from adjacent Lake Stymphalia and the Asea valley by applying the same set of sedimentological, geochemical, and statistical analyses to all four lacustrine archives. Continuous geochemical X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning records provide evidence for hydrological variations and environmental changes since the Early Helladic period (5050 BP), the beginning of the Bronze Age in Greece. We hereby focus on different spatial scales to estimate the validity range of the proxy signals. Ten elements were selected (Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Rb, Sr, Zr) for a principal component analysis. The clr(Ca∕Ti) was chosen as the most meaningful proxy, reflecting varying input of carbonaceous vs. clastic input, which may be linked to changes in the hydrological conditions. Our results show phases when permanent lake water bodies existed (ca. 5000–3600 cal BP) as well as phases with periodic desiccation of the lakes during younger times. While Pheneos and Kaisari show a drying trend during the transition phase from the Late Helladic period to the Proto-Geometric period (ca. 3200–2800 cal BP), Stymphalia and Asea show a rather short dry peak around 3200 cal BP followed by a wetter phase. Although all our geoarchives show evidence for drier phases, their timing and duration display considerable site-to-site differences which may be explained by site-specific responses in individual ecosystems. Age uncertainties, however, may likewise explain some deviations, as the dating is based on bulk sediment samples including potential unknown reservoir effects. The high regional geographical diversity within the Peloponnese combined with the dating challenges in the limestone-rich area and the variation in our data testify that any hypothetical mono-causal connection between palaeoenvironmental changes in a single geoarchive and contemporaneous societal transformations across the Peloponnese would be an oversimplification.

Transonic Axial Compressors Loss Correlations: Part I — Analysis and Update of Loss Models

The quest for greener, more efficient aircraft engines is the main driver for the development of innovative compression system designs. Reduced order design tools rely nevertheless on semi-empirical loss models, whose validity range is often not net or in general not verified. The present work aims at defining a set of loss correlations, which could readily be employed in the analysis and design process of modern transonic axial compressors. In part I, the main entropy generation mechanisms are described together with a review of the most commonly employed modelling approaches. Selected loss models are then deeper investigated and updated to increase both their range of validity and the accuracy of their predictions. In Part II, the effectiveness of the investigated models will be tested for one specific low aspect ratio axial compressor stage.