The development of a reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography fluorescence method for the determination of the mycotoxins fumonisin B1 and fumonisin B2 by using silica-based monolithic column is described. The samples were first extracted using acetonitrile:water (50:50, v/v) and purified by using a C18 solid phase extraction-based clean-up column. Then, pre-column derivatization for the analyte using ortho-phthaldialdehyde in the presence of 2-mercaptoethanol was carried out. The developed method involved optimization of mobile phase composition using methanol and phosphate buffer, injection volume, temperature and flow rate. The liquid chromatographic separation was performed using a reversed phase Chromolith® RP-18e column (100 mm × 4.6 mm) at 30 °C and eluted with a mobile phase of a mixture of methanol and phosphate buffer pH 3.35 (78:22, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min−1. The fumonisins separation was achieved in about 4 min, compared to approximately 20 min by using a C18 particle-packed column. The fluorescence excitation and emission were at 335 nm and 440 nm, respectively. The limits of detections were 0.01–0.04 μg g−1 fumonisin B1 and fumonisin B2, respectively. Good recoveries were found for spiked samples (0.1, 0.5, 1.5 μg g−1 fumonisins B1 and B2), ranging from 84.0 to 106.0% for fumonisin B1 and from 81.0 to 103.0% for fumonisin B2. Fifty-three samples were analyzed including 39 food and feeds and 14 inoculated corn and rice. Results show that 12.8% of the food and feed samples were contaminated with fumonisin B1 (range, 0.01–0.51 μg g−1) and fumonisin B2 (0.05 μg g−1). The total fumonisins in these samples however, do not exceed the legal limits established by the European Union of 0.8 μg g−1. Of the 14 inoculated samples, 57.1% contained fumonisin B1 (0.16–41.0 μg g−1) and fumonisin B2 (range, 0.22–50.0 μg g−1). Positive confirmation of selected samples was carried out using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, using triple quadrupole analyzer and operated in the multiple reaction monitoring mode.
The purpose of this work is to concurrently estimate the UVvisible spectra of binary combinations of piroxicam and mefenamic acid using the chemometric approach. To create the model, spectral data from 73 samples (with wavelengths between 200 and 400 nm) were employed. A two-layer artificial neural network model was created, with two neurons in the output layer and fourteen neurons in the hidden layer. The model was trained to simulate the concentrations and spectra of piroxicam and mefenamic acid. For piroxicam and mefenamic acid, respectively, the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm with feed-forward back-propagation learning produced root mean square errors of prediction of 0.1679 μg/mL and 0.1154 μg/mL, with coefficients of determination of
... Show MoreIn this paper flotation method experiments were performed to investigate the removal of lead and zinc. Various parameters such as pH, air flow rate, collector concentrations, collector type and initial metal concentrations were tested in a bubble column of 6 cm inside diameter. High recoveries of the two metals have been obtained by applying the foam flotation process, and at relatively short time 45 minutes . The results show that the best removal of lead about 95% was achieved at pH value of 8 and the best removal of zinc about 93% was achieved
at pH value of 10 by using 100 mg/l of Sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) as a collector and 1% ethanol as a frother. The results show that the removal efficiency increased with increasing initial m
Under cyclic loading, aluminum alloys exhibit less fatigue life than steel alloys of similar strength and this is considered as Achilles's heel of such alloys. A nanosecond fiber laser was used to apply high speed laser shock peening process on thin aluminum plates in order to enhance the fatigue life by introducing compressive residual stresses. The effect of three working parameters namely the pulse repetition rate (PRR), spot size (ω) and scanning speed (v) on limiting the fatigue failure was investigated. The optimum results, represented by the longer fatigue life, were at PRR of 22.5 kHz, ω of 0.04 mm and at both v's of 200 and 500 mm/sec. The research yielded significant results represented by a maximum percentage increase in the fa
... Show MoreThe ground state charge, neutron, proton and matter densities, the associated nuclear radii and the binding energy per nucleon of 8B, 17Ne, 23Al and 27P halo nuclei have been investigated using the Skyrme–Hartree–Fock (SHF) model with the new SKxs25 parameters. According to the calculated results, it is found that the SHF model with these Skyrme parameters provides a good description on the nuclear structure of above proton-rich halo nuclei. The elastic charge form factors of 8B and 17Ne halo nuclei and those of their stable isotopes 10B and 20Ne are calculated using plane-wave Born approximation with the charge density distributions obtained by SHF model to investigate the effect of the extended charge distributions of proton-rich nucl
... Show MoreCadmium oxide (CdO) thin films were deposited using the sequencing ion layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. In this study, the effect of the pH value of an aqueous solution of cadmium acetate at a concentration of 0.2 mol of the cadmium oxide film was determined. The solution source for the cadmium oxide film was cadmium ions and an aqueous ammonia solution. The CdO films were deposited on glass substrates at a temperature of 90 ℃. The cadmium oxide film thickness was determined by the weight difference method at pH values (7.2, 8.2). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the size of the crystals increased with the increase in the solution (pH). While the UV-visible spectra of the fil
... Show MoreDrag has long been identified as the main reason for the loss of energy in fluid transmission like pipelines and other similar transportation channels. The main contributor to this drag is the viscosity as well as friction against the pipe walls, which will results in more pumping power consumption.
The aim in this study was first to understand the role of additives in the viscosity reduction and secondly to evaluate the drag reduction efficiency when blending with different solvents.
This research investigated flow increase (%FI) in heavy oil at different flow rates (2 to 10 m3/hr) in two pipes (0.0381 m & 0.0508 m) ID By using different additives (toluene and naphtha) with different concent
... Show MoreA new application of a combined solvent extraction and two-phase biodegradation processes using two-liquid phase partitioning bioreactor (TLPPB) technique was proposed and developed to enhance the cleanup of high concentration of crude oil from aqueous phase using acclimated mixed culture in an anaerobic environment. Silicone oil was used as the organic extractive phase for being a water-immiscible, biocompatible and non-biodegradable. Acclimation, cell growth of mixed cultures, and biodegradation of crude oil in aqueous samples were experimentally studied at 30±2ºC. Anaerobic biodegradation of crude oil was examined at four different initial concentrations of crude oil including 500, 1000, 2000, and 5000 mg/L. Complete removal of crud
... Show MoreInstitutions and companies are looking to reduce spending on buildings and services according to scientific methods, provided they reach the same purpose but at a lower cost. On this basis, this paper proposes a model to measure and reduce maintenance costs in one of the public sector institutions in Iraq by using performance indicators that fit the nature of the work of this institution and the available data. The paper relied on studying the nature of the institution’s work in the maintenance field and looking at the type of data available to know the type and number of appropriate indicators to create the model. Maintenance data were collected for the previous six years by reviewing the maintenance and financial dep
... Show MoreThe critical micelle concentration (CMC) of nonylphenolethoxylate (NPE) surfactant has been determined by measuring the surface tension as a function of the molar concentration of the surfactant in aqueous and binary mixture of water + methanol solutions at a temperature range from 20?C to 35?C. The interfacial parameters ?max, Amin, ?cmc and ?G?ads were calculated. The results indicate that the CMC increases as the temperature increases and that the addition of methanol the CMC decreases. The thermodynamic parameters such as standard Gibbs free energy (?G?), enthalpy (?H?), and entropy (?S?) of micellization were estimated using the change of CMC with temperature. The enthalpy – entropy compensation behavior of the surfactant was evaluat
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