Real-time Concentration Monitoring Research Articles

Artificial intelligence-implemented prediction and cost-effective optimization of micropollutant photodegradation using g-C3N4/Bi2O3 heterojunction

Micropollutants pose a formidable hazard to human health, however, conventional water treatment fails to efficiently and economically eliminate them. The imperative need for real-time concentration monitoring of these micropollutants, vital for effective elimination and cost optimization, has proven elusive without the intervention of artificial intelligence. To bridge these critical gaps, g-C3N4/Bi2O3 heterojunction was proposed as an efficient catalyst to eliminate recalcitrate micropollutants under visible light in this study, demonstrating a 1.8-fold increase in catalytic efficiency compared to g-C3N4, and furthermore, artificial intelligence models, i.e., the proposed Long short-term memory combined with Gated residual network (ALG) and Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG), were employed for real-time concentration prediction of micropollutants (R2 = 0.9541) and their treatment processing optimization, respectively. The predominant active species for degrading micropollutants were identified as O2•− and 1O2. We proved that HOO• serves as an intermediate to transform HO• and H2O2 generated in-situ to O2•− and 1O2, further enhancing micropollutant elimination. Compared to other models, the ALG demonstrated significantly lower root mean square error (RMSE = 0.0432) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE = 4.8273). Weight analysis revealed that Catalyst Type (31.80 %) is the most critical factor. Finally, the proposed DDPG model dynamically adjusted its treatment strategy, aiming to discover an optimal balance among cost, reaction time, and removal efficiency. This study provides mechanistic insights into the pivotal roles of artificial intelligence in prediction and cost-effective optimization of micropollutant elimination.

Smart Bandage Based on a ZIF-8 Triboelectric Nanogenerator for In Situ Real-Time Monitoring of Drug Concentration.

For chronic wounds, frequent replacement of bandages not only increases the likelihood of secondary damage and the risk of cross infection but also wastes medication. Therefore, in situ real-time monitoring of the concentrations of residual drugs in bandages is crucial. Here, we propose a novel strategy that combines a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) with medical bandages to develop a smart bandage based on zeolite imidazolate framework TENG. During the process of wound healing, the electrical output of TENG changes with the continuous release of drugs. Based on the correlation between the electrical signal of TENG and drug concentration, the concentration of residual drugs in the bandage can be monitored in real-time in situ, guiding medical staff to replace the bandage at the most appropriate time. The smart bandage based on TENG provides a new strategy for in situ real-time monitoring of drug concentration and also provides an ideal and feasible solution for the field of biomedical drug sensing.

Real-Time Monitoring Platform for Ocular Drug Delivery.

Real-time measurement is important in modern dissolution testing to aid in parallel drug characterisation and quality control (QC). The development of a real-time monitoring platform (microfluidic system, a novel eye movement platform with temperature sensors and accelerometers and a concentration probe setup) in conjunction with an in vitro model of the human eye (PK-Eye™) is reported. The importance of surface membrane permeability when modelling the PK-Eye™ was determined with a "pursing model" (a simplified setup of the hyaloid membrane). Parallel microfluidic control of PK-Eye™ models from a single source of pressure was performed with a ratio of 1:6 (pressure source:models) demonstrating scalability and reproducibility of pressure-flow data. Pore size and exposed surface area helped obtain a physiological range of intraocular pressure (IOP) within the models, demonstrating the need to reproduce in vitro dimensions as closely as possible to the real eye. Variation of aqueous humour flow rate throughout the day was demonstrated with a developed circadian rhythm program. Capabilities of different eye movements were programmed and achieved with an in-house eye movement platform. A concentration probe recorded the real-time concentration monitoring of injected albumin-conjugated Alexa Fluor 488 (Alexa albumin), which displayed constant release profiles. These results demonstrate the possibility of real-time monitoring of a pharmaceutical model for preclinical testing of ocular formulations.

Real-time concentration monitoring using a compact composite sensor array for in situ quality control of aqueous formulations

Recent advancements have demonstrated the feasibility of refrigerator-sized pharmaceutical manufacturing platforms (PMPs) for integrated end-to-end manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into formulated drug products. Unlike typical laboratory- or industrial-scale setups, PMPs present unique requirements for process analytical technology (PAT) with respect to versatility, flexibility, and physical size to fit into the PMP space constraints. In this proof of principle study, a novel compact composite sensor array (CCSA) combining ultraviolet (UV) and near infrared (NIR) features at four different wavelengths (280, 340, 600, 860 nm) with temperature measuring capability in a 380 × 30 mm housing (length x diameter, 7 mm diameter at the probe head), were evaluated. The results indicate that the CCSA prototype is capable of measuring the solution and suspension concentrations in aqueous formulations of four model APIs (warfarin sodium isopropanol solvate, lidocaine hydrochloride monohydrate, 6-mercaptopurine monohydrate, acetaminophen) in situ and in real-time with similar accuracy as an established Raman spectrometer commonly applied for method development.

Rapid green analytical methodology for simultaneous biomonitoring of five toxic areca nut alkaloids using UHPLC-MS/MS for predicting health hazardous risks

Areca nut (AN) is a fundamental component of betel quid (BQ), an addictive and carcinogenic mixture chewed by hundreds of millions of people in India-Asia-Pacific. Chewing of BQ is associated with oral cancers due to specific carcinogenic alkaloids (arecaidine, guvacine, guvacoline, arecoline, N-Nitrosoguvacoline) in AN. To predict the hazardous health risks of short and long-term chewing of BQ, it is crucial to identify five toxic AN alkaloids in saliva and urine of BQ chewers. This study reports a green analytical methodology comprising in-syringe assisted vortex-induced salt-enhanced liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with ultra-HPLC-MS/MS for simultaneous biomonitoring of five AN alkaloids in saliva and urine. The analytical method validation results exhibited good linearities between 0.05 and 1000 ng mL−1 with r2 > 0.9930. The detection and quantification limits were between 0.01 and 1.5 and 0.05–5 ng mL−1. Relative recoveries ranged between 87.9% and 110.1% with RSD < 9.1% for saliva samples, 81.5–115.1% with RSD < 9.7% for urine samples. The results indicated the successful identification and real-time monitoring of concentrations of five target AN alkaloids in saliva and urine of BQ chewers and demonstrated the utility of this technique as an efficient analytical protocol for routine biomonitoring of levels of toxic AN alkaloids from BQ chewers and to predict the exposure level and its harmful health risk.

Revisit of solubility of oxytetracycline polymorphs. An old story in the light of new results

In the literature the therapeutic nonequivalence of oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OTCH) capsules and tablets was attributed to the different aqueous solubility of polymorphs without their comprehensive study. Our aim was to reveal the effects of polymorphism on equilibrium solubility, dissolution kinetics and the supersaturation of two OTCH polymorphs (stable Form A and metastable Form B).The equilibrium solubility was measured in biorelevant pH range 4–7.4 by the standardized saturation shake-flask method. We also studied the solubility in SGF at pH 1.2 and the effect of the pH change from 1.2 to 5.0 on solubility. The dissolution was studied using real-time concentration monitoring with an ATR probe attached to a UV spectrophotometer (µDISS Profiler). A wide spectrum of solid phase analysis methods (SEM, IR, XRPD, Raman) was applied for characterization of polymorphs and to identify which form is present at the equilibrium solubility. Identical equilibrium solubility values were obtained at the same pHs in region 4.0–7.4 using the two polymorphs as starting materials. The XRPD analysis of the isolated solid phases proved that both polymorphic forms were converted to dihydrate form. In situ monitoring of the dissolution at pH 5.0 showed immediate dissolution, no difference in supersaturation, and short equilibration time for both forms indicating the immediate conversion. In SGF (pH 1.2) Form B dissolved better than Form A and showed significantly different dissolution kinetic and stability. A long-lasting, false chain-citation stating that Form B dissolves 28x better in water than Form A, was cut by the present study (i) revealing that the cited data was measured in IPA not in water, and (ii) proving that only the intrinsic solubility of OTC dihydrate can be measured in water due to conversion of polymorphs under the experimental conditions of solubility measurement. However this conversion is inhibited below pH 1.5, so the differences in solubility and dissolution kinetic found at pH 1.2 may contribute to the interpretation of the different serum-levels reported at solid formulations.

Osmolality is a predictor for model‐based real time monitoring of concentration in protein chromatography

AbstractBACKGROUNDThe bottleneck for real time control and real time release is lack of product‐specific in‐line sensors or fast at‐line methods suitable for model‐based prediction of process outcome. The most common sensors for protein purification are UV absorbance values measured at 280 and 260 nm. They have very high selectivity for proteins which contain aromatic amino acids. The 260 nm signal is more selective for nucleic acids. This work addresses the question if osmolality can be used as an additional predictor for protein purification.RESULTSAn antibody intermediate purification step in flow‐through mode was evaluated. The flow‐through fractions were collected and then subjected to analysis for antibody concentration and osmolality. UV280, UV260, UV214, pH and conductivity have been measured on‐line by the chromatography workstation. Different combinations of on‐line sensor signals and osmolality have been used to find out if molality is a valuable predictor. The root mean square error was used for assessing the quality of the model‐based prediction of quantity with partial least squares in this chromatography process. Predictors UV280, UV260, UV214, pH and conductivity showed equal root mean square error (0.274) as UV280, UV260, UV214, pH, conductivity and osmolality (0.274). Lowest mean square error (0.244) was found with UV280, UV260 and osmolality as predictors of quantity.CONCLUSIONOsmolality as an at‐line method is an excellent predictor together with UV280 and UV260 for protein quantity in model‐based prediction using partial least squares methodology. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology &amp; Biotechnology published by John Wiley &amp; Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

AN EXPERIMENTAL CHAMBER FOR TESTING ABATEMENT EFFECTS OF RADON EXPOSURE WITH DIFFERENT MEASURES.

For more effective testing the abatement effects of radon exposure with different counter measures, an air-conditioned laboratory room was reformed as an experimental chamber. Based on the well control and real time monitoring of concentrations of 222Rn, its attached and unattached progeny and their size distributions, the chamber could provide three modules corresponding to ventilation, source reduction and filtration for abating radon exposure. Preliminary results showed that the chamber was useful for testing the abatement effect of indoor radon exposure.

Electrochemical Behavior of Samarium in Molten LiCl-KCl

The mass transport behavior of samarium was investigated in molten eutectic LiCl-KCl in order to develop real-time concentration monitoring capabilities for the pyrochemical reprocessing of used nuclear fuel. Pyrochemical reprocessing relies on electrolysis in molten LiCl-KCl to recycle fissile material from used nuclear fuel. Without the capabilities to monitor concentrations of various actinides and fission products, pyrochemical reprocessing cannot be commercialized due to strict material accountability requirements set by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [1]. Therefore, physical electrochemical properties of these species in molten salts is extremely important. Cyclic voltammetry was utilized to investigate electrochemical behavior of samarium in LiCl-KCl. By establishing valid relationships between these parameters and the peak current, the diffusion coefficient of samarium in our system can be reported with confidence [2]. Experiments were conducted in a high-purity argon atmosphere glove box using a three-electrode cell contained in an alumina crucible inside a resistive furnace. A high-resolution translation stage equipped with ceramic electrode mounts was used to accurately control electrode positions inside the melt. Tungsten was used as the counter and working electrodes, and a silver wire was used as a quasi-reference (Ag|AgCl2). The variation in peak current that resulted from changing the concentration, scan rate and electrode surface area will be reported, along with calculated diffusion coefficient values for samarium in molten LiCl-KCl at 500°C. The effects of using molybdenum as a working electrode will also be reported and compared to results obtained using tungsten. A comparison between reported diffusion coefficient values obtained by separate research organizations and results obtained in these studies will also be discussed. Acknowledgements: This work was performed under the auspices of the Department of Energy (DOE) under contracts DE-NE0008262 and DE-NE0008236 as well as the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) under contracts NRCHQ-11-G-38-0039. Dr. Kenny Osborne serves as the program manager for the DOE award and Ms. Nancy Hebron-Isreal serves as the grants program officer for the NRC awards.

Evaluation of PAT Methods for Potential Application in Small-Scale, Multipurpose Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Platforms

Small-scale (refrigerator-sized, 1.0 (width) × 0.7 (length) × 1.8 m (height)), multipurpose pharmaceutical manufacturing platforms (PMP) necessitate unique high demands on process analytical technologies (PAT), for instance, in in situ, real-time monitoring of liquid formulations (solution and suspension) to determine the strength prior to the release from PMPs that are not comparable to lab-scale or industrial-scale needs. Commercially available plug-and-play PATs were evaluated for their potential application in PMPs regarding versatility, flexibility, reliability, and physical size (including the control box). The results presented here indicate that single-frequency ultrasounds currently surpass commercially available plug-and-play PATs in ways such as focused beam reflectance measurements, conductivity, and turbidity as well as UV–vis, Fourier transform infrared, near-infrared, and Raman spectroscopy for the purpose of in situ, real-time concentration monitoring of aqueous and alcohol-based solutions...

Real-time concentration monitoring in microfluidic system via plasmonic nanocrescent arrays.

In this work, on-chip bio/chemical sensor was reported based on localized surface plasmon resonance of nanocrescent patterns fabricated via electron beam lithography. The nanocrescent arrays with different dimensional features exhibited controllable plasmonic properties in accordance with the simulation results based on the finite-difference time-domain model. The highest refractive index sensitivity of the fabricated samples was achieved to be ~699.2 nm/RIU with a figure of merit of ~3.1 when the two opposite crescents own a gap of ~43.3 nm. Such obtained plasmonic sensor was further integrated into the microfluidic system which can simply control the specific analyte concentrations via tuning the flow rate ratios between two injecting microstreams. Our method has successfully demonstrated the capability of the nanocrescent patterns as on-chip plasmonic bio/chemical sensor for real-time monitoring of dynamic concentrations in the microchannel.

On-Chip Drop-to-Drop Liquid Microextraction Coupled with Real-Time Concentration Monitoring Technique

This paper demonstrates a novel drop-to-drop liquid-liquid micro-extraction (DTD-LLME) device, which is based on an electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) digital microfluidic chip. Droplets of two immiscible liquids, one of which is an ionic liquid, are formed in nanoliter volumes, driven along electrodes, merged and mixed for extraction, and finally separated upon the completion of the extraction process. All the steps are carried out on a microfluidic chip using combined electrowetting and dielectrophoretic forces, which act on the droplet upon the application of electric potential. Specially, the phase separation of two immiscible nanoliter-scale liquid drops was achieved for the first time on an EWOD digital microfluidic chip. To study the on-chip extraction kinetics, an image-based concentration measurement technique with suitable color parameters was studied and compared with the typical UV absorption based technique. Finally, the effect of applied ac voltage frequency on the extraction kinetics was studied. The observations on DTD-LLME, particularly phase separation, are discussed. The image-based method was found to be applicable for precise concentration measurements with the right choice of the color parameter. Results from experiments on finding the frequency dependence on extraction kinetics demonstrate that the application of higher frequencies can be a factor in accelerating the extraction on the proposed microextraction device.

Direct analysis of oxidizing agents in aqueous solution with attenuated total reflectance mid-infrared spectroscopy and diamond-like carbon protected waveguides.

A novel approach for the direct detection of oxidizing agents in aqueous solution is presented using diamond-like carbon (DLC) protected waveguides in combination with attenuated total reflectance (ATR) mid-infrared spectroscopy. Pulsed laser deposition was applied to produce high-quality DLC thin films on ZnSe ATR crystals with thicknesses of a few 100 nm. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to investigate the surface properties of the DLC films including the sp(3)/sp(2) hybridization ratio of the carbon bonds. Beside excellent adhesion of the DLC coatings to ZnSe crystals, these films show high chemical stability against strongly oxidizing agents. IR microscopy was utilized to compare differences in the chemical surface modification of bare and protected ATR waveguides when exposed to hydrogen peroxide, peracetic acid, and peroxydisulfuric acid. The feasibility of DLC protected waveguides for real-time concentration monitoring of these oxidizing agents was demonstrated by measuring calibration sets in a concentration range of 0.2-10%. Additionally, principal component regression has been applied to analyze multicomponent mixtures of hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, and peracetic acid in aqueous solution. Due to high chemical stability and accurate monitoring capabilities, DLC protected waveguides represent a novel approach for directly detecting oxidizing agents in aqueous solution with promising potential for industrial process analysis.

The contributions of emissions and spatial microenvironments to exposure to indoor air pollution from biomass combustion in Kenya.

Acute and chronic respiratory diseases, which are causally linked to exposure to indoor air pollution in developing countries, are the leading cause of global morbidity and mortality. Efforts to develop effective intervention strategies and detailed quantification of the exposure-response relationship for indoor particulate matter require accurate estimates of exposure. We used continuous monitoring of indoor air pollution and individual time-activity budget data to construct detailed profiles of exposure for 345 individuals in 55 households in rural Kenya. Data for analysis were from two hundred ten 14-hour days of continuous real-time monitoring of concentrations of particulate matter [less than/equal to] 10 microm in aerodynamic diameter and the location and activities of household members. These data were supplemented by data on the spatial dispersion of pollution and from interviews. Young and adult women had not only the highest absolute exposure to particulate matter (2, 795 and 4,898 microg/m(3) average daily exposure concentrations, respectively) but also the largest exposure relative to that of males in the same age group (2.5 and 4.8 times, respectively). Exposure during brief high-intensity emission episodes accounts for 31-61% of the total exposure of household members who take part in cooking and 0-11% for those who do not. Simple models that neglect the spatial distribution of pollution within the home, intense emission episodes, and activity patterns underestimate exposure by 3-71% for different demographic subgroups, resulting in inaccurate and biased estimations. Health and intervention impact studies should therefore consider in detail the critical role of exposure patterns, including the short periods of intense emission, to avoid spurious assessments of risks and benefits.

Monitoring of cellular behaviour by impedance measurements on interdigitated electrode structures

A new method for on-line and real-time monitoring of concentration, growth and physiological state of cells in culture is described. This biosensor is based on impedance measurements of adherently growing cells on interdigitated electrode structures (IDES). The measurements can be performed for several days as there is no detectable electrical influence on the cells. The versatility of this new sensor is shown with some exemplary experiments. Cell density, growth and long-term behaviour of cells on the electrodes clearly change the impedance of the IDES. Both, the global influence of serum components (deprivation of foetal bovine serum) and the toxic effects of heavy metal ions (cadmium) result in changes of the sensor signal and can be visualized.