Review

Mrs Jolanta Wadowska-Król, MD, was born in Katowice. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the Medical University of Silesia in Zabrze and in 1968 completed basic specialist training in paediatric medicine. During this period, she started working in a district clinic in Szopienice, and then she worked in Dąbrówka Mała. She served children and youth with her help until 2011. This is how every review usually begins, with the author then focusing on the scientific achievements of the Honorary Doctor. Nevertheless, I will go off the beaten track with the review. I will discuss an exceptional person and a fundamental problem that remains relevant and sorrowful despite the passage of years (Fragment tekstu)

Recenzja

Pani Doktor Jolanta Wadowska-Król urodziła się w Katowicach. Ukończyła studia na Wydziale Lekarskim Śląskiej Akademii Medycznej w Zabrzu, a w 1968 roku zdobyła specjalizację z zakresu pediatrii. W tym okresie rozpoczęła pracę w poradni rejonowej w Szopienicach, a następnie pracowała w Dąbrówce Małej. Służyła swą pomocą dzieciom i młodzieży do 2011 roku. Tak zazwyczaj rozpoczyna się każda recenzja, której autor w dalszej jej części skupia się na naukowych osiągnięciach Doktoranta. Niemniej jednak moja recenzja łamie utarty kanon, gdyż mówię w niej o wyjątkowej osobie i niezwykle ważnym problemie, który mimo upływu lat jest wciąż aktualny i bolesny. Zważywszy na rangę zasług Pani Doktor Jolanty Wadowskiej-Król, które materializują się przede wszystkim w wymiarze moralnym, ludzkim i społecznym, postanowiłem osadzić moją recenzję w historii naszego śląskiego regionu, nakreślić w niej bardzo szeroki kontekst problemu, a także wpleść narrację o pięknej sylwetce osoby, której determinacja i poświęcenie uratowały wiele istnień, w szczególności dzieci (Fragment tekstu)

Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging for polymer particle size estimation

This study examines the potential of near-infrared hyperspectral imaging for assessing the size of polymer particles in model fractions based on the scattering phenomena. Different fractions of ground polymers, either polymethyl methacrylate or polypropylene, were characterized by near-infrared spectra collected between 900 and 1700 nm. The possibility to estimate the size of polymer particles using hyperspectral images was confronted with a basic single spot near-infrared measurement. Hyperspectral imaging, in addition to the standard spectral data dimension, provides information about the spatial distribution of sample components and reveals changes in physical properties. Therefore, one can gain a better insight into the scattering phenomena and study the physical inhomogeneity of a sample in terms of particle size distribution. The partial least-squares models constructed to estimate particle size of polymers that were characterized by hyperspectral images (a pixel-based approach) outperforms models built for mean spectra regardless of the considered powdered polymer

Assessment of the Kernel Gram Matrix Representation of Data in Order to Avoid the Alignment of Chromatographic Signals

This article discusses the possibility of exploratory data analysis of samples described by second-order chromatographic data affected by peak shifts. In particular, the potential of the kernel Gram matrix representation as an alternative to the necessary and time-consuming alignment step is evaluated. It was demonstrated through several simulation studies and comparisons that even small peak shifts can be a substantial source of data variance, and they can easily hamper the interpretation of chromatographic data. When peak shifts are small, their negative effect is far more destructive than the impact of relatively large levels of the Gaussian noise, heteroscedastic noise, and signal’s baseline. The Gram principal component analysis approach has proven to be a well-suited tool for exploratory analysis of chromatographic signals collected using the diode-array detector in which sample-to-sample peak shifts were observed

Studying the stability of Solvent Red 19 and 23 as excise duty components under the influence of controlled factors

In this study, we examine the chemical stability of two disazo dyes, namely Solvent Red 19 and 23 (SR 19 and SR 23), under simulated conditions. Both dyes are considered to be chemically stable under normal exploitation conditions and therefore, are used extensively as excise duty components that enable a rapid visual verification of the tax levels that were imposed on fuel products as well as identifying fuel usage. However, the results from this study confirmed that the colour of the samples that had been fortified with either SR 19 or SR 23 fades under the influence of external conditions such as UV-A irradiation and temperature over time. The UV-A irradiation was the dominant factor that was responsible for the colour of the samples to fade in two designed experiments that were carried out independently for two model systems. The analysis of the UV/Vis and fluorescence spectra as well as the interpretation of the changes that were observed in the chromatographic profiles provided substantial evidence that the colour fading was caused by the photodegradation of the disazo dyes, which also occurs in non-polar media including fuel products. SR 19 is more stable than SR 23

Detection of discoloration in diesel fuel based on gas chromatographic fingerprints

In the countries of the European Community, diesel fuel samples are spiked with Solvent Yellow 124 and either Solvent Red 19 or Solvent Red 164. Their presence at a given concentration indicates the specific tax rate and determines the usage of fuel. The removal of these so-called excise duty components, which is known as fuel "laundering", is an illegal action that causes a substantial loss in a government's budget. The aim of our study was to prove that genuine diesel fuel samples and their counterfeit variants (obtained from a simulated sorption process) can be differentiated by using their gas chromatographic fingerprints that are registered with a flame ionization detector. To achieve this aim, a discriminant partial least squares analysis, PLS-DA, for the genuine and counterfeit oil fingerprints after a baseline correction and the alignment of peaks was constructed and validated. Uninformative variables elimination (UVE), variable importance in projection (VIP), and selectivity ratio (SR), which were coupled with a bootstrap procedure, were adapted in PLS-DA in order to limit the possibility of model overfitting. Several major chemical components within the regions that are relevant to the discriminant problem were suggested as being the most influential. We also found that the bootstrap variants of UVE-PLS-DA and SR-PLS-DA have excellent predictive abilities for a limited number of gas chromatographic features, 14 and 16, respectively. This conclusion was also supported by the unitary values that were obtained for the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) independently for the model and test sets

The 42nd Symposium Chromatographic Methods of Investigating Organic Compounds : Book of abstracts

The 42nd Symposium Chromatographic Methods of Investigating Organic Compounds : Book of abstracts. June 4-7, 2019, Szczyrk, Polan