Predicting flood damage using the flood peak ratio and Giovanni Flooded Fraction.

A spatially-resolved understanding of the intensity of a flood hazard is required for accurate predictions of infrastructure reliability and losses in the aftermath. Currently, researchers who wish to predict flood losses or infrastructure reliability following a flood usually rely on computationally intensive hydrodynamic modeling or on flood hazard maps (e.g., the 100-year floodplain) to build a spatially-resolved understanding of the flood's intensity. However, both have specific limitations. The former requires both subject matter expertise to create the models and significant computation time, while the latter is a static metric that provides no variation among specific events. The objective of this work is to develop an integrated data-driven approach to rapidly predict flood damages using two emerging flood intensity heuristics, namely the Flood Peak Ratio (FPR) and NASA's Giovanni Flooded Fraction (GFF). This study uses data on flood claims from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to proxy flood damage, along with other well-established flood exposure variables, such as regional slope and population. The approach uses statistical learning methods to generate predictive models at two spatial levels: nationwide and statewide for the entire contiguous United States. A variable importance analysis demonstrates the significance of FPR and GFF data in predicting flood damage. In addition, the model performance at the state-level was higher than the nationwide level analysis, indicating the effectiveness of both FPR and GFF models at the regional level. A data-driven approach to predict flood damage using the FPR and GFF data offer promise considering their relative simplicity, their reliance on publicly accessible data, and their comparatively fast computational speed.

Construction of novel sensitive electrochemical sensor for electro-oxidation and determination of citalopram based on zinc oxide nanoparticles and multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

A new chemically modified carbon paste electrode (CMCPE) was applied to the simple, rapid, highly selective and sensitive determination of citalopram in human serum and pharmaceutical preparations using adsorptive square wave voltammetry (ASWV). The ZnO nanoparticles and multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified CPE (ZnO-MWCNT/CPE) electrode was prepared by incorporation of the ZnO nanoparticles and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in carbon paste electrode. The limit of detection and the linear range were found to be 0.005 and 0.012 to 1.54µmolL(-1) of citalopram, respectively. The effects of potentially interfering substances on the determination of this compound were investigated and found that the electrode is highly selective. The proposed CMCPE was used to the determination of citalopram in human serum, urine and pharmaceutical samples. This reveals that ZnO-MWCNT/CPE shows excellent analytical performance for the determination of citalopram in terms of very low detection limit, high sensitivity, very good repeatability and reproducibility over other methods reported in the literature.

Electro-oxidation and voltammetric determination of oxymetholone in the presence of mestanolone using glassy carbon electrode modified with carbon nanotubes.

A new chemically modified electrode was constructed and applied to the electro-oxidation of the oxymetholone. Also, the electrode was applied to the simple, rapid, highly selective and sensitive determination of oxymetholone (OXM) in pharmaceutical and plasma samples using square wave voltammetry (SWV). The multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrode (MWCNT/GCE) were prepared by casting of the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) suspension on the glassy carbon electrode surface. The limit of detection and the linear range were found to be 1.36 and 2.00-90.00 ng mL(-1) of OXM, respectively. The effects of potentially interfering substances on the determination of this compound were investigated and found that the electrode is highly selective. The proposed modified electrode was used for the determination of OXM in human plasma and pharmaceutical samples. This reveals that MWCNT/GCE shows excellent analytical performance for the determination of OXM in terms of very low detection limit, high sensitivity, very good repeatability and reproducibility over other methods reported in literature.

Surface decoration of multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified carbon paste electrode with gold nanoparticles for electro-oxidation and sensitive determination of nitrite.

In this paper, a highly sensitive and selective voltammetric sensor for the determination of nitrite is proposed. We described a fast and easy method for the fabrication of gold nanoparticles/multi-walled carbon nanotube/carbon paste electrode (GNPs /MWCPE) by one-step electrodeposition under controlled potential, the whole procedure takes only several minutes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image demonstrated that the gold nanoparticles deposited on MWCNTs/CPE were uniform, with an average size of 30 nm. By combining the benefits of GNPs/MWCNTs and CPE, the resulted modified electrode exhibited outstanding electrocatalytic activity in terms of nitrite oxidation by giving much higher peak currents than those found for the unmodified CPE and also the MWCNTs-modified electrode. The effect of various experimental parameters on the voltammetric response of nitrite was investigated. At the optimum conditions the sensor has a linear response in the 0.05-250.0 µmol L(-1) concentration range, a very good detection sensitivity (0.4177 µA L µmol(-1)), and a low detection limit of 1×10(-2) µmol L(-1) of nitrite. Most common ions and many environmental organic pollutants do not interfere. The proposed chemically modified electrode was used to the determination of NO2(-) in several foodstuffs and water samples and the results were found to be consistent with the values obtained by the Griess protocol.

Fabrication and application of a new modified electrochemical sensor using nano-silica and a newly synthesized Schiff base for simultaneous determination of Cd2+, Cu2+ and Hg2+ ions in water and some foodstuff samples.

A new chemically modified carbon paste electrode was constructed and used for rapid, simple, accurate, selective and highly sensitive simultaneous determination of cadmium, copper and mercury using square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV). The carbon paste electrode was modified by N,N'-bis(3-(2-thenylidenimino)propyl)piperazine coated silica nanoparticles. Compared with carbon paste electrode, the stripping peak currents had a significant increase at the modified electrode. Under the optimized conditions (deposition potential, -1.100 V vs. Ag/AgCl; deposition time, 60s; resting time, 10s; SW frequency, 25 Hz; pulse amplitude, 0.15 V; dc voltage step height, 4.4 mV), the detection limit was 0.3, 0.1 and 0.05 ng mL(-1) for the determination of Cd(2+), Cu(2+) and Hg(2+), respectively. The complexation reaction of the ligand with several metal cations in methanol was studied and the stability constants of the complexes were obtained. The effects of different cations and anions on the simultaneous determination of metal ions were studied and it was found that the electrode is highly selective for the simultaneous determination of Cd(2+), Cu(2+) and Hg(2+). Furthermore, the present method was applied to the determination of Cd(2+), Cu(2+) and Hg(2+) in water and some foodstuff samples.

Fabrication of a new electrochemical sensor based on a new nano-molecularly imprinted polymer for highly selective and sensitive determination of tramadol in human urine samples.

A new nano-molecularly imprinted polymer bead was synthesized and applied to the fabrication of a chemically modified carbon paste electrode. Nano-molecularly imprinted polymer with molecular recognition capacity was made-up by using SiO2@Fe3O4 as the core and the supporting material. The electrode was applied to the simple, rapid, highly selective and sensitive determination of tramadol using square wave voltammetry. The molecularly imprinted polymer and multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified carbon paste electrode was prepared by incorporating the synthesized nano-MIP and multi-walled carbon nanotubes in carbon paste electrode. The limit of detection and the linear range were found to be 0.004 and 0.01 to 20 µmol L(-1) of tramadol, respectively. The effects of potentially interfering substances on the determination of this compound were investigated. And it was found that the electrode is highly selective. The proposed chemically modified carbon paste electrode was used for the determination of tramadol in infected and healthy human urine and pharmaceutical samples.

A solid phase extraction procedure for Fe3+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ ions on 2-phenyl-1H-benzo[d] imidazole loaded on Triton X-100-coated polyvinyl chloride.

A new and efficient solid phase extraction method is described for the preconcentration of trace heavy metal ions. The method is based on the adsorption of Fe(3+), Cu(2+) and Zn(2+) on 2-phenyl-1H-benzo[d] imidazole (PHBI) loaded on Triton X-100-coated polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The influences of the analytical parameters including pH and sample volume were investigated. Common coexisting ions did not interfere on the separation and determination of analytes under study. The adsorbed analytes were desorbed by using 5 mL of 4 mol L(-1) nitric acid. The preconcentration factor is 90. The detection limits (3 sigma) were in the range of 0.95-1 microg L(-1). The sorbent exhibited excellent stability and its sorption capacity under optimum conditions has been found to be more than 2.7 mg of ions per gram of sorbent. The recoveries of analytes were generally higher than 95%. The relative standard deviations (R.S.D.s) were generally lower than 4%. The method has been successfully applied to some real samples.