Determination of lead in seawater by flow-injection on-line preconcentration-electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry after coprecipitation with iron(III) hydroxide.

A flow-injection on-line preconcentration-electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometric (ETAAS) method coupled with a coprecipitation method has been developed for the determination of lead in seawater. The combination of two preconcentration procedures, coprecipitation with iron(II) hydroxide and solid-phase extraction with a lead-selective resin, Pb-Spec, allowed the determination of lead at the ng kg(-1) level. Lead in 250 g of a sample solution was collected by coprecipitation with 10 mg of iron. The precipitate was dissolved in 25 ml of 1 mol l(-1) nitric acid; then, a 4-ml aliquot of the sample solution was introduced into the flow-injection system to preconcentrate and separate lead from iron on a Pb.Spec microcolumn. The sorbed lead was eluted with a 1.0 x 10(-4) mol l(-1) EDTA solution. The 30-microl portion of the eluate corresponding to the highest analyte concentration zone was injected into a graphite furnace. The overall enhancement factor was about 200 for 250 g of the sample. The average and standard deviation of ten blank values obtained were 1.7 ng and 0.38 ng, respectively. The recovery was 93.7 +/- 5.0% for seawater spiked with 20 ng kg(-1) lead. The proposed method is applicable to the analysis of seawater for lead at slightly higher levels.     

Exopeptidase degradation for the analysis of phosphorylation site in a mono-phosphorylated peptide with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry.

The utility of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS) coupled with a peptide ladder sequencing method employing exopeptidase degradation for the analysis of phosphorylation site in a mono-phosphorylated peptide is investigated. MALDI-TOFMS analysis of time-dependent exopeptidase digestion using carboxypeptidase W and aminopeptidase M of the mono-phosphorylated 33-48 fragment isolated from a beta-casein tryptic digestion mixture allowed for the sequencing analysis from both the C-terminus and N-terminus. Negative ion detection MALDI-TOFMS made it possible to clearly measure the peptide ladder of mono-phosphorylated peptide by the strong negative charge localized at the phosphoric acid group. Since exopeptidase activity was suppressed by the existence of a phosphorylated amino acid residue, the termination exopeptidase degradation therefore suggested the existence of a phosphorylated amino acid residue at that site. This peptide ladder sequencing method using exopeptidases was effective for the identification of the site of a phosphorylated amino acid residue by a simple MALDI-TOFMS analysis in the negative ion detection mode.     

Scattering of a plane wave from a periodic random surface: a probabilistic approach

This paper deals with a probabilistic formulation of the wave scattering from a periodic random surface. When a plane wave is incident on a random surface described by a periodic stationary stochastic process, it is shown by a group-theoretic consideration that the scattered wave may have a stochastic Floquet form, i.e. a product of a periodic stationary random function and an exponential phase factor. Such a periodic stationary random function is then written by a harmonic series representation similar to a Fourier series, where Fourier coefficients are mutually correlated stationary processes instead of constants. The mutually correlated stationary processes are represented by Wiener - Hermite functional series with unknown coefficient functions called Wiener kernels. In case of a slightly rough surface and TE wave incidence, low-order Wiener kernels are determined from the boundary condition. Several statistical properties of the scattering are calculated and illustrated in figures.     

Studies on vocal fold injection and changes in pitch associated with alcohol intake

The current study was carried out with particular emphasis on the association between phonetic function tests and alterations in the appearance of the hypopharyngeal and laryngeal mucosa, such as capillary dilatation, edema, and vocal fold injection after alcohol intake. The results demonstrated the occurrence of previously unrecognized pathophysiological changes associated with synchronous phonetic functions in the vocal pathway after alcohol intake. Serum ethanol and aldehyde concentration levels were evaluated hourly for 2.5 h after ingestion of alcohol. When an electronystagmogram showed the typical pattern of alcohol intake, the study was initiated. Occasionally, rhinography was performed on subjects complaining of a stuffy nose after alcohol intake.     

Sensitive derivatizatton reagents for the resolution of carboxylic acid enantiomers by high-performance liquid chromatography

Two highly sensitive, chiral derivatization reagents, D- and L-1-aminoethyl-4-dimethyl-aminonaphthalene, were synthesized from 1-dimethylaminonaphthalene. Condensation of carboxylic acids with the chiral reagent was readily effected in the presence of a watersoluble carbodiimide. The diastereoisomeric amides formed from N-acetylamino acid and α-arylpropionic acid enantiomers were efficiently resolved by normal phase chromatography (μPorasil column) -with hexane/ethyl acetate or hexane/tetrahydrofuran as a mobile phase. With a fluorescence detector (excitation 320 nm, emission 395 nm), the detection limit was 0.1 ng.     

Study on the effect of diand trifluoromethyl groups on the baeyer-villiger reaction

Case studies of the Baeyer-Villiger reaction applied to diand trifluoromethylketone derivatives and the effect of the fluoromethyl groups on the Baeyer-Villiger reaction, are described.     

Study of (d, α) reactions on 94Zr and 96Zr

The nuclear structure of ⁹²Y and ⁹⁴Y has been investigated by the (d, α) reaction on ⁹⁴Zr and ⁹⁶Zr with 11.5 MeV deuterons. Some new levels have been seen in ⁹²Y and ⁹⁴Y. The angular distributions for these levels have been measured. A zero-range DWBA analysis has been carried out for these distributions and spin-parity assignments have been made for the new levels.     

Change in brain activity through virtual reality-based brain-machine communication in a chronic tetraplegic subject with muscular dystrophy

Background  

For severely paralyzed people, a brain-computer interface (BCI) provides a way of re-establishing communication. Although subjects with muscular dystrophy (MD) appear to be potential BCI users, the actual long-term effects of BCI use on brain activities in MD subjects have yet to be clarified. To investigate these effects, we followed BCI use by a chronic tetraplegic subject with MD over 5 months. The topographic changes in an electroencephalogram (EEG) after long-term use of the virtual reality (VR)-based BCI were also assessed. Our originally developed BCI system was used to classify an EEG recorded over the sensorimotor cortex in real time and estimate the user's motor intention (MI) in 3 different limb movements: feet, left hand, and right hand. An avatar in the internet-based VR was controlled in accordance with the results of the EEG classification by the BCI. The subject was trained to control his avatar via the BCI by strolling in the VR for 1 hour a day and then continued the same training twice a month at his home.     

Sugawara and Vertex Operator Constructions for Deformed Virasoro Algebras

From the defining exchange relations of the elliptic quantum algebra, we construct subalgebras which can be characterized as q-deformed W_N algebras. The consistency conditions relating the parameters p, q, N and the central charge c are shown to be related to the singularity structure of the functional coefficients defining the exchange relations of specific vertex operators representations of available when N = 2. Communicated by Petr Kulish Submitted: January 13, 2006; Accepted: March 6, 2006 Dedicated to our friend Daniel Arnaudon