Analysis of new psychoactive substances in human urine by ultra‐high performance supercritical fluid and liquid chromatography: Validation and comparison

New psychoactive substances represent serious social and health problem as tens of new compounds are detected in Europe annually. They often show structural proximity or even isomerism, which complicates their analysis. Two methods based on ultra high performance supercritical fluid chromatography and ultra high performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection were validated and compared. A simple dilute‐filter‐and‐shoot protocol utilizing propan‐2‐ol or methanol for supercritical fluid or liquid chromatography, respectively, was proposed to detect and quantify 15 cathinones and phenethylamines in human urine. Both methods offered fast separation (<3 min) and short total analysis time. Precision was well <15% with a few exceptions in liquid chromatography. Limits of detection in urine ranged from 0.01 to 2.3 ng/mL, except for cathinone (5 ng/mL) in supercritical fluid chromatography. Nevertheless, this technique distinguished all analytes including four pairs of isomers, while liquid chromatography was unable to resolve fluoromethcathinone regioisomers. Concerning matrix effects and recoveries, supercritical fluid chromatography produced more uniform results for different compounds and at different concentration levels. This work demonstrates the performance and reliability of supercritical fluid chromatography and corroborates its applicability as an alternative tool for analysis of new psychoactive substances in biological matrixes.     

飞秒孤子传输演化的数值研究

利用分步傅里叶法数值模拟了飞秒孤子在光纤中的传输演化过程。对光纤中单个孤子的传输及二阶孤子的自陡峭效应和自频移效应进行了分析,指出在一定的参数取值范围内,自频移效应对二阶fs孤子传输的影响要比自陡峭效应大,占主导地位,且对自陡峭效应有一定的抑制作用。     

A note on strong β-I-sets and strongly β-I-continuous functions

Summary In [6], we introduced and investigated the notions of strong β-I-open sets and strong β-I-continuous functions in ideal topological spaces. In this paper, we investigate further their important properties.     

Improvements in Depth Selective Electron Mössbauer Spectroscopy

The conditions for achievement of high resolving power of depth selective conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy method at a combined installation ‘electron spectrometer–nuclear gamma-resonance spectrometer’ have been obtained. There has been made a considerable step in development of the method at its realization at a magnetic sector electron spectrometer with double focusing, equipped with electron source (a sample under investigation) of large-area and position-sensitive detector. The paper presents a prospective symmetrical version of a magnetic sector electron spectrometer that allows realizing more completely possibilities of the method. It is noted that the proposed method is particularly valuable for investigations of nanosystems, nanostrutures that contain Mössbauer nuclei.     

What Oxidation State of Iron Determines the Amethyst Colour?

A colourless quartz crystal doped with ⁵⁷Fe³⁺ was obtained by hydrothermal synthesis in an NH₄F solution. The crystal was transformed into violet amethyst by gamma-irradiation. The change in colour was accompanied by changes in the Mössbauer spectrum that can be interpreted as the conversion of trivalent iron into the tetravalent state: Fe³⁺→Fe⁴⁺.

     

Structure and Structural Nonrigidity of Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin Radical Cations

Ab initio calculations showed that the tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin radical cations (TCDD RCs) with a planar structure have two steady states with asymmetric dioxin cycles. The activation barriers between these states are up to 2 kcal/mole, so that the RCs may be regarded as being structurally nonrigid within the dioxin cycle. The 2,3,7,8-TCDD RC is more stable than the 1,4,6,9-TCDD RC, the energy difference being 5.2 kcal/mole. The adiabatic ionization potential of 2,3,7,8-TCDD (7.54 eV) is 0.1 eV smaller than the corresponding potential of 1,4,6,9-TCDD. These factors account for the increased hemoproteide affinity and hence increased biological activity of 2,3,7,8-TCDD.     

Field optimized initial state based control of photodissociation

A new scheme for controlling photodissociation through preparation of a variationally optimized linear superposition of field free vibrational eigenstates is applied for selective control of IBr and HI dissociation. The dependence of photodissociation on various field parameters and initial conditions is examined to investigate the mechanistic basis of selective control. The parametric equations of motion approach for determining vibrational dynamics as a function of field parameters without having to solve the time dependent Schrödinger equation explicitly for each field parameter separately is outlined and its use to identify field characteristics which will provide the requisite population mix represented by the optimal linear superposition of vibrational states is advocated.     

Shell model interaction between proton holes and between proton holes and neutron particles around 208Pb

An effective residual interaction between particles and holes for shell model calculations around ²⁰⁸Pb, derived from the interaction between free nucleons, is compared with the measured properties of proton-hole neutron states in ²⁰⁸Tl and the interaction between proton holes is adjusted to newly measured level energies in ²⁰⁶Hg. These interaction elements are particularly relevant for neutron-rich nuclei. The adjustment of two mixing elements reproduces the known γ-decay data in ²⁰⁸Tl. Received: 2 April 2002 / Accepted: 2 May 2002     

Low-lying states of 6He studied via the 6Li(t,3He)6He reaction

We present the recent experimental results on the ⁶He structure studied by the ⁶Li(t, ³He)⁶He reaction at 336 MeV. Above the conspicuous peaks for ground and first excited states for ⁶He, we have observed a broad structures at E _x∼ 5 MeV, and E _x∼ 15 MeV. The angular distribution of this structure exhibits the dominance of a ΔL = 1 transition, indicating the existence of intruder dipole states at low excitation energies in ⁶He. A slight admixture of positive-parity states in this structure has been indicated as well. Received: 1 May 2001 / Accepted: 4 December 2001