Theory of an electric field induced periodic phase in a nematic film

The elastic theory of nemtatic liquid crystals is used to determine whether it gives support for recent experimental observations of a novel periodic phase occurring in homeotropically aligned films when an electric field is applied in the plane of the film. The director remains in the plane defined by the film normal and the field, and the wavevector of the periodicity is parallel to the field. It is found that the theory is consistent with experiment.     

A simple zero length surface-modification approach for preparing novel bifunctional supports for co-immobilisation studies

A straightforward method of creating a bifunctional support possessing pre-defined ratios of amine and chloromethyl groups based upon a controlled conversion of standard Merrifield resin is presented. It avoids the extensive optimisation of reactant concentrations and reaction conditions required by existing methods. Furthermore, it avoids increases in the spacer/linker length that lead to detrimental reductions in the rigidity of the grafted layer. The method will allow for efficient, predictable and reproducible co-immobilisation of molecular species.     

Intercompany Study to Evaluate the Robustness of Capillary Isoelectric Focusing Technology for the Analysis of Monoclonal Antibodies

Interlaboratory comparisons are essential to bringing emerging technologies into biopharmaceutical industry practice and regulatory acceptance. As a result, an international team including 12 laboratories from 10 independent biopharmaceutical companies in the United States and Switzerland was formed to evaluate the precision and robustness of capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF) to assess the charge heterogeneity of monoclonal antibodies. The different laboratories determined the apparent pI and the relative distribution of the charge isoforms of a representative monoclonal antibody (rMAb) sample using the same CIEF method. Statistical evaluation of the data was performed to determine within and between-laboratory consistencies and outlying information. The apparent pI data generated for each charge variant peak showed very good precision between laboratories with percentage of RSD values of ??0.5%. Similarly, the percentage of RSD for the rMAb charge variants percent peak area values are ??4.4% across different laboratories with different analysts using different lots of ampholytes and multiple instruments. Taken together, these results validate the appropriate use of CIEF in the biopharmaceutical industry in support of regulatory submissions.     

On the number of cycles possible in digraphs with large girth

We consider directed graphs which have no short cycles. In particular, if n is the number of vertices in a graph which has no cycles of length less than n ? k, for some constant k < ?n, then we show that the graph has no more than 3^k cycles. In addition, we show that for k ≤ ½n, there are graphs with exactly 3^k cycles. We thus are able to show that it is possible to bound the number of cycles possible in a graph which has no cycles of length less than f(n) by a polynomial in n if and only if f(n) ≥ n ? rlog(n) for some r.     

High-pressure liquid chromatographic determination of thioridazine and its major metabolites in biological tissues and fluids

A method is described for the determination of thioridazine and its major metabolites in postmortem tissues and fluids by enzymic digestion, followed by a micro-extraction technique using ethyl acetate. Quantitation was performed by using a cyano-bonded silica (mu Bondapak-CN) column packing and a mobile phase consisting of n-octylamine, methanol, and water.