Determination of free and total warfarin concentrations in plasma using UPLC MS/MS and its application to a patient samples

Warfarin is routinely monitored by assessing its pharmacologic effects on the international normalized ratio. However, having a patient with INR not responding to increasing warfarin dose mandates a direct measurement of warfarin concentrations (total and free) for better patient clinical management of warfarin therapy. Therefore, a new fully validated specific, precise and accurate ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was developed for the determination of free and total warfarin in human plasma. Free warfarin was measured in plasma filtrate, prepared by ultrafiltration, and sample pretreatment involved protein precipitation with acetonitrile. Linear response (r(2) ≥0.99) was observed over the studied range of free and total warfarin, with the lower limit of detection of 0.25 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precision (relative standard deviation) values were <10% and the accuracy (relative error) was ≤6.6 for free and total warfarin. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between inter- and intra-day studies for the free and total warfarin, which confirmed the reproducibility of the assay method. The mean extraction efficiency was 88.6-107.2% of free and total warfarin. The assay was sensitive to follow warfarin pharmacokinetics (free and total) in a patient with resistance to warfarin up to 24 h after a daily dose of warfarin.     

Factorial design and response surface optimization of spectrophotometric sequential injection analysis of olanzapine formulations

A new spectrophotometric sequential injection analysis (SIA) method for the assay of olanzapine in pharmaceutical formulations was optimized by the factorial design and the response surface approaches. The method was based on the oxidation of olanzapine by an excess amount of permanganate in sulfuric acid media. The reduction of permanganate was spectrophotometrically detected at 570 nm. The 2³ full factorial design was adopted for the optimization of permanganate concentration, sulfuric acid concentration and flow rate. The method was validated based on the IUPAC guidelines. Real pharmaceutical samples were subjected to the proposed SIA method and the results were in satisfactory agreement with those obtained by a previous spectrophotometric method. The full-automation of SIA empowered the proposed method with high repeatability (RSD 1.74%, n = 7) and intermediate-precision (RSD 2.53%, n = 5). Additionally, both automation and miniaturization offered high sampling frequency (26 samples/h). Furthermore, the employment of chemometric optimization enhanced sensitivity of the method with limits of detection and quantification of 1.07 and 3.57 mg/L, respectively. Comparing with previous olanzapine assay methods, which employing conventional analytical techniques, the new SIA method is inexpensive in terms of instrumentation, consumption of reagents and samples as well as effort and manpower. The SIA method is also safer for handling solutions and for the environment.     

Ordered groupoid quotients and congruences on inverse semigroups

We introduce a preorder on an inverse semigroup S associated to any normal inverse subsemigroup N, that lies between the natural partial order and Green’s \({\mathcal {J}}\)–relation. The corresponding equivalence relation \(\simeq _N\) is not necessarily a congruence on S, but the quotient set does inherit a natural ordered groupoid structure. We show that this construction permits the factorisation of any inverse semigroup homomorphism into a composition of a quotient map and a star-injective functor, and that this decomposition implies a classification of congruences on S. We give an application to the congruence and certain normal inverse subsemigroups associate to an inverse monoid presentation.     

Development of a stability-indicating capillary electrophoresis method for norfloxacin and its inactive decarboxylated degradant

A simple, accurate, precise, rapid and sensitive stability-indicating capillary electrophoresis (CE) method was optimized and validated for the simultaneous determination of norfloxacin and its inactive decarboxylated degradant in pharmaceuticals. The univariant method was used to optimize electrophoretic factors including injection time, separation voltage and column temperature. Electrolyte concentration and pH were optimized using the factorial design and response surface methods. The optimum conditions obtained were: 10 mmol l^− 1 phosphate at pH 2.5, hydrodynamic injection time of 8 s at pressure 0.5 p.s.i., separation voltage 25 kV and column temperature 25 °C. The separation was carried out into a fused-silica capillary column (31.2 cm length × 50 μm i.d.) with detection at 301 and 285 nm for the intact drug and the degradant, respectively using a diode array detector. For both analytes, the method enjoys wide dynamic range (1-50 μg ml^− 1) with good detectability (limits of detection 0.11 μg ml^− 1). In addition, acceptable accuracy (recovery > 95%); and good repeatability and intermediate precision (RSD < 3.5%) were obtained.     

Characteristics of the voltammetric behavior of the hydroxide ion oxidation at disordered mesoporous titanium dioxide electrocatalyst

The alkaline water electrochemical splitting reactions need economical, very energetic, and durable catalysts. Here, a disordered mesoporous and highly defected titanium dioxide (dom-TiO₂) electrocatalyst for the oxidation of hydroxide ion was prepared via ligand-assisted evaporation-induced self-assembly. The (dom-TiO₂) electrocatalyst showed significant electrocatalytic performance for the oxidation of hydroxide ion compared to that of non-porous TiO₂ (bare-TiO₂) and highly-ordered hexagonal mesoporous (hm-TiO₂) electrodes. The chemical and electrochemical parameters of the diffusion (D), concentration in the bulk (C_b), the number of transferred electrons (n), rate constant of heterogeneous electron transfer (k_s), redox potential (E°), and homogeneous chemical rate constant (k_c) for the oxidation of hydroxide ion reaction at the porous TiO₂ electrodes were determined via the convolution–deconvolution voltammetry and competed against that of non-porous (bare-TiO₂) and hm-TiO₂ and catalysts. In addition to the effect of dom-TiO₂ film thickness and the type of supporting electrolytes on the electrochemical parameters of the electrocatalytic oxidation of OH^– ions have been estimated. The convolutive–deconvoluted results show that the dom-TiO₂ electrode catalyst exhibits a superior reaction rate constant among the studied electrodes that depend on the film thickness and type of supporting electrolyte.     

Sequential injection chromatography against HPLC and CE: Application to separation and quantification of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid

Sequential injection chromatography (SIC) has been recently proposed as an alternative separation technique. SIC has the advantages of inexpensiveness, rapid operation procedure, small dimension, short stabilization time, friendly maintenance process and less reagent consumption. In contrast, SIC has had suffered from some limitations. In the current study, a higher pressure resistant selection valve with additional ports than that available in commercially SIC systems was installed. This development allows achieving solution propulsion without showing leakage and linking more standard/sample solutions. In addition, a new method for the separation and quantification of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid in pharmaceutical formulations has been optimized and validated. A comparative study on the efficiency of the SIC method with previous HPLC and CE methods was conducted as well. Besides the benefits of the instrumentation of SIC, the proposed method has shown some advantages over previous HPLC and CE methods with respect to reagent consumption and sample frequency. Other such analytical characters of the SIC method as resolution, peak symmetry, number of theoretical plates, linearity range, accuracy, precision and limits of detection and quantification, recorded comparable results with those obtained from previous HPLC and CE methods.     

Developing new method for quantifying pindolol by sequential injection analysis

An inexpensive, rapid, safe and green method for pindolol assay in medicines was developed using sequential injection analysis (SIA) technique. The method was based on the oxidation of pindolol by dichromate in sulfuric acid media. A chromogenic form of pindolol was spectrophotometrically detected at 640 nm. The 3³ full-factorial design approach was applied to optimize acid concentration, pindolol volume and reaction time. The automation of SIA and the optimization process offered satisfactorily selectivity to the method. The recovery of pindolol in the presence of clopamide as a companion drug, besides excipients usually found in tablet formulation, was in the range of 96.5–98.4%. The automation also provided good repeatability, with a relative standard deviation value of 2.2% for seven replicates. Additionally, the miniaturization of SIA rendered the method reagent-saving (the total consumed reagent volumes was 120 μL) and environ-mentally-friendly (the total waste volume was 1320 μL). Furthermore, both the automation and miniaturization offered a rapid procedure (the sample frequency was 22 samples/h). On the other hand, the chemometric optimization improved the detectability of the method with the limits of detection and quantification of 0.57 and 1.9 μg/mL, respectively.     

Enhancement of figure of merit of thermoelectric materials: a new theoretical approach

Thermoelectric materials have attained importance because of the gargantuan energy crisis the world faces today. A thermoelectric material can be used efficiently and frequently, provided, its figure of merit ZT is increased. Also, easy availability, manufacturing, and low cost are the other factors to be considered for a novel thermoelectric material. A theoretical model is proposed in this paper for the enhancement of the figure of merit of thermoelectric materials.     

Combining multivariate analysis and geochemical approaches for assessing heavy metal level in sediments from Sudanese harbors along the Red Sea coast

Multivariate statistical analysis and geochemical approaches were exploited for the assessment of the level of some heavy metals (Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn and Pb) in sediments from Sudanese harbors along the Red Sea coast. Principal component analysis, as a multivariate statistical analysis approach, was applied to identify contribution sources by heavy metals in sediments. While a single source (crustal) was recorded in the bulk sediments and coarse sediment grains (grain-size 1000-500 µm), two sources (crustal and anthropogenic) were recorded in fine sediment grains (grain-size < 500 µm). Furthermore, enrichment factor (EF), as a geochemical approach, appointed polluted sites by heavy metals in the study area. Based upon a previous study addressed the interpretation of EF values, minor to moderate anthropogenic enrichment were recorded in sediments from some sites in the study area. The main anthropogenic activities that believed to be the major sources of pollution by heavy metals in the study area are discharges from oil refinery, industry, shipping activity and domestic waste. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), as another multivariate statistical analysis approach, was applied for the concentrations of heavy metals in bulk sediments to group sediments according to their mineralogical composition. The output of HCA is that sediments from the Port-Sudan harbor can be divided mainly into three areas — east, west and south. For the Sawakin harbor, no apparent trend for the spatial distribution of heavy metals in sediments was recorded.