An analysis of avidin, biotin and their interaction at attomole levels by voltammetric and chromatographic techniques

The electroanalytical determination of avidin in solution, in a carbon paste, and in a transgenic maize extract was performed in acidic medium at a carbon paste electrode (CPE). The oxidative voltammetric signal resulting from the presence of tyrosine and tryptophan in avidin was observed using square-wave voltammetry. The process could be used to determine avidin concentrations up to 3 fM (100 amol in 3 l drop) in solution, 700 fM (174 fmol in 250 l solution) in an avidin-modified electrode, and 174 nM in a maize seed extract. In the case of the avidin-modified CPE, several parameters were studied in order to optimize the measurements, such as electrode accumulation time, composition of the avidin-modified CPE, and the elution time of avidin. In addition, the avidin-modified electrode was used to detect biotin in solution (the detection limit was 7.6 pmol in a 6 l drop) and to detect biotin in a pharmaceutical drug after various solvent extraction procedures. Comparable studies for the detection of biotin were developed using HPLC with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) and flow injection analysis with electrochemical detection, which allowed biotin to be detected at levels as low as 614 pM and 6.6 nM, respectively. The effects of applied potential, acetonitrile content, and flow rate of the mobile phase on the FIA-ED signal were also studied.     

Infinite ladder‐like chains organized into a three‐dimensional zigzag supramolecular architecture in 9‐deazahypoxanthine

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C₆H₅N₃O, consists of discrete molecules of 9‐deazahypoxanthine [systematic name: 3H‐pyrrolo[3,2‐d]pyrimidin‐4(5H)‐one]. The structure displays N—H...O hydrogen bonding, connecting the molecules into centrosymmetric dimers. These dimers are then connected by N—H...N hydrogen bonds into a ladder‐like chain along the c axis. The secondary structure is stabilized by weak noncovalent contacts of the C—H...O and C—H...C types, as well as by π–π stacking interactions, which organize the structure into a zigzag architecture.     

Monitoring of amoxicilline and ceftazidime in the microdialysate of diabetic foot and serum by capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection

Determination of the broad-spectrum antibiotics amoxicilline (AMX) and ceftazidime (CTZ) in blood serum and microdialysates of the subcutaneous tissue of the lower limbs is performed using CE with contactless conductivity detection (C⁴D). Baseline separation of AMX is achieved in 0.5 M acetic acid as the background electrolyte and separation of CTZ in 3.2 M acetic acid with addition of 13% v/v methanol. The CE-C⁴D determination is performed in a 25 µm capillary with suppression of the EOF using INST-coating on an effective length of 18 cm and the attained migration time is 4.2 min for AMX and 4.4 min for CTZ. The analysis was performed using 20 µl of serum and 15 µl of microdialysate, treated by the addition of acetonitrile in a ratio of 1/3 v/v and the sample is injected into the capillary using the large volume sample stacking technique. The LOQ attained in the microdialysate is 148 ng/ml for AMX and 339 ng/ml for CTZ, and in serum 143 ng/ml for AMX and 318 ng/ml for CTZ. The CE-C⁴D method is employed for monitoring the passage of AMX and CTZ from the blood circulatory system into the subcutaneous tissue at the sites of diabetic ulceration in patients suffering from diabetic foot syndrome and also for measuring the pharmacokinetics following intravenous application of bolus antibiotic doses.     

On binary self-dual codes of lengths 60, 62, 64 and 66 having an automorphism of order 9

A method for constructing binary self-dual codes having an automorphism of order p ² for an odd prime p is presented in (S. Bouyuklieva et al. IEEE. Trans. Inform. Theory, 51, 3678–3686, 2005). Using this method, we investigate the optimal self-dual codes of lengths 60 ≤ n ≤ 66 having an automorphism of order 9 with six 9-cycles, t cycles of length 3 and f fixed points. We classify all self-dual [60,30,12] and [62,31,12] codes possessing such an automorphism, and we construct many doubly-even [64,32,12] and singly-even [66,33,12] codes. Some of the constructed codes of lengths 62 and 66 are with weight enumerators for which the existence of codes was not known until now.      

Finite-sample density and its small sample asymptotic approximation

To derive the exact density of a statistic, which can be intractable, is sometimes a difficult problem. The exact densities of estimates of the shift or regression parameters can be derived with the aid of score functions. Moreover, extremely accurate approximations can be obtained by the small sample asymptotics, based on the saddlepoint method. It is of interest to compare these two approaches, at least for small samples. We numerically compare the exact densities of estimates of the shift parameter with their small sample approximations for various parent distributions of the data. For some distributions both methods are in surprising concordance even under very small samples.