Sensitive CE-MS method for monitoring of riociguat and desmethylriociguat levels in human serum

Riociguat is novel antihypertensive drug for treatment of pulmonary hypertension. As such, it is still being tested in many clinical and pharmacokinetic trials. Existing methods that determine serum riociguat and desmethylriociguat (DMR) are based solely on liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. Therefore, we present a novel capillary electrophoresis with mass spectrometry method (CE-MS) for their determination in human serum as alternative method for ongoing trials. Complete resolution of both analytes was achieved by means of pH optimization of ammonium formate background electrolytes that are fully compatible with ESI/MS detection. Simple liquid-liquid extraction was used as sample pretreatment. The calibration dependence of the method was linear (in the range of 10–1000 ng/mL), with adequate accuracy (90.1–114.9%) and precision (13.4%). LOD and LOQ were arbitrarily set at 10 ng/mL for both analytes. Clinical applicability was validated using serum samples from patients treated with riociguat in pharmacokinetic study and the results corresponded with reference HPLC-MS/MS values. Capillary electrophoresis proved to be sensitive and selective tool for the analysis of riociguat and DMR.     

Infrared picosecond absorption spectroscopy of microcrystalline silicon: separation between carrier recombination in crystalline and amorphous fractions

We have studied ultra-fast carrier dynamics of photo-excited carriers in hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon prepared by a very high frequency glow-discharge technique. We report on direct observation of two types of dynamics using selective photo-excitation in picosecond pump and probe measurements. One type of the observed dynamics has been found to be independent of the sample preparation, while the other reflects the relative weights of crystalline and amorphous fractions. We propose a simple rate-equation model that describes the carrier dynamics in microcrystalline silicon in terms of the composition of those in Si microcrystallites and in the a-Si:H tissue which surrounds the microcrystallites. The model without any fitting parameters reproduces the experimental data very well when the dynamics are scaled with relative volume fractions as obtained from Raman spectra. Received: 23 November 2000 / Accepted: 17 March 2001 / Published online: 23 May 2001     

Ultraslow phonon-assisted collapse of tubular image states

We predict ultraslow collapse of “tubular image states” (TIS) on material surfaces. TIS are bound Rydberg-like electronic states formed at large distances (∼30 nm) from the surfaces of suspended circularly-symmetric nanowires, such as metallic C nanotubes. The states are formed in potential wells, resulting from a combination of the TIS-electron attraction to image charges in the nanotube and its centrifugal repulsion, caused by spinning around the tube. We demonstrate that TIS can collapse on the tube surface by passing their angular momentum l to circularly polarized flexural phonons excited in the tube. Our analysis shows that for highly detached TIS with l ? 6 the relaxation lifetimes are of the order of 10 ns-1 μs, while for l < 6 these lifetimes are reduced by several orders of magnitude.     

Fast electrons generation by RF and random fields near the antenna I. One dimensional model and regular fields

Test particle motion and acceleration has been explored in strong radio frequency (RF) fields, for which quasilinear ponderomotive force approximation is not valid. By nonlinear acceleration in spatially varying wave amplitude of RF travelling wave, electrons may be accelerated to time averaged velocities significantly larger than the RF wave phase velocity, and than the boundary plasma thermal velocity, in RF fields of several Volts per centimeter at wave frequency of 7 MHz. It is also demonstrated that even weak spatial gradients, much weaker than those expected in experiments, of the RF wave field amplitude, have significant consequences for the particle motion. Estimates are presented of the total energy transferred from the near antenna RF field to the plasma due to the nonlinear electron acceleration effects.     

Commutative idempotent residuated lattices

We investigate the variety of residuated lattices with a commutative and idempotent monoid reduct.     

Glycosyl azide—a novel substrate for enzymatic transglycosylations

Glycosyl azides are new efficient donors for glycosidases. Their high water solubility facilitates transglycosylations with comparable or better yields than common O-glycosides. The azido group totally changes the β-GalNAc-ase/β-GlcNAc-ase ratio in β-N-acetylhexosaminidases (from the usual 0.3-1.0 to <0.01), contrary to all known aglycons.     

A Simple Bi-directional Mode Expansion Propagation Algorithm Based on Modes of a Parallel-plate Waveguide

The bi-directional mode expansion propagation algorithm (BEP) is known to be an accurate and efficient method for modelling field distribution in high-index contrast waveguide structures with strong back-reflections like Bragg gratings and photonic crystals. The main difficulty of this method is that for lossy structures, the propagation constants of modes are to be searched in the complex plane. To speed-up this procedure, a two-step algorithm for eigenmode calculation based on the expansion into the modes of an empty metallic waveguide has recently been proposed. Proper truncation rules possessing good convergence of the expansion method for both TE and TM modes have also been recently published. In this contribution, both these approaches are combined in the development of an extremely simple version of the two-dimensional BEP method that makes use of the field expansion into the eigenmodes of a parallel-plate waveguide. The method is strictly reciprocal and appeared to be computationally reliable also for strongly lossy structures. High numerical stability is ensured using the scattering matrix formalism, and an efficient method of calculating Bloch modes for symmetric as well as asymmetric periodic waveguide structures is adopted. A wide range of applicability of the method is demonstrated by a few examples.     

JET: Preparing the future in fusion

JET (Joint European Torus) is the largest tokamak in the world and the only fusion facility able to operate with Tritium, the fusion fuel, and Beryllium, the ITER first wall material. JET also features the most complete remote handling equipment for invessel maintenance. As a multinational research center, JET provides logistic experience in preparing for operation of the global facility, tokamak ITER.Experiments on JET are focused on ITER-relevant studies, in particular on detailing the operational scenarios (EL My H-modes and advanced regimes), on enhancing the heating systems, on developing diagnostics for burning plasmas etc. Pioneering real-time control techniques have been implemented that maximize performance and minimize internal disturbances of JET plasmas. In helium plasmas, ion cyclotron heating (ICRH) created fast α-particles, mimicking their populations in future burning plasmas. The recent successful Trace Tritium campaign provided important new data on fuel transport. Current enhancements on JET include a new ITER-like ELM-resilient high power ICRH antenna (7 MW) and over twenty new diagnostics that will further extend the JET scientific capabilities and push the facility even closer to the ITER parameters.A special mention is given to the involvement of the fusion experts from Association EURATOM-IPP.CR, who have been actively participating in the collective use of JET facility for more than three years.