Determination of total,and bound Se in sera by INAA

In this study we report on the comparison between the total selenium in serum (total Se) with that which is apparently bound to high molecular weight (>12,000 D) species, presumably proteins (bound Se). Nine hundred seventy seven (977) serum samples arising out of a population-based epidemiological study were prepared in duplicate for the determination of total Se by pipeting directly into irradiation vials; and separate duplicate aliquots were dialyzed against DI water for the determination of bound Se. All samples were analyzed by neutron activation analysis via^77mSe (17.4 s). A small dialyzable Se component (6%) (free Se), defined as the difference between the total Se minus the bound Se, was identified.     

Beiträge zur Chemie der Pyrrolpigmente, 72. Mitt.

A strategy for the synthesis of bilatrienes-abc bridged between rings A and C has been developed and tested in case of a bibenzylethane bridging fragment. This strategy was then applied to the synthesis of a 2,3-dihydrobilatriene-abc bridged by a (S)-lysine moiety from ring A to ring C (positions 3 and 12) by means of peptide bonds between the two amino groups of lysine and the acetic and propionic acid side chains of the chromophoric unit. The two diastereomers resulting from the two chiral centers of the lysine residue and at position 3 of the chromophore were separated by chromatography.

     

On the recognition of structural features: Some general problems illustrated by hamiltonian paths in polyhexes

Human and machine recognition skills are discussed, though not comprehensively reviewed, and some of the difficulties are illustrated by algorithms written to search for Hamiltonian paths in polyhexes. The most successful strategy for this is based upon the branching graph, a recently introduced graph-theoretical device which can aid the recognition of edges that arenot part of a Hamiltonian path. Another, more widely applicable approach that is interesting, although in this preliminary form only a little better than random methods, uses the metaphor of biological evolution, and tries to breed and grow paths subjected to natural selection.     

Philosophical aspects of chemometrical strategy in Analytical Chemistry

Summary This paper discusses the philosophical aspects of the three main chemometrical strategies in analytical chemistry: statistical data treatment, optimization and modelling, pattern recognition. It is possible by a more general consideration of these approaches to find a proper place of different philosophical categories such as form and content, induction and deduction, concrete and general in analytical chemistry. The philosophical aspect of the considerations allows a deeper penetration into the theoretical basis of chemical analysis.

---

Philosophische Betrachtungen zu chemometrischen Strategien in der Analytischen Chemie

---

Presented at the First International Symposium on History and Philosophy in Analytical Chemistry, Vienna, November 22–23, 1985     

Interplay of Thermochemistry and Structural Chemistry,the Journal (Volume 13, 2002) and the Discipline

As practiced disciplines, structural chemistry and thermochemistry need not be related. In the current study they are: the contents of the journal Structural Chemistry (Vol. 13) for the year 2002 have been reviewed and then most articles that appeared therein were given a thermochemical commentary, spin or slant.     

Epithermal neutron flux characterization of the TRIGA MARK II reactor,Ljubljana, Yugoslavia,for use in NAA

The nonideality of the epithermal neutron flux distribution at a reactor site can be described by a 1/E¹⁺ spectrum representation, with parameter being a measure of the nonideality. -values were determined in 3 typical irradiation positions of the TRIGA MARK II reactor of the Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, using the Cd-ratio for multi-monitor method. The simpler Cd-ratio for dual monitor method (monitors:¹⁹⁷Au–⁹⁴Zr) also yielded reliable results. This characterisation is of use in the k₀-method of NAA, which is recently introduced at the Institute.     

Multivariate Statistical Assessment of Air Quality: A Case Study

The present paper deals with the application of several chemometrical methods (cluster and principal components analysis, source apportioning on absolute principal components scores) to an aerosol data collection from Unterloibach, Austria. It is shown that seven latent factors explaining almost 80% of the total variance are responsible for the data structure and are conditionally identified as secondary aerosol, mineral dust, oil burning, lead smelter, coal burning, salt and fertilizer emission sources. Furthermore, the contribution of each identified source to the formation of the particle total mass and chemical compounds total concentration is calculated. Thus, a reliable assessment of the air quality in the region is performed. The requirements of the sustainability concept for ecological indicators in this case is easily transformed into a multivariate statistical problem taking into account not separate indicators but the specific multivariate nature of aerosol pollution.     

Chemical algebra. II: Discriminating pairing products

The algebra of stereogenic pairing equlibria is presented in a very general context. Starting from the notions of fuzzy subgroup and conjugacy link, chemical pairing constants between molecular speciesu andv having a skeletal symmetry groupG are formulated as pairing products on aG-Hilbert space. Discriminating pairing productsK are defined by the conditions: K 1 and K = 1 the representative vectors of the paired species areG-equivalent. WhenG has only two elements, the pairing product is always discriminating. For several skeletal symmetries, if the vectors are enantiomorphic (v = u, ² =e, G), thenK is greater than 1 and reaches 1 only ifu is achiral: chirality indexes and general permutational indexes are then defined fromK(u u). The general model is illustrated by some examples.     

Electrochemical dissolution of magnetite in acid solutions

The present paper deals with the electrochemical behavior of magnetite microcrystals in an acid medium. A voltammetric method employing a carbon-paste electroactive electrode (CPEE) with an organic binder was used. It was found that the cathodic voltammograms, which were recorded at different scan rates, formed a set bounded in the space of i–E parameters by a generalizing voltammetric curve corresponding to the effective potential scan rate _eff. In other words, all curves are situated under one enveloping curve, just as the smaller dolls sit in the largest doll of a Russian doll. Reverse currents (a cathodic current in the anodic direction of the potential scan) were observed on the cyclic voltammogram. Forward and reverse currents obey the same laws and have one and the same generalizing curve, which could be taken as the magnetite characteristic.     

Von den unabhängigen Reaktionen

Zusammenfassung Es wird der Begriff derunabhängigen Reaktionen dargelegt, die chemische und mathematische Methode der Ermittlung dieser Reaktionen dargetan und auf ihre Bedeutung verwiesen.     

The structures of macrocyclic heterocyclophane inclusion complexes

Crystal and molecular structures of (1:1) molecular complexes of N,N,N,N-tetramethyl-2, 11, 20, 29-tetraaza [3.3.3.3] paracyclophane (1) with CHCl₃, CH₂Cl₂, CH₃CN and CO₂ are reported. The macrocycle has square-box structure, giving hydrophobic cavity surrounded by four benzene rings. The guest molecules are included in the cavity. The uncomplexed1 was found to have a rectangular form, indicating large conformational flexibility of1. In solution,1 is achiral because rapid RS interconversion, but in solid, the macrocyclic conformation is frozen as R-conformer or S-conformer. The macrocycles with the same chirality are stacked alongb-axis to form chiral molecular columns, R-colums or S-columns. Complexes of1 crystallize differently depending on the guest molecules. R-columns (S-columns) packed alonga-axis produce R-layers (S-layers), which are further packed alongc-axis using R-layer to R-layer contact (RR) or SS and RS or SR. The crystals of1·CHCl₃ are formulated as--RRR--=[R]_n (Type I, chiral) and those of1·CH₃CN or1·CO₂ and1·CH₂Cl₂ are represented by [RS]_n (Type IIA, racemic) and [RRSS]_n (Type IIB, racemic), respectively.     

Nuclear repulsion effects in molecular bonding

Potential energy curves of a single electron moving in the joint Coulomb field of two fixed nuclei of equal arbitrary charge, Z, have been calculated exactly using a scaling relationship derived in an earlier paper. The resulting potential curves display some interesting features. For Z<1 the 2p antibonding orbital becomes bonding, while the 1s potential well becomes deeper. For larger Z, the 1s orbital eventually becomes antibonding but the potential curve passes through a number of distinct intermediate stages before a purely repulsive potential is reached.     

Natural flavours of wine: correlation between instrumental analysis and sensory perception

Summary The aroma of wine consists of 600 to 800 aroma compounds from which especially those, typical for the variety, are already present in the grapes. The aroma extracts — received by extraction with trichlorofluoromethane — are separated by gas chromatography. There are significant varietal differences between the aromagrams (fingerprint pattern). Thus the amount of some flavour compounds (key substances) shows typical dependence on the variety. Especially monoterpene compounds play an important role in the differentiation of wine varieties.The German white wines can be differentiated into three groups only by quantitative determination of 12 monoterpenes (terpene profile). These groups are: Riesling type, Muscat type and Silvaner-Weißburgunder type. Such terpene profiles are also useful for the separation of real Riesling wines from others called Riesling (e.g. Welschriesling, Kap Riesling, Emerald Riesling) but not produced from grapes of the variety Riesling. Including further components and by means of statistical methods as for example linear discriminant analysis even the different varieties within the mentioned groups (for instance the Riesling-group: Riesling, Kerner, Ehrenfelser, Bacchus, Müller-Thurgau) can be separated from each other.To identify compounds causing off-flavours the sniffing technique is the method of choice. The off-flavour is pinpointed during gas chromatography separation of the complex aroma mixture by effluent sniffing. Once allocated, the chemical nature of the off-flavours is elucidated by spectroscopic methods. Substances contributing to the green pepper taint, the strawberry note, mousiness, corkiness etc. in wine could be found in this way.     

Preliminary phantom measurements for in vivo activation analysis of calcium in the human forearm

Preliminary phantom measurements were carried out for regional determination of calcium in the human forearm. Two paraffine phantoms /large and small/ were activated, either in the free space or surrounded by paraffine plates, by a²⁵²Cf neutron source. Differences between neutron flux densities in positions of the ulna and radius are discussed.     

Synthesis of micron-sized, monodisperse polymer particles of disc-like and polyhedral shapes by seeded dispersion polymerization

Micron-sized, monodisperse polymer particles having unique disc-like and polyhedral shapes were produced by seeded dispersion polymerization of various methacrylates with 1.57 m-sized polystyrene seed particles in the presence of saturated hydrocarbon droplets in methanol/water. Such nonspherical shapes were controllable by the polymerization conditions.Part CCLX of the series Studies on Suspension and Emulsion     

Determination of polychlorobiphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the atmospheric aerosol of the Venice Lagoon

An analytical method for simultaneous determination of particle-associated and gaseous-phase concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in atmospheric aerosol samples obtained by high-volume samplers using polyurethane foam adsorbent (PUF) and quartz fibber filters (QFF) has been investigated. Quality control of the analytical procedure was carried out by blank control and by evaluating limits of detection, recoveries, accuracy, and repeatability. The proposed method was subsequently used to determine PAH and PCB in the gaseous and particulate phases of the aerosols that enter the Venice Lagoon atmosphere. The highest concentrations of PCB and PAH were predominantly in the gaseous phase. In both particulate and gaseous phases the penta-CB congeners dominated total PCB concentrations whereas phenanthrene, fluoranthene, and pyrene dominated the PAH concentrations. Total (gaseous plus particulate) PCB and PAH concentrations were higher at the site directly influenced by the industrial plants but the concentrations in marine aerosol samples were lower by a factor four only and must be taken into consideration when studying the chemical contamination of the Venice Lagoon.     

Tautomerism and stereochemistry of isohypericin,bromohypericines, and gymnochromes: Force field investigations

Summary Using an MM2 derived force field the stereochemistry and tautomerism of isohypericin and several bromohypericines, including gymnochrome D and isogymnochrome D, were investigated. The geometries of the propeller and double butterfly conformers of isohypericin were similar to those of hypericin. However, an interconversion barrier between the enantiomeric propeller conformers was found, which was 53 kJ/mol lower in isohypericin. From the ten tautomers of isohypericin the 7,14-dioxo tautomer was calculated to be the most stable one by about 50 kJ/mol. In the bromo derivatives and the gymnochromes the bromine substituents caused a ruffling of the biaryl fragments. The buttressing effect of the bromine led to an enhancement of the interconversion barriers between enantiomeric conformers. The double butterfly conformer was found to be more stable than the propeller conformer for tetrabromohypericin and the gymnochromes.

---

Tautomerie und Stereochemie von Isohypericin und Bromhypericinen: Untersuchungen mit Hilfe der Kraftfeld-Methodik

Zusammenfassung Die Stereochemie von Isohypericin und einiger Bromhypericine sowie von Gymnochrom D und Isogymnochrom D wurden mit Hilfe eines von MM2 abgeleiteten Kraftfeldes untersucht. Die Geometrien der Propeller- und Doppelschmetterlings-Konformeren sind vergleichbar mit jenen des Hypericins. Die Interkonversionsbarriere zwischen den enantiomeren Propeller-Konformeren ist jedoch um etwa 53 kJ/mol niederer als im Hypericin. Von den zehn Isohypericin-Tautomeren ist das 7,14-Dioxotautomere das um etwa 50kJ/mol stabilste. In den Bromderivaten und den Gymnochromen bewirken die Bromsubstituenten eine Wellung der Biarylfragmente, wobei der Buttressing-Effekt der Bromsubstituenten zu einer Erhöhung der Interkonversionsbarrieren zwischen enantiomeren Konformeren führt. Das Doppelschmetterlings-Konformere ist beim Tetrabromhypericin und bei den Gymnochromen stabiler als das Propeller-Konformere.

     

Theoretical am1 studies of inclusion complexes of α- and β-cyclodextrins with methylated benzoic acids and phenol,and γ-cyclodextrin with buckminsterfullerene

Semiempirical AM1 calculations have been performed on the inclusion complexes of - and -cyclodextrin with benzoic acid and phenol and -cyclodextrin with methylated benzoic acids in the head first and tail first positions. The results show that -cyclodextrin complexes with phenol and benzoic acid guests in the head first position are more stable than in the tail first position, while -cyclodextrin complexes with the same guests prefer the tail first position. The preferred orientation for -cyclodextrin with methylated benzoic acids is determined by the position of the methyl substituent(s). In general, para-methyl benzoic acid derivatives prefer the tail first position. -cyclodextrin forms a slightly unstable 1:1 complex with C₆₀ (3.4 kcal/mol), but two -cyclodextrins provide enough stabilization by about 10 kcal/mol to cage-in the C₆₀.     

Der o-Effekt in den Massenspektren aromatischer Verbindungen

Zusammenfassung Das Massenspektrum des O-Äthylsalicylsäureamides VII b ist von dem seiner m- und p-isomeren Verbindung völlig verschieden und zeigt einen typischen massenspektrometrischen o-Effekt.Die bisher aufgefundenen Verbindungen mit massenspektro-metrischem o-Effekt gehören einem relativ kleinen Kreis von Aromaten mit ganz bestimmten Strukturmerkmalen an. Die Bildung der für den o-Effekt charakteristischen Bruchstücke kann in allen diesen Fällen nach einem vonMcLafferty aufgestellten Mechanismus zwanglos erklärt werden. Verbindung VIIb hätte unter der Voraussetzung, daß eine Entstehung der für den o-Effekt typischen Fragmente nur nach diesem Mechanismus möglich ist, keinen o-Effekt zeigen dürfen.Das Auftreten des o-Effektes im Massenspektrum von VIIb läßt erkennen, daß die Bedingung zur Bildung der für den o-Effekt charakteristischen Bruchstücke lediglich in der Möglichkeit zur Ausbildung stabiler Spaltprodukte zu suchen ist, und daß daher weit mehr Verbindungen einen o-Effekt zeigen sollten als bisher anzunehmen war.Mit 1 Abbildung     

Interplay of Thermochemistry and Structural Chemistry, the Journal and the Discipline, Part 2: Volume 12, 2001

As practiced disciplines, structural chemistry and thermochemistry need not be related. In the current study they are: the entire contents of the journal Structural Chemistry (Vol. 12) for the year 2001 has been reviewed and then each and every article that appeared therein was given a thermochemical commentary, spin or slant.