Interference of Transformer oil Matrices to the Internal Standards on PCB Quantification

Abstract

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are toxic, perssstent, global environmental contaminants which were formulated as complex mixtures of congeners. Many methods have been developed in the past to analyze PCB in transformer oil samples for regulatory purposes. The most important consideration in the cleanup procedure is the ability to remove the oil from the sample matrix, since trace amount of oil will interfere with the subsequent GC-MS analysis. Electron capture detection (ECD) has been the most common method for gas chromatographic analysis of PCBs because of its high sensitivity toward halogenated compounds. ECD can also respond to some non-PCB compound resulting in biased concentrations of PCB. In this work, a two-stage cleanup method, using DMSO liquid/liquid extraction and HPLC column chromatography. has been applied to two types of transformer oil. Five internal standards have been selected to show their performance in the presence of different oil matrices. The comparison of the PCB quantification at different conditions for GC-MS and GC-ECD will be demonstrated.     

Non-collinear efficient continuous optical frequency doubling in periodically poled lithium niobate

Non-collinear continuous frequency doubling with relatively high conversion efficiency is demonstrated in periodically-poled lithium niobate. It is shown that about 80% of the total second harmonic energy can be collected to one output channel by tuning incident angle. The fractional phase-matching condition is introduced to interpret the phenomenon. These results make it possible for direct power applications of continuous frequency doubling over the broad spectral range from the visible to the infrared without temperature or angle tuning.     

Quantification of Intact and Truncated Stromal Cell-Derived Factor-1α in Circulation by Immunoaffinity Enrichment and Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Stromal cell-derived factor 1α (SDF-1α) or CXCL12 is a small pro-inflammatory chemoattractant cytokine and a substrate of dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV). Proteolytic cleavage by DPP-IV inactivates SDF-1α and attenuates its interaction with CXCR4, its cell surface receptor. To enable investigation of suppression of such inactivation with pharmacologic inhibition of DPP-IV, we developed quantitative mass spectrometric methods that differentiate intact SDF-1α from its inactive form. Using top-down strategy in quantification, we demonstrated the unique advantage of keeping SDF-1α’s two disulfide bridges intact in the analysis. To achieve the optimal sensitivity required for quantification of intact and truncated SDF-1α at endogenous levels in blood, we coupled nano-flow tandem mass spectrometry with antibody-based affinity enrichment. The assay has a quantitative range of 20 pmol/L to 20 nmol/L in human plasma as well as in rhesus monkey plasma. With only slight modification, the same assay can be used to quantify SDF-1α in mice. Using two in vivo animal studies as examples, we demonstrated that it was critical to differentiate intact SDF-1α from its truncated form in the analysis of biomarkers for pharmacologic inhibition of DPP-IV activity. These novel methods enable translational research on suppression of SDF-1 inactivation with DPP-IV inhibition and can be applied to relevant clinical samples in the future to yield new insights on change of SDF-1α levels in disease settings and in response to therapeutic interventions.

5种贝类脂肪含量及脂肪酸组成研究

 用氯仿 甲醇法测定了广州海鲜市场上棕带仙女蛤、波纹巴非蛤、文蛤、栉孔扇贝和园华扇贝等 5种贝类的脂肪含量 ,并用GC MS法测定了它们的脂肪酸组成。 5种贝类鉴定出的脂肪酸都在 99% (质量分数 )以上。它们的脂肪含量都大于 1% (质量分数 ) ,园华扇贝的脂肪含量最高。它们的ω 3多不饱和脂肪酸与ω 6多不饱和脂肪酸含量的比值基本上都大于 2。两种扇贝的廿碳五烯酸 (EPA)和廿二碳六烯酸 (DHA)含量都比较高。分析结果表明 ,园华扇贝不仅脂肪含量高 ,而且EPA与DHA的含量也比较高 ,是EPA和DHA理想的提取原料     

一种改进的基于信息传播率的复杂网络影响力评估算法

评价网络中节点的信息传播影响力对于理解网络结构与网络功能具有重要意义.目前,许多基于最短路径的指标,如接近中心性、介数中心性以及半局部(SP)指标等相继用于评价节点传播影响力.最短路径表示节点间信息传播途径始终选择最优方式,然而实际上网络间的信息传播过程更类似于随机游走,信息的传播途径可以是节点间的任一可达路径,在集聚系数高的网络中,节点的局部高聚簇性有利于信息的有效扩散,若只考虑信息按最优传播方式即最短路径传播,则会低估节点信息传播的能力,从而降低节点影响力的排序精度.综合考虑节点与三步内邻居间的有效可达路径以及信息传播率,提出了一种SP指标的改进算法,即ASP算法.在多个经典的实际网络和人工网络上利用SIR模型对传播过程进行仿真,结果表明ASP指标与度指标、核数指标、接近中心性指标、介数中心性指标以及SP指标相比,可以更精确地对节点传播影响力进行排序.     

退火时间对MgB_2超导薄膜的影响

在多晶A l2O3衬底上,以B2H6作为硼源,化学气相沉积先驱B薄膜,采用Mg扩散方法,在不同退火时间条件下制备了MgB2超导薄膜。通过电阻-温度曲线测量、X射线衍射分析和扫描电子显微镜形貌观测方法,研究了退火时间对MgB2薄膜的超导特性、晶体结构、表面形貌的影响。     

High-performance liquid chromatographic separation of imidazolinone herbicide enantiomers and their methyl derivatives on polysaccharide-coated chiral stationary phases

Many chiral pesticides exhibit enantioselectivity in biotransformation and ecotoxicity in the environment. A significant class of chiral pesticides is imidazolinone herbicides, of which enantioselectivity has not been well studied. Development of efficient chiral separation methods is the first step for allowing characterization of enantioselectivity in environmental processes. In this study, we attempted to resolve enantiomers of imidazolinone herbicides using reversed-phase and normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with polysaccharide-type chiral columns. Enantiomers of imazethapyr, imazaquin, and imazamox were separated on a Chiralcel OD-R column using 50mM phosphate buffer-acetonitrile as mobile phase. Enantiomers of imazapyr, imazapic, imazethapyr, imazamox and imazaquin were resolved on a Chiralcel OJ column using n-hexane (0.1% trifluoroacetic acid)-alcohol as mobile phase. The enantiomers of five methyl derivatives of imidazolinone herbicides were also resolved on the Chiralcel OJ column. The Deltak' values revealed a structure-enantioselectivity relationship for the separation behaviors of the enantiomers on the OJ column. The described method was successfully applied for chiral analysis of two imidazolinone herbicides (imazapyr and imazaquin) in spiked soil samples.     

Rapid computation of intermolecular interactions in molecular and ionic clusters: self-consistent polarization plus symmetry-adapted perturbation theory

A method that we have recently introduced for rapid computation of intermolecular interaction energies is reformulated and subjected to further tests. The method employs monomer-based self-consistent field calculations with an electrostatic embedding designed to capture many-body polarization (the "XPol" procedure), augmented by pairwise symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) to capture dispersion and exchange interactions along with any remaining induction effects. A rigorous derivation of the XPol+SAPT methodology is presented here, which demonstrates that the method is systematically improvable, and moreover introduces some additional intermolecular interactions as compared to the more heuristic derivation that was presented previously. Applications to various non-covalent complexes and clusters are presented, including geometry optimizations and one-dimensional potential energy scans. The performance of the XPol+SAPT methodology in its present form (based on second-order intermolecular perturbation theory and neglecting intramolecular electron correlation) is qualitatively acceptable across a wide variety of systems-and quantitatively quite good in certain cases-but the quality of the results is rather sensitive to the choice of one-particle basis set. Basis sets that work well for dispersion-bound systems offer less-than-optimal performance for clusters dominated by induction and electrostatic interactions, and vice versa. A compromise basis set is identified that affords good results for both induction and dispersion interactions, although this favorable performance ultimately relies on error cancellation, as in traditional low-order SAPT. Suggestions for future improvements to the methodology are discussed.     

Elastin-calmodulin scaffold for protein microarray fabrication

In this work, we report a new method to reversibly immobilize proteins to a surface in a functionally active orientation directly from cell lysate by employing a fusion protein consisting of a thermal-responsive elastin (ELP) domain as the surface anchor and a calcium-responsive calmodulin (CalM) domain for protein capturing. Incorporation of an M13 tag into recombinant proteins enables not only easy surface immobilization but also direct purification from cell lysates. The feasibility of concept was demonstrated using the M13-tagged yellow fluorescent protein (M13-YFP). The ELP-CalM functionalized surfaces were shown to capture M13-YFP directly from cell lysate through the specific calmodulin-M13 association in a calcium-dependent manner. We also demonstrated that immobilization is reversible; the bound proteins were released from the surface in the presence of EDTA.