Personal Sun Exposure and Serum 25‐hydroxy Vitamin D Concentrations

Solar ultraviolet‐B radiation (UVB) is essential for epidermal vitamin D production. We aimed to quantitate the relationship between personal solar UV exposure and serum 25hydroxy vitamin D (25[OH]D) concentration. Blood was collected for 25(OH)D analysis in 207 South Australian adults aged 27–61 years. At the time of blood collection, each participant completed a questionnaire, which included a calendar for recall of sun exposure in the preceding 16 weeks. We examined the association between solar UV exposure and serum 25(OH)D graphically from smoothed scatter plots, and modeled it using multiple linear regression, with age, sex and body mass index as covariates. Estimated erythemal solar UV exposure in the 6 weeks before blood collection best predicted serum 25(OH)D concentrations. Serum 25(OH)D rose with increasing personal solar UV exposure to a maximum of about 89 nmol L^?1 at an estimated mean weekly solar erythemal UV exposure of about 1230 mJ cm^?2. The maximum was the same after accounting for clothing coverage and was reached at an estimated whole body equivalent exposure to ambient UV of ca 700 mJ cm^?2. These results suggest that an average maximum serum 25(OH)D of ca 89 nmol L^?1 is achieved from sun exposure in a healthy Australian adult population.     

S‐Alkylation of Soft Scorpionates

The alkylation reactions of soft scorpionates are reported. The hydrotris(S‐alkyl‐methimazolyl)borate dications (alkyl=methyl, allyl, benzyl), which were prepared by the reaction of Tm^Me anion and primary alkyl halides, have been isolated and structurally characterised. The reaction is, however, not universally successful. DFT analysis of these alkylation reactions (C?S versus B? H alkylation) indicates that the observed outcome is driven by kinetic factors. Extending the study to incorporate alternative imine thiones (mercaptobenzothiazole, bz; thiazoline, tz) led to the structural characterisation of di[aquo‐μ‐aquohydrotris(mercaptobenzothiazolyl)boratosodium], which contains sodium atoms in the κ³‐S,S,S coordination mode. Alkylation of Na[Tbz] and Na[tzTtz] leads to decomposition resulting in the formation of the simple S‐alkylated heterocycles. The analysis of the species involved in these reactions shows an inherent weakness in the B? N bond in soft scorpionates, which has implications for their use in more advanced chemistry.     

Development and evaluation of gas and liquid chromatographic methods for the analysis of fatty amines

In contrast to the plethora of publications on the separation of fatty acids, analogous studies involving fatty amines are scarce. A recently introduced ionic‐liquid‐based capillary column for GC was used to separate trifluoroacetylated fatty amines focusing on the analysis of a commercial sample. Using the ionic liquid column (isothermal mode at 200°C) it was possible to separate linear primary fatty amines from C₁₂ to C₂₂ chain length in less 25 min with MS identification. The log of the amine retention factors are linearly related to the alkyl chain length with a methylene selectivity of 0.117 kcal/mol for the saturated amines and 0.128 kcal/mol for the mono‐unsaturated amines. The sp² selectivity for unsaturated fatty amines also could be calculated as 0.107 kcal/mol for the ionic liquid column. The commercial sample was quantified by GC with flame ionization detection (FID). An LC method also was developed with a reversed phase gradient separation using acetonitrile/formate buffer mobile phases and ESI‐MS detection. Native amines could be detected and identified by their single ion monitoring chromatograms even when partial coelution was observed. The analysis of the commercial sample returned results coherent with those obtained by GC–FID and with the manufacturer's data.     

Spectroscopic investigations (FTIR,UV-VIS,NMR) and DFT calculations on the molecular structure of Nω-Nitro-L-arginine

The spectroscopic properties of N_ω-nitro-l-arginine were investigated by FT-IR, UV-VIS, and ¹H NMR spectra. Geometrical parameters and energies were calculated using the density functional theory (DFT) B3LYP method with the 6-311G basis set. Geometrical optimization of the molecule has been performed, vibrational spectra have been calculated, and fundamental vibrations have been determined from the total energy distribution (TED) of the vibrational modes. The HOMO-LUMO analysis is carried out for various electric fields (0.0–0.025 A^?1). The HOMO-LUMO gap is decreased while increasing the electric field. The calculated quantum chemical parameters are calculated and correlated to the inhibition efficiency, A Mullliken population was also important for determining local reactivity by indicating reactive centers and identifying potential nucleophilic and electrophilic attack sites. Charge transfer occurs inside the compound based on the HOMO LUMO gap. Calculations of DFT were evaluated in their ability to predict inhibition efficiency.     

A Gas Chromatography-Molecular Rotational Resonance Spectroscopy Based System of Singular Specificity

We designed and demonstrated the unique abilities of the first gas chromatography–molecular rotational resonance spectrometer (GC-MRR). While broadly and routinely applicable, its capabilities can exceed those of high-resolution MS and NMR spectroscopy in terms of selectivity, resolution, and compound identification. A series of 24 isotopologues and isotopomers of five organic compounds are separated, identified, and quantified in a single run. Natural isotopic abundances of mixtures of compounds containing chlorine, bromine, and sulfur heteroatoms are easily determined. MRR detection provides the added high specificity for these selective gas-phase separations. GC-MRR is shown to be ideal for compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA). Different bacterial cultures and groundwater were shown to have contrasting isotopic selectivities for common organic compounds. The ease of such GC-MRR measurements may initiate a new era in biosynthetic/degradation and geochemical isotopic compound studies.     

Modeling Geometric State for Fluids in Porous Media: Evolution of the Euler Characteristic

Multiphase flow in porous media is strongly influenced by the pore-scale arrangement of fluids. Reservoir-scale constitutive relationships capture these effects in a phenomenological way, relying only on fluid saturation to characterize the macroscopic behavior. Working toward a more rigorous framework, we make use of the fact that the momentary state of such a system is uniquely characterized by the geometry of the pore-scale fluid distribution. We consider how fluids evolve as they undergo topological changes induced by pore-scale displacement events. Changes to the topology of an object are fundamentally discrete events. We describe how discontinuities arise, characterize the possible topological transformations and analyze the associated source terms based on geometric evolution equations. Geometric evolution is shown to be hierarchical in nature, with a topological source term that constrains how a structure can evolve with time. The challenge associated with predicting topological changes is addressed by constructing a universal geometric state function that predicts the possible states based on a non-dimensional relationship with two degrees of freedom. The approach is validated using fluid configurations from both capillary and viscous regimes in ten different porous media with porosity between 0.10 and 0.38. We show that the non-dimensional relationship is independent of both the material type and flow regime. We demonstrate that the state function can be used to predict history-dependent behavior associated with the evolution of the Euler characteristic during two-fluid flow.

     

Evaluation of tetracationic salts as gas‐phase ion‐pairing agents for the detection of trivalent anions in positive mode electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

In previous studies, new electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS) approaches were developed for the highly sensitive detection of singly and doubly charged anions in positive mode ESI‐MS by using specially synthesized dicationic and tricationic ion‐pairing agents, respectively. By detecting the positively charged ion complex in the positive mode, limits of detection (LODs) for the anions can be lowered by several magnitudes. In this work, we used eighteen newly synthesized tetracationic ion‐pairing agents, constructed with different geometries, linkages and cation moieties, for the detection of eighteen triply charged anions of different structural motifs. The LODs for these anions were from ten to several thousand times lower in the positive selective ion monitoring (SIM) mode than in the negative mode. These tetracationic agents also were shown to be useful for the detection of ?1 and ?2 anions. In addition, the LODs for ?3 anions can be further lowered by monitoring the product fragments of the ion‐pairing complexes in the single reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.