Mass spectrometric determination of cadmium in i.a.e.a. fish solubles

The cadmium content of the I.A.E.A Fish Solubles [A-6 (1975)] was determined by the isotope dilution method. After dry-ashing and dissolution of the specimen, the cadmium was equilibrated with a known amount of ¹⁰³Cd spike, isolated by ion exchange, purified by dithizone extraction, and converted to the sulfide form in 1% H₃PO₄ solution. The CdS precipitate was loaded onto a baked single rhenium filament for mass spectrometric analysis. The ¹⁰³Cd/¹¹⁰Cd ratio was measured to compute the cadmium content of 0.278 ± 0.032 ppm (dry weight basis) in the Fish Solubles.     

Fluorescence Assay Based on Aptamer-Quantum Dot Binding to <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus thuringiensis</Emphasis> Spores

A novel assay was developed for the detection of Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) spores. The assay is based on the fluorescence observed after binding an aptamer-quantum dot conjugate to BT spores. The in vitro selection and amplification technique called SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment) was used in order to identify the DNA aptamer sequence specific for BT. The 60 base aptamer was then coupled to fluorescent zinc sulfide-capped, cadmium selenide quantum dots (QD). The assay is semi-quantitative, specific and can detect BT at concentrations of about 1,000 colony forming units/ml.     

Total synthesis of epothilones B and D: stannane equivalents for beta-keto ester dianions

Studies leading to a total synthesis of epothilones B and D are described. The overall synthetic plan was based on late-stage fragment assembly of two segments representing C(1)-C(9) and C(10)-C(21) of the structure. The C(1)-C(9) fragment was prepared by elaboration of commercially available (2R)-3-hydroxy-2-methylpropanoate at both ends of the three-carbon unit. Introduction of carbons 1-4 containing the gem-dimethyl unit was achieved in a convergent manner using a diastereoselective addition of a stannane equivalent of a beta-keto ester dianion. An enantioselective addition of such a stannane equivalent for a beta-keto ester dianion was also used to fashion one version of the C(10)-C(21) subunit; however, the fragment assembly (using bimolecular esterification followed by ring-closing metathesis) with this subunit failed. Therefore, fragment assembly was achieved using a Wittig reaction; this was followed by macrolactonization to close the macrocycle. The C(10)-C(21) subunit needed for this approach was prepared in an efficient manner using the Corey-Kim reaction as a key element. Other key reactions in the synthesis include a stereoselective SmI(2) reduction of a beta-hydroxy ketone and a critical opening of a valerolactone with aniline which required extensive investigation.     

A W-Geometry Ortho-TOF MS with High Resolution and Up to 100% Duty Cycle for MS/MS

Orthogonal injection time-of-flight (orthoTOF) mass spectrometry (MS) is the most prevalent form of TOFMS, owing to its greater control over incoming ion energy, the ability to correct for aberrations in incoming ion velocity and position, and its ability to provide an entire mass spectrum within a single scan. However, the duty cycle of orthoTOFMS is low compared with scanning analyzers, which can have 100% duty cycle when measuring a single type of ion. Typical duty cycles for orthoTOFMS range from 1% to 30%, depending on instrument geometry. Generally, as instrument resolution increases, duty cycle decreases. Additionally, the greatest duty cycle is achieved for the highest m/z ion recorded in the spectrum, and decreases for all other ions as a function of m/z. In a prior publication [Loboda, A.V.; Chernushevich, I.V. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 20, 1342–1348 (20)], a novel trapping/release method for restoring the duty cycle of a V-geometry orthoTOFMS to near 100% (referred to as “Zeno pulsing”) was presented. Here, we apply that method to a W-TOF geometry analyzer with analog detection. Across a m/z range of 100–2000, sensitivity gains of ~5–20 are observed, for total ion currents approaching ~10⁷ ions·s^?1. Zeno pulsing, or similar strategies for restoring duty cycle, will continue to be important as instrument resolution in orthoTOFMS is increased through the use of ion mirrors.

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Pressure‐Tunable Dual‐Column Ensembles for High‐Speed GC and GC/MS

A series‐coupled ensemble of two capillary GC columns of different selectivity with an adjustable pressure at the column junction point is used to obtain tunable selectivity for high‐speed GC and GC/TOFMS. An electronic pressure controller with a 0.1‐psi step size is used to obtain numerous computer‐selected unique selectivities. System configurations for conventional, atmospheric‐pressure outlet operation with flame ionization detection and for vacuum‐outlet operation with photoionization detection are described for GC‐only experiments. Polydimethylsiloxane is used as the non‐polar column and polyethylene glycol (atmospheric outlet) or triflouropropylpolysiloxane (vacuum outlet) is used as the polar column. For GC/TOFMS experiments, 5% phenyl polydimethylsiloxane was used as the non‐polar column, and polyethylene glycol was used as the polar column. The time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer can acquire up to 500 complete mass spectra per second. Since spectral continuity is achieved across the entire chromatographic peak profile, severely overlapping peaks can be spectrally deconvoluted for high‐speed characterization of completely unknown mixtures. For mixture components with significantly different fragmentation patterns, spectral deconvolution can be achieved for chromatographic peak separations of as little as 6.0 ms. This can result is very large peak capacity for time compressed (not completely resolved) chromatograms. The use of columns with tunable selectivity allows for precise peak‐position control, which can result in more efficient utilization of available peak capacity and thus further time compression of chromatograms. The limits of tunability and deconvolution are tested for near co‐elutions of different classes of hydrocarbon compounds as well as for more multi‐functional mixtures.     

Wave envelopes method for description of nonlinear acoustic wave propagation

A novel, free from paraxial approximation and computationally efficient numerical algorithm capable of predicting 4D acoustic fields in lossy and nonlinear media from arbitrary shaped sources (relevant to probes used in medical ultrasonic imaging and therapeutic systems) is described. The new WE (wave envelopes) approach to nonlinear propagation modeling is based on the solution of the second order nonlinear differential wave equation reported in [J. Wójcik, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 104 (1998) 2654-2663; V.P. Kuznetsov, Akust. Zh. 16 (1970) 548-553]. An incremental stepping scheme allows for forward wave propagation. The operator-splitting method accounts independently for the effects of full diffraction, absorption and nonlinear interactions of harmonics. The WE method represents the propagating pulsed acoustic wave as a superposition of wavelet-like sinusoidal pulses with carrier frequencies being the harmonics of the boundary tone burst disturbance. The model is valid for lossy media, arbitrarily shaped plane and focused sources, accounts for the effects of diffraction and can be applied to continuous as well as to pulsed waves. Depending on the source geometry, level of nonlinearity and frequency bandwidth, in comparison with the conventional approach the Time-Averaged Wave Envelopes (TAWE) method shortens computational time of the full 4D nonlinear field calculation by at least an order of magnitude; thus, predictions of nonlinear beam propagation from complex sources (such as phased arrays) can be available within 30-60 min using only a standard PC. The approximate ratio between the computational time costs obtained by using the TAWE method and the conventional approach in calculations of the nonlinear interactions is proportional to 1/N2, and in memory consumption to 1/N where N is the average bandwidth of the individual wavelets. Numerical computations comparing the spatial field distributions obtained by using both the TAWE method and the conventional approach (based on a Fourier series representation of the propagating wave) are given for circular source geometry, which represents the most challenging case from the computational time point of view. For two cases, short (2 cycle) and long (8 cycle) 2 MHz bursts, the computational times were 10 min and 15 min versus 2 h and 8 h for the TAWE method versus the conventional method, respectively.