High performance liquid chromatography as a tool in the definition of abnormalities in monoamine and tryptophan metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid from patients with neurological disorders

In this study we report the levels of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, homovallinic acid, tryptophan, 5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid and serotonin in lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with multiple sclerosis, cerebrovascular disease and muscular tension headache the later, as healthy controls. The separation of these substances was performed on a reversed phase column by ion pair high performance liquid chromatography and detection was made by a glassy carbon electrode set at +900 mV vs Ag+/AgCl. The whole separation was achieved within 25 min. Concentrations of all substances (10-1000 pmole/L) were linearly proportional to areas obtained. The system is sensitive, stable and reproducible. The significance of CSF levels of these metabolites from patients groups compared with healthy controls are discussed.     

Radiation heterogeneous processes of14C-acetic acid adsorbed in Na-Montmorillonite

This research addresses itself to the study of the mechanism of the acetic acid decarboxylation in Na-Montmorillonite exposed to ionizing radiation. The results obtained indicated that the decarboxylation reaction is enhanced several times by the irradiation. This behavior is probably due to an oxidation reaction at the edges of the clay. Also it is by energy transfer from the clay to adsorbed molecules by an interaction of non-equilibrium charge carriers with the adsorbed molecules.     

Kinetic study of n-heptane oxidation

The oxidation of n-heptane has been studied in a jet-stirred flow reactor in the temperature range 950–1200 K at atmospheric pressure for a wide range of fuel-oxygen equivalence ratios (0.2 to 2.0). A chemical kinetic reaction mechanism developed from previous studies on smaller hydrocarbons and extended to C₆ and C₇ species was used to reproduce the experimental data. Good agreement between computed and measured concentrations of major chemical species was obtained for the entire range of experimental conditions. Sensitivity analyses were carried out to identify the reactions having the greatest influence on the modeling results. The major reaction paths for n-heptane consumption and for the formation of the main products have been identified. In addition n-heptane ignition delays behind a reflected shock wave measured by other investigators were used to validate the present reaction mechanism at higher temperature and pressure.     

Temperature dependence of the rate constants for reactions of the carbonate radical with organic and inorganic reductants

Rate constants have been measured by pulse radiolysis for the reactions of the carbonate radical, CO₃^·?, with a number of organic and inorganic reactants as a function of temperature, generally over the range 5 to 80°C. The reactants include the substitution-inert cyano complexes of Fe^II, Mo^IV, and W^IV, the simple inorganic anions SO₃^2?, ClO₂^?, NO₂^?, I^?, and SCN^?, several phenolates, ascorbate, tryptophan, cysteine, cystine, methionine, triethylamine, and allyl alcohol. The measured rate constants ranged from less than 10⁵ to 3 × 10⁹ M^?1 s^?1, the activation energies ranged from ?11.4 to 18.8 kJ mol^?1, and the pre-exponential factors ranged from log A = 6.4 to 10.7. The activation energies for the metal complexes and inorganic anions generally decrease with increasing driving force for the reaction, as expected for an outer sphere electron transfer. For highly exothermic reactions, however, the activation energy appears to increase, probably reflecting the temperature dependence of diffusion. For many of the organic reactants, the activation energies were low and independent of driving force, suggesting that the oxidation is via an inner sphere mechanism.     

Hamiltonian circle actions on symplectic manifolds and the signature

Let M be a symplectic manifold with a Hamiltonian circle action with isolated fixed points. We prove that σ (M) = b₀(M) − b₂(M) + b₄(M) − b₆(M) + … where σ (M) is the signature of M and b_i(M) is the ith Betti number of M.