Production and characterisation of polyclonal antibodies to a derivative of 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone, a metabolite of the nitrofuran furazolidone

Polyclonal antibodies were produced to detect 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone (AOZ), a stable metabolite of the nitrofuran antibiotic furazolidone, following derivatisation with o-nitrobenzaldehyde. A carboxyphenyl derivative of AOZ was prepared, purified and conjugated to immunogenic carrier protein. Six antisera were produced from the immunisation of seven rabbits using various immunogen doses and time-scales. IC₅₀ values, as determined by competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) suggested that reducing immunogen dose from 0.3 to 0.05 mg, while lengthening rest periods between booster immunisations from 2 to 8 weeks, increased the sensitivity of the antibodies to 3-{[(2-nitrophenyl)methylene]amino}-2-oxazolidinone (NPAOZ) from 3.8 to 0.3 μg l⁻¹. An IC₅₀ of 0.065 μg l⁻¹ (AOZ in the form of NPAOZ) was achieved with antiserum R670 by altering ELISA conditions. This antibody was highly specific for NPAOZ and did not cross-react with various nitrofuran metabolites, their nitrophenyl derivatives or a range of veterinary drugs. Antibody R670 is suitable for incorporation into an immunoassay for AOZ with sufficient sensitivity to satisfy current criteria for monitoring of veterinary drug residues. This is the first publication of an antibody for detection of a nitrofuran metabolite.     

Electric field buildup and relaxation for chemical diffusion

By applying Maxwell's equation (Poisson's law) to the flux equations for ionic diffusion it is shown that analytical solutions for the flux of charge and the compensating electrical field can be derived for the limits t→0 and t→∞. (Actually the long time limit becomes appropriate after a time equivalent to a small multiple of the mean time between successive jumps of all ions.) These expressions permit derivation of the Nernst-Planck equations and their generalization to multi-component systems without any self-contradictory assumptions. They also allow an approximate interpolation between the two limiting time periods so that a close approximation of the field and flux is obtained for the entire time interval. It should be noted that the flux of charge changes sign during the process and tends to zero much more quickly than the electric field. The scaling constants for time, energy and electrical flux are evaluated in general and for conditions relevant to alkali ion exchange in a silicate glass near the glass transition temperature. Values for the time constant, the maximum field, and the maximum flux are of the order of fractional micro-seconds, one megavolt/cm, and one ampere/cm², respectively.     

Absolute structure determination using CRYSTALS

A study of post‐refinement absolute structure determination using previously published data was carried out using the CRYSTALS software package. We show that absolute structure determination may be carried out optimally using the analyses available in CRYSTALS, and that it is not necessary to have the separate procedures absolute structure determination and no interest in absolute structure as proposed by Flack [Chimia (2014), 68 , 26–30].     

Reconstructing bulk isotope ratios from compound‐specific isotope ratios

Carbon isotope analysis by bulk elemental analysis coupled with isotope ratio mass spectrometry has been the mainstay of δ¹³C analyses both at natural abundance and in tracer studies. More recently, compound‐specific isotope analysis (CSIA) has become established, whereby organic constituents are separated online by gas or liquid chromatography before oxidation and analysis of CO₂ for constituent δ¹³C. Theoretically, there should be concordance between bulk δ¹³C measurements and carbon‐weighted δ¹³C measurements of carbon‐containing constituents. To test the concordance between the bulk and CSIA, fish oil was chosen because the majority of carbon in fish oil is in the triacylglycerol form and ～95% of this carbon is amenable to CSIA in the form of fatty acids. Bulk isotope analysis was carried out on aliquots of oil extracted from 55 fish samples and δ¹³C values were obtained. Free fatty acids (FFAs) were produced from the oil samples by saponification and derivatised to fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) for CSIA by gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry. A known amount of an internal standard (C15:0 FAME) was added to allow analyte quantitation. This internal standard was also isotopically calibrated in both its FFA (δ¹³C = ?34.30‰) and FAME (δ¹³C = ?34.94‰) form. This allowed reporting of FFA δ¹³C from measured FAME δ¹³C values. The bulk δ¹³C was reconstructed from CSIA data based on each FFA δ¹³C and the relative amount of CO₂ produced by each analyte. The measured bulk mean δ¹³C (SD) was ?23.75‰ (1.57‰) compared with the reconstructed bulk mean δ¹³C of ?23.76 (1.44‰) from CSIA and was not significantly different. Further analysis of the data by the Bland‐Altman method did not show particular bias in the data relative to the magnitude of the measurement. Good agreement between the methods was observed with the mean difference between methods (range) of 0.01‰ (?1.50 to 1.30). Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non-Uniformity and Generalised Sacks Splitting

We show that there do not exist computable functions f ₁(e, i), f ₂(e, i), g ₁(e, i), g ₂(e, i) such that for all e, i ∈ ω, (1) $ {\left( {W_{{f_{1} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} - W_{{f_{2} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} } \right)} \leqslant _{{\rm T}} {\left( {W_{e} - W_{i} } \right)}; $ (2) $ {\left( {W_{{g_{1} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} - W_{{g_{2} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} } \right)} \leqslant _{{\rm T}} {\left( {W_{e} - W_{i} } \right)}; $ (3) $ {\left( {W_{e} - W_{i} } \right)} \not\leqslant _{{\rm T}} {\left( {W_{{f_{1} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} - W_{{f_{2} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} } \right)} \oplus {\left( {W_{{g_{1} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} - W_{{g_{2} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} } \right)}; $ (4) $ {\left( {W_{e} - W_{i} } \right)} \not\leqslant _{{\rm T}} {\left( {W_{{f_{1} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} - W_{{f_{2} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} } \right)}{\text{unless}}{\left( {W_{e} - W_{i} } \right)} \leqslant _{{\rm T}} {\emptyset};{\text{and}} $ (5) $ {\left( {W_{e} - W_{i} } \right)} \leqslant _{{\rm T}} {\left( {W_{{g_{1} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} - W_{{g_{2} {\left( {e,i} \right)}}} } \right)}{\text{unless}}{\left( {W_{e} - W_{i} } \right)} \leqslant _{{\rm T}} {\emptyset}. $ It follows that the splitting theorems of Sacks and Cooper cannot be combined uniformly.     

Co-adsorption of surfactants and water at inorganic solid surfaces

Computer simulations of the co-adsorption of water and methanoic acid at a range of surface features of calcite and fluorite minerals have shown that the relative adsorption energies for the two minerals are reversed when solvent effects are included in the calculations, a finding which is important in the search for effective surfactant reagents in flotation techniques, which are used extensively in the mining and pharmaceutical industries and in environmental remediation processes.     

Controlling chemoselectivity in vinyl and allylic C-X bond activation with palladium catalysis: a pK(a)-based electronic switch

It has been demonstrated that the same Pd catalyst can be used to effect allylic substitution or vinylic cross-coupling reactions selectively and interchangeably on polyfunctionalized olefin building blocks despite the differences in reaction mechanism. This was achieved by altering the pK(a) of the conjugate acid of the allylic leaving group while keeping the vinyl coupling partner constant. In the case of 2,3-dibromo-1-propene, Pd-catalyzed allylic ionization with malonate nucleophile proceeded selectively and quantitatively in the presence of the Suzuki reaction components necessary for cross-coupling. Conversely, the bromide of 2-bromo-1-(4-ethylphenoxy)-2-propene could be cross-coupled selectively without activation of the allylic phenoxy substituent. In both reactions, the same catalyst could then be used to complete the sequence, which typically involved heating as the trigger to promote the second, more reluctant reaction. Mechanistic considerations as well as synthetic applications demonstrating the value of this interchangeable catalyzed sequence are presented.