A simple preparation of calibration curve standards of134Cs and137Cs by serial dilution of a standard reference material

Two sets of calibration standards for¹³⁴Cs and¹³⁷Cs were prepared by small serial dilution of a natural matrix standard reference material, IAEA-154 whey powder. The first set was intended to screen imported milk powders which were suspected to be contaminated with¹³⁴Cs and¹³⁷Cs. Therefore the concentration range of the calibration standards were about 40–400 Bq/kg. The precision of the preparation of the standard with about 7 Bq/kg of¹³⁴Cs and 39 Bq/kg of¹³⁷Cs at measurement time was 7.4% and 3.2%, respectively. The preparation of a similar standard by spiking the matrix with radioisotope solutions resulted in a poorer precision, about double that of the former technique. The other set of calibration standards was prepared to measure the environmental levels of¹³⁷Cs in commercial Venezuelan milk powders. Their concentration ranged from 3–10 Bq/kg of¹³⁷Cs. The accuracy of these calibration curves was checked by using IAEA-152 and A-14 milk powders. Their measured values were in good agreement with their certified values. Finally, it is shown that these preparation techniques by serial dilution of a standard reference material were simple, rapid, precise, accurate and cost-effective.This work was partly funded by a research contract PC-075 from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICIT).     

Nitrosation of Phenolic Compounds: Effects of Alkyl Substituents and Solvent

Summary.  Nitrosation reactions of phenol, o-cresol, 2,6-dimethylphenol, o-tert-butylphenol, 2-hydroxyacetophenone, and 2-allylphenol in water and water/acetonitrile were studied. Kinetic monitoring of the reactions was accomplished by spectrophotometric analysis of the nitrosated products at 345 nm. The dominant reaction was C-nitrosation via a mechanism consisting of an attack on the nitrosatable substrate by NO⁺/NO₂H₂ ⁺ followed by a slow proton transfer. The values of the rate constants of phenolic C-nitrosation were increased by electron donating substituents, and a good Hammett correlation was observed with ρ = −6.1. The results also revealed the strong effect of pH and the permitivity of the reaction medium on the rate constant, whose maximum values were observed for pH ≈ 3, decreasing strongly for higher pH values. The study in water/acetonitrile with up to 25% acetonitrile showed that it is possible to inhibit the reaction strongly by increasing the percentage of the organic component. The conclusions drawn show that (i) it is possible to predict the rate of nitrosation of phenolics as a function of the meta-substituents on the phenol ring and (ii) the nitrosation of phenolics can be strongly inhibited by increasing the pH of the reaction medium as well as by lowering its dielectric constant. Received July 13, 2001. Accepted (revised) September 18, 2001     

Conlometric determination of weak bases applying bismuth electrode pair for the end-point detection

Tertiäre Amine und Salze organischer Säuren werden in Acetanhydrid mit 5% Essigsäure durch anodische Proton-Erzeugung auf Platin in Gegenwart von Hydrochinon mit Hilfe der biamperometrischen Endpunkttechnik mit einem Wismutelektrodenpaar quantitativ bestimmt. Mengen von 0,5–0,9 mg wurden mit einer mittleren Abweichung von <1% analysiert. Die Ergebnisse stimmten zufriedenstellend mit denen aus thermometrischen und photometrischen Titrationen überein.Summary Tertiary amines and salts of organic acids have been quantitatively determined in acetic anhydride with 5% of acetic acid by means of anodic generation of protons on platinum in the presence of hydroquinone, applying a biamperometric end-point detection using an indicating system of bismuth electrodes. Amounts of 0.5–0.9 mg have been analysed with average deviations of <1%. Good agreement was obtained with the results of thermometric and photometric titrations.

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Coulometrische Bestimmung von schwachen Basen unter Anwendung eines Wismut-Elektrodenpaars als Indicatorsystem

     

CCR5 antagonists: 3-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)propionic acid analogues with potent anti-HIV activity

[reaction: see text] A novel approach to alpha,alpha-disubstituted-beta-amino acids (beta(2,2)-amino acids) was employed in the synthesis of a series of 3-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)propionic acids possessing high affinity for the CCR5 receptor and potent anti-HIV activity. The rat pharmacokinetics for these new analogues featured higher bioavailabilities and lower rates of clearance as compared to cyclopentane 1.     

A highly reactive mononuclear Zn(II) complex for phosphodiester cleavage

The activity of a Zn(II) complex of a tetradentate, tripodal ligand for catalyzing phosphodiester cleavage is enhanced 750-fold by introducing three hydrogen bond donors to the ligand. Inhibition studies show that the Zn-aqua complex is the kinetically active form and that it binds the transition state with a formal dissociation constant of 3 x 108 M-1. The effect of these ligand modifications on the transition-state affinity is comparable to the rate acceleration provided by the metal ion itself. Overall, this mononuclear complex is more active than the most reactive dinuclear Zn(II) complexes reported to date.     

Pyrrolopyridine analogs of nalidixic acid. 1. Pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridines

A series of 4,7-dihydro-4-oxo-1H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine-5-carboxylic acids was synthesized from ethyl 5-methyl(or 5H)-2-aminopyrrole-3-carboxylate. The starting pyrroles were obtained by reaction of carbethoxyacetamidine with bromoacetone or chloroacetaldehyde. One compound ( 10 ) showed antibacterial activity in vitro.     

The nickel-catalysed carbonylation of 2-mercaptoethanol

2-Mercapthoethanol undergoes carbonylation in pyridine solution in the presence of oxygen and of [Ni(CO)₃Pyl as a catalyst to give cyclic O, S-ethylelnethiorcarbonate. The isolation of thiolatonickel compound [Ni(SCH₂CH₂OH)₂] by the oxidation of a solution containing [Ni(CO)₃Py] and 2-mercaptoethanol, and its reaction with carbon monoxide to give the cyclic thiocarbonate and [Ni(CO)₃Py] prove that the reaction proceeds in at least two steps.     

Problem of hidden variables

The problem of hidden variables in quantum mechanics is formalized as follows. A general or contextual (noncontextual) hidden-variables theory is defined as a mappingf: Q×M C (f: QC) whereQ is the set of projection operators in the appropriate (quantum) Hilbert space,M is the set of maximal Boolean subalgebras ofQ andC is a (classical) Boolean algebra. It is shown that contextual (noncontextual) hidden-variables always exist (do not exist).     

Effect of delay time and grid voltage changes on the average molecular mass of polydisperse polymers and polymeric blends determined by delayed extraction matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry

The dependence of the calculated average molecular mass of a polyethylene glycol with a large polydispersity on the instrumental parameters adopted in the acquisition of mass spectra using delayed extraction matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DE MALDI-TOFMS) was investigated. It has been shown that a combined effect of delay times and potential gradients can act on the ion cloud in the source chamber affecting both mass resolution and average molecular mass value of the analyzed polymeric sample. Also examined was a blend of two different polymers (a PEG and a PMMA commercial sample having a similar average molecular mass), which presents an additional problem concerning the discrimination among the different polymer species as a function of the experimental conditions. In this work, the best instrumental conditions to obtain both good resolution and a correct average molecular mass for the examined polydisperse sample are reported.