The use of plasmatic acceptors as specific ligands in affinity chromatography cleanup of veterinary drugs from biological matrices

Bovine α₁-acid glycoprotein (bAAG) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) are plasmatic acceptors working as carriers by the specific and reversible binding of several drugs in vivo. We synthesized affinity columns by coupling bAAG and BSA to an activated chromatographic support through their carbohydrate moieties, to preserve protein tertiary structure and, consequently, to improve the biological activity in vitro. The bAAG and BSA affinity columns were used to study the binding of acidic and basic drugs. Moreover, a purification strategy was developed for the cleanup of drug residues from biological matrices and foods, prior to screening and/or confirmatory analysis, on the basis of the specific molecular recognition between the protein and the drug. The aim of this work was to test the potency of bAAG- and BSA-based affinity chromatography to bind some veterinary drugs and purify them in the context of the official control of animal products. The efficiency of these homemade affinity columns in minimising matrix interference and in selective cleanup of different classes of substances was reported and discussed. Figure “Coupling strategies in synthesizing plasmatic acceptor affinity columns: the covalent coupling of bAAG and BSA through their carbohydrate moiety allows one to preserve the gross tertiary structure of the protein and thus its biological activity, whereas coupling through the ε-amine group of lysine residues can reduce the interactions with the binding sites of the plasmatic acceptor.”     

Whirl and whip instabilities in rotor-bearing system considering a nonlinear force model

Linear models and synchronous response are generally adequate to describe and analyze rotors supported by hydrodynamic bearings. Hence, stiffness and damping coefficients can provide a good model for a wide range of situations. However, in some cases, this approach does not suffice to describe the dynamic behavior of the rotor-bearing system. Moreover, unstable motion occurs due to precessional orbits in the rotor-bearing system. This instability is called “oil whirl” or “oil whip”. The oil whirl phenomenon occurs when the journal bearings are lightly loaded and the shaft is whirling at a frequency close to one-half of rotor angular speed. When the angular speed of the rotor reaches approximately twice the natural frequency (first critical speed), the oil whip phenomenon occurs and remains even if the rotor angular speed increases. Its frequency and vibration mode correspond to the first critical speed. The main purpose of this paper is to validate a complete nonlinear solution to simulate the fluid-induced instability during run-up and run-down. A flexible rotor with a central disk under unbalanced excitation is modeled. A nonlinear hydrodynamic model is considered for short bearing and laminar flow. The effects of unbalance, journal-bearing parameters and rotor arrangement (vertical or horizontal) on the instability threshold are verified. The model simulations are compared with measurements at a real vertical power plant and a horizontal test rig.     

A Class of Non-Ordinary Half-Planes

All half-planes that are known in the literature are ordinary [3]. In this note we construct a class of non-ordinary half-planes.     

Analysis of neutral nitromusks in incenses by capillary electrophoresis in organic solvents and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Nitromusks used as fragrances in a variety of personal-care products, cleansers, and domestic deodorants, including incense sticks, are neutral nitro aromatic compounds; some of these have been reported as photosensitizers. In this work, their analysis was performed by capillary electrophoresis (CE) in a methanol-based background electrolyte (BGE). In particular, a 10 mM solution of citric acid in methanol was used; under these conditions the strong suppression of the electroosmotic flow favored the use of negatively charged surfactants as additives for the anodic migration of the studied analytes. To this end, sodium taurodeoxycholate (TDC) was supplemented at high concentration (190 mM) to the organic background electrolyte (BGE), showing strong indication of the ability to give micelle-like aggregates. Since nitromusks are characterized by the presence of a nitroaromatic ring with low charge density, their association with TDC aggregates can be ascribed to donor-acceptor interactions. Separation of musk xylene, musk ketone, and the banned musk moskene and musk ambrette was obtained under full nonaqueous BGE; the addition of relatively small water percentages (15% v/v) was found to be useful in improving the separation of pairs of adjacent peaks. Under optimized conditions (190 mM sodium TDC in methanol-water, 85-15 v/v containing citric acid 10 mM) the system was applied to the analysis of nitromusks in incense sticks extracted with methanol. The results were compared with those obtained by the analysis of the same samples using gas chromatography with mass detector. The expected different selectivity of separation obtained using the two techniques can be useful in the unambiguous determination of the analytes; furthermore, a substantial accord of the preliminary quantitative results achieved with the two methods was assumed as the confirmation of the potential reliability of CE performed with high percentage of organic solvent.     

Mg based photocathodes for high brightness RF photoinjectors

Advanced high brightness radio frequency (RF) gun injectors require photocathodes with a fast response, high quantum efficiency (QE) and good surface uniformity. Metal films deposited by various techniques on the gun back wall could satisfy these requirements. A new deposition technique has been recently proposed, i.e. pulsed laser ablation. Several Mg samples have been deposited by this technique: the emission performance and morphological changes induced on the cathode surface during laser activation are compared and discussed.     

Advective Transport in Heterogeneous Formations: The Impact of Spatial Anisotropy on the Breakthrough Curve

Water flow and solute transport take place in formations of spatially variable conductivity K. The logconductivity Y?= ln K is modeled as a random stationary space function, of normal univariate pdf (of mean In K _G and variance ${\sigma_{Y}^{2}}$ ) and of axisymmetric autocorrelation of integral scales I _h,I _v (anisotropy ratio f?=?I _v/I _h?<?1). The head gradient and the velocity are uniform in the mean, parallel to bedding, and of constant and given as J and U, respectively. Transport is ruled by advection, which typically overwhelms pore scale dispersion in the breakthrough curve (BTC) determination. In the present study we analyze the impact of anisotropy f on the BTC of a passive solute, which is related to the mass flux??? (t, x) at a control plane at x. While a considerable body of literature dealt with weakly heterogeneous formations ( ${\sigma _{Y}^{2} <1 }$ ), the present study addresses the case of ${\sigma _{Y}^{2} >1 }$ , which is of interest for many aquifers and is more difficult to solve either numerically or by approximations. We approach the three dimensional problem by modeling the structure as an ensemble of densely packed oblate spheroids of semi-major and semi-minor axis R and f R, respectively, and independent lognormal K, submerged in a matrix of uniform conductivity K _ef, the effective conductivity of the ensemble. The detailed numerical simulations of transport show that the BTC is insensitive to the value of the anisotropy ratio f, i.e.,??? (t, x) I _h/U depends only on ${\sigma _{Y}^{2}}$ (except for small differences in the tail). This important result implies that transport, as quantified by BTCs or spatial longitudinal mass distributions, can be modeled accurately by the much simpler solutions developed in the past for isotropic media, like e.g., the semi-analytical self-consistent approximation.