Glass capillary gas chromatography of amino acid enantiomers

Glass capillaries coated with Chirasil-Val, a chirally functionalised polysiloxane, are capable in principle of resolving all protein amino-acid enantiomers in a single run and within a short analysis time, thus allowing for example the quantitative amino acid determination by enantiomer labelling. The elution characteristics of the individual amino acids however are also dependent upon the chemical nature of the capillary wall surface, and a surface pretreatment is found to be necessary if all protein amino acids are to be analysed. Of the various methods of pretreatment tested, etching of borosilicate glass with gaseous HCl followed by deposition of colloidal silicic acid is considered to be the most suitable.     

Fiber optic multi-channel protein detector for use in preparative continuous annular chromatography

On-line coupling continuous-flow liquid membrane extraction (CFLME) with HPLC, a novel automatic system was developed for the determination of sulfonylurea herbicides in water. After an automatic trace-enrichment process by CFLME, which is the combination of continuous flow liquid-liquid extraction and support liquid membrane (SLM) extraction, the target analytes were concentrated in 50 microl of 0.2 M Na2CO3-NaHCO3 (pH 10.0) buffer. The concentrated sample solutions were injected directly onto a C18 analytical column with a valve, and detected at 240 nm with a diode array detector. Metsulfuron methyl (MSM), and DPX-A 7881 were baseline separated with a mobile phase consisting of methanol and 67 mM KH2PO4-Na2HPO4 (pH 5.91) buffer (45+55, v+v) at a flow-rate of 1.0 ml min(-1). With an enrichment time of 10 min and enrichment sample volume of 20 ml, the enrichment factors and detection limits are 100 and 0.05 microg l(-1) for MSM, and 96 and 0.1 microg l(-1) for DPX-A 7881, respectively. The linear range and precision (RSD) are 0.1-50 microg l(-1) and 7.0% for MSM, and 0.2-50 microg l(-1) and 9.2% for DPX-A 7881, respectively. This proposed method was applied to determine MSM and DPX-A 7881 in seawater, tap water, and bottled mineral water with spiked recoveries in the range of 83-95% for MSM and 88-100% for DPX-A 7881, respectively.     

Nonlinear one-parametric bottleneck linear programming

We consider the one-parametric linear bottleneck problem min {c (x, t) ¦ x P (t)} where the bottleneck objectivec (x, t):=max {c_j (t) ¦ x_j>0} is minimized subject to linear constraints, i.e. P(t):={x ¦A (t) ·x=b (t), x0}. All coefficients are assumed to be continuous functions of one real parametert which varies in a real intervalS. A method is developed for constructing a partition ofS into subintervals on which either a basis stays optimal or the problem stays infeasible. Finiteness of the partition is due to certain finiteness assumptions on the zeroes of particular combinations of the coefficient functions. Using a lexicographic refinement of the objective function a characterization of the optimality interval of a fixed basis is derived which is independent on explicit information about other bases.

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Zusammenfassung Es werden einparametrische lineare Engpaßprobleme min {c (x, t) ¦x P (t)} betrachtet, wobei die Engpaßzielfunktionc (x, t):=max {c_j (t) ¦ x_j >0} unter linearen Nebenbedingungen, die durch P(t):={x ¦A (t) ·x=b (t), x0} gegeben sind, minimiert wird. Dabei wird angenommen, daß alle Koeffizienten stetige Funktionen eines reellen Parameterst aus einem IntervallS R sind. Es wird eine Methode entwickelt,S derart in Teilintervalle zu zerlegen, daß entweder eine Basis in solch einem Teilintervall optimal oder das Problem unzulässig bleibt. Die Endlichkeit dieser Partition vonS ergibt sich aus Endlichkeitsvoraussetzungen für die Nullstellen von Funktionen, die sich als gewisse Kombinationen der Koeffizientenfunktionen schreiben lassen. Durch eine lexikographische Verfeinerung der Zielfunktion gelingt es, das Intervall zu charakterisieren, in dem eine feste Basis optimal ist. Diese Charakterisierung ist unabhängig von expliziten Informationen über andere Basen.

     

Hexagonal Ferrites from Melts and Aqueous Solutions,Magnetic Recording Materials

Owing to their particular crystallographic properties, ferrimagnetic hexagonal ferrites exhibit a far greater coercive force than the conventional magnetic pigments. They therefore appear to be suitable for use in magnetic information storage procedures, some of which are novel and are at the development stage. Thus, magnetic tapes of high coercive force containing barium ferrite could be used as master tapes for copying magnetic information or for producing forgery-proof magnetic cards, if magnetic heads having high-order write fields were successfully developed. Moreover, platelet-like ferrite pigments in which the preferred direction of magnetic orientation is perpendicular to the plane of the platelet are of great interest for perpendicular magnetic recording. In this progress report, the crystal structures, magnetic characteristics of hexagonal ferrites, and chemical processes for their production are discussed. In particular, reactions in salt melts or under hydrothermal conditions produce finely divided pigments whose particles have a pronounced hexagonal, plate-like habit, a narrow particle size distribution, and advantageous magnetic properties. The magnetic properties of the pigments crystallized from salt melts may be adjusted by cation exchange.     

Dynamic contact angle and spreading rate measurements for the characterization of the effect of dentin surface treatments

A new methodology capable of providing reliable and reproducible contact angle (theta) data has been employed to study the effect of clinical treatments grinding, acid etching, and deproteinization on medial dentin tissue. It is based on the application of the ADSA-CD algorithm to the determination of low-rate dynamic contact angles, obtained from slowly growing drops, and on contact angle measurement, as well as spreading behavior analysis, during the relaxation of the system (water on treated dentin) after initial drop growth. The theta data obtained were substantially more reproducible than those obtained with classical methods. A net effect of the treatment on theta was found, increasing dentin wettability: theta (polished) >theta (etched) >theta (deproteinized). The spreading rates correlate with the angles and are adequate for the dentin surface characterization. ANOVA and SNK tests show that for advancing contact angles the means corresponding to all treatments are significantly different. In the relaxing phase, mean angle and spreading rates on polished dentin differ significantly from those on etched and deproteinized dentin, but the latter do not differ significantly from each other.     

Studying lateral diffusion in lipid bilayers by combining a magic angle spinning NMR probe with a microimaging gradient system

An alternative technique for studying the lateral diffusion in lipid membranes using pulsed field gradients in combination with magic angle spinning is presented. It is shown that MAS probes inserted in a microimaging device that produce high field gradients can be used to monitor also slow diffusion processes. As an example, measurements of the lateral diffusion of lipids embedded in the bilayer of a cubic phase are presented.