Filamentous growth in activated sludge

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology - Bulking and foaming in activated sludge have been associated with filamentous overgrowth. FilamentousNocardia amarae and nonfilamentousPseudomonas...     

Theoretical study of PO and PO−

The diatomic systems, PO and PO^– are studied, using numerical Hartree-Fock (NHF) and coupled-cluster calculations. The latter employs a hybrid NHF and Slater orbital basis set. Highly accurate CCSD methods predict bond lengths accurate to <0.004 Å and frequencies to 60 cm^–1. In addition the electron affinity of PO is computed to be 0.89 eV compared to an experimental value of 1.09±0.01. Comparisons are made with SCF and MBPT(2) results for PO⁺ using conventional basis sets.Dedicated to Professor J. Koutecký on the occasion of his 65th birthdayGuggenheim Fellow     

Ring size effects. III. Carbonium ion stability as a factor in the course of the pinacol rearrangement

The formation of the initial carbonium ion in the pinacol rearrangement will be the major factor in determining product composition when the reaction is carried out at 0°C with concentrated sulfuric acid.     

Detection of Amadori compounds by capillary electrophoresis coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

Capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry (CE-MS) is reported for the first time as an alternative and powerful analytical method for the characterization and monitoring of N-substituted 1-amino-1-deoxyketoses (Amadori compounds). It allows rapid separation and identification of Amadori compounds, while benefiting from the well-known advantages of MS, such as specificity and sensitivity. Amadori compounds of several amino acids, such as glycine, valine, isoleucine, methionine, proline, and phenylalanine, as well as a cysteine-derived compound, were separated and/or discriminated using CE-MS/MS under standard conditions. The technique may also be useful to study the stability and degradation kinetics of other labile charged Maillard intermediates that play an important role in food and medical science.     

Enantio- and diastereodifferentiating cis,trans-photoisomerization of 2beta,3beta-diphenylcyclopropane-1alpha-carboxylic acid derivatives in organized media

[reaction: see text] Four methods of asymmetric induction in the cis, trans-photoisomerization of 2beta, 3beta-diphenylcyclopropane-1alpha-carboxylic acid derivatives were studied. Best results (ca. 80% de) were obtained by irradiation of chiral esters, amides, and salts in NaY and LiY zeolites and in the pure crystalline state.     

Application of solid phase microextraction in the determination of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins

A SPME-HPLC-post-column fluorescent derivatization method for the direct determination of saxitoxin (STX), the most potent paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxin, in water has been developed. Commercially available SPME devices with 50 microm Carbowax templated resin (CW/TPR) coating was found to be able to pre-concentrate STX from aqueous media. A special pre-conditioning treatment of soaking the SPME coating in 0.1 M NaOH solution significantly improved the extraction efficiency. The optimal pH for the SPME process is 8.1 and the equilibration time is 40 min. The partition coefficient, K, of the distribution of STX between the SPME coating and the aqueous media was measured to be 2.99 +/- 0.04 x 10(3). Extracted toxin on the SPME stationary phase was difficult to be desorbed by the HPLC mobile phase under dynamic desorption mode. A static ion-pairing desorption technique using a desorption solvent mixture of 20 mM sodium 1-heptanesulfonate in 30% aqueous acetonitrile acidified with 50 mM sulfuric acid was developed to overcome this problem. The method detection limit and repeatability achieved by this SPME-HPLC method were 0.11 ng ml(-1) and 3.7%, respectively, with a sample volume of just 5 ml of water. This analytical method is adequate for the monitoring of the PSP toxin in fresh/drinking waters. However, serious interference was observed when this technique was applied to saline water samples. This is probably due to competition of sodium ions with the cationic STX for absorption into the SPME stationary phase.     

A graph-theoretic approach to quantitative structure—activity/reactivity studies

Characterization of molecular species based on the use of suitable graph invariants (graph paths, in particular) can provide a quantitative means of encoding structure; the technique is complementary to commoner approaches to studies of quantitative structure— activity relationships. Graph path encoding is here applied to quantitative studies of relationships between molecular structures and biological activity; the examples are the rates of various substrate reactions with hexoldnase, and the potential opiate-like activity of enkephalin analogs.