A highly sensitive and specific polyclonal antibody-based enzyme immunoassay for therapeutic monitoring and pharmacokinetic studies of atorvastatin

This study describes the development and validation of a highly sensitive and specific enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for therapeutic monitoring and pharmacokinetic studies of atorvastatin (ATR). The assay employs a polyclonal antibody that recognizes ATR with high specificity and affinity, and ATR conjugated to bovine serum albumin (ATR-BSA) immobilized onto microwell plates as a solid phase. The assay involved a competitive binding reaction between ATR and the immobilized ATR-BSA for the binding sites on a limiting amount of the anti-ATR antibody. The bound anti-ATR antibody was quantified with horseradish peroxidase-labeled anti-immunoglobulin secondary antibody and 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine as a substrate for the peroxidase enzyme. The concentration of ATR in the sample was quantified by its ability to inhibit the binding of the anti-ATR antibody to the immobilized ATR-BSA and subsequent color development in the assay wells. The conditions for the EIA were investigated and optimized for the determination of ATR in plasma samples. The limit of detection was 0.04 ng mL^?1 and the effective working range at relative standard deviations (RSD) of ≤5% was 0.1–10 ng mL^?1. Mean analytical recovery of ATR from spiked plasma was 99.3?±?2.8%. The precision of the assay was satisfactory; RSD were 2.7–4.6 and 3.3–5.7% for intra- and inter-assay precision, respectively. The reliability of the EIA was confirmed by HPLC. The EIA is convenient, and one can analyze ～ 200 samples per working day, facilitating the processing of large-number of samples of ATR.     

DSC study of the kinetic parameters of the metastable phases formation during non-isothermal annealing of an Al–Si–Mg alloy

Kinetics of β″ and β′ precipitations in an AlSiMg have been studied under non-isothermal conditions using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique. The variation of the activation energy as a function of transformed fraction is determined using two isoconversional methods of Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS) and Friedman. The results obtained using the two methods show a change in the activation energy for both metastable phases precipitations as a function of transformed fraction. The results obtained from KAS method as compared with those obtained from Friedman method, show some major disagreements between the two methods. The growth exponent, determined by Ozawa method, decreases as a function of temperature for both phases.     

Synthesis and characterization of a methacrylate polymer with side chain ketone and its derivatives

A new type of methacrylate monomer,2-(4-benzoylphenoxy)-2-oxoethyl methylacrylate(BOEMA) was synthesized.The radical homopolymerization of BOEMA was performed at 65℃in a 1,4-dioxane solution with benzoyl peroxide as an initiator.The oxime and thiosemicarbazone derivatives of poly[2-(4-benzoylphenoxy)-2-oxoethyl methylacrylate]poly(BOEMA) were prepared with hydroxylamine hydrochloride,and thiosemicarbazone hydrochloride, respectively.The monomer and its homopolymer were characterized with Fourier transform infrared and NMR techniques. The thermal stabilities of poly(BOEMA) and its derivatives were investigated with thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry.The ultraviolet stability of the polymers was compared.The antibacterial and antifungal effects of the monomer and the polymer and its derivatives were also investigated on various bacteria and fungi.The activation energies of the thermal degradation of the polymers were calculated with the Ozawa and Kissinger methods.     

Tanh-travelling wave solutions, truncated Painlevé expansion and reduction of Bullough–Dodd equation to a quadrature in magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium

The equations of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibria for a plasma in gravitational field are investigated. For equilibria with one ignorable spatial coordinate, the MHD equations are reduced to a single nonlinear elliptic equation for the magnetic potential , known as the Grad–Shafranov equation. Specifying the arbitrary functions in this equation, the Bullough–Dodd equation can be obtained. The truncated Painlevé expansion and reduction of the partial differential equation to a quadrature problem (RQ method) are described and applied to obtain the travelling wave solutions of the Bullough–Dodd equation for the case of isothermal magnetostatic atmosphere, in which the current density J is proportional to the exponentially of the magnetic flux and moreover falls off exponentially with distance vertical to the base, with an “e-folding” distance equal to the gravitational scale height.     

Influence matrix technique for the numerical spectral simulation of viscous incompressible flows

A spectral algorithm based on the influence matrix technique is desclibed for solving numerically the flow of incompressible viscous fluids. The algorithmic development is for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian flows. To investigate the performance of the method several test problems are solved. Accurate results are obtained with relatively few degrees of freedom.     

Density Based Problem Space Search for the Capacitated Clustering p-Median Problem

In the Capacitated Clustering Problem (CCP), a given set of n weighted points is to be partitioned into p clusters such that, the total weight of the points in each cluster does not exceed a given cluster capacity. The objective is to find a set of p centers that minimises total scatter of points allocated to them. In this paper a new constructive method, a general framework to improve the performance of greedy constructive heuristics, and a problem space search procedure for the CCP are proposed. The constructive heuristic finds patterns of natural subgrouping in the input data using concept of density of points. Elements of adaptive computation and periodic construction–deconstruction concepts are implemented within the constructive heuristic to develop a general framework for building efficient heuristics. The problem-space search procedure is based on perturbations of input data for which a controlled perturbation strategy, intensification and diversification strategies are developed. The implemented algorithms are compared with existing methods on a standard set of bench-marks and on new sets of large-sized instances. The results illustrate the strengths of our algorithms in terms of solution quality and computational efficiency.     

Analytical design of photonic band-gap fibers and their dispersion characteristics

The paper essentially deals with the analysis of photonic band-gap fibers in analogy with the electron wave motion in periodic crystal lattice. As such, the analyses are based on Bloch formulation. The dispersion characteristics of such fibers are presented by considering some illustrative values of design parameters. The effect of design parameters on the dispersion characteristics is also presented in terms of the variation of widths of allowed and forbidden bands of band-gap fibers. It is found that the number of allowed bands increases with the increase in difference between refractive indices of different layers. Further, widths of the allowed and forbidden bands increase with the increase in layer thickness.