Stable isotope composition of daily and monthly precipitation in Zagreb

Stable isotopic compositions (delta2H and delta18O) of daily precipitation collected in the period from October 2002 to March 2003 and monthly precipitation in the period from 2001 to 2003, as well as the corresponding meteorological data (temperature, amount of precipitation), all collected in Zagreb, Croatia, are presented. delta2H and delta18O values, both daily and monthly, show large variations due to large temperature variations and the different origin of the air masses. Variations are larger for daily samples than for composite monthly samples. Good correlation of delta18O with temperature is obtained for both types of samples. On the basis of the correlation between delta2H and delta18O, the local meteoric water line is close to the global meteoric water line. Deuterium excess of both daily and monthly precipitation indicates that in the Zagreb area, the influence of air masses from the Mediterranean area prevails in the autumn period.     

Towards a strongly polynomial algorithm for strictly convex quadratic programs: An extension of Tardos' algorithm

In a recent paper Tardos described a polynomial algorithm for solving linear programming problems in which the number of arithmetic steps depends only on the size of the numbers in the constraint matrix and is independent of the size of the numbers in the right hand side and the cost coefficients. In this paper we extend Tardos' results and present a polynomial algorithm for solving strictly convex quadratic programming problems in which the number of arithmetic steps is independent of the size of the numbers in the right hand side and the linear cost coefficients.This research was partially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Grant 5-83998.     

Salting-Out Thin-Layer Chromatography of Several Myorelaxants

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - The chromatographic behavior of five myorelaxant drugs has been studied under the conditions used for salting-out thin-layer...     

Preparation and Characterization of Oil Containing Microcapsules Obtained by an Interaction Induced Coacervation

A novel method for microencapsulation of oil by coacervation is presented. The method employs segregative phase separation between sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (NaCMC) and a complex of hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose (HPMC) and sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS), which results in coacervate formation. Microstructural properties of the coacervate can be varied by tuning NaCMC-HPMC/SDS interaction, which is achieved by changing SDS concentration. Microcapsules preparation route is presented. Encapsulation efficiency and dispersion properties of microcapsules with coacervate shell of different properties and different oil content were tested. Microcapsules with smallest droplet size, the narrowest droplet size distribution, and with lowest extractability of encapsulated oil were obtained when NaCMC-HPMC/SDS interaction results in formation of the most compact coacervate shell, no matter of the encapsulated oil.     

Measuring the ionic flux of an electrochemically actuated conducting polymer using modified scanning ion conductance microscopy

We propose a modification of a scanning ion conductance microscope suitable for probing an electrode in an operating electrochemical cell. We demonstrate its use by measuring salt concentration variations near a conducting polymer electrode as the polymer is electrochemically oxidized and reduced. The electrochemical control circuit is opened to isolate the working electrode, at a frequency sufficiently high that the electrode capacitance maintains the electrode potential. The local solution conductivity variations are detected through the probe current during the open-circuit time. We demonstrate two-stage ion exchange during oxidation and reduction of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) films that develops strongly with repeated cycling and is correlated with actuation changes. Spatial composition variations of the film, caused by redox current distribution over the surface, and electromigration to the probe tip, causing local solution composition changes, have clear and characteristic effects on the measured transients.     

A stability indicating HPLC method for the determination of electrochemically controlled release of risperidone

A rapid stability indicating reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method is developed for the determination of the electrochemically controlled risperidone release from a novel drug delivery system, based on the intrinsically conducting polymer (ICP), polypyrrole. The chromatographic separation was carried out on a C(18) column using acetonitrile-potassium dihydrogen phosphate (45:55, v/v, pH 6.5; 0.05 M) as the mobile phase. The isocratic flow is at 1.0 mL/min, with a runtime of 6 min, and the UV detection is at 237 nm. This provided a calibration curve linear over the range of 1-100 μg/mL. Intra-day and inter-day accuracy range between 98.4% and 102.6%, and the RSD for precision is <1.43%. The limit of detection and quantitation were determined to be 0.001 μg/mL and 0.01 μg/mL, respectively. The analytical method confirmed risperidone is stable for the oxidizing electric potential and the acidic environment involved during the manufacture and operation of the novel drug delivery system. The rate of risperidone release from polypyrrole depended on electrical stimulation applied to the polymer. This HPLC method is significantly faster than previously published methods and is the first to investigate the effect of an oxidizing potential on risperidone stability, which is essential for the evaluation of controlled delivery from an ICP-based system.     

Coupling of alkynols and a phenyl group to a novel eta5-dihydronaphthalenide ligand on a ruthenium template

We report the highly selective assembly of unprecedented eta5-1-methylene-1,2-dihydronaphthalenide ligands from the stoichiometric coupling of a phenyl group and two equivalents of disubstituted propargylic alcohols; in this reaction, tetraphenylborate acts as a phenylating agent.     

Improving off-line accelerated tryptic digestion. Towards fast-lane proteolysis of complex biological samples

Off-line digestion of proteins using immobilized trypsin beads is studied with respect to the format of the digestion reactor, the digestion conditions, the comparison with in-solution digestion and its use in complex biological samples. The use of the filter vial as the most appropriate digestion reactor enables simple, efficient and easy-to-handle off-line digestion of the proteins on trypsin beads. It was shown that complex proteins like bovine serum albumin (BSA) need much longer time (89 min) and elevated temperature (37 degrees C) to be digested to an acceptable level compared to smaller proteins like cytochrome c (5 min, room temperature). Comparing the BSA digestion using immobilized trypsin beads with conventional in-solution digestion (overnight at 37 degrees C), it was shown that comparable results were obtained with respect to sequence coverage (>90%) and amount of missed cleavages (in both cases around 20 peptides with 1 or 2 missed cleavages were detected). However, the digestion using immobilized trypsin beads was considerable less time consuming. Good reproducibility and signal intensities were obtained for the digestion products of BSA in a complex urine sample. In addition to this, peptide products of proteins typically present in urine were identified.     

IR Laser‐Induced Degradation of Poly(vinyl acetate): Novel Thermal Reactions in Solid Polymers

Summary: Pulsed‐IR laser‐induced decomposition of poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAC) differs remarkably from its conventional pyrolysis, which results in the formation of acetic acid and non‐polar carbonaceous residue. In contrast, the products in the former case are (i) vinyl acetate (low energy channel), (ii) products of cleavage in the acetate group, and (iii) an ablatively deposited polar polymeric film containing roughly half of the acetoxy groups initially present.

Schematic of the different routes of poly(vinyl acetate) degradation.