Quantitative determination of cationic modified polysaccharides on hair using LC–MS and LC–MS–MS

Cationic polysaccharides containing N-hydroxypropyl-N,N,N-trimethylammonium substituents are widely used as conditioning agents for hair-care products. A sensitive method has been developed for the quantitation of these polymers. After acidic extraction from hair the polysaccharides are hydrolyzed using trifluoroacetic acid. The cationic monoglycosides are determined using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS–MS). The developed method is independent of hair treatment. Even hair cut from test persons after customary hair wash can be analyzed. After treatment of natural and bleached hair tresses using a real-life treatment procedure 180 g and 300 g of polymer per gram hair were quantified, respectively. Additionally the fragmentation mechanism of the cationic N-hydroxypropyl-N,N,N-trimethylammonium group during electrospray ionization was investigated. A mass loss of 60 Da in combination with loss of a single charge is observed and associated with cleavage of trimethylamine and a proton. It is assumed that this process is promoted by the anionic counter-ion which might be hydroxide in an aqueous environment.     

Optimization of simultaneous thermal analysis for fast screening of polycondensation catalysts

Dynamic simultaneous thermal analysis was optimized to screen activity of different catalysts for polycondensation of bis-hydroxy ethylene terephthalate (BHET) to polyethylene terephthalate. Reactions were performed by heating BHET to 300 °C at a linear heating rate in 50 μl thermal analysis crucibles under inert gas purging. A sensitive and reproducible screening method was obtained after overcoming of critical problems such as monomer evaporation, catalytic activity of crucible material, and optimization of gas purging, monomer amount in the crucible and heating rate. Under the applied conditions mass transport limitations were absent and the reaction was controlled solely by chemistry. The temperature at which maximum reaction rate occurs was used as an index of catalytic activity. It was obtained from maximum differential scanning calorimetry signal together with the maximum derivative of thermogravimetry signal. Temperature at which the reaction starts was also applied as an activity index. It was obtained from the onset of mass loss. The value of these three indices was smaller for more active catalysts.The optimized method was applied to study the activity of a new polycondensation heterogeneous catalyst based on hydrotalcite. This new catalyst was shown to be much more active than the conventional antimony catalyst under the applied conditions.     

Polynomial representations from abstract perturbed Krylov methods

We present the framework of “abstract perturbed Krylov methods”, a new, unified point of view on different types of Krylov subspace methods. We give a brief informal sketch of polynomial representations of QOR approximations to solutions of linear systems and eigenvectors. The results are applicable to exact arithmetic, finite precision computations including semiduality approaches, and inexact methods. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Sensitive bioanalysis—combining single-molecule spectroscopy with mono-labeled self-quenching probes

Fluorescence single-molecule spectroscopy is an appropriate tool for modern bioanalysis. This technique enables the development of ultra sensitive assays, especially when combined with self-quenching probes. In this review we report novel DNA, enzyme, and antibody assays based on mono-labeled fluorescent probes that are quenched by photoinduced electron transfer (PET).     

Bootstrapping continuous-time autoregressive processes

We develop a bootstrap procedure for Lévy-driven continuous-time autoregressive (CAR) processes observed at discrete regularly-spaced times. It is well known that a regularly sampled stationary Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process [i.e. a CAR(1) process] has a discrete-time autoregressive representation with i.i.d. noise. Based on this representation a simple bootstrap procedure can be found. Since regularly sampled CAR processes of higher order satisfy ARMA equations with uncorrelated (but in general dependent) noise, a more general bootstrap procedure is needed for such processes. We consider statistics depending on observations of the CAR process at the uniformly-spaced times, together with auxiliary observations on a finer grid, which give approximations to the derivatives of the continuous time process. This enables us to approximate the state-vector of the CAR process which is a vector-valued CAR(1) process, and whose sampled version, on the uniformly-spaced grid, is a multivariate AR(1) process with i.i.d. noise. This leads to a valid residual-based bootstrap which allows replication of CAR $(p)$ processes on the underlying discrete time grid. We show that this approach is consistent for empirical autocovariances and autocorrelations.     

Magnetic and luminescent properties of manganese-doped ZnSe crystals

Magnetic and photoluminescent properties of manganese-doped ZnSe crystals with different impurity concentrations were investigated. The concentration of Mn²⁺ ions in ZnSe crystals has been varied from 0.01 to 0.3 at%. Magnetic and photoluminescent studies have confirmed the introduction of Mn in ZnSe crystals. It was established that Mn²⁺ ions are responsible for the emission bands with maximum at 616 nm and 633 nm, which correspond to ⁴T₂→⁶A₁ and ⁴T₁→⁶A₁ intracentre transitions of Mn²⁺ ions respectively. It was found that the concentration quenching of the photoluminescent bands is associated with Mn²⁺ ions, which are due to the formation of Mn–Mn clusters. Magnetic properties studies have shown that at high doping levels the manganese atoms form Mn–Mn clusters in ZnSe. From the temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility of ZnSe:Mn crystals that follows the Curie–Weiss law, it was possible to estimate the Curie–Weiss temperature Θ(x) and the effective Mn–Mn antiferromagnetic exchange constant (J₁).