Preparation and application of rifamycin-capped (3-(2-O-β-cyclodextrin)-2-hydroxypropoxy)-propylsilyl-appended silica particles as chiral stationary phase for high-performance liquid chromatography

Rifamycin-capped (3-(2-O-β-cyclodextrin)-2-hydroxypropoxy)-propylsilyl-appended silica particles (RCD-HPS), a new type of substituted β-cyclodextrin-bonded chiral stationary phase (CSP) for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), have been synthesized by the treatment of bromoacetate-substituted-(3-(2-O-β-cyclodextrin)-2-hydroxypropoxy)-propylsilyl-appended silica particles (BACD-HPS) with rifamycin SV in anhydrous acetonitrile. The stationary phase is characterized by means of elemental analysis and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. This new CSP has a chiral selector with two recognition sites: rifamycin and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). The chromatographic behavior of RCD-HPS was studied with several disubstituted benzenes and some chiral drug compounds under reversed-phase HPLC mobile phase conditions. The results show that RCD-HPS has excellent selectivity for the separation of aromatic positional isomers and enantiomers of chiral compounds due to the cooperative functioning of rifamycin and β-CD.     

Challenges associated with the synthesis of unusual o-carboxamido stilbenes by the Heck protocol: Intriguing substituent effects, their toxicological and chemopreventive implications

The syntheses of fourteen unusual o-carboxamido stilbenes by the Heck protocol revealed surprising complexity related to intriguing substituent effects with mechanistic implications. The unexpected cytotoxic and chemopreventive properties also seem to be substituent dependent. For example, although stilbene 15d (with a 4-methoxy substituent) showed cytotoxicity on HT29 colon cancer cells with an IC(50) of 4.9 μM, the 3,4-dimethoxy derivative (15c) is inactive. It is interesting to observe that the 3,5-dimethoxy derivative (15e) showed remarkable chemopreventive activity in WRL-68 fetal hepatocytes, surpassing the gold standard, resveratrol. The resveratrol concentration needed to be 5 times higher than that of 15e to produce comparable elevation of NQO1.     

Tunable luminescence and energy transfer process between Tb3+ and Eu3+ in GYAG:Bi3+, Tb3+, Eu3+ phosphors

A series of Eu³⁺ ions co-doped (Gd_0.9Y_0.1)₃Al₅O₁₂:Bi³⁺, Tb³⁺ (GYAG) phosphors have been synthesized by means of solvothermal reaction method. The XRD pattern of GYAG phosphor sintered at 1500 °C confirms their garnet phase. The luminescence properties of these phosphors have been explored by analyzing their excitation and emission spectra along with their decay curves. The excitation spectra of the GYAG:Bi³⁺, Tb³⁺, Eu³⁺ phosphors consists of broad bands in the shorter wavelength region due to 4f⁸ → 4f⁷5d¹ transition of Tb³⁺ ions overlapped with 6s² → 6s¹6p¹ (¹S₀ → ³P₁) transition of Bi³⁺ ions and the charge transfer band of Eu³⁺–O^2?. The present phosphors exhibit green and red colors due to ⁵D₄ → ⁷F₅ transition of Tb³⁺ ions and ⁵D₀ → ⁷F₁ transition of Eu³⁺ ions, respectively. The emission was shifted from green to red color by co-doping with Eu³⁺ ions, which indicate that the energy transfer probability from Tb³⁺ to Eu³⁺ ions are dependent strongly on the concentration of Eu³⁺ ions.     

Solvent-bar microextraction of herbicides combined with non-aqueous field-amplified sample injection capillary electrophoresis

Solvent-bar microextraction (SBME) based on two-phase (water-to-organic) extraction was for the first time used as the sample pretreatment method for the non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) of herbicides of environmental concern. Due to the compatibility of the extractant organic solvent and the NACE separation system, the extract could be introduced directly to the CE system after SBME. Through investigations of the effect of sample pH, extraction time, agitation speed and salt addition on extraction efficiency, the most suitable extraction conditions were determined: sample solution at a pH of 1, without added salt, and stirring at 700 revolutions per minute for 30 min. SBME as applied here was also compared with single-drop microextraction and hollow fiber-protected liquid-phase microextraction. SBME showed the highest extraction efficiency. In addition, field-amplified sample injection with pre-introduced organic solvent plug removal using the electroosmotic flow as a pump (FAEP) was used to enhance the sensitivity further in NACE. Based on studies of the effect of different organic solvents, different lengths of the organic plugs and different volumes of sample injection on stacking efficiency under the most suitable separation conditions, methanol was found to be the most efficient solvent for on-line preconcentration. Combined with SBME, FAEP-NACE achieved limits of detection of between 0.08 ng/mL and 0.14 ng/mL for the studied analytes. This preconcentration approach for NACE was demonstrated to be amenable to aqueous environmental samples by applying it to spiked river water.     

Development of Vancomycin-Capped β-CD-Bonded Silica Particles as Chiral Stationary Phase for LC

Vancomycin-capped (3-(2-O-β-cyclodextrin)-2-hydroxypropoxy)-propylsilyl-appended silica particles (VCD-HPS), a new type of substituted β-cyclodextrin-bonded chiral stationary phase (CSP) for liquid chromatography (LC), have been synthesized by treatment of bromoacetate-substituted-(3-(2-O-β-cyclodextrin)-2-hydroxypropoxy)-propylsilyl-appended silica particles (BACD-HPS) with vancomycin in anhydrous methanol. The stationary phase is characterized by elemental analysis. This new CSP has a chiral selector with two recognition sites: vancomycin and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD), which can provide multiple interactions with the solutes. The chromatographic performance of VCD-HPS was studied with several disubstituted benzenes and some chiral drug compounds as solutes in reversed-phase LC. The results show that VCD-HPS has excellent selectivity for the separation of aromatic positional isomers and enantiomers of chiral compounds.     

Synthesis and optical properties of 10 mol% Ce, 5 mol% Tb co-doped KGdF4 and GdF3 submicro/nanocrystals

By controlling the pH values of prepared solutions, the 10 mol% Ce³⁺, 5 mol% Tb³⁺ co-doped KGdF₄ (synthesized with pH = 3) and the 10 mol% Ce³⁺, 5 mol% Tb³⁺ co-doped GdF₃ (synthesized with pH = 1) submicro/nanocrystals have been synthesized based on a citric acid assisted hydrothermal method. For comparison, the samples synthesized by co-precipitation method (without hydrothermal treatment) with pH = 3 and 1 were also collected. The X-ray diffraction data illustrate that the hydrothermal treated KGdF₄ sample crystallizes in the cubic phase and the GdF₃ sample crystallizes in the orthorhombic phase. However, the samples synthesized by co-precipitation method with pH = 3 and 1 are both cubic phase KGdF₄. The field emission scanning electron microscopy images suggest that the hydrothermal treated KGdF₄ submicro/nanocrystals present spherical morphology and the GdF₃ submicrocrystals are rhombic-shaped. And the photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra as well as the luminescent dynamic curves demonstrate the difference in optical properties of the two hydrothermal treated samples.     

Low emissivity Ag/Si/glass thin films deposited by sputtering

Si was deposited on the glass substrate as an interlayer for the 2-D growth of Ag thin films because Si has a strong binding energy against Ag and can lead to a negative surface energy change in Ag/glass. The Si interlayer induced an extremely smooth and flat Ag surface, which effectively reduced the resistance and enhanced the reflectance in the IR region. In particular, Ag (9 nm)/Si (3 nm)/glass showed 0.074 emissivity and ∼91% reflectance in the IR region with 67% transmittance in the visible region.     

Determination of Allosteric Effects and Interstrand Bidentate Interactions in DNA‐Peptide Molecular Recognition

To study DNA allostery, quantitative DNase I footprinting studies were carried out on a newly designed peptide His‐Hyp‐Lys‐Lys‐(Py)₄‐Lys‐Lys‐NH₂ (HypKK‐10) containing the XHypKK (Hyp = hydroxyproline) and polyamide motifs. The interconnection of DNA footprints of peptides HypKK‐10 and the parent peptide PyPro‐12 supports the proposal that interaction network cooperativity is preferred in DNA‐peptide interactions between multiple recognition sites. A simple method of determining interstrand bidentate interactions between the peptide moieties and DNA bases is introduced. It is envisaged that interstrand bidentate interactions also participate in the relay of conformational changes to recognition sites on the complementary strands. Circular dichroism studies of the titration of peptide HypKK‐10 with an oligonucleotide duplex indicate that this peptide binds in a dimeric fashion to DNA in the minor groove. This work may prompt the design of new DNA binding ligands for the study of DNA‐peptide allosteric interactions and DNA interaction network.     

Risk in Inventory Models: The Case of the Newsboy Problem — Optimality Conditions

A recent article in this journal employs the capital-asset pricing model for the analysis of the newsboy problem and shows how the covariance risk affects the optimal inventory policy. The purpose of this paper is to sharpen the optimality conditions given by the article and hence to provide a simple method for finding the solution. Under reasonable assumptions, this paper shows that the optimal ordering policy can be described by a single equation, regardless of the sign of the covariance term.     

Surface chemkin: A general formalism and software for analyzing heterogeneous chemical kinetics at a gas-surface interface

This article describes a general kinetic formalism for treating the details of heterogeneous reactions at a gas-solid interface. We develop a nomenclature for treating reactions between the gas phase and surface species residing on any number of surface site types and bulk-phase species residing in bulk-phase mixtures or in pure bulk phases. The rate of progress of surface reactions follows the law of mass-action. We discuss the relationship between macroscopic conservation laws for mass and energy and the microscopic surface reaction rates as they might appear in boundary conditions for a chemically reacting flow. The formalism developed has been implemented in a general package of Fortran computer codes for the evaluation of complex surface-reaction kinetics called Surface Chemkin.