PAST AND FUTURE MANAGEMENT OF A COLLAPSED FISHERY: THE BAY OF BISCAY ANCHOVY

Abstract We analyze the efficiency of the international management of the Bay of Biscay anchovy. While a sharing agreement between France and Spain has been in place since 1992, the fish stock collapsed in 2005 and the fishery closed from 2005 to spring 2010. We consider differences in production technologies between both countries and calibrate our model using data from 1987 to 2009. Our results suggest two sources of rent dissipation under the existing sharing agreement: inefficient quota allocation and production inefficiencies due to inflexible national regulations. We discuss several alternatives to improve management.     

DYNGA: a general purpose QM-MM-MD program. I. Application to water

We present a general purpose QM-MM-MD engine (DYNGA) designed to test alternative hybrid Hamiltonians geared towards the treatment of problems of interest in structural biology including the use of experimental data constraints. In this first presentation we use DYNGA to explore the behaviour of a traditional QM-MM approach in the treatment of the water—water interaction. We find the potential energy hypersurface for the water dimer computed with the HF 4–31G*/TIP3P hybrid Hamiltonian tends to be too flat. We also explore the effect of using traditional QM-MM techniques on proton wires and conclude there is a need for improvement, possibly addressed by using polarizable force fields.     

Spectrophotometric determination of epinephrine and norepinephrine with sodium periodate

A simple and accurate spectrophotometric method is described for the determination of epinephrine (EP), norepinephrine (NE) and their bitartrate salts. The method is based on the development of a red colour (lambda(max) 490 nm) with sodium periodate in aqueous alcoholic medium. The colour is stable for at least 1 hr. The molar reacting ratio of EP or NE to periodate is 1:2. The proposed method is particularly suitable for routine analysis of EP and NE injections. The interference due to the sodium metabisulphite normally used as antioxidant can be overcome by addition of acetone. Results for analysis of bulk drugs and injections agree well with those of official methods.     

ConFlo III - an interface for high precision delta(13)C and delta(15)N analysis with an extended dynamic range

A newly developed interface coupling a CHN combustion device (elemental analyser 'EA') to an isotope ratio mass spectrometer is described and evaluated. The purpose of the device is to extend the dynamic range of delta(13)C and delta(15)N analysis from less than 2 orders of magnitude to more than 3 orders of magnitude. Carbon isotope ratio measurements of atropine as a model compound have been performed analysing between 1 μg to 5 mg C with acceptable to excellent precision (0.6 to 0.06 per thousand, delta-notation). The correction due to the blank signal is critical for sample amounts smaller than 4 μg C. The maximum sample weight is determined by the combustion capacity of the EA. Larger sample amounts are measured using dilution of a small part of the EA effluent with helium. The dilution mechanism works virtually free of isotope fractionation. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Selective behaviour of hyperfiltration cellulose acetate membranes: Part II. Streaming potential

Streaming potentials have been measured by the fast pulse method for cellulose acetate membranes cured at 85 and 95°C. Bounding, solutions of Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Cs⁺, Mg²⁺, Sr²⁺, Ba²⁺ and La³⁺ chlorides were used in the concentration of 10^?4-10^?1M. The streaming potenial was shown to depend on the nature of the cation and to increase with decreasing solution concentration.Rather good consistency was obtained in dilute solutions between the electroosmotic cross coefficients calculated from the streaming potentials and from the electroosmosis measurements for Part I (M.G.A. Khedr, S.M. Abd el Haleem and A. Baraka, J. Electronal. Chem. 182 (1985) 157), according to the Onsager reciprocal relations. The deviation observed at higher concentrations, independent of the cation nature, is attributed to concentration polarization and/or excessive water transport encountered in electroosmosis measurements.Determination of additional phenomenological coefficients of the same system, the hydraulic permeability and the electric resistance enabled the estimation of the effective exchange capacity of modified cellulose acetate membranes. The resulting value of 2.1×10^?3 mol of unit charge/1 of pore liquid is compared to the corresponding values previously reported on a different basis.     

Quantitative thin-layer chromatographic method of analysis of azithromycin in pure and capsule forms

A validated stability-indicating thin-layer chromatographic (TLC) method of the analysis of azithromycin (AZT) in bulk and capsule forms is developed. Both AZT potential impurity and degradation products can be selectively and accurately estimated in both raw material and product onto one precoated silica-gel TLC plate 60F254. The development system used is n-hexane-ethyl acetate-diethylamine (75:25:10, v/v/v). The separated bands are detected as brown to brownish red spots after spraying with modified Dragendorff's solution. The Rf values of AZT, azaerythromycin A, and the three degradation products are 0.54, 0.35, 0.40, 0.20, and 0.12, respectively. The optical densities of the separated spots are found to be linear in proportion to the amount used. The stress testing of AZT shows that azaerythromycin A is the major impurity and degradation product, accompanied by three other unknown degradation products. The stability of AZT is studied under accelerated conditions in order to provide a rapid indication of differences that might result from a change in the manufacturing process or source of the sample. The forced degradation conditions include the effect of heat, moisture, light, acid-base hydrolysis, sonication, and oxidation. The compatibility of AZT with the excipients used is also studied in the presence and absence of moisture. The amounts of AZT and azaerythromycin A are calculated from the corresponding linear calibration curve; however, the amounts of any other generated or detected unknown impurities are calculated as if it were AZT. This method shows enough selectivity, sensitivity, accuracy, precision, linearity-range, and robustness to satisfy Federal Drug Administration/International Conference of Harmonization regulatory requirements. The method developed can also be used for the purity testing of AZT raw material and capsules, content uniformity testing, dissolution testing, and stability testing of AZT capsules. The potential impurity profiles of both active AZT material and capsule forms are found comparable. The linear range of AZT is between 5 and 30 mcg/spot with a limit of quantitation of 2 mcg/spot. The intraassay relative standard deviation percentage is not more than 0.54%, and the day-to-day variation is not more than 0.86%, calculated on the amounts of AZT RS recovered using different TLC plates.     

Explosives detection with electron‐rich polymers

The application of polymeric films as alarms for explosive materials is a critical issue these days as mandated by homeland security requirements. Amongst the multiple advantageous points of applying polymer films in this area is the fact that they are cheap material, so they can be applied on a broad scale for low cost. The basic idea of the current work is based on the fact that common explosives are electron deficient because of the existence of the nitro‐groups in their chemical structures, and this causes their high affinities towards electron rich materials to form charge‐transfer complex. Our endeavor is to trace any charge‐transfer complex formation, which would definitely cause a recognizable change in their physical properties. These changes in the polymers' physical properties could be utilized as alerts for the existence of explosive materials, especially if such changes could be incorporated into sophisticated electronic circuits that would give strong for traces of explosives. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of inorganic oxidants to the spectrophotometric determination of ribavirin in bulk and capsules

Eight spectrophotometric methods for determination of ribavirin have been developed and validated. These methods were based on the oxidation of the drug by different inorganic oxidants: ceric ammonium sulfate, potassium permanganate, ammonium molybdate, ammonium metavanidate, chromium trioxide, potassium dichromate, potassium iodate, and potassium periodate. The oxidation reactions were performed in perchloric acid medium for ceric ammonium sulfate and in sulfuric acid medium for the other reagents. With ceric ammonium sulfate and potassium permanganate, the concentration of ribavirin in its samples was determined by measuring the decrease in the absorption intensity of the colored reagents at 315 and 525 nm, respectively. With the other reagents, the concentration of ribavirin was determined by measuring the intensity of the developed colored reaction products at the wavelengths of maximum absorbance: 675, 780, 595, 595, 475, and 475 nm for reactions with ammonium molybdate, ammonium metavanidate, chromium trioxide, potassium dichromate, potassium iodate, and potassium periodate, respectively. Different variables affecting the reaction conditions were carefully studied and optimized. Under the optimum conditions, linear relationships with good correlation coefficients (0.9984-0.9998) were found between the absorbance readings and the concentrations of ribavirin in the range of 4-1400 microg/mL. The molar absorptivities were correlated with the oxidation potential of the oxidants used. The precision of the methods were satisfactory; the values of relative standard deviation did not exceed 1.64%. The proposed methods were successfully applied to the analysis of ribavirin in pure drug material and capsules with good accuracy and precision; the recovery values were 99.2-101.2 +/- 0.48-1.30%. The results obtained using the proposed spectrophotometric methods were comparable with those obtained with the official method stated in the United States Pharmacopeia.