Double Modification of Electrode Surface for the Selective Detection of Epinephrine and Its Application to Flow Injection Amperometric Analysis

A glassy carbon electrode having two polymer layers has been applied to selectively detect epinephrine. The inner layer formed by electropolymerization of macrocyclic nickel complex functioned as an electrocatalyst for epinephrine oxidation and the outer layer composed of hydrolyzed polyurethane γ‐benzyl L ‐glutamate as a screening layer. Differential pulse voltammetry showed almost 100% recovery of epinephrine even in 100‐fold excess of interferents. When applied to a dual glassy carbon electrode as an amperometric detector in flow injection analysis, a linear response over 0.1 μM and 10 μM was obtained. Recovery tested for 5‐fold diluted human urine samples was 97.5%.     

Controllability of series connections of arbitrarily many linear systems

In this paper we study the controllability of series connections of arbitrarily many linear systems. As the main result, we completely determine the controllability and the possible controllability indices of a system obtained by a special series connection of arbitrarily many linear systems.     

Photoluminescence kinetics of wurtzite GaN quantum dots in an AlN matrix

The photoluminescence (PL) of GaN quantum dots in an AlN matrix is studied. It is found that the maximum of the PL line does not shift when the laser excitation power varies. The transient PL spectra indicate that the quenching kinetics is nonexponential and the quenching law depends on the spectral range. The experimental data are explained in the framework of a model taking into account the strong built-in electric field in wurtzite structures and the transport of charge carriers between them.     

A monotonicity property of the composition of regularized and inverted-regularized gamma functions with applications

The gamma function and its various modifications such as the (upper) incomplete, regularized and inverted-regularized incomplete gamma functions are of importance in both theory and applications. In this note we observe an ‘if and only if ’ relationship between a certain axiom of insurance risk management and a monotonicity property of the composition of regularized and inverted-regularized incomplete gamma functions, assuming that the risks follow gamma distributions. We derive the monotonicity property by utilizing the above noted relationship and a probabilistic technique. The aforementioned insurance axiom, called consistent no-undercut, is explained in detail and related to several techniques of analysis.     

Performance evaluation of a wave-front displacement system for vectorial shearing interferometer

We describe a wave-front displacement system using a novel configuration of a pair of wedge prisms. The wave-front propagation, through the displacement system, is analyzed using the exact ray trace. The main advantage, of this configuration, is that the shearing (direction and magnitude) is constant from the displacement system to the image plane. The direction of the shearing depends on the relative orientation of the prisms. The magnitude of the shearing is proportional to the distance between prisms. The proportionality constant depends on the wedge angle and the material of fabrication of the prisms, and it gives the sensitivity to the displacement of the system. The deviation of the shearing due to the difference between the wedge angles is larger than that the produced by the oblique incidence of the wave-front. The experimental results confirm the theoretical data.     

Synthesis of 4‐Vinyl‐1H‐1,2,3‐triazoles on Solid Supports via Polystyrene‐Bound But‐3‐ynyl Selenide

A facile method for solid‐phase organic synthesis of 1‐substituted‐4‐vinyl‐1,2,3‐triazoles from polystyrene‐supported but‐3‐ynyl selenide has been developed. This sequential [3+2] cycloaddition and oxidation–elimination reactions could be carried out under mild reaction conditions with straightforward operation and good yield and purity of the products, and broad scope of substrates, and could be applied in this reaction system in generation of a small library of title compounds.     

A novel soluble polyamide containing xanthene structure and trifluoromethylphenoxy pendent

<正>A novel polyamide containing xanthene structure and trifluoromethylphenoxy pendent was prepared from 9,9-bis[4-(4- aminophenoxy)phenyl]xanthene,a novel diamine with 2-(4-trifluoromethylphenoxy)terephthaloyl chloride,by the low temperature polycondensation.This new polyamide with the inherent viscosity of 0.95 dL/g was amorphous and readily soluble in polar solvents such as DMAc,m-cresol,etc.This polyamide showed the glass transition temperature(T_g) of 236℃,decomposition temperature (Td) at 5%weight loss of 455℃and char yield of 56%at 800℃in N_2.Transparent,flexible,and tough film of the polymer cast from DMAc solution exhibited tensile strength of 93 MPa,elongation at break of 14%,initial moduli of 2.2 GPa.The electric properties such as the dielectric constant of 3.03(1 MHz) and surface resistance(2.78×10~(14)Ω),and the moisture uptake of 1.36% were also described.     

Erratum to: Solution behavior of aqueous mixtures of low and high molecular weight hydrophobic amphiphiles

Mixtures of a hydrophobic triblock copolymer (L121, PEO₅PPO₆₈PEO₅) and a hydrophobic anionic surfactant (AOT, Sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate), each alone forming turbid vesicular solutions in water, aggregate to produce a thermodynamically stable, transparent and isotropic solution. Mixed AOT/L121 aggregates could be confirmed by fluorescence, surface tension, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). In an isotropic region, where mixed aggregates are formed, there is a synergistic interaction between monomers of AOT and L121 in the mixture. In addition, Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) experiments provided evidence that mixed aggregates have the shape of either spheres (with a certain polydispersity) or very short ellipsoids (axial ratio below 2), confirming a transition from giant multilamellar vesicles to small aggregates upon mixing the two hydrophobic amphiphiles. Upon dilution, the morphology changes to disk-like. From an examination of the results of all the methods the peculiar behavior of the mixed AOT/L121 system is explained.     

Grüss-type bounds for covariances and the notion of quadrant dependence in expectation

We show that Grüss-type probabilistic inequalities for covariances can be considerably sharpened when the underlying random variables are quadrant dependent in expectation (QDE). The herein established covariance bounds not only sharpen the classical Grüss inequality but also improve upon recently derived Grüss-type bounds under the assumption of quadrant dependency (QD), which is stronger than QDE. We illustrate our general results with examples based on specially devised bivariate distributions that are QDE but not QD. Such results play important roles in decision making under uncertainty, and particularly in areas such as economics, finance, and insurance.     

Spin-label saturation-recovery EPR at W-band: applications to eye lens lipid membranes

Saturation-recovery (SR) EPR at W-band (94 GHz) to obtain profiles of the membrane fluidity and profiles of the oxygen transport parameter is demonstrated for lens lipid membranes using phosphatidylcholine (n-PC), stearic acid (n-SASL), and cholesterol analog (ASL and CSL) spin labels, and compared with results obtained in parallel experiments at X-band (9.4 GHz). Membranes were derived from the total lipids extracted from 2-year-old porcine lens cortex and nucleus. Two findings are especially significant. First, measurements of the spin-lattice relaxation times T1 for n-PCs allowed T1 profiles across the membrane to be obtained. These profiles reflect local membrane properties differently than profiles of the order parameter. Profiles obtained at W-band are, however, shifted to longer T1 values compared to those obtained at X-band. Second, using cholesterol analog spin labels and relaxation agents (hydrophobic oxygen and water-soluble NiEDDA), the cholesterol bilayer domain was discriminated in membranes made from lipids of the lens nucleus. However, membranes made from cortical lipids show a single homogeneous environment. Profiles of the oxygen transport parameter obtained from W-band measurements are practically identical to those obtained from X-band measurements, and are very similar to those obtained earlier at X-band for membranes made of 2-year-old bovine cortical and nuclear lens lipids (M. Raguz, J. Widomska, J. Dillon, E.R. Gaillard, W.K. Subczynski, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1788 (2009) 2380-2388). Results demonstrate that SR EPR at W-band has the potential to be a powerful tool for studying samples of small volume, ～30 nL, compared with the sample volume of ～3 μL at X-band.