Determination of peptide hormones of brain and intestine by CE with ESI-MS detection

A new method for the determination of the peptide hormones of brain and intestine based on CE coupling with a DAD and ESI-MS was established. Several electrophoretic and ESI-MS parameters were investigated in detail, such as electrolyte nature and concentration, organic solvent and sheath liquid compositions, nebulization gas pressure and the ESI capillary voltage. Optimized conditions were achieved with 25 mM formic acid-ammonium formate (pH 2.9) as the optimal electrolyte, 2 mM formic acid in 80% methanol in water as the sheath liquid, and 20 kV applied voltage. Under the optimized conditions, four protonated peptides were separated by CE and selectively detected by a quadrupole mass spectrometer with a sheath flow ESI interface. LODs for the four peptides (neurotensin hexapeptide, neurotensin, cholecystokinin tetrapeptide, and pentagastrin) were in the range of 0.10-0.60 micromol/L at an S/N of 3. The RSDs (n = 8) of the method were 0.70-1.5% for migration times and 1.6-6.1% for peak areas. This method is simple, rapid, and selective compared with RIA and ELISA techniques, and has been applied to the analysis of rat hypothalamus tissue.     

Torsion p-adic Galois representations and a conjecture of Fontaine

Let p be a prime, K a finite extension of Qp and T a finite free Zp-representation of . We prove that TZp_⊗Qp is semi-stable (resp. crystalline) with Hodge-Tate weights in {0,…,r} if and only if, for all n, T/pnT is torsion semi-stable (resp. crystalline) with Hodge-Tate weights in {0,…,r}.     

Prediction of 31P nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shifts for phosphines

Quantitative relationships of the (31)P NMR chemical shifts of the phosphorus atoms in 291 phosphines with the atomic ionicity index (INI) and stereoscopic effect parameters (epsilon(alpha), epsilon(beta), epsilon(gamma)) were primarily investigated in this paper for modeling some fundamental quantitative structure-spectroscopy relationships (QSSR). The results indicated that the (31)P NMR chemical shifts of phosphines can be described as the quantitative equation by multiple linear regression (MLR): delta(p)(ppm)= -174.0197-2.6724INI+40.4755epsilon(alpha)+15.1141epsilon(beta)-3.1858epsilon(gamma), correlation coefficient R=0.9479, root mean square error (rms)=13.9, and cross-validated predictive correlation coefficient was found by using the leave-one-out procedure to be Q(2)=0.8919. Furthermore, through way of random sampling, the estimative stability and the predictive power of the proposed MLR model were examined by constructing data set randomly into both the internal training set and external test set of 261 and 30 compounds, respectively, and then the chemical shifts were estimated and predicted with the training correlation coefficient R=0.9467 and rms=13.4 and the external predicting correlation coefficient Q(ext)=0.9598 and rms=10.8. A partial least square model was developed that produced R=0.9466, Q=0.9407 and Q(ext)=0.9599, respectively. Those good results provided a new, simple, accurate and efficient methodology for calculating (31)P NMR chemical shifts of phosphines.     

An effective metallohydrolase model with a supramolecular environment: structures, properties, and activities

A supramolecular inclusion complex, [Zn(L1)(H2O)2(beta-CD)](ClO4)2.9.5 H2O (1) was synthesized and characterized structurally and its first-order active species for hydrolysis of esters, [Zn(L1)(H2O)(OH)(beta-CD)](ClO4) (2), was isolated (L1=4-(4'-tert-butylbenzyl)diethylenetriamine; beta-CD=beta-cyclodextrin). The apparent inclusion stability constant of the host and the guest measured in aqueous solution was (5.91+/-0.03)x10(3) for 1. The measured values of the first- and second-order pK(a) values of coordinated water molecules were 8.20+/-0.08 and 10.44+/-0.08, respectively, and were assigned to water molecules occupying the plane and remaining axial positions in a distorted trigonal bipyramid of the [Zn(L1)(H2O)2(beta-CD)]2+ sphere according to the structural analysis of [Zn(L2)(H2O)}2(mu-OH)](ClO4)3 (3) (L2=4-benzyldiethylenetriamine). p-Nitrophenyl acetate (pNA) hydrolysis catalyzed by 1 at pH 7.5-9.1 and 25.0+/-0.1 degrees C exhibited a first-order reaction with various concentrations of pNA and 1, but the pH profile did not indicate saturated kinetic behavior. Second-order rate constants of 0.59 and 24.0 M(-1) s(-1) were calculated for [Zn(L1)(H2O)(OH)(beta-CD)]+ and [Zn(L1)(OH)2(beta-CD)], respectively; the latter exhibited a potent catalytic activity relative to the reported mononuclear and polynuclear Zn(II) species.     

Determination of phosphate using a highly sensitive paired emitter-detector diode photometric flow detector

The use of a novel inexpensive photometric device, a paired emitter-detector diode (PEDD) has been applied to the colorimetric determination of phosphate using the malachite green spectrophotometric method. The novel miniaturized flow detector applied within this manifold is a highly sensitive, low cost, miniaturized light emitting diode (LED) based detector. The optical flow cell was constructed from two LEDs, whereby one is the light source and the second is the light detector, with the LED light source forward biased and the LED detector reversed biased. The photocurrent generated by the LED light source discharges the junction capacitance of the detector diode from 5 V (logic 1) to 1.7 V (logic 0) and the time taken for this process to occur is measured using a simple timer circuit.The malachite green (MG) method employed for phosphate determination is based on the formation of a green molybdophosphoric acid complex, the intensity of which is directly related to phosphate concentration. Optimum analytical parameters such as reaction kinetics, reagent to sample concentration ratio and emitter wavelength intensity were investigated for the spectrophotometric method. Linear calibration plots that obeyed the Beer-Lambert law were obtained for phosphate in the range of 0.02-2 μM. The dynamic range, sensitivity and limits of detection are reported.     

Metal phosphonates based on bis(benzimidazol-2-ylmethyl)imino methylenephosphonate: from discrete dimer to two-dimensional network containing metallomacrocycles

Hydrothermal reactions of bis(benzimidazol-2-ylmethyl)imino(methylenephosphonic acid) {[(C(7)H(5)N(2))CH(2)]2NCH(2)PO(3)H(2), bbimpH2} with metal salts result in four new compounds, namely, Mn2{[(C(7)H(5)N(2))CH2]2NCH(2)PO(3)}2(H2O)2.2H2O (1), Cd2{[(C(7)H(5)N(2))CH2]2NCH(2)PO(3)}2.2H2O (2), Fe2{[(C(7)H(5)N(2))CH2]2NCH(2)PO(3)}2.H2O (3), and CuI(2){[(C(7)H(5)N(2))CH2]2NCH(2)P(OH)O2}2 (4). Compounds 1 and 2 have dinuclear structures in which two {MN(3)O(3)} octahedra are linked through edge sharing. In compound 3, a chain structure is observed where the {FeN(3)O(2)} trigonal bipyramids are linked by {CPO(3)} tetrahedra through corner-sharing. The structure of compound 4 is unique. The monovalent Cu(I) ions are connected by the imidazole nitrogen atoms from the bbimp(2-) ligands forming a 16-member metallomacrocycle. These metallomacrocycles are further connected by the phosphonate oxygen atoms, leading to a two-dimensional net containing 16- and 32-member rings. Magnetic studies of 1 and 3 reveal that weak ferromagnetic interactions are mediated between magnetic centers in compound 1, while antiferromagnetic interactions were observed in compound 3.     

Large-scale separation of hydroxyanthraquinones from Rheum palmatum L. by pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography

pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography was successfully applied to purify four hydroxyanthraquinones, rhein, emodin, aloe-emodin and chrysophanol, from three crude extracts of Rheum palmatum L.. After the two-phase solvent system methyl tert-butyl ether-tetrahydrofuran-water at an optimized volume ratio of 2:2:3 (v/v) was equilibrated, trifluoroacetic acid (10 mM) was added to the organic phase as a retainer and ammonia (10 mM), sodium carbonate (15 mM) and sodium hydroxide (15 mM) were added to the aqueous phase as the eluter, respectively, for three individual runs. Three separation runs of 1.25, 1.53 and 1.41 g of the three crude samples yielded four hydroxyanthraquinones: 0.70 g rhein, 0.81 g emodin, 0.41 g aloe-emodin and 0.94 g chrysophanol at a high purity of over 99.0, 98.5, 98.2 and 97.8% (determined by HPLC), respectively. The structures were identified by electrospray ionization MS-MS and (1)H NMR.     

Preparation of Ce-TiO2 catalysts by controlled hydrolysis of titanium alkoxide based on esterification reaction and study on its photocatalytic activity

The Ce-TiO2 catalysts were prepared by controlled hydrolysis of Ti(OC(4)H(9))(4) with water generated "in situ" via an esterification reaction between acetic acid and ethanol, followed by hydrothermal treatment. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic absorption flame emission spectroscopy (AAS), and nitrogen adsorption-desorption methods. Both of undoped TiO2 and Ce-TiO2 samples exclusively consist of primary anatase crystallites, which further form spherical aggregates with diameters ranging from 100 to 500 nm. The photocatalytic activity of Ce-TiO2 was investigated for the photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RB) aqueous solution both under UV and visible light irradiation. Doping of Ce(4+) effectively improves the photocatalytic activity under both UV light irradiation and visible light irradiation with an optimal doping concentration of 0.2 and 0.4%, respectively. The photocatalytic mechanisms of Ce-TiO2 catalysts were tentatively discussed.