Determination of trace amounts of vanadium in air samples with 2-(8-quinolylazo)-5-N,N-diethylaminophenol by reversed-phase liquid chromatography

A reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method for the determination of trace amounts of vanadium is described. Metal ions are converted into 2-(8-quinolylazo)-5-N,N-diethylaminophenol chelates in an off-line system. The chelates are injected onto a Zorbax CN column and separated with an aqueous acetonitrile mobile phase containing no chromogenic reagent. Unter these conditions, only vanadium(V) is spectrophotometrically detected at 540 nm among the metal ions Al(III), Ba(II), Ca(II), Cd(II), Co(II), Cr(III), Cu(II), Fe(III), Ga(III), Hg(II), Mg(II), Mn(II), Ni(II), Pb(II), V(V) and Zn(II). Amounts of 8.0–200 pg of vanadium(V) in 100-μl injections can be determined without interference from 10-fold molar excesses of many cations. At 0.001 a.u.f.s., the detection limit (twice the peak-to-peak noise) for vanadium(V) is 8.0 pg in 100 μl of injected solution and the relative standard deviation at 120 pg of vanadium(V) in a 100-μl injection is 3.5%. The proposed method is applied to the determination of vanadium in rain water and airborne particulates.     

Temperature-induced reversal of proton tautomerism: role of hydrogen bonding and aggregation in 7-hydroxyquinolines

UV-vis absorption spectra of 7-hydroxyquinolines in saturated hydrocarbon solvents were measured at various temperatures between 293 and 77 K. The tautomeric equilibrium was found to reverse when the temperature was lowered. At 293 K, the enol form was exclusively present. As the temperature was lowered, the enol form decreased substantially, and the keto form became predominant. A close examination of the spectral changes suggests that the reversal of the tautomeric equilibrium at lower temperatures proceeds in two steps: aggregation of the enol forms by intermolecular hydrogen bonding and further aggregation of the hydrogen-bonded aggregates.     

Dynamic processes in endocytic transformation of a raft-exhibiting giant liposome

The dynamic response of a raft-exhibiting giant liposome to external stimuli, such as the addition of Triton X-100 or osmotic stress, was studied. We observed that daughter vesicles are generated inside of the liposome through endocytic budding. It was found that the budding to generate daughter vesicles is classified into two different routes, simple budding through the invagination of a whole raft and budding from the boundary of a raft accompanied by waving motion. Smaller rafts show a preference for simple budding, whereas large rafts mainly adopt the other process. We discuss the mechanism of this difference in terms of the kinetic pathway of internalization by considering the line energy and bending energy of the membrane.     

Analysis of plasma catecholamines by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection: simple sample preparation for pre-column fluorescence derivatization

Analysis of plasma catecholamines (norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine) by high-performance liquid chromatography using 1,2-diphenylethylenediamine as a fluorescent reagent is described. We have developed an automatic catecholamine analyser, based on pre-column fluorescence derivatization and column switching. The analysis time for one assay was 15 min. The correlation coefficients of the linear regression equations were greater than 0.9996 in the range 10-10,000 pg/ml. The detection limit, at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3, was 2 pg/ml for dopamine. A new method of sample preparation for the pre-column fluorescence derivatization of plasma catecholamines was used. In order to protect the catecholamines from decomposition, an ion-pair complex between boric acid and the diol group in the catecholamine was formed at a weakly alkaline pH. The stabilities of plasma catecholamines were evaluated at several temperatures. After complex formation, the catecholamines were very stable at 17 degrees C for 8 h, and the coefficients of variation for norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine were 1.2, 4.2 and 9.3%, respectively.     

Conjugates of stimuli-responsive polymers and biomolecules: Random and site-specific conjugates of temperature-sensitive polymers and proteins

Intelligent polymers exhibit sharp, reversible phase changes in response to small changes in environmental conditions. For example, a small temperature change can cause a sharp precipitation or gelation of a smart polymer solution. Conjugation of these unusual polymers to biomolecules such as enzymes, ligands, lipids, and drugs can lead to many new and exciting applications in medicine and biotechnology. (1–4) This presentation reviews the principles, methodolgies and applications of these “smart” polymer-biomolecule systems, with special focus on temperature-sensitive polymer-protein conjugates.     

Diisobutylaluminum hydride-promoted cyclization of silylated 1,3-dien-5-ynes: Application to total synthesis of a 20-norabietane derivative

The diisobutylaluminum hydride (DIBAL-H)-promoted benzocyclization, recently developed by this group, was adopted for the synthesis of a natural product containing a 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene skeleton to demonstrate its synthetic utility. One of the extracts from the roots of Salvia hydrangea DC. ex Bentham (Lamiaceae), a 20-norabietane derivative, was selected as the target molecule. The key step forming the 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene skeleton was achieved by the DIBAL-H-promoted cyclization of a silylated 1,3-dien-5-yne easily accessible from a substituted α-tetralone.     

Structures of Ganoderic Acid A and B,Two New Lanostane Type Bitter Triterpenes from Ganoderma lucidum (FR.) KARST.

The structures of two new bitter triterpenes, ganoderic acid A and B. isolated from a mushroom Ganoderma lucidum (FR.) Karst. (Polyporaceae) were determined as 1 and 2 on the basis of spectral data. Ganoderic acid A is a novel highly oxidized triterpene bearing a boat-shaped A-ring of lanostane.     

Remark on the Helmholtz decomposition in domains with noncompact boundary

Let \(\varOmega \) be a domain in \(\mathbb {R}^{d+1}\) whose boundary is given as a uniform Lipschitz graph \(x_{d+1}=\eta (x)\) for \(x \in \mathbb {R}^d\) . For such a domain, it is known that the Helmholtz decomposition is not always valid in \(L^p(\varOmega )\) except for the energy space \(L^2 (\varOmega )\) . In this paper we show that the Helmholtz decomposition still holds in certain anisotropic spaces which include vector fields decaying slowly in the \(x_{d+1}\) variable. In particular, these classes include some infinite energy vector fields. For the purpose, we develop a new approach based on a factorization of divergence form elliptic operators whose coefficients are independent of one variable.     

Characterizations of isometric isomorphisms between uniform algebras via nonlinear range-preserving properties

Let be a surjective mapping from a uniform algebra on a compact Hausdorff space onto a uniform algebra on a compact Hausdorff space . Suppose that holds for every . Then we have that is an almost isometric isomorphism, which is a generalization of results of Molnár (2002) and Rao and Roy (2005).