Measurement of elastin hydrolysis by reverse-phase HPLC with on-line post-colum derivatization

Summary Excessive breakdown of elastin, a structural protein, may be related to aortic disease and emphysema. Since L-valyl-L-proline occurs in high concentrations in elastin, a rapid and sensitive method using HPLC with post-column on-line derivatization was used to measure the dipeptide from swine aortic tissue, and the amount of elastin present was determined. Elastin was extracted by alkaline hydrolysis. After neutralization and filtration, the sample was injected onto a ODS-2 gel column, and the dipeptide was eluted by a linear gradient of 0 to 10% of 1-propanol in 50 mM heptafluorobutyrate, pH 3, at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. The eluent was reacted with fluorescamine at pH 8.6, and fluorescence was detected at an excitation wavelength of 395 nm and a 455 nm cutoff emission filter.Presented at the 17th International Symposium on Chromatography, September 25–30, 1988, Vienna, Austria.     

Preparation of rhodium–phyllosilicate catalysts without leaching in liquid-phase 1-hexene hydrogenation

Rhodium catalysts have been prepared on palygorskite and montmorillonite (clay) supports by reduction with hydrogen (1 atmosphere) at room temperature of a cationic organometallic rhodium compound anchored to the support. The activity of these catalysts for the hydrogenation of liquid-phase 1-hexene remains constant with increase of prehydrogenation time and with re-use for several runs. No rhodium leaching is observed.     

The auction algorithm for the transportation problem

The auction algorithm is a parallel relaxation method for solving the classical assignment problem. It resembles a competitive bidding process whereby unassigned persons bid simultaneously for objects, thereby raising their prices. Once all bids are in, objects are awarded to the highest bidder. This paper generalizes the auction algorithm to solve linear transportation problems. The idea is to convert the transportation problem into an assignment problem, and then to modify the auction algorithm to exploit the special structure of this problem. Computational results show that this modified version of the auction algorithm is very efficient for certain types of transportation problems.     

A quark model based on QCD scale anomaly

We consider a quark model based on QCD scale anomaly in which the quarks move in the field of an effective glueball field. Hadrons correspond to solitonic bags of higher energy density in a nonperturbative sea of condensed gluons. We calculate the static properties of nucleon in this model and find that the nucleon mass is far too large (2.4–4 GeV) and the proton charge radius (0.37–0.54 fm) is low. The proton gyromagnetic ratio and g_A/g_v are in reasonable agreement with the experimental numbers.     

Detection of NO traces Using resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization: A method for monitoring atmospheric pollutants

Resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) is proposed as an ultrasensitive detection method forreal-time monitoring of atmospheric pollutants in situ. The technique is demonstrated in the laboratory for NO diluted in pure nitrogen at 560 mbar. The MPI current resulting from (2+1) photon ionization of NO via the resonantC ² H (v=0) state has been measured for several NO concentrations. Detection levels as low as 50 ppt have been obtained.Laboratoire associé à l'Université de Paris-Sud     

Observation of nucleon clusters in the spontaneous decay of234U

The emission of Ne and Mg nuclei was detected in the spontaneous decay of²³⁴U with probabilities of, respectively, (3.9 ±1.0) × 10^?13 and (2.3 ±0.7) × 10^?13 relative toα-decay. The upper limits of this kind of decay for²³⁵U and²³⁶U have been established. Systematics of half-lives for cluster emission are found to be similar to the Geiger-Nuttall dependence forα-decay. Some evidence for the presence of hindrance to cluster emission from the odd-mass nuclei²³³U and²³⁵U is obtained.