A novel derivatization approach for simultaneous determination of glyoxal, methylglyoxal, and 3-deoxyglucosone in plasma by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

A two-step derivatization approach has been developed to enable the simultaneous analysis of glyoxal, methylglyoxal, and 3-deoxyglucosone by the most efficient and widely applied GC-MS methodology. These three analytes are reactive carbonyl compounds associated with the formation of advanced glycation and lipoxidation end products, a process thought to contribute to uremic toxicity and referred to as "carbonyl stress". Effective analysis of these compounds would facilitate understanding these compounds' role in diabetes-related complications. Plasma samples were deproteinized by acetonitrile, followed by a two-step derivatization approach. Pooled plasma samples from healthy individuals were used as the "blank" for preparing calibration standards. The concentrations of the analytes in the "blank" were first determined by standard addition method. Calibration parameters were accordingly established and used to analyze these compounds in plasma samples collected from healthy individuals and diabetic patients. Analytical findings are comparable with those reported in the literature. Quantitation data can be further improved by making available and using isotopically labeled analogs of these analytes as the internal standards.     

Irresolvable complex mixture of hydrocarbons in soybean oil deodorizer distillate

Aliphatic hydrocarbons (HCs) can be used as a fingerprint of a given seed oil. Only by characterization of aliphatic HCs could contamination by mineral oil in that seed oil be confirmed. During the isolation of squalene from soybean oil deodorizer distillate, a significant amount of unknown HCs, ca. 44 wt%, was obtained. These seemingly‐easy‐to‐identify HCs turned out to be much more difficult to elucidate due to the presence of an irresolvable complex mixture (ICM). The objective of this study was to purify and identify the unknown ICM of aliphatic HCs from soybean oil deodorizer distillate. Purification of the ICM was successfully achieved by using modified Soxhlet extraction, followed by modified preparative column chromatography, and finally by classical preparative column chromatography. FT‐IR, TLC, elemental analysis, GC/FID, NMR and GC‐MS analyses were then performed on the purified HCs. The GC chromatogram detected the presence of ICM peaks comprising two major peaks and a number of minor peaks. Validation methods such as IR and NMR justified that the unknowns are saturated HCs. This work succeeded in tentatively identifying the two major peaks in the ICM as cycloalkane derivatives.     

Impact of Statistical Multiplexing on Voice Quality in Cellular Networks

This paper examines the quality of transmission of voice over cellular, packet-switched networks. The medium access mechanism in the uplink is simulated under various statistical multiplexing scenarios in order to assess the effect of front-end clipping on voice quality. Moreover, the simulation is implemented in a real-time demonstration platform utilized to acquire subjective indicators of voice quality by performing Mean Opinion Score (MOS) tests. Results from the MOS tests are reported, and an analysis of the obtained speech samples is presented. Finally, the results are summarized and potential further directions for the simulation tool and the speech models are discussed.     

The symmetry of least-energy solutions for semilinear elliptic equations

In this paper we will apply the method of rotating planes (MRP) to investigate the radial and axial symmetry of the least-energy solutions for semilinear elliptic equations on the Dirichlet and Neumann problems, respectively. MRP is a variant of the famous method of moving planes. One of our main results is to consider the least-energy solutions of the following equation:

(∗)     

Reciprocity between partitions and compositions

The Ramanujan Journal - In this paper, we extend the work of Andrews, Beck and Hopkins by considering partitions and compositions with bounded gaps between each pair of consecutive parts. We show...     

Preparation and properties of polyamides and polyimides derived from 1,3-diaminoadamantane

1,3-Diaminoadamantane (I) was used as a monomer with various aromatic dicarboxylic acyl chlorides and dianhydrides to synthesize polyamides and polyimides, respectively. Polyamides having inherent viscosities of 0.10–0.27 dL/g were prepared by low-temperature solution polycondensation. The polyamides were soluble in a variety of solvents such as N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), pyridine, dioxane, and nitrobenzene. These polyamides had glass transition temperatures in the 179–187°C range and 5% weight loss temperatures occurred at up to 354°C. Polyimides based on diamine I and various aromatic dianhydrides were synthesized by the two-stage procedure that included ring-opening to form polyamic acids, followed by thermal conversion to polyimides. The polyamic acids had inherent viscosities of 0.14–0.38 dL/g. The glass transition temperature of these polyimides were in the 245–303°C range and showed almost no weight loss up to 350°C under air and nitrogen atmosphere. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Synthesis and characterization of new polyamides derived from 1,6-bis[4-(4-aminophenoxy)phenyl]diamantane

A series of new polyamides 3 were synthesized by direct polycondensation of the 1,6-bis[4-(4-aminophenoxy)phenyl]diamantane (1) with various dicarboxylic acids. The polyamides had inherent viscosities of 0.45–1.90 dL/g and number-average molecular weights (M_n) of 24,000–110,000. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) reveals that polymers 3 have two relaxations on the temperature scale between −100 and 400°C. Their α relaxations occurred at high temperatures, ranging from 338 to 389°C. Moreover, these polymers remained quite stable at high temperatures and maintained good mechanical properties (G′ = ca. 10⁸ Pa) up to temperatures close to the main transition markedly exceeding 350°C. Due to the bulky diamantane elements and the flexible ether segments, the polymers 3 were amorphous and soluble in a number of organic solvents such as pyridine, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), and N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc). The polyamides 3 have tensile strengths of 56.7–90.2 MPa, elongation to breakage values of 7.5–27.7%, and initial moduli of 1.8–2.1 GPa. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Polym. Sci. A Polym. Chem. 36: 2185–2192, 1998     

Explicit algebraic stress modelling of homogeneous and inhomogeneous flows

Capability of the explicit algebraic stress models to predict homogeneous and inhomogeneous shear flows are examined. The importance of the explicit solution of the production to dissipation ratio is first highlighted by examining the algebraic stress models performance at purely irrotational strain conditions. Turbulent recirculating flows within sudden expanding pipes are further simulated with explicit algebraic stress model and anisotropic eddy viscosity model. Both models predict better stress–strain interactions, showing reasonable shear layer developments. The anisotropic stress field are also accurately predicted by the models, though the anisotropic eddy viscosity model of Craft et al. returns marginally better results. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.