Measurement of dipolar couplings in partially oriented molecules by local field NMR spectroscopy with low-power decoupling

Low-power phase-modulated Lee–Goldburg homonuclear decoupling was used to record PDLF spectra of fluorine-substituted benzene derivatives dissolved in nematic thermotropic liquid crystalline solvents. The low-power decoupling minimizes sample heating during RF irradiation while still achieving highly resolved PDLF spectra. The method is illustrated by recording spectra for 1,3-dichloro-4-fluoro-5-nitrobenzene, 1,3-dichloro-4-fluorobenzene, and 1,2-difluorobenzene dissolved in different nematic solvents.     

Stability of the residual free bubble method for bilinear finite elements on rectangular grids

We consider the nature of the stabilizing term arising in theresidual free bubble approach for piecewise bilinear functionson rectangular grids. We show, that on the subspace of piecewiselinear functions the stabilizing term is identical to that inthe streamline diffusion approach. However, on the space ofpiecewise bilinear functions there is a case in which the stabilizingterm is weaker compared to the term used in the streamline diffusionmethod. In the particular case when the direction of the convectionis parallel to a diagonal of the quadrilateral, control is lostover the mixed derivatives in the convection-dominated limit.     

13C nmr spectroscopy of tetracarbocyclic diterpenes and related substances1

A caarbon shift analysis of hibaene, phyllocladene, cafestol, cafamarine, mascaroside and hilbane-like substances is presented.     

Potentiometric determination of nitrite with an ammonia gas sensor

Nitrite is converted completely to nitrogen by sulfamic acid, the excess of which is determined after conversion to ammonia by acid hydrolysis. Equal aliquots of sample are treated with increasing amounts of sulfamic acid, and potentials are measured after the hydrolysis. Nitrite in the range 1.5 × 10^-5–2 × 10^-2 mol l^-1 can be determined with errors less than 2%.     

Development of a green chromatographic method for determination of fat-soluble vitamins in food and pharmaceutical supplement

A green chromatographic analytical method for determination of fat-soluble vitamins (A, E, D3 and K1) in food and pharmaceutical supplement samples is proposed. The method is based on the modification of a C18 column with a 3.00% (w/v) sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) aqueous solution at pH 7 (0.02 mol L(-1) phosphate buffer solution) and in the usage of the same surfactant solution as mobile phase with the presence of 15.0% (v/v) butyl alcohol as an organic solvent modifier. After the separation process, the vitamins are detected at 230 nm (K1, D3 and E), 280 nm (A, E, D3 and K1) and 300 nm (K1, D3 and E). The chromatographic procedure yielded precise results (better than 5%) and is able to run one sample in 25 min, consuming 1.5 g of SDS, 90 mg of phosphate and 7.5 mL of butyl alcohol. When the flow rate of the mobile phase is 2 mL min(-1) the retention times are 4.0, 9.6, 13.0 and 22.7 min for D3, A, E and K1 vitamins, respectively; and all peak resolutions are higher than 2. The analytical curves present the following linear equations: area=6290+34852 (vitamin A), R2=0.9998; area=4092+36333 (vitamin E), R2=0.9997; area=-794+30382 (vitamin D3) R2=0.9998 and area=-7175+82621 (vitamin K1), R2=0.9996. The limits of detection and quantification for vitamins A, E, D(3) and K(1) were estimated for a test pharmaceutical vitamin supplement sample as 0.81, 1.12, 0.91 and 0.83 mg L(-1) and 2.43, 3.36, 2.73 and 2.49, respectively. When the proposed method was applied to food and pharmaceutical sample analysis, precise results were obtained (R.S.D.<5% and n=3) and in agreement with those obtained by using the classical chromatographic method that uses methanol and acetonitrile as mobile phase. Here, the traditional usage of toxic organic solvent as mobile phase is avoided, which permits to classify the present method as green.     

New analytical tools and epidemiological data for the identification of HbA2 borderline subjects in the screening for beta-thalassemia

The increase of HbA(2) is the most important feature in the identification of beta-thalassemia carriers. However, some carriers are difficult to identify, because the level of HbA(2) is not in the typical range. Few data are available concerning the prevalence of such unusual phenotypes, and knowing their expected prevalence could be helpful in detecting systematic drifts in the analytical systems for HbA(2) quantification. In this study we report a retrospective investigation in two centres with high prevalence of beta-thalassemia. The prevalence of borderline subjects was found to be 2.2 and 3.0%, respectively. The genotypes of a subgroup of these subjects were then analyzed and in about 25% of cases a mutation in the globin genes was identified. We conclude that the occurrence of HbA(2) borderline phenotypes is not a rare event. In order to obtain more accurate HbA(2) measurements the development of an international reference measurement system for HbA(2), based on quantitative peptide mapping, has been recently started. We believe that the innovative approach of our method could also be used as a model to develop accurate quantitative methods for other red cell proteins relevant to the biodynamic properties and the surface electrochemistry of erythrocytes.     

A Simple Synthesis of Triangular All‐Metal Aromatics Allowing Access to Isolobal All‐Metal Heteroaromatics

A simple synthetic method allows the one‐pot assembly of C₃‐symmetric, 44‐core‐valence‐electron, triangular Pd or Pt clusters and their heterobimetallic mixed Pd/Pt analogues. These mixed metal complexes are the first examples of stable triangular all‐metal heteroaromatics. In contrast to traditional heteroaromatic molecules formed combining main‐group elements, they actually retain structural and electronic features of their homonuclear analogues.     

A Non-Adiabatic Flamelet Progress�CVariable Approach for LES of Turbulent Premixed Flames

A progress variable/flame surface density/probability density function method has been employed for a Large Eddy Simulation of a CH₄/Air turbulent premixed bluff body flame. In particular, both mean and variance of the progress variable are transported and subgrid spatially filtered gradient contributes to model the flame surface density (that introduces the effect of the subgrid flame reaction zone) and to presume a probability density function (that introduces the effect of subgrid fluctuations on chemistry). Chemistry is preliminarly tabulated in terms of laminar premixed flames and enthalpy is included as a new coordinate in their tabulation to take into account heat losses in the flowfield. Then, the PDF is used to build a turbulent flamelet library. The filtered mass, momentum, enthalpy and scalar equations mentioned above are integrated by an explicit scheme using finite differences, 2nd?Corder accurate in space and third order in time, over a cylindrical non-uniform grid using a staggered mesh. The bluff-body geometry is modelled by using the Immersed Boundary Method. The numerical predictions are compared with the available experimental data.     

pKa determinations of xanthene derivates in aqueous solutions by multivariate analysis applied to UV-Vis spectrophotometric data

Xanthenes form to an important class of dyes which are widely used. Most of them present three acid-base groups: two phenolic sites and one carboxylic site. Therefore, the pKa determination and the attribution of each group to the corresponding pKa value is a very important feature. Attempts to obtain reliable pKa through the potentiometry titration and the electronic absorption spectrophotometry using the first and second orders derivative failed. Due to the close pKa values allied to strong UV-Vis spectral overlap, multivariate analysis, a powerful chemometric method, is applied in this work. The determination was performed for eosin Y, erythrosin B, and bengal rose B, and also for other synthesized derivatives such as 2-(3,6-dihydroxy-9-acridinyl) benzoic acid, 2,4,5,7-tetranitrofluorescein, eosin methyl ester, and erythrosin methyl ester in water. These last two compounds (esters) permitted to attribute the pKa of the phenolic group, which is not easily recognizable for some investigated dyes. Besides the pKa determination, the chemometry allowed for estimating the electronic spectrum of some prevalent protolytic species and the substituents effects evaluation.