Determination of cyclosporin A in the serum of kidney transplant patients by rapid-flow fractionation and normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

High-performance liquid chromatography was used to determine cyclosporin A (CsA) concentrations in the serum of kidney transplant patients by rapid-flow fractionation (RFF) followed by silica gel normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The extraction of CsA from serum was achieved by RFF using a short diatomaceous earth column eluted with diethyl ether-n-hexane (50:50, v/v). The recovery was more than 80% at concentrations of 50-150 micrograms/l. The concentration of this compound was determined by HPLC using a conventional silica gel column with 3.3 M ammonia solution-ethanol-n-hexane (0.31:10.69:89, v/v) as eluent. Concentration calibration was made on the basis of the peak-height ratio of CsA to CsD as the internal standard. The coefficient of variation of this assay was less than 6.5% and the results were used for the therapeutic drug monitoring of CsA administered to kidney transplant patients. Measurements of the CsA concentrations in 160 serum specimens were also made by conventional radioimmunoassay (RIA) using commercial kits. The data obtained by RIA were on average 2.5 times those obtained by HPLC. Higher values in RIA were observed characteristically with patients with severe disfunction resulting from CsA hepatotoxicity. From the results, it appeared that HPLC rather than RIA provides more precise and reliable values for the concentration of this drug.     

The study of cluster phenomenon at accelerator energies

Correlation between the particles from the proton-nucleus interactions in emulsion at 70 GeV/c is presented through the study of the rapidity gap analysis and compared with the two-particle rapidity correlations. It is observed that the strength of correlation decreases as the size of cluster increases. Asymmetry between the forward and backward components were also studied.Authors are thankful to Prof. K. D. Tolstov, JINR, Dubna, USSR for sending the exposed emulsion plates. Thanks are also due to UGC for financial assistance. We sincerely acknowledge the encouragement from Prof. T. Roy.     

New HPLC-chiral stationary phases for enantiomeric resolution of sulfoxides and selenoxides

Summary Enantiomers of several sulfoxides and some selenoxides can be easily separated by using a new chiral stationary phase (CSP-DACH-DNB) containing the 3,5-dinitrobenzoyl derivative of R,R-(-)1,2-diamino-cyclohexane as selector, covalently bonded to the siliceous matrix. The easy operative conditions and the high enantioselectivity values (α) allow a direct transfer of the analytical separations to a semi-preparative and preparative scale.     

Preparation and electrical characterization of (PVC + KBrO3) polymer electrolytes for solid state battery applications

This paper presents results of studies on dc electrical conductivity and transference number measurements on potassium bromate (KBrO₃) complexed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) films prepared by solution cast technique. Temperature dependence of dc electrical conductivity and transference number data indicated the dominance of ion type charge transport in these specimens. The magnitude of conductivity increased with increase in concentration of the salt and temperature. Using this (PVC + KBrO₃) electrolyte, solid-state electrochemical cells were fabricated, and their discharge profiles were studied under a constant load of 100 kΩ. Several cell profiles such as open circuit voltage, short circuit current, power density, and energy density associated with these cells were evaluated and were reported. The features of complexation of the electrolytes were studied by X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Paper presented at the Third International Conference on Ionic Devices (ICID 2006), Chennai, Tamilnadu, India, Dec. 7–9, 2006     

Choice of modelling technique for evaluating health care interventions

Economic evaluation, such as cost effectiveness analysis, provides a method for comparing healthcare interventions. These evaluations often use modelling techniques such as decision trees, Markov processes and discrete event simulations (DES). With the aid of examples from coronary heart disease, the use of these techniques in different health care situations is discussed. Guidelines for the choice of modelling technique are developed according to the characteristics of the health care intervention.The choice of modelling technique is shown to depend on the acceptance of the modelling technique, model ‘error’, model appropriateness, dimensionality and ease and speed of model development. Generally decision trees are suitable for acute interventions but they cannot model recursion and Markov models are suitable for simple chronic interventions. It is further recommended that population based models be used in order to provide health care outcomes for the likely cost, health benefits and cost effectiveness of the intervention. The population approach will complicate the construction of the model. DES will allow the modeller to construct more complex, dynamic and accurate systems but these may involve a corresponding increase in development time and expense. The modeller will need to make a judgement on the necessary complexity of the model in terms of interaction of individuals and model size and whether queuing for resources, resource constraints or the interactions between individuals are significant issues in the health care system.     

Convergence rates for Markov chain order estimates using EDC criterion

The Efficient Determination Criterion (EDC) generalizes the AIC and BIC criteria and provides a class of consistent estimators for the order of a Markov chain with finite state space. In this note, we derive rates of convergence for the EDC estimates. *Partially supported by CNPq, CAPES/PROCAD, FAPDF/PRONEX, FINATEC and FUNPE/UnB. **Partially supported by CAPES.     

Bimodal fission in binary and ternary spontaneous fission of 252Cf

The hot bimodal fission of ²⁵²Cf is reexamined with new high-statistics data. We constructed a γ-γ-γ coincidence cube for binary fission and LCP-gated γ-γ matrix for ternary fission. By identifying the secondary fission fragments from their γ-ray transitions, we measured the yields for various fission splits. The normal neutron yield distribution is found to be Gaussian for Xe-Ru. However, the binary fission split of Ba-Mo is found to exhibit a bimodal neutron distribution with the “hot mode” corresponding to ≈3.1% of the total yield. In α ternary fission, the first measurements of yields for specific fission splits are presented. The Te-α-Ru and Xe-α-Mo neutron yields fit well with a single mode, but the Ba-α-Zr split shows evidence for an enhanced hot mode with an intensity of ≈13.8% of the normal mode. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Effect of the electric field on “incommensurate-commensurate” magnetic phase transitions in BiFeO3-type multiferroics

The specific features of the “incommensurate-commensurate” phase transitions induced by a magnetic field in multiferroics (materials with coexisting magnetic and electric ordering) are considered. These materials are ferroelectromagnets, for example, bismuth ferrite BiFeO₃ and BiFeO₃-based compounds, which have spatially modulated spin structures. It is shown that the interaction between the electric and magnetic subsystems of the multiferroic material can lead to an electric-field-induced shift of the critical magnetic field corresponding to the transition from a spatially modulated state to a homogeneous antiferromagnetic state. According to the theoretical estimates obtained for material parameters characteristic of the bismuth ferrite, this shift is of the order of 0.5 T in an electric field of 50 kV/cm. The phase diagrams are constructed in the “electric field-magnetic field” coordinates. The results of calculations performed in the harmonic incommensurate structure approximation are compared with the exact soliton solution.