A rapid and selective HPLC‐UV method for the quantitation of efavirenz in plasma from patients on concurrent HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis treatments

Owing to heterogeneity in therapeutic response, efavirenz is of research and clinical interest. There is a need to quantitate it using noncostly and selective methods. A method for efavirenz quantitation in plasma containing HIV and tuberculosis drugs was developed. Chromatographic separation was carried out using a C₁₈ column. The mobile phase consisted of 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile, and was pumped at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. Efavirenz and ritonavir (internal standard) were monitored at 247 nm. Plasma proteins were precipitated by centrifugation. The analysis time was 6 min. The response was linear (r = 0.9997). The accuracy ranged between 98 and 115% (intraday) and between 99 and 117% (interday). The precision ranged from 1.670 to 4.087% (intraday) and from 3.447 to 13.347% (interday). Recovery ranged from 98 to 132%. Stability ranged between 99 and 123%. The selectivity was proven by analysis of drugs used for the management of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Plasma sample analysis showed an efavirenz retention time of 5.57 min and a peak plasma concentration of 2.4 µg/mL occurring at 2 h. This method is rapid and selective, and thus suitable for monitoring efavirenz in patients with HIV/AIDS alone or co‐infected with tuberculosis in a less resourced setting. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring inter-DNA potentials in solution

Interactions between short strands of DNA can be tuned from repulsive to attractive by varying solution conditions and have been quantified using small angle x-ray scattering techniques. The effective DNA interaction charge was extracted by fitting the scattering profiles with the generalized one-component method and inter-DNA Yukawa pair potentials. A significant charge is measured at low to moderate monovalent counterion concentrations, resulting in strong inter-DNA repulsion. The charge and repulsion diminish rapidly upon the addition of divalent counterions. An intriguing short range attraction is observed at surprisingly low divalent cation concentrations, approximately 16 mM Mg2+. Quantitative measurements of inter-DNA potentials are essential for improving models of fundamental interactions in biological systems.     

Variable temperature system using vortex tube cooling and fiber optic temperature measurement for low temperature magic angle spinning NMR

We describe the construction and operation of a variable temperature (VT) system for a high field fast magic angle spinning (MAS) probe. The probe is used in NMR investigations of biological macromolecules, where stable setting and continuous measurement of the temperature over periods of several days are required in order to prevent sample overheating and degradation. The VT system described is used at and below room temperature. A vortex tube is used to provide cooling in the temperature range of -20 to 20 degrees C, while a liquid nitrogen-cooled heat exchanger is used below -20 degrees C. Using this arrangement, the lowest temperature that is practically achievable is -140 degrees C. Measurement of the air temperature near the spinning rotor is accomplished using a fiber optic thermometer that utilizes the temperature dependence of the absorption edge of GaAs. The absorption edge of GaAs also has a magnetic field dependence that we have measured and corrected for. This dependence was calibrated at several field strengths using the well-known temperature dependence of the (1)H chemical shift difference of the protons in methanol.     

Quantum Emulation of Extreme Non‐Equilibrium Phenomena with Trapped Atoms

Ultracold atomic physics experiments offer a nearly ideal context for the investigation of quantum systems far from equilibrium. We describe three related emerging directions of research into extreme non‐equilibrium phenomena in atom traps: quantum emulation of ultrafast atom‐light interactions, coherent phasonic spectroscopy in tunable quasicrystals, and realization of Floquet matter in strongly‐driven lattice systems. We show that all three should enable quantum emulation in parameter regimes inaccessible in solid‐state experiments, facilitating a complementary approach to open problems in non‐equilibrium condensed matter.     

Comparative atomistic and coarse-grained study of water: What do we lose by coarse-graining?

We employ the inverse Boltzmann method to coarse-grain three commonly used three-site water models (TIP3P, SPC and SPC/E) where one molecule is replaced with one coarse-grained particle with isotropic two-body interactions only. The shape of the coarse-grained potentials is dominated by the ratio of two lengths, which can be rationalized by the geometric constraints of the water clusters. It is shown that for simple two-body potentials either the radial distribution function or the geometrical packing can be optimized. In a similar way, as needed for multiscale methods, either the pressure or the compressibility can be fitted to the all atom liquid. In total, a speed-up by a factor of about 50 in computational time can be reached by this coarse-graining procedure.     

Quantum feedback control: how to use verification theorems and viscosity solutions to find optimal protocols

While feedback control has many applications in quantum systems, finding optimal control protocols for this task is generally challenging. So-called ‘verification theorems’ and ‘viscosity solutions’ provide two useful tools for this purpose: together they give a simple method to check whether any given protocol is optimal, and provide a numerical method for finding optimal protocols. While treatments of verification theorems usually use sophisticated mathematical language, this is not necessary. In this article we give a simple introduction to feedback control in quantum systems, and then describe verification theorems and viscosity solutions in simple language. We also illustrate their use with a concrete example of current interest.     

Experimental vibrational spectra (Raman,infrared) and DFT calculations on monomeric and dimeric structures of 2‐ and 6‐bromonicotinic acid

In this work, the Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectra of 2‐bromonicotinic acid and 6‐bromonicotinic acid (abbreviated as 2‐BrNA and 6‐BrNA, C₆H₄BrNO₂) have been recorded in the region 4000–400 and 3500–50 cm⁻¹. The optimum molecular geometry, normal mode wavenumbers, infrared intensities and Raman scattering activities, corresponding vibrational assignments and intermolecular hydrogen bonds were investigated with the help of B3LYP density functional theory (DFT) method using 6‐311++G(d,p) basis set. Reliable vibrational assignments were made on the basis of total energy distribution (TED) calculated with scaled quantum mechanical (SQM) method. From the calculations, the molecules are predicted to exist predominantly as the C1 conformer. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monte Carlo Methods for Estimating Interfacial Free Energies and Line Tensions

Excess contributions to the free energy due to interfaces occur for many problems encountered in the statistical physics of condensed matter when coexistence between different phases is possible (e.g. wetting phenomena, nucleation, crystal growth, etc.). This article reviews two methods to estimate both interfacial free energies and line tensions by Monte Carlo simulations of simple models, (e.g. the Ising model, a symmetrical binary Lennard-Jones fluid exhibiting a miscibility gap, and a simple Lennard-Jones fluid). One method is based on thermodynamic integration. This method is useful to study flat and inclined interfaces for Ising lattices, allowing also the estimation of line tensions of three-phase contact lines, when the interfaces meet walls (where “surface fields” may act). A generalization to off-lattice systems is described as well. The second method is based on the sampling of the order parameter distribution of the system throughout the two-phase coexistence region of the model. Both the interface free energies of flat interfaces and of (spherical or cylindrical) droplets (or bubbles) can be estimated, including also systems with walls, where sphere-cap shaped wall-attached droplets occur. The curvature-dependence of the interfacial free energy is discussed, and estimates for the line tensions are compared to results from the thermodynamic integration method. Basic limitations of all these methods are critically discussed, and an outlook on other approaches is given.     

Elastic scattering from a sapphire microsphere placed on a silica optical fiber coupler: Possible applications to biosensing

Elastic light scattering is performed in the original band of optical fiber communication at 1300 nm for a 500 μm sapphire microsphere placed on a silica optical fiber half coupler. The morphology dependent resonances (MDRs) are observed in the transverse magnetically (TM) polarized and transverse electrically (TE) polarized 0^° transmission and 90^° elastic scattering obtained from the sapphire microsphere. The TE and TM MDRs can be detected selectively with the use of a Glan polarizer. The TE and TM polarization selectivity provides the ability to select relative MDR to BG levels. The TM polarization provides higher MDR signal to background ratio (SBR) and is suitable for optical monitoring, biological sensing or any other optoelectronic application that requires a high resolution optical filter. The polar angular mode spacing of 0.36 nm of the resonances correlates well with the optical size of the sapphire microsphere. The autocorrelation of the 90^° elastic scattering spectra also shows peaks at 0.36 nm. The spectral linewidths of the resonances are on the order of 0.1 nm, which corresponds to quality factors on the order of 10⁴. A sapphire sphere with a radius of 500 μm and relative refractive index of 1.31, resonances will red-shift by 1.01 nm (0.077%). This shift is on the order of 10 linewidths, making sapphire biophotonic sensors an interesting alternative to silica biophotonic sensors.     

Adaptive field-of-view imaging for efficient receive beamforming in medical ultrasound imaging systems

Quadrature demodulation-based phase rotation beamforming (QD-PRBF) is commonly used to support dynamic receive focusing in medical ultrasound systems. However, it is computationally demanding since it requires two demodulation filters for each receive channel. To reduce the computational requirements of QD-PRBF, we have previously developed two-stage demodulation (TSD), which reduces the number of lowpass filters by performing demodulation filtering on summation signals. However, it suffers from image quality degradation due to aliasing at lower beamforming frequencies. To improve the performance of TSD-PRBF with reduced number of beamforming points, we propose a new adaptive field-of-view (AFOV) imaging method. In AFOV imaging, the beamforming frequency is adjusted depending on displayed FOV size and the center frequency of received signals. To study its impact on image quality, simulation was conducted using Field II, phantom data were acquired from a commercial ultrasound machine, and the image quality was quantified using spatial (i.e., axial and lateral) and contrast resolution. The developed beamformer (i.e., TSD-AFOV-PRBF) with 1024 beamforming points provided comparable image resolution to QD-PRBF for typical FOV sizes (e.g., 4.6% and 1.3% degradation in contrast resolution for 160 mm and 112 mm, respectively for a 3.5 MHz transducer). Furthermore, it reduced the number of operations by 86.8% compared to QD-PRBF. These results indicate that the developed TSD-AFOV-PRBF can lower the computational requirement for receive beamforming without significant image quality degradation.