Determination of surface charge properties of PC-12 cells by electrophoresis

The electrophoretic behavior of pheochromocytoma (PC-12) cells was investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Cell mobility in aqueous media at different pHs and ionic concentrations was measured, and a model, which assumed that the cell surface contains both acidic and basic functional groups, was proposed. As a result, it was revealed that the experimental data gathered can be described satisfactorily by assuming that the cell surface contains two types of monovalent acidic functional groups and one basic functional group. The values of the dissociation constants of the acidic and basic groups are found to be close to those of acidic amino acids, which indicates that the acidic amino acids may play an important role in the surface electrical properties of PC-12 cells.     

The first, discrete Zn4 tetrahedron with a selenium atom in the center: x-ray structure and solution study of [Zn4(mu4-Se)[Se2P(OPr)2]6

The first discrete, selenium-centered tetranuclear zinc cluster [Zn4(mu4-Se)[Se2P(OPr)2]6] was isolated and characterized. The cluster consists of six edge-bridged dsep ligands with four zinc atoms in a slightly distorted tetrahedron and a mu4-Se atom in the center. In addition, 12 mu2-bridging selenium atoms form a Se12 icosahedron. From variable-temperature 31P NMR studies, it was observed that the cluster [Zn4(Se)[Se2P(OPr)2]6] is partly decomposed to [Zn[Se2P(OPr)2]2] and the monomeric species [Zn[Se2P(OPr)2]2] is further in equilibrium with its dimer [Zn[Se2P(OPr)2]2]2.     

Reversible carboxylation of N-heterocyclic carbenes

Spectroscopic analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, and crossover experiments performed on a series of imidazolium carboxylates revealed carboxylation was reversible with N-aryl substituted adducts.     

Sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of famotidine in plasma. Application to pharmacokinetic study.

A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the quantitation of famotidine in human plasma is described. Clopamide was used as the internal standard. Plasma samples were extracted with diethyl ether to eliminate endogenous interferences. Plasma samples were then extracted at alkaline pH with ethyl acetate. Famotidine and the internal standard were readily extracted into the organic solvent. After evaporation of ethyl acetate, the residue was analysed by HPLC. The chromatographic separation was accomplished with an isocratic mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile-water (12:88, v/v) containing 20 mM disodium hydrogenphosphate and 50 mM sodium dodecyl sulphate, adjusted to pH 3. The HPLC microbore column was packed with 5 microns ODS Hypersil. Using ultraviolet detection at 267 nm, the detection limit for plasma famotidine was 5 ng/ml. The calibration curve was linear over the concentration range 5-500 ng/ml. The inter- and intra-assay coefficients of variation were found to be less than 10%. Applicability of the method was demonstrated by a bioavailability/pharmacokinetic study in normal volunteers who received 80 mg famotidine orally.     

Wild ginseng grows in Myanmar

Ginseng, the underground parts of plants of Panax species, has been used in oriental traditional medicine for centuries. Unfortunately, because of extensive exploitation over thousands of years, the natural source of these species has been almost exhausted. Recently, we have found a wild ginseng growing in Myanmar. Here, by a combination of chemical composition study and gene sequence analysis, we unambiguously demonstrate that the wild ginseng is actually P. zingiberensis, commonly known as ginger ginseng. This ginseng was an indigenous to the southwestern China. However, now it is seriously threatened to brink of extinction and is put on the highest level of protection in China. Therefore, an appropriate protection measure is highly recommended to preserve this valuable resource, since this Myanmar ginseng might turn out to be the last P. zingiberensis, which could ever be seen in the planet.     

Link between the kinetic‐ and exchange‐energy functionals in the generalized gradient approximation

An approximate kinetic‐energy functional of the generalized gradient approximation form was derived following the “conjointness conjecture” of Lee, Lee, and Parr. The functional shares the analytical form of its gradient dependency with the exchange‐energy functionals of Becke and Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof. The two free parameters of this functional were determined using the exact values of the kinetic energy of He and Xe atoms. A set of 12 closed‐shell atoms was used to test the accuracy of the proposed functional and more than 30 others taken from the literature. It is shown that the conjointness conjecture leads to a very good class of kinetic‐energy functionals. Moreover, the functional developed in this work is shown to be one of the most accurate despite its simple analytical form. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2002     

A New Convenient Method for the Resolution of 1, 1''''-Binaphthalene-2, 2''''-diol Via a Phosphite Using (-)-Menthol as Resolving Agent

Optically active 1,1-binaphthalene-2, 2-diol has become a quite important chiral source in different fields of chirotechnology, especially in asymmetric synthesis1. Its synthesis and resolution has been extensively studied and various resolution methods have been reported2. Among the reported resolution methods, the following three, namely, via the formation of phosphoric acid derivatives3, boric acid derivatives4 and inclusion complexes5, are the most important. OHOH+_( )-1(-)-(S)-1(+)-(R)…     

Determination of Naphthalenesulfonate Isomers in Industrial Effluents and River Water by Solid‐Phase Extraction and Capillary Zone Electrophoresis

This work presents a method to separate polar naphthalenesulfonate (NS) isomers by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) with ultraviolet detection in industrial effluents and river water samples. The method involves extraction of samples by a polystyrene‐divinylbenzene copolymer (PS‐DVB) solid‐phase extraction (SPE) cartridge. The most effective CZE separation conditions were obtained in 20 mM borate buffer with 30% acetonitrile at pH 9.0 and 30 °C. The method proposed herein provides a high precision and sensitivity for NS isomers, to quantitation at ≤ 1.0 μg/L in 200 mL of the water samples. Recovery of the NS isomers in spiked water samples ranged from 73% to 87% while RSD ranging from 5.6 to 9.7%. The analysis of industrial effluents and river water samples was performed and naphthalene‐2‐sulfonate was found as a major pollutant. The difficulties in quantitating and identifying analytes in complex environmental samples can be resolved by using an internal standard response factor to calculate concentrations and relative migration times for peak confirmation.     

An application of the phosphine-catalyzed [4 + 2] annulation in indole alkaloid synthesis: formal syntheses of (+/-)-alstonerine and (+/-)-macroline

[reaction: see text] An application of the phosphine-catalyzed [4 + 2] annulation in the formal synthesis of alstonerine and macroline is reported. A phosphine-catalyzed [4 + 2] reaction between imine 7a and allene 8 formed the D ring of the target indole alkaloids. A subsequent intramolecular Friedel-Crafts acylation provided the C ring of the bridged tetracycle. Deprotection, followed by methylation of the bridged nitrogen, deoxygenation of the C6 ketone, and reduction of the C16 carbethoxy group provided the previously known intermediate 3.     

On constrained multivariate splines and their approximations

Summary The variational formulation of multivariate spline functions is generalized to include cases where the function has to satisfy inequality constraints such as positivity and convexity. Condition for existence and uniqueness of a solution is given. Approximation to the solution can be obtained by solving the variational problem in a finite dimensional subspace. Conditions for convergence and error estimates of the approximations are presented, both for interpolation problems and smoothing problems. The general theory is illustrated by specific examples including the volume-matching problem and the one-sided thin plate spline.This research is partially supported by the U.S. Army Contract No. DAAG 29-77-G-0207, and by NSF Grant No. MCS-8101836Part of this paper is based on Chapters 2 and 3 of the author's Ph. D. thesis. The author would like to express his sincere thanks to Professor Grance Wahba and to two referees for many helpful comments