Stabilization of zeylenone in rat plasma by the presence of esterase inhibitors and its LC‐MS/MS assay for pharmacokinetic study

Six esterase inhibitors, namely EDTA·2Na⁺, NaF, phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride, dichlorvos, bis‐nitrophenyl phosphate (BNPP) and thenoyltrifluoroacetone, and the mixture of NaF and BNPP, were evaluated for the stabilization of labile benzoate containing zeylenone in rat plasma. The mixture appeared to exhibit the most effectively stabilizing effect with the degraded content of zeylenone decreasing from >60% (in the absence of inhibitors) to <6%. Following the stabilization by the addition of NaF (5 mm ) and BNPP (5 mm ), the analytes in rat plasma were acidified by formic acid and extracted into ethyl acetate at 0°C. After chromatographic separation, the detection of zeylenone was performed on a 3200 Q‐Trap with positive ion electrospray mode, monitoring the ion transition m/z 383.2 → 105.0. The method was validated over the range from 2.68 to 1340 ng/mL with inter‐ and intra‐run precision for the quality control samples being less than 6.8%. The assay accuracy was within 100 ± 7.0%. The validated method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study in rats after the intratracheal administration of zeylenone in free drug or polymeric micellar solutions. The results showed that the pulmonary absorption of zeylenone loaded in micelles was significantly retarded compared with that of free drug solutions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Co-channel Speech Separation Based on Amplitude Modulation Spectrum Analysis

A lot of effort has been made to achieve co-channel (two-talker) speech separation. However, the comprehensive analysis of the amplitude modulation spectrum (AMS) to address this problem has received little attention. In this paper, we propose an approach to exploit the AMS and to perform the separation based on the framework of computational auditory scene analysis (CASA). Specifically, this method utilizes the periodicity encoded in the AMS and then makes the channel selection. The main features of the approach are: (1) the reassignment method is used to improve the spectral resolution of the AMS in short duration; (2) a template-based pitch detector is used to determine the dominant fundamental frequency (F0) in an individual channel; (3) segmentation and grouping, the two stages in the CASA-based approaches, are employed to increase the robustness of channel selection. Systematic evaluation and comparison show that the proposed approach yields better performance than the previous system.     

Ignition and burning behaviors of automobile oil in engine compartment

Accidental leakage of automobile oils is of great inclination to initiate pool fires in engine compartment, with threats to induce the flashover of other components and flame penetration into the passenger compartment. This paper presents experimental results of the ignition and burning behaviors of a kind of automobile oils (automatic transmission oil) using a cone calorimeter. Measurements of oil temperature, ignition time, mass loss and heat release rate are performed at different external heat fluxes and initial fuel depths. The comparison between experimental and numerical oil temperature evolutions shows that the variations of the ignition time at different experimental conditions depend on the heat dissipation process inside the liquid phase. The steady mass burning rate is nearly independent of initial fuel depth and has a linear relation with external heat fluxes. In addition, the results indicate an increase in peak heat release rate by a large margin initially, followed by a relatively small margin under thicker initial fuel depths, while its variations are proportional to external heat fluxes. Correlations are also developed to determine the peak heat release rate as a function of the initial fuel depth.

     

真空冷却过程中实验条件对真空冷却速率的影响

以熟肉为实验材料,对实验条件对真空冷却速率的影响进行了理论分析和实验研究。实验结果表明:真空室有效容积越小、真空泵抽速越高,则真空冷却时间就会越短;冷阱温度对真空冷却速率有着明显的影响;当真空室内的最终压力在0.4～0.61kPa变化时,熟肉的表面温度一直在0℃以上,其真空冷却的时间随着真空室内压力的升高而增加。而真空室内的最终压力在0.3kPa左右时,熟肉的表面温度在真空冷却过程会低于0℃。