Determination of trace elements in inorganic and organic materials by x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy

A new, almost universally applicable method for the trace analysis of inorganic and organic materials is described. The trace element (or elements) together with a suitable coprecipitating element is isolated from interfering elements by precipitation with a suitable organic or inorganic precipitant. The precipitate is then filtered on a paper disk and the collected trace element (or elements) is determined by X-ray analysis.     

Analysis of insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis and recombinant Escherichia coli by capillary electrokinetic chromatography

Bacillus thuringiensis and recombinant Escherichia coli proteinaceous protoxins were subject to proteolysis and analyzed by capillary electrokinetic chromatography. Three resulting toxins (65 kDa) were baseline-resolved within 22 min using a 10 mM borate, pH 11 separation buffer consisting of 25 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 30 mM phytic acid. The toxins displayed differential interactions with the SDS and phytic acid phases to effect their separation. The ion-pairing interaction between the analyte and phytic acid was also useful in preventing adsorption to the capillary walls and thus enhanced separation resolution and efficiency. The use of electrokinetic chromatography allows achievement of the separation in a significantly shorter time than conventional high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) weak-anion exchanger.     

Ruminant pregastric lipases: experimental evidence of their potential as industrial catalysts in food technology

The historical importance of pregastric enzymes in cheese-making is reviewed and the potential for extending their use is discussed in terms of requiring an understanding of their physicochemical parameters. Commericial extracts from the tongues and epiglotti of suckling lambs and calves and adult goats have been processed to yield partially purified samples of the primary pregastric lipase (PGL). The N-terminal sequence and molecular weight of lamb PGL have been determined.

The activity of lamb and goat PGLs against tributyrin has been determined over a range of pH and temperature values. Optimum conditions were pH 6.4, 43°C, and pH 6.0, 52°C, for lamb and goat PGL respectively. The possible influence of the development of a ruminant multi-chambered stomach on the difference in optimal temperature is discussed. A lengthening of the carboxylic acid chain of homoacid triglycerides causes a decrease in hydrolytic activity of lamb PGL but in all cases only a single free fatty acid was released. Against a series of 4-nitrophenylalkanoate esters, maximum activity was observed against the decanoate ester but, in contrast to hydrolysis of the acetate ester which exhibited full Michaelis-Menten kinetics with increasing substrate concentration, activity against the decanoate ester was restricted to the monomeric substrate. Taurocholate inhibits the activity of lamb PGL at concentrations >8 mM. Values of pK₂ equal to 6.69 and 7.92 respectively have been determined for lamb PGL.

Attempts to interesterify coconut oil and cocoa butter, and tributyrin and tricaprylin, catalysed by calf PGL were unsuccessful, although positive results obtained using Candida cylindracea encourage further investigation of alternative methods for immobilizing the PGL. Finally, anhydrous milk fat has been hydrolysed by calf, lamb and goat PGLs and the differences in relative amounts of released free fatty acids have been used to explain the differences in taste which arise when Parmesan cheese is produced using different sources of PGL.     

Spectrophotometric determination of tin in steel

A new spectrophotometric method for the determination of traces of tin in steel is presented. The tin is isolated by an acid sulfide separation and a double carbamate-chloroform extraction and then determined by a phenylfluorone method in which the selectivity is increased by the use of peroxide and oxalate as masking agents and the sensitivity is increased by extracting the colored tin compound into a small volume of MIBK for the spectrophotometric analysis.     

Total internal reflection-based biochip utilizing a polymer-filled cavity with a micromirror sidewall

A total internal reflection (TIR)-based biochip utilizing a polymer-filled cavity with a micromirror sidewall has been designed and fabricated. The implementation of the micromirror sidewall cavity facilitates precise alignment of the excitation light beam into the system. The incident angle of illumination can be easily modified by selecting polymers of different indices of refraction while optical losses are minimized. The design enables the hybrid, vertical integration of a laser diode and a CCD camera, resulting in a compact optical system. Brownian motion of fluorescent microspheres and real-time photobleaching of rhodamine 6G molecules is demonstrated. The proposed TIR-based chip simplifies current TIR optical configurations and could potentially be used as an optical-microfluidic platform for an integrated lab-on-a-chip microsystem.     

Algebraic nonlinearity and its applications to cryptography

The algebraic nonlinearity of an n-bit boolean function is defined as the degree of the polynomial f(X) Z ₂[x ₁, x ₂,..., x _n] that represents f. We prove that the average degree of an ANF polynomial for an n-bit function is n+o(1). Further, for a balanced n-bit function, any subfunction obtained by holding less than n-[log n]- 1 bits constant is also expected to be nonaffine. A function is partially linear if f(X) has some indeterminates that only occur in terms bounded by degree 1. Boolean functions which can be mapped to partially linear functions via a linear transformation are said to have a linear structure, and are a potentially weak class of functions for cryptography. We prove that the number of n-bit functions that have a linear structure is asymptotic .The author is presently employed by the Distributed System Technology Center, Brisbane, Australia.Project sponsored in part by NSERC operating Grant OGP0121648, and the National Security Agency under Grant Number MDA904-91-H-0012. The United States Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints notwithstanding any copyright notation hereon.     

Magnetic penetration depth in V3Si and LiTi2O4 measured by μSR

Muon spin relaxation (SR) studies have been performed in the normal spinel LiTi₂O₄ and the A-15 superconductor V₃Si to measure the magnetic penetration depth . The relaxation rate(T) 1/² in field-cooled measurements shows a sharp increase belowT _c followed by saturation at low temperatures in both systems. This feature implies an isotropic energy gap without anomalous zeros, and most likelys-wave pairing. The low temperature penetration depth (T 0) is determined to be 2100Å for LiTi₂O₄ and 1300Å for V₃Si respectively. Assuming a clean limit relation ^–2 n _s /m ^*, we derive the Fermi temperatureT _F n _s/ ^2/3 m ^* from the relaxation rate and the Sommerfeld constant asT _F ^3/4–1/4. Unlike conventional superconductors, both LiTi₂O₄ and V₃Si have a large ratio ofT _c /T _F 0.01, only slightly smaller than those ratios in more exotic superconductors.We thank C. Ballard and K. Hoyle for technical assistance. Work at Columbia University is supported by NSF Grant No. DMR-89-13784 and Packard Foundation (YJU). Ames Laboratory is operated for the U. S. Department of Energy by Iowa State University under Contract No. W-7405-Eng-82. Work at Ames was supported by the Director for Energy Research, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.