Behavioral-level event-driven power management for DECT digital receivers

Power management is a low-power design technique applicable in almost all design levels. Here, the idea of exploiting events to trigger the shut-down of hardware resources is applied at the behavioral-level of a DECT digital receiver design. Power management involves a trade-off between the power savings arising from the power-down (or shut-down) parts of the system and the power increase due to the additional logic for the generation of the shutdown signals. For that purpose, taking into account the digital receiver's characteristics, a behavioral-level power management technique is introduced. The efficiency of the proposed technique is proven by its application on an industrial DECT receiver, where a power saving of 50% in terms of the dynamic power consumption is achieved.     

Modern Sample Preparation Methods in Chemical Analysis

 The choice of the sample preparation method is crucial in chemical analysis, since it is often the most critical and time-consuming step of an analytical process. Some of the older methods are laborious, expensive, and offer no scope for automation. The newer sample preparation techniques can give higher yields, better sample clean-up, cost effectiveness worker safety and environmental protection. Some novel sample preparation methods are described their potential is illustrated with emphasis on bioanalytical applications.     

Reversed flow-injection manifold for the spectrophotometric determination of captopril based on its inhibitory effect on the Co(II)-2,2'-dipyridyl-2-pyridylhydrazone complex formation

The present work reports a new, simple and rapid reversed flow-injection (r-FI) method for the accurate and precise spectrophotometric determination of captopril (CPL) in pharmaceutical formulations. The method is based on the inhibitory effect of CPL on the complex formation of Co(II) with 2,2'-dipyridyl-2-pyridylhydrazone (DPPH). The chemical and FI variables were studied and optimized. The calibration graph was linear in the range 0-250 mg l(-1) CPL, at a sampling rate of 60 injections per hour. The method was found to be very precise [s(r)=0.8% at 100.0 mg l(-1) CPL (n=12)] and the 3sigma detection limit (c(L)=2.5 mg l(-1)) was quite satisfactory. Its application to commercially available pharmaceuticals produced excellent results, with a mean relative error of e(r)<1.0%.     

Interference rejection in PN spread-spectrum systems with LS linearphase FIR filters

The effects of a narrowband interference present in a pseudonoise (PN) spread-spectrum system can be minimized by using digital whitening techniques. A new efficient block LS algorithm for the design of an FIR filter with linear phase is derived and used as a whitening filter. Simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the LS optimum linear-phase filter in suppressing a narrowband interference in a PN spread-spectrum system. Comparisons to previously used methods are made. The simulations showed an improvement in the output SNR on the order of 4-5 dB over already existing schemes     

Sequential injection affinity chromatography utilizing an albumin immobilized monolithic column to study drug-protein interactions

In this study, sequential injection affinity chromatography was used for drug-protein interactions studies. The analytical system used consisted of a sequential injection analysis (SIA) manifold directly connected with convective interaction media (CIM) monolithic epoxy disks modified by ligand-immobilization of protein. A non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug, naproxen (NAP) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were selected as model drug and protein, respectively. The SIA system was used for sampling, introduction and propulsion of drug towards to the monolithic column. Association equilibrium constants, binding capacity at various temperatures and thermodynamic parameters (free energy DeltaG, enthalpy DeltaH) of the binding reaction of naproxen are calculated by using frontal analysis mathematics. The variation of incubation time and its effect in on-line binding mode was also studied. The results indicated that naproxen had an association equilibrium constant of 2.90 x 10(6)M(-1) at pH 7.4 and 39 degrees C for a single binding site. The associated change in enthalpy (DeltaH) was -27.36 kcal mol(-1) and the change in entropy (DeltaS) was -73 cal mol(-1)K(-1) for a single type of binding sites. The location of the binding region was examined by competitive binding experiments using a biphosphonate drug, alendronate (ALD), as a competitor agent. It was found that the two drugs occupy the same class of binding sites on BSA. All measurements were performed with fluorescence (lambda(ext)=230 nm, lambda(em)=350 nm) and spectrophotometric detection (lambda=280 nm).     

Metabolite profiling on apple volatile content based on solid phase microextraction and gas-chromatography time of flight mass spectrometry

A headspace SPME GC-TOF-MS method was developed for the acquisition of metabolite profiles of apple volatiles. As a first step, an experimental design was applied to find out the most appropriate conditions for the extraction of apple volatile compounds by SPME. The selected SPME method was applied in profiling of four different apple varieties by GC-EI-TOF-MS. Full scan GC-MS data were processed by MarkerLynx software for peak picking, normalisation, alignment and feature extraction. Advanced chemometric/statistical techniques (PCA and PLS-DA) were used to explore data and extract useful information. Characteristic markers of each variety were successively identified using the NIST library thus providing useful information for variety classification. The developed HS-SPME sampling method is fully automated and proved useful in obtaining the fingerprint of the volatile content of the fruit. The described analytical protocol can aid in further studies of the apple metabolome.