Separation of bacteria by capillary electrophoresis

Differences in the surface charges of bacteria can be exploited for their separation by capillary electrophoresis. Because of their low electrophoretic mobility, the separation is not always easy to perform, especially in the presence of the electroosmotic flow. Elimination of electroosmotic flow by capillary wall modification with γ‐(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate followed by acrylamide bonding permits separation over a distance of 8.5 cm.     

Determination of Bromine in Human Serum by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The determination of bromine in human serum by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is discussed. Sample preparation was kept as limited as possible: serum samples were only diluted with nitric acid (five- or ten-fold). Indium was added as internal standard. In order to avoid overlap of ⁴⁰Ar ⁴⁰Ar with     

Pair potentials and properties of simple liquids from the pair corrlation fuction

Abstract

The Born-Green equation was numerically analyzed to derive the intermolecular potentials from the observed structural data for liquified rare-gases (Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe). In all cases the Lennard-Jones type potentials were found. The surface tension, surface energy, energy of vapourization, viscosity coefficient and self-diffusion coefficient were calculated and a comparison of calculated values with experimental data was made. Adequate agreement was obtained     

Effect of large-scale reservoir and river regulation/reclama-tion on saltwater intrusion in Qiantang Estuary

By using field salinity data recorded in the Qiantang Estuary for the nearly forty years (which covers the periods before and after the erection of a large-scale reservoir in the watershed and river regulation/reclamation in the estuary) and one-dimensional salt water intrusion modeling, it is shown that the salt water intrusion decreases caused by increased low water discharge for the reservoir, while the intrusion increases for the increased tidal range because of the river regulation/reclamation. The integrate result is that the saltwater intrusion decreases.     

Determination of Malathion Using Corona Discharge – Ion Mobility Spectrometry with Solid-Phase Microextraction

A corona discharge (CD) ion mobility spectrometer combined with solid-phase microextraction was constructed. The detection limit and stability of the system for malathion detection were improved using a novel sample introduction port through which the sample desorption was performed in high-temperature drift tube and the sample was introduced directly to the ionization area. The working parameters of the distance between CD needle tip and carrier gas outlet, the drift tube and carrier gas temperature, the carrier gas flow, and the voltage on CD needle were selected. When the extraction time for standard malathion was set to 5?min, the detection limit was 0.96?µg?L^?1 based on thrice the baseline noise, the linear range was 50–500?µg?L^?1, the correlation coefficient was approximately 0.9941, and the relative standard deviation was below 10%. Malathion-spiked lake water samples were analyzed using the developed system and the recovery was 92–102%. This method is suitable for the rapid detection of organophosphorus pesticide residues.     

Specific O₂⁻ generation in corona discharge for ion mobility spectrometry

This study deals with O₂⁻ generation in corona discharge (CD) in point to plane geometry for single flow ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) with gas outlet located behind the ionization source. We have designed CD of special geometry in order to achieve the high O₂⁻ yield. Using this ion source we have achieved in zero air conditions that up to 74% all negative ions were O₂⁻ or O₂⁻(H₂O). It has been demonstrated that the non-electronegative nitrogen positively influences the efficiency of O₂⁻ generation in O₂/N₂ mixtures. The reduced ion mobility of 2.27 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ has been measured for O₂⁻/O₂⁻(H₂O) ions in zero air. Additional ions detected in zero air (less than 200 ppb CO₂) using the mass spectrometric and IMS technique were, NO₂⁻, N₂O₂⁻ (2.37 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹), NO₃⁻, N₂O₃⁻ and N₂O₃⁻(H₂O). The CO₃⁻ and CO₄⁻ ions have been detected after the introduction of 5 ppm CO₂ into zero air.     

TRANSFORMATION OF CULTURED HUMAN FETAL GASTRIC FIBROBLASTS WITH PHYSICO-CHEMICAL AGENTS

Treatment of early passage human fetal gastric fibrohlasts with ultraviolet (UV) light and the chemical carcinogen ethyl nitrosourea (ENU) in succession resulted in an immortally growing cell line, named GTS 8502. The cells of this line display typical transformation characteristics, such as irregularly shaped nuclei, heteroploidization of karyotype and frequent appearance of heteromorphic chromosomes, the enhanced volume ratio of nucleus to cytoplasm, multinucleoli, appearance of microvilli on the surface of the cells and agglutination reaction to lectin concanavalin A. The transformants have high growing and mitotic indices and the ability of focus-formation on monolayers and anchorage independent growth in soft agar medium. Moreover, these cells induced turnouts in nude mice or in immunosuppressed new-born rats through heterotransplantation. The results of various methods including electromicroscopy and histochemical analyses indicate that GTS 8502 cells are of fibroblast origin.Our results thus indi     

Comparison of the performance of three ion mobility spectrometers for measurement of biogenic amines

The performance of three different types of ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) devices: GDA2 with a radioactive ion source (Airsense, Germany), UV-IMS with a photo-ionization source (G.A.S. Germany) and VG-Test with a corona discharge source (3QBD, Israel) was studied. The gas-phase ion chemistry in the IMS devices affected the species formed and their measured reduced mobility values. The sensitivity and limit of detection for trimethylamine (TMA), putrescine and cadaverine were compared by continuous monitoring of a stream of air with a given concentration of the analyte and by measurement of headspace vapors of TMA in a sealed vial. Preprocessing of the mobility spectra and the effectiveness of multivariate curve resolution techniques (MCR-LASSO) improved the accuracy of the measurements by correcting baseline effects and adjusting for variations in drift time as well as enhancing the signal to noise ratio and deconvolution of the complex data matrix to their pure components. The limit of detection for measurement of the biogenic amines by the three IMS devices was between 0.1 and 1.2 ppm (for TMA with the VG-Test and GDA, respectively) and between 0.2 and 0.7 ppm for putrescine and cadaverine with all three devices. Considering the uncertainty in the LOD determination there is almost no statistically significant difference between the three devices although they differ in their operating temperature, ionization method, drift tube design and dopant chemistry. This finding may have general implications on the achievable performance of classic IMS devices.     

Development and validation of a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric method for the analysis of paroxetine in human plasma

A sensitive, simple, fast and rugged hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS/MS) method for the determination of paroxetine was developed and validated over curve range 0.050-50 ng/mL using only 0.4 mL plasma. This is the first published LC-MS/MS method and the low limit of quantitation of this method is 10-fold lower than previously published methods. A simple liquid-liquid extraction method using methyl-tert butyl ether (MTBE) as the extraction solvent was used to extract paroxetine and the internal standard (IS) fentanyl-d(5) from plasma. The extract was evaporated to dryness, reconstituted and injected onto a silica column using a low aqueous-high organic mobile phase. The chromatographic run time was 2.0 min per injection, with retention times of 1.1 and 1.2 min for paroxetine and IS, respectively. The detection was by monitoring paroxetine at m/z 330 --> 192 and IS at m/z 342 --> 188, respectively. The inter-day precision and accuracy of the quality control (QC) samples were <5.0% relative standard deviation (RSD) and <2.9% relative error (RE). This method can be used for supporting therapeutical drug monitoring and pharmacokinetic or drug-drug interaction studies.     

Qsar Models for Predicting the Acute Toxicity of Selected Organic Chemicals with Diverse Structures to Aquatic Non-Vertebrates and Humans

Abstract

The linear and non-linear relationships of acute toxicity (as determined on five aquatic non-vertebrates and humans) to molecular structure have been investigated on 38 structurally-diverse chemicals. The compounds selected are the organic chemicals from the 50 priority chemicals prescribed by the Multicentre Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity (MEIC) programme. The models used for the evaluations are the best combination of physico-chemical properties that could be obtained so far for each organism, using the partial least squares projection to latent structures (PLS) regression method and backpropagated neural networks (BPN). Non-linear models, whether derived from PLS regression or backpropagated neural networks, appear to be better than linear models for describing the relationship between acute toxicity and molecular structure. BPN models, in turn, outperform non-linear models obtained from PLS regression. The predictive power of BPN models for the crustacean test species are better than the model for humans (based on human lethal concentration). The physico-chemical properties found to be important to predict both human acute toxicity and the toxicity to aquatic non-vertebrates are the n?octanol water partition coefficient (Pow) and heat of formation (HF). Aside from the two former properties, the contribution of parameters that reflect size and electronic properties of the molecule to the model is also high, but the type of physico-chemical properties differs from one model to another. In all of the best BPN models, some of the principal component analysis (PCA) scores of the ¹³C-NMR spectrum, with electron withdrawing/accepting capacity (LUMO, HOMO and IP) are molecular size/volume (VDW or MS1) parameters are relevant. The chemical deviating from the QSAR models include non-pesticides as well as some of the pesticides tested. The latter type of chemical fits in a number of the QSAR models. Outliers for one species may be different from those of other test organisms.