Rapid quantification of HIV protease inhibitors in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

HIV protease inhibitors are important antiretroviral drugs which have substantially reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with HIV-1 infection. Recent data have shown relationships between plasma concentrations of the protease inhibitors and clinical response, which makes therapeutic drug monitoring valuable. We have developed and validated an assay, using liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS), for the routine quantification of the six licensed protease inhibitors (amprenavir, indinavir, lopinavir, nelfinavir, ritonavir and saquinavir) and the pharmacologically active nelfinavir metabolite M8 in plasma. The sample pretreatment consisted of protein precipitation with a mixture of methanol and acetronitrile using only 100 microl of plasma. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Inertsil ODS3 column (50 x 2.0 mm i.d., particle size 5 microm), with a quick stepwise gradient using an acetate buffer (pH 5) and methanol, at a flow rate of 0.5 ml min(-1). The analytical run time was 5.5 min. The use of a 96-well plate autosampler allowed batch sizes up to 150 patient samples. The triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer was operated in the positive ion mode and multiple reaction monitoring was used for drug quantification. The method was validated over the concentration ranges 0.01-10 microg ml(-1) for indinavir and saquinavir, 0.1-10 microg ml(-1) for amprenavir, 0.05-10 microg ml(-1) for nelfinavir and ritonavir, 0.1-20 microg ml(-1) for lopinavir and 0.01-5 microg ml(-1) for M8. Saquinavir-d(5) and indinavir-d(6) were used as internal standards. The coefficients of variation were always <10% for both intra-day and inter-day precisions for each compound. Mean accuracies were also between the designated limits (+/-15%). The validated concentration ranges proved to be adequate in daily practice. This robust and fast LC/MS/MS assay is now successfully applied for routine therapeutic drug monitoring and pharmacokinetic studies in our hospital.     

Lithium insertion into In2S3 studied by perturbed γ-γ angular correlation

Li_xIn₂S₃ was electrochemically prepared with different small amounts x of lithium (0?x?0.13) in order to maintain the initial crystallographic structure of the thiospinel In₂S₃. About 10¹² radioactive ¹¹¹In ions have been implanted into these samples at 400 keV to perform PAC experiments in the temperature range from 10 to 773 K. The results are compared to previous experiments with undoped In₂S₃ samples. According to the structure of In₂S₃ in the β-phase, which belongs to the I4₁/amd space group having a unit cell with 32 In and 48 S atoms and the cell parameters α=7.61 Å and c=32.28 Å, three different electric field gradients were observed. Within two different temperature ranges dynamical EFGs occur, which are clearly influenced by the insertion of Lithium. The strong dependence of one EFG on the Li concentration x can be correlated to the effective charge of the In ions. This correlation is discussed with respect to XRD analyses of the Li_xIn₂S₃ samples and to XANES measurements on a similar sample.     

Binding energy of impurity states in an inverse parabolic quantum well under magnetic field

 We have investigated the effects of the magnetic field which is directed perpendicular to the well on the binding energy of the hydrogenic impurities in an inverse parabolic quantum well (IPQW) with different widths as well as different Al concentrations at the well center. The Al concentration at the barriers was always x_max=0.3. The calculations were performed within the effective mass approximation, using a variational method. We observe that IPQW structure turns into parabolic quantum well with the inversion effect of the magnetic field and donor impurity binding energy in IPQW strongly depends on the magnetic field, Al concentration at the well center and well dimensions.     

正切平方势阱中线性与非线性光学折射率变化的研究

利用正切平方势把电子的Schrodinger方程化为了超几何方程,并用超几何函数严格求解了电子的本征值和本征函数利用量子力学中的密度矩阵算符理论导出了正切平方势阱中的线性与三阶非线性光学折射率的解析表达式计算了该系统中的线性与非线性光学折射率变化的大小,讨论了影响折射率变化因素文章以典型的GaAs/AlGaAs势阱为例作了数值计算,数值计算结果表明,势阱的形状和入射光强对光学折射率的变化有着重要的影响.     

Sub-pixel dimensional measurement with Logistic edge model

To separate substandard workpieces from products, sub-pixel edge location with Logistic edge model is proposed for dimensional measurement. In the first step, workpiece rotation is corrected with high precision image rotation to reduce the measurement error and simplify the edge model. Secondly, Logistic edge model is utilized for fitting the discrete edge data to locate the sub-pixel workpiece edge and model parameters are estimated through the objective function in terms of the difference between assumed model and real image data. Finally, an edge pixel compensation method is presented with edge pixel compensation value, which weakens the effect of edge transition zone effectively. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective for dimensional measurement with the relative error less than 0.05%.     

Multiple Quantum Well in static magnetic field and intense laser pulses

The energy spectrum and dipole matrix elements of a multiple quantum well (MQW) system has been calculated numerically by solving the time-independent Schrödinger equation using finite difference method, in the presence of magnetic field. The effect of barrier width is also investigated. The energy difference between the levels of various minibands and the energy difference between various levels of the same miniband is calculated for different number of wells in the MQW. Finally, the dynamics of the system in short laser pulses has been calculated numerically by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The effect of magnetic field on the dynamics is clearly shown and explained.     

Structure of liquid-vapor interface of square well fluid confined in a cylindrical pore

By means of the canonical Monte Carlo simulations, the vapor-liquid (VL) equilibrium and structure of square well (SW) fluids confined in a single cylindrical pore with repulsive surface, have been studied. Coexistence curves of the confined VL interface are determined for a wide range of temperatures and pore diameters. It is demonstrated that the confinement not only reduces the VL coexistence region but also induces strong inhomogeneities of the VL interface: coexistence liquid densities are different at the pore center and at the wall surface. It may be considered as a preliminary step for an isolated droplet formation inside the pore, as well as a tentative reason of the two VL phase transitions of simple fluids adsorbed into disordered porous media.     

双势垒磁性隧道结中量子阱共振隧穿效应的第一性原理理论

磁性隧道结材料中自旋相关的量子阱态所导致的共振隧穿现象具有很重要的研究和应用价值，文章介绍了最近在Fe（001）／MgO／Fe／MgO／Fe双势垒磁性隧道结中存在的量子阱共振隧穿效应的理论研究工作，通过量子阱态的第一性原理的计算以及结合对中间Fe薄膜孤岛结构所导致Coulomb阻塞效应的分析，证实了最近Nozaki等人（Nozaki T et al．Phys．Rev．Lett．，2006，96：027208）实验中得到的振荡效应确实来源于中间Fe层多数自旋电子在Г点处形成的△1对称性的量子阱态．Coulomb阻塞效应的存在正是导致实验中低温下量子阱共振隧穿效应不够明显的主要原因．     

一维无限深势阱中粒子运动的路径积分解法

用路径积分的分析方法求得了一维无限深势阱中粒子的传播函数,并由传播函数导出了粒子的波函数和能量,展示了路径积分与传统方法的等价性,同时还介绍了一种有用的数学函数——雅可比θ_3函数．