Overcoming interference of plasma phospholipids using HybridSPE for the determination of trimetazidine by UPLC–MS/MS

An improved, precise and reliable ultra‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) method has been developed for the quantification of trimetazidine, using trimetazidine‐d8 as the internal standard (IS). Interference owing to plasma phospholipids during sample preparation was overcome using a hybrid solid‐phase extraction–phospholipid ultra cartridge. The mean extraction recovery of trimetazidine (98.66%) and trimetazidine‐d8 (97.63%) from spiked plasma was consistent and reproducible. Chromatographic analysis was performed on a UPLC Ethylene Bridged Hybrid (BEH) C18 (50 × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) column with isocratic elution using acetonitrile–5 mm ammonium formate, pH 3.5 (40:60, v/v) as the mobile phase. The parent → product ion transitions for trimetazidine (m/z 267.1 → 181.1) and trimetazidine‐d8 (m/z 275.2 → 181.1) were monitored on a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer with electrospray ionization functioning in the positive multiple reaction monitoring mode. The linearity of the method was established in the concentration range of 0.05–100 ng/mL for trimetazidine. The intra‐batch and inter‐batch accuracy and precision (CV) were 97.3–103.1 and 1.7–5.3%, respectively. Qualitative and quantitative assessment of matrix effect showed no interference of endogenous/exogenous components. The developed method was used to measure plasma trimetazidine concentration for a bioequivalence study with 12 healthy subjects.     

功率对氘代辉光放电聚合物结构和力学性能的影响

采用射频辉光放电聚合技术,在低压等离子体聚合装置上开展在5~20 W功率下氘代辉光放电聚合物薄膜的制备及性能研究。利用傅里叶变换红外吸收光谱仪表征薄膜的化学结构,讨论了功率变化对其官能团结构的影响规律。利用元素分析仪和纳米压痕仪表征薄膜中氘原子的相对含量和薄膜的力学性能。研究表明:随着功率的升高,薄膜中的氘含量先升高后降低,在10W时达到最大,薄膜中SP3 CD的相对含量增加,SP3 CD2的相对含量减小;聚合物薄膜的硬度和杨氏模量均随功率的增加而减小。     

Effects of the primary recoil spectrum on long-range migration of defects

Abstract

For quantitative predictions and comparisons of microstructures that evolve during exposure to different radiation environments at elevated temperature one needs to develop methods that go beyond those based on the number of displacements per atom. The number of freely migrating defects that contribute to the microstructural development is far less than the total number of defects produced, as has been recognized for some time from measurements of radiation-induced segregation and of radiation-enhanced diffusion. Defect production in various neutron and ion irradiation environments is discussed in light of this fact. A method to calculate the fraction of freely migrating defects from the cluster size distribution of defects produced in cascades is suggested. The results are in good agreement with available data.     

Extreme fluxes in solar energetic particle events: Methodological and physical limitations

In this study, all available data on the largest solar proton events (SPEs), or extreme solar energetic particle (SEP) events, for the period from 1561 up to now are analyzed. Under consideration are the observational, methodological and physical problems of energy-spectrum presentation for SEP fluxes (fluences) near the Earth's orbit. Special attention is paid to the study of the distribution function for extreme fluences of SEPs by their sizes. The authors present advances in at least three aspects: 1) a form of the distribution function that was previously obtained from the data for three cycles of solar activity has been completely confirmed by the data for 41 solar cycles; 2) early estimates of extremely large fluences in the past have been critically revised, and their values were found to be overestimated; and 3) extremely large SEP fluxes are shown to obey a probabilistic distribution, so the concept of an “upper limit flux” does not carry any strict physical sense although it serves as an important empirical restriction. SEP fluxes may only be characterized by the relative probabilities of their appearance, and there is a sharp break in the spectrum in the range of large fluences (or low probabilities). It is emphasized that modern observational data and methods of investigation do not allow, for the present, the precise resolution of the problem of the spectrum break or the estimation of the maximum potentialities of solar accelerator(s). This limitation considerably restricts the extrapolation of the obtained results to the past and future for application to the epochs with different levels of solar activity.     

Association and Dissociation of Grignard Reagents RMgCl and Their Turbo Variant RMgCl⋅LiCl

Grignard reagents RMgCl and their so‐called turbo variant, the highly reactive RMgCl?LiCl, are of exceptional synthetic utility. Nevertheless, it is still not fully understood which species these compounds form in solution and, in particular, in which way LiCl exerts its reactivity‐enhancing effect. A combination of electrospray‐ionization mass spectrometry, electrical conductivity measurements, NMR spectroscopy (including diffusion‐ordered spectroscopy), and quantum chemical calculations is used to analyze solutions of RMgCl (R=Me, Et, Bu, Hex, Oct, Dec, iPr, tBu, Ph) in tetrahydrofuran and other ethereal solvents in the absence and presence of stoichiometric amounts of LiCl. In tetrahydrofuran, RMgCl forms mononuclear species, which are converted into trinuclear anions as a result of the concentration increase experienced during the electrospray process. These trinuclear anions are theoretically predicted to adopt open cubic geometries, which remarkably resemble structural motifs previously found in the solid state. The molecular constituents of RMgCl and RMgCl?LiCl are interrelated via Schlenk equilibria and fast intermolecular exchange processes. A small portion of the Grignard reagent also forms anionic ate complexes in solution. The abundance of these more electron‐rich and hence supposedly more nucleophilic ate complexes strongly increases upon the addition of LiCl, thus rationalizing its beneficial effect on the reactivity of Grignard reagents.     

Sensitive detection of drug vapors using an ion funnel interface for secondary electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

In this study, we use an ion funnel (IF) at ambient pressure to enhance the sensitivity of secondary electrospray ionization (SESI). Atenolol, salbutamol and cocaine as test compounds are delivered to the SESI interface in the gas phase and are charged with three nano electrosprays. In our experiments, we show that the compounds can be detected at concentrations in the low pptv range, which is an increase of two orders of magnitude compared with the results without the IF. With a standard SESI interface, the compounds could not be detected at all. With the use of the SESI IF interface for the headspace analysis of bananas and limes, we can detect many more compounds and at higher intensities than with a standard SESI interface. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Degradation effects in the extraction of antioxidants from birch bark using water at elevated temperature and pressure

Experiments with birch bark samples have been carried to enable a distinction between extraction and degradation effects during pressurised hot water extraction. Two samples, E80 and E180, contained birch bark extracts obtained after extraction at 80 and 180 °C for up to 45 min, respectively. Two other samples, P80 and P180, were only extracted for 5 min at the two temperatures and were thereafter filtered and hydrothermally treated at 80 and 180 °C, respectively. During the latter treatment, samples were collected at different times to assess the stability of the extracted compounds. An offline DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay, as well as a high performance liquid chromatographic separation coupled to an electrochemical detector, were used to determine the antioxidant capacity of the processed samples. The results obtained with the different techniques were compared to assess the yield of the extraction and degradation processes. In addition, an online hyphenated system comprising high performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode-array; electrochemical; and tandem mass spectrometric detection (HPLC-DAD-ECD-MS/MS) was used to study the compositions of the extracts in more detail. The results for the samples processed at 80 °C showed that the extraction reached a steady-state already after 5 min, and that the extracted compounds were stable throughout the entire extraction process. Processing at 180 °C, on the other hand, gave rise to partly degraded extracts with a multitude of peaks in both the diode array and electrochemical detectors, and a higher antioxidant capacity compared to for the extracts obtained at 80 °C. It is concluded that HPLC-DAD-ECD is a more appropriate technique for the determination of antioxidants than the DPPH assay. The mass spectrometric results indicate that one of the extracted antioxidants, catechin, was isomerised to its diastereoisomers; (+)-catechin, (−)-catechin, (+)-epicatechin, and (−)-epicatechin.     

Effective mass and band gap of strained graphene

The effective mass of strained graphene is investigated by tight-binding and density-functional theory calculations. For graphene strained in the zigzag direction, we find a strong anisotropy in the effective mass near the gap opening, with an abrupt increase of the effective mass at the critical strain in one direction and a smooth variation perpendicular to it. There is no band-gap opening for isotropic strain, but at an expansive strain of about 28%, the lower edge of the s-band reaches the Fermi level and makes the graphene metallic.     

CO2-3掺杂纳米羟基磷灰石晶体的合成与表征

CO2-3掺杂是提高纳米羟基磷灰石（n-HA）生物活性的有效方法之一。以 Ca（NO3）2·4H2O 和Na3PO4·12H2O为主要原料，Na2CO3作为CO2-3来源，合成纳米碳羟基磷灰石（n-CHA）晶体。采用TEM ， XRD ，FTIR ，RS对合成晶体形貌和结构进行表征。结果表明：合成的n-HA晶体长度约为60～80 nm ，宽度在20～30 nm之间，形状为针状，具有良好的结晶度，与自然骨磷灰石形貌相似；n-CHA晶体随CO2-3掺入量的增加，结晶度降低；合成的 n-CHA晶体的晶胞参数 a值随着CO2-3加入量的增大不断收缩，但 c值增大，参数比c/a值增大，符合B型取代（取代PO3-4）的晶胞参数变化规律。红外谱图中，872 cm -1附近出现AB混合型取代（同时取代O H -，PO3-4）的CO2-3面外弯曲振动特征红外峰，同时CO2-3的不对称伸缩振动红外峰在1454和1420 cm -1附近出现分裂峰，1540 cm -1附近出现弱CO2-3峰；1122 cm -1附近出现CO2-3对称伸缩振动拉曼峰，1071 cm -1附近出现CO2-3的B型替代特征拉曼峰，通过计算PO3-4，CO2-3，O H -拉曼峰的积分面积比PO3-4/CO2-3，O H -/CO23，PO3-4/O H -，表明CO2-3在替换时，先以B型为主，随着CO2-3掺入量的增加，发生A型替代（取代O H -）。实验结果表明，合成的磷灰石晶体为B型取代（取代PO3-4）为主的AB混合型取代的 n-CHA。与人骨磷灰石晶体在形态、尺寸、晶体结构和生长方式上具有相似性，可称为类骨磷灰石。