A novel amperometric biosensor based on a co-crosslinked l-lysine-α-oxidase/overoxidized polypyrrole bilayer for the highly selective determination of l-lysine

An amperometric biosensor for the determination of l-lysine based on l-lysine-α-oxidase immobilized by co-crosslinking on a platinum electrode previously modified by an overoxidized polypyrrole film is described. The optimization of experimental parameters, such as pH and flow rate, permitted to minimize significantly substrate interferences even using a low specific, commercial enzyme. The relevant biases introduced in the measurement of lysine were just about 1% for l-arginine, l-histidine and l-ornithine, roughly 4% for l-phenylalanine and l-tyrosine. The developed approach allowed linear lysine responses from 0.02 mM up to 2 mM with a sensitivity of 41 nA/(mM × mm²) and a detection limit of 4 μM (S/N = 3). No appreciable loss in lysine sensitivity was observed up to about 40 days. Allowing polypyrrole layer to remove interference from electroactive compounds, the present method revealed suitable to detect l-lysine in a pharmaceutical and cheese sample, showing a good agreement with the expected values.     

Prediction of vapor–liquid and liquid–liquid equilibria for polymer systems: Comparison of activity coefficient models

A large number of equations of state and activity coefficient models capable of describing phase equilibria in polymer solutions are available today, but only a few of these models have been applied to different systems. It is therefore useful to investigate the performance of existing thermodynamic models for complex polymer solutions which have not yet been widely studied. The present work studies the application of several activity coefficient models [P.J. Flory, Principles of Polymer Chemistry, Cornell University Press, New York, NY, 1953; T. Oishi, J.M. Prausnitz, Estimation of solvent activities in polymer solutions using a group-contribution method, Ind. Eng. Chem. Process Design Dev. 17 (1978) 333; H.S. Elbro, A. Fredenslund, P. Rasmussen, A new simple equation for the prediction of solvent activities in polymer solutions, Macromolecules 23 (1990) 4707; G.M. Kontogeorgis, A. Fredenslund, D. Tassios, Simple activity coefficient model for the prediction of solvent activities in polymer solutions, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 32 (1993) 362; C. Chen, A segment-based local composition model for the Gibbs energy of polymer solutions, Fluid Phase Equilib. 83 (1993) 301; A. Vetere, Rules for predicting vapor–liquid equilibria of amorphous polymer solutions using a modified Flory–Huggins equation, Fluid Phase Equilib. 97 (1994) 43; C. Qian, S.J. Mumby, B.E. Eichinger, Phase diagrams of binary polymer solutions and blends, Macromolecules 24 (1991) 1655; Y.C. Bae, J.J. Shim, D.S. Soane, J.M. Prausnitz, Representation of vapor–liquid and liquid–liquid equilibria for binary systems containing polymers: applicability of an extended Flory–Huggins equation, J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 47 (1993) 1193; G. Bogdanic, J. Vidal, A segmental interaction model for liquid–liquid equilibrium calculations for polymer solutions, Fluid Phase Equilibria 173 (2000) 241] and activity coefficient from equations of state [F. Chen, A. Fredenslund, P. Rasmussen, Group-contribution Flory equation of state for vapor–liquid equilibria en mixtures with polymers, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 29 (1990) 875; M.S. High, R.P. Danner, Application of the group contribution lattice—fluids EOS to polymer solutions, AIChE J. 36 (1990) 1625]. The evaluation of these models was carried out both at infinite dilution and at finite concentrations and the results compared to experimental data. Furthermore, liquid–liquid equilibrium predictions for binary polymer solutions using six activity coefficient models are compared in this work. The parameters were estimated for all the models to achieve the best possible representation of the reported experimental equilibrium behavior.     

Determination of the anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil added to blood serum by liquid chromatography with anodic amperometric detection

Liquid chromatography with on-line anodic amperometric detection is used after a liquid/solid extraction step for the determination of the anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil added to blood serum. A detection limit of 15 ng ml^?1 can be achieved. The anodic electrochemical behaviour of the drug at a mercury electrode, which is the basis of the detection principle, is also described. Anodic amperometric detection at a mercury electrode is compared with detection at a glassy carbon electrode in terms of sensitivity, linearity and selectivity.     

Sub-Rayleigh imaging via N-photon detection

The Rayleigh diffraction bound sets the minimum separation for two point objects to be distinguishable in a conventional imaging system. We demonstrate sub-Rayleigh resolution by scanning a focused beam--in an arbitrary, object-covering pattern that is unknown to the imager--and using N-photon photodetection implemented with a single-photon avalanche detector array. Experiments show resolution improvement by a factor ～(N-N(max))(?) beyond the Rayleigh bound, where N(max) is the maximum average detected photon number in the image, in good agreement with theory.     

Effects of rapid thermal treatments on the electrical properties of thin SiO2 gate oxide for DRAM p-channel MOS transistors

Silicon oxide has been grown by rapid thermal processing. The growth rate, in the range of very thin films (<10 nm), has been studied as a function of the oxidation temperature. Combined films composed by conventional thermal silicon oxide growth over SiO₂ passivation layer deposited by rapid thermal processing onto Si(1 0 0) substrates have been used as gate oxide of p-channel metal-oxide semiconductor (p-MOS) transistors of dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The effect of rapid thermal annealing treatments on these films has also been experimented. Improvements in the electrical performances of transistors have been observed.     

The Eigenvalues of Mathieu's Equation and their Branch Points

A comprehensive account is given of the behavior of the eigenvalues of Mathieu's equation as functions of the complex variable q. The convergence of their small-q expansions is limited by an infinite sequence of rings of branch points of square-root type at which adjacent eigenvalues of the same type become equal. New asymptotic formulae are derived that account for how and where the eigenvalues become equal. Known asymptotic series for the eigenvalues apply beyond the rings of branch points; we show how they can now be identified with specific eigenvalues.     

On the depth of certain graded rings associated to an ideal

Let (R,m) be a local ring and Ian ideal of R. In this work we find conditions on Ithat allow us to describe simple relations among depth R(It), depth gr_I(R), depth S(I) and depth S(I/I ²). These relations are useful also from a practical point, of view since it is usually difficult to evaluate depth gr_I(R) and depth S(I/I ²) even with the help of a computer. Furthermore we study the class of ideals that satisfy one of the required conditions and we show that ideals generated by quadratic sequences are in this class