Application of microcrystalline cellulose as an efficient and cheap sorbent for the extraction of metoprolol from plasma and wastewater before HPLC–MS/MS determination

A dispersive solid-phase extraction method based on a new sorbent has been performed on plasma and wastewater samples to determine metoprolol by high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. In this study, the analyte was adsorbed from the samples onto microcrystalline cellulose as a green and efficient sorbent and then eluted for use in the determination step. In the mass spectrometer, the analyte was detected in the positive mode and selectivity of the analysis was increased by sequential mass analysis through multiple reaction monitoring. All of the effective parameters in the extraction of metoprolol from plasma and wastewater were optimized. Under optimal conditions the method was linear in the ranges of 1–1,000 and 0.1–1,000 ng/ml in plasma and wastewater samples, respectively. The detection limits of the method were 0.30 and 0.03 ng/ml in plasma and wastewater samples, respectively. The data showed that the method provides low detection limit, wide linear range, good precision and high extraction recovery. Finally several plasma and wastewater samples were successfully analyzed using the method. The use of a small amount of a green and inexpensive sorbent and a low volume of plasma without the need for further pretreatment steps are the main advantages of the method.     

A sensitive and efficient method for trace analysis of some phenolic compounds using simultaneous derivatization and air‐assisted liquid–liquid microextraction from human urine and plasma samples followed by gas chromatography–nitrogen phosphorous detection

In present study, a simultaneous derivatization and air‐assisted liquid–liquid microextraction method combined with gas chromatography–nitrogen phosphorous detection has been developed for the determination of some phenolic compounds in biological samples. The analytes are derivatized and extracted simultaneously by a fast reaction with 1‐flouro‐2,4‐dinitrobenzene under mild conditions. Under optimal conditions low limits of detection in the range of 0.05–0.34 ng mL^?1 are achievable. The obtained extraction recoveries are between 84 and 97% and the relative standard deviations are less than 7.2% for intraday (n = 6) and interday (n = 4) precisions. The proposed method was demonstrated to be a simple and efficient method for the analysis of phenols in biological samples. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using the new in–in method for the synthesis of polyisoprene/polystyrene heteroarm star polymers

The basis of the two‐step in–in method is as follows: star polymers with poly(divinyl benzene) cores, synthesized by the arm‐first method, include many unreacted double bonds in their core, and these double bonds can be attacked by the carbanions of some monomers such as styrene and dienes. In this work, linear polyisoprene chains were used to attack the double bonds existing in the poly(divinyl benzene) cores of polystyrene star polymers, so that a heteroarm star polymer with polystyrene and polyisoprene arms was synthesized. It was later well characterized with size exclusion chromatography, light scattering, viscometry, UV spectroscopy, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, and ¹H NMR. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 135–142, 2003     

Radiation induced polymerization of vinyl monomers and their application for preparation of wood-polymer composites

Polymerizing effects of high energy radiation has been found suitable for preparation of wood-polymer composites. In the present work after evaluating polymer products that have been obtained by irradiation method, wood-polymer composites have been prepared by in situ polymerization of vinyl acetate, acrylic acid and acrylic acid/styrene mixture using two samples of Iranian hardwoods, Beech and Hornbeam. These woods and their composites have been tested for their physical and mechanical properties. The results have shown that chemical bonding between polymer and the cell wall component lead to better strength properties in the composites.     

The Padé-Rayleigh-Ritz method for solving large hermitian eigenproblems

We make use of the Padé approximants and the Krylov sequencex, Ax,,...,A ^m–1 x in the projection methods to compute a few Ritz values of a large hermitian matrixA of ordern. This process consists in approaching the poles ofR _x()=((I–A)^–1 x,x), the mean value of the resolvant ofA, by those of [m–1/m]_Rx(), where [m–1/m]_Rx() is the Padé approximant of orderm of the functionR _x(). This is equivalent to approaching some eigenvalues ofA by the roots of the polynomial of degreem of the denominator of [m–1/m]_Rx(). This projection method, called the Padé-Rayleigh-Ritz (PRR) method, provides a simple way to determine the minimum polynomial ofx in the Krylov subspace methods for the symmetrical case. The numerical stability of the PRR method can be ensured if the projection subspacem is sufficiently small. The mainly expensive portion of this method is its projection phase, which is composed of the matrix-vector multiplications and, consequently, is well suited for parallel computing. This is also true when the matrices are sparse, as recently demonstrated, especially on massively parallel machines. This paper points out a relationship between the PRR and Lanczos methods and presents a theoretical comparison between them with regard to stability and parallelism. We then try to justify the use of this method under some assumptions.     

Kinetic study of polyesterification: Unsaturated polyesters

Synthesis of unsaturated polyesters using adipic acid, ethylene glycol, and fumaric acid in the absence and presence of a foreign acid (phosphoric acid) as catalyst was carried out by a two-stage method under constant reaction temperatures of 160–180°C and at different ratios of diol to diacid. The experimental data fit the Chen–Wu rate equations for self-catalyzed and acid-catalyzed reactions. The reaction rate constants and activation energies for both systems were calculated. The rate constants of fumaric acid–ethylene glycol systems were found to be nearly constant and had negligible variations with increasing chain length of polymer. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Elution order in gas chromatography

The retention behavior of a heterogeneous group of solutes has been examined on seven different stationary phases under isothermal and temperature-programmed conditions. Both ΔH_v (enthalpy of solute vaporization from the stationary phase) and ΔS_v (entropy of solute vaporization from the stationary phase) values were determined for each solute – stationary phase combination under isothermal conditions. Both program rate and carrier gas velocity were shown to affect solute elution order. Unless these and other experimental factors discussed are controlled, column equivalency studies based on solute elution order have dubious value.     

Simultaneous kinetic spectrophotometric determination of cyanide and thiocyanate using the partial least squares (PLS) regression

The partial least squares (PLS-1) calibration model based on spectrophotometric measurement, for the simultaneous determination of CN⁻ and SCN⁻ ions is described. The method is based on the difference in the rate of the reaction between CN⁻ and SCN⁻ ions with chloramine-T in a pH 4.0 buffer solution and at 30 °C. The produced cyanogen chloride (CNCl) reacts with pyridine and the product condenses with barbituric acid and forms a final colored product. The absorption kinetic profiles of the solutions were monitored by measuring absorbance at 578 nm in the time range 20-180 s after initiation of the reaction with 2 s intervals. The experimental calibration matrix for partial least squares (PLS-1) calibration was designed with 31 samples. The cross-validation method was used for selecting the number of factors. The results showed that simultaneous determination could be performed in the range 10.0-900.0 and 50.0-1200.0 ng mL⁻¹ for CN⁻ and SCN⁻ ions, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of cyanide and thiocyanate in water samples.     

Syntheses, structures, and reactivities of (Fe-NO)6 nitrosyls derived from polypyridine-carboxamide ligands: photoactive NO-donors and reagents for S-nitrosylation of alkyl thiols

Two new iron nitrosyls derived from two designed pentadentate ligands N,N-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)-amine-N'-(2-pyridylmethyl)acetamide and N,N-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)-amine-N'-[1-(2-pyridinyl)ethyl]acetamide (PcPy(3)H and MePcPy(3)H, respectively, where H is the dissociable amide proton) have been structurally characterized. These complexes are similar to a previously reported (Fe-NO)6 complex, [(PaPy(3))Fe(NO)](ClO(4))(2) (1) that releases NO under mild conditions. The present nitrosyls, namely [(PcPy(3))Fe(NO)](ClO(4))(2) (2) and [(MePcPy(3))Fe(NO)](ClO(4))(2) (3), belong to the same (Fe-NO)6 family and exhibit (a) clean (1)H NMR spectra in CD(3)CN indicating S = 0 ground state, (b) almost linear Fe-N-O angles (177.3(5) degrees and 177.6(4) degrees for 2 and 3, respectively), and (c) N-O stretching frequencies (nu(NO)) in the range 1900-1925 cm(-)(1). The binding of NO at the non-heme iron centers of 1-3 is completely reversible and all three nitrosyls rapidly release NO when exposed to light (50 W tungsten bulb). In addition to acting as photoactive NO-donors, these complexes also nitrosylate thiols such as N-acetylpenicillamine, 3-mercaptopropionic acid, and N-acetyl-cysteine-methyl-ester in yields that range from 30 to 90% in the absence of light. The addition of alkyl or aryl thiolate (RS(-)) to the (Fe-NO)6 complexes in the absence of dioxygen results in the reduction of the iron metal center to afford the corresponding (Fe-NO)7 species.     

Validation of an empirical RNA-ligand scoring function for fast flexible docking using RiboDock®

We report the design and validation of a fast empirical function for scoring RNA-ligand interactions, and describe its implementation within RiboDock, a virtual screening system for automated flexible docking. Building on well-known protein-ligand scoring function foundations, features were added to describe the interactions of common RNA-binding functional groups that were not handled adequately by conventional terms, to disfavour non-complementary polar contacts, and to control non-specific charged interactions. The results of validation experiments against known structures of RNA-ligand complexes compare favourably with previously reported methods. Binding modes were well predicted in most cases and good discrimination was achieved between native and non-native ligands for each binding site, and between native and non-native binding sites for each ligand. Further evidence of the ability of the method to identify true RNA binders is provided by compound selection ('enrichment factor') experiments based around a series of HIV-1 TAR RNA-binding ligands. Significant enrichment in true binders was achieved amongst high scoring docking hits, even when selection was from a library of structurally related, positively charged molecules. Coupled with a semi-automated cavity detection algorithm for identification of putative ligand binding sites, also described here, the method is suitable for the screening of very large databases of molecules against RNA and RNA-protein interfaces, such as those presented by the bacterial ribosome.