Cloud point extraction of vanadium in parenteral solutions using a nonionic surfactant (PONPE 5.0) and determination by flow injection-inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

A preconcentration and determination methodology for vanadium at trace levels in parenteral solutions was developed. Cloud point extraction was successfully employed for the preconcentration of vanadium prior to inductively coupled plasma atomic optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) coupled to a flow injection (FI) system. The vanadium was extracted as vanadium-2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol [V-(5-Br-PADAP)] complex, at pH 3.7 mediated by micelles of the nonionic surfactant polyoxyethylene (5.0) nonylphenol (PONPE 5.0). The extracted surfactant-rich phase (100 mul) was mixed with 100 mul of ethanol and this final volume injected into ICP-OES for the vanadium determination. Under these conditions, the 50 ml sample solution preconcentration allowed raising an enrichment factor of 250-fold; however, it was possible to obtain a theoretical enrichment factor of 500-fold. The lower limit of detection (LOD) obtained under the optimal conditions was 16 ng l(-1). The precision for 10 replicate determinations at the 2.0 mug l(-1) V level was 2.3% relative standard deviation (RSD), calculated with the peak heights. The calibration graph using the preconcentration system for vanadium was linear with a correlation coefficient of 0.9996 at levels near the detection limits up to at least 50 mug l(-1). The method was successfully applied to the determination of vanadium in parenteral solution samples.     

The potential of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometric detection for capillary electrophoretic analysis of pesticides

In this work, the potential of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) coupled to capillary electrophoresis (CE) to determine organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) is demonstrated. Element specific detection of (31)P with ICP-MS is performed for the detection of OPPs. Three common OPPs, including glyphosate, glufosinate, and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), were analyzed by CE-ICP-MS to demonstrate its applicability for the analysis of OPPs. The advantages of using ICP-MS with respect to other common detectors, such as flame photometric detection (FPD), for CE analysis of OPPs are shown. Additionally, different CE separation conditions were studied to achieve complete baseline separation of the pesticide compounds in short migration times. Two CE buffer systems were evaluated for the separation of OPPs using ICP-MS detection. A buffer solution containing 40 mmol.L(-1) ammonium acetate at pH 9.0 and an applied voltage of +20 kV were finally selected leading to a separation time of 10.0 min. Both migration time and area relative standard deviations (%RSD) were evaluated and their respective values were in the intervals of 1.1-3.3% and 2.7-5.3%. Detection limits obtained with the CE-ICP-MS system were in the range of 0.11-0.19 mg.L(-1) (as compound) yielding an enhancement of 130- to 230-fold with respect to FPD. The proposed methodology was finally applied for the determination of the OPPs mentioned above in natural river water samples.     

Heritability of Stroop and flanker performance in 12-year old children

Background  

There is great interest in appropriate phenotypes that serve as indicator of genetically transmitted frontal (dys)function, such as ADHD. Here we investigate the ability to deal with response conflict, and we ask to what extent performance variation on response interference tasks is caused by genetic variation. We tested a large sample of 12-year old monozygotic and dizygotic twins on two well-known and closely related response interference tasks; the color Stroop task and the Eriksen flanker task. Using structural equation modelling we assessed the heritability of several performance indices derived from those tasks.     

The contribution of high frequencies to human brain activity underlying horizontal localization of natural spatial sounds

Background  

In the field of auditory neuroscience, much research has focused on the neural processes underlying human sound localization. A recent magnetoencephalography (MEG) study investigated localization-related brain activity by measuring the N1m event-related response originating in the auditory cortex. It was found that the dynamic range of the right-hemispheric N1m response, defined as the mean difference in response magnitude between contralateral and ipsilateral stimulation, reflects cortical activity related to the discrimination of horizontal sound direction. Interestingly, the results also suggested that the presence of realistic spectral information within horizontally located spatial sounds resulted in a larger right-hemispheric N1m dynamic range. Spectral cues being predominant at high frequencies, the present study further investigated the issue by removing frequencies from the spatial stimuli with low-pass filtering. This resulted in a stepwise elimination of direction-specific spectral information. Interaural time and level differences were kept constant. The original, unfiltered stimuli were broadband noise signals presented from five frontal horizontal directions and binaurally recorded for eight human subjects with miniature microphones placed in each subject's ear canals. Stimuli were presented to the subjects during MEG registration and in a behavioral listening experiment.     

Determination of inorganic selenium species in water and garlic samples with on-line ionic liquid dispersive microextraction and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

A non-chromatographic separation and preconcentration method for Se species determination based on the use of an on-line ionic liquid (IL) dispersive microextraction system coupled to electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) is proposed. Retention and separation of the IL phase was achieved with a Florisil^®-packed microcolumn after dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) with tetradecyl(trihexyl)phosphonium chloride IL (CYPHOS^® IL 101). Selenite [Se(IV)] species was selectively separated by forming Se-ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (Se-APDC) complex followed by extraction with CYPHOS^® IL 101. The methodology was highly selective towards Se(IV), while selenate [Se(VI)] was reduced and then indirectly determined. Several factors influencing the efficiency of the preconcentration technique, such as APDC concentration, sample volume, extractant phase volume, type of eluent, elution flow rate, etc., have been investigated in detail. The limit of detection (LOD) was 15 ng L⁻¹ and the relative standard deviation (RSD) for 10 replicates at 0.5 μg L⁻¹ Se concentration was 5.1%, calculated with peak heights. The calibration graph was linear and a correlation coefficient of 0.9993 was achieved. The method was successfully employed for Se speciation studies in garlic extracts and water samples.     

Precise mass measurement of a double-stranded 500 base-pair (309 kDa) polymerase chain reaction product by negative ion electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry

Electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (ESI-FTICRMS) has been used to determine the mass of a double-stranded 500 base-pair (bp) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product with an average theoretical mass of the blunt-ended (i.e. unadenylated) species of 308 859.35 Da. The PCR product was generated from the linearized bacteriophage Lambda genome which is a double-stranded template. Utilization of ethanol precipitation in tandem with a rapid microdialysis step to purify and desalt the PCR product was crucial to obtain a precise mass measurement. The PCR product (0.8 pmol/μL) was electrosprayed from a solution containing 75% acetonitrile, 25 mM piperidine, and 25 mM imidazole and was infused at a rate of 200 nL/min. The average molecular mass and the corresponding precision were determined using the charge-states ranging from 172 to 235 net negative charges. The experimental mass and corresponding precision (reported as the 95% confidence interval of the mean) was 309 406 +/- 27 Da (87 ppm). The mass accuracy was compromised due to the fact that the PCR generates multiple products when using Taq polymerase due to the non-template directed 3'-adenylation. This results in a mixture of three PCR products with nearly identical mass (i.e. blunt-ended, mono-adenylated and di-adenylated) with unknown relative abundances that were not resolved in the spectrum. Thus, the experimental mass will be a weighted average of the three species which, under our experimental conditions, reflects a nearly equal concentration of the mono- and di-adenylated species. This report demonstrates that precise mass measurements of PCR products up to 309 kDa (500 bp) can be routinely obtained by ESI-FTICR requiring low femtomole amounts. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.