Superquantiles at Work: Machine Learning Applications and Efficient Subgradient Computation

Set-Valued and Variational Analysis - R. Tyrell Rockafellar and his collaborators introduced, in a series of works, new regression modeling methods based on the notion of superquantile (or...     

Sensitive CE-MS method for monitoring of riociguat and desmethylriociguat levels in human serum

Riociguat is novel antihypertensive drug for treatment of pulmonary hypertension. As such, it is still being tested in many clinical and pharmacokinetic trials. Existing methods that determine serum riociguat and desmethylriociguat (DMR) are based solely on liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. Therefore, we present a novel capillary electrophoresis with mass spectrometry method (CE-MS) for their determination in human serum as alternative method for ongoing trials. Complete resolution of both analytes was achieved by means of pH optimization of ammonium formate background electrolytes that are fully compatible with ESI/MS detection. Simple liquid-liquid extraction was used as sample pretreatment. The calibration dependence of the method was linear (in the range of 10–1000 ng/mL), with adequate accuracy (90.1–114.9%) and precision (13.4%). LOD and LOQ were arbitrarily set at 10 ng/mL for both analytes. Clinical applicability was validated using serum samples from patients treated with riociguat in pharmacokinetic study and the results corresponded with reference HPLC-MS/MS values. Capillary electrophoresis proved to be sensitive and selective tool for the analysis of riociguat and DMR.     

Structure determination of KScS2, RbScS2 and KLnS2 (Ln = Nd,Sm, Tb,Dy, Ho,Er, Tm and Yb) and crystal–chemical discussion

The title structures of KScS₂ (potassium scandium sulfide), RbScS₂ (rubidium scandium sulfide) and KLnS₂ [Ln = Nd (potassium neodymium sufide), Sm (potassium samarium sulfide), Tb (potassium terbium sulfide), Dy (potassium dysprosium sulfide), Ho (potassium holmium sulfide), Er (potassium erbium sulfide), Tm (potassium thulium sulfide) and Yb (potassium ytterbium sulfide)] are either newly determined (KScS₂, RbScS₂ and KTbS₂) or redetermined. All of them belong to the α‐NaFeO₂ structure type in agreement with the ratio of the ionic radii r³⁺/r⁺. KScS₂, the member of this structural family with the smallest trivalent cation, is an extreme representative of these structures with rare earth trivalent cations. The title structures are compared with isostructural alkali rare earth sulfides in plots showing the dependence of several relevant parameters on the trivalent cation crystal radius; the parameters thus compared are c, a and c/a, the thicknesses of the S—S layers which contain the respective constituent cations, the sulfur fractional coordinates z(S²⁻) and the bond‐valence sums.     

Dynamic Interactions in Synthetic Receptors: A Guest Exchange Saturation Transfer Study

The accumulated knowledge regarding molecular architectures is based on established, reliable, and accessible analytical tools that provide robust structural and functional information on assemblies. However, both the dynamicity and low population of noncovalently interacting moieties within studied molecular systems limit the efficiency and accuracy of traditional methods. Herein, the use of a saturation transfer-based NMR approach to study the dynamic binding characteristics of an anion to a series of synthetic receptors derived from bambusuril macrocycles is demonstrated. The exchange rates of BF₄⁻ are mediated by the side chains on the receptor (100 s⁻¹<k_ex<5000 s⁻¹), which play a critical role in receptor-anion binding dynamics. The signal amplification obtained with this approach allows for the identification of different types of intermolecular interactions between the receptor and the anion, something that could not have been detected by techniques hitherto used to study molecular assemblies. These findings, which are supported by a computational molecular dynamic study, demonstrate the uniqueness and added value of this NMR method.     

A Switch in the Hydrophobic/Hydrophilic Gas-Adsorption Character of Prussian Blue Analogues: An Affinity Control for Smart Gas Sorption

Porous coordination polymers are molecule-based materials presenting a high degree of tunability, which offer many advantages for targeted applications over conventional inorganic materials. This work demonstrates that the hydrophilic/hydrophobic character of Prussian blue analogues having a lipophilic feature may be tuned to optimize the gas adsorption properties. The role of the coordinatively unsaturated metal sites is emphasized through a combination of theoretical and experimental study of water, ethanol, and n-hexane adsorption.     

Some remarks to multivariate regression model

Some remarks to problems of point and interval estimation, testing and problems of outliers are presented in the case of multivariate regression model. This work was supported by the Council of Czech Government J14/98:153100011.     

Extraction-ability and -selectivity of tetra-aza-crown ethers for transition metal cations

In order to investigate the relative effects of the differences between the structures and lipophilicities of 1, 10-dioxa-4, 7, 13, 16-tetra-azacyclo-octadecane (TA-18-crown-6) and the tetrabenzyl derivative of 1,10-dioxa-4, 7, 13, 16-tetra-azacyclo-octadecane (TBTA-18-crown-6) on their extraction-abilities and -selectivities for transition metal cations, constants of the overall extraction (logK _ex) of 1:1 (M:L) complexes, the distribution (K _D) for two diluents (CH₂Cl₂ and CHCl₃) with different dielectric constants have been determined at 25 ± 0.1 °C. The magnitude of logK _ex is largely determined by that of K _D. The equilibrium constants of TA-18-crown-6 have been compared with those of TBTA-18-crown-6. It is found that:(i) logK _ex sequences of TA-18-crown-6 and TBTA-18-crown-6 for transition metals in CH₂Cl₂ lie in order: Fe³⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Mn²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Ni²⁺ > Zn²⁺ and Fe³⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Mn²⁺ > Ni²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Zn²⁺ respectively; (ii) the stability sequences of two types of tetra-aza-crown ethers with the transition metal cations in CHCl₃ are the same as follows: Fe³⁺ > Ni²⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Zn²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Mn²⁺, and (iii) unusual selectivities are observed for transition metal-tetra-aza-crowns, e.g. the high Fe³⁺/M ⁿ⁺ selectivity factors (S_f) of TA-18-crown-6, except for the competitive-extractions for the special case in CHCl₃ of TBTA-18-crown-6, it was found that the Mn²⁺/M ⁿ⁺ values were relatively higher according to the other transition metal cations. A systematic sequence in these two types of solvents is not found for a given transition metal cation in terms of the variation of selectivity with the tetra-aza-crown ethers. The results provide alternatives for the rational design of other specific ligands on the transition metal cations.