Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Mass Spectrometry Determination of Ibogaine and 12-Hydroxy-Ibogamine in Human Urine

A specific and sensitive liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry method was developed for the determination of ibogaine and noribogaine in human urine. The work-up procedure involved a solid phase extraction of the compounds and the internal standard (fluorescein) using Oasis HLB columns. The system used a Zorbax eclipse XDB C8 analytical column packed with 5µm diameter particles as the stationary phase. The mobile phase consisted of a 20-min gradient (mobile phase A: 0.02% (v/v) trimethylamine in acetonitrile, mobile phase B: 2 mM ammonium formate buffer (pH 3)). Mass spectrometric data were acquired in single ion monitoring mode at m/z 311.1, 297.2 and 333 for ibogaine, noribogaine and fluorescein, respectively. The drug/internal standard peak area ratios were linked via a quadratic relationship to concentrations (1.78?358 μg L^?1 for ibogaine; 2?400 μg L^?1 for noribogaine). Precision ranged from 5.8 to 14.8% and accuracy was between 93.2 and 112.9%. Mean extraction recoveries of ibogaine, noribogaine and fluorescein were 70.0, 81.7 and 94.8%, respectively. The extraction efficiency was independent of concentration over the range studied. The lower limits of quantitation were 1.78 μg L^?1 for ibogaine and 2 μg L^?1 for noribogaine. In this paper, extensive stability testing was undertaken using a wide range of storage conditions. This method was found suitable for urine analysis of a poisoning involving ingestion of drink made from powdered root of shrub Tabernanthe iboga.     

Computation of the Reflection Coefficient of a Triangular Semiconductor Prism in a Rectangular Waveguide

In this paper we present a method to solve Maxwell's equations that enables to compute waveguide structure containing a semiconductor triangular prism. The numerical study has showed that the triangular prism in the waveguide has a wider frequency band in comparison with a square rod under equal conditions. The reflection coefficient dependencies on frequency, prism size and its permittivity have been computed. The algorithm and computer programme have been tested and compared with the numerical results and experimental data of the paper [1] with good agreement.     

Quantitative characterization of chaotic instabilities in semiconductors

A method for quantitative characterization of chaotic dynamical systems is discussed. An electronic instrument for determining the number of independent variablesk ^*, involved in the motion, is described. It allows one to obtain these in real time from a single observable. The suggested technique has been applied to quantification of strange attractors underlying chaotic instabilities in semi-insulating GaAsCr, and n-Ge, irradiated with high energy electrons. In n-Ge, for instance, the measured numbersk ^* range from 2 to 4 depending on control parameters. These measurements reveal the highly deterministic nature of the observed chaotic oscillations. The physical mechanisms responsible for the current instabilities and chaotic behaviour are discussed.     

Hot embossing of PTFE: Towards superhydrophobic surfaces

Three types of reusable stamps with features in the form of 2D arrays of pits having lateral dimensions in the range of 2-80 μm and heights of 1.5-15 μm were successfully employed for the hot embossing of PTFE at temperatures up to 50 °C above the glass transition temperature of PTFE amorphous phase. Due to the softening of PTFE at the temperatures used in this study, we were able to decrease imprint pressure significantly when comparing with the imprint conditions reported by other authors. Impact of the imprint temperature, pressure and time on the fidelity of pattern transfer as well as on water repellency was tested. The best results of embossing were achieved by applying pressure of 10 kg/cm² for 2 min at 170 °C. In this case, flattening of a natural PTFE roughness and pretty accurate deep replicas of the stamp patterns were observable on the whole imprinted area. Improvement in water repellency was largest for the samples imprinted by Ni stamp patterned with a 2D array of 2 μm square pits spaced by the same dimension and having a depth of 1.5 μm. Cassie-Baxter wetting regime was observed for the deepest imprints with water contact angles up to the superhydrophobic limit.     

Kinetics of the fluorescence of poly(N-vinylcarbazole) and poly(N-vinylcarbazole) with 2,4,7-trinitrofluorenone in the solid state

The fluorescence decay time measurements by the stroboscopic method have been made on films of amorphous poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVCA) and PVCA doped with 2,4,7-trinitrofluorenone (TNF). The obtained lifetimes of two excimer species have at 77 K and at 300 K values of about 43 ns and 9 ns, which are similar to other measurements. The kinetics of excimer fluorescence and energy transfer in PVCA films are described by a simple model of the Stern-Volmer type. It assumes the fast migration of localized singlet excitons and their trapping in two species of excimer traps.We propose a modified kinetic model for films of PVCA with TNF. In this model we assume besides the exciton migration and trapping on excimer and impurity traps also the direct energy transfer from two excimer species to charge transfer complexes of PVCA with TNF by the Förster dipole-dipole mechanism. The estimated critical distance of this transfer are about 10 Å.     

Second-Order Subexponential Behavior of Subordinated Sequences

Suppose that , , and are three discrete probability distributions related by the equation (E): , where denotes the k-fold convolution of In this paper, we investigate the relation between the asymptotic behaviors of and . It turns out that, for wide classes of sequences and , relation (E) implies that , where is the mean of . The main object of this paper is to discuss the rate of convergence in this result. In our main results, we obtain O-estimates and exact asymptotic estimates for the difference .     

Molecular foundry workshop draws overflow crowd to Berkeley Lab

The Swiss Light Source (SLS) is a synchrotron radiation user facility (2000 users/year, 18 beamlines, 5000 hrs/year) in operation at Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) since 2001. Figure 1 presents a schematic view.