Micro enzymatic assay coupled to capillary electrophoresis via liquid junction

Summary A system for capillary electrophoresis combined with enzymatic assay has been evaluated for the two enzymes glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase. Instrumentation included a post-column reactor coupled to the separation capillary by a liquid junction. A technique for generating a substrate solution flow into the reactor by utilizing two high voltage supplies is proposed. This method offers a high degree of freedom in optimizing the separation and enzymatic reaction conditions individually. Possibilities for improving the enzymatic assay sensitivity were also examined.     

The contribution of the pressure drop to analyte retention in coupled column supercritical fluid chromatography of lipids

Summary This paper reports the qualitative and quantitative effects of the column pressure drop on the retention of lipid components in a serially coupled capillary column SFC system. The contribution of the pressure drop consists of two components, the density effect and the flow effect. The magnitude of the flow effect,i. e. the change in retention which results from changes in the flow-rate when column pressures are changed, is determined by the difference in single column analyte k values. The effect will be positive compared with the uncorrected retention values when the column with largest k value is closest to the injector. With the columns in reversed order, the effect will be negative. The contribution from the density effect always resulted in larger coupled column k values and was in most instances of more significance than the flow effect component. Values calculated with and without pressure drop correction have been compared and it has been shown that for most of the eighteen model lipid compounds investigated, the deviations from the experimental retention factors were smaller when pressure drop corrections were made.     

Synthesis of an azacrown template for phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bis(phosphate) recognition

An azacrown system has been developed for selective membrane binding of phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bis(phosphate) recognition. Neutral and cationic forms of the metacyclophane macrocycles have been synthesized by divergent routes in acceptable yields. Such diversity will be useful in identifying anion receptors that operate best at membrane interfaces.     

Supported Liquid Membrane Work-Up of Blood Plasma Samples Coupled On-Line to Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Basic Antidepressant Drugs

An automated sample pretreatment of human blood plasma for liquid chromatographic determination of three antidepressant drugs, dibenzepine; a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA), reboxetine; a selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) and fluvoxamine; a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), based on supported liquid membrane (SLM) for unsurpassed sample clean-up and analyte enrichment, has been developed. The chromatograms after enrichment of plasma blank and aqueous blank are virtually indistinguishable. The entire analytical procedure revealed good linearity and low detection limits of 5, 15 and 20 ng mL^–1 for dibenzepine, reboxetine and fluvoxamine, respectively. No carry-over effects were noted. The repeatability of extraction at three concentrations in the range 40–150 ng mL^–1 for the three drugs was between ca. 3% and 7% as relative standard deviation. The reproducibility relative standard deviation during three different days (replacing the membrane each day) was not significantly higher.     

3M Petrifilm Staph Express Count plate method for the enumeration of Staphylococcus aureus in selected types of meat, seafood, and poultry: collaborative study

The 3M Petrifilm Staph Express Count plate method was compared with AOAC Official Method 975.55 for the enumeration of Staphylococcus aureus in selected foods. Four foods--cooked, diced chicken; cured ham; smoked salmon; and pepperoni--were analyzed for S. aureus by 12 collaborating laboratories. For each food tested, the collaborators received 8 blind test samples consisting of a control sample, a low inoculation level, a medium inoculation level, and a medium inoculation level with background flora, each in duplicate. The mean log10 counts for the methods were comparable for all 4 foods. The repeatability and reproducibility variances of the 24 h Petrifilm Staph Express Count plate method were similar to those of the 72 h standard method.     

Computing global minima to polynomial optimization problems using Gröbner bases

The local optimality conditions to polynomial optimization problems are a set of polynomial equations (plus some inequality conditions). With the recent techniques of Gröbner bases one can find all solutions to such systems, and hence also find global optima. We give a short survey of these methods. We also apply them to a set of problems termed with exact solutions unknown in the problem sets of Hock and Schittkowski. To these problems we give exact solutions.