The preparation of a cabbage reference material for environmental monitoring and food analysis

 Cabbage is frequently used in environmental monitoring and food control, and, hence, cabbage reference materials (RMs) are required for ensuring quality assurance. A cabbage RM was prepared in view of certification of specific elements from the "black list" of high toxicological interest and nutritive importance. All tasks of the RM production (production of the plant material, cutting and freeze-drying, determination of the residual water content, preparation of the RM, homogeneity testing, stability testing, certification measurements) are described in detail. Received: 12 November 1999 / Accepted: 29 January 2000     

Effects of various washing procedures on the chromium content of human scalp hair

The effects of four wash procedures on the concentration of chromium in a pooled sample of human scalp hair are compared. The wash solutions examined are Triton X-100, sodium lauryl sulphate, acetone, and a mixture (1 + 1) of hexane and ethanol. The plateaux reached for hair chromium concentration are functions of the number of washings, and are characteristic for each wash solution. The wash procedure recommended involves two 20-min washes with aqueous 1% sodium lauryl sulphate solution after a hexane rinse.     

Hydration state of nonionic surfactant monolayers at the liquid/vapor interface: structure determination by vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy

The OH stretching region of water molecules in the vicinity of nonionic surfactant monolayers has been investigated using vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (VSFS) under the polarization combinations ssp, ppp, and sps. The surface sensitivity of the VSFS technique has allowed targeting the few water molecules present at the surface with a net orientation and, in particular, the hydration shell around alcohol, sugar, and poly(ethylene oxide) headgroups. Dramatic differences in the hydration shell of the uncharged headgroups were observed, both in comparison to each another and in comparison to the pure water surface. The water molecules around the rigid glucoside and maltoside sugar rings were found to form strong hydrogen bonds, similar to those observed in tetrahedrally coordinated water in ice. In the case of the poly(ethylene oxide) surfactant monolayer a significant ordering of both strongly and weakly hydrogen bonded water was observed. Moreover, a band common to all the surfactants studied, clearly detected at relatively high frequencies in the polarization combinations ppp and sps, was assigned to water species located in proximity to the surfactant hydrocarbon tail phase, with both hydrogen atoms free from hydrogen bonds. An orientational analysis provided additional information on the water species responsible for this band.     

Synthesis and biological evaluation of 3-amino-propan-1-ol based poly(ether imine) dendrimers

A general synthetic strategy for the rapid construction of poly(ether imine) dendrons and dendrimers with a nitrogen core, originating from 3-amino-propan-1-ol, is described. A new trifunctional monomer, namely, 3-[bis-(3-hydroxypropyl)amino]propan-1-ol, was used in a divergent synthesis of dendrimers up to the third generation. This method permitted installation of, either alcohol, amine, nitrile, ester or carboxylic acid groups at the peripheries the dendrimers. Cytotoxicity studies on water-soluble carboxylic acid terminated dendrimers were conducted and these studies revealed that poly(ether imine) dendrimers were non-toxic. These results illustrate that poly(ether imine) dendrimers are useful for biological studies.     

C(21)-C(40) of tetrafibricin via metal catalysis: beyond stoichiometric chiral reagents, auxiliaries, and premetalated nucleophiles

The C(21)-C(40) fragment of fibrinogen receptor inhibitor tetrafibricin was prepared in 12 steps from propane diol (longest linear sequence). In this approach, 6 C-C bonds are formed via asymmetric iridium catalyzed transfer hydrogenative carbonyl allylation and 2 C═C bonds are formed via Grubbs olefin cross-metathesis.     

Second order initial value problems with non-absolute integrals in ordered Banach spaces

In this paper we derive the existence and comparison results for second order initial value problems in ordered Banach spaces. The considered problems can be implicit, singular, functional, discontinuous and nonlocal. The main tools are fixed point results in ordered spaces and the theory of locally HL integrable vector-valued functions.     

Electromagnetic decay of excited 0+ states in 64, 66, 68Zn

The E0 and E2 transitions depopulating the excited 0⁺ states in ^64,66,68Zn are investigated. Several methods of γ-ray, conversion-electron and internal-pair spectrometry are employed, including a new time measurement technique. A total of 5 E0 transitions are observed and the monopole strengths ρ²(0_i⁺ → 0_i⁺) for most of them are extracted. The results and the nature of the excited 0⁺ states are discussed in terms of several nuclear models.     

Convergence theorems for HL integrable vector-valued functions with applications

In this paper we prove dominated and monotone convergence theorems for HL integrable Banach-valued functions. These results and a fixed point theorem in ordered spaces are then applied to prove existence and comparison results for integral equations of Fredholm type in ordered Banach spaces involving Kurzweil integrals or improper integrals. Results are used also to solve concrete second-order functional boundary value problems involving discontinuities and singularities.