A simple and rapid ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method to determine plasma biotin in hemodialysis patients.
A simple, rapid, and selective method for determination of plasma biotin was developed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). After single-step protein precipitation with methanol, biotin and stable isotope-labeled biotin as an internal standard (IS) were chromatographed on a pentafluorophenyl stationary-phase column (2.1 × 100 mm, 2.7 μm) under isocratic conditions using 10 mm ammonium formate-acetonitrile (93:7, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.6 mL/min. The total chromatographic runtime was 5 min for each injection. Detection was performed in a positive electrospray ionization mode by monitoring selected ion transitions at m/z 245.1/227.0 and 249.1/231.0 for biotin and the IS, respectively. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.05-2 ng/mL using 300 μL of plasma. The intra- and inter-day precisions were all <7.1%. The accuracy varied from -0.7 to 8.2%. The developed UHPLC-MS/MS method was successfully applied to determine plasma biotin concentrations in hemodialysis patients. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Captavidin as a regenerable biorecognition element on boron-doped diamond for biotin sensing.
Captavidin, a nitrated avidin with moderate affinity with biotin, irreversibly adsorbs on carboxymethylcellulose to form a regenerable biorecognition element for biotin. This layer was retained and stabilized on a boron-doped diamond electrode by a Nafion film for repeated impedance analyses of biotin down to below 1 nM. The labeless electrochemical sensing scheme was then demonstrated for the analysis of biotin in blood plasma. The incorporation of captavidin confers detection specificity and regenerability, whereas the Nafion and carboxymethylcellulose layers circumvent the diffusion of endogenous electroactive species. The biosensing layer is simply regenerated by applying oxidation of +2 V for 1 min instead of its submersion in carbonate buffer for 10 min.
Study on Electrical Explosion Mechanism and Ignition Characteristics of Copper and Aluminum Powder Under Ignition Solid Propellant
In order to study the characteristic of the electrical explosion of copper and aluminum powders, a multilayer generator was designed, an experimental system was set up, and the parameters of metal powder electrical explosion were measured and analyzed. The results show that the duration of the electrical explosion process increases significantly due to the addition of metal powder. The duration of aluminum powder electrical explosion jet flow is ~86.36 ms due to its self-sustained combustion, which releases a large amount of energy, and a small fraction of aluminum powder particles is not burned. The duration of copper powder electrical explosion jet flow is ~15.84 ms, and most of the copper powder particles are in the solid state. The current pause process is absent; instead, the first discharge process is connected to the second discharge process. The effect of copper powder on the first discharge process is greater than that of aluminum powder. Furthermore, the ignition ability of copper powder electrical explosion to solid propellant is stronger than that of aluminum powder in a closed bomb experiment. These results are indubitably meaningful for the application of metal powder electrical explosion and ignition of solid propellant in an electrothermal chemical gun.