Mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy is applicable to blood glucose sensing without using any reagent, however, due to a result of inadequate accuracy, till now this method has not been used in clinical detection. The principle and key technologies of blood glucose sensing by MIR spectroscopy are presented in this paper. Along with our experimental results, the paper analyzes ways to enhance measurement accuracy and prediction accuracy by the following four methods: selection of optimized spectral region; application of spectra data processing method; elimination of the interference with other components in the blood, and promotion in system hardware. According to these four improving methods, we designed four experiments, i.e., strict determination of the region where glucose concentration changes most sensitively in MIR, application of genetic algorithm for wavelength selection, normalization of spectra for the purpose of enhancing measuring reproduction, and utilization of CO2 laser as light source. The results show that the measurement accuracy of blood glucose concentration is enhanced almost to a clinical detection level.
Blood Glucose ; analysis ; Humans ; Hyperglycemia ; blood ; Spectrophotometry, Infrared ; methods

OBJECTIVETo establish a rapid determination method of pinoresinol diglucoside in Eucommiae unloads by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS).

METHODForty-one samples of E. unloads were collected from three different producing areas and their main component, namely pinoresinol diglucoside, was determined by HPLC. Corresponding data of samples were collected from 12 000 to 4 000 cm(-1) by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy. The spectral pretreatment was optimized by OPUS software and the calibration equations between the content of pinoresinol diglucoside and spectrum data were constructed by partial least squares regression.

RESULTAvailable information could be extracted from spectra in the range from 7 502 to 4 597.6 cm(-1) after corrected by applying second derivative transformation and subtract a linear correction. Cross validation was used to prevent over-fitting. Good correlation existed between pinoresinol diglucoside content and NIR spectra ( R2 = 0.926 4, SEC = 0.029 and SEP = 0.066 2).

CONCLUSIONNIRS calibration equations developed in this study could be applied to the rapid analysis of the pinoresinol diglucoside content.

A Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometric method was described for the determination of quartz, mica(sericite) and feldspar(potassium feldspar) in respirable dust in Taebaek area. The results were as follows; 1) The concentration of minerals were determined from the intensity of absorption peak of quartz at 799 cm-1, sericite at 539 cm-1, and potassium feldspar at 648 cm-1 respectively. 2) The precision(C. V. %) for the quartz determination was 7.70+/-2.68 % from 10 to 200 microgram of quartz. 3) The precision for the sericite determination was 16.34+/-6.82 % from 30 to 500 microgram of serictite. 4) The precision for the potassium feldspar determination was 5.28+/-1.74 % from 30 to 500 microgram of potassium feldspar. 5) The concentration of respirable dust in Taebaek area was 4.90+/-3.29 mg/m3(0.4-93.7%), percent quartz was 1.80+/-4.14% (0.01-20.56%), percent sericite was 11.37+/-6.43% (0.00-29.69%), percent potassium feldspar was 8.15 % (n=7, 3.41-19.70%). 6) The difference of respirable coal dust, quartz, and sericite concentration in drilling, coal cutting, hauling and separating was significant respectively (p<0.05).
Absorption ; Coal ; Dust* ; Fourier Analysis* ; Minerals ; Potassium ; Quartz* ; Spectrophotometry, Infrared*

PURPOSE: Hepatolithiasis is a recurrent disease and common in Far East Asia. In Korea, almost all intrahepatic duct (IHD) stones were pigment stones 30~40 years ago. The nationwide cooperative study showed a higher cholesterol content of IHD stones compared to the previous data. Some reports have shown a close relationship between urbanization and the cholesterol content of stones. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cholesterol content of IHD stones in the West Gyeongnam region and evaluate the associated clinical and demographic variables. METHODS: The IHD stones were removed surgically from twenty patients who had hepatolithiasis between July 2005 and April 2007. The stones were grouped by their gross findings. The cholesterol contents were measured quantitatively by infrared spectrophotometry and compared with the clinical variables. RESULTS: Among twenty patients, 19 had pigment stones and only one had gross evidence of a cholesterol stone. The cholesterol content of the stones were 30%~50% in 13 patients, 50~70% in 6 patients and over 70% in one patient. In urban patients, the cholesterol contents of the IHD stones were higher (567.029 mg/g) than in rural patients (421.822 mg/g)(p<0.05). All stones in rural patients were pigment stones; the stones of urban patients consisted of 5 pigment, 6 mixed and 1 cholesterol stone (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The mean cholesterol content of the IHD stones was 508.946 mg/g; the content of the stone was significantly related to the residence of the patients. These results suggest that the cholesterol content of IHD stones are likely to increase in West Gyeongnam as urbanization increases.
Asia ; Cholesterol* ; Far East ; Humans ; Korea ; Spectrophotometry, Infrared ; Urbanization

In order to investigate working conditions of underground coal mines, this work was undertaken to evaluate the respirable dust and the concentration of quartz in Taeback and Kangneung areas. The concentration of quartz was determined by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometry. The results were as follows; 1) The concentration of respirable dust of drilling and coal face in Taeback and Kangneung areas were as followed. 2) Distribution of respirable dust was well fitted to the long-normal distribution and geometric mean value was log(-1) 0.37+/-log(-1) 0.47 (2.34+/-2.95) mg/m3. 3) The difference of respirable dust concentrations in Taeback and Kangneung areas was not significant statistically (p>0.05). 4) The concentration of quartz of drilling and coal face in Taeback and Kangneung areas were as followed. 5) Distribution of quartz concentrations was well fitted to the log-normal distribution and geometric mean value was log(-1) 0.33+/-log(-1) 0.45 (2.14+/-2.82)%. 6) The difference of quartz concentrations in Taeback and Kangneung areas was not significant (p>0.05), but significant at drilling sites and coal faces (p<0.05).
Coal* ; Dust* ; Fourier Analysis ; Gangwon-do* ; Quartz* ; Spectrophotometry, Infrared

An apigenin molecularly imprinted polymer was prepared by bulk polymerization using apigenin as template, acrylamide (AA) as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as a crosslinking agent, acetonitrile and N, N-dimethylformamide as porogenic solvents, and 2, 2'-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator. The interaction between template and functional monomer was proved by ultraviolet visible (UV) spectrophotometry and based on the results, appropriate reaction solvent was selected and the synthesizing process was estimated. The molecularly imprinted polymer structure was analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectrophotometry. The molecularly imprinted polymer was investigated in equilibrium binding experiment to evaluate its adsorption property, the results showed that the adsorption of apigenin on molecularly imprinted polymer is higher than that on blank polymer in the studied concentration range (0.1-2.5 mmol x L(-1)). Scatchard analysis showed that two classes of binding sites existed in the apigenin imprinted polymers, with their KD and Qmax estimated to be 2.52 x 10(-4), 0.54 x 10(-3) mmol x L(-1) and 2.65, 18.89 micromol x g(-1), respectively. Molecularly imprinted polymer showed higher affinity than blank polymer.
Apigenin ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; Molecular Imprinting ; Molecular Structure ; Polymers ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; Spectrophotometry, Infrared ; Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet

To reveal the possible mechanism of silica deposition in higher plants, lignin was isolated from rice straw following a modified method to conduct a simulation experiment in vitro. UV and infrared absorption spectra showed that the substance had the unique characteristics of pure lignin. The presence of silicon in the precipitation was revealed by TEM (transmission electron microscopy) with EDXA (energy dispersive X-ray analysis) device. It was found that in the borax solution where lignin precipitation occurred silica-lignin co-precipitation was produced but not in the DMSO solution where lignin was broken into its composition compounds and did not precipitate. This means that it is macromolecular lignin itself but not its compounds that could induce silica deposition in higher plants.
Lignin ; analysis ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission ; Oryza ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Silicon Dioxide ; analysis ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Spectrophotometry, Infrared ; Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet

OBJECTIVETo investigate new method for evaluating the quality of Chinese Medicinal Plants (CMP).

METHODA visualization technique for representing instrumental analytical data was developed by applying the fundamental of Data Visualization, with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and spatial projection transformation, original IR spectral data were projected into a low-dimensional subspace so that the dimensionality of original data space was decreased and tiny fingerprint features were extracted. The data set in the subspace was visualized by means of two-dimensional grayscale images. Consequently, the characteristic fingerprint for appraising the quality of CMP was obtained.

RESULT42 mulberry root-bark samples from three different quality classes were identified with the proposed method, which showed that the fingerprint images had satisfactory resolution and classification accuracy as high as 90.5%.

CONCLUSIONThe proposed method is a useful technique for appraising the quality of CMP.

OBJECTIVETo comparatively investigate the inorganic composition and crystallographic properties of cortical and cancellous bone via thermal treatment under 700 °C.

METHODSThermogravimetric measurement, infrared spectrometer, X-ray diffraction, chemical analysis and X-ray photo-electron spectrometer were used to test the physical and chemical properties of cortical and cancellous bone at room temperature 250 °C, 450 °C, and 650 °C, respectively.

RESULTSThe process of heat treatment induced an extension in the a-lattice parameter and changes of the c-lattice parameter, and an increase in the crystallinity reflecting lattice rearrangement after release of lattice carbonate and possible lattice water. The mineral content in cortical and cancellous bone was 73.2wt% and 71.5wt%, respectively. For cortical bone, the weight loss was 6.7% at the temperature from 60 °C to 250 °C, 17.4% from 250 °C to 450 °C, and 2.7% from 450 °C to 700 °C. While the weight loss for the cancellous bone was 5.8%, 19.9%, and 2.8 % at each temperature range, the Ca/P ratio of cortical bone was 1.69 which is higher than the 1.67 of stoichiometric HA due to the B-type CO₃²⁻ substitution in apatite lattice. The Ca/P ratio of cancellous bone was lower than 1.67, suggesting the presence of more calcium deficient apatite.

CONCLUSIONThe collagen fibers of cortical bone were arrayed more orderly than those of cancellous bone, while their mineralized fibers ollkded similar. The minerals in both cortical and cancellous bone are composed of poorly crystallized nano-size apatite crystals with lattice carbonate and possible lattice water. The process of heat treatment induces a change of the lattice parameter, resulting in lattice rearrangement after the release of lattice carbonate and lattice water and causing an increase in crystal size and crystallinity. This finding is helpful for future biomaterial design, preparation and application.

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of solid dispersion technology and inclusion technology on dissolution performance of Pulsatillae total saponins, and preliminarily investigate its mechanism.

METHODThe solid dispersion of Pulsatillae total saponins-PEG 4000 was prepared by the melting method. The inclusion compound of Pulsatillae total saponins-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin ( HP-beta-CD) was prepared by the freeze-drying method. The properties of solid dispersion and inclusion compound were identified by using IR, DSC and NMR. And the dissolution of solid dispersion and inclusion compound were also determined by the small glass method.

RESULTIR, DSC and NMR results showed the formation of solid dispersion and inclusion compound. In terms of the dissolution, the inclusion compound ranked first, which was followed by solid dispersion and bulk pharmaceutical chemicals.

CONCLUSIONThe inclusion technology could significantly increase the dissolution of Pulsatillae total saponins, whereas the solid dispersion showed no notable solubilization effect.