In this thesis eight robust and reliable LC-MS/MS methods were developed and validated to analyze atorvastatin, clopidogrel, furosemide, itraconazole, loratadine, naproxen, nisoldipine and sunitinib in human plasma. The active metabolites 2-hydroxyatorvastatin, 4-hydroxyatorvastatin, hydroxyitraconazole, descarboethoxy-loratadine, 4-hydroxynisoldipine and N-desethylsunitinib were also included in the corresponding methods. Due to the different physical, chemical and pharmacokinetic properties of the analytes a wide spectrum regarding sample preparation techniques, chromatography and mass spectrometric detection was covered. Protein precipitation methods were developed for furosemide, itraconazole, naproxen, nisoldipine and sunitinib. Liquid-liquid extraction methods were developed for atorvastatin, clopidogrel and loratadine. Criteria to choose protein precipitation or liquid-liquid extraction were the final plasma concentrations of the drugs, which are mainly dependant on the dose, bioavailability and t1/2 and of course cost-effectiveness. Altogether, the methods have a concentration range from 0.001 ng/mL (LLOQ of clopidogrel) to 50000 ng/mL (highest calibration point for naproxen), covering 5 x 107 orders of magnitude. The runtime of the methods ranged from 2 to 4 minutes, facilitating a high sample throughput. All developed methods were validated according to recent guidelines as they were used to analyze sampes from clinical trials. Excellent linearity, intra-day and inter-day precision and accuracy were observed in the validated calibration ranges. Hemolyzed, lipemic and different batches of human plasma as well as sample dilution did not affect the determiantion of the analytes. Clopidogrel, loratadine, nisoldipine and sunitinib and if available their metabolites were subjected to a matrix effect test, resulting in no influence of different batches of human plasma on the analytical methods. Noteworthy is clopidogrel that shows a slight effect on one of the two used mass spectrometers. However, that effect was reproducible and did therefore not affect clopidogrel determination. No evidence of instability during chromatography, extraction and sample storage processes for all analytes except 4-hydroxyatorvastatin was found, for which a significant decrease was observed after three months. During incurred sample reanalysis of study samples 95 % of the samples were within ±15 % with respect to the first analysis. Moreover, the atorvastatin, loratadine and clopidogrel method were compared on two generations of triple quadrupole mass spectrometers, the API 3000™ and the API 5000™. The new ion source and the changes in the ion path of the API 5000™ provided higher sensitivity, the extend depending on the substance. However, the API 3000™ had very good precision in the performed system comparison. The validated methods showed excellent performance and quality data during routine sample analysis of eight clinical trials. Moreover, they are suitable for high sample throughput due to their short run times. / In dieser Dissertation wurden acht robuste und verlässliche LC-MS/MS-Methoden zur Analyse von Atorvastatin, Clopidogrel, Furosemid, Itraconazol, Loratadin, Naproxen Nisoldipin und Sunitinib in Humanplasma entwickelt und validiert. Außerdem enthalten die Methoden die aktiven Metaboliten 2-Hydroxyatorvastatin, 4-Hydroxyatorvastatin, Hydroxyitraconazol, Descarboethoxyloratadin, 4-Hydroxynisoldipin und N-Desethylsunitinib. Wegen der unterschiedlichen physikalischen, chemischen und pharmakokinetischen Eigenschaften der Analyten, deckt diese Arbeit ein weites Spektrum bezüglich Probenaufarbeitung, Chromatographie und Massenspektrometrie ab. Präzipitationsmethoden wurden für Furosemid, Itraconazol, Naproxen, Nisoldipin und Sunitinib entwickelt. Flüssig-flüssig-Extraktionen wurden für Atorvastatin, Clopidogrel und Loratadin entwickelt. Kriterien für die Auswahl von Präzipitation oder Extraktion waren die erwartete Plasmakonzentration, die im Wesentlichen von der Dosis, Bioverfügbarkeit und Halbwertszeit abhängig ist, und natürlich Kosteneffektivität. Insgesamt erstrecken sich die Methoden über einen Kalibrierbereich von 0.001 ng/mL (LLOQ von Clopidogrel) bis zu 50000 ng/mL (HLOQ von Naproxen), das entspricht 5x107 Größenordnungen. Die Laufzeiten pro Probe liegen im Bereich von zwei bis vier Minuten, was einen sehr hohen Probendurchsatz ermöglicht. Alle in dieser Arbeit entwickelten Methoden wurden gemäß aktueller Richtlinien (FDA, GLP) validiert und verwendet um Proben aus Pharmakokinetikstudien zu analysieren. Ausgezeichnete Linearität, Präzision und Genauigkeit zeichnen diese Methoden aus. Hämolysiertes, lipämisches und verschiedene Batches von Humanplasma, sowie Vorverdünnung hatten bei keiner Methode Einfluss auf die Bestimmung der Analyten. Clopidogrel, Loratadin, Nisoldipin und Sunitinib und gegebenenfalls deren Metabolite wurden einem Matrix-Effekt-Test unterzogen. Dabei wurde festgestellt, dass keine der Methoden durch die Probenmatrix beeinflusst wurde. Erwähnenswert ist Clopidogrel, da an einem der Massenspektrometer ein leichter Effekt beobachtet werden konnte, der sich auf alle untersuchten Matrices gleich auswirkte und somit keinen Einfluss auf die gesamte Methode hatte. Weiterhin fand sich bei keiner der untersuchten Substanzen ein Hinweis auf Instabilität während der Probenlagerung, -aufarbeitung und -messung, außer bei 4-Hydroxyatorvastatin, dessen Konzentration nach drei Monaten signifikant abnahm. Während der Reanalyse von Studienproben (incurred samples) lagen über 95 % der Proben innerhalb von ±15 % im Vergleich zur ersten Messung. Außerdem wurden die Methoden zur Bestimmung von Atorvastatin, Loratadin und Clopidogrel an zwei Generationen von Massenspektrometern verglichen, nämlich dem API 3000™ und dem API 5000™. Die neue Ionenquelle und die Verbesserungen im Ionenpfad beim API 5000™ ermöglichten - abhängig von der analysierten Substanz - höhere Sensitivität. Allerdings konnte das API 3000™ bei den durchgeführten Experimenten mit einer hohen Präzision aufwarten. Die validierten Methoden zeigten im Alltagbetrieb bei der Messung von acht klinischen Studien hervorragende Performance und Qualitätsdaten. Darüber hinaus sind die Methoden aufgrund ihrer kurzen Laufzeiten ideal für Messungen die einen hohen Probendurchsatz erfordern.

Die biochemische Diagnostik von Phäochromozytomen und Paragangliomen (PPGL) basiert auf einem gesteigerten Katecholaminmetabolismus in dessen Folge es zu erhöhten Plasmametanephrinkonzentrationen (Normetanephrin NMN und/oder Metanephrin MN) kommt. Die variable endokrine Aktivität der Tumoren sowie Hormonzentrationen im Nanomol-pro-Liter-Bereich stellen hohe Anforderungen an analytische Messmethoden. Nicht oder spät diagnostizierte PPGL können lebensbedrohliche katecholaminerge Krisen verursachen. Demzufolge sind präzise Nachweisverfahren und validierte Messmethoden für die biochemische Diagnostik unerlässlich. Inwiefern die Messverfahren enzymgekoppelter Immunoassay (EIA) und Flüssigkeitschromatographie mit Tandem-Massenspektrometrie (LC-MS/MS) zur Analyse von Plasmametanephrinen in gleichem Maße geeignet sind, ist aufgrund der kontroversen Studienlage unklar. Hierfür wurde eine Substudie im Rahmen der prospektiven monoaminproduzierenden Tumor (PMT)-Studie an fünf europäischen Zentren durchgeführt. Es wurden 341 Patienten (174 Männer, 167 Frauen), darunter 54 Patienten mit PPGL eingeschlossen. Die Blutproben wurden unter Standardbedingungen entnommen und mit beiden Messmethoden in spezialisierten Zentren analysiert. Für den EIA zeigte sich ein negativer Bias von 60% für NMN und 39% für MN. Dieser führte unter Verwendung oberer Grenzwerte nach Herstellerangaben zu einer Sensitivität von 74,1% und einer Spezifität von 98,9%. Für LC-MS/MS wurde eine signifikant höhere Sensitivität von 98,1% und eine Spezifität von 99,7% gezeigt. Die Berechnung der area under the curve (AUC) im Zuge der receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC)-Kurven-Analyse indizierte jedoch eine vergleichbar hohe diagnostische Testleistung für EIA (0,993) und LC-MS/MS (0,985). Durch eine Bias-korrigierte Grenzwertoptimierung stieg die Sensitivität des EIAs auf 96,2% bei einer Spezifität von 95,1% und führte dadurch zu einer vergleichbaren diagnostischen Testqualität wie LC-MS/MS. Fazit: Bei diesem kommerziell erhältlichen EIA resultiert die Verwendung oberer Grenzwerte nach Herstellerangaben in einer insuffizienten Sensitivität. Dies birgt das Risiko, Patienten mit PPGL nicht zu diagnostizieren. Eine Rekalibrierung des EIAs sowie eine Validierung der Referenzintervalle sind erforderlich. / Context: Reports conflict concerning measurements of plasma metanephrines for diagnosis of pheochromocytomas/paragangliomas (PPGL) by immunoassays compared to other methods. Objective: To compare the performance of a commercially available enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA) with liquid chromatographic tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) measurements of metanephrines to diagnose PPGLs. Design: Sub-study of a prospective, multicenter trial to study the biochemical profiles of monoamine-producing tumors Patients: Patients included 174 males and 167 females with suspected PPGL (median age 54 years), of whom 54 had confirmed PPGL. Interventions: Plasma metanephrines were measured by EIA and LC-MS/MS, each in a specialized laboratory. Results: Plasma normetanephrine and metanephrine were measured 60% and 39% lower by EIA than by LC-MS/MS. Using upper cut-offs stipulated for the EIA, diagnostic sensitivity was only 74.1% at a specificity of 99.3%. In contrast, use of similar cut-offs for metanephrine and overall lower age-adjusted cutoffs for normetanephrine measured by LC-MS/MS returned a diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 98.1% and 99.7%. Areas under receiver-operating characteristic curves, nevertheless, indicated comparable diagnostic performance of the EIA (0.993) and LC-MS/MS (0.985). Diagnostic sensitivity for the EIA increased to 96.2% with minimal loss in specificity (95.1%) following use of cut-offs for the EIA adapted to correct for the negative bias. Conclusions: EIA underestimates plasma metanephrines and diagnostic sensitivity is poor using commonly stipulated cut-offs, resulting in high risk for missing patients with PPGLs. Correction of this shortcoming can be achieved by appropriately determined cut-offs resulting in comparable diagnostic performance of EIA and LC-MS/MS assays.

The ever-worsening environmental crisis has stimulated development of less wasteful “green” technologies. To this end, tandem catalysis enables multiple catalytic cycles to be performed within a single reaction vessel, thereby eliminating intermediate processing steps and reducing solvent waste. Assisted tandem catalysis employs suitable chemical triggers to transform the initial catalyst into new species, thereby providing a mechanism for “switching on” secondary catalytic activity. This thesis demonstrates the importance of highly productive secondary catalysts through a comparative hydrogenation study involving prominent hydrogenation catalysts of tandem ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP)-hydrogenation, of which hydridocarbonyl species were proved superior. This thesis illuminates optimal routes to hydridocarbonyls under conditions relevant to our ROMP-hydrogenation protocol, using Grubbs benzylidenes as isolable proxies for ROMP-propagating alkylidene species. Analogous studies of ruthenium methylidenes and ethoxylidenes illuminate optimal routes to hydridocarbonyls following ring-closing metathesis (RCM) and metathesis quenching, respectively. The formation of unexpected side products using aggressive chemical triggers is also discussed, and emphasizes the need for cautious design of the post-metathesis trigger phase.

Protein identification has been more helpful than before in the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and HIV. Tandem mass spectrometry is a powerful tool for protein identification. In a typical experiment, proteins are broken into small amino acid oligomers called peptides. By determining the amino acid sequence of several peptides of a protein, its whole amino acid sequence can be inferred. Therefore, peptide identification is the first step and a central issue for protein identification. Tandem mass spectrometers can produce a large number of tandem mass spectra which are used for peptide identification. Two issues should be addressed to improve the performance of current peptide identification algorithms. Firstly, nearly all spectra are noise-contaminated. As a result, the accuracy of peptide identification algorithms may suffer from the noise in spectra. Secondly, the majority of spectra are not identifiable because they are of too poor quality. Therefore, much time is wasted attempting to identify these unidentifiable spectra.<p> The goal of this research is to design spectrum pre-processing algorithms to both speedup and improve the reliability of peptide identification from tandem mass spectra. Firstly, as a tandem mass spectrum is a one dimensional signal consisting of dozens to hundreds of peaks, and majority of peaks are noisy peaks, a spectrum denoising algorithm is proposed to remove most noisy peaks of spectra. Experimental results show that our denoising algorithm can remove about 69% of peaks which are potential noisy peaks among a spectrum. At the same time, the number of spectra that can be identified by Mascot algorithm increases by 31% and 14% for two tandem mass spectrum datasets. Next, a two-stage recursive feature elimination based on support vector machines (SVM-RFE) and a sparse logistic regression method are proposed to select the most relevant features to describe the quality of tandem mass spectra. Our methods can effectively select the most relevant features in terms of performance of classifiers trained with the different number of features. Thirdly, both supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods are used for the quality assessment of tandem mass spectra. A supervised classifier, (a support vector machine) can be trained to remove more than 90% of poor quality spectra without removing more than 10% of high quality spectra. Clustering methods such as model-based clustering are also used for quality assessment to cancel the need for a labeled training dataset and show promising results.

We have described two important classes of palladium-catalyzed reactions for the synthesis of heterocycles and carbocycles: tandem Pd-catalyzed reactions of gem-dibromoolefins and domino Pd-catalyzed reactions via an ortho C−H functionalization. Chapter 1 describes the tandem Pd-catalyzed reaction of gem-dibromoolefins via an intramolecular direct arylation and an intermolecular Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling. A number of aromatic carbocycles were synthesized by this method. Chapter 2 describes the tandem Pd-catalyzed reactions of β,β-dibromoenamides via an intramolecular C−O bond formation and an intermolecular Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling. Depending on the substituent on the nitrogen of β,β-dibromoenamides, either aromatic heterocycles or acyclic compounds can be synthesized. Chapter 3 and 4 describe the domino Pd-catalyzed reactions via an ortho C−H functionalization of aryl iodides. 2-Pyrrole substituted phenyl iodides were coupled with alkyl bromides in the presence of norbornene to provide aromatic tetracyclic compounds through three C−C bond formations (Chapter 3). However, the reaction between 2-methyl substituted phenyl iodides and the alkyl bromides in the presence of norbornene provided tetrasubstituted helical alkenes with the norbornene incorporated in the final product through four C−C bond formations (chapter 4). In Chapter 5, detailed mechanistic studies including kinetic and NMR studies were described for the regioselective C−H functionalization of 2-pyrrole substituted phenyl iodides. The studies provided advanced and important understanding of the mechanism, and a rationale for the high regioselectivity.

We have described two important classes of palladium-catalyzed reactions for the synthesis of heterocycles and carbocycles: tandem Pd-catalyzed reactions of gem-dibromoolefins and domino Pd-catalyzed reactions via an ortho C−H functionalization. Chapter 1 describes the tandem Pd-catalyzed reaction of gem-dibromoolefins via an intramolecular direct arylation and an intermolecular Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling. A number of aromatic carbocycles were synthesized by this method. Chapter 2 describes the tandem Pd-catalyzed reactions of β,β-dibromoenamides via an intramolecular C−O bond formation and an intermolecular Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling. Depending on the substituent on the nitrogen of β,β-dibromoenamides, either aromatic heterocycles or acyclic compounds can be synthesized. Chapter 3 and 4 describe the domino Pd-catalyzed reactions via an ortho C−H functionalization of aryl iodides. 2-Pyrrole substituted phenyl iodides were coupled with alkyl bromides in the presence of norbornene to provide aromatic tetracyclic compounds through three C−C bond formations (Chapter 3). However, the reaction between 2-methyl substituted phenyl iodides and the alkyl bromides in the presence of norbornene provided tetrasubstituted helical alkenes with the norbornene incorporated in the final product through four C−C bond formations (chapter 4). In Chapter 5, detailed mechanistic studies including kinetic and NMR studies were described for the regioselective C−H functionalization of 2-pyrrole substituted phenyl iodides. The studies provided advanced and important understanding of the mechanism, and a rationale for the high regioselectivity.

Protein identification has been more helpful than before in the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and HIV. Tandem mass spectrometry is a powerful tool for protein identification. In a typical experiment, proteins are broken into small amino acid oligomers called peptides. By determining the amino acid sequence of several peptides of a protein, its whole amino acid sequence can be inferred. Therefore, peptide identification is the first step and a central issue for protein identification. Tandem mass spectrometers can produce a large number of tandem mass spectra which are used for peptide identification. Two issues should be addressed to improve the performance of current peptide identification algorithms. Firstly, nearly all spectra are noise-contaminated. As a result, the accuracy of peptide identification algorithms may suffer from the noise in spectra. Secondly, the majority of spectra are not identifiable because they are of too poor quality. Therefore, much time is wasted attempting to identify these unidentifiable spectra.<p> The goal of this research is to design spectrum pre-processing algorithms to both speedup and improve the reliability of peptide identification from tandem mass spectra. Firstly, as a tandem mass spectrum is a one dimensional signal consisting of dozens to hundreds of peaks, and majority of peaks are noisy peaks, a spectrum denoising algorithm is proposed to remove most noisy peaks of spectra. Experimental results show that our denoising algorithm can remove about 69% of peaks which are potential noisy peaks among a spectrum. At the same time, the number of spectra that can be identified by Mascot algorithm increases by 31% and 14% for two tandem mass spectrum datasets. Next, a two-stage recursive feature elimination based on support vector machines (SVM-RFE) and a sparse logistic regression method are proposed to select the most relevant features to describe the quality of tandem mass spectra. Our methods can effectively select the most relevant features in terms of performance of classifiers trained with the different number of features. Thirdly, both supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods are used for the quality assessment of tandem mass spectra. A supervised classifier, (a support vector machine) can be trained to remove more than 90% of poor quality spectra without removing more than 10% of high quality spectra. Clustering methods such as model-based clustering are also used for quality assessment to cancel the need for a labeled training dataset and show promising results.

Tandem structure for OLED application with HAT-CN:Alq3 interlayer is studied. It has been found that tandem cell with such interlayer structure has a low turn-on voltage as comparing to other types of interlayer structure. Three research topics are included in this research: (1) Study of carrier generation , carrier transport , and other optoelectronic properties for tandem cells with HAT-CN:Alq3 interlayer. (2) Study of white OLED device with single emitting layer and HAT-CN:Alq3 interlayer. (3) Study of electroluminescence property of top and bottom device of a tandem cell with HAT-CN:Alq3 interlayer. Experimental results show that electron transport is slowing down with increasing Alq3 concentration in the HAT-CN:Alq3 interlayer. However concentration of Alq3 in the interlayer does not affect transport property of hole. A white OLED with HAT-CN:Alq3 interlayer can reach 40,500 cd/m2 at 2180 mA/cm2 with a power efficiency of 1.96 lm/W and CIE coordicate of (0.34,0.32).

We report that the tandem OLEDs made of two electroluminescent (EL) units connected by the interconnecting layer. If It is compared wih the traditional OLEDs. The tandem OLEDs have higher efficiency and well lifetime. We not only used the single emitting layer WOLEDs as EL unit but also studied the effect of the interconnecting layer for whole device. First, we designed the interconnecting layer with Alq3¡GLi (1%) (n-doping layer)/MoO3 (p-doping layer), and we optimized the thickness of the interconnecting layer by using green unit cell (Alq3 for EML), ITO/NPB(65 nm)/Alq3(30 nm)/Alq3(30 nm)/Alq3(x nm)¡GLi (1%)/MoO3(y nm)/NPB(65 nm)/Alq3(30 nm)/Alq3(30 nm)/LiF(0.8 nm)/Al(200 nm) x=10¡A20¡A30¡A40¡Fy=1¡A3¡A5¡A7¡A10 We found that the best thickness of Alq3¡GLi (1%) and MoO3 are 20 nm and 5 nm. In our study, we concluded that there are the best thickness to each interconnecting layer, and it keeps the charge balance between two units. Finally, we used our single emitting layer WOLEDs as unit cell, which used 1,3,5-Tri(1-pyrenyl)benzene (TPB3) as the host, and 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-tert-butyl-6(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) as the guest, unit cell was ITO(130 nm)/NPB(65 nm)/ TPB3(30 nm)¡GDCJTB(0.05%)/ Alq3(30 nm)/LiF(8 nm)/Al(200 nm) Whole device was ITO(130 nm)/NPB(65 nm)/ TPB3(30 nm)¡GDCJTB(0.05%)/ Alq3(30 nm)/Alq3(20 nm)¡GLi(1%)/MoO3(5 nm)/NPB(65 nm)/TPB3(30 nm)¡GDCJTB(0.05%)/Alq3(30 nm)/ LiF(0.8 nm)/Al(200 nm) We got almost three times luminance from the tandem one at the same current density (670 cd/m2 for 2360 cd/m2 at 20 mA/cm2) and efficiency as high as 9.7 cd/A ( at 24 mA/cm2). It¡¦s a excellent contribution for device lifetime. But the operation voltage and the power efficiency didn¡¦t reach to our expectancy. In order to improve the disadvantage, we changed the concentration of n-doping layer Alq3¡GLi (z %)¡Az=1%¡A2%¡A3%. It was actually improved the turn-on voltage from 10 V to 7 V. But the luminescent characteristics also degenerated. Although we enhanced the charge mobility of the n-doping layer, it also caused the degeneration of luminescent characteristics because of the unbalance of the charge transference.We got the efficiency 8.1 cd/A ( at 14 V) and almost two times luminance from the tandem one at the same current density (670 cd/m2 for 1760 cd/m2 at 20 mA/cm2), most close to the white area of CIE coordinates was (0.30 , 0.37) at 15 V. Its range of CIE coordinates was (0.35 , 0.46)~(0.28 , 0.33) at 8 V~20 V. We have already developed the tandem WOLEDs using single white emitting layer as EL units that have never be reported. It not only maintained the advantages of the tandem structure, but also had excellent stability of luminescent characteristics at wide range operation voltage. We reached our goal to improve the WOLEDs and make it more suitable for commercial applications, especially for the development of light sources.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 16, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Dong Xu. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.