Determination of four acidic nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs in wastewater samples by dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction based on solidification of floating organic droplet and high‐performance liquid chromatography

A simple, environmentally friendly, and sensitive dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction based on solidification of floating organic droplet for the extraction of four acidic nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (ketoprofen, naproxen, ibuprofen, and diclofenac) from wastewater samples subsequent by high‐performance liquid chromatography analysis was developed. The influence of extraction parameters such as pH, the effect of solution ionic strength, type of extraction solvent, disperser solvent, and extraction solvent volume were studied. High enrichment factors (283–302) were obtained through the developed method. The method provides good linearity (r > 0.999) in a concentration range of 1–100 μg/L, good intra‐ and inter‐day precision (relative standard deviation < 7%) and low limits of quantification. The relative recoveries of the selected compounds were situated over 80% both in synthetic and real water samples. The developed method has been successfully applied for the analysis of the selected compounds in wastewater samples.     

Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography method for measuring the composition of aquatic humic substances

A hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) method was developed to measure the composition of humic substances from river, reservoir, and treated wastewater based on their physicochemical properties. The current method fractionates the humic substances into four well-defined groups based on parallel analyses with a neutral and a cationic HILIC column, using mobile phases of varied compositions and pH. The results indicate that: (i) the proportion of carboxylic acids in the humic substances from terrestrial origins is less than half of that from treated wastewater (Jeddah, KSA), (ii) a higher content of basic compounds was observed in the humic substances from treated wastewater and Ribou Reservoir (Cholet, France) than in the sample from Loire River (France), (iii) a higher percentage of hydrophobic macromolecules were found in the humic substances from Loire River than in the other samples, and (iv) humic substances of treated wastewater contained less ionic neutral compounds (i.e., pK_a 5–9) than the waters from terrestrial origins. The physicochemical property disparity amongst the compounds in each humic substances sample was also evaluated. The humic substances from the lightly humic Loire river displayed the highest disparity, whereas the highly humic Suwannee river (Georgia, USA) showed the most homogeneous humic substances.     

Mechanical forcing of the wake of a flat plate

We report experimental results of the forced wake of a thin symmetric flat plate, placed parallel to an uniform air stream, in the range of thickness-based Reynolds number 50< Re _e <200. External wake forcing was introduced by small harmonic oscillations of a moving flap, placed at the trailing-edge of the flat plate. When the flap remains in a fixed horizontal position, the mean velocity profiles obtained by hot wire measurements, for different Reynolds numbers, are self similar. In the presence of harmonic forcing, within a certain range of the forcing frequency, the mean velocity profiles change and coherent structures are formed in the wake. Two independent flow-type resonances were observed: (i) when the inverse of the forcing frequency matches the flight time of the fluid particles along the flap. (ii) when the forcing frequency of the flap equals one half of the vortex shedding frequency of the flat plate and flap system. Implications of the two observed resonances on the wake structure are important. The first resonance (i) is associated to a wide but less intense (energy fluctuations) wake flow and the second resonance (ii) generates a thin but intense resultant wake flow.     

Review of stationary phases for microelectromechanical systems in gas chromatography: feasibility and separations

This review covers the recent development of stationary phases for chip-based gas chromatography (GC). Portable systems for rapid and reliable analysis are urgently needed. One way to achieve this is to miniaturize the entire analysis. Because the column is the central component of the GC system and determines the feasibility and quality of separation, this review focuses on stationary phases reported in the literature and their use in different fields during the last two decades, with emphasis on different methods for introducing the stationary phase into the GC column.     

Computation of Smooth Manifolds Via Rigorous Multi-parameter Continuation in Infinite Dimensions

In this paper, we introduce a constructive rigorous numerical method to compute smooth manifolds implicitly defined by infinite-dimensional nonlinear operators. We compute a simplicial triangulation of the manifold using a multi-parameter continuation method on a finite-dimensional projection. The triangulation is then used to construct local charts and an atlas of the manifold in the infinite-dimensional domain of the operator. The idea behind the construction of the smooth charts is to use the radii polynomial approach to verify the hypotheses of the uniform contraction principle over a simplex. The construction of the manifold is globalized by proving smoothness along the edge of adjacent simplices. We apply the method to compute portions of a two-dimensional manifold of equilibria of the Cahn–Hilliard equation.