A rapid dissolution procedure to aid initial nuclear forensics investigations of chemically refractory compounds and particles prior to gamma spectrometry

A rapid and effective preparative procedure has been evaluated for the accurate determination of low-energy (40–200 keV) gamma-emitting radionuclides (²¹⁰Pb, ²³⁴Th, ²²⁶Ra, ²³⁵U) in uranium ores and uranium ore concentrates (UOCs) using high-resolution gamma ray spectrometry. The measurement of low-energy gamma photons is complicated in heterogeneous samples containing high-density mineral phases and in such situations activity concentrations will be underestimated. This is because attenuation corrections, calculated based on sample mean density, do not properly correct where dense grains are dispersed within a less dense matrix (analogous to a nugget effect). The current method overcomes these problems using a lithium tetraborate fusion that readily dissolves all components including high-density, self-attenuating minerals/compounds. This is the ideal method for dissolving complex, non-volatile components in soils, rocks, mineral concentrates, and other materials where density reduction is required. Lithium borate fusion avoids the need for theoretical efficiency corrections or measurement of matrix matched calibration standards. The resulting homogeneous quenched glass produced can be quickly dissolved in nitric acid producing low-density solutions that can be counted by gamma spectrometry. The effectiveness of the technique is demonstrated using uranium-bearing Certified Reference Materials and provides accurate activity concentration determinations compared to the underestimated activity concentrations derived from direct measurements of a bulk sample. The procedure offers an effective solution for initial nuclear forensic studies where complex refractory minerals or matrices exist. It is also significantly faster, safer and simpler than alternative approaches.     

La distribution on the crater surface of W-1%La2O3 produced by a single laser pulse

The W-1%La₂O₃ alloy has been irradiated by a single laser pulse (λ = 1064 nm) to simulate transient thermal loads of high energy occurring in a tokamak under operative conditions. A zone with a diameter of ~2 mm, namely, much larger than the focal spot, results to be affected by the pulse, and a crater of about 300 μm is observed in its center. La₂O₃ particles are not present inside the crater. The change of surface morphology is accompanied by elemental redistribution. Multipoint XPS analysis evidenced that the concentration of La is very low in the crater and increases moving toward the border of the affected zone while that of W shows an opposite trend. The composition changes involve only the outmost 5 nm of the sample: through depth profiling, no differences of chemical composition were detected deeper in the alloy between the center and external border of the affected area.     

Rapid and label-free classification of pathogens based on light scattering,reduced power spectral features and support vector machine

The rapid identification of pathogens is crucial in controlling the food quality and safety. The proposed system for the rapid and label-free identification of pathogens is based on the principle of laser scattering from the bacterial microbes. The clinical prototype consists of three parts: the laser beam, photodetectors, and the data acquisition system. The bacterial testing sample was mixed with 10 mL distilled water and placed inside the machine chamber. When the bacterial microbes pass by the laser beam, the scattering of light occurs due to variation in size, shape, and morphology. Due to this reason, different types of pathogens show their unique light scattering patterns. The photo-detectors were arranged at the surroundings of the sample at different angles to collect the scattered light. The photodetectors convert the scattered light intensity into a voltage waveform. The waveform features were acquired by using the power spectral characteristics, and the dimensionality of extracted features was reduced by applying minimal-redundancy-maximal-relevance criterion (mRMR). A support vector machine (SVM) classifier was developed by training the selected power spectral features for the classification of three different bacterial microbes. The resulting average identification accuracies of E. faecalis, E. coli and S. aureus were 99%, 87%, and 94%, respectively. The overall experimental results yield a higher accuracy of 93.6%, indicating that the proposed device has the potential for label-free identification of pathogens with simplicity, rapidity, and cost-effectiveness.     

阳离子树脂交换分离-电感耦合等离子体质谱(ICP-MS)法测定地质石膏样品中硼

硼石膏近些年在水泥、沥青混合材料等领域应用广泛,其主要成分为CaSO4·2H2O和B2O3以及其他杂质,因此准确、快速测定石膏样品中的硼元素对石膏的应用、资源综合利用等方面具有重要意义。而国家标准GB/T 5484-2012《石膏分析方法》中并没有硼元素的化学分析方法,且相关文献报道也很少。目前测定硼元素主要采用电感耦合等离子体质谱法（ICP-MS）,样品前处理多采用酸溶法,而碱熔法应用不多,主要原因是碱熔后溶液中产生大量盐分影响等离子体焰的稳定性,而732型阳离子交换树脂能吸附大量的钠离子,同时吸附了钙、镍、铁及稀土等阳离子,减少盐分干扰。基于此原理,本文采用氢氧化钠碱熔-732型阳离子交换树脂交换分离,在线加入铑内标的方式,建立了ICP-MS法测定石膏中硼的方法,同时由于石膏国家标准物质不包含硼元素的含量,采用高纯硫酸钙分别与岩石标准物质、水系沉积物国家标准物质和土壤国家标准物质混合配置成人工标准物质,并讨论了熔矿体系、阳离子加入量与吸附时间、清洗液、同位素的选择等实验条件。本方法的检出限为0.76μg/g,精密度（RSD,n=7）为0.9%~1.7%,相对误差为1.56%~3.96%,加标回收率在97.5%~102%,该方法快速、准确,记忆效应小,适合石膏中硼元素的测定。     

Evaluation of ion mobility in capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry for the identification in metabolomics

Currently, feature annotation remains one of the main challenges in untargeted metabolomics. In this context, the information provided by high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) in addition to accurate mass can improve the quality of metabolite annotation, and MS/MS fragmentation patterns are widely used. Accurate mass and a separation index, such as retention time or effective mobility (μ_eff), in chromatographic and electrophoretic approaches, respectively, must be used for unequivocal metabolite identification. The possibility of measuring collision cross-section (CCS) values by using ion mobility (IM) is becoming increasingly popular in metabolomic studies thanks to the new generation of IM mass spectrometers. Based on their similar separation mechanisms involving electric field and the size of the compounds, the complementarity of ^DTCCS_N2 and μ_eff needs to be evaluated. In this study, a comparison of ^DTCCS_N2 and μ_eff was achieved in the context of feature identification ability in untargeted metabolomics by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) coupled with HRMS. This study confirms the high correlation of ^DTCCS_N2 with the mass of the studied metabolites as well as the orthogonality between accurate mass and μ_eff, making this combination particularly interesting for the identification of several endogenous metabolites. The use of IM-MS remains of great interest for facilitating the annotation of neutral metabolites present in the electroosmotic flow (EOF) that are poorly or not separated by CZE.     

金团簇二十面体结构融合过程中其催化活性的演变

近年来,由有机配体保护的原子精确金属团簇在合成方面已取得了重要进展,其独特的原子结构对一些化学反应产生独特的催化效果.原子精确的团簇催化剂明显不同于纳米颗粒催化剂和单原子催化剂,是一种关联均相和多相的、原子数目确定、尺寸均一、结构精确的新型催化剂.从原子尺度上精确构筑团簇催化剂,探究亚纳米尺度的微观结构对催化性能的影响,为常规催化剂所未能解决的关键科学问题提供解决的机会,为在分子尺度上揭示催化作用机制以及准确关联催化剂结构与催化性能提供新的研究体系,具有重要的科学研究意义.本文设计和使用了三种结构精确的金团簇催化剂,即Au25(PPh3)10(SC2H4Ph)5Cl2,Au38(SC2H4Ph)24和Au25(SC2H4Ph)18,分别由二十面体结构的Au13单元通过中心顶点融合、面融合、体相融合形成的(简写为Auvf、Auff和Aubf),详细研究了这三个金团簇催化剂在二十面体Au13单元的结构融合过程中,其催化活性的演变规律.在催化吡咯烷与O2反应制备γ-丁内酰胺反应中,金团簇催化剂的催化活性顺序为Aubf>Auff>Auvf,表明这三个金团簇中Au13单元的结构随着点、面、体的融合,其催化活性随之增加.同时研究发现,对于同一个Au团簇催化剂,其表面硫醇配体的烷基链越短,其催化活性越高,这主要是由于短链硫醇分子的空间位阻较小,吡咯烷分子更容易进入催化剂的金表面,接触到活性位点,进行催化反应.实验表明,三个团簇金原子均带正电荷,正价金物种可能是催化吡咯烷与O2反应的催化活化物种.研究发现,Aubf团簇表面的活性位数目高于Auff和Auvf团簇的,因此Aubf的催化活性最高;同时,团簇表面配体的烷基链越短,其表面活性位数目也越多,这也进一步解释了表面硫醇配体的烷基链越短,其相应的金团簇催化剂的催化活性越高的原因.吡咯烷与O2在金团簇上反应的可能路径为O2在Au活性位上裂解的O原子和吡咯烷β-H转移至Au活性位的β-H反应脱水后形成亚胺,亚胺经过水解进一步氧化得到产物.这项研究将为在原子层次上调变金属团簇催化剂的结构进而改变其催化性能提供新的思路,对精准设计和构筑高效催化剂具有一定的科学指导意义.     

Rapid and label-free classification of pathogens based on light scattering,reduced power spectral features and support vector machine

The rapid identification of pathogens is crucial in controlling the food quality and safety. The proposed system for the rapid and label-free identification of pathogens is based on the principle of laser scattering from the bacterial microbes. The clinical prototype consists of three parts: the laser beam, photodetectors, and the data acquisition system. The bacterial testing sample was mixed with 10 mL distilled water and placed inside the machine chamber. When the bacterial microbes pass by the laser beam, the scattering of light occurs due to variation in size, shape, and morphology. Due to this reason, different types of pathogens show their unique light scattering patterns. The photo-detectors were arranged at the surroundings of the sample at different angles to collect the scattered light. The photodetectors convert the scattered light intensity into a voltage waveform. The waveform features were acquired by using the power spectral characteristics, and the dimensionality of extracted features was reduced by applying minimal-redundancy-maximal-relevance criterion (mRMR). A support vector machine (SVM) classifier was developed by training the selected power spectral features for the classification of three different bacterial microbes. The resulting average identification accuracies of E. faecalis,E. coli and S. aureus were 99%, 87%, and 94%, respectively. The overall experimental results yield a higher accuracy of 93.6%, indicating that the proposed device has the potential for label-free identification of pathogens with simplicity, rapidity, and cost-effectiveness.     

Crowned Macrocycles Containing Two Pyrrolo[1,2-a] Indoles Created By Intramolecular Fusion

Heterocyclic fused-ring systems are of utmost importance because of their presence in many natural products with biological activity. Pyrroloindoles are tricyclic heterocycles that are present in various bioactive and medicinally valuable compounds. Herein, we report the synthesis of phenylene-bridged bis-pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole crowned macrocycles 1 – 3 in which the pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole moieties were formed via intramolecular fusion. The macrocycles were thoroughly characterized by 1D and 2D NMR, HRMS and X-ray crystallographic studies. The X-ray structure revealed that the two pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole moieties were parallel to each other, and one pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole unit was deviated by an angle of 9.54° while the other pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole unit was deviated by an angle of 12.0° from the mean plane defined by 28 core atoms. The macrocycles 1 – 3 absorb in the visible region and readily undergo oxidations because of their electron rich nature. The macrocycles 1 – 3 upon treatment with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) generates the corresponding cation radicals 1 – 3 ^.+ which were stable in the open air for a week. The cation radicals 1 – 3 ^.+ absorb strongly in the NIR region and the experimental observations on crowned macrocycles 1 – 3 were corroborated by DFT and TD-DFT studies.     

Data fusion methodologies for food and beverage authentication and quality assessment – A review

The ever increasing interest of consumers for safety, authenticity and quality of food commodities has driven the attention towards the analytical techniques used for analyzing these commodities. In recent years, rapid and reliable sensor, spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques have emerged that, together with multivariate and multiway chemometrics, have improved the whole control process by reducing the time of analysis and providing more informative results. In this progression of more and better information, the combination (fusion) of outputs of different instrumental techniques has emerged as a means for increasing the reliability of classification or prediction of foodstuff specifications as compared to using a single analytical technique. Although promising results have been obtained in food and beverage authentication and quality assessment, the combination of data from several techniques is not straightforward and represents an important challenge for chemometricians. This review provides a general overview of data fusion strategies that have been used in the field of food and beverage authentication and quality assessment.