Yttria‐based sol–gel coating for capillary microextraction online coupled to high‐performance liquid chromatography

This work about the development of yttria‐based polymeric coating using [bis(hydroxyethyl) amine] terminated polydimethylsiloxanes and yttrium trimethoxyethoxide inside the capillary. The coated capillary was utilized for online capillary microextraction and high‐performance liquid chromatography analysis. The prepared coating material was characterized using scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray spectrometry, and thermogravimetric analysis. The coated capillary with polymer presented better extraction efficiency compared with the pure yttria‐based coated capillary with applicability in extreme pH environments (pH 0–pH 14). Excellent extraction towards polyaromatic hydrocarbons, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, phenols, and amides was observed with limit of detection ranging from 0.18 to 7.35 ng/mL (S/N = 3) and reproducibility in between 0.6 and 6.8% (n = 3). Capillary‐to‐capillary extraction analysis has presented reproducibility between 4.1 and 9.9%. The analysis provided linear response for seven selected phenols in the range of 5–200 ng/mL with R² values between 0.9971 and 0.9998. The inter‐day, intra‐day, and capillary‐to‐capillary reproducibility for phenols was also <10%. Real sample analysis by spiking 5, 50, and 200 ng/mL of phenols in wastewater and pool‐water produced recovery between 84.7 and 94.3% and reproducibility within 7.6% (n = 3).     

Continuous separation of maslinic and oleanolic acids from olive pulp by high‐speed countercurrent chromatography with elution‐extrusion mode

In this work, a continuous high‐speed countercurrent chromatography method has been developed on the basis of elution‐extrusion mode and this method was successfully applied to the separation of maslinic and oleanolic acid from the extract of olive pulp. In the process of ‘elution’, the sample solution was continuously loaded into the column and the maslinic acid was steadily eluted out in this step while highly retained oleanlic acid always stayed in the column. In the process of ‘extrusion’, the oleanlic acid was pushed out of the column with the stationary phase. In this way, we achieved a large sample loading. A total of 120 mL sample solution (about 89.55% of the column volume) which contains 600 mg olive pulp extract was pumped in the apparatus by a constant‐flow pump and the maslinic and oleanolic acids were largely separated within 120 min. Both of these two compounds presented high yields and high purities (271.6 mg for maslinic acid with 86.7% and 83.9 mg oleanolic acids with 83.4%).     

Mimicking the Ice Recrystallization Activity of Biological Antifreezes. When is a New Polymer “Active”?

Antifreeze proteins and ice‐binding proteins have been discovered in a diverse range of extremophiles and have the ability to modulate the growth and formation of ice crystals. Considering the importance of cryoscience across transport, biomedicine, and climate science, there is significant interest in developing synthetic macromolecular mimics of antifreeze proteins, in particular to reproduce their property of ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI). This activity is a continuum rather than an “on/off” property and there may be multiple molecular mechanisms which give rise to differences in this observable property; the limiting concentrations for ice growth vary by more than a thousand between an antifreeze glycoprotein and poly(vinyl alcohol), for example. The aim of this article is to provide a concise comparison of a range of natural and synthetic materials that are known to have IRI, thus providing a guide to see if a new synthetic mimic is active or not, including emerging materials which are comparatively weak compared to antifreeze proteins, but may have technological importance. The link between activity and the mechanisms involving either ice binding or amphiphilicity is discussed and known materials assigned into classes based on this.     

Optical and nonlinear optical properties of copper nanocomposite glasses annealed near the glass softening temperature

Copper nanocomposite glasses have been prepared by the ion-exchange method, and annealed at different temperatures up to and above the glass softening temperature. The absorption spectra, fluorescence spectra, and nonlinear optical transmission of the samples at 532 nm for nanosecond laser pulses, have been investigated. The optical and nonlinear optical properties of the glasses are found to be distinctly different below and above the glass softening temperature. For instance, thermal annealing up to the glass softening temperature makes the samples behave like saturable absorbers, while annealing at higher temperatures makes them behave like optical limiters. Such flexibility in controlling the optical nonlinearity in these materials makes them potential candidates for photonic applications.     

Image sharing scheme based on combination theory

We present a simple algorithm for sharing and hiding secret image based on combination theory. The secret image is firstly encrypted by matrix multiplications and then shared into many shadow images by multiplying binary random sampling matrices. The sampling matrices randomly assign the pixel values to the shadow images which satisfy a specific combination rule as a constrain, so that the (t, n) threshold secret sharing scheme can be implemented. Numerical experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of this image sharing algorithm.     

Observation of the semileptonic decays B-->D*tau-nutau and evidence for B-->Dtau-nutau

We present measurements of the semileptonic decays B--->D0tau-nutau, B--->D*0tau-nutau, B0-->D+tau-nutau, and B0-->D*+tau-nutau, which are potentially sensitive to non-standard model amplitudes. The data sample comprises 232x10(6) Upsilon(4S)-->BB decays collected with the BABAR detector. From a combined fit to B- and B0 channels, we obtain the branching fractions B(B-->Dtau-nutau)=(0.86+/-0.24+/-0.11+/-0.06)% and B(B-->D*tau-nutau)=(1.62+/-0.31+/-0.10+/-0.05)% (normalized for the B0), where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and normalization-mode-related.     

Adiabatic small polaron-hopping conduction in Ln0.85Ca0.15MnO3 (Ln=Nd, Pr and Sm) perovskites

Polycrystalline bulk ferromagnetic insulating (FMI) Ln_0.85Ca_0.15MnO₃ (Ln=Nd, Pr and Sm) samples are prepared by standard solid-state reaction route and characterized. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) data of the manganites show single-phase character. Existing theoretical models predict that the high temperature (T>θ_D/2, θ_D being the Debye temperature) dc conductivity (σ_dc) of these samples is due to adiabatic small polaron-hopping conduction. Greaves’ and Mott's variable range hopping (VRH) conduction mechanisms are not suitable to explain the σ_dc data at low temperature (T<θ_D/2).     

Water vapor adsorption onto activated carbons prepared from cattle manure compost (CMC)

Activated carbons were prepared from cattle manure compost (CMC) using zinc chloride activation. The structural and surface chemical characteristics of CMC-based activated carbons were determined by N₂ adsorption-desorption and Boehm titration, respectively. The water vapor adsorption properties of the prepared activated carbons with various pore structure and surface nature were examined, and the mechanism of water adsorbed onto activated carbon was also discussed. The results show that the adsorption of water vapor on carbons begins at specific active sites at low relative humidity (RH), followed by micropore filling at medium RH through the formation of pentamer cluster of water molecules in the narrow micropores. The water vapor adsorption capacity of activated carbon is predominantly dependent on its pore volume and surface area. Although capillary condensation is not the mechanism for water adsorption onto activated carbon, water can adsorb on narrow mesopore to some extent.     

Jeans' gravitational instability of a thermally conducting plasma

The gravitational instability of an infinitely extending homogenous plasma endowed with several physical mechanisms, namely Hall currents, finite conductivity, ion viscosity and thermal conductivity is considered. The main result is that the various parameters play different physical roles in the perturbed problem. Jeans' criterion is analyzed in the framework of Tsallis' statistics for possible modifications due to the presence of nonextensive effects. A simple generalization of the Jeans' criterion is obtained and the standard values are obtained in the limiting case q=1, q being the nonextensive parameter.