Improved determination of flavour compounds in butter by solid-phase (micro)extraction and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

The practicability and potential of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC x GC) coupled to both conventional flame ionisation (FID) and time-of-flight mass spectrometric (TOF-MS) detection, were compared with those of conventional one-dimensional (1D) GC, with the determination of flavour compounds in butter as an application. For polar flavour compounds, which were collected from the aqueous fraction of butter by means of solid-phase extraction (SPE), it was found that GC x GC dramatically improves the overall separation. Consequently, quantification and preliminary identification based on the use of ordered structures, can be performed more reliably. The improvement effected by replacing 1D-GC by GC x GC is considerable also in the case of TOF-MS detection, as illustrated by the high match factors generally obtained during identification. GC x GC was also used successfully for the characterisation of volatile flavour compounds in the headspace of butter collected by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and to study the effect of heat treatment on the composition of butter samples in more detail.     

Twin comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatographic system: concept and applications

A twin GC x GC system has been designed which enables the analysis of a sample by means of two different and independent column combinations simultaneously. Both combinations are incorporated in the same oven, using the same temperature programme, and are fed using a 50:50 column-entrance-split. It is demonstrated that, employing combinations of a conventional non-polar x polar and a reversed-type polar x non-polar column set, the information content is as high, and the analytical performance is as good as when using two separate GC x GC systems. That is, there is an appreciable gain of time and a reduction of costs without any loss of quality. The general usefulness of performing, and comparing two mutually different GC x GC runs is further illustrated with FAMEs in olive oil, and pollutants in a sediment sample.     

Existence, upper and lower solutions and quasilinearization for singular differential equations

In this paper, we discuss existence theorems in the presenceof upper and lower solutions as well as the method of quasilinearization(QSL) for general non-linear second-order singular ordinarydifferential equations. We show the existence of solutions underthe assumption of weak continuity of the non-linear part. Ifthe non-linear part is monotone decreasing, a solution may beobtained by the QSL method as the strong limit of a quadraticallyconvergent sequence of approximate solutions. Under strongerassumptions on the linear and the non-linear parts, a solutionis quadratically bracketed between two monotone sequences ofapproximate solutions of certain related linear equations.     

Effect of pulegone and pulegone oxide on the corrosion of steel in 1 <Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis> HCl

The inhibitive action of pulegone and pulegone oxide toward acid corrosion of steel in molar hydrochloric acid was studied by weight loss measurements, potentiodynamic polarization, and impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The pulegone is extracted starting from oil of Pennyroyal Mint (Mentha pulegium). The natural compound was found to delay the corrosion rate. The pulegone oxide is prepared by oxidation of pulegone. The inhibition efficiency was found to increase with the inhibitor content to attain 81 and 75% at 5 g dm⁻³ for pulegone and pulegone oxide. The increase in temperature leads to an increase in the inhibition efficiency of the natural compared. Correspondence: Belkheir Hammouti, Laboratoire de chimie Appliquée & Environnement, Faculté des Sciences, B.P. 717, 60000 Oujda, Morocco.     

Techniques for generating centimetric drops in microgravity and application to cavitation studies

This paper describes the techniques and physical parameters used to produce stable centimetric water drops in microgravity, and to study single cavitation bubbles inside such drops (Parabolic Flight Campaigns, European Space Agency ESA). While the main scientific results have been presented in a previous paper, we shall herein provide the necessary technical background, with potential applications to other experiments. First, we present an original method to produce and capture large stable drops in microgravity. This technique succeeded in generating quasi-spherical water drops with volumes up to 8 ml, despite the residual g-jitter. We find that the equilibrium of the drops is essentially dictated by the ratio between the drop volume and the contact surface used to capture the drop, and formulate a simple stability criterion. In a second part, we present a setup for creating and studying single cavitation bubbles inside those drops. In addition, we analyze the influence of the bubble size and position on the drop behaviour after collapse, i.e., jets and surface perturbations.     

Gain and noise figure improvements in a shorter wavelength region of EDFA using a macrobending approach

Gain and noise figure improvements are demonstrated in a shorter wavelength region of a double-pass EDFA using a macrobending approach. The EDF is wound in a small radius to suppress the amplified spontaneous emission at the longer wavelength in order to achieve a high amplification in the shorter wavelength. Gain enhancements of about 12–14 dB are obtained with macrobending at the wavelength region between 1480 and 1530 nm. The macrobending also reduces the noise figure of the EDFA at wavelengths shorter than 1525 nm with a maximum improvement of 25 dB.     

Existence and Comparison of Green Kernels for Some Elliptic Operators on (0, ∞)

In this paper we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and the comparability of Green kernels for second order elliptic operators in the one dimensional case.