Chemical constituents of Ligularia virgaurea and its diversity in southwestern Sichuan of China

Chemical constituents of root extract and the nucleotide sequences of the atpB-rbcL intergenic region and the internal transcribed spacers (ITSs) of the ribosomal RNA gene were studied for Ligularia virgaurea var. virgaurea collected in southwestern Sichuan Province of China. Eleven samples were collected. Four of them were found to contain four new furanoeremophilanes, virgaurenones A-D, as well as a new eremophilanolide, virgaurenolide A. The other samples contained different furanoeremophilanes and their derivatives including nor-type of compounds, two of which were new. Diversity was found to be present in the nucleotide sequences as well. The chemical composition was found to be correlated with the ITS variation but not with the geographic distribution of the samples.     

Micro-organic ion-associate phase extraction via in situ fresh phase formation for the preconcentration and determination of di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate in river water by HPLC.

A high-enrichment method was proposed for the HPLC determination of trace di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) in environmental water. A micro-organic ion-associate phase (IAP) was formed in situ from an aqueous sample by adding 4-trifluoromethylanilinium ion and dodecylbenzenesulfonate ions. Centrifugation of the solution led to the isolation of a liquid organic phase containing DEHP at the bottom of the centrifuge tube. The volume of the phase formed was less than 30 microL. DEHP was extracted into the IAP quantitatively during phase formation. After discarding the aqueous phase, the ion associate was dissolved with 50 microL of 2-methoxyethanol, and DEHP in the concentrate was determined by HPLC with an ultra-violet (UV) diode-array detector. DEHP in the concentrations range from 0.8 to 78 microg L(-1) was determined with good precision. The recovery tests for DEHP added to some river water were satisfactory. The detection limit of DEHP, defined as 3-times the standard deviation of the blank signals, was 0.07 microg L(-1) (n = 3). The present method is very simple, and was applied to the determination of DEHP in the river water samples collected around Toyama City, Japan.     

Influence of annealing temperature on the properties of ZnO thin films deposited by thermal evaporation

ZnO thin films were deposited by thermal evaporation of a ZnO powder. The as-deposited films are dark brown, rich zinc and present a low transmittance. Then, these films were annealed in air atmosphere at different temperatures between 100 and 400 °C. Their microstructure and composition were studied using XRD and RBS measurements respectively. By increasing the temperature, it was found that film oxidation starts at 250 °C. XRD peaks related to ZnO appear and peaks related to Zn decrease. At 300 °C, zinc was totally oxidised and the films became totally transparent. The electrical conductivity measurement that were carried out in function of the annealing temperature showed the transition from highly conductive Zn thin film to a lower conductive ZnO thin film. The optical gap (E_g) was deduced from the UV-vis transmittance, and its variation was linked to the formation of ZnO.     

Kinetic Relaxation Models for Energy Transport

Kinetic equations with relaxation collision kernels are considered under the basic assumption of two collision invariants, namely mass and energy. The collision kernels are of BGK-type with a general local Gibbs state, which may be quite different from the Gaussian. By the use of the diffusive length/time scales, energy transport systems consisting of two parabolic equations with the position density and the energy density as unknowns are derived on a formal level. The H theorem for the kinetic model is presented, and the entropy for the energy transport systems, which is inherited from the kinetic model, is derived. The energy transport systems for specific examples of the global Gibbs state, such as a power law with negative exponent, a cut-off power law with positive exponent, the Maxwellian, Bose–Einstein, and Fermi–Dirac distributions, arepresented. MSC classification (2000): Primary: 82C40, 35B40; Secondary: 35K55, 45K05, 82D05, 85A05x     

Synthesis of copper monolayer and particles at aqueous–organic interface

Using aqueous–organic interface (water–oleic acid) reduction of Cu²⁺ by ascorbic acid, hydrophobic copper monolayer and copper particles have been prepared and characterized. The resultant monolayer could be transferred from the interface onto solid substrate or be dissolved to yield an organosol and copper nanoparticles.     

Evaluation of the Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Sewage Sludge and Tomato Waste at Mesophilic Temperature

Sewage sludge is a hazardous waste, which must be managed adequately. Mesophilic anaerobic digestion is a widely employed treatment for sewage sludge involving several disadvantages such as low methane yield, poor biodegradability, and nutrient imbalance. Tomato waste was proposed as an easily biodegradable co-substrate to increase the viability of the process in a centralized system. The mixture proportion of sewage sludge and tomato waste evaluated was 95:5 (wet weight), respectively. The stability was maintained within correct parameters in an organic loading rate from 0.4 to 2.2 kg total volatile solids (VS)/m³ day. Moreover, the methane yield coefficient was 159 l/kg VS (0 °C, 1 atm), and the studied mixture showed a high anaerobic biodegradability of 95 % (in VS). Although the ammonia concentration increased until 1,864?±?23 mg/l, no inhibition phenomenon was determined in the stability variables, methane yield, or kinetics parameters studied.