Green synthesis of palladium nanoparticles using broth of Cinnamomum camphora leaf

The development of dependable, environmentally benign processes for the synthesis of nanoscale materials is an important aspect of nanotechnology. In the present study, we report one-pot biogenic fabrication of palladium nanoparticles by a simple procedure using broth of Cinnamomum camphora leaf without extra surfactant, capping agent, and/or template. The mean size of palladium nanoparticles, ranging from 3.2 to 6.0 nm, could be facilely controlled by merely varying the initial concentration of the palladium ions. The polyols components and the heterocyclic components were believed to be responsible for the reduction of palladium ions and the stabilization of palladium nanoparticles, respectively.     

Residual determination and risk assessment of buprofezin in plum (Prunus domestica) grown in open‐field conditions following the application of three different formulations

This study was conducted to characterize the residual level and perform a risk assessment on buprofezin formulated as an emulsifiable concentrate, wettable powder, and suspension concentrate over various treatment schedules in plum (Prunus domestica). The samples were extracted with an AOAC quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe, ‘QuEChERS’, method after major modifications. As intrinsic interferences were observed in blank plum samples following dispersive‐solid phase extraction (consisting of primary secondary amine and C₁₈ sorbents), amino cartridges were used for solid‐phase extraction. Analysis was carried out using liquid chromatography with diode array detection and confirmed by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The method showed excellent linearity with determination coefficient (R² = 1) and satisfactory recoveries (at two spiking levels, 0.5 and 2.5 mg/kg) between 90.98 and 94.74% with relative standard deviation (RSD) ≤8%. The limit of quantification (0.05 mg/kg) was considerably lower than the maximum residue limit (2 mg/kg) set by the Codex Alimentarius. Absolute residue levels for emulsifiable concentrates were highest, perhaps owing to the dilution rate and adjuvant. Notably, all formulation residues were lower than the maximum residue limit, and safety data proved that the fruits are safe for consumers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order element based adaptive mesh refinement strategy for three‐dimensional unstructured grid

Adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) shows attractive properties in automatically refining the flow region of interest, and with AMR, better prediction can be obtained with much less labor work and cost compared to manually remeshing or the global mesh refinement. Cartesian AMR is well established; however, AMR on hybrid unstructured mesh, which is heavily used in the high‐Reynolds number flow simulation, is less matured and existing methods may result in degraded mesh quality, which mostly happens in the boundary layer or near the sharp geometric features. User intervention or additional constraints, such as freezing all boundary layer elements or refining the whole boundary layer, are required to assist the refinement process. In this work, a novel AMR strategy is developed to handle existing difficulties. In the new method, high‐order unstructured elements are first generated based on the baseline mesh; then the refinement is conducted in the parametric space; at last, the mesh suitable for the solver is output. Generating refined elements in the parametric space with high‐order elements is the key of this method and this helps to guarantee both the accuracy and robustness. With the current method, 3‐dimensional hybrid unstructured mesh of huge size and complex geometry can be automatically refined, without user intervention nor additional constraints. With test cases including the 2‐dimensional airfoil and 3‐dimensional full aircraft, the current AMR method proves to be accurate, simple, and robust.     

Enantiomeric separation of 2‐arylpropionic acid nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs by HPLC with hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin as chiral mobile phase additive

The enantio‐separations of eight 2‐arylpropionic acid nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (2‐APA NSAIDs) were established using reversed‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography with hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin (HP‐β‐CD) as chiral mobile phase additive for studying the stereoselective skin permeation of suprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, indoprofen, fenoprofen, furbiprofen, ibuprofen and carprofen. The effects of the mobile phase composition, concentration of HP‐β‐CD and column temperature on retention and enantioselective separation were investigated. With 2‐APA NSAIDs as acidic analytes, the retention times and resolutions of the enantiomers were strongly related to the pH of the mobile phase. In addition, both the concentration of HP‐β‐CD and temperature had a great effect on retention time, but only a slight or almost no effect on resolutions of the analytes. Enantioseparations were achieved on a Shimpack CLC‐ODS (150 × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm) column. The mobile phase was a mixture of methanol and phosphate buffer (pH 4.0–5.5, 20 mM) containing 25 mM HP‐β‐CD. This method was flexible, simple and economically advantageous over the use of chiral stationary phase, and was successfully applied to the enantioselective determination of the racemic 2‐APA NSAIDs in an enantioselective skin permeation study. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Character and Dimension Formulae for Queer Lie Superalgebra

We study transmission problems with free interfaces from one random medium to another. Solutions are required to solve distinct partial differential equations, \({{\rm L}_{+}}\) and \({{\rm L}_{-}}\), within their positive and negative sets respectively. A corresponding flux balance from one phase to another is also imposed. We establish existence and \({L^{\infty}}\) bounds of solutions. We also prove that variational solutions are non-degenerate and develop the regularity theory for solutions of such free boundary problems.