Stability of low levels of perchlorate in drinking water and natural water samples

Perchlorate ion (ClO₄⁻) is an environmental contaminant of growing concern due to its potential human health effects, impact on aquatic and land animals, and widespread occurrence throughout the United States. The determination of perchlorate cannot normally be carried out in the field. As such, water samples for perchlorate analysis are often shipped to a central laboratory, where they may be stored for a significant period before analysis. The stability of perchlorate ion in various types of commonly encountered water samples has not been generally examined—the effect of such storage is thus not known. In the present study, the long-term stability of perchlorate ion in deionized water, tap water, ground water, and surface water was examined. Sample sets containing approximately 1000, 100, 1.0, and 0.5 μg l⁻¹ perchlorate ion in deionized water and also in local tap water were formulated. These samples were analyzed by ion chromatography for perchlorate ion concentration against freshly prepared standards every 24 h for the first 7 days, biweekly for the next 4 weeks, and periodically after that for a total of 400 or 610 days for the two lowest concentrations and a total of 428 or 638 days for the high concentrations. Ground and surface water samples containing perchlorate were collected, held and analyzed for perchlorate concentration periodically over at least 360 days. All samples except for the surface water samples were found to be stable for the duration of the study, allowing for holding times of at least 300 days for ground water samples and at least 90 days for surface water samples.     

A Skew-Duoidal Eckmann-Hilton Argument and Quantum Categories

A general result relating skew monoidal structures and monads is proved. This is applied to quantum categories and bialgebroids. Ordinary categories are monads in the bicategory whose morphisms are spans between sets. Quantum categories were originally defined as monoidal comonads on endomorphism objects in a particular monoidal bicategory ?. Then they were shown also to be skew monoidal structures (with an appropriate unit) on objects in ?. Now we see in what kind of ? quantum categories are merely monads.     

Effect of basis-set completeness on the relative importance of triply and quadruply excited configurations in correlation energy calculations

It is demonstrated, using the ground state of the water molecule, that the contribution of triply excited configurations to electron correlation energies in closed-shell systems is more sensitive to the degree of completeness of the basis set than the component associated with quadruply excited configurations. The relative importance of the triply excited states increases more rapidly than that of the quadruple excitations, as the quality of the basis set is improved.     

Femtosecond photoelectron imaging of transient electronic states and Rydberg atom emission from electronically excited he droplets

Ultrafast relaxation of electronically excited pure He droplets is investigated by femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron imaging. Droplets are excited by extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pulses with photon energies below 24 eV. Excited states and relaxation products are probed by ionization with an infrared (IR) pulse with 1.6 eV photon energy. An initially excited droplet state decays on a time scale of 220 fs, leading predominantly to the emission of unaligned 1s3d Rydberg atoms. In a second relaxation channel, electronically aligned 1s4p Rydberg atoms are emitted from the droplet within less than 120 fs. The experimental results are described within a model that approximates electronically excited droplet states by localized, atomic Rydberg states perturbed by the local droplet environment in which the atom is embedded. The model suggests that, below 24 eV, EUV excitation preferentially leads to states that are localized in the surface region of the droplet. Electronically aligned 1s4p Rydberg atoms are expected to originate from excitations in the outermost surface regions, while nonaligned 1s3d Rydberg atoms emerge from a deeper surface region with higher local densities. The model is used to simulate the He droplet EUV absorption spectrum in good agreement with previously reported fluorescence excitation measurements.     

Immobilized anthraquinone for redox mediation of horseradish peroxidase for hydrogen peroxide sensing

The detection of hydrogen peroxide is detailed using horseradish peroxidase and anthraquinone. Both species are immobilized on a glassy carbon electrode substrate. This dual immobilization gives rise to lower detection limits compared with the situation when either of the species is immobilized. Detection limits of 40 nM are reported within physiologically-relevant media.     

Chemo-enzymatic synthesis of (−)-epipentenomycin I

A chemo-enzymatic synthesis of (−)-epipentenomycin I is reported using a lipase-catalysed kinetic resolution of the racemic pentacyclic alcohol 8. Flash vacuum pyroloysis of (−)-8 so obtained gave (−)-(4R)-4-hydroxy-5-methylene-2-cyclopentenone. Epoxidation of this compound with dimethyldioxirane followed by hydrolytic ring-opening of the resulting epoxide gave (−)-epipentenomycin I.