Two-phase partition chromatography using soybean oil eliminates pesticide residues in aqueous ginseng extract

This study was carried out to develop a cost-, labor- and efficiency-effective elimination method of pesticide residues in ginseng extract. A two-phase partition method between soybean oil and distilled water or aqueous ginseng extract was employed for the elimination of pesticide residues. Content of the pesticides was determined by gas chromatography with electron capture or nitrogen phosphorus detector. A total of 15 pesticides representing four categories (organochlorine, organophosphorus, carbamate, pyrethroid) were spiked (ca. 2 ppm) to 2 ml soybean oil in a test tube and the oil was mixed with 6 ml distilled water or 10% aqueous ginseng extract. The test tubes were then vortexed (2 min) and centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 15 min to separate the oil and aqueous layers. Each layer was harvested and subjected to quantitative analysis of pesticides. The average distribution ratio of the pesticides to the oil layer was 94.4 +/- 6.7% in the mixture of the oil and distilled water, and 105.5 +/- 6.6% in the mixture of the oil and ginseng extract. No significant qualitative and quantitative change of ginsenosides, the active ingredients of Panax ginseng, was observed in the ginseng extract before and after the oil treatment. These results suggest that two-phase partition chromatography between soybean oil and the aqueous phase is a cost-, labor- and efficiency-effective reliable method for the elimination of pesticide residues in ginseng extract.     

Di- and trisubstituted γ-lactams via Rh(II)-carbenoid reaction of N-Cα-branched, N-bis(trimethylsilyl)methyl α-diazoamides. Synthesis of (±)-α-allokainic acid

Acyclic N-C(α)-branched, N-bis(trimethylsilyl)methyl (N-BTMSM) diazoamides undergo regio-, chemo-, and diastereoselective Rh(II)-carbenoid C-H insertion to give 4,5-disubstituted and 3,4,5-trisubstituted γ-lactams. The conformational influence of the N-BTMSM group and the electronic effect of the O-pivaloyl moiety of the C(α)-oxymethylene unit are essential for the observed regioselectivity. The synthesis of α-allokainic acid demonstrates the utility of the method.     

Synthesis and characterization of a new ternary imide-Li2Ca(NH)2

The ternary imide Li(2)Ca(NH)2 was successfully synthesized by dehydrogenating a mixture of LiNH(2) and CaH(2) at a molar ratio of 2:1 in a stream of purified argon at 300 degrees C. A powder X-ray diffraction measurement revealed that Li(2)Ca(NH)2 was of the trigonal anti-La(2)O(3) structure (space group Pm1) with lattice constants of a = 3.5664(3)A and c = 5.9540(8) A. Ca occupied the 1b site (0, 0, 1/2), Li occupied the 2d site (1/3, 2/3, 0.8841(22)), and N occupied the 2d site (1/3, 2/3, 0.2565(15)). Nuclear magnetic resonance and X-ray absorption fine structure analyses demonstrated that each Li ion was coordinated with four imide ions and each Ca ion was coordinated with six imide ions.     

Surface transient effects in ultralow‐energy Cs+ sputtering of Si

This study examines the dependence of the sputter rate and the transient width (z_tr) as a function of Cs⁺ primary ion energy (impact energy (E_p) = 320 eV, 500 eV and 1 keV) and incident angles between 0 and 70° . The instrument used was the ATOMIKA 4500 SIMS depth profiler and the sample was Si with ten delta layers of Si_0.7 Ge_0.3. We observed the narrowest transient widths of between 1.4 and 2.0 nm apparent depth. This was achieved at incident angles (θ) of 30–50° . An extended transient effect was observed when profiled at θ > 50° . Below this incident angle, the transient width is less than twice the penetration depth (z_tr < 2R_norm). At minimum z_tr, z_tr ≈ R_norm. The detection sensitivity is best achieved at θ ≈ 30° for all energies investigated. The sputter rate is lowest at normal incidence, rising gradually to a maximum at θ ≈ 50–60° . This is similar to that observed with ultralow‐energy O₂⁺ primary ion beams. 1 At ultralow energies, reducing E_p does not have a significant effect in reducing z_tr. We conclude that for E_p < 1 keV, the optimum condition to achieve minimum z_tr while maintaining good sensitivity and high sputter rate is at θ ≈ 30° . Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fabrication of size-tunable gold nanoparticles array with nanosphere lithography, reactive ion etching, and thermal annealing

Two-dimensional ordered arrays of gold (Au) nanoparticles were fabricated using two different variants of the nanosphere lithography technique. First, ordered arrays of polystyrene nanospheres on Si substrate were used as deposition masks through which gold films were deposited by electron beam evaporation. After the removal of the nanospheres, an array of triangular Au nanodisks was left on the Si substrate. After thermal annealing at increasing temperature, systematic shape transition of the nanostructures from original triangular Au nanodisks to rounded nanoparticles was observed. This approach allows us to systematically vary the size and morphology of the particles. In the second and novel technique, we made use of reactive ion etching to simultaneously reduce the dimension of the masking nanospheres and create arrays of nanopores on the substrate prior to the deposition of the Au films. These samples were subsequently annealed, which resulted in size-tunable and ordered Au nanoparticle arrays with the nanoparticles nested in the nanopores of the templated substrate. With the nanoparticles anchored in the nanopores, the substrate could be useful as a template for growth of other nanomaterials.     

Reactivity of [CpCr(CO)3]2 towards thione (CS) moieties in some sulfur-containing substrates

The reaction of [CpCr(CO)₃]₂ (Cp = η⁵-C₅H₅) (1) with 1 mol equivalent of 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (DMcTH₂) at ambient temperature led to the isolation of a reddish-brown crystalline solid of CpCr(CO)₃(η¹-DMcTH) (5) and a green solid of CpCr(CO)₃H (2) in yields of ca. 28% and 30%, respectively, along with some [CpCr(CO)₂]₂ (3) and [CpCr(CO)₂]₂S (4). The reaction of 1 with 1 mol equivalent of vinylene trithiocarbonate (SCS(CH)₂S) (VTTC) at 90 °C led to the isolation of a red crystalline solid of CpCr(CO)₂(η²-SCHSC₂H₂) (6) in ca. 15% yield while the reaction of 1 with isopropylxanthic disulfide ((CH₃)₂CHOCS₂)₂ resulted in the formation of CpCr(CO)₂(η²-S₂COCH(CH₃)₂) (8) in ca. 80% yield. The complexes 5, 6 and 8 have been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis.     

Sequence‐based prediction of protein–peptide binding sites using support vector machine

Protein–peptide interactions are essential for all cellular processes including DNA repair, replication, gene‐expression, and metabolism. As most protein – peptide interactions are uncharacterized, it is cost effective to investigate them computationally as the first step. All existing approaches for predicting protein – peptide binding sites, however, are based on protein structures despite the fact that the structures for most proteins are not yet solved. This article proposes the first machine‐learning method called SPRINT to make Sequence‐based prediction of Protein – peptide Residue‐level Interactions. SPRINT yields a robust and consistent performance for 10‐fold cross validations and independent test. The most important feature is evolution‐generated sequence profiles. For the test set (1056 binding and non‐binding residues), it yields a Matthews’ Correlation Coefficient of 0.326 with a sensitivity of 64% and a specificity of 68%. This sequence‐based technique shows comparable or more accurate than structure‐based methods for peptide‐binding site prediction. SPRINT is available as an online server at: http://sparks-lab.org/ . © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Optimal warranty policies for systems with imperfect repair

We investigate a system whose basic warranty coverage is minimal repair up to a specified warranty length. An additional service is offered whereby first failure is restored up to the consumers’ chosen level of repair. The problem is studied under two system replacement strategies: periodic maintenance before and after warranty. It turns out that our model generalizes the model of Rinsaka and Sandoh [K. Rinsaka, H. Sandoh, A stochastic model with an additional warranty contract, Computers and Mathematics with Applications 51 (2006) 179–188] and the model of Yeh et al. [R.H. Yeh, M.Y. Chen, C.Y. Lin, Optimal periodic replacement policy for repairable products under free-repair warranty, European Journal of Operational Research 176 (2007) 1678–1686]. We derive the optimal maintenance period and optimal level of repair based on the structures of the cost function and failure rate function. We show that under certain assumptions, the optimal repair level for additional service is an increasing function of the replacement time. We provide numerical studies to verify some of our results.     

Reflection functors and symplectic reflection algebras for wreath products

We construct reflection functors on categories of modules over deformed wreath products of the preprojective algebra of a quiver. These functors give equivalences of categories associated to generic parameters which are in the same orbit under the Weyl group action. We give applications to the representation theory of symplectic reflection algebras of wreath product groups.     

Tail asymptotics for the fundamental period in the MAP/G/1 queue

This paper studies the tail behavior of the fundamental period in the MAP/G/1 queue. We prove that if the service time distribution has a regularly varying tail, then the fundamental period distribution in the MAP/G/1 queue has also regularly varying tail, and vice versa, by finding an explicit expression for the asymptotics of the tail of the fundamental period in terms of the tail of the service time distribution. Our main result with the matrix analytic proof is a natural extension of the result in (de Meyer and Teugels, J. Appl. Probab. 17: 802–813, 1980) on the M/G/1 queue where techniques rely heavily on analytic expressions of relevant functions. I.-S. Wee’s research was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant KRF 2003-070-00008.