Characterization and determination of fatty acids in fish oil using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry coupled with chemometric resolution techniques

Characterization and determination of a complex mixture of fatty acid methyl esters was performed for commercial fish oil using two-dimensional GC-MS data coupled with resolution techniques. Various principle component analysis methods such as significant factor analysis and fixed size moving window evolving factor analysis were used for the number of factors, zero concentration and selective regions. Then, the convoluted chromatograms were resolved into pure chromatograms and mass spectra using heuristic evolving latent projections (HELP) method. Fatty acids of C16:1omega7, C18:4omega3, C18:1omega11, C18:1omega9, C18:0, C20:2omega6, C20:1omega9, C22:1omega11, C22:1omega9 and C24:1omega9 were resolved an fied by using similarity searches between deconvoluted mass spectra and MS database, in different parts of total ion current chromatogram. Window target testing factor analysis is also applied for confirming the presence or absence of target analytes. The results of the present work show that combination of hyphenated chromatographic methods and resolution techniques provide a complementary method for accurate analysis of real multi-component systems such as fish oil.     

Matrix-free analysis of aflatoxins in pistachio nuts using parallel factor modeling of liquid chromatography diode-array detection data

In the present study a second-order calibration strategy for high performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection (HPLC-DAD) has been developed using parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) and has been applied for simultaneous determination of aflatoxins B₁, B₂, G₁ and G₂ in pistachio nuts in the presence of matrix interferences. Sample preparation was based on solvent extraction (SE) followed by solid phase extraction (SPE) on Bond Elut C18 cartridges. Since the sample preparation procedure was not selective to the analytes of interest, exploiting second-order advantage to obtain concentrations of individual analytes in the presence of uncalibrated interfering compounds seemed necessary. Appropriate pre-processing steps have been applied to correct background signals and the effect of retention time shifts. Transferred calibration data set obtained from standardization of solvent based calibration data has been used in prediction step. The results of PARAFAC on a set of spiked and naturally contaminated pistachio nuts indicated that the four aflatoxins could be successfully determined. The method was validated and multivariate analytical figures of merit were calculated. The advantages of the proposed method are using a low-cost SPE step relative to standard method of aflatoxin analysis (immune affinity column assay), a unique and simple isocratic elution program for all samples and a calibration transfer for saving both chemicals and time of analysis. This study show that coupling of SPE-HPLC-DAD with PARAFAC as a powerful second-order calibration method can be considered as an alternative method for resolution and quantification of aflatoxins in the presence of unknown interferences obtained through analysis of highly complex matrix of pistachio samples and cost per analysis can be reduced significantly.     

Ultrasonic assisted headspace single drop micro-extraction and gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorus detector for determination of organophosphorus pesticides in soil

This work describes optimization of headspace single drop micro-extraction for extraction of five organophosphorus pesticides; thionazin, sulfotep, dimethoate, disulfoton and parathion in soil. Ultrasound has also been used successfully to improve and accelerate the extraction of the analytes from the sample. The optimized extraction performance was obtained when the experimental parameters were set as follows; 3.0 μL of octanol as extraction solvent, high ionic strength (20% sodium chloride), 1:1 (w/v) sample dilution with water, extraction temperature at 60 °C for 30 min; applying ultrasound and without any pH adjustment. The optimized method was linear over the calibration range (5–200 and 10–300 for different analytes) with limits of detection of 0.1–2.0 ng g⁻¹. The enrichment factor for OPPs was 1.4–12.7 and the method was also reproducible with the relative standard deviations (RSD%) of 2.1–6.9%.     

Model-based analysis for kinetic complexation study of Pizda and Cu(II)

In the present work, the multivariate kinetic complexation of a new synthesized ligand, 1-(2'-hydroxyl cyclohexyl)-3'-[aminopropyl]-4-[3'-aminopropyl]piperazine (Pizda) and Cu(2+) in 50% ethanol-water solution is investigated using the UV-vis stopped-flow technique and state-of-the-art multi-wavelength numerical analysis. Model-based least squares fitting analysis or hard modeling is a specific part of chemometrics which is based on mathematical relationships for describing the measurements. Some recent developments include the incorporation of the effects of non-ideal experimental conditions into the fitting algorithm so it can substantially simplify experimental procedures. In this study no buffers are required because pH changes are taken into computations. Some 21 multi-wavelength kinetic measurements, taken at various initial concentrations of [H(+)] were analyzed globally, i.e. simultaneously applying an all inclusive reaction mechanism and a common set of species spectra. Using numerical analysis, the pH of the experimental solutions was allowed to vary as a consequence of the proceeding reactions. This enabled the complete kinetic analysis of the formation and dissociation of Cu(Pizda)(n+). Here protonation equilibria have been directly incorporated into the rate law, so thus variable pH values have been allowed during each measurement. Using the independently estimated stability constants (from spectrophotometric and potentiometric measurements) for the Cu(Pizda)(n+) complexes, a total of six rate constants and one protonation constant could be elucidated. The results of the analysis include the concentration distribution and spectra of all chemical species involved in the reaction. A low standard deviation and residual profiles obtained validate the results.     

Closed range and nonclosed range adjointable operators on Hilbert $$C^*$$-modules

In this paper, we show that for a positive operator A on a Hilbert \(C^*\)-module \( \mathscr {E} \), the range \( \mathscr {R}(A) \) of A is closed if and only if \( \mathscr {R}(A^\alpha ) \) is closed for all \(\alpha \in (0,1)\cup (1,+\,\infty )\), and this occurs if and only if \( \mathscr {R}(A)=\mathscr {R}(A^\alpha ) \) for all \(\alpha \in (0,1)\cup (1,+\,\infty )\). As an application, we prove that for an adjontable operator A if \(\mathscr {R}(A)\) is nonclosed, then \(\dim \left( \overline{\mathscr {R}(A)}/\mathscr {R}(A)\right) =+\,\infty \). Finally, we show that for an adjointable operator A if \( \overline{\mathscr {R}(A^*) } \) is orthogonally complemented in \( \mathscr {E} \), then under certain coditions there exists an idempotent C and a unique operator X such that \( XAX=X, AXA=CA, AX=C \) and \( XA=P_{A^*} \), where \( P_{A^*} \) is the orthogonal projection of \( \mathscr {E} \) onto \( \overline{\mathscr {R}(A^*)}\).     

Chemometrics assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction for quantification of seven UV filters in urine samples by HPLC‐DAD

In the present study, dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction followed by high performance liquid chromatography‐diode array detection has been developed as simple, rapid, accurate, and efficient sample preparation method for simultaneous determination of seven organic UV filters in urine samples. The influence of the main effects as well as their interactions was studied through a 2^(6–2) fractional factorial design. The candidate parameters were: type and volume of dispersant and extraction solvents, sample pH, and salt concentration. Under final optimal conditions, the analytes were extracted from 5 mL of samples by addition of 0.5 mL of acetonitrile (dispersing solvent) containing 70 μL of carbon tetrachloride (extraction solvent), without modifying the pH of the solution and applying the (+1) level of salt concentration (10% w/v NaCl). The assay was linear (R² > 0.997), relative recoveries ranged from 86.9 up to 97.3% and the LOQs between 3 and 45 ng mL^?1 were obtained. The intra‐ and interday RSDs were lower than 5 and 8% at the middle point of the linear range, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to different volunteer urine samples and it was shown that the extraction efficiency was not affected by the type of urine samples.     

Performance analysis of integer linear programming optical monitor placement for crosstalk attack detection in different network topologies

In this paper, an optimum optical power monitor placement is formulated in integer linear programming for crosstalk attack detection by exploiting monitoring information from test connections. The experimental results showed that equipping 6 out of 14, 8 out of 15 and 8 out of 16 nodes with optical power monitoring devices in NSF, MESH and GRID topologies are enough to detect the nodes that are traversed by the crosstalk attack in the networks.     

Second-order standard addition for deconvolution and quantification of fatty acids of fish oil using GC-MS

In the present work two second-order calibration methods, generalized rank annihilation method (GRAM) and multivariate curve resolution-alternating least square (MCR-ALS) have been applied on standard addition data matrices obtained by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to characterize and quantify four unsaturated fatty acids cis-9-hexadecenoic acid (C16:1ω7c), cis-9-octadecenoic acid (C18:1ω9c), cis-11-eicosenoic acid (C20:1ω9) and cis-13-docosenoic acid (C22:1ω9) in fish oil considering matrix interferences. With these methods, the area does not need to be directly measured and predictions are more accurate. Because of non-trilinear conditions of GC-MS data matrices, at first MCR-ALS and GRAM have been used on uncorrected data matrices. In comparison to MCR-ALS, biased and imprecise concentrations (%R.S.D. = 27.3) were obtained using GRAM without correcting the retention time-shift. As trilinearity is the essential requirement for implementing GRAM, the data need to be corrected. Multivariate rank alignment objectively corrects the run-to-run retention time variations between sample GC-MS data matrix and a standard addition GC-MS data matrix. Then, two second-order algorithms have been compared with each other. The above algorithms provided similar mean predictions, pure concentrations and spectral profiles. The results validated using standard mass spectra of target compounds. In addition, some of the quantification results were compared with the concentration values obtained using the selected mass chromatograms. As in the case of strong peak-overlap and the matrix effect, the classical univariate method of determination of the area of the peaks of the analytes will fail, the “second-order advantage” has solved this problem successfully.     

One-pot synthesis of new functionalized 4H-chromen-4-ylidene derivatives

A simple synthesis of new series of functionalized chromene derivatives through an efficient, one-pot, multicomponent reaction of nitroketene N,S-acetals, salicylaldehydes, and cyanoacetohydrazide in ethanol at ambient temperature in good to high yields is reported. This novel efficient method has the advantages of mild reaction conditions, absence of catalyst, simple work-up, and the non-chromatographic purification of products.