Separation performances of extended pillar[6]arenes, a new stationary phase for gas chromatography.

Pillar[n]arenes (P[n]As, n = 5-10), a new generation of macrocyclic hosts, display interesting properties such as 3D π-electron cavity, host-guest interactions, good stability, and easy functionalization, which make these polymers very promising for separation applications. In particular, extended P[n]As (EP[n]As) show large-sized cavities, structural flexibility, cavity adaptability, and synthetic accessibility. These characteristics have been exploited in this work, which reports for the first time the investigation of two EP[n]As (LP6A-C10 and BpP6A-C10) as stationary phases for gas chromatography (GC).

Determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor work environments by solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are continuously emitted into the atmosphere from natural and anthropogenic sources and rapidly spread from the atmosphere to different environments. A large group of VOCs has been included in the class of air pollutants; therefore, their determination and monitoring using reliable and sensitive analytical methods represents a key aspect of health risk assessment. In this work, an untargeted approach is proposed for the evaluation of the exposure to volatile organic compounds of workers in an engine manufacturing plant by GC-MS measurements, coupled with solid-phase microextraction (SPME).

A Descriptive Study on the Clinical Profile and Outcomes of Patients with COVID-19 and Tuberculosis Co-infection.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) control has been a challenge in the country and its overall health impact remains significant. COVID-19 has caused significant morbidity and mortality especially among hospitalized patients. TB and COVID-19 co-infection (COVID-TB) may cause more catastrophic consequences and outcomes among afflicted individuals and management may be daunting.

Development of a highly sensitive method based on QuEChERS and GC-MS/MS for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in infant foods.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are environmental contaminants that can be found in various food products, including those intended for infants. Due to their potential health risks, it is crucial to develop sensitive analytical methods for the accurate determination of PAHs in infant foods. This study describes the development and validation of a highly sensitive method for the quantification of European PAH markers, namely benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[a]anthracene, chrysene, and benzo[b]fluoranthene, using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS), in baby food samples.

A new sustainable filtration membrane extraction method based on nanoconfined liquid phase extraction: Determination of organochlorinated pesticides and pyrethroids in tea samples.

Pesticides are used in agricultural production for prevent and control crop diseases and pests, but it is easy to cause excessive pesticides residues in agricultural products, polluting the environment and endangering human health. Due to their unmatched and sustainable capabilities, nanoextraction procedures are becoming every day more important in Analytical Chemistry. In particular, nanoconfined liquid phase extraction has shown extraction capabilities toward polar, medium polar, and/or nonpolar substances, which can be easily modulated depending on the nanoconfined solvent used.

How new nanotechnologies are changing the opioid analysis scenery? A comparison with classical analytical methods.

Opioids such as heroin, fentanyl, raw opium, and morphine have become a serious threat to the world population in the recent past, due to their increasing use and abuse. The detection of these drugs in biological samples is usually carried out by spectroscopic and/or chromatographic techniques, but the need for quick, sensitive, selective, and low-cost new analytical tools has pushed the development of new methods based on selective nanosensors, able to meet these requirements. Modern sensors, which utilize "next-generation" technologies like nanotechnology, have revolutionized drug detection methods, due to easiness of use, their low cost, and their high sensitivity and reliability, allowing the detection of opioids at trace levels in raw, pharmaceutical, and biological samples (e.

Multipurpose new gas chromatography column based on pillararenes functionalized with imidazolium ionic liquids.

Background: Gas chromatography is worldwide recognized as one of the most important analytical techniques, due to its high versatility and reliability. The heart of a gas chromatograph is the column, that allows analyte peak separations and, consequently, accurate qualitative and qualitative analyses. New and more efficient columns are always requested to satisfy new and challenging analytical needs.

Microextraction of essential oils: A review.

Liquid phase microextraction (LPME) and solid phase microextraction (SPME) are popular extraction techniques for sample preparation due to their green and highly efficient single-step extraction efficiency. With the increasing attention to essential oils, their evaluation and analysis are significant in analytical sciences. In this review, starting from a brief description of the recent advances in the last decade, the attention has been focused on the up-to-date research works and applications based on liquid and solid phase microextraction for essential oil analyses.

Progressive Interstitial Lung Disease in a Clinically Quiescent Dermatomyositis.

A 60-year-old Filipino woman diagnosed with dermatomyositis was initially on prednisone and methotrexate. She eventually developed interstitial lung disease (ILD) and so methotrexate was shifted to azathioprine; however, azathioprine was discontinued due to cutaneous tuberculosis. Over eight years, the dermatomyositis was controlled by prednisone alone but the ILD worsened.

Efficient gas chromatographic separation of xylene and other aromatic isomers by using pillar[6]arene-based stationary phase.

The separation of aromatic isomers, in particular xylene isomers, represents a big issue in chemical and petroleum industries, owing to their similar molecular sizes and boiling points. In this work, the investigation ofpillar[6]arene derivative modified by long alkyl chains (P6A-C10) as a stationary phase for high-resolution gas chromatographic (GC) separations of xylene isomers is presented. Pillar[n]arenes are a new class of macrocyclic hosts that can accommodate specific guests due to their highly symmetrical and rigid pillar architectures with π-electron rich cavities.

Chromatographic Separation of Aromatic Amine Isomers: A Solved Issue by a New Amphiphilic Pillar[6]arene Stationary Phase.

In this work, the fabrication, synthesis, and characterization of a new stationary phase based on an amphiphilic pillar[6]arene (P6A-C10-2NH) for gas chromatographic analyses are reported. The gas chromatography (GC) column prepared with P6A-C10-2NH stationary phase exhibited a medium polarity, an efficiency of 3219 plates/m, and unmatched resolving capabilities toward chloroaniline, bromoaniline, iodoaniline, and toluidine isomers. Furthermore, the P6A-C10-2NH column showed excellent repeatability with maximum relative standard deviations equal to 0.

A New Capillary Gas Chromatography Column Based on Poly(ethylene glycol) Methyl Ether-Functionalized Calix[4]arene.

In this work, a novel capillary column (C4A-mPEG) with a calixarene-based polymer stationary phase (poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether-functionalized 4-tert-butylcalix[4]arene) was designed and used for gas chromatographic (GC) separations. The C4A-mPEG capillary column, prepared by the static coating method, showed moderate polarity and a column efficiency of 2332 plates/m, determined by 1-octanol at 120 °C. The separation features of C4A-mPEG stationary phase, resulting from its unique structure and multiple molecular recognition processes with analytes, including π-π, H-bonding, dipole-dipole, and van der Waals interactions, allowed to obtain high-resolution performances for a wide range of compounds and their isomers, especially benzaldehydes, phenols, and anilines.

Fast removal of phenolic compounds from water using hierarchical porous carbon nanofibers membrane.

Water pollution is becoming increasingly serious and seriously endangering human health, especially the direct emissions of phenolic compounds. An integrated sample pre-treatment and derivatization method based on a biopolymers/TEOS-based carbon nanofibers microextraction that allows rapid extraction (5 min), followed by separation and highly sensitive detection of phenolic compounds by gas chromatography‒mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, is described. The developed methodology, coupled with GC-MS, allowed low detection limits (0.

High-Resolution Micro-object Separation by Rotating Magnetic Chromatography.

The development of new technologies for the separation, selection, and isolation of microparticles such as rare target cells, circulating tumor cells, cancer stem cells, and immune cells has become increasingly important in the last few years. Microparticle separation technologies are usually applied to the analysis of disease-associated cells, but these procedures often face a cell separation problem that is often insufficient for single specific cell analyses. To overcome these limitations, a highly accurate size-based microparticle separation technique, herein called "rotating magnetic chromatography", is proposed in this work.

Circular Nonuniform Electric Field Gel Electrophoresis for the Separation and Concentration of Nanoparticles.

A circular nonuniform electric field strategy coupled with gel electrophoresis was proposed to control the precise separation and efficient concentration of nano- and microparticles. The circular nonuniform electric field has the feature of exponential increase in the electric field intensity along the radius, working with three functional zones of migration, acceleration, and concentration. The distribution form of electric field lines is regulated in functional zones to control the migration behaviors of particles for separation and concentration by altering the relative position of the ring electrode (outside) and rodlike electrode (inner).

Pulmonary Function and Chest Computed Tomography (CT) Scan Findings After Antifibrotic Treatment for COVID-19-Related Pulmonary Fibrosis.

BACKGROUND Physicians worldwide have been reporting many cases of COVID-19-induced pulmonary fibrosis. We report the case of a 51-year-old Filipino asthmatic woman who developed post-COVID-19 pulmonary fibrosis subsequently treated with Nintedanib. CASE REPORT The patient presented with a 4-day history of flu-like symptoms in September 2020 and was eventually diagnosed with severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

On the use of a 2D-carbon microfiber fractionation system to improve flow-injection QTOF-HRMS analysis in complex matrices: the case of flower extracts.

A two-dimensional microscale carbon fiber/active carbon fiber system combined with a quadrupole time of flight high-resolution mass spectrometry (2DμCFs-QTOF-HRMS) system is proposed for the rapid putative identification of polar, medium-polar and weakly polar constituents in complex matrices while strongly mitigating ionic suppression effects. The capabilities of 2DμCFs-QTOF-HRMS have been proven by analysing the composition of flower extracts, allowing, in a single run, the detection of 41 known substances and the presence of 6 compounds never revealed before in these samples. 2DμCFs-QTOF-HRMS has been compared with traditional HPLC-MS, showing higher versatility and a significant reduction of both analysis time (70 min to 5 min) and solvent consumption (35 mL to 1.

Ex-situ and in-situ rapid and quantitative determination of benzene derivatives in seawater using nanoconfined liquid phase nanoextraction.

Benzene derivatives (BDs) constitute a class of environmental pollutants whose exposure poses a grave risk to human health. These compounds rapidly diffuse from the atmosphere to the marine ecosystem: for this reason, their monitoring in seawater is every day more compelling. In this work, nanoconfined liquid phase nanoextraction (NLPNE), a versatile extraction technique recently described, has been for the first time applied to the gas chromatographic mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis of BDs in seawater.

Tracing historical changes, degradation, and original sources of airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Jilin Province, China, by Abies holophylla and Pinus tabuliformis needle leaves.

Due to their wide distribution and availability, plant leaves can be considered interesting candidates as biomonitoring substrates for the evaluation of atmospheric pollution. In addition, some species can also retain historical information, for example, related to environmental pollution, due to their leaf class age. In this study, the content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Abies holophylla and Pinus tabuliformis needle samples in the function of their class age has been investigated to obtain information regarding the degradation constant for each PAH under investigation (α values ranging from 0.

Odderon Exchange from Elastic Scattering Differences between pp and pp[over ¯] Data at 1.96 TeV and from pp Forward Scattering Measurements.

We describe an analysis comparing the pp[over ¯] elastic cross section as measured by the D0 Collaboration at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV to that in pp collisions as measured by the TOTEM Collaboration at 2.76, 7, 8, and 13 TeV using a model-independent approach.

Essential oil characterization of Prunus spinosa L., Salvia officinalis L., Eucalyptus globulus L., Melissa officinalis L. and Mentha x piperita L. by a volatolomic approach.

In this study a volatolomic approach is proposed for the characterization of the volatile organic compound (VOC) composition of essential oils (EOs) extracted from common aromatic plants. Five species (Prunus spinosa L., Salvia officinalis L.

Measurement of single-diffractive dijet production in proton-proton collisions at with the CMS and TOTEM experiments.

Measurements are presented of the single-diffractive dijet cross section and the diffractive cross section as a function of the proton fractional momentum loss and the four-momentum transfer squared . Both processes and , i.e.