Sources of variability in fatty acid (FA) biomarkers in the application of compound-specific stable isotopes (CSSIs) to soil and sediment fingerprinting and tracing: A review.

Determining soil redistribution and sediment budgets in watersheds is often challenging. One of the methods for making such determinations employs soil and sediment fingerprinting techniques, using sediment properties such as geochemistry, fallout radionuclides, and mineral magnetism. These methods greatly improve the estimation of erosion and deposition within a watershed, but are limited when determining land use-based soil and sediment movement.

Synthesis of two repeat units corresponding to the backbone of the pectic polysaccharide rhamnogalacturonan I.

A tetrasaccharide corresponding to a sequence of the rhamnogalacturonan I backbone has been synthesized. This synthesis relies on only two protected monosaccharides and proceeds through a common disaccharide intermediate. Synthesis of this tetrasaccharide has been designed to allow for the addition of branching elements at the 4-positions of the rhamnosyl units, or further chain elongation at the 2-position.