All News

Torion Technologies, Inc. (American Fork, Utah), a manufacturer of automated miniaturized, hand-portable GC and toroidal ion trap mass spectrometry (TMS) technology, has announced a partnership with Smiths Detection (Danbury,Connecticut), part of the global technology business, Smiths Group, and a technology developer and manufacturer of sensors that detect and identify explosives, chemical and biological agents, weapons, and contraband.

The Pittsburgh Conference (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) has announced that George M. Whitesides, the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), will be the Plenary Speaker at Pittcon 2009 on March 8, 2009.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, Massachusetts) has received a Microsoft Corporation 2008 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award in the Discovery and Product Innovation category.

Researchers from Sao Cristovao and Salvador, Brazil employed a solid-phase microextraction (SPME-headspace gas chromatography (GC) method to analyze benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) in water released from a waste treatment plant.

Researchers from the Second Military Medical University (Shanghai, China) used capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection to detect the release of nitric oxide from single neuron and mammalian cells.

Penn State researchers have discovered that pesticide build-up could lead to poor honey bee health. The researchers analyzed pollen, brood, adult bees, and wax samples. The results show unprecedented levels of fluvalinate and coumaphos - pesticides used in the hives to combat varroa mites - in all comb and foundation wax samples. They also found lower levels of 70 other pesticides and metabolites of those pesticides in pollen and bees.

Chemists from Normal University and Wuhan University (both Wuhan, China) used an improved liquid-liquid-liquid microextraction method in the analysis of four phenolic compounds in water.

Scientists from North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North Carolina) and Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) have used Thermo Fisher Scientific (San Jose, California) LTQ linear ion trap and LTQ Orbitrap XL mass spectrometers to extract and sequence tiny pieces of collagen protein from a dinosaur and a mastodon.

A group of researchers at the University of Nevada-Reno (Reno, Nevada), led by Dr. Jimi Francis, conducted a study, "Comparative Analysis of Nutrients in Baby Milk Using Varied Milk Delivery Systems." The study measured the level of nutrient loss using HPLC methods during simulated baby bottle feedings and has found that some bottle types resulted in significant loss of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) during a typical 20-min feeding.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, Massachusetts) announced that it had received five Scientific Computing 2008 Readers’ Choice awards for software in four categories: laboratory information management systems (LIMS), bioinformatics, chromatography, and spectroscopy.

Seegene, Inc. (Rockville, Maryland) and Shimadzu Corporation (Columbia, Maryland) announced that they had formed a strategic partnership to combine Seegene's Seeplex multipathogen tests with Shimadzu's MultiNA high-speed electrophoresis system.

The College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia) unveiled its Integrated Science Center for the fall semester.

Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Leipzig, Germany) used the Chemcatcher aquatic passive sampling device to collect samples from a 1-day pulse contamination with the pesticide thiacloprid.

Scientists from the USDA';s Eastern Regional Research Center (Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania) analyzed 11 beta-lactam antibiotics in bovine kidney using a sample preparation method consisting of an acetonitrile-water extraction followed by a dispersive solid-phase extraction with a C18 sorbent, extract concentration, and filtration with syringeless filter vials.

i4-549199-1408669208982.gif

Micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) is a reversed-phase liquid chromatographic mode with a solution of surfactant forming micelles as the mobile phase. The interaction of solutes with the stationary phase coated with surfactant monomers, combined with the increased solubilization capability of micelles, have profound implications with regard to retention, selectivity and efficiency. Practical steps that a chromatographer involved in MLC should consider when developing an analytical procedure are described, including mobile phase preparation, column conditioning and cleaning.

Scientists from Kangwon National University in South Korea undertook a comprehensive study to identify the types of compounds in vehicle AC unit emissions, using gas chromatography with four types of detection: olfactometry, flame ionisation detection (FID), mass spectrometry (MS) and atomic emission detection (AED). It was conducted on a lab-scale model unit that contained a rogue AC evaporator from a vehicle that was associated with unpleasant odours and had only 4000 km on the clock.

Researchers from the Monell Center (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) used GC-MS techniques to sample air above basal cell tumors and found a different profile of chemical compounds compared to the skin in healthy people. Human skin has many airborne chemical molecules known as VOCs, many of which have odors.

i9_t-551023-1409047383517.gif

Dilute formic acid solutions in methanol were found to decline in acid content with time, the extent of the decline depending upon the initial amount of water present in these solutions. The effect of the formic acid concentration change upon the separation of peptides using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is examined briefly.

i8_t-553245-1408664822495.jpg

When water samples are extracted and analyzed for PAH's, many methods require the sample to be filtered to remove particulate matter. This helps reduce SPE cartridges 'plugging' or emulsions forming, as can happen with conventional liquid-liquid extraction. But, filtration of the suspended particulate matter may reduce the effectiveness of the extraction for PAHs. Therefore, to determine the actual concentration of PAHs, the "whole" watersample, with the suspended particulate matter, needs to be processed. In this study, SPE using a 47mm "disk" format, with an automated extractor system, is proven as a successful, reproducible, analytical extraction method for particulate laden water samples for PAHs.

Torion Technologies, Inc. (American Fork, Utah), a manufacturer of automated miniaturized, hand-portable GC and toroidal ion trap mass spectrometry (TMS) technology, has announced a partnership with Smiths Detection (Danbury, Connecticut), part of the global technology business, Smiths Group and a technology developer and manufacturer of sensors that detect and identify explosives, chemical and biological agents, weapons, and contraband.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, Massachusetts) has received a Microsoft Corporation 2008 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award in the Discovery and Product Innovation category.

The Pittsburgh Conference (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) has announced that George M. Whitesides, the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), will be the Plenary Speaker at Pittcon 2009 on March 8, 2009.