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I have written previously about occupying the middle ground in the debate over the environmental implications of unconventional oil and gas extraction operations. It seems we are just in the right place, when we are criticized and praised at separate times by proponents of both extreme views-namely those who think UOG is perfectly safe and those who think it cannot be done without ruining the environment.

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Researchers from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens have used liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) to understand changes in licit and illicit drug consumption patterns following the major socioeconomic changes Greece has experienced.

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A Ferrari in Monaco

Incognito suggests that chromatographers are not exploring the full potential of their “state-of-the-art” instruments.

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Ultrafast gas chromatography (UFGC) offers analysis times 5–20 times faster than conventional GC, with comparable sample capacity and resolution. These factors along with greatly reduced energy consumption make UFGC a valuable approach to explore in many application areas. This article describes the principles and practical uses of ultrafast GC and the key considerations in method development using this technique.

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ISPAC 2017 Preview

The International Symposium on Polymer Analysis and Characterization (ISPAC) will be held in Linz, Austria, on the 11–14 June 2017. This preview offers a flavour of what to expect.

This afternoon, the winners of the LCGC Awards will be honored in an oral symposium at Pittcon. Pat Sandra of the Research Institute for Chromatography will receive the 2017 LCGC Lifetime Achievement Award at 1:30, and Deirdre Cabooter of the University of Leuven will receive the 2017 LCGC Emerging Leader Award at 3:40 pm, just after the break.

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A decade of LCGC awards has seen some of chromatography’s modern icons and rising stars honoured. In this 10th year of the award, we are pleased to honour two superb separation scientists: Pat Sandra, the winner of the 2017 Lifetime Achievement in Chromatography Award, and Deirdre Cabooter, the 2017 Emerging Leader in Chromatography. For the third consecutive year, the LCGC awards will be presented at an oral symposium held at Pittcon 2017. This year’s session, which were held on Monday 6 March, featured talks by both award winners and Milos Novotny of Indiana University, Jim Jorgenson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Gert Desmet of the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel).

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Gas chromatographers can control several variables that affect their separations: carrier-gas flow, column temperature, column dimensions, and stationary-phase chemistry. When faced with less than optimum resolution or separation speed, a strategy of changing just one variable at a time can be more productive than trying to hit the goal in one attempt. This month’s “GC Connections” examines how to use such a plan to obtain better gas chromatography results.

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This application note outlines a simple, fast, and cost‑effective QuEChERS-based method for the determination of limonin in citrus juice. Limonin is extracted from a variety of juice samples using acetonitrile and citrate-buffered salts. The sample extract undergoes cleanup by dispersive-SPE (dSPE) using primary‑secondary amine (PSA), C18, and graphitized carbon black (GCB) to remove unwanted matrix components, including sugars, acids, and pigments, and to yield a clear sample extract. Analysis is performed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) using a Selectra® C18 HPLC column (although high performance liquid chromatography [HPLC]–UV can also be used).

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Quality and consistency in reagents is critical to successful drug discovery and development. When targeting a particular protein of interest, in vitro experiments should be performed with proteins of biological properties similar to those for in vivo tests. It is important that molecularity, purity, shape, and degree of heterogeneity remain the same when any alterations are made to the model protein or the formulation buffer. Multi-angle light scattering (MALS) combined with size-exclusion chromatography (SEC-MALS) is a very useful technique to monitor the solution properties of the protein as changes to reagents are made.