An optimized analytical method for the simultaneous detection of iodoform, iodoacetic acid, and other trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids in drinking water

An optimized method is presented using liquid-liquid extraction and derivatization for the extraction of iodoacetic acid (IAA) and other haloacetic acids (HAA9) and direct extraction of iodoform (IF) and other trihalomethanes (THM4) from drinking water, followed by detection by gas chromatography with electron capture detection (GC-ECD). A Doehlert experimental design was performed to determine the optimum conditions for the five most significant factors in the derivatization step: namely, the volume and concentration of acidic methanol (optimized values  = 15%, 1 mL), the volume and concentration of Na2SO4 solution (129 g/L, 8.5 mL), and the volume of saturated NaHCO3 solution (1 mL). Also, derivatization time and temperature were optimized by a two-variable Doehlert design, resulting in the following optimized parameters: an extraction time of 11 minutes for IF and THM4 and 14 minutes for IAA and HAA9; mass of anhydrous Na2SO4 of 4 g for IF and THM4 and 16 g for IAA and HAA9; derivatization time of 160 min and temperature at 40°C. Under optimal conditions, the optimized procedure achieves excellent linearity (R2 ranges 0.9990–0.9998), low detection limits (0.0008–0.2 µg/L), low quantification limits (0.008–0.4 µg/L), and good recovery (86.6%–106.3%). Intra- and inter-day precision were less than 8.9% and 8.8%, respectively. The method was validated by applying it to the analysis of raw, flocculated, settled, and finished waters collected from a water treatment plant in China

Numerical and Theoretical Studies of Noise Effects in the Kauffman Model

In this work we analyze the stochastic dynamics of the Kauffman model evolving under the influence of noise. By considering the average crossing time between two distinct trajectories, we show that different Kauffman models exhibit a similar kind of behavior, even when the structure of their basins of attraction is quite different. This can be considered as a robust property of these models. We present numerical results for the full range of noise level and obtain approximate analytic expressions for the above crossing time as a function of the noise in the limit cases of small and large noise levels.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, Submitted to the Journal of Statistical Physic

Successful Treatment of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Infertility with Chinese Herbal Medicine: A Case Report

This case report details a 30 year old woman with hyperlipidemia, Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and infertility. Her impaired liver function has prevented the use of pharmaceutical drugs (statins and metformin). The patient therefore underwent two stages of Chinese herbal medicine treatment: the first formula to ameliorate hyperlipidemia and amenorrhea; and the second formula to improve ovarian dysfunction as well as glucose and lipid metabolism. Over 8 months of treatment, the patient achieved pregnancy and a natural birth without developing gestational diabetes. While the treatment of coexisting metabolic syndrome conditions is often complex and difficult, this case report highlights how Chinese herbal medicine may offer a successful treatment option for women with multiple metabolic abnormalities and associated infertilit

A refined invariant subspace method and applications to evolution equations

The invariant subspace method is refined to present more unity and more diversity of exact solutions to evolution equations. The key idea is to take subspaces of solutions to linear ordinary differential equations as invariant subspaces that evolution equations admit. A two-component nonlinear system of dissipative equations was analyzed to shed light on the resulting theory, and two concrete examples are given to find invariant subspaces associated with 2nd-order and 3rd-order linear ordinary differential equations and their corresponding exact solutions with generalized separated variables.Comment: 16 page

Supply hubs in industrial parks (SHIP): research perspectives

An industrial park is a cluster of enterprises located in one location to share common infrastructure, service and market opportunities. It has been adopted in many countries as an important tool for promoting the economic and industrial development. However, its further development has been impeded by the shortage of land resources especially for enterprises' construction of warehouses. The supply hub, having been employed by large suppliers to warehouse raw materials near manufacturers provides a promising way of solving such problem. In this paper, it is extended to "Supply Hub in Industrial Park (SHIP)" in the sense that warehouses of individual enterprises could be integrated into a single public warehouse and centrally serves the manufacturing processes of all the enterprises in an industrial park. Through the functioning of SHIP, it is expected that the land utilization and cost savings could be improved. As the initial study of SHIP, this paper focuses on several fundamental research perspectives: conceptual framework, working process, and potential benefits. Despite of the qualitative analysis, a mathematical model of SHIP is formulated. This work will contribute to the further research of logistics solutions in industrial parks.published_or_final_versionThe 40th International Conference on Computers & Industrial Engineering (CIE 2010), Awaji, Japan, 25-28 July 2010. In Proceedings of CIE40, 2010, p. 1-6The 40th International Conference on Computers & Industrial Engineering (CIE 2010), Awaji, Japan, 25-28 July 2010. In Proceedings of CIE40, 2010, p. 1-