Ultrasound-assisted Low Density Solvent Based Dispersive Liquid-liquid Microextraction for Determination of Phthalate Esters in Bottled Water Samples

A technique of ultrasound-assisted low density solvent based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction was developed for the determination of four phthalate esters, including dimethyl phthalate（DMP）, diethyl phthalate（DEP）, di-n-butyl phthalate（DnBP） and di（2-ethylhexyl） phthalate（DEHP） in bottled water samples. A low density solvent, toluene, was selected as extraction solvent. In the extraction process, a mixture of 15 μL of toluene（extraction solvent） and 100 μL of methanol（disperser solvent） was rapidly injected into 1.0 mL of water samples. A cloudy solution was formed after ultrasounded for 5 min, and then centrifuged at 5000 r/min for 5 min. The enriched analytes in the floa- ting phase were determined by means of gas chromatograph. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment factors were found to be in a range of 29--67, and the recoveries were ranged from 81.2% to 103.9%. The limits of the detection were in a range of 3.8--5.6 μg/L. The proposed method was applied to the extraction and determination of phthalate esters in bottled water samples, and the concentrations of phthalate esters found in the water samples were below the allowable levels.

Analysis of trace dicyandiamide in stream water using solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography UV spectrometry

An improved method for trace level quantification of dicyandiamide in stream water has been developed. This method includes sample pretreatment using solid phase extraction.The extraction procedure（including loading, washing, and eluting） used a flow rate of1.0 m L/min, and dicyandiamide was eluted with 20 m L of a methanol/acetonitrile mixture（V/V = 2：3）, followed by pre-concentration using nitrogen evaporation and analysis with high performance liquid chromatography–ultraviolet spectroscopy（HPLC–UV）. Sample extraction was carried out using a Waters Sep-Pak AC-2 Cartridge（with activated carbon）.Separation was achieved on a ZIC-Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography（ZIC-HILIC）（50 mm × 2.1 mm, 3.5 μm） chromatography column and quantification was accomplished based on UV absorbance. A reliable linear relationship was obtained for the calibration curve using standard solutions（R^2〉 0.999）. Recoveries for dicyandiamide ranged from 84.6% to 96.8%, and the relative standard deviations（RSDs, n = 3） were below 6.1% with a detection limit of 5.0 ng/m L for stream water samples.

A physics-informed data-driven model for landslide susceptibility assessment in the Three Gorges Reservoir area

Landslide susceptibility mapping is a crucial tool for analyzing geohazards in a region.Recent publications have popularized data-driven models,particularly machine learning-based methods,owing to their strong capability in dealing with complex nonlinear problems.However,a significant proportion of these models have neglected qualitative aspects during analysis,resulting in a lack of interpretability throughout the process and causing inaccuracies in the negative sample extraction.In this study,Scoops 3D was employed as a physics-informed tool to qualitatively assess slope stability in the study area(the Hubei Province section of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area).The non-landslide samples were extracted based on the calculated factor of safety(FS).Subsequently,the random forest algorithm was employed for data-driven landslide susceptibility analysis,with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve(AUC)serving as the model evaluation index.Compared to the benchmark model(i.e.,the standard method of utilizing the pure random forest algorithm),the proposed method’s AUC value improved by 20.1%,validating the effectiveness of the dual-driven method(physics-informed data-driven).