• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.561-567
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• 2012

Objectives: Parabens are widely used as antimicrobial agents in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics as well as by the food industry. Parabens have been reported to show weak estrogenic activity and be related to health effects such as allergic reactions and skin and breast cancer. We evaluated an online solid phase extraction (SPE) method coupled with LC-MS/MS technique using free and conjugated parent parabens in human urine for assessing human exposure to parabens. Methods: We employed LC/MS/MS through online solid phase extraction and column-switching techniques and analyzed free and conjugated parabens as biomarkers of human exposure. Four major parabens, methyl-paraben (MP), ethyl-paraben (EP), propyl-paraben (PP) and butyl-paraben (BP), were analyzed. Method validation was performed by sensitivity, accuracy, precision and comparison of the results of online SPE with offline SPE. Results: The limits of detection (LOD) were in the range of 0.2-2 ng/mL, and actual limits of quantification (LOQ) were in the range of 0.7-6 ng/mL urine, depending upon the compound. Accuracy was in the range of 98.3-106.4%, and precision was in the range of 1.3-8.7% (CV) depending upon the compound. We found a good correlation between the results of analysis by online SPE method and that by off-line SPE method. Conclusions: The online SPE method showed proper LOD and validated accuracy, precision and good correlation with the offline method for analyzing parabens in urine.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.559-572
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• 2018

The aim of this study was to evaluate pretreatment methods for 27 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in various sewage samples using a modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) and online solid-phase extraction with LC-MS/MS. Extraction efficiencies of PPCPs in the solid phase under different experimental conditions were evaluated, showing that the highest recoveries were obtained with the addition of sodium sulfate and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt dehydrate in acidified conditions. The recoveries of target compounds ranged from 91 to 117.2% for liquid samples and from 61.3 to 137.2% for solid samples, with a good precision. The methods under development were applied to sewage samples collected in two sewage treatment plants (STPs) to determine PPCPs in liquid and solid phases. Out of 27 PPCPs, more than 19 compounds were detected in liquid samples (i.e., influent and effluent) of two STPs, with concentration ranges of LOQ-33,152 ng/L in influents and LOQ-4,523 ng/L in effluents, respectively. In addition, some PPCPs such as acetylsalicylic acid, ibuprofen, and ofloxacin were detected at high concentrations in activated sludge as well as in excess sludge. This methodology was successfully applied to sewage samples for the determination of the target compounds in STPs.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.92-99
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• 2014

Interferences were removed using anion exchange solid phase extraction (AE SPE) in quantification of selenoproteins in Korean human blood serum with affinity high performance liquid chromatography (AF HPLC)-inductively coupled plasma/mass spectrometry (ICP/MS). The average selenium level obtained for healthy Koreans was $94.3{\pm}2.3ngg^{-1}$ using isotope dilution method. AE SPE was coupled to AF column to separate 3 selenoproteins, glutathione peroxidase GPx, selenoprotein SelP, and selenoalbumin SeAlb. Post column isotope dilution was employed to quantify the proteins. The certified reference material of human blood serum BCR-637 was analyzed to give total selenoprotein concentration of $85.4{\pm}3.4ngg^{-1}$, which agreed well with the reference value of $81{\pm}7ngg^{-1}$. The pooled concentration of GPx, SelP, and SeAlb from healthy Koreans (n=20) was $12.1{\pm}1.4ngg^{-1}$, $57.2{\pm}2.0ngg^{-1}$, and $20.0{\pm}1.9ngg^{-1}$, respectively. The sum of selenoproteins is $89.3ngg^{-1}$, which is about the same as the total selenium concentration of $94.3ngg^{-1}$. The fact suggests that selenium in blood serum is mostly consisted of selenoproteins. After the removal of interference, GPx showed a significant decrease (more than 50%) from $25.0ngg^{-1}$ to $12.1ngg^{-1}$. It was identified that the interference in blood serum was mostly from GPx and the use of AE SPE was proven to be efficient in eliminating Cl and Br that cause interference to GPx.

• ALGAE
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.379-388
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• 2017

In the present study, we enhanced the phenolic content of 70% ethanol extracts of Spirogyra sp. (SPE, $260.47{\pm}5.21$ gallic acid equivalent $[GAE]mg\;g^{-1}$), 2.97 times to $774.24{\pm}2.61GAE\;mg\;g^{-1}$ in the ethyl acetate fraction of SPE (SPEE). SPEE was evaluated for its antiradical activity in online high-performance liquid chromatography-ABTS analysis, and the peaks with the highest antiradical activities were identified as gallic acid derivatives containing gallic acid, methyl gallate, and ethyl gallate. Isolation of ethyl gallate from Spirogyra sp. was performed for the first time in this study. In ultraviolet B (UVB)-irradiated keratinocytes (HaCaT cells), SPEE improved cell viability by 8.22%, and 23.33% and reduced accumulation of cells in the sub-$G_1$ phase by 20.53%, and 32.11% at the concentrations of 50 and $100{\mu}g\;mL^{-1}$, respectively. Furthermore, SPEE (50 and $100{\mu}g\;mL^{-1}$) reduced reactive oxygen species generation in UVB-irradiated zebrafish by 66.67% and 77.78%. This study suggests a protective activity of gallic acid and its derivatives from Spirogyra sp. against UVB-induced stress responses in both in vitro and in vivo models, suggesting a potential use of SPEE in photoprotection.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.179-200
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• 2022

This paper proposes a data-driven methodology for online early damage identification under changing environmental conditions. The proposed method relies on two data analysis methods: feature-based method and hybrid principal component analysis (PCA) and kernel PCA to separate damage from environmental influences. First, spectral sub-band features, namely, spectral sub-band centroids (SSCs) and log spectral sub-band energies (LSSEs), are proposed as damage-sensitive features to extract damage information from measured structural responses. Second, hybrid modeling by integrating PCA and kernel PCA is performed on the spectral sub-band feature matrix for data normalization to extract both linear and nonlinear features for nonlinear procedure monitoring. After feature normalization, suppressing environmental effects, the control charts (Hotelling T² and SPE statistics) is implemented to novelty detection and distinguish damage in structures. The hybrid PCA-KPCA technique is compared to KPCA by applying support vector machine (SVM) to evaluate the effectiveness of its performance in detecting damage. The proposed method is verified through numerical and full-scale studies (a Bridge Health Monitoring (BHM) Benchmark Problem and a cable-stayed bridge in China). The results demonstrate that the proposed method can detect the structural damage accurately and reduce false alarms by suppressing the effects and interference of environmental variations.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2018

Carbaryl and seven organophosphorous pesticides were analyzed simultaneously using on-line solid phase extraction (on-line SPE) coupled with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). The target pesticides are Carbaryl, Methyl demeton, Fenitrothion, Malathion, Parathion, Phenthoate, Diazinon, and EPN. This method includes the direct injection of $500{\mu}L$ in the water sample, a 15 min separation period using a rapid resolution liquid chromatography system with on-line SPE, and detection through electrospray ionization (ESI) positive mode. The percentage of recovery of all pesticides ranged from 85.3 % to 100 %. This method showed an accuracy of ${\geq}90.0%$, possessing limits of detection and quantification within 0.05 to $0.28{\mu}g/L$ and 0.16 to $0.89{\mu}g/L$, respectively. The correlation coefficients (r) for the calibration curves within a range of 0.5 to $8.0{\mu}g/L$ were higher than 0.99. The evaluation results showed the efficacy of the method for all contents, and no pesticides were detected in the water quality sample.