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Iprodione is a dicarboximide fungicide that is widely used in agriculture around the world. A reliable and rapid detection method is needed for the on-site monitoring of iprodione residues in a variety of agricultural products. Herein, a colloidal gold immunochromatographic test strip was developed based on a selected coating antigen and a specific monoclonal antibody against iprodione. The particle size of colloidal gold, the preparation technique of the conjugate pad, the composition of the loading buffer, and the extraction solvent were comprehensively optimized for the test strip. A cut-off value of 0.9 mg kg

AIMS Alternaria longipes is a causal agent of brown spot of tobacco, which remains a serious threat to tobacco production. Herein, we established a detection method for A. longipes in tobacco samples based on the principle of time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay, in order to fulfil the requirement of rapid, sensitive and accurate detection in situ. METHODS AND RESULTS A monoclonal antibody against A. longipes was generated, and its purity and titration were assessed using western blot and ELISA. The size of europium (III) nanospheres was measured to confirm successful antibody conjugation. The method described here can detect A. longipes protein lysates as low as 0.78 ng ml-1 , with recovery rates ranging from 85.96% to 99.67% in spiked tobacco. The specificity was also confirmed using a panel of microorganisms. CONCLUSIONS The fluorescent strips allow rapid and sensitive onsite detection of A. longipes in tobacco samples, with high accuracy, specificity, and repeatability. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY This novel detection method provides convenience of using crude samples without complex procedures, and therefore allows rapid onsite detection by end users and quick responses towards A. longipes, which is critical for disease control and elimination of phytopathogens.

A quick, green, and sensitive method for chiral separation and determination of fluazifop-butyl enantiomers in tobacco and soil was established by ultra-performance convergence chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (UPC2 -MS/MS). The baseline separation was obtained on an ACQUITY UPC2 Trefoil CEL2 column in 4 minutes with CO2 and methanol as mobile phase. Column temperature, auto back pressure regulator pressure (ABPR), and modifier solvent were optimized to obtain the best separation efficiency. Under the optimal conditions, the recoveries of both enantiomers were 82.8% to 99.5% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) less than 5.5% at three different concentration levels in two matrices. Good coefficients of determination (R2 ≥ 0.9976) were achieved over the concentration range of 10 to 500 ng/mL. The limits of detection (LODs) for all enantiomers in the two matrices varied from 1.6 to 2.1 μg/kg, and the limits of quantification (LOQs) did not exceed 7.0 μg/kg. The proposed method was then successfully applied to analyze authentic samples, confirming that it was a green, convenient, and reliable strategy for the analysis of fluazifop-butyl enantiomers in tobacco and soil.

N′-nitrosonornicotine (NNN) is one of the most prevalent and toxic tobacco-specific nitrosoamines. A chiral center at its 2′-position results in R and S enantiomers, the partial double bond character of the N N = O group also results in E and Z isomers, therefore, NNN can form a total of four absolute configurations (E-(R)-NNN, E-(S)-NNN, Z-(R)-NNN, and Z-(S)-NNN). This study investigated the resolution of R/S enantiomers and E/Z isomers of NNN by supercritical fluid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (SFC-MS/MS). The baseline separation of E/Z-(R,S)-NNN isomers/enantiomers was accomplished through the optimization of chiral columns and co-solvents. Due to the lack of single standard of E/Z isomers, only R-NNN (sum of E-(R)-NNN and Z-(R)-NNN) and S-NNN (sum of E-(S)-NNN and Z-(S)-NNN) were further examined. Through the comprehensive optimization of SFC-MS/MS conditions, R-NNN and S-NNN were separated with a run time of 5 min, the developed method was validated, and its applicability to the determination of NNN enantiomers in burley tobacco samples was demonstrated. This study could be applied to preparative separation of single enantiomer and/or isomer of NNN, and could provide potential benefits to biologic activity studies on these enantiomers and isomers.

Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is considered as one of the most carcinogenic pollutants in cigarette smoke. The development of simple and sensitive BaP screening methods can help assess the risk of cigarette exposure to the human body rapidly. In this report, a rapid fluorescence immunoassay (RFIA) method for the detection of BaP is proposed, the core of which is the synthesis of bifunctional covalent antibody–DNA conjugates for target recognition and signal amplification. Based on the optimization of the SYBR Green I and PAH–BSA concentrations, as well as DNA–antibody immune complex's dilution in the RFIA system, a serial dilution of BaP was tested with this method. The results showed that the linear working range of the RFIA for BaP is 0.46 to 333 ng mL−1, which is much wider than traditional ELISA. The detection limit was 0.32 ng mL−1, which was more sensitive than other methods such as the redox-labeled electrochemical immunoassay method and the competitive piezoelectric biosensor. Then the cross-reactions (CR) of other PAHs in cigarette smoke were evaluated using this RFIA and found that the cross-reactions of naphthalene, anthracene, and pyrene were very low (

This study concerned the development and validation of a green and rapid method for the analysis of 23 pesticides in tobacco using ultra performance convergence chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPC2-MS/MS) combined with modified QuEChERS. The sample was extracted with acetonitrile, purified by graphene, and then determined by UPC2-MS/MS. In this paper, optimization was made on factors affecting separation efficiency including chromatographic column, modifier, column temperature, and back pressure. With CO2-ethanol as mobile phase, all pesticides were adequately separated on a Viridis HSS C18 SB column, and the whole analysis process was completed within 6 min. Under optimal conditions, the calibration curves showed good linearity in the range of 10–200 ng/mL with the regression coefficients higher than 0.9946. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were 1.04–7.07 and 3.32–23.16 μg/kg, respectively. At three spiked levels (0.2, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/kg), mean recoveries for 23 pesticides were ranging from 80.2% to 110.6% and relative standard deviations were 2.2%–7.2%. The proposed method, being fast, sensitive, and practical, can be used for rapid detection of fungicides and carbamates in tobacco.

Aromatic amines in mainstream cigarette smoke have long been monitored due to their carcinogenic toxicity. In this work, a reliable and rapid method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 9 aromatic amines in mainstream cigarette smoke by modified dispersive liquid liquid microextraction (DLLME) and ultraperformance convergence chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPC2-MS/MS). Briefly, the particulate phase of the cigarette smoke was captured by a Cambridge filter pad, and diluted hydrogen chloride aqueous solution is employed to extract the aromatic amines under mechanical shaking. After alkalization with sodium hydroxide solution, small amount of toluene was introduced to further extract and enrich aromatic amines by modified DLLME under vortexing. After centrifugation, toluene phase was purified by a universal QuEChERS cleanup kit and was finally analyzed by UPC2-MS/MS. Attributing to the superior performance of UPC2-MS/MS, this novel approach allowed the separation and determination of 9 aromatic amines within 5.0min with satisfactory resolution and sensitivity. The proposed method was finally validated using Kentucky reference cigarette 3R4F, and emission levels of targeted aromatic amines determined were comparable to previously reported methods At three different spiked levels, the recoveries of most analytes were ranged from 74.01% to 120.50% with relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 12%, except that the recovery of p-toluidine at low spiked level and 3-aminobiphenyl at medium spiked level was 62.77% and 69.37% respectively. Thus, this work provides a novel alternative method for the simultaneous analysis of 9 aromatic amines in mainstream cigarette smoke.

The World Health Organization Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (WHO TobReg) proposed mandated ceilings on 9 prioritized mainstream cigarette smoke constituents determined from the market-specific median of nicotine-normalized yield distributions. Considering the requirements for assessing and reporting of compliance with ceilings, it is of great importance to estimate the measurement uncertainty. To have a better understanding of influence of measurement uncertainty on the WHO recommended regulation for cigarette smoke constituents, in the present study, the measurement uncertainties were evaluated systematically based on series of collaborative studies reported by three different authorities over the years from 2012 to 2016, according to the approaches guided in ISO/TS 21748. Furthermore, the compliance assessment of 20 representative cigarette samples with proposed ceilings was conducted by taking measurement uncertainty into account. This work demonstrated that measurement uncertainty had great influence on the implementation of the regulated mandated lowering of toxic smoke constituents, both on the setting of ceilings and the compliance assessment as well.

Maleic hydrazide has been extensively used as an effective growth regulator in tobacco sucker control. After application, maleic hydrazide distributes itself throughout the tobacco plant where it can exist as free, or forms glucoside conjugates with glucose, or becomes bound with lignin. Among them, free maleic hydrazide and its glucoside conjugates are extractable under conventional solvent extraction, while lignin bound maleic hydrazide is claimed to be non-extractable. Herein, an autoclave extraction method has been developed to extract maleic hydrazide effectively, in which tobacco samples are extracted in an autoclave at 130°C for 1 h using 4 M hydrochloric acid. Under such pressurized hot acidic water conditions, lignin bound maleic hydrazide can be released. Meanwhile, glucoside conjugates are hydrolyzed. Total maleic hydrazide is detected by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry, and the quantitative results coincide well with that obtained from the international standard method. The proposed autoclave extraction with liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry method exhibits excellent linearity in the range of 5-200 mg/kg (R2 = 0.9998), the matrix matched limit of detection and limit of quantification is 0.68 and 2.27 mg/kg, respectively. This method is simple and improves sample capacity, providing an effective approach to monitoring maleic hydrazide residues in tobacco.

4-(methylintrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) and N’-nitrosonornicotine (NNN) are the most prevalent and toxic tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). Due to their carcinogenicity, knowledge of the composition of NNK and NNN in tobacco is necessary. Herein, a sensitive and rapid method, which employs autoclave extraction-supercritical fluid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (SFC-MS/MS), has been developed for the analysis of NNK and NNN in tobacco. Both water-soluble and matrix-bound NNK and NNN were extracted with 100 mM ammonium acetate in an autoclave (130 °C, 4 h), and the aqueous extract was subjected to solvent replacement prior to SFC-MS/MS analysis. NNK and NNN were effectively separated within 5 min by using supercritical CO2 as the main mobile phase coupled with a co-solvent of methanol. Excellent linearity was obtained with coefficients of determination (R2) greater than 0.9997 in the range of 1–160 ng/mL and 5–800 ng/mL for NNK and NNN, respectively. The recoveries were in the range of 92.5–110.0% at different spiked levels of real samples. 12 tobacco samples which include 3 typical tobacco varieties of burley, flue-cured, and oriental tobaccos had been analyzed, and the fraction of matrix-bound NNK was determined as well. In addition, a comparison between the proposed SFC-MS/MS method and a validated liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) internal standard method was conducted. Both techniques exhibit comparable analysis results, but peak splitting of NNN was observed by LC-MSMS due to the existence of E/Z isomers, while SFC-MS/MS offers great improvement through elution condition optimization, demonstrating the applicability of SFC-MS/MS as an alternative tool for NNK and NNN analysis.

An LC-tandem MS (LC–MS/MS) method for the determination of 21 kinds of carcinogenic aromatic amines released from azo dyes in food wrappers was used in this research. Sodium dithionite was added to a citric acid buffer medium to reduce and decompose possible azo dyes. The extract was analyzed after liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) and dispersive SPE (d-SPE). The conditions for chromatographic separation, mass spectrum, LLE, and d-SPE were optimized. Under optimal conditions, the LOD was in the range of 0.13–0.35 mg/kg and LOQ in the range of 0.38–1.05 mg/kg, with the addition of standard recoveries of most aromatic amines being ≥80% and RSDs ≤10%. The recoveries for 2,4-diaminotoluene and 2,4-diaminoanisole were significantly lower, being ≤40%. The method was successfully used to analyze 30 practical samples, and the results showed that it is user-friendly, with high sensitivity, rapid control, and low matrix interference.

An ultrasensitive method for the simultaneous analysis of pesticides residues in tobacco was developed with online size exclusion chromatography with gas chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry. Tobacco samples were extracted with the solvent mixture of cyclohexane and acetone (7:3, v/v) and centrifuged. Then, the supernatant liquors were injected directly into the online size exclusion chromatography with gas chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry without any other purification procedures after being filtered with a 0.22 μm organic phase filter. The matrix interferences were effectively removed and recoveries of most pesticides were in the range of 72-121%. Especially, for chlorothalonil, the analysis efficiency of this method was much more favorable than that of the general method, in which dispersive solid-phase extraction was used as an additional purified procedure. In addition, the limits of quantitation of this method were from 1 to 50 μg/kg. Therefore, a rapid, cost-effective, labor-saving method was proposed in the present work, which was suitable for the analysis of 41 pesticide residues in tobacco.

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A time-saving and organic solvent efficient method to simultaneously determine six kinds of herbicide residues in tobacco using solid-phase extraction for sample clean-up and preconcentration and the highly sensitive ultraperformance convergence chromatography method was developed. Parameters for ultraperformance convergence chromatography, including the choice of stationary phase and modifiers, autobackpressure regulator pressure, column temperature, and the flow rate of mobile solvents, were optimized. The herbicide residues of napropamide, alachlor, quizalofop-ethyl, diphenamid, metolachlor, and clomazone in tobacco samples were successfully separated and detected at levels as low as 0.0043–0.0086 mg/kg within 5 min using a nonpolar high strength silica C18 selectivity for bases column and methanol as the cosolvent of the mobile phase of carbon dioxide (75–99.9%, v/v). Analysis of tobacco samples had recoveries of 69.8–95.0%, limit of quantitation of 0.0127–0.0245 mg/kg, limit of detection of 0.0043–0.0086 mg/kg, and correlation coefficient of >0.9990. Results support this method as an efficient alternative to current methodologies for the determination of herbicide residues in tobacco.

Nornicotine, an alkaloid constituent of tobacco, is a precursor to the carcinogen N-nitrosonornicotine that is produced during the curing and processing of tobacco. Accumulating evidence reveals that nornicotine enantiomers have different neurochemical and behavioral effects. In the present study, an accurate and rapid method was developed for the enantioseparation of (R)-(+)-nornicotine and (S)-(-)-nornicotine enantiomers in tobacco by ultra-performance convergence chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Chromatographic conditions were investigated to achieve the optimal resolution of two enantiomers. Results indicated that (R)-(+)-nornicotine and (S)-(-)-nornicotine could be separated within 5 min when ammonium hydroxide was added into the cosolvent, and the best resolution (Rs = 4.76) was achieved on a immobilized cellulose tris-(3,5-dichlorophenylcarbamate) chiral stationary phase. The proposed method was validated and was finally applied to analyze the compositions of (R)-(+)-nornicotine and (S)-(-)-nornicotine in three typical types of tobaccos (flue-cured, burley, and oriental). It was found that, enantiomer fraction of nornicotine (the proportion of (S)-(-)-nornicotine in the nornicotine pool) in burley tobacco samples was relatively high and constant compared with flue-cured and oriental tobaccos. The effective and rapid enantioseparation of nornicotine may help the understanding of alkaloid metabolites in different tobacco varieties and may also benefit pharmacological studies of alkaloid enantiomers.

A simple, rapid, and environmentally friendly method was developed for the determination of acrylamide and trimethylolpropane in paper packaging materials. No organic solvent was used and the matrix effect was investigated. The extract was directly analyzed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass chromatography for quantification and confirmation. The chromatographic separations were performed on a ZORBAX HILIC Plus (2.1 mm × 150 mm, 3μm; Agilent, USA) column with only one mobile phase (100% water). Calibration curves for acrylamide and trimethylopropane were achieved with concentrations ranging from 0.4 to 20 mg/kg and the corresponding r(2) values were 0.998 and 0.999, respectively. The recoveries were >85% with relative standard deviations

Mineral choice optimization is a basic key issue that related to whether the entire reserve system is able to adapt to the sustainable use of national mineral resources. In this paper, we may determine indicators' weight using improved group AHP (analytic hierarchy process) combined with objective weight of each decision-maker, and according to this, the most important index is “technical difficulty of reserve”, to which the government should pay more attention to. Then we added these weights into indicator variables of hierarchical clustering analysis in order to classify mineral reserve more reasonably taking the typical resources as an example, and the obtained result was consistent to the government's macroeconomic qualitative analysis. We divided typical mineral resources into four batches for reserving; among these batches, coal was taken granted as the intensive reserve object. Those scarce resources that China has advantage of should also be immediately included in the reserve object such as Tungs...

A method for the determination of three acidic herbicides, dicamba, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) in tobacco and soil has been developed based on the use of liquid-liquid extraction and dispersive solid-phase extraction (dispersive-SPE) followed by UPLC-MS/MS. Two percentage of (v/v) formic acid in acetonitrile as the extraction helped partitioning of analytes into the acetonitrile phase. The extract was then cleaned up by dispersive-SPE using primary secondary amine as selective sorbents. Quantitative analysis was done in the multiple-reaction monitoring mode using stable isotope-labeled internal standards for each compound. A separate internal standard for each analyte is required to minimize sample matrix effects on each analyte, which can lead to poor analyte recoveries and decreases in method accuracy and precision. The total analysis time was

A method of the determination of the carbon-centred radicals in mainstream cigarette smoke using a spin-labelled fluorophore, 4-((9-acridinecarbonyl) amino)-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-oxyl (TEMPO-9-AC), as a fluorescent probe is presented. After being producted by smoking in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) mode, the carbon-centred radicals in mainstream cigarette smoke were trapped by TEMPO-9-AC, a carbon-centred radical probe with a low fluorescence intensity. Then the latter was transformed to a stable diamagnetic o-alkoxyamine, a high-fluorescence compound. Finally, high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was used to demonstrate the structures of the carbon-centred radicals, and high performance liquid chromatography with a fluorescence detector (HPLC-FLD) was used to determine the concentration of the carbon-centred radicals. The results showed that the 10 carbon-centred radicals were detected in the mainstream cigarette smoke, and the total carbon-centred radicals concentrations for 1R5F, 3R4F, CM6, and two Virginia type cigarettes, were 52.5 nmol/cig, 214.6 nmol/cig, 424.1 nmol/cig, 68.6 nmol/cig, and 334.2 nmol/cig, respectively; and there was positive relation between the concentrations of the total amount of carbon-centred radicals and the tar amounts in the mainstream cigarette smoke. The detection limit was 0.318 nmol/cig, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranged from 3.5% to 9.7%. This method is suitable for the determination of the carbon-centred radicals in the mainstream cigarette smoke.

A simple method for the determination of 132 pesticide residues in tobacco by gas chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) was established. The influences of different extraction solvents, different buffer systems and different purifying agents on the recoveries of pesticides were investigated. The tobacco sample was extracted with acetonitrile, then cleaned up by the mixed sorbents of primary secondary amine (PSA) and octadecylsilane (C18E). After dried by nitrogen, the extract residue was reconstituted with n-hexane-acetone (9:1, v/v). GC-MS/MS in multi-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode was used as the detection method and triphenyl phosphate (TPP) as the internal standard. All of the 132 pesticides had good linear relationships (r2 > 0.99) between 20 microg/kg and 2 000 microg/kg. At the three spiked levels of 50, 200 and 500 microg/kg in the tobacco extract, the average recoveries of all the pesticides were in the range of 68.10% to 123.15% except for mirex and hexachlorobenzene; moreover, the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of them were between 1.79% and 19.88%. We participated in the CORESTA (Cooperation Centre for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco) 2012's co-experiment. The results of our method and the existed standard methods had good consistency. The accurate, reliable and sensitive method can be applied to the determination of the 132 pesticide residues in tobacco for rapid screening and quantitative analysis.

A liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) multi-residue method for the simultaneous target analysis of a wide range of pesticides in tobacco has been developed. Gradient elution has been used in conjunction with positive mode electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry to detect up to 118 pesticides in tobacco. The recoveries obtained for each pesticide ranged between 70 and 118% at two spiked concentration levels. Good linear relationships were observed with correlation coefficients r(2) > 0.992 for all analytes. The established method was successfully applied to the determination of pesticide residues in real tobacco samples in order to validate the suitability for routine analysis.

A multiresidue gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) method was developed for the analysis of 159 multiclass pesticides in tobacco. A modified QuEChERS sample preparation technique, based on acetonitrile extraction and toluene dilution, followed by dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) cleanup using primary-secondary amine (PSA) and octadecyl (C18) sorbents, was used for sample treatment. Key performance parameters investigated were linearity, recovery, relative standard deviation (RSD), limit of detection, and limit of quantitation. With the exception of chinomethionate and folpet, recoveries for pesticides ranged from 69 to 141%, and the RSDs ranged from 2 to 27%. The validated method was applied to the analysis of 118 real samples, and positive results were obtained for 116 samples, with 25 different pesticides being detected.

A method to determine residues of the three acid herbicides, 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, and 3,6-dichloro-2-methoxybenzoic acid (dicamba), in tobacco using LC/MS/MS is presented. Because these herbicide residues in tobacco might exist in different forms (free acid, salt, and ester), tobacco samples were first pretreated by alkaline hydrolysis and then the pH was adjusted in order to convert the residues completely to their free acid forms. Dichloromethane extraction and dispersive SPE using C18 sorbent were carried out before LC/MS/MS analysis, and quantification was performed using the internal standard method. Linearity was good for all analytes (R2 ≥ 0.999) in the concentration range of 0.02 to 0.5 mg/kg. LODs were below 0.05 mg/kg. Recoveries ranged from 80.4 to 93.5%, and RSD was below 10%. This simple, efficient, and sensitive method can be applied to the determination of residues of the three acid herbicides in tobacco.

A time-saving and organic solvent efficient method to simultaneously determine six kinds of herbicide residues in tobacco using solid-phase extraction for sample clean-up and preconcentration and the highly sensitive ultraperformance convergence chromatography method was developed. Parameters for ultraperformance convergence chromatography, including the choice of stationary phase and modifiers, autobackpressure regulator pressure, column temperature, and the flow rate of mobile solvents, were optimized. The herbicide residues of napropamide, alachlor, quizalofop-ethyl, diphenamid, metolachlor, and clomazone in tobacco samples were successfully separated and detected at levels as low as 0.0043-0.0086 mg/kg within 5 min using a nonpolar high strength silica C18 selectivity for bases column and methanol as the cosolvent of the mobile phase of carbon dioxide (75-99.9%, v/v). Analysis of tobacco samples had recoveries of 69.8-95.0%, limit of quantitation of 0.0127-0.0245 mg/kg, limit of detection of 0.0043-0.0086 mg/kg, and correlation coefficient of0.9990. Results support this method as an efficient alternative to current methodologies for the determination of herbicide residues in tobacco.

A simple, rapid, and environmentally friendly method was developed for the determination of acrylamide and trimethylolpropane in paper packaging materials. No organic solvent was used and the matrix effect was investigated. The extract was directly analyzed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass chromatography for quantification and confirmation. The chromatographic separations were performed on a ZORBAX HILIC Plus (2.1 mm × 150 mm, 3μm; Agilent, USA) column with only one mobile phase (100% water). Calibration curves for acrylamide and trimethylopropane were achieved with concentrations ranging from 0.4 to 20 mg/kg and the corresponding r(2) values were 0.998 and 0.999, respectively. The recoveries were85% with relative standard deviations10%. The validated method was applied to the analysis of 50 real samples, and positive results were obtained for 30 samples. The result indicated that trimethylolpropane is associated with inks and printing activity and acrylamide is widely used as a papermaking additive in many paper packages. The concentrations of acrylamide and trimethylolpropane ranged from 0.41 to 7.5 and 0.50 to 8.8 mg/kg, respectively. The results of this study revealed that this method could be used accurately and precisely.

A new method for determination of phenoxy acid herbicide residues in tobacco based on the use of liquid extraction/partition and dispersive SPE followed by HPLC/electrospray ionization-MS/MS is reported. Formic acid (2%, v/v) in acetonitrile as the extraction solvent and inclusion of citrate buffer helped partitioning of all analytes into the acetonitrile phase. Quantitative analysis was done in the multiple-reaction monitoring mode using two combinations of selected precursor ion and product ion transition for each compound. The recoveries obtained for each pesticide ranged between 85 and 110% at two spike concentration levels. Good linear relationships were observed, with the correlation coefficient (r2) >0.998 for all analytes. The method is simple, efficient, and sensitive, and each of its performance characteristics meets the requirements for determination of phenoxy acid herbicide residues in tobacco.

For more than 30 years of reform and opening up,our economy increased rapidly as well as the consumption of mineral resources. Currently China has been gradually concerned about the establishment of strategic reserve system along with over-exploration and irrational use of resources. Mineral choice is a basic key issue that related to whether the entire reserve system is able to adapt to the sustainable use of national mineral resources. So in this paper, we may determine indicators' weight using AHP, and according to this, the most important index is "technical difficulty of reserve", to which the government should pay more attention to. Then we added these weights into indicator variables of hierarchical clustering analysis in order to classify mineral reserve more reasonably taking the typical resources as an example, and the obtained result was consistent to the government's macroeconomic qualitative analysis. According to our results: we divided typical mineral resources into four batches for reserving, among these batches, coal was taken granted as the intensive reserve object. And those scarce resources that China has advantage should also be immediately included in the reserve object such as Tungsten, Tin, and Rare earth. To a certain extent, the results can lay foundation for the establishment of strategic reserve mechanism of mineral

A simple method for the determination of 132 pesticide residues in tobacco by gas chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) was established. The influences of different extraction solvents, different buffer systems and different purifying agents on the recoveries of pesticides were investigated. The tobacco sample was extracted with acetonitrile, then cleaned up by the mixed sorbents of primary secondary amine (PSA) and octadecylsilane (C18E). After dried by nitrogen, the extract residue was reconstituted with n-hexane-acetone (9:1, v/v). GC-MS/MS in multi-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode was used as the detection method and triphenyl phosphate (TPP) as the internal standard. All of the 132 pesticides had good linear relationships (r20.99) between 20 microg/kg and 2 000 microg/kg. At the three spiked levels of 50, 200 and 500 microg/kg in the tobacco extract, the average recoveries of all the pesticides were in the range of 68.10% to 123.15% except for mirex and hexachlorobenzene; moreover, the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of them were between 1.79% and 19.88%. We participated in the CORESTA (Cooperation Centre for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco) 2012's co-experiment. The results of our method and the existed standard methods had good consistency. The accurate, reliable and sensitive method can be applied to the determination of the 132 pesticide residues in tobacco for rapid screening and quantitative analysis.

Tobacco mainstream smoke (MSS) and sidestream smoke (SSS), butts, and ashes from commercial cigarettes and maleic hydrazide (MH) spiked cigarettes were analyzed for their MH contents. The MH transfer rates obtained for MSS ranged from 1.4% to 3.7%, for SSS ranged from 0.2% to 0.9%, and for butts ranged from 1.1% to 1.9%. And as expected, MH is absent in ashes. The transfer rate of MH into mainstream smoke is the top one during in transfer rate into main-stream, side-stream, ashes, and butts, and higher MH levels lead to more MH in smoke. Further, analysis of total MH in butts and ashes along with that in MSS and SSS indicates that much MH is destructed during the smoking process.

A method of the determination of the carbon-centred radicals in mainstream cigarette smoke using a spin-labelled fluorophore, 4-((9-acridinecarbonyl) amino)-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-oxyl (TEMPO-9-AC), as a fluorescent probe is presented. After being producted by smoking in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) mode, the carbon-centred radicals in mainstream cigarette smoke were trapped by TEMPO-9-AC, a carbon-centred radical probe with a low fluorescence intensity. Then the latter was transformed to a stable diamagnetic o-alkoxyamine, a high-fluorescence compound. Finally, high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was used to demonstrate the structures of the carbon-centred radicals, and high performance liquid chromatography with a fluorescence detector (HPLC-FLD) was used to determine the concentration of the carbon-centred radicals. The results showed that the 10 carbon-centred radicals were detected in the mainstream cigarette smoke, and the total carbon-centred radicals concentrations for 1R5F, 3R4F, CM6, and two Virginia type cigarettes, were 52.5 nmol/cig, 214.6 nmol/cig, 424.1 nmol/cig, 68.6 nmol/cig, and 334.2 nmol/cig, respectively; and there was positive relation between the concentrations of the total amount of carbon-centred radicals and the tar amounts in the mainstream cigarette smoke. The detection limit was 0.318 nmol/cig, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranged from 3.5% to 9.7%. This method is suitable for the determination of the carbon-centred radicals in the mainstream cigarette smoke.

A simple method for the analysis of benzo [ a ] pyrene, benzo [ a ] anthracene and chrysene in mainstream cigarette smoke using automated solid phase extraction (SPE) system-gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) was developed. After being smoked in the ISO mode, the Cambridge filter pad was used to collect mainstream cigarette smoke, and then extracted by 40 mL cyclohexane containing deuterated benzo [a] pyrene as the internal standard. The extract was cleaned-up by an automated PrepLinc SPE-AccuVap system and then detected using GC-MS/MS. The detection limits for benzo [a] pyrene, benzo [a] anthracene and chrysene were 0.05,0. 16, and 0.23 ng/cig, respectively. The recoveries were ranged from 91.5% to 102.1% to 102.1% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) less than 5%. This method was proved to be simple, sensitive, and suitable for the determination of benzo [a] pyrene, benzo[a] anthracene and chrysene in mainstream cigarette smoke.

With a combination of QuEChERS method and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) technique, three sample treatment methods (solvent exchange method, toluene dilution method, hexane liquid-liquid extraction method) were established to analyse more than one hundred pesticide residues in tobacco. The 155 pesticide analytes contained 58 organophosphorus, 28 organochlorine, 10 pyrethroids, 10 acyl amide, 11 carbamate, 7 dinitroaniline and 31 other family pesticides. Comparison of the three treatment methods was investigated on performances including matrix effect, co-extracted matrix, peak interference, recovery and the limit of quantification (LOQ). The hexane liquid-liquid extraction method gave the cleanest extract but poorer recovery; the solvent exchange and toluene dilution method could guarantee recoveries in the range of 70% and 120% for most of the 155 pesticides. We found that organophosphorus, acyl amide and carbamate pesticides exhibited relative strong matrix effects compared with organochlorine and pyrethroid pesticides. Toluene dilution method was recommended to analyse organophosphorus pesticides, and hexane liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) method was recommended to analyse organochlorine and pyrethroid pesticides.