Influence of Smartphone-Based Digital Extension Service on Farmers' Sustainable Agricultural Technology Adoption in China.

The literature about how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) influence farmers' adoption of sustainable agricultural technology is emerging, studies regarding the effects of particular smartphone-based digital extension services on farmers' sustainable agricultural technology practices are limited. This study investigates the relationship between a digital extension service ("Zhe' yang' shi" WeChat application) and the adoption of soil testing and formula fertilization, a precision fertilization technology. A household choice model is constructed to explain the impact of the application. Based on a household-level data set from a survey of 400 farmers in Zhejiang in 2022, empirical results show that the use of the "Zhe' yang' shi" WeChat application significantly increases the adoption of soil testing and formula fertilization. We also discuss the heterogeneous effect by different production scales. The findings enrich the literature regarding ICTs' influence on farmers' behavior in adopting sustainable agricultural technology. It provides a valuable example for developing countries to promote sustainable agriculture through digital technology.

A novel method to convert triptolide into tripchlorolide in Tripterygium wilfordii.

A new method has been established to convert triptolide (1) into tripchlorolide (2) directly in the Chinese herbal drug Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. and the influences of reaction times and pH values have been investigated. It was found that 1 could be most efficiently converted into 2 using a hydrochloric acid-acetic acid system. An HPLC method was devised in order to monitor the conversion and ESI-MS was used to identify the synthetic product 2. The sensitivity of the assay was sufficient to monitor the conversion of the main active components in T. wilfordii.

Monitoring of the conversion from triptolide to tripchlorolide in Triptergium wilfordii by micellar electrokinetic caillary chromatography.

A novel concocting method to convert Triptolide (T) into Tripchlorolide (T(4)) in the traditional Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. and a micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatographic (MEKC) approach by which the conversion of Triptolide (T) and Tripchlorolide (T(4)) was identified and determined had been established. Investigations of the influence of different pH values of boric acid and borax buffer and of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and organic additive concentrations had been carried out, and the optimum separation for T and T(4) was achieved using boric acid and borax of pH 7.0 with 30 mM SDS and 20% (volume ratio) methanol as the running buffer. It was found that MEKC exhibited good accuracy, precision and repeatability and the content of T(4) was greatly increased in the herb that was treated by the new concocting method.

[Fast separation of nicotinamide and nicotinic acid with molecularly imprinted monolithic column].

Nicotinamide has been employed as template for the preparation of molecularly imprinted monolithic polymer (MIP) which was used as liquid chromatographic stationary phase. It showed that the nicotinamide-MIP monolithic column was capable of recognizing the difference between nicotinamide and nicotinic acid, while the non-imprinted polymer had no such ability. The content of organic solvent, flow rate and pH of the mobile phase were investigated in the experiments. The following high performance liquid chromatographic conditions were selected: column, 50 mm x 4.6 mm i.d.; mobile phase, water; flow rate, 7.0 mL/min; experiment temperature, room temperature. The resolution between nicotinamide and nicotinic acid was 1.8. The results showed that the two compounds could be separated by the nicotinamide-MIP monolithic column. The column is very useful for the enrichment and detection of nicotinamide in body fluids.