Development and Characterization of a Generic Microfluidic Subsystem toward Portable Biochemical Detection

2000 ◽  
pp. 327-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin-Woo Choi ◽  
C. Ajith Wijayawardhana ◽  
Nihat Okulan ◽  
Kwang W. Oh ◽  
Arum Han ◽  
...  
2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hancheng Lin ◽  
Kaifei Deng ◽  
Ji Zhang ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Zhong Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractIt is difficult to determinate the cause of death from exposure to fatal hypothermia and hyperthermia in forensic casework. Here, we present a state-of-the-art study that employs Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to investigate the hypothalamus tissues of fatal hypothermic, fatal hyperthermic and normothermic rats to determine forensically significant biomarkers related to fatal hypothermia and hyperthermia. Our results revealed that the spectral variations in the lipid, protein, carbohydrate and nucleic acid components are highly different for hypothalamuses after exposure to fatal hypothermic, fatal hyperthermic and normothermic conditions. In comparison with the normothermia group, the fatal hypothermia and hyperthermia groups contained higher total lipid amounts but were lower in unsaturated lipids. Additionally, their cell membranes were found to have less motional freedom. Among these three groups, the fatal hyperthermia group contained the lowest total proteins and carbohydrates and the highest aggregated and dysfunctional proteins, while the fatal hypothermia group contained the highest level of nucleic acids. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that FTIR spectroscopy has the potential to become a reliable method for the biochemical characterization of fatal hypothermia and hyperthermia hypothalamus tissues, and this could be used as a postmortem diagnostic feature in fatal hypothermia and hyperthermia deaths.


2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (7) ◽  
pp. 3823-3828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Dortet ◽  
Saoussen Oueslati ◽  
Katy Jeannot ◽  
Didier Tandé ◽  
Thierry Naas ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe epidemiology of carbapenemases worldwide is showing that OXA-48 variants are becoming the predominant carbapenemase type inEnterobacteriaceaein many countries. However, not all OXA-48 variants possess significant activity toward carbapenems (e.g., OXA-163). TwoSerratia marcescensisolates with resistance either to carbapenems or to extended-spectrum cephalosporins were successively recovered from the same patient. A genomic comparison using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and automated Rep-PCR typing identified a 97.8% similarity between the two isolates. Both strains were resistant to penicillins and first-generation cephalosporins. The first isolate was susceptible to expanded-spectrum cephalosporins, was resistant to carbapenems, and had a significant carbapenemase activity (positive Carba NP test) related to the expression of OXA-48. The second isolate was resistant to expanded-spectrum cephalosporins, was susceptible to carbapenems, and did not express a significant imipenemase activity, (negative for the Carba NP test) despite possessing ablaOXA-48-type gene. Sequencing identified a novel OXA-48-type β-lactamase, OXA-405, with a four-amino-acid deletion compared to OXA-48. TheblaOXA-405gene was located on a ca. 46-kb plasmid identical to the prototype IncL/MblaOXA-48-carrying plasmid except for a ca. 16.4-kb deletion in thetraoperon, leading to the suppression of self-conjugation properties. Biochemical analysis showed that OXA-405 has clavulanic acid-inhibited activity toward expanded-spectrum activity without significant imipenemase activity. This is the first identification of a successive switch of catalytic activity in OXA-48-like β-lactamases, suggesting their plasticity. Therefore, this report suggests that the first-line screening of carbapenemase producers inEnterobacteriaceaemay be based on the biochemical detection of carbapenemase activity in clinical settings.


Author(s):  
B. L. Soloff ◽  
T. A. Rado

Mycobacteriophage R1 was originally isolated from a lysogenic culture of M. butyricum. The virus was propagated on a leucine-requiring derivative of M. smegmatis, 607 leu−, isolated by nitrosoguanidine mutagenesis of typestrain ATCC 607. Growth was accomplished in a minimal medium containing glycerol and glucose as carbon source and enriched by the addition of 80 μg/ ml L-leucine. Bacteria in early logarithmic growth phase were infected with virus at a multiplicity of 5, and incubated with aeration for 8 hours. The partially lysed suspension was diluted 1:10 in growth medium and incubated for a further 8 hours. This permitted stationary phase cells to re-enter logarithmic growth and resulted in complete lysis of the culture.


Author(s):  
A.R. Pelton ◽  
A.F. Marshall ◽  
Y.S. Lee

Amorphous materials are of current interest due to their desirable mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties. Furthermore, crystallizing amorphous alloys provides an avenue for discerning sequential and competitive phases thus allowing access to otherwise inaccessible crystalline structures. Previous studies have shown the benefits of using AEM to determine crystal structures and compositions of partially crystallized alloys. The present paper will discuss the AEM characterization of crystallized Cu-Ti and Ni-Ti amorphous films.Cu60Ti40: The amorphous alloy Cu60Ti40, when continuously heated, forms a simple intermediate, macrocrystalline phase which then transforms to the ordered, equilibrium Cu3Ti2 phase. However, contrary to what one would expect from kinetic considerations, isothermal annealing below the isochronal crystallization temperature results in direct nucleation and growth of Cu3Ti2 from the amorphous matrix.


Author(s):  
B. H. Kear ◽  
J. M. Oblak

A nickel-base superalloy is essentially a Ni/Cr solid solution hardened by additions of Al (Ti, Nb, etc.) to precipitate a coherent, ordered phase. In most commercial alloy systems, e.g. B-1900, IN-100 and Mar-M200, the stable precipitate is Ni3 (Al,Ti) γ′, with an LI2structure. In A lloy 901 the normal precipitate is metastable Nis Ti3 γ′ ; the stable phase is a hexagonal Do2 4 structure. In Alloy 718 the strengthening precipitate is metastable γ″, which has a body-centered tetragonal D022 structure.Precipitate MorphologyIn most systems the ordered γ′ phase forms by a continuous precipitation re-action, which gives rise to a uniform intragranular dispersion of precipitate particles. For zero γ/γ′ misfit, the γ′ precipitates assume a spheroidal.


Author(s):  
R. E. Herfert

Studies of the nature of a surface, either metallic or nonmetallic, in the past, have been limited to the instrumentation available for these measurements. In the past, optical microscopy, replica transmission electron microscopy, electron or X-ray diffraction and optical or X-ray spectroscopy have provided the means of surface characterization. Actually, some of these techniques are not purely surface; the depth of penetration may be a few thousands of an inch. Within the last five years, instrumentation has been made available which now makes it practical for use to study the outer few 100A of layers and characterize it completely from a chemical, physical, and crystallographic standpoint. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) provides a means of viewing the surface of a material in situ to magnifications as high as 250,000X.


Author(s):  
D. F. Blake ◽  
L. F. Allard ◽  
D. R. Peacor

Echinodermata is a phylum of marine invertebrates which has been extant since Cambrian time (c.a. 500 m.y. before the present). Modern examples of echinoderms include sea urchins, sea stars, and sea lilies (crinoids). The endoskeletons of echinoderms are composed of plates or ossicles (Fig. 1) which are with few exceptions, porous, single crystals of high-magnesian calcite. Despite their single crystal nature, fracture surfaces do not exhibit the near-perfect {10.4} cleavage characteristic of inorganic calcite. This paradoxical mix of biogenic and inorganic features has prompted much recent work on echinoderm skeletal crystallography. Furthermore, fossil echinoderm hard parts comprise a volumetrically significant portion of some marine limestones sequences. The ultrastructural and microchemical characterization of modern skeletal material should lend insight into: 1). The nature of the biogenic processes involved, for example, the relationship of Mg heterogeneity to morphological and structural features in modern echinoderm material, and 2). The nature of the diagenetic changes undergone by their ancient, fossilized counterparts. In this study, high resolution TEM (HRTEM), high voltage TEM (HVTEM), and STEM microanalysis are used to characterize tha ultrastructural and microchemical composition of skeletal elements of the modern crinoid Neocrinus blakei.


Author(s):  
Simon Thomas

Trends in the technology development of very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI) have been in the direction of higher density of components with smaller dimensions. The scaling down of device dimensions has been not only laterally but also in depth. Such efforts in miniaturization bring with them new developments in materials and processing. Successful implementation of these efforts is, to a large extent, dependent on the proper understanding of the material properties, process technologies and reliability issues, through adequate analytical studies. The analytical instrumentation technology has, fortunately, kept pace with the basic requirements of devices with lateral dimensions in the micron/ submicron range and depths of the order of nonometers. Often, newer analytical techniques have emerged or the more conventional techniques have been adapted to meet the more stringent requirements. As such, a variety of analytical techniques are available today to aid an analyst in the efforts of VLSI process evaluation. Generally such analytical efforts are divided into the characterization of materials, evaluation of processing steps and the analysis of failures.


Author(s):  
R. J. Lauf

Fuel particles for the High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) contain a layer of pyrolytic silicon carbide to act as a miniature pressure vessel and primary fission product barrier. Optimization of the SiC with respect to fuel performance involves four areas of study: (a) characterization of as-deposited SiC coatings; (b) thermodynamics and kinetics of chemical reactions between SiC and fission products; (c) irradiation behavior of SiC in the absence of fission products; and (d) combined effects of irradiation and fission products. This paper reports the behavior of SiC deposited on inert microspheres and irradiated to fast neutron fluences typical of HTGR fuel at end-of-life.


Author(s):  
John P. Robinson ◽  
J. David Puett

Much work has been reported on the chemical, physical and morphological properties of urinary Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein (THG). Although it was once reported that cystic fibrotic (CF) individuals had a defective THG, more recent data indicate that THG and CF-THG are similar if not identical.No studies on the conformational aspects have been reported on this glycoprotein using circular dichroism (CD). We examined the secondary structure of THG and derivatives under various conditions and have correlated these results with quaternary structure using electron microscopy.THG was prepared from normal adult males and CF-THG from a 16-year old CF female by the method of Tamm and Horsfall. CF female by the method of Tamm and Horsfall.


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