THE DISSOCIATION CONSTANT OF ARACHIDIC ACID BY IR AND LB TECHNIQUES

The dissociation constant of arachidic acid an a subphase containing Ag+ ion was measured by IR and LB techniques.

Clinical diagnostic performance of the simultaneous amplification and testing methods for detection of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex for smear-negative or sputum-scarce pulmonary tuberculosis in China

Background Early detection of pulmonary tuberculosis （PTB） is a big challenge in smear negative and sputum scarce patients in China.Simultaneous amplification and testing methods for detection of the Mycobactedum tuberculosis （MTB） complex （SAT-TB assay） is a novel molecular technique established in our hospital.This method has a high sensitivity and specificity in the lab.In this study,the clinical diagnostic performance of this method in smear-negative or sputum-scarce PTB suspects was investigated and evaluated.Methods Two hundred smear negative and 80 sputum-scarce patients were recruited in this study.Samples that included sputum or bronchial washing fluid were collected and sent for both bacteria culture and SAT-TB assay.Diagnosis for these patients was based on the comprehensive evaluation of chestX-ray/CT study,histology examination,lab results,and treatment response.Sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value （PPV） and negative predictive value （NPV） for each diagnostic test were investigated and calculated using confirmed tuberculosis （TB） and non-TB cases.The time required for detection of MTB was also measured for each method.Results Ninety-two patients （33％） were diagnosed as definitive TB,112 patients （40％） were probable PTB,and 76 （27％） were non-TB.The sensitivity,specificity,PPV,and NPV of SAT-TB in smear-negative PTB suspects were 93％ （95％ CI,84％-98％）,98％ （95％ CI,90％-100％）,98％ （95％ Cl,91％-100％）,and 93％ （95％ CI,83％-98％）.In sputum scarce PTB suspects,the sensitivity,specificity,PPV,and NPV of the SAT-TB assay on bronchial washing fiuids were 90％ （95％Cl,74％-98％）,100％ （95％ Cl,85％-100％）,100％ （95％ Cl,88％-100％）,and 88％ （95％ CI,69％-97％）.The accuracy of the SAT-TB assay is consistent with the bacteria culture assay.The median time required for detecting MTB in the SAT-TB assay was 0.5 day,which was much faster than bacteria culture （28 days）.Conclusions The SAT-TB assay is a fast and accurate method for the detection of MTB.It can be widely applied in the clinic and be an asset in early detection and management of PTB suspects,especially in those patients who are smear negative or sputum scarce.

Removal of arsenate with hydrous ferric oxide coprecipitation: Effect of humic acid

Insights from the adverse effect of humic acid （HA） on arsenate removal with hydrous ferric oxide （HFO） coprecipitation can further our understanding of the fate of As（V） in water treatment process. The motivation of our study is to explore the competitive adsorption mechanisms of humic acid and As（V） on HFO on the molecular scale. Multiple complementary techniques were used including macroscopic adsorption experiments, surface enhanced Raman scattering （SERS）, extended X-ray absorption fine structure （EXAFS） spectroscopy, flow-cell attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared （ATR-FTIR） measurement, and charge distribution multisite complexation （CD- MUSIC） modeling. The As（V） removal efficiency was reduced from over 95% to about 10% with the increasing HA concentration to 25 times of As（V） mass concentration. The SERS analysis excluded the HA-As（V） complex formation. The EXAFS results indicate that As（V） formed bidentate binuclear surface complexes in the presence of HA as evidenced by an As-Fe distance of 3.26--3.31 ,~. The in situ ATR-FTIR measurements show that As（V） replaces surface hydroxyl groups and forms inner- sphere complex. High concentrations of HA may physically block the surface sites and inhibit the As（V） access. The adsorption of As（V） and HA decreased the point of zero charge of HFO from 7.8 to 5.8 and 6.3, respectively. The CD-MUSIC model described the zeta potential curves and adsorption edges of As（V） and HA reasonably well.

Antarctic thermolabile uracil-DNA-glycosylase- supplemented multiple cross displacement amplification using a label-based nanoparticle lateral flow biosensor for the simultaneous detection of nucleic acid sequences and elimination of carryover contamination

Here, we report a novel and universal methodology,termed ＂ntarctic thermolabile uracil-DNA-glycosylase （AUDG）-supplemented nucleic acid amplification techniques （NAAs） using a labeled-based nanoparticle lateral flow biosensor （LFB）＂ （AUDG-NAAs-LFB）, which merges enzymatic （AUDG） digestion of contaminant amplicons with different nucleic acid amplification techniques （NAAs）, and uses a lateral flow biosensor （LFB） for the rapid and visual confirmation of the presence of a target nucleic acid sequence. AUDG-NNAs-LFB is a one-pot, closedvessel assay, that can effectively eliminate false-positive signals arising from either carryover contaminants or the interaction between labeled primers. A new LFB was devised for detecting three targets （two amplicons generated from amplification of target sequences, and a chromatography control）, without the need for probe- hybridization or additional incubation steps. As a proof of concept, multiple cross displacement amplification （MCDA）, which is a specific, sensitive, and rapid isothermal amplification method, was selected as the model amplification technique to demonstrate the feasibility of AUDG-NAAs-LFB. As a result, we demonstrate the applicability of the AUDG-MCDA-LFB method for simultaneously detecting high-risk human papillomaviruses genotypes 16 and 18, which are the most and second-most prevalent strains of the virus reported in women worldwide. We also confirm the principle behind the AUDG-MCDA- LFB assay and validate its sensitivity, reproducibility, and specificity using serial dilutions of the type-specific plasmids, as well as clinical samples. This proof- of-concept method （AUDG-MCDA-LFB） can be easily reconfigured to detect various nudeic acid sequences by redesigning the specific MCDA primers.

Hydrothermal fabrication of selectively doped organic assisted advanced ZnO nanomaterial for solar driven photocatalysis

Hydrothermal fabrication of selectively doped（Ag＋＋ Pd3＋） advanced ZnO nanomaterial has been carried out under mild pressure temperature conditions（autogeneous; 150°C）.Gluconic acid has been used as a surface modifier to effectively control the particle size and morphology of these ZnO nanoparticles. The experimental parameters were tuned to achieve optimum conditions for the synthesis of selectively doped ZnO nanomaterials with an experimental duration of 4 hr. These selectively doped ZnO nanoparticles were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction（XRD）, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FT-IR）, UV–Vis spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy（SEM）. The solar driven photocatalytic studies have been carried out for organic dyes, i.e., Procion MX-5B dye,Cibacron Brilliant Yellow dye, Indigo Carmine dye, separately and all three mixed, by using gluconic acid modified selectively doped advanced ZnO nanomaterial. The influence of catalyst, its concentration and initial dye concentration resulted in the photocatalytic efficiency of 89% under daylight.