AIMS To develop an effective diagnostic kit, based on a competitive ELISA-based system (cELISA), for detecting serum antibody against peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV). METHODS Epitope peptides of the nucleocapsid (N) protein of Tibetan PPRV were synthesized chemically and injected into rabbits to prepare hyperimmune antisera. Test sera were incubated simultaneously with hyperimmune ant...

This paper reviews the preparation and application of radioactive microspheres for medical purposes. It first discusses the properties of relevant radioisotopes and then explores the diagnostic uses of gammaemitter labeled microspheres, such as blood flow measurement and imaging of the liver and other organs. The therapeutic uses of alphaand beta-emitting microspheres, such as radioembolization...

The Scientific Working Group for Firearm and Toolmarks (SWGGUN) developed the Admissibility Resource Kit (ARK) in 2005 to assist forensic firearm and tool mark examiners in the preparation for evidence admissibility hearings. When the SWGGUN was defunded in 2013, the AFTE Board of Directors and the past SWGGUN members decided to republish and maintain the ARK on the AFTE website. The ARK contai...

Preserving the original RNA orientation information in RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) experiment is essential to the analysis and understanding of the complexity of mammalian transcriptomes. We describe herein a simple, robust, and time-effective protocol for generating strand-specific RNA-seq libraries suited for the Illumina sequencing platform. We modified the Illumina TruSeq RNA sample preparatio...

Four hundred and twenty-two urine samples were screened for significant bacteriuria using bioluminescence and microscopy of uncentrifuged urine. A smaller number of false-negatives were seen with bioluminescence (10%) than with microscopy (40%) while both techniques gave a similar number of false-positives (18%). The kit required a large amount of manual preparation, largely pipetting. With thi...

Nanoparticle toxicology, an emergent field, works toward establishing the hazard of nanoparticles, and therefore their potential risk, in light of the increased use and likelihood of exposure. Analytical chemists can provide an essential tool kit for the advancement of this field by exploiting expertise in sample complexity and preparation as well as method and technology development. Herein, w...

Accurate full-length genomic sequences are important for viral phylogenetic studies. We developed a targeted high-throughput whole genome sequencing (HT-WGS) method for influenza A viruses, which utilized an enzymatic cleavage-based approach, the Nextera XT DNA library preparation kit, for library preparation. The entire library preparation workflow was adapted for the Sentosa SX101, a liquid h...

Sequencing bacterial genomes has traditionally required large amounts of genomic DNA (~1 μg). There have been few studies to determine the effects of the input DNA amount or library preparation method on the quality of sequencing data. Several new commercially available library preparation methods enable shotgun sequencing from as little as 1 ng of input DNA. In this study, we evaluated the NEB...