We developed a blood spot test for syphilis antibody using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technology. Dried blood was eluted by buffered saline or, for a supplementary confirmatory test, by treponemal-antibody test diluent. Eluates were diluted in an absorption buffer (Calypte Biomedical, Berkeley, Calif.) and added to plate wells coated with cardiolipin antigen (ADI Diagnostics, Tor...

BACKGROUND Early and effective detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), particularly in smear-negative tuberculosis (TB), is a priority for global TB control. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification with a procedure for ultra rapid DNA extraction (PURE-LAMP) can detect TB in sputum samples rapidly and with high sensitivity and specificity. However, the PURE-LAMP test has not been effective...

Berry's phase has been fashionable in many areas of physics and in chemistry and also among mathematicians and mathematical physicists. The mathematical people are attracted to this area because it is related to the beautiful mathematics of bre bundles which underlay gauge theories. In fact this is the most accessible example of a gauge theory for people who know just the elementary facts of no...

Kripke’s solution to the Liar Paradox and other paradoxes of truth (1975) is generalized to the paradoxes of denotation. Berry’s Paradox and Hilbert and Bernays’ Paradox are treated in detail.

The ability of several anaerobic bacteria to hydrolyze esculin to esculetin is used by clinical microbiologists and taxonomists in the differentiation and identification of both gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms. Conventional methods used for determining esculin hydrolysis by anaerobic bacteria require 24 to 48 h for completion. In this paper we evaluate two procedures which yield ...

Children of migrant farmworkers are at increased risk of exposure to organophosphate pesticides because of "carry-home" transport processes and residential location. Although this at-risk status is generally recognized, few available reports describe the extent of this exposure among agricultural communities. We quantified dialkyl phosphate (DAP) levels in serial samples of urine from 176 child...

Since the mid 70’s different starspot modelling techniques have been used to describe the observed spot variability on active stars. Spot positions and temperatures are calculated by application of surface integration techniques or solution of analytic equations on observed photometric data.Artificial spotted light curves were generated, by use of the analytic expressions of Budding (1977), to ...

We introduce a Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test for the constant-correlation hypothesis in a multivariate GARCH model. The test examines the restrictions imposed on a model which encompasses the constant-correlation multivariate GARCH model. It requires the estimates of the constant-correlation model only and is computationally convenient. We report some Monte Carlo results on the "nite-sample pro...

Root restriction improved berry quality by being involved in diverse aspects of grapevine life. However, the molecular mechanism driving this process is not understood very well. In this study, the 'Summer Black' grape berry (Vitis vinifera × V. labrusca) under root restriction was investigated, which showed an increase of total soluble solids (TSS), color index of red grapes (CIRG) value, anth...

Diapause in insects occurs in response to environmental cues, such as changes in photoperiod, and it is a major adaptation by which insects synchronize their activity with biotic resources and environmental constraints. For multivoltine agricultural insect pests, diapause initiation is an important consideration in management decisions, particularly toward the end of the growing season. The gra...