Can measure Tuberculosis and Other bacterial infections accurately using a portable device?

Tuberculosis (TB) and other important infectious bacteria can be diagnosed  by a handheld diagnostic device. 

Tuberculosis Bacteria

The scientist explain portable devices that combine microfluidic technology with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to not only diagnose these important infections but also determine the presence of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains. Further said that "Rapidly identifying the pathogen responsible for an infection and testing for the presence of resistance are critical not only for diagnosis but also for deciding which antibiotics to give a patient." 

Above described methods allow them to do this in two to three hours, a immense improvement over standard culturing practice, which can get as much as two weeks to provide a diagnosis.

The system described in above detects DNA from the tuberculosis bacteria in small sputum samples. After DNA is extracted from the sample and detects any TB bacterial DNA present in the sample.

The device was sensitive enough to detect as few as one or two bacteria in a 10 ml blood sample and to accurately estimate bacterial load. Testing the system on blood samples from patients with known infections accurately identified the particular bacterial species in less than two hours and also detected two species that had not been identified with standard culture techniques.

Biomass enrgy use as a fuel?

Scientist have mooved to a big step to use biomass energy as fuel that is one of the more promising guide to energy independence leads away from crude oil and into the forests and fields.

scientists have been reasearching efficient means to convert non food based biomass into fuels and chemical feedstocks,  reducing fossil fuel dependence and reducing greenhouse gas, CO2 emissions. To that end, an article was published in the scientific journal Nature Chemistry that could offer a big step on the path to renewable energy.

The aricle "The hydrodeoxygenation of bioderived furans into alkanes," guides how to take starting materials that are derived from glucose or cellulose, a carbohydrate in woody biomass and the most common organic compound on Earth, and mix them with
other bio derived building blocks to have new molecules that have between eight and fifteen carbons in the backbone.

The scintist then convert these molecules into hydrocarbons (HCs) which are similar to those found in petrol and diesel, giving an opportunity to have an independance in fuel or to synthesize industrial chemicals such as polymers, pharmaceuticals and pesticides from biomass.

This new approach, an alternative route to convert glucose molecules to HCs that uses much less energy and has a very high degree of conversion to provide pure products. This simple synthesis allows researchers to generate a range of alkanes from
a variety of biomass derived molecules. The sientist are looking to improve catalyst recyclability and scale up methods.

Invention of 2D thiophene nanosheet with 3.5nm thickness!

Recently a team of sientisst have researched and developed a new 2D supramolecular thiophene nanosheet with 3.5nm of thickness.

So far graphene have played major role in electronic materials with 2D sheet structure but in the case of graphene chemical functionalization and size control are difficult and impossible. in this case, a promising material, thiophene polymers, have been actively rolled  as electronic materials.

Field effect transistors (FET), organic electroluminescece, organic solar cells  and other electrical materials are the example of thiophene applications but, for the manufacturing of thiophene thin film requires much enrgy and epensive quipment are the problem faced.

Thiophene nanosheet with high crystallinity is required in sol gel fabrication method in the polymer solution

Researchers have discovered that an alternating copolymer, in which a thiophene compounds and flexible ethylene glycol chain are alternately connected, is folded in some organic solvents in such a way that the thiophene units are stacked each other, and the folded copolymers self assemble into a 2D sheet structure.

They said that the length of the polymer used in this work is
approximately 80nm, the thickness of the sheet is only 3.5nm due to the folded conformation of the copolymer.

Further the researchers expained that The arrangement of the thiophene units in the nanosheet was same to as that manufactured by vacuum vapor deposition (CVD) of low molecular weight thiophene compounds. Therefore, their thiophene nanosheets are
feasible to the application of organic electronics devices.

The lateral size of the nanosheet was manageble by tuning the concentration of the polymer solution. The chemical modification of the nanosheet surface was also possible by appling the other functional unit at the terminals of the copolymer.

For instance, a simple and a low cost method is that it is possible to build single layer by vaccum deposition.

Source: Internet

Aiding to Ease of Sliding Steel Surface

Scientist have recently changed one atom thick graphine layer material to make a big difference instead of having oil based lubricants on sliding steel surface to reduce the friction in between those.The wear rate and the coefficient of friction (COF) of steel can be reduced drastically by garaphene, and it is due to the low shear and higly protective character of graphene. oxidatine of steel surface is also prevented by gaphene when present at sliding interface.

Many moving ball bearings, mechanical machines,varing from table fans to giant wind turbines are used graphen for their smoothness to perform reducing energy and materials losses in these moving mechanical systems is due to the friction and wear remains is the one of the greatest engineering challenges of our time.

Molybdenum disulfide or boric acid, which are environmentaly unfriendly additives, are currently used to reduce friction and wear.
though the oil based lubricants are producing additional waste and need to be frquently reapplied. Due to finite thickness, the cost of solid lubricant coating is very high and they do not last long  the reduced loss of energy to friction granted by new materials  would yield a potential energy savings of 2.46 billion kwhs per year, equivalent to 420,000 barrels of oil.

scientist said that applying or reapplying the graphene coating does not require any additional processing steps other than just sprinkling a small amount of solution on the surface of interest, cost effective, environmentally friendly and making this process simple.

Scientist are interesting to see how a one atom thick material affects the properties at a larger scale andbelieve that graphene has potential as a solid lubricant in the automotive industry and, once fully developed, it could have positive impacts on many mechanical applications that could lead to a tremendous savings of energy.

Source: nature

Can sientists can controll chirality in carbon nanotubes

Synthesising a single walled carbon nanotubes(SWNTs) with cotrolled chiralities is the challenge in the field of carbon nanotube research.

Single walled c-nanotube

Sientists have now abled to control chirality in c-nanotues using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) synthesis after discovering of SWNTs 20 years ago.

 A pair of integers, chiral indices (n,m) is used to descirbe the c-nanotubes structure. so called chirality can explain the optical and electronic properties of c-nanotubes and then discribe its practical applications.

Sustantial research has been made to find synthesis methods and has been hindered by lack of practical methods to have the metal nanoparticle catalystd and its characteristic dynamics during tube groth.

The developed new catalyst has employed for selective growth of SWNTs in the conventional CVD reactor and the researchers have demonstrated preferential growth of semiconducting SWNTs (～90%) with an exceptionally high population of (6,5) tubes (53%) at 500 °C. Furthermore, they also showed a shift of the chiral preference from (6,5) tubes at 500 °C to (7, 6) and (9, 4) nanotubes at 400 °C.

These findings have opened new perspectives both for structural control of SWNTs and for elucidating their growth mechanisms, thus are important for the fundamental understanding of science behind nanotube growth.

linking Nanoparticles for commercial products

Cosmetics are getting grow with chemical and technology advancement. in this case nanoparticles are used to increase much more fairness by uv blocking and photocatalytic effect.

Commercialy there are increasing products containing nanoparticles with having well known product such as sunscreens, cosmetics and so on.

For the uv bloking, photocatalytic and sunscreen application, most prominents chemicals, titanium, zinc oxide and ceria are used with modifing its nature.

In the construction field, as an example, photocatalytic, self cleaning coating are used in high storied bulding's glass for self cleaning effect and to reduce any pollutants.And also, in hospitals, for the managing persitent bacteria, photocatalytic antibacterial properties are used.

The antibacterial properties of photocatalytic coatings also offer a means of managing persistent bacteria, mainly in hospitals.

The researchers are involving to look for efficint organic dispersants to improve the misscibility of inorganic nanoparticles with organic matrix to have a composite.

New chemistry innovation to controls the cell's behavior

Cancer tumors are the most increasing factors to kill human beings. Researchers  are keen on  searching for drugs which should prevent the making factor, cancer cells. so Researchers at university of New Mexico has discovered a cancer cell controlling chemical.

The team has found the right chemical and right mechanism to target the right compound which causes cancer cells

Heart rhythums therapy leads for heart patients

A team of researchers have designed a device to detect and correct patterns of waves which emits from the heart of a diseased patients to live long last happily

Implantable cardioverter defibrillator or ICD.
(Credit: Image courtesy of
University of Rochester Medical Center)

 Professor Arthur J. Moss, M.D., an expert in the treatment and prevention of cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Moss' team found that simply raising the heart rate at which the device is set to fire -- deliver therapy -- made all the difference.

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators or ICDs constantly monitor the rate and rhythm of the heart and are supposed to deliver electrical shocks in response to very fast and potentially fatal heart rhythms. In 2002, Moss and the MADIT (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial) research group showed that ICDs are extremely effective in preventing death in patients at risk of irregular heart rhythms and sudden cardiac death, including individuals who've suffered a heart attack. The work changed medical guidelines nationwide, making thousands of heart attack survivors eligible for ICD therapy. Currently, around 200,000 ICDs are implanted in the U.S. every year.

But, according to a 2008 study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, approximately 20 to 25 percent of defibrillator therapy is inappropriate, meaning shocks are delivered in response to less dangerous rhythms that aren't likely to pose any immediate danger to patients. Such shocks are not only painful, but can take an emotional toll as well. Data from a 2002 trial comparing anti-arrhythmic drugs and defibrillators suggested that shocks are associated with reduced mental well-being. And a recent review of more than 45 studies found that such emotional distress is not uncommon, reporting that between 11 and 28 percent of ICD patients had some form of depression and between 11 and 26 percent had an anxiety disorder.

Moss' team conducted the MADIT-RIT (Reduce Inappropriate Therapy) trial, which was sponsored by Boston Scientific, to determine if different ways of setting the device -- a complex process performed by a heart rhythm specialist prior to device implantation in a patient's chest -- could reduce the occurrence of inappropriate therapy. Boston Scientific develops and markets medical devices, including ICDs and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators or CRT-Ds.

From September 2009 through October 2011 the team enrolled 1,500 patients in 98 hospital centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, and Japan. All patients had heart disease and received a Boston Scientific ICD or CRT-D.

Currently, most defibrillators are set to initiate therapy when the heart rate exceeds around 170 beats per minute, but rates of 180 or 190 are not always dangerous, are usually short-lived, and could be related to increased activity or exercise. Unfortunately, Moss says, defibrillators aren't very good at differentiating benign from malignant rhythms in this "in-between" range.

Setting the device to fire at a higher rate of 200 beats per minute reduced the risk of experiencing a first inappropriate therapy by 79 percent compared to standard programming. Fewer shocks also corresponded with less energy delivered to the heart, which study authors believe contributed to the reduced risk of death.

"There is considerable research to suggest that there is a small amount of damage to the heart muscle with each delivered shock," added Moss. "If we can eliminate the unnecessary shocks, this is going to be associated with less heart damage and improved outcomes."

The MADIT-RIT trial is the first large-scale, randomized study designed to evaluate specific programming features to reduce inappropriate therapy in patients with ICDs. The trial's sponsor, Boston Scientific, was not involved in data collection or data analysis. Moss, who has led the MADIT trials since their inception in the 1990s, holds no stock in any device company, has never been a member of any corporate speakers bureau, and since Dec. 1, 2008, has chosen not to accept honoraria from Boston Scientific for any professional activity.

In addition to Moss, Wojciech Zareba, M.D., Ph.D., Mary Brown, David Huang, M.D., Helmut Klein, M.D., and Scott McNitt from the University of Rochester Medical Center participated in the research. Researchers and physicians from Henry Ford Hospital, Hospital of the Good Samaritan, Duke University Medical Center, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Columbia University, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Iowa Health Care, Tokyo Women's Medical University, and Loyola University Medical Center also contributed to the research.

Moss, who's spent a large part of his career working to improve ICD therapy, concludes, "When the findings were first uncovered there was a sincere, general enthusiasm that we had finally come to improve the therapy we've been using for 20 years, and that we've made true progress in making ICD therapy safer, more effective, and more acceptable to patients.

Sexually abused women much less likely to be screened for cervical cancer

Women who have been sexually abused as children or young adults are much less likely to get screened for cervical cancer than other women, indicates new research.

Figures published last year by the national NHS Cervical Cancer Screening Programme indicate that around one in five eligible women had not been tested for the disease within the previous five years, as recommended.

Screening can help cut the risk of developing an invasive and potentially fatal cervical cancer. And a recent audit showed that only just over a quarter of such cases in England arose in women who had attended for regular checks as part of the national screening programme.

The research team analysed the responses of 135 women to a survey posted on the website of the British charity, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC). Four respondents also took part in a discussion group early in 2011.

The women were asked for their views and experiences of cervical screening, and what type of abuse they had endured. Among those aged 24 to 65 -- the current age band for cervical screening in England -- three out of four (77.5%) said they had been screened at some point, and almost half had been screened within the previous five years.

But only just over four out of 10 (42%) of those aged 25 to 49 had been screened within the previous 3 years, in line with the current UK recommendation. And one in four of this age group had not been screened for more than five years while one in 10 had not been screened at all.

Among the 124 women who responded to the open ended questions about what put them off screening, 32 said they had no intention of going or going again. Two said they would rather die than endure the procedure ever again.

Almost one in four (23%) respondents made comments reflecting low self esteem, and one in five (21%) said they found the procedure painful. And almost one in three (29%) said the procedure made them feel powerless, while 38% said it evoked similar feelings to those they experienced at the time of the abuse.

One in five highlighted issues relating to trust, safety and disclosure, while one in three made at least one comment relating to fear and anxiety.

One in eight also complained that few healthcare professionals understood the impact of sexual abuse on the ability to go through with the procedure and that the screening invitation letters contain no signposting to sources of information and support for those who might have been abused.

An accompanying editorial, written by NAPAC's training and development manager Sarah Kelly, points out that the charity receives around 350 calls/emails from adult survivors every month, two thirds of whom are women.

"Self worth, self esteem, and self concept....impact on how women access health services or care for and value themselves," writes Ms Kelly.

"Many of the female survivors we hear from, talk about their fears and anxieties when accessing services, particularly sexual health, gynaecology, and breast wellbeing," she says.

And she adds: "Many survivors are aware of the increased risk of not being screened and we repeatedly hear that some would rather deal with cervical cancer if it develops than face the experience of regular testing."

Story Source:
The above abstract is republished from materials provided by EA. 
Note: please contact the source cited above

Chemists develop reversible method of tagging proteins

Chemists have developed a method that for the first time provides scientists the ability to attach chemical probes onto proteins and subsequently remove them in a repeatable cycle.

Their achievement, detailed in a paper that appears online this week in the journal Nature Methods, will allow researchers to better understand the biochemistry of naturally formed proteins in order to create better antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, biofuels, food crops and other natural products. It will also provide scientists with a new laboratory tool they can use to purify and track proteins in living cells.

The development was the culmination of a 10 year effort by researchers in the laboratory of Michael Burkart, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, to establish a method to both attach a chemical probe at a specific location on a protein and selectively remove it. This flexibility allows researchers to study the protein with many different functional attachments, providing versatility akin to a biochemical Swiss Army knife. The great advantage of this technique is the broad flexibility of the attachments, which can be dyes, purification agents or mimics of natural metabolic products. Each of these attachments can be used for different purposes and biological studies.

Burkart's goal in his own laboratory is to understand more about the biochemical pathways of fatty acid metabolism and the biosynthesis of other natural products. One project focuses on engineering algae in order to produce improved biofuels. In this effort, the scientists hope to maximize the production of high quality algae oils, which could be used to supplement or supplant existing fossil fuels.

"In fatty acid metabolism, the fatty acids grow from an arm that eventually curls around and starts interacting with the metabolic protein," said Burkart, who is also associate director of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, or SD-CAB, a consortium of institutions in the San Diego region working together to make biofuels from algae commercially viable as transportation fuels. "What we wanted to know was how long does the growing fatty acid get before it starts binding with the protein?"

Burkart and chemists in his laboratory -- Nicolas Kosa, Robert Haushalter and Andrew Smith -- found a way to remove the chemical probe from this metabolic protein using an enzyme called a phosphodiesterase derived from the common bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Subsequent reattachment of a fatty acid analogue reconstituted the protein complex to its natural state. By repeating the process again and again, while examining the molecular changes in the fatty acid with nuclear magnetic spectroscopy, or NMR, during different metabolic stages, the scientists were able to detail the biochemical pathway of the fatty acid metabolism in a way they had never been able to do before.

"Without this tool, we would really have very limited ways of studying the dynamics of these fundamental metabolic processes," Burkart said. "This opened the door for us to finally examine in detail the fatty acid biosynthesis shared by algae, which you have to understand if you want to engineer ways to improve the quantity of oil that's made by algae or to make different types of oil molecules in algae that are better for biofuels."

The UC San Diego chemists also used NMR to verify that the process of chemically removing and attaching the chemical probes does not degrade or alter the protein in any way. "We've shown that we can do this iteratively, at least four or five times, without any degradation of the protein," said Burkart. "The protein remains very stable and can be studied very easily."

Because these same metabolic processes are shared by the metabolism of many natural products, including anti-cancer agents, antibiotics, and natural insecticides, Burkart said this new tool should have wide application in natural product chemistry labs.

"These are fundamental biochemical pathways that we still don't fully understand," he said. "We're now learning how these basic biosynthetic enzymes work. A large majority of drugs are derived from natural products and many future medicines can result from these pathways. There's a great interest now in synthetic biology, using these pathways to make new antibiotics or new anti-cancer drugs. They're all regulated by these same types of interactions."

The UC San Diego chemists say their method of tagging and removing chemical probes from proteins should also have wide application as a general laboratory tool to visualize and track proteins on living cells, as well as manipulate them outside of the cell.

"One could attach a tag, such as biotin, that would allow the protein to be purified. Then one can clip off the tag and attach a fluorescent molecule to monitor protein interaction with other molecular partners," said Burkart. "The method could also be used for studying living cells, such as observing protein expression levels throughout the cellular life cycle. We certainly see that as a possible application."

"Dr. Burkart's new labeling technique gives scientists an unprecedented way to probe the complex catalytic machineries involved in the biosynthesis of natural products," said Barbara Gerratana of the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which partially funded the work. "The technology will help scientists harness these natural biochemical pathways to synthesize novel molecules for uses in a broad array of areas, including basic biomedical research and drug discovery."

Story Source:
The above abstract is republished from materials provided by University of California. 
Note: please contact the source cited above