Authenticity Testing Research Articles

Profiling a multiplex short tandem repeat loci from human urine with use of low cost on-site technology for verification of sample authenticity.

This work focuses on the development of a sophisticated technique via STR typing to unequivocally verify the authenticity of urine samples before sent to laboratories. STR profiling was conducted with the CSF1PO, TPOX, TH01 Multiplex System coupled with a smartphone-based detection method. The promising capability of the method to identify distinct STR profiles from urine of different persons opens the possibility to conduct sample authenticity tests. On-site STR profiling could be realized with a self-contained autonomous device with an integrated PCR microchip shown hereby.

Identification of processed Chinese medicinal materials using DNA mini-barcoding

Most of Chinese medicinal herbs are subjected to traditional processing procedures, including stir-frying, charring, steaming, boiling, and calcining before they are released into dispensaries. The marketing and identification of processed medicinal materials is a growing issue in the marketplace. However, conventional methods of identification have limitations, while DNA mini-barcoding, based on the sequencing of a short-standardized region, has received considerable attention as a new potential means to identify processed medicinal materials. In the present study, six DNA barcode loci including ITS2, psbA-trnH, rbcL, matK, trnL (UAA) intron and its P6 loop, were employed for the authentication of 45 processed samples belonging to 15 species. We evaluated the amplification efficiency of each locus. We also examined the identification accuracy of the potential mini-barcode locus, of trnL (UAA) intron P6 loop. Our results showed that the five primary barcode loci were successfully amplified in only 8.89%–20% of the processed samples, while the amplification rates of the trnL (UAA) intron P6 loop were higher, at 75.56% successful amplification. We compared the mini-barcode sequences with Genbank using the Blast program. The analysis showed that 45.23% samples could be identified to genus level, while only one sample could be identified to the species level. We conclude that trnL (UAA) p6 loop is a candidate mini-barcode that has shown its potential and may become a universal mini-barcode as complementary barcode for authenticity testing and will play an important role in medicinal materials control.

DNA Barcoding for Industrial Quality Assurance.

DNA barcoding methods originally developed for the identification of plant specimens have been applied to the authentication of herbal drug materials for industrial quality assurance. These methods are intended to be complementary to current morphological and chemical methods of identification. The adoption of these methods by industry will be accelerated by the introduction of DNA-based identification techniques into regulatory standards and monographs. The introduction of DNA methods into the British Pharmacopoeia is described, along with a reference standard for use as a positive control for DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A general troubleshooting chart is provided to guide the user through the problems that may be encountered during this process. Nevertheless, the nature of the plant materials and the demands of industrial quality control procedures mean that conventional DNA barcoding is not the method of choice for industrial quality control. The design of DNA barcode-targeted quantitative PCR and high resolution melt curve tests is one strategy for developing rapid, robust, and reliable protocols for high-throughput screening of raw materials. The development of authentication tests for wild-harvested Rhodiola rosea L. is used as a case study to exemplify these relatively simple tests. By way of contrast, the application of next-generation sequencing to create a complete profile of all the biological entities in a mixed herbal drug is described and its potential for industrial quality assurance discussed.

Widespread Use of Misidentified Cell Line KB (HeLa): Incorrect Attribution and Its Impact Revealed through Mining the Scientific Literature.

Continuous cell lines are widely used, but can result in invalid, irreproducible research data. Cell line misidentification is a common problem that can be detected by authentication testing; however, misidentified cell lines continue to be used in publications. Here we explore the impact of one misidentified cell line, KB (HeLa), on the scientific literature. We identified 574 articles between 2000 and 2014 that provided an incorrect attribution for KB, in accordance with its false identity as oral epidermoid carcinoma, but only 57 articles that provided a correct attribution for KB, as HeLa or cervical adenocarcinoma. Statistical analysis of 57 correct and 171 incorrect articles showed that the number of citations to these articles increased over time. Content analysis of 200 citing articles showed there was a tendency to describe the cell line in accordance with the description in the cited paper. Analysis of journal impact factor showed no significant difference between correct and incorrect groups. Articles using KB or citing that usage were most frequently published in the subject areas of pharmacology, pharmacy, oncology, and medicinal chemistry. These findings are important for science policy and support the need for journals to require authentication testing as a condition of publication. Cancer Res; 77(11); 2784-8. ©2017 AACR.

Authenticity testing of environment-friendly Korean rice (Oryza sativa L.) using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratio analysis

The increasing demand for organic foods creates, in turn, a pressing need for the development of more accurate tools for the authentication of organic food in order to ensure both fair trade and food safety. This study examines the feasibility of δ13C and δ15N analyses as potential tools for authentication of environment-friendly rice sold in Korea. δ13C and δ15N examination in different rice grains showed that environment-friendly rice can be successfully distinguished from conventional rice. No multi-residue pesticides were detected in the examined rice samples, including conventional rice. This study demonstrates the complementary feasibility of δ13C and δ15N analyses for the authentication of environment-friendly rice sold in Korea in cases where pesticide residue analysis alone is insufficient for discrimination of organic and conventional rice. In future, complementary analyses including compound-specific isotope ratio analysis might be employed for improving the reliability of organic authentication.

Development of Analytical Methods for Peroral Prolonged-Release Nimesulide Gel

Analytical methods were developed and results were presented for the authenticity, quantitation, and dissolution test of the new nimesulide dosage form peroral prolonged-release gel. The validation and metrological characteristics of the quantitative analytical methods for nimesulide were described.

Epilogue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Ability-Implications for Assessment and Instruction.

In this epilogue, we review the 4 response articles and highlight the implications of a multidimensional view of reading for the assessment and instruction of reading comprehension. We reiterate the problems with standardized tests of reading comprehension and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of recently developed authentic tests of reading comprehension. In the "Instruction" section, we review the benefits and limitations of strategy instruction and highlight suggestions from the response articles to improve content and language knowledge. We argue that the only compelling reason to administer a standardized test of reading comprehension is when these tests are necessary to qualify students for special education services. Instruction should be focused on content knowledge, language knowledge, and specific task and learning requirements. This instruction may entail the use of comprehension strategies, particularly those that are specific to the task and focus on integrating new knowledge with prior knowledge.

Cognitive decision strategies adopted by consumers in reminder difference tests: Influence of the authenticity test

Discrimination tests are used in food companies to quantify small differences between products. Within the diversity of methods available, some are quicker to conduct, whereas others are more sensitive or statistically powerful. One class of methods includes the reminder tasks in which the reference product is given before tasting the actual test stimuli. During the task, such a ‘reminder’ can be compared directly to each test stimulus, or alternatively, only serve to prime the memory of the judge without being taken into account in decision-making. Previous research with trained judges provided evidence for the latter process while research with untrained consumers has provided some evidence for the former process. Two studies were conducted with untrained consumers using the A Not-AR and 2-AFCR reminder tasks. Objectives were to determine the decision strategies used in, and the relative sensitivity of the tasks. In addition, the use of an “authenticity test” was explored to see if this has a positive effect on test performance. In the first study, mayonnaise and ice tea with small stimulus differences (d′<1) were used in A Not-AR and 2-AFCR. Results were compared to those from A Not-A and 2-AFC tasks, with and without an authenticity test. It was difficult to draw clear conclusions on the decision strategy used, though the use of an authenticity test increased the sensitivity for these small differences, as it improved the performance of 6 out of 8 tests. In the second study, ice teas with larger stimulus differences (at two levels) were tested using the A Not-AR and 2-AFCR tasks, in comparison to the same-different task. The results showed that consumers use the less optimal strategies and that the authenticity test decreases performance, which is contradictory to the results of the first study. It seems that for very small stimulus differences the authenticity test can improve performance, but with larger differences the authenticity test decreases performance; it seems to confuse the judges.

Cell lines authentication and mycoplasma detection as minimun quality control of cell lines in biobanking

Establishment of continuous cell lines from human normal and tumor tissues is an extended and useful methodology for molecular characterization of cancer pathophysiology and drug development in research laboratories. The exchange of these cell lines between different labs is a common practice that can compromise assays reliability due to contamination with microorganism such as mycoplasma or cells from different flasks that compromise experiment reproducibility and reliability. Great proportions of cell lines are contaminated with mycoplasma and/or are replaced by cells derived for a different origin during processing or distribution process. The scientific community has underestimated this problem and thousand of research experiment has been done with cell lines that are incorrectly identified and wrong scientific conclusions have been published. Regular contamination and authentication tests are necessary in order to avoid negative consequences of widespread misidentified and contaminated cell lines. Cell banks generate, store and distribute cell lines for research, being mandatory a consistent and continuous quality program. Methods implementation for guaranteeing both, the absence of mycoplasma and authentication in the supplied cell lines, has been performed in the Andalusian Health System Biobank. Specifically, precise results were obtained using real time PCR detection for mycoplasma and 10 STRs identification by capillary electrophoresis for cell line authentication. Advantages and disadvantages of these protocols are discussed.

Gum Arabic authentication and mixture quantification by near infrared spectroscopy

A rapid and reliable method is developed for Gum Arabic authentication based on Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and chemometric methods. On a large industrial collection of authentic gum Arabics, the two major Acacia gum species, Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal could be assigned perfectly by the NIR spectroscopic method. In addition, a partial least squares (PLS) regression model is calibrated to predict the blending percentage of the two pure gum types, producing an accuracy, root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV) of 2.8%. Sampling of the Gum Arabic ‘tears’ is discussed, and it was determined that subsamples from three ‘tears’ is required for a representative result. It is concluded that NIR spectroscopy is a very powerful and reliable method for authenticity testing of Gum Arabic species.

Are your results valid? Cellular authentication a need from the past, an emergency on the present.

The cultures of immortalized cells have been established in the 50s and become popular as a biological model for in vitro assays. The success and popularization brought side effects. Still, in the 60years emerge the first cases of misidentification/contamination of cell line. Because of that, the scientific community has been oriented to authenticate their lines before performing assays. The use of cells with incorrect identification or contamination has been identified as responsible for an increasing number of unmatched results and a waste of resources. For this reason, we implemented the Cell Line Authentication Service at Brazilian Metrology Institute (Inmetro), open to Brazilian scientific community and society in general. From 2012 to 2014 were conducted 111 cell line authentication test, of which 13.8% had some problem. Here are the description and discussion of these data and simple guidelines to minimize the risk of contamination and misidentification, and invite the scientific community to maintain an alert system to avoid spending unnecessary resources and produce unreliable data.

A rapid, semi-quantitative test for detection of raw and cooked horse meat residues

Intentional mislabeling and adulteration of meat products with undeclared horse meat is a concern for religious, ethnic, and health reasons and is illegal under regulations mandated and enforced by food regulatory agencies and the Federal Meat Inspection Act. Nonetheless, recent analysis of the meat industry has revealed an apparent increase in the frequency of meat adulteration including intentional horse meat contamination, necessitating a broader use of meat authentication testing. As existing methods for meat speciation are cumbersome and require specialized equipment and/or training, we developed a highly specific lateral flow immunoassay that can rapidly identify raw and cooked horse meat down to 0.01% and 1.0% contamination, respectively in xenogeneic meat sources in about 35 min with no false positive signals observed. Specificity analysis revealed no cross-reactivity with serum albumins or meat derived from chicken, turkey, pig, cow, lamb, and goat. The results of method comparison showed that the assay had similar if not better sensitivity than the commercial ELISA kit and PCR, and required considerably less time to perform than either method. The development of a highly robust and rapid test method capable of detecting trace amounts of horse meat residues should aid food control authorities in their continued efforts to monitor for horse meat adulteration.

Redox proteomic identification of carbonylated proteins in autism plasma: insight into oxidative stress and its related biomarkers in autism

BackgroundAutism is a severe childhood neurological disorder with poorly understood etiology and pathology. Currently, there is no authentic laboratory test to confirm the diagnosis of autism. Oxidative damage may play a central role in the pathogenesis of autism. Present study is an effort to search for possible biomarkers of autism and further clarify the molecular changes associated with oxidative stress that occurs in the plasma of autistic children.MethodsWe performed redox proteomics analysis to compare carbonylated proteins in the plasma of autistic subjects and healthy controls. Immunoprecipitation and Western blot analysis were used to validate carbonylated proteins identified by the redox proteomics.ResultsProtein carbonylation levels in two proteins, complement component C8 alpha chain and Ig kappa chain C were found to be significantly increased in autistic patients compared with controls. These two proteins were successfully validated via immunoprecipitation and Western blot analysis.ConclusionsThe results further highlight the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of autism and provide some information for the diagnosis and/or monitoring of autism.

Characterization of Diversity of Bradyrhizobia on Cowpea in Iraq Reveals Unusual Strain Characteristics

Rhizobium-legume symbiosis is considered as one of the most well established symbiotic nitrogen fixing system for agronomic studies. Association between legumes and rhizobia results in the formation of root nodules where symbiotic nitrogen fixation occurs. The current study aimed to authenticate 110 isolates from 20 sites belonging to 10 governorates in Iraq, tested their capacity of nodulation with cowpea and classified them depending on the phenotype and genotype presented by sequence analysis of 16S rRNA. To fulfill these goals, many approaches have been implemented such as Authentication Tests, Bromothymol Blue Reaction, Colony Size and Morphology, Antibiotic Test, Sequencing of 16S rRNA and Phylogenetic analysis. This study provides an easy way to classify the Bradyrhizobia sp. strains by genotype analysis depending on the phenotypes (i.e. motility and colony size) by sample preservation and high quality DNA isolation from environmental soil samples followed by 16S rRNA sequencing. This molecular technique has demonstrated the usefulness of these methods, easy technologies, and their applications to microbiome analysis and environmental science. Interestingly, a group of Bradyrhizobia identified in the current study was able to secrete acidic products before switching and starting to secrete alkali products after 1, 2 and 3 days. This is an unusual phenotype observed within rhizobia strains.

Neograničeni rat - kineska percepcija savremenog ratovanja

The end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century is recognizable by the great changes and dynamics of these changes in different spheres of human activities. One of such spheres is the field of defense and security. Once again, a classical critical attitude that the military usually prepare for the past war is being on an authenticity test. The main message of this view is that the understanding of the present and prediction of the future is the consequence of the experience so far and the well-known knowledge collection. This warning truth is, of course, known to researchers in the field of defense and security and being such it is the driving force for acquiring insight into the physiognomy of contemporary wars and conflicts. One of the first steps on this way is authentic identification of relevant factors. Observations and analyses of the physiognomy of contemporary conflicts point to consideration of important differences in relation to the already known understanding of the phenomena of war and conflict in general. Due to abundance and specificity of new factors and emerging forms of contemporary conflicts, researchers are prone to introducing new terms that would mark this new reality. This paper presents a Chinese view of the specificity of modern warfare known as the concept of unlimited warfare. The analysis of the concept of unlimited warfare points to great similarities to the concept of hybrid warfare that is somewhat newer. The special value of the concept of unlimited warfare and its characteristic of being interesting from the perspective of researchers and experts in our country is reflected in the specificity of the time period of its occurrence.

Language assessment literacy for language learning-oriented assessment

This paper reflects on the findings of a small-scale and exploratory study which attempted to explore whether and how learning-oriented assessment opportunities might be revealed in, or inserted into formal speaking tests, order to provide language assessment literacy opportunities for language teachers teaching in test preparation courses as well as teachers training to become speaking test raters. Hamp-Lyons and Green (2014) closely studied a set of authentic speaking test video samples from the Cambridge: First (First Certificate of English) speaking test, in order to learn whether, and where, learning-oriented behaviours could be encouraged or added to interlocutors’ behaviours, without disrupting the required reliability and validity of the test. We paid particular attention to some basic components of effective interaction that we would want an examiner or interlocutor to exhibit if they seek to encourage interactive responses from test candidates: body language (in particular eye contact; intonation, pacing and pausing); management of turn-taking and elicitation of candidate-candidate interaction. We call this shift in focus to view tests as learning opportunities learning-oriented language assessment (LOLA).

FishTrace: a genetic catalogue of European fishes.

FishTrace is a genetic catalogue for species identification associated to reference collections of taxonomically identified vouchers from more than 200 commercial marine fish species. The main purpose of the genetic catalogue is to enable reliable species identification for research purposes as well as in support of traceability schemes under the remit of food and feed laws. A major asset of FishTrace is that all genetic data are linked to biological collections of vouchers, that is the fish specimen that have been identified genetically have, at the same time, been identified by taxonomists and are stored and curated by natural history museums. This opens the potential for future applications related to fish species authenticity tests, also in a legal context, and associated biological research. The genetic catalogue, which contains molecular data together with detailed information on sampling and geographical origin, is publically accessible on the web site of the project.Database URL https://fishtrace.jrc.ec.europa.eu

SECURITY CHALLENGES IN MOBILE ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING IN THE MILLENNIUM FOR EDUCATION

Distance learning technologies enrich learning opportunities due to many advantages like ubiquity and flexibility. Although the usefulness of such technologies in teaching and learning is clear, their testing part is remained to be discussed due to the security issue. Administrators and teachers need to use more authentic and secure distant testing software in which the scores are guaranteed and the testees keep away from cheating. Static and online authentication systems like “username” and “password” and face detection have empowered educational parties to have more reliable testing outcomes. Mobile devices as the necessity of the new millennium need to use authentication software in their testing. Mobile devices with their multimedia course materials provide learners with many optimistic learning opportunities through collaboration, cooperation, interaction and testing. The unique chances of ubiquity, individualization, informality, and spontaneity make the mobile learning of particular importance not only for digital natives but also for teachers, administrators, developers, instructors, and policy makers. Yielding an economical learning opportunity along with providing authentic contexts for collaborative learning is beneficial for the economy of the country in general and for the meaningful and deep learning of the learners. This paper will discuss how authentication techniques have applied to electronic devices like mobile phones.

LEARNERS’ AND THEIR TEACHER’S EXPERIENCES OF AN AUTHENTIC ONLINE ASSESSMENT TEST IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF BASIC ACCOUNTING CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

Accounting as a school subject provides a foundation for understanding the economic activities and conditions of a business, it serves as a common language both within the business and for communicating business information to the external financial community. When learners grasp the key financial transactions as well as the analysis, interpretation and communication of financial statements, they are able to understand the fundamental concepts of basic accounting principles and practice. However, there is a lack of adequate preparation at school level in accounting. Learners are taught how to do accounting, but the principles and reasons for accounting, that is, the basic concepts of accounting, are not adequately taught and assessed ( Steenkamp, Baard & Frick, 2010). As a result, South African learners’ performance in the subject is poor. We contend that teachers contribute to poor performance because they have inadequacies in their own content knowledge of the subject (Ozden, 2008), as they were not properly trained and equipped to teach it competently (Letshwene, 2014). They also employ inadequate assessment techniques in the subject by using a traditional paper-based approach (Ngwenya & Maistry, 2012). As a way of supporting teachers in their teaching practice, the Department of Education has formulated assessment guidelines that prescribe an alternative form of assessment that can be completed electronically, using online assessment to gauge learners’ understanding of content knowledge of any topic. The usefulness of an online assessment tool is measured in terms of how it reveals the understanding and content knowledge of learners in a meaningful social context. Thus, the aim of this paper is to report on the design of an authentic online assessment of grade 10 learners’ and their teacher’s understanding of basic accounting content knowledge. QuestBase software was used in the design of online assessment embedded within the theoretical constructs of authentic learning, and with the first three cognitive levels of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. The theoretical framework of authentic learning mirrors real-world relevance with authentic activities from multiple perspectives and provides the opportunity for learners to reflect on the learning process. An exploratory qualitative case study design was used in this inquiry and qualitative data was generated from individual and focus-group interviews and observation. Findings indicated that the participants (six learners and their teacher) had positive experiences in completing the authentic online assessment test of basic accounting content knowledge. However, learners still struggled to successfully deal with calculations and also showed a lack of knowledge and understanding of the basic concepts of the subject. Most significantly, this paper aims not to “prove that learning has improved” but rather that the use of an online assessment tool (QuestBase) within the theoretical framework of authentic learning and assessment reflects the real-life context of learners.

Multi-embed nonlinear scale-space for image trust root generation

An image trust root is a special type of soft trust root for trusted computing. However, image trust root generation is difficult, as it needs a corresponding stable logic feature generation model and algorithm for dynamical and sustained authentication. This paper proposes a basic function of constructing new scale-spaces with deep detecting ability and high stability for image features aimed at image root generation. According to the heat distribution and spreading principle of various kinds of infinitesimal heat sources in the space medium, a multi-embed nonlinear diffusion equation that corresponds to the multi-embed nonlinear scale-space is proposed, a HARRIS-HESSIAN scale-space evaluation operator that aims at the structure acceleration characteristics of a local region and can make use of image pixels' relative spreading movement principle was constructed, then a single-parameter global symmetric proportion (SPGSP) operator was also constructed. An authentication test with 3000 to 5000 cloud entities shows the new scale-space can work well and is stable, when the whole cloud has 5%–50% behavior with un-trusted entities. Consequently, it can be used as the corresponding stable logic feature generation model and algorithm for all kinds of images, and logic relationships among image features for trust roots.