Increased Collection Time Research Articles

Applicability of a modified MCE filter method with Button Inhalable Sampler for monitoring personal bioaerosol inhalation exposure

In this study, a "modified" mixed cellulose ester (MCE) filter culturing method (directly placing filter on agar plate for culturing without extraction) was investigated in enumerating airborne culturable bacterial and fungal aerosol concentration and diversity both in different environments. A Button Inhalable Sampler loaded with a MCE filter was operated at a flow rate of 5 L/min to collect indoor and outdoor air samples using different sampling times: 10, 20, and 30 min in three different time periods of the day. As a comparison, a BioStage impactor, regarded as the gold standard, was operated in parallel at a flow rate of 28.3 L/min for all tests. The air samples collected by the Button Inhalable Sampler were directly placed on agar plates for culturing, and those collected by the BioStage impactor were incubated directly at 26 °C. The colony forming units (CFUs) were manually counted and the culturable concentrations were calculated both for bacterial and fungal aerosols. The bacterial CFUs developed were further washed off and subjected to polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) for diversity analysis. For fungal CFUs, microscopy method was applied to studying the culturable fungal diversity obtained using different methods. Experimental results showed that the performance of two investigated methods varied with sampling environments and microbial types (culturable bacterial and fungal aerosols). For bacterial aerosol sampling, both methods were shown to perform equally well, and in contrast the "modified" MCE filter method was demonstrated to enumerate more culturable fungal aerosols than the BioStage impactor. In general, the microbial species richness (number of gel bands) was observed to increase with increasing collection time. For both methods, the DGGE gel patterns were observed to vary with sampling time and environment despite of similar number of gel bands. In addition, an increase in sampling time from 20 to 30 min was found not to substantially alter the species richness. Regardless of the sampling methods, more species richness was observed in the outdoor environment than the indoor environment. This study described a new personal bioaerosol exposure assessment protocol, and it was demonstrated applicable in monitoring the personal bioaerosol exposure in replace of an Andersen-type impactor.

자작나무수액의 유출시기별 품질특성

This study evaluated the quality characteristics of white birch (Betula platyphylla var. japonica) sap with different collection times. The changes of browning index, turbidity, pH, total acidity, organic acid, free sugar, crude protein, crude ash, and mineral content were investigated. The browning index and turbidity increased from 0.076 to 0.222 and from 0.048 to 0.138, respectively, with increasing collection time. The pH decreased from 6.09 to 4.72, while total acidity increased with increasing collection time. Citric and malic acids were detected and malic acid increased with increasing collection time. Glucose and fructose as free sugars were detected and their contents were 0.364～0.433% and 0.497～0.664%, respectively. Crude protein and crude ash contents remarkably increased from 3.40 to 32.37 mg% and from 0.01% to 0.04%, respectively, with increasing collection time. Cu, Fe, Ca, Mg, Mn, and K were detected, and increased with increasing collection time. Particularly, K increased remarkably from 5.25 to 37.27 mg/L over time. These results indicate that the optimum processing method to improve the quality of white birch sap is necessary, because the quality of sap decreased as collection time increased, but nutritional value increased.

Influence of Evolution in Tumor Biobanking on the Interpretation of Translational Research

Translational cancer research increasingly relies on human tissue biospecimens and this has coincided with a shift in tissue biobanking approach. Newer biobanks (post year 2000) deploy standard operating procedures to reduce variability around biospecimen collection. Because current translational research is based on pre-2000 and post-2000 era biospecimens, we consider whether the collection era may influence gene expression data. We compared the range of breast tumor collection times from pre-2000 and post-2000 era biobanks and compared estrogen receptor (ER) protein expression with collection time. We then collected 10 breast tumor biospecimens under a standardized protocol and examined whether the expression of c-myc and ER was influenced by storage on ice < or = 24 hours. The range of collection times achieved at a pre-2000 versus post-2000 era biobank differed. Thirty-two percent of biospecimens were cryopreserved within 30 minutes at the pre-2000 era biobank versus 76% at the post-2000 era biobank. Collection time and ER protein level was inversely correlated (r = -0.19, P = 0.025; n = 137). We observed a wide range in initial c-myc and ER mRNA levels (50- versus 130-fold). Although mRNA levels of both genes declined with increasing collection time, the rate of change differed because c-myc was significantly reduced after 24 hours (mean reduction to 79% of initial) versus ER (94% of initial). The overall shift in biobanking around the year 2000 is reflected in the ranges of collection times associated with pre-2000 and post-2000 era biobanks. Because collection time can differentially alter gene expression, the biospecimen collection era should be considered in gene expression studies.

Route to Higher Fidelity FT-IR Imaging

FT-IR imaging employing a focal plane array (FPA) detector is often plagued by low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) data. A mathematical transform that re-orders spectral data points into decreasing order of SNR is employed to reduce noise by retransforming the ordered data set using only a few relevant data points. This approach is shown to result in significant gains in terms of image fidelity by examining microscopically phase-separated composites termed polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs). The actual gains depend on the SNR characteristics of the original data. Noise is reduced by a factor greater than 5 if the noise in the initial data is sufficiently low. For a moderate absorbance level of 0.5 a.u., the achievable SNR by reducing noise is greater than 100 for a collection time of less than 4 min. The criteria for optimal application of a noise-reducing procedure employing the minimum noise fraction (MNF) transform are discussed and various variables in the process quantified. This noise reduction is shown to provide high-quality images for accurate morphological analysis. The coupling of mathematical transformation techniques with spectroscopic Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) imaging is shown to result in high-fidelity images without increasing collection time or drastically modifying hardware.

Effects of Collection Interval on Quality of Throughfall Samples in Two Northern Hardwood Stands

AbstractThe chemical stability of weekly and biweekly throughfall collection intervals were compared at two northern hardwood stands in the Great Lakes region. Throughfall concentrations of Cl−, NO−3, SO2−4, Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+ were not significantly (p ≤ 0.05) affected by the increased collection time, where as throughfall concentrations of NH+4 and H+ collected biweekly were significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) than concentrations of these ions in weekly samples. The 1‐wk increase in collection interval at one stand decreased concentrations of NH+4 and increased concentrations of H+ 88 and 131%, respectively. The chemical instability of these ions appeared to be related to biological assimilation and/or nitrification of NH+4. Stability of these ions decreased with increasing concentrations of inorganic N in the throughfall. These changes in concentrations of NH+4 and H+ may introduce sampling bias when estimating throughfall fluxes or concentrations of these ions from biweekly collections. The decreased stability of these ions with increased concentrations of inorganic N should be an important consideration when selecting sampling intervals for stands that receive differing deposition levels of atmospheric N or have different canopy retention rates of N.