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The illegal use of explosives by terrorists and other criminals is an increasing issue in public spaces, such as airports, railway stations, highways, sports venues, theaters, and other large buildings. Security in these environments can be achieved by different means, including the installation of scanners and other analytical devices to detect ultra-small traces of explosives in a very short time-frame to be able to take action as early as possible to prevent the detonation of such devices. Unfortunately, an ideal explosive detection system still does not exist, which means that a compromise is needed in practice. Most detection devices lack the extreme analytical sensitivity, which is nevertheless necessary due to the low vapor pressure of nearly all explosives. In addition, the rate of false positives needs to be virtually zero, which is also very difficult to achieve. Here we present an immunosensor system based on kinetic competition, which is known to be very fast and may even overcome affinity limitation, which impairs the performance of many traditional competitive assays. This immunosensor consists of a monolithic glass column with a vast excess of immobilized hapten, which traps the fluorescently labeled antibody as long as no explosive is present. In the case of the explosive 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), some binding sites of the antibody will be blocked, which leads to an immediate breakthrough of the labeled protein, detectable by highly sensitive laser-induced fluorescence with the help of a Peltier-cooled complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) camera. Liquid handling is performed with high-precision syringe pumps and chip-based mixing-devices and flow-cells. The system achieved limits of detection of 1 pM (1 ppt) of the fluorescent label and around 100 pM (20 ppt) of TNT. The total assay time is less than 8 min. A cross-reactivity test with 5000 pM solutions showed no signal by pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), and octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX). This immunosensor belongs to the most sensitive and fastest detectors for TNT with no significant cross-reactivity by non-related compounds. The consumption of the labeled antibody is surprisingly low: 1 mg of the reagent would be sufficient for more than one year of continuous biosensor operation.
The trafficking of illegal drugs by criminal networks at borders, harbors, or airports is an increasing issue for public health as these routes ensure the main supply of illegal drugs. The prevention of drug smuggling, including the installation of scanners and other analytical devices to detect small traces of drugs within a reasonable time frame, remains a challenge. The presented immunosensor is based on a monolithic affinity column with a large excess of immobilized hapten, which traps fluorescently labeled antibodies as long as the analyte cocaine is absent. In the presence of the drug, some binding sites of the antibody will be blocked, which leads to an immediate breakthrough of the labeled protein, detectable by highly sensitive laser-induced fluorescence with the help of a Peltier-cooled complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) camera. Liquid handling is performed with high-precision syringe pumps and microfluidic chip-based mixing devices and flow cells. The biosensor achieved limits of detection of 7 ppt (23 pM) of cocaine with a response time of 90 s and a total assay time below 3 min. With surface wipe sampling, the biosensor was able to detect 300 pg of cocaine. This immunosensor belongs to the most sensitive and fastest detectors for cocaine and offers near-continuous analyte measurement.
The trafficking of illegal drugs by criminal networks at borders, harbors, or airports is an increasing issue in public health as these routes ensure the main supply of illegal drugs. The prevention of drug smuggling, including the installation of scanners and other analytical devices to detect ultra-small traces of drugs within a reasonable time frame, remains a challenge. The presented immunosensor is based on a monolithic affinity column with a large excess of immobilized hapten, which traps fluorescently labeled antibodies as long as the analyte cocaine is absent. In the presence of the drug, some binding sites of the antibody will be blocked, which leads to an immediate breakthrough of the labeled protein, detectable by highly sensitive laser-induced fluorescence with the help of a Peltier-cooled complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) camera. Liquid handling is performed with high-precision syringe pumps and microfluidic chip-based mixing devices and flow cells. The biosensor achieved limits of detection of 23 pM (7 ppt) of cocaine with a response time of 90 seconds and a total assay time below 3 minutes. With surface wipe sampling, the biosensor was able to detect 300 pg of cocaine. This immunosensor belongs to the most sensitive and fastest detectors for cocaine and offers near-continuous analyte measurement.
The capabilities of pedestrians for evacuation have a significant impact on the time required to reach a safe place. Usually, the evacuation is split into two main stages: pre-movement-phase and movement-phase. For both a large number of studies investigate different representations of behaviour and impacts. But the influence of impairments is usually not taken into account. In addition, most of the scientific researches focus the investigation of the movement phase.
This publication presents a novel approach to score the need for assistance and to estimate the effect on evacuation performance. The proposed score considers characteristic impairments in three dimensions of behaviour: reception, perception and realisation.
In an unannounced evacuation training in a sheltered workshop, the evacuation behaviour and pre-movement phase were analysed. The analysis indicates that the pre-movement time depends on the kind of impairment as well as on organisational boundaries. Despite the special needs for assistance, the evacuation process in a sheltered workshop is quite similar to other sub-populations.
The cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV) is a plant virus explored as a nanotechnological platform. The robust self-assembly mechanism of its capsid protein allows for drug encapsulation and targeted delivery. Additionally, the capsid nanoparticle can be used as a programmable platform to display different molecular moieties. In view of future applications, efficient production and purification of plant viruses are key steps. In established protocols, the need for ultracentrifugation is a significant limitation due to cost, difficult scalability, and safety issues. In addition, the purity of the final virus isolate often remains unclear. Here, an advanced protocol for the purification of the CCMV from infected plant tissue was developed, focusing on efficiency, economy, and final purity. The protocol involves precipitation with PEG 8000, followed by affinity extraction using a novel peptide aptamer. The efficiency of the protocol was validated using size exclusion chromatography, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, reversed-phase HPLC, and sandwich immunoassay. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the final eluate of the affinity column is of exceptional purity (98.4%) determined by HPLC and detection at 220 nm. The scale-up of our proposed method seems to be straightforward, which opens the way to the large-scale production of such nanomaterials. This highly improved protocol may facilitate the use and implementation of plant viruses as nanotechnological platforms for in vitro and in vivo applications.