Reliability and correlation study of a new homocysteine assay.

Background: Hyperhomocysteinemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular diseases and is also associated with congenital birth defects, pregnancy complications and cancer. Many homocysteine assays have been developed since the 1960s and most companies have commercially available kits for homocysteine determination. In this paper, we report the performance characteristics of the new Architect homocysteine assay and the correlation with HPLC and other routine analytical methods.

Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture.

Agricultural lands occupy 37% of the earth's land surface. Agriculture accounts for 52 and 84% of global anthropogenic methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Agricultural soils may also act as a sink or source for CO2, but the net flux is small.