Ultrafast Gas Chromatography-Tandem Differential Mobility Spectrometry: Toward A New Generation of On-Site, Real-Time Trace-Explosives Detection.

In the defense and security sector, rapid detection of trace quantities of threat materials is paramount. Traditional instrumentation typically relies on standalone ion mobility techniques due to being inexpensive, portable, and highly sensitive. However, these techniques face limitations when handling complex samples, suffering from low resolving power (often less than 100) and ion-suppression effects, which can lead to false-positive and false-negative results.

A fibre based triature interferometer for measuring rapidly evolving, ablatively driven plasma densities.

We report on the first use of a fibre interferometer incorporating triature analysis for measuring rapidly evolving plasma densities of n(e) ∼ 10(13)/cm(3) and above, such as those produced by simple coaxial plasma guns. The resultant system is extremely portable, easy to field in experiments, relatively cheap to produce, and—with the exception of a small open area in which the plasma is sampled—safe in operation as all laser light is enclosed.

Molecular analysis to detect pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in high-risk groups.

Background & Aims: Screening of high-risk groups for pancreatic cancer has not been adopted because of concerns regarding specificity and sensitivity. Suitability of a combination of 3 novel molecular screening techniques was investigated.

Methods: Pancreatic juice was extracted from 146 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, chronic pancreatitis, or biliary tract stones.

Molecular diagnosis of early pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in high-risk patients.

The prevalence of pancreatic cancer in the general population is too low--even in high-prevalence areas such as Northern Europe and North America (8-12 per 10(5) population)--relative to the diagnostic accuracy of present detection methods to permit primary screening in the asymptomatic adult population. The recognition that the lifetime risk of developing pancreatic cancer for patients with hereditary pancreatitis (HP) is extremely high (20% by the age of 60 years and 40% by the age of 70 years) poses considerable challenges and opportunities for secondary screening in those patients without any clinical features of pancreatic cancer. Even for secondary screening, the detection of cancer at a biological stage that would be amenable to cure by surgery (total pancreatectomy) still requires diagnostic modalities with a very high sensitivity and specificity.

The N34S mutation of SPINK1 (PSTI) is associated with a familial pattern of idiopathic chronic pancreatitis but does not cause the disease.

Background: Mutations in the PRSS1 gene explain most occurrences of hereditary pancreatitis (HP) but many HP families have no PRSS1 mutation. Recently, an association between the mutation N34S in the pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor (SPINK1 or PSTI) gene and idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (ICP) was reported. It is unclear whether the N34S mutation is a cause of pancreatitis per se, whether it modifies the disease, or whether it is a marker of the disease.