Evaluation of 11 SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests by using samples from patients with defined IgG antibody titers.

We evaluated the performance of 11 SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests using a reference set of heat-inactivated samples from 278 unexposed persons and 258 COVID-19 patients, some of whom contributed serial samples. The reference set included samples with a variation in SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody titers, as determined by an in-house immunofluorescence assay (IFA). The five evaluated rapid diagnostic tests had a specificity of 99.

Gold and ZnO-Based Metal-Semiconductor Network for Highly Sensitive Room-Temperature Gas Sensing.

Metal-semiconductor junctions and interfaces have been studied for many years due to their importance in applications such as semiconductor electronics and solar cells. However, semiconductor-metal networks are less studied because there is a lack of effective methods to fabricate such structures. Here, we report a novel Au-ZnO-based metal-semiconductor (M-S) network in which ZnO nanowires were grown horizontally on gold particles and extended to reach the neighboring particles, forming an (M-S) network.

Yeast Volatomes Differentially Affect Larval Feeding in an Insect Herbivore.

Yeasts form mutualistic interactions with insects. Hallmarks of this interaction include provision of essential nutrients, while insects facilitate yeast dispersal and growth on plant substrates. A phylogenetically ancient chemical dialogue coordinates this interaction, where the vocabulary, the volatile chemicals that mediate the insect response, remains largely unknown.

Biotransformation of vanillin into vanillyl alcohol by a novel strain of Cystobasidium laryngis isolated from decaying wood.

Vanillin is an aromatic aldehyde found as a component of lignocellulosic material, and in the cured pods of orchidaceae plants. Like other phenolic substances, vanillin has antimicrobial activity and can be extracted from lignin either by a thermo-chemical process or through microbial degradation. Vanillin, can serve as a model monomer in biodegradation studies of lignin.