Energy efficiency increase in a chemical production site.

Sustainability has become a key factor for the chemical industry. One element of sustainability is energy efficiency in manufacturing processes. This article illustrates the strategic energy initiatives of a leading global operating company and the implementation of its elements into practice.

Carotenoids.

This short review intends to present some key facts on carotenoids in a popular scientific language on the occasion of the International Year of Chemistry. Carotenoids have a characteristic C40H56 structure and represent a market value of several hundred million Euros. Their chemical synthesis is still a demanding challenge for chemists.

The detection of antibodies to recombinant interferon alfa-2a in human serum.

Three different procedures have been used for detecting antibodies to Roferon-A (recombinant human interferon alfa-2a, rHuIFN alpha-2a) in the serum of patients who received this interferon as part of ongoing clinical trials: an antiviral neutralization bioassay (ANB), the standard method recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the more recently developed radioimmunoassay (RIA) and enzymeimmunoassay (EIA). Although the three tests are based on different principles, the correlation among them was excellent. The assays show differences in sensitivities with the ANB being the least sensitive of the three.