Development of a direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (dc-ELISA) for the detection of scopolamine in wheat.

A competitive direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (dc-ELISA) was developed for the detection and quantification of scopolamine (SCO) in wheat flours and cereal samples (multigrain, oat and barley). The limit of quantification (IC) of the established method was 6.00 ± 1.

Point-of-Care Testing Biosafety Decisions: An Investigation Summary Illustrating Current Decision-Making Process in Ontario, Canada.

Background: Point-of-care testing (POCT) is increasingly being used in healthcare, including hospitals, and POCT-style tests are also used within some laboratories. The principles of biosafety, including risk assessment and containment of biohazardous agents, can be utilized as a foundation to establish policies and procedures guiding safe performance of POCT. However, specific biosafety guidelines for POCT are generally lacking, particularly for those performed outside laboratories by healthcare workers.

Clinical Gaps-in-Noise Measures in Blast-Exposed Veterans: Associations with Electrophysiological and Behavioral Responses.

It has been established that blast exposure and brain injury can result in self-reported and measured auditory processing deficits in individuals with normal or near-normal hearing sensitivity. However, the impaired sensory and/or cognitive mechanisms underlying these auditory difficulties are largely unknown. This work used a combination of behavioral and electrophysiological measures to explore how neural stimulus discrimination and processing speed contribute to impaired temporal processing in blast-exposed Veterans measured using the behavioral Gaps-in-Noise (GIN) Test.

Aortic valve leaflets are asymmetric and correlated with the origin of coronary arteries.

Background: Asymmetry of the aortic valve leaflets has been known since Leonardo Da Vinci, but the relationship between size and shape and origin of the coronary arteries has never been examined. Our aim was to evaluate this anatomy in a population of pediatric patients using a cross-sectional study design.

Methods: Consecutive pediatric patients with trans-esophageal echocardiography (TEE), with or without trans-thoracic echocardiography (TTE), were included in our study.

Speech understanding and extended high-frequency hearing sensitivity in blast-exposed veteransa).

Auditory difficulties reported by normal-hearing Veterans with a history of blast exposure are primarily thought to stem from processing deficits in the central nervous system. However, previous work on speech understanding in noise difficulties in this patient population have only considered peripheral hearing thresholds in the standard audiometric range. Recent research suggests that variability in extended high-frequency (EHF; >8 kHz) hearing sensitivity may contribute to speech understanding deficits in normal-hearing individuals.