Blooming, analysis

The detection and analysis, including quantification, of cyanobacterial toxins are essential for monitoring their occurrence in natural and controlled waters used for agricultural purposes, potable supplies, recreation and aquaculture. Risk assessment of the cyanobacterial toxins for the protection of human and animal health, and fundamental research, are also dependent on efficient methods of detection and analysis. In this article we discuss the methods developed and used to detect and analyse cyanobacterial toxins in bloom and scum material, water and animal/clinical specimens, and the progress being made in the risk assessment of the toxins. 

In the Slimmer of 1989, Rutland Water, the largest man-made lake in Western Europe and which supplies potable water to approximately 500 000 people in the East of England, contained a heavy bloom of Microcystis aeruginosa. By the end of the summer, a number of sheep and dogs had died after drinking from the bloom and concentrated scum. Analysis revealed that the cyanobacterial bloom material was toxic to laboratory mice, and that rumen contents from a poisoned sheep contained fivemicrocystin variants.Microcystins were detected in waters used for recreation in Australia at concentrations greater than 1 mg per... 

The final article, by S. G. Bell and G. A. Codd of the University of Dundee Department of Biological Services, is concerned with detection, analysis, and risk assessment of cyanobacterial toxins. These can be responsible for animal, fish, and bird deaths and for ill-health in humans. The occurrence of toxic cyanobacterial blooms and scums on nutrient-rich waters is a world-wide phenomenon and cases are cited from Australia, the USA, and China, as well as throughout Europe. The causes, indentification and assessment of risk, and establishment of criteria for controlling risk are discussed. 

A content analysis of 11 general chemistry laboratory manuals was carried out by Domin (1999a) and concluded that the majority require the learners to operate predominantly at the three lower cognitive levels of Bloom s taxonomy (knowledge, comprehension and application), leaving out the three higher levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. 

In the United States, the threshold mercury concentration for commercial sale of fish is determined by the Food and Drag Administration, whereas consumption advice for recreational (noncommercial) fish is developed by individual states and tribes. Mercury data collected for development of fish-consumption advisories are typically from analyses of filets (axial muscle tissue, with or without skin) for total mercury, with concentrations expressed on a wet-weight basis. Analysis of filets for total mercury yields a valid estimate of MeHg concentration (Grieb et al. 1990 Bloom 1992), whether the analyzed sample consists of a large filet or a small mass of tissue obtained with a biopsy needle (Cizdziel et al. 2002 Baker et al. 2004). 

OM Identification of compounding ingredients, particle size, dispersion, surface blooming, image analysis... 

Applications Applications of UV/VIS spectrophotometry can be found in the areas of extraction monitoring and control, migration and blooming, polymer impregnation, in-polymer analysis, polymer melts, polymer-bound additives, purity determinations, colour body analysis and microscopy. Most samples measured with UV/VIS spectroscopy are in solution. However, in comparison to IR spectroscopy additive analysis in the UV/VIS range plays only a minor role as only a limited class of compounds exhibits specific absorption bands in the UV range with an intensity proportional to the additive concentration. Characteristic UV absorption bands of various common polymer additives are given in Scheirs [24],... 

Applications Rather intractable samples, such as organic polymers, are well suited to FD, which avoids the need for volatilisation of the sample. Since molecular ions are normally the only prominent ions formed in the FD mode of analysis, FD-MS can be a very powerful tool for the characterisation of polymer chemical mixtures. Application areas in which FD-MS has played a role in the characterisation of polymer chemicals in industry include chemical identification (molecular weight and structure determination) direct detection of components in mixtures off-line identification of LC effluents characterisation of polymer blooms and extracts and identification of polymer chemical degradation products. For many of these applications, the samples to be analysed are very complex... 

XRD can be used for studies of polymorphic transformations in bloom formation. In combination with DTA, XRD has been used to study polymorphic transformations of Ca stearate and Ca stearate monohydrate [338]. Full pattern refinement has been used for quantitative analysis of mixtures of crystalline... 

K, Conneally PM, Hesselbrock V, Rice JP, Schuckit MA, Cloninger R, Nurn-berger JJr., Crowe R, Bloom, FE. Quantitative trait loci analysis of human event-related brain potentials P3 voltage. Elec-troenceph Clin Neurophysiol 1998 1-7. 

We have looked in detail at the analysis of nutrients in natural water, as this is of considerable interest globally, in terms of the overall effect on water quality, and in particular, the prevention of algal blooms which have become an all-too familiar problem in many countries. Bearing in mind the need for inexpensive components and the requirement of low-power operation, we have focused on colorimetric detection using LED/photodiode detection in a microfluidic manifold as a generic... 

Bertsch PM, Bloom PR. Aluminum. In Bartels JM (ed.), Methods of Soil Analysis Part 3 Chemical Methods. Madison, WI Soil Science Society of America and American Society of Agronomy 1996, pp. 517-550. 

Gieser, P., Bloom, G.C., and Lazaridis, E.N. (2002) Introduction to microarray experimentation and analysis, in Biostatistical methods (S. W. Looney, ed.). Methods in Molecular Biology, Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, 184 29-49. 

Wood et al. have combined acoustic levitation and Raman spectroscopy with the intention of developing a field tool for environmental monitoring of algal blooms and nutrient availability [62]. Heraud discussed the most appropriate spectral preprocessing techniques for analysis of Raman spectra of single microalgal cells and developed a method to predict the nutrient status of those cells from in vivo spectra [63,64]. 

M.E. Wolff, J.D. Baxter, P.A. Kollman, D.L. Lee, I.D. Kuntz, E. Bloom, D.T. Matulich, J. Morris, Nature of steroid-glucocorticoid receptor interactions Thermodynamic analysis of the binding reaction, Biochemistry 16 (1978) 3201-3208. 

Fig. 5.2. Gas chromatography (GC) and electroantennography (EAG) analysis of male Manduca sexta antennal responses to floral volatiles from the night blooming cactus Peniocereus greggii. The upper trace is a flame ionization detection (FID) chromatogram of floral headspace odors separated on a carbowax GC column, while the lower trace is a simultaneous recording of summed antennal action potentials elicited by individual compounds as they elute. The largest absolute responses followed methyl benzoate, methyl salicylate, and benzyl alcohol (peaks 3-5, respectively). Note the poor responses (circled) to benzaldehyde and benzyl benzoate (peaks 2, 6) and the disproportionately higher responses (bold arrows) to methyl salicylate and benzyl salicylate (peak 7) relative to their peak areas. Peak 1 is the internal standard (toluene) remaining unnumbered peaks are ambient contaminants.

The electron patterns are the primal shapes of nature. Fundamentally, all of nature s shapes can be traced to such patterns. Even the properties of living substances are based on them—in particular, the properties of the molecules that carry the hereditary code. In the final scientific analysis, the stability of electron wave patterns causes the same flowers to bloom every spring and makes children similar to their parents. 

The developed biosensor was applied to the analysis of cyanobacterial bloom samples from freshwater lakes of Spain, Greece, France, Scotland and Denmark. Two samples from Scotland and one from Denmark irreversibly inhibit the acetylcholinesterase. The estimated concentrations were between 1.5 and 30nmol/g of dry weight, values extremely high when compared to the intraperitoneal 50% lethal dose of anatoxin-a(s) in mice (121 nmol/kg). 

C.J. Ward, K.A. Beattie, E.Y.C. Lee and G.A. Codd, Colorimetric protein phosphatase inhibition assay of laboratory strains and natural blooms of cyanobacteria comparisons with high-performance liquid chromatography analysis for microcystins, FEMS Microbiol. Lett., 153 (1997) 465-473. 

Moretto, L.M., N.S. Bloom, P. Scopece, and P. Ugo. 2003. Application of ultra clean sampling and analysis methods for the speciation of mercury in the Venice lagoon (Italy). J. Phys. TV France 107 887-890. 

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