FAST specimens

E8. Emancipator, K., Low bias in assayed values of lipoprotein antigens-lipoprotein(a) and apo-lipoproteins A-l and B- in midday postprandial blood specimens compared with morning fasting specimens. Clin. Chem. (Winston-Salem, NC) 38, 431-433 (1992). 

Fig. 18. Day to day analysis of fasting specimens of Tom s gastric juice. Note the roughly inverse relationship between mucoproteose and acid. From Wolf and Glass (W18).

The type of urine specimen to be collected is dictated by the tests to be performed. Untimed or random specimens are suitable for only a few chemical tests usually, urine specimens must be collected over a predetermined interval of time, such as 1,4, or 24 hours. A clean, early morning, fasting specimen is usually the most concentrated specimen and thus is preferred for microscopic examinations and for the detection of abnormal amounts of constituents, such as proteins, or of unusual compounds, such as chorionic gonadotropin. The clean timed specimen is one obtained at specific times of the day or during certain phases of the act of micturition. Bacterial examination of the first 10 mL of urine voided is most appropriate to detect urethritis, whereas the midstream... 

Either serum or plasma may be used for a biuret assay. A fasting specimen is not required but may be desirable to decrease lipemia. Hemolysis should he avoided. Tightly stoppered samples of serum are stable for 1 week or more... 

Figure 8.3 Temperature dependence of final densities in FAST and conventional sintering of the sol-gel Al203-Ti02 powders. Calculated relative density values are shown for FAST specimens. (Reproduced from Ref. [117] with permission of John Wiley Sons, Inc.)...

Microscopy (qv) plays a key role in examining trace evidence owing to the small size of the evidence and a desire to use nondestmctive testing (qv) techniques whenever possible. Polarizing light microscopy (43,44) is a method of choice for crystalline materials. Microscopy and microchemical analysis techniques (45,46) work well on small samples, are relatively nondestmctive, and are fast. Evidence such as sod, minerals, synthetic fibers, explosive debris, foodstuff, cosmetics (qv), and the like, lend themselves to this technique as do comparison microscopy, refractive index, and density comparisons with known specimens. Other microscopic procedures involving infrared, visible, and ultraviolet spectroscopy (qv) also are used to examine many types of trace evidence. 

Fastness to Light. The ISO test for colorfastness to light is DajlightlSO 105-B01. The textile specimen is exposed to daylight under prescribed conditions, including protection from rain, along with a series of blue wool reference samples that fade at defined, prescribed, different rates. 

Golorfastness to Atmospheric Contaminants. The test colorfastness to nitrogen oxides, ISO 105-G01 is to assess the fastness of the color to nitrogen oxides that may be present ia hot air that has been passed over heated filaments or from the burning of gas, coal, etc. Specimens are exposed to nitrogen oxides ia a closed container along with standards until the standards have changed to a predetermined extent. 

Golorfastness to Bleaching. In fastness to hypochlorite bleachiag, ISO 10S-N01, the specimen is agitated ia a solution of sodium, calcium, or lithium hypochlorite containing 2 g/L available chlorine buffered to pH 11.0 with sodium carbonate for 1 h at 20°C and 50 1 Hquor-to-goods ratio. The specimen is tinsed ia water, hydrogen peroxide, or sodium bisulfite solution to remove free chlorine, dried, and assessed. 

In fastness to peroxide bleaching, ISO 10S-N02, the specimen is immersed ia a standard bleaching solution containing hydrogen peroxide (or sodium peroxide for viscose) where the composition of the bleaching Hquor is dependent on the fibers used ia the test specimen as are the pH and time of exposure (1—2 h). The objective of the test is to assess the colorfastness usiag typical bulk bleaching conditions for the fiber under test. 

Golorfastness to Heat Treatment. To test for fastness to dry heat, ISO 105-P01 the specimen is sandwiched between adjacent fabrics and placed under slight pressure between heated surfaces where the temperature of the surface is 150, 180, or 210°C for 30 s. The effect on the shade of the pattern and adjacents is then assessed. 

In the test for fastness to steam pleating, ISO 10S-P02, the specimen and adjacents are steamed under pressure for a specified time. The conditions used range from 5 min at 108°C and 135 kPa pressure for the mild test, to 15 min at 130°C and 270 kPa (2.66 atm) pressure for the severe test. 

The specimens analyzed are the punctures of human liver. This provides the life-time investigation of elemental metabolism in liver of patient. This is very important aspect, because the information obtained from autopsy is distorted because of fast processes in the liver post mortem. 

In studies of the behaviour of materials that may be either active or passive in the test environment, there would seem to be a real advantage in starting with specimens in an activated state to see if they will become passive, and to ascertain how fast they are corroded if they remain active. If passivity should be achieved after such an activated start, the material can be considered to be more reliable in the test environment than would be the case if by chance it managed to retain an originally induced passivity for all, or most of, the test period. It may also be valuable to know how fast the metal will be corroded by the test medium if activity should persist. 

Immediately the load is applied, the specimen elongates corresponding to an instantaneous elastic modulus. This is followed by a relatively fast rate of creep, which gradually decreases to a smaller constant creep rate. Typically this region of constant creep in thermoplastics essentially corresponds to... 

At constant conditions, different fluids will diffuse at different rates into a particular elastomer (with their rates raised proportionally by increasing the exposed area), and each will reach the far elastomer-sample surface proportionally more rapidly with decreasing specimen thickness. Small molecules usually diffuse through an elastomer more readily than larger molecules, so that, as viscosity rises, diffusion rate decreases. One fluid is likely to diffuse at different rates through different elastomers. Permeation rates are generally fast for gases and slow for liquids (and fast for elastomers and slow for thermoplastics and thermosets). 

Microscopic examination ( smear ) detects about 8 to 10 X 1CF organisms/L of specimen using the older AFB (acid-fast bacillus) stain, with the newer auramine-rhodamine fluorsecent... 

Simplest method of diagnosis is detection of oocysts by modified acid-fast staining of a stool specimen. Standard ova and parasite test does not include Cryptosporidium. 

Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) utilizes high-energy ion beams to probe the elemental composition of the surface of a specimen in a non-destructive way. It can establish the composition as a function of depth to several microns, with a typical depth resolution of 10-20 nm. It is a fast and standardless technique which quantifies the absolute atomic ratios, and can also determine the film thickness. 

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