Lung Cancer Detection by Native Fluorescence Spectra of Body Fluids—A Preliminary Study

Lung cancer takes a heavy toll every year, since the survival rate is not more than 15%. In this paper, we present results of a novel technique based on the autofluorescence of body fluids like blood plasma, acetone extract of cellular components, sputa and urine of lung cancer patients (N = 27). A set of ratio parameters based on the fluorescence peaks of tryptophan and elastin, in plasma and sputum; flavin, NADH (reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) and porphyrin in urine; porphyrin alone in acetone extract of formed elements, were all evaluated. Similar sets of ratios were obtained for age adjusted normal controls (N = 27) and all these ratios were given as inputs to multivariate (principle component and discriminant) analyses, which showed that the two groups could be classified with an accuracy of about 90%. Since the instrumentation involved was an ordinary steady state Xe lamp based spectrofluorometer, the technique is of significant advantage in screening and early detection of lung cancer in high risk population such as heavy smokers.     

Precise mass measurement of a double-stranded 500 base-pair (309 kDa) polymerase chain reaction product by negative ion electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry

Electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (ESI-FTICRMS) has been used to determine the mass of a double-stranded 500 base-pair (bp) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product with an average theoretical mass of the blunt-ended (i.e. unadenylated) species of 308 859.35 Da. The PCR product was generated from the linearized bacteriophage Lambda genome which is a double-stranded template. Utilization of ethanol precipitation in tandem with a rapid microdialysis step to purify and desalt the PCR product was crucial to obtain a precise mass measurement. The PCR product (0.8 pmol/μL) was electrosprayed from a solution containing 75% acetonitrile, 25 mM piperidine, and 25 mM imidazole and was infused at a rate of 200 nL/min. The average molecular mass and the corresponding precision were determined using the charge-states ranging from 172 to 235 net negative charges. The experimental mass and corresponding precision (reported as the 95% confidence interval of the mean) was 309 406 +/- 27 Da (87 ppm). The mass accuracy was compromised due to the fact that the PCR generates multiple products when using Taq polymerase due to the non-template directed 3'-adenylation. This results in a mixture of three PCR products with nearly identical mass (i.e. blunt-ended, mono-adenylated and di-adenylated) with unknown relative abundances that were not resolved in the spectrum. Thus, the experimental mass will be a weighted average of the three species which, under our experimental conditions, reflects a nearly equal concentration of the mono- and di-adenylated species. This report demonstrates that precise mass measurements of PCR products up to 309 kDa (500 bp) can be routinely obtained by ESI-FTICR requiring low femtomole amounts. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigation of the quantitative properties of the quadrupole orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometer with electrospray ionisation using 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine

This paper describes the investigation of the potential of a quadrupole orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometer (Q-TOF) equipped with an atmospheric pressure ionisation interface for quantitative measurements of small molecules separated by reversed phase liquid chromatography. To this end, the detection limits and linear dynamic range in particular were studied in an LC/MS/MS experiment using 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine standards and 3,4-methylenedioxyethylamphetamine for internal standardisation. In a second phase, the experiment was repeated with real biological extracts (whole blood, serum, and vitreous humour). A calibration for 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and its metabolite 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine was prepared in each of these matrices again using 3,4-methylenedioxyethylamphetamine as internal standard. The resulting quantitative data were compared with those obtained by liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection for the same extracts. The Q-TOF results revealed excellent sensitivity and a linear dynamic range of nearly four decades (2-10 000 pg on-column, r(2) = 0.9998, 1/x weighting). Furthermore, all the calibration curves prepared in biological material were superimposable, LC/MS/MS and LC-fluorescence, and the quantitative results for actual samples compared very favourably. It was concluded that the Q-TOF achieves a linear dynamic range for quantitative LC/MS/MS work exceeding that of fluorescence detection and at much better absolute sensitivity. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Working group report: Heavy-ion physics and quark-gluon plasma

This is the report of Heavy Ion Physics and Quark-Gluon Plasma at WHEPP-09 which was part of Working Group-4. Discussion and work on some aspects of quark-gluon plasma believed to have created in heavy-ion collisions and in early Universe are reported.     

Quantum space-times in the year 2002

We review certain emergent notions on the nature of space-time from noncommutative geometry and their radical implications. These ideas of space-time are suggested from developments in fuzzy physics, string theory, and deformation quantization. The review focuses on the ideas coming from fuzzy physics. We find models of quantum space-time like fuzzy S ⁴ on which states cannot be localized, but which fluctuate into other manifolds like CP³. New uncertainty principles concerning such lack of localizability on quantum space-times are formulated. Such investigations show the possibility of formulating and answering questions like the probability of finding a point of a quantum manifold in a state localized on another one. Additional striking possibilities indicated by these developments is the (generic) failure of CPT theorem and the conventional spin-statistics connection. They even suggest that Planck’s ‘constant’ may not be a constant, but an operator which does not commute with all observables. All these novel possibilities arise within the rules of conventional quantum physics, and with no serious input from gravity physics.