Comparison of Finite Difference Techniques for Simulating Pressure Swing Adsorption

Three different finite-difference routines were compared for solving the nonlinear, coupled, partial differential and algebraic equations that describe pressure swing adsorption processes. A successive substitution method (SS), a block LU decomposition procedure (BLUD), and the method of lines approach with adaptive time stepping (DASSL) were used to simulate and compare the computation times required to reach the periodic state for two different PSA systems: PSA-air drying and PSA-solvent vapor recovery. For both systems, the results showed that DASSL was nearly twice as fast as BLUD, whereas SS was nearly an order of magnitude slower than BLUD. DASSL and BLUD were also very robust and accurate, as nearly identical bed profiles were obtained from both methods under both transient and periodic state conditions.     

Performance Tested Method multiple laboratory validation study of ELISA-based assays for the detection of peanuts in food

Performance Tested Method multiple laboratory validations for the detection of peanut protein in 4 different food matrixes were conducted under the auspices of the AOAC Research Institute. In this blind study, 3 commercially available ELISA test kits were validated: Neogen Veratox for Peanut, R-Biopharm RIDASCREEN FAST Peanut, and Tepnel BioKits for Peanut Assay. The food matrixes used were breakfast cereal, cookies, ice cream, and milk chocolate spiked at 0 and 5 ppm peanut. Analyses of the samples were conducted by laboratories representing industry and international and U.S governmental agencies. All 3 commercial test kits successfully identified spiked and peanut-free samples. The validation study required 60 analyses on test samples at the target level 5 microg peanut/g food and 60 analyses at a peanut-free level, which was designed to ensure that the lower 95% confidence limit for the sensitivity and specificity would not be <90%. The probability that a test sample contains an allergen given a prevalence rate of 5% and a positive test result using a single test kit analysis with 95% sensitivity and 95% specificity, which was demonstrated for these test kits, would be 50%. When 2 test kits are run simultaneously on all samples, the probability becomes 95%. It is therefore recommended that all field samples be analyzed with at least 2 of the validated kits.     

Principal component analysis of the infrared spectra of mixtures

Principal component analysis of the infrared spectra of a series of related mixtures is used to determine the number of compounds present. The use of empirical error estimates makes it possible to determine correctly the number of components even when the spectra of the individual compounds are very similar.     

Notiz zum mikrochemischen Halogennachweis

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