The current culture-based approach for the diagnosis of bloodstreams infection is incommensurate with timely treatment and curbing the prevalence of multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) due to its long time-to-result. Bloodstream infections typically involve extremely low (e.g., <10 colony-forming unit (CFU)/mL) bacterial concentrations that require a labor-intensive process and as much as 72 hours to yield a diagnosis. Here, we demonstrate a culture-free approach to achieve rapid diagnosis of bloodstream infections. An immuno-detection platform with intrinsic signal current amplification was developed for the ultrasensitive, rapid detection, identification (ID) and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) of infections. With its capability of monitoring short-term (1–2 hours) bacterial growth in blood, the platform is able to provide 84-minute simultaneous detection and ID in blood samples below the 10 CFU/mL level and 204-minute AST. The susceptible-intermediate-resistant AST capacity was demonstrated.
Lipid accumulation in microalgae is a renewable resource
for the
synthesis of biodiesel. Two microalgae, Spirulina and S. dimorphus, were subjected
to the electrostatic conditions imposed by applying a dc voltage to
the algal growth mixtures under different light intensities without
inducing electrical currents. The electrostatic conditions increased
the growth rates of the microalgae well above those due to natural
photosynthesis. The enhanced growth was dependent on the magnitude
of the applied voltage and the contact area of the algal growth mixture
to the electrodes. The voltage also induced the flocculation of the
algae on the electrodes. The lipid contents of S. dimorphus were analyzed and found to be increased by the electrostatic effect.
The observed enhanced algal growth could be due to accelerated electron
transport rates in the cellular processes of photosynthesis. The results
presented here indicate that, even with deficient light intensities,
the electrostatic method is able to increase the overall production
of the microalgae consistently and significantly beyond the algal
level caused by natural photosynthesis with the normal light intensity.
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