Georgia E. Guild

Rapid drug detection in oral samples by porous silicon assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry

The demand for analysis of oral fluid for illicit drugs has arisen with the increased adoption of roadside testing, particularly in countries where changes in legislation allow random roadside testing of drivers for the presence of a palette of illicit drugs such as methamphetamine (MA), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Oral samples are currently tested for such drugs at the roadside using an immunoassay-based commercial test kit. Positive roadside tests are sent for confirmatory laboratory analysis, traditionally by means of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). We present here an alternative rapid analysis technique, porous silicon assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (pSi LDI-MS), for the high-throughput analysis of oral fluids. This technique alleviates the need for sample derivatization, requires only sub-microliter sample volumes and allows fast analysis (of the order of seconds). In this study, the application of the technique is demonstrated with real samples from actual roadside testing. The analysis of oral samples resulted in detection of MA and MDMA with no extraction and analysis of THC after ethyl acetate extraction. We propose that, subject to miniaturization of a suitable mass spectrometer, this technique is well suited to underpin the deployment of oral fluid testing in the clinic, workplace and on the roadside.

Maternal Investment in Diamond Firetails Stagonopleura guttata: Female Spot Numbers Predict Egg Volume and Yolk Lutein Content

Abstract It is widely known that parents invest into reproduction to increase offspring survival and thereby increase reproductive success. In particular, female birds allocate maternal resources including lipids, hormones, and nutrients into the egg yolk. Carotenoid pigments, which are responsible for the characteristic yellow, orange, and red colours, are particularly important as antioxidant for the developing embryo. The Investment Hypothesis addresses variable female allocation of maternal resources into egg yolk and predicts that high quality females and females paired to high-quality males will invest more in their eggs. We test predictions of the Investment Hypothesis in the Diamond Firetail Stagonopleura guttata. In captive females and their pair males, we compare yolk carotenoid (lutein and zeaxanthin) allocation and egg size in relation to traits indicative of individual quality (body condition, flank spot number, bill and rump colour). Females with more white flank spots laid larger eggs that contained more lutein, the major carotenoid found in the Diamond Firetail eggs. Total carotenoid concentration in egg yolk was not related to any other female characteristic. Females laid larger eggs when paired with a high quality male (dark red rump).

Non-matrix Matched Glass Disk Calibration Standards Improve XRF Micronutrient Analysis of Wheat Grain across Five Laboratories in India

Within the HarvestPlus program there are many collaborators currently using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to measure Fe and Zn in their target crops. In India, five HarvestPlus wheat collaborators have laboratories that conduct this analysis and their throughput has increased significantly. The benefits of using XRF are its ease of use, minimal sample preparation and high throughput analysis. The lack of commercially available calibration standards has led to a need for alternative calibration arrangements for many of the instruments. Consequently, the majority of instruments have either been installed with an electronic transfer of an original grain calibration set developed by a preferred lab, or a locally supplied calibration. Unfortunately, neither of these methods has been entirely successful. The electronic transfer is unable to account for small variations between the instruments, whereas the use of a locally provided calibration set is heavily reliant on the accuracy of the reference analysis method, which is particularly difficult to achieve when analyzing low levels of micronutrient. Consequently, we have developed a calibration method that uses non-matrix matched glass disks. Here we present the validation of this method and show this calibration approach can improve the reproducibility and accuracy of whole grain wheat analysis on 5 different XRF instruments across the HarvestPlus breeding program.