Immunizing Mice using Recombinant Truncated p72 Protein of African Swine Fever Virus and Establishment of an Indirect ELISA

African swine fever (ASF) is a serious infectious pestilence characterized by bleeding in domestic pigs. Therefore, it is necessary to develop effective methods to diagnose this virus, serological detection of specific antibodies against ASFV infection is important for successful clinical diagnosis. In this study, E. coli was used to express the truncated P72 (tP72) gene cloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pET28a (+). Rosetta (DE3). An indirect ELISA assay which against African swine fever virus (ASFV) was established by using purification of recombinant tP72 protein as coated material for detection antibodies. Most effective in exhibiting positive result was observed when the coated material at a concentration of 3.625 μg/mL, serum was diluted to 1:160 and the concentration of HRP-conjugated secondary antibody was 1:2000. Our results showed that the method displayed an excellent specificity (100%) and better sensitivity (1:1600) during serological test based on the criterion of an average value plus three standard deviations. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers

Assessment of hot-melt coating methods for multiparticulate substrates: Mortar-coating vs. pan-coating

Hot-melt coating (HMC) is an alternative, solvent-free coating method generally used to modify substrate release rate and/or mask its unpleasant taste. The aim of this study was to assess two HMC methods (pan-coating and mortar-coating) by assaying functional properties of the coated material. The selected substrates included highly soluble sodium chloride (model substance) and caffeine (bitter drug), and the coating agent was glycerol distearate without/with the addition of liquid paraffin. Experiments with sodium chloride revealed that pan-coating yielded particles of more regular shape, while mortar-coating yielded samples of more uniform coating layer. The flowability of the coated material depended on the particle size. Sustained sodium chloride release was achieved for all mortar-coated and some pan-coated samples. The analysis of the results indicated mortar-coating as a preferable HMC method for caffeine coating. The resulting caffeine yield in the coated samples was high (99%), the material showed satisfactory mechanical properties and drug release from the coated particles was sustained. Overall, the obtained results suggest that both pan-and mortar-coating can be used to sustain the release of drugs with unpleasant taste, but mortar-coating can be considered as a more simple and practical method that can be potentially used in compounding pharmacies.

Surface Mechanical Properties of Tool Steel on the Addition of Carbon Nanotubes with the Process of Flame Spray Tungsten Carbide Coatings

Tungsten Carbide (WC) hard coating is widely used to coat the surface of the steel tools which provide tribological properties. In this paper, 0.25 wt% & 0.35 wt% of Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) were mixed with tungsten carbide (WC) powders as the feedstock powders. Method of solution dispersion in ethanol media using an ultrasonic device was used for coating the surface of WC powders with CNT powder. The mixed powders were then used as the feedstock powder to coat onto the surface of tool steel using the flame spraying process. The coated surface microstructures were observed under a scanning electron microscope (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and the energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) was used for the phase characterization and identification. The wear rate of coated steels was determined using the Ogoshi machine, and the Vickers hardness method used to measure their microhardness. The effects of CNT on the microstructure of the coated material and the surface mechanical properties were investigated. The results showed that the mixture powder preparation using an ultrasonic method in SDS solution and the ball-milling process was suitable to disperse the CNT on the surface of WC feed powders due to produce an adequate relationship between CNT' and WC powders increasing the surface mechanical properties of coatings. The wear resistance of the coated material produce using the mixture of WC powder with 0.35 wt% CNT increased around 50% higher than the WC coated steel without CNT addition. Also, the hardness of coating reinforced CNT increased significantly compared with the hardness of WC coated and the steel substrates. Microhardness value from the base metal to the WC-CNT coated steel increased from 550 HV to 1717 HV and also the wear rate from the base metal to the WC-CNT coated steel decreased from 0.86 mm3/min to 0.017 mm3/min. These results indicate that CNT is an excellent alternative to improve the surface mechanical properties of WC coatings.

Water Saving in CSP Plants by a Novel Hydrophilic Anti-Soiling Coating for Solar Reflectors

In this work, results of the outdoor exposure campaign of a newly developed hydrophilic anti-soiling coating for concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) mirrors are presented. The material was exposed for nearly two years under realistic outdoor conditions and the influence of two different cleaning techniques was evaluated. Mirror samples were analyzed during exposure and their reflectance and cleanliness were measured. The performance of the anti-soiling coated mirror samples was compared to conventional uncoated silvered-glass mirrors. The coatings showed appropriate anti-soiling and easy-to-clean behavior, with a mean cleanliness gain of 1 pp and maximum values under strong soiling conditions of up to over 7 pp. Cleanliness of the coated samples stayed higher throughout the whole campaign before and after cleaning, resulting in lower soiling rate compared to the reference material. Taking into account these values and supposing a threshold for cleaning of 96%, the number of cleaning cycles could be decreased by up to 11%. Finally, the coated material showed negligible degradation, not exceeding the degradation detected for the reference material.