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Toxoplasmosis, while often asymptomatic and prevalent as a foodborne disease, poses a considerable mortality risk for immunocompromised individuals during pregnancy. Point-of-care serological tests that detect specific IgG and IgM in patient sera are critical for disease management under limited resources. Despite many efforts to replace the T. gondii total lysate antigens (TLAs) by recombinant antigens (rAgs) in commercial kits, while IgG detection provides significant specificity and sensitivity, IgM detection remains comparatively low in sensitivity. In this study, we attempted to identify novel antigens targeting IgM in early infection, thereby establishing an IgM on-site detection kit. Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) and mouse serum immunoblotting, three novel antigens, including EF1γ, PGKI, and GAP50, were indicated to target T. gondii IgM. However, rAg EF1γ was undetectable by IgM of mice sera in Western blotting verification experiments, and ELISA coated with PGKI did not eliminate cross-reactivity, in contrast to GAP50. Subsequently, the lateral flow reaction employing a strip coated with 0.3 mg/mL purified rAg GAP50 and exhibited remarkable sensitivity compared with the conventional ELISA based on tachyzoite TLA, which successfully identified IgM in mouse sera infected with tachyzoites, ranging from 10³ to 104 at 5 dpi and 104 at 7 dpi, respectively. Furthermore, by using standard T. gondii-infected human sera from WHO, the limit of detection (LOD) for the rapid fluorescence immunochromatographic test (FICT) using GAP50 was observed at 0.65 IU (international unit). These findings underline the particular immunoreactivity of GAP50, suggesting its potential as a specific biomarker for increasing the sensitivity of the FICT in IgM detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Genomic characterization of rotavirus (RoV) has not been adopted at large-scale due to the complexity of obtaining sequences for all 11 segments, particularly when feces are used as starting material. Methods: To overcome these limitations, we developed a novel RoV capture and genome sequencing method combining commercial enzyme immunoassay plates and a set of routinely used reagents. Results: Our approach had a 100% success rate, producing >90% genome coverage for diverse RoV present in fecal samples (Ct < 30). Conclusions: This method provides a novel, reproducible and comparatively simple approach for genomic RoV characterization and could be scaled-up for use in global RoV surveillance systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the design and fabrication of a z-axis tuning fork gyroscope which has a freestanding architecture. In order to improve the performance of the tuning fork gyroscope by eliminating the influence of the squeeze-film air damping, the driving and sensing parts of the gyroscope were designed to oscillate in-plane. Furthermore, by removing the substrate underneath the device, the slide-film air damping in the gap between the proof masses and the substrate was eliminated. The proposed architecture was analyzed by the finite element method using ANSYS software. The simulated frequencies of the driving and sensing modes were 9.788 and 9.761 kHz, respectively. The gyroscope was fabricated using bulk micromachining technology. The quality factor and sensitivity of the gyroscope operating in atmospheric conditions were measured to be 111.2 and 11.56 mV/°/s, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]