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Increased concentrations of heavy metals have been observed in the southwestern coast of Taiwan due to increasing human activities and economic growth; however, comprehensive studies investigating seasonal variations of major chemical parameters such as nutrient salts, trace metals, and physical parameters and their associations in the estuaries of the southwestern coast of Taiwan are scarce. The objective of this study was to investigate the seasonal variation of major chemical parameters and their associations in the coastal waters and estuaries of the southwestern coast of Taiwan. The sampling sites included the Pachang River, Erren River, Gaoping River, Donggang River, and Shiniu River. In addition, one coastal site at Yunlin was considered as a reference. The concentrations of nutrient salts and heavy metals show seasonal variations. According to DO level, Donggang river was considered to be slightly polluted, although the level of DO at Donggang river was significantly less than the other sampling sites. According to suspended solids, Pachang and Gaoping seemed to be slightly polluted. The concentrations of the tested heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb, and Hg) did not exceed the criteria of water pollution. Based on the results of cluster analysis, the tested marine parameters (DO, saturation percentage of DO, orthophosphate, and citrate) at Donggang River were significantly different from the other sampling sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitigation strategies of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been greatly hindered by the continuous emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants. New sensitive, rapid diagnostic tests for the wide-spectrum detection of viral variants are needed. We generated a panel of 41 monoclonal antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (NP) by using mice hybridoma techniques. Of these mAbs, nine exhibited high binding activities and were applied in latex-based lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs). The LFIAs utilizing NP-mAb-7 and -40 had the best sensitivity and lowest limit of detection: 8 pg for purified NP and 625 TCID50/mL for the authentic virus (hCoV-19/Taiwan/4/2020). The specificity tests showed that the NP-mAb-40/7 LFIA strips did not cross-react with five human coronavirus strains or 20 other common respiratory pathogens. Importantly, we found that 10 NP mutants, including alpha (B.1.1.7), beta (B.1.351), gamma (P.1), and delta (B.1.617.2) variants, could be detected by NP-mAb-40/7 LFIA strips. A clinical study (n = 60) of the NP-mAb-40/7 LFIA strips demonstrated a specificity of 100% and sensitivity of 90% in infected individuals with cycle threshold (Ct) values < 29.5. These anti-NP mAbs have strong potential for use in the clinical detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection, whether the virus is wild-type or a variant of concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]