Climate Change

Online Learning:
1. I learned that climate change is about...
        - changes in the earth's climate including the earth's temperature, precipitation, and sea level. I also learned that many activities of human in our environment can cause climate change.

Online Activities:
1. After viewing the PowerPoint and video presentations on climate change, I realized that...
        -many human activities causes increase in carbon dioxide that causes climate change. I also realized that we need to protect and care for our nature to avoid climate change.

Online Collaboration:
1. I can do something helpful to address climate change by...
        -sharing information or knowledge about climate change to social medias.

Cytotoxicity

Cytotoxicity

 

Cytotoxicity  is the quality of being toxic to cells. Cells exposed to a cytotoxic compound can respond in a number of ways. The cells may undergo necrosis, in which they lose membrane integrity and die rapidly as a result of cell lysis; they can stop growing and dividing; or they can activate a genetic program of controlled cell death, termed apoptosis.

There are many ways to measure cytotoxicity, but most involve assessment of cell membrane integrity. Membrane integrity can be evaluated by using vital dyes (such as trypan blue or propidium iodide), by protease biomarkers, with MTT or MTS redox potential assays, or by measuring ATP content. Many of these assays involve colorimetric, fluorescence, or luminescence detection.

With one of the widest ranges of detection technologies on the market today, Molecular Devices can provide the bioanalytical and analytical products that you need to conduct cytotoxicity measurements, from cytometry and high-content screening systems to multi-mode microplate analysis systems to high-throughput cellular screening systems.

Cytotoxicity can also be monitored using the 3-(4, 5-Dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) or MTS assay. This assay measures the reducing potential of the cell using a colorimetric reaction. Viable cells will reduce the MTS reagent to a colored formazan product. A similar redox-based assay has also been developed using the fluorescent dye, resazurin. In addition to using dyes to indicate the redox potential of cells in order to monitor their viability, researchers have developed assays that use ATP content as a marker of viability. Such ATP-based assays include bioluminescent assays in which ATP is the limiting reagent for the luciferase reaction.

Cytotoxicity assays are widely used by the pharmaceutical industry to screen for cytotoxicity in compound libraries. Researchers can either look for cytotoxic compounds, if they are interested in developing a therapeutic that targets rapidly dividing cancer cells, for instance; or they can screen "hits" from initial high-throughput drug screens for unwanted cytotoxic effects before investing in their development as a pharmaceutical.

 Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS)


 Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) is a spectroanalytical procedure for the quantitative determination of chemical elements using the absorption of optical radiation (light) by free atoms in the gaseous state.
In analytical chemistry the technique is used for determining the concentration of a particular element (the analyte) in a sample to be analyzed. AAS can be used to determine over 70 different elements in solution or directly in solid samples used in pharmacology, biophysics and toxicology research.
Atomic absorption spectroscopy was first used as an analytical technique, and the underlying principles were established in the second half of the 19th century by Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, both professors at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.^[1]
The modern form of AAS was largely developed during the 1950s by a team of Australian chemists. They were led by Sir Alan Walsh at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Division of Chemical Physics, in Melbourne, Australia.^[2][3]
Atomic absorption spectrometry has many uses in different areas of chemistry such as:

•  Clinical analysis: Analyzing metals in biological fluids and tissues such as whole blood, plasma, urine, saliva, brain tissue, liver, muscle tissue, semen
•  Pharmaceuticals: In some pharmaceutical manufacturing processes, minute quantities of a catalyst that remain in the final drug product
•  Water analysis: Analyzing water for its metal content

 

Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy in analytical chemistry is a technique for determining the concentration of a particular metal element within a sample. Atomic absorption spectroscopy can be used to analyze the concentration of over 62 different metals in a solution.

 




Although atomic absorption spectroscopy dates to the nineteenth century, the modern form was largely developed during the 1950s by a team of Australian chemists, lead by Alan Walsh, working at the CSIRO (Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organization) Division of Chemical Physics, in Melbourne Australia. Typically, the technique makes use of a flame to atomize the sample, but other atomizers such as a graphite furnace are also used. Three steps are involved in turning a liquid sample into an atomic gas:  

•  Desolvation – the liquid solvent is evaporated, and the dry sample remains
• Vaporizations – the solid sample vaporizes to a gas
• Volatilization – the compounds making up the sample are broken into free atoms.

The flame is arranged such that it is laterally long (usually 10cm) and not deep. The height of the flame must also be controlled by controlling the flow of the fuel mixture. A beam of light is focused through this flame at its longest axis (the lateral axis) onto a detector past the flame.

The light that is focused into the flame is produced by a hollow cathode lamp. Inside the lamp is a cylindrical metal cathode containing the metal for excitation, and an anode. When a high voltage is applied across the anode and cathode, the metal atoms in the cathode are excited into producing light with a certain emission spectra. The type of hollow cathode tube depends on the metal being analyzed. For analyzing the concentration of copper in an ore, a copper cathode tube would be used, and likewise for any other metal being analyzed. The electrons of the atoms in the flame can be promoted to higher orbitals for an instant by absorbing a set quantity of energy (a quantum). This amount of energy is specific to a particular electron transition in a particular element. As the quantity of energy put into the flame is known, and the quantity remaining at the other side (at the detector) can be measured, it is possible to calculate how many of these transitions took place, and thus get a signal that is proportional to the concentration of the element being measured.