A rapid and accurate 3-(4,5-dimethyl thiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide colorimetric assay for quantification of bacteriocins with nisin as an example

The objective of this study is to propose a more accurate and faster MTT [3-(4,5-dimethyl thiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide] colorimetric assay (MCA) for quantitative measurement of polypeptide bacteriocins in solutions with nisin as an example. After an initial incubation of nisin and indicator bacterium Micrococcus luteus NCIB 8166 in tubes, MTT was added for another incubation period. After that, nisin was quantified by estimating the number of viable bacteria based on measuring the amount of purple formazan produced by cleavage of yellow tetrazolium salt MTT. Then MCA was compared to a standard agar diffusion assay (ADA). The results suggested a high correlation coefficient (r ²=0.975±0.004) between optical density (OD) and the inhibitory effect of nisin on a bacterial strain Micrococcus luteus NCIB 8166 at a range of 0.125~32 IU/ml. The MCA described in this study was very quick. Quantification of nisin took only 7~8 h and the detection limit was at the level of 0.125 IU/ml when compared to 12 IU/ml and 24~28 h for ADA. The MCA provides an accurate and rapid method for quantification of nisin in solutions and is expected to be used for quantification of other antimicrobial substances.     

PEAK COVARIANCE STABILITY OF A RANDOM RICCATI EQUATION ARISING FROM KALMAN FILTERING WITH OBSERVATION LOSSES

We consider the stability of a random Riccati equation with a Markovian binary jump coefficient. More specifically, we are concerned with the boundedness of the solution of a random Riccati difference equation arising from Kalman filtering with measurement losses. A sufficient condition for the peak covariance stability is obtained which has a simpler form and is shown to be less conservative in some cases than a very recent result in existing literature. Furthermore, we show that a known sufficient condition is also necessary when the observability index equals one.     

CONSTRUCTIVE KISSING NUMBERS IN HIGH-DIMENSIONAL SPACES

In the present paper, we focus on constructive spherical codes. By employing algebraic geometry codes, we give an explicit construction of spherical code sequences. By making use of the idea involved in the proof of the Gilbert-Varshamov bound in coding theory, we construct a spherical code sequence in exponential time which meets the best-known asymptotic bound by Shamsiev and Wyner.