Recombinase Polymerase Amplification Combined with Lateral Flow Dipstick Assay for the Rapid and Sensitive Detection of Pseudo-nitzschia multiseries.

The harmful algal bloom (HAB) species Pseudo-nitzschia multiseries is widely distributed worldwide and is known to produce the neurotoxin domoic acid, which harms marine wildlife and humans. Early detection and preventative measures are more critical than late management. However, the major challenge related to early detection is the accurate and sensitive detection of microalgae present in low abundance. Therefore, developing a sensitive and specific method that can rapidly detect P. multiseries is critical for expediting the monitoring and prediction of HABs. In this study, a novel assay method, recombinase polymerase amplification combined with lateral flow dipstick (RPA-LFD), is first developed for the detection of P. multiseries. To obtain the best test results, several important factors that affected the amplification effect were optimized. The internal transcribed spacer sequence of the nuclear ribosomal DNA from P. multiseries was selected as the target region. The results showed that the optimal amplification temperature and time for the recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) of P. multiseries were 37 °C and 15 min. The RPA products could be visualized directly using the lateral flow dipstick after only 3 min. The RPA-LFD assay sensitivity for detection of recombinant plasmid DNA (1.9 × 100 pg/µL) was 100 times more sensitive than that of RPA, and the RPA-LFD assay sensitivity for detection of genomic DNA (2.0 × 102 pg/µL) was 10 times more sensitive than that of RPA. Its feasibility in the detection of environmental samples was also verified. In conclusion, these results indicated that the RPA-LFD detection of P. multiseries that was established in this study has high efficiency, sensitivity, specificity, and practicability. Management measures made based on information gained from early detection methods may be able to prevent certain blooms. The use of a highly sensitive approach for early warning detection of P. multiseries is essential to alleviate the harmful impacts of HABs on the environment, aquaculture, and human health.

From Confucianism to psychology: Rebooting Internet addicts in China.

Coined in the 1990s, the term "Internet addiction" encapsulates a brief but influential human history of technological advancement and psychological development. However, most studies have treated Internet addiction as a "global" concept in the realm of science without taking into consideration its sociocultural meanings and local history. In China, obsessive online gaming behavior among youth is viewed as a national issue of public health and social control. This article examines the special development of interventions to address Internet addiction in China within a broader local history of culturally inflected social control, market reform, the one-child policy, and psychology. Based on historical review and ethnographic data from a treatment center specializing in Internet addiction, this article presents a deep analysis of what Internet addiction means in Chinese lives. It argues that Internet addiction is, in fact, a cultural idiom of distress related to social control rather than a universal syndrome of self-control. It represents the dynamic interactions between Confucian family values and market reform, the one-child policy, and recent trends in psychology and technology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).