Top 10 Laboratory Articles of 2013

Jeanely Hunt, MS, MBA

Customer Success Manager

As the 2013 year in review comes to a close, we take a moment to reflect on American Laboratory’s vast practical resource of technical articles and application notes. The below top 10 list takes a look at the most viewed articles from American Laboratory’s complete archive.   This list of the top 10 articles shares some top-level insight into popular applications and research interests for scientists across various laboratory markets.

Here are American Laboratory’s Top 10 Articles of 2013:*

10.  Food Texture Analysis

In this article, author Richard Brown discusses texture testing for food ingredients, food structure, and quality control checkpoints.  Applicable to nearly all food types, textural properties can be determined back to how natural foods are grown to optimizing processes involved in processed foods.  This article reviews texture analysis instrumentation, typical tests, food testing fixtures, software control, and custom applications. 
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9.  Positional Fluctuation of IR Absorption Peaks: Frequency Shift of a Single Band or Relative Intensity Changes of Overlapped Bands?

Vibrational frequency changes are associated with specific chemical bonds.  Analyzing several systems, including simulated model spectra, spectral variations were observed.  The authors reveal that spectral changes involving the apparent peak position fluctuation in these systems do not often reflect any true band frequency shift. 
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8.  Quality Evaluation of HPLC-Grade Acetonitrile

Two important specifications for HPLC-grade acetonitrile are UV absorbance and HPLC blank gradient elution.  This technical article reviews the significance of UV absorbance specification for HPLC acetonitrile, and discusses the factors that influence the UV absorbance measurement and blank gradient elution baseline.
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7.  A Generic Method for the Analysis of Residual Solvents in Pharmaceuticals Using Static Headspace-GC-FID-MS

A static headspace gas chromatography with flame ionization detection and mass spectrometry (SHS-GC-FIDS-MS) setup was used to test pharmaceutical products. Results revealed more than 50 residual solvents, formerly referred to as organic volatile impurities, can be determined.  This technical article reviews experimental set up, including sample preparation, column selection, validation, and applications.
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6.  Trends in Blood Gases Analysis—Portable Blood Gas Analyzers, POC Testing, and Venous Blood Gas Values

Author T. Keith Brock describes trends in blood gas analysis (venous blood versus arterial blood), including the use of portable blood gas analyzers, point of care (POC) testing using blood gas analyzers, and the analysis of venous blood gases.
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5.  Statistics in Analytical Chemistry: Part 48—Relative Standard Deviations (RSDs)

Authors David Coleman and Lynn Vanatta continued their multi-installment of Statistics in Analytical Chemistry.  Part 48 on relative standard deviations (RSDs) discusses problems that arise with RSD calculation and reporting.  
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4.  Drying of Problematic Purification Samples by Lyophilization in a Centrifugal Evaporator

This article points out problems facing purification laboratories.  It discusses how lyophilization can be achieved in a centrifugal evaporator, while presenting several case studies from KuDOS Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research (NIBMR), and the U.K. Agrochemicals Research Centre.
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3.  Culturing Cells Under Hypoxic Conditions for Biologically Relevant Results

The best way to achieve hypoxic conditions is to use a cell culture incubator equipped to provide nitrogen gas in addition to carbon dioxide. Author Mary Kay Bates reviews the importance of oxygen and the cellular process, oxygen concentration, advanced technologies, and the use of hypoxic conditions to improve your results.   
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2.  Determination of Association (kon) and Dissociation (koff) Rates of Spiperone on the Dopamine D2 Receptor Using a Platform for GPCR Applications

Are you looking for fast and easy calculation of the k_off and k_on rates for a given receptor?  Author Nicolas Pierre reports the calculation of association and dissociation rates of spiperone-d2 using a Tag-lite dopamine D2 ligand binding kit.  
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1.  Measurement of Viscosity in a Vertical Falling Ball Viscometer

There are various available methods to perform viscosity measurement.  Authors Ping Yuan and Ben-Yuan Lin discuss the use of a vertical falling ball viscometer. This article also reviews its experimental setup and analysis of oil of SAE 30 as the sample liquid for measurement.  
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*The 2013 Top 10 lists are based on American Laboratory traffic measured during October 2012 – November 2013.

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