We present a new application of the noncompetitive phage anti-immunocomplex assay (PHAIA) by converting an existing competitive assay to a versatile noncompetitive sandwich-type format using immunocomplex binding phage-borne peptides to detect the brominated flame retardant, brominated diphenyl ether 47 (BDE 47). Three phage-displayed 9-mer disulfide-constrained peptides that recognize the BDE 47-polyclonal antibody immunocomplex were isolated. The resulting PHAIAs showed variable sensitivities, and the most sensitive peptide had a doseresponse curve with an SC 50 (concentration of analyte producing 50% saturation of the signal) of 0.7 ng/ml BDE 47 and a linear range of 0.3-2 ng/ml, which was nearly identical to the best heterologous competitive format (IC 50 of 1.8 ng/ml, linear range of 0.4-8.5/ml). However, the PHAIA was 1400-fold better than homologous competitive assay. The validation of the PHAIA with extracts of house furniture foam as well as human and calf sera spiked with BDE 47 showed overall recovery of 80-113%. The PHAIA was adapted to a dipstick format (limit of detection of 3.0 ng/ml), and a blind test with six random extracts of local house furniture foams showed that the results of the PHAIA and dipstick assay were consistent, giving the same positive and negative detection. KeywordsPhage anti-immunocomplex assay; Phage-displayed peptide; Phage ELISA; Noncompetitive immunoassay; BDE 47; Brominated flame retardant Antibody-driven specificity and affinity have made immunoassays widely accepted analytical tools for the detection of a variety of substances, including small-molecularweight analytes such as environmental contaminants, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, toxins, and hormones [1][2][3]. Immunoassays are generally categorized into one of two functional formats: non-competitive sandwich type or competitive. Macromolecules with two or more nonoverlapping epitopes can be detected by a non-competitive immunoassay in which one antibody immobilized on the solid support captures the target molecule and a secondary antibody conjugated with signal-producing molecules detects the captured protein. In the case of small analytes, most of the antigen is buried in the antibody binding pocket after binding; therefore, the analyte cannot be simultaneously recognized by The use of an antibody capable of recognizing an analyte-bound antibody enhances the affinity and specificity of the primary antibody because of the formation of a ternary complex, which translates into an improved noncompetitive assay with enhanced sensitivity [4][5][6][7][8]. Although there have been efforts to produce these anti-immune complex antibodies by immunization with analyte-antibody complexes, the method has rarely been successful. In addition, polyclonal antibodies (PAbs) cannot be used as an immunogens for the antiimmune complex antibody because of their heterogeneous nature. An alternative method, called open sandwich assay, was recently introduced for the development of homogeneous noncompetitive a...
Understanding how to source agricultural raw materials sustainably is challenging in today’s globalized food system given the variety of issues to be considered and the multitude of suggested indicators for representing these issues. Furthermore, stakeholders in the global food system both impact these issues and are themselves vulnerable to these issues, an important duality that is often implied but not explicitly described. The attention given to these issues and conceptual frameworks varies greatly—depending largely on the stakeholder perspective—as does the set of indicators developed to measure them. To better structure these complex relationships and assess any gaps, we collate a comprehensive list of sustainability issues and a database of sustainability indicators to represent them. To assure a breadth of inclusion, the issues are pulled from the following three perspectives: major global sustainability assessments, sustainability communications from global food companies, and conceptual frameworks of sustainable livelihoods from academic publications. These terms are integrated across perspectives using a common vocabulary, classified by their relevance to impacts and vulnerabilities, and categorized into groups by economic, environmental, physical, human, social, and political characteristics. These issues are then associated with over 2,000 sustainability indicators gathered from existing sources. A gap analysis is then performed to determine if particular issues and issue groups are over or underrepresented. This process results in 44 “integrated” issues—24 impact issues and 36 vulnerability issues —that are composed of 318 “component” issues. The gap analysis shows that although every integrated issue is mentioned at least 40% of the time across perspectives, no issue is mentioned more than 70% of the time. A few issues infrequently mentioned across perspectives also have relatively few indicators available to fully represent them. Issues in the impact framework generally have fewer gaps than those in the vulnerability framework.
Summary The study at hand measures the value of improving data governance and access in the Supporting Soil Health Interventions (SSHI) project in Ethiopia. We applied two separate but interlinked models, one qualitative and one quantitative, to create a new framework enhancing the traditional cost–benefit analysis. The qualitative analysis provided novel insights into the specific types of value and the mechanisms through which they are generated. These results underpinned the development of an innovative framework to measure this perceived value quantitatively. By combining the quantitative and qualitative framework, the study demonstrated that it is possible to generate plausible and credible quantitative estimates of both costs and benefits of data governance and access. While acknowledging that the estimates are only illustrative, the case study results suggested on a direct cost measure, at a particular point in time, the SSHI data governance activities yielded a negative return. However, indirect social and public benefits are rarely quantified, but this paper shows that relatively few “indirect” benefits (current but unmeasured, or measurable but in the future) are necessary to reverse that view, at least from the point of the economy more generally.
Progress on research and innovation in food technology depends increasingly on the use of structured vocabularies—concept schemes, thesauri, and ontologies—for discovering and re-using a diversity of data sources. Here, we report on GACS Core, a concept scheme in the larger Global Agricultural Concept Space (GACS), which was formed by mapping between the most frequently used concepts of AGROVOC, CAB Thesaurus, and NAL Thesaurus and serves as a target for mapping near-equivalent concepts from other vocabularies. It provides globally unique identifiers, which can be used as keywords in bibliographic databases, tags for web content, for building lightweight facet schemes, and for annotating spreadsheets, databases, and image metadata using synonyms and variant labels in 25 languages. The minimal semantics of GACS allows terms defined with more precision in ontologies, or less precision in controlled vocabularies, to be linked together making it easier to discover and integrate semantically diverse data sources.
Ensuring healthy, safe and nutritious food for everyone is a Background global concern. Accessing the information to make the correct decisions regarding food security can be challenging. Open data has been shown to help solve practical problems related to agriculture and nutrition, enabling effective decision-making. In order to create a global data ecosystem that benefits everyone, a wide range of stakeholders must be included in the conversations. The GODAN initiative involves a network of over 500 partner organizations committed to open data in agriculture and nutrition.: We analysed data from a survey of the partner organizations, with Methods 225 respondents, to determine open data activities, including challenges, use of open data, stakeholder involvement and future directions. Respondents were asked a variety of free text and multiple choice questions.: 160 partners had at least one open data activity, 65 did not, or did not Results know. Of the 160, 36 had a second activity. Overall, GODAN partners are developing 200 open data activities. Agriculture is the most common focus for an open data activity. Nutrition-only activities are strongly underrepresented. The most frequently mentioned challenge was cost, which is linked to data governance, management, and human capacity; many do not have the funding to begin or maintain open data activities.: The most common challenges were the ones related to the data Conclusions itself, including how to access it, manage it, and how to keep the sensitive data secure. GODAN is already focusing on these issues through the Responsible Data and Data Ownership pieces. Capacity building, and empowering partners with the tools they need to act, is one of the most effective actions available for GODAN. Funding for open data, as well as research to create more sustainable business models, should be the focus of the open data agenda.
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