November 6, 2008

• Microscope Measures 3D Shape, Profile & Roughness with 1 nm Resolution
• METTLER TOLEDO Introduces One Click Water Titration™
• Compact FTIR Delivers Outstanding Sensitivity, Stability, and Usability
• Need a New Freezer, But Lack the Space?
  New Brunswick to the Rescue!

• Protein Testing Enters the 21st Century: Innovative Protein Analyzer Not Affected by Melamine
• A Novel Tool for Searching, Sorting, Copying, and Managing Spectra Files for Use in the Development of Individual Discriminate-Partial Least Squares Material Discriminators
• Revised USP Chapter <467> and its Application to Excipient Qualification and Testing
• Analysis of Pigments by Laser Desorption Mass Spectrometry
• Turning an Acidity or Basicity Quandary Into an Automatic Titration Solution: Solving the Challenge of Acid/Base Balance in Polyol Samples
• Sensitive and Rapid 1-D Gel Imaging
• Application of Well-Controlled pH Gradients at Variable Isocratic Salt Concentrations to IEX Chromatography

• FOSS NIRSystems, Inc. Announced New Web Site
• HORIBA Instruments Have Strategic Agreement With
  The Qwest Scientific Group
• Olympus America Has Announced The Judges

The new KEYENCE Generation II VK-9700 Laser Confocal Microscope now performs non-contact 3D surface analysis with 1 nanometer resolution. It measures minute steps at steep angles, measures large areas with high-precision, enables clear observations of minute shapes and can be operated without advanced training. Typical applications include solar cells, BGA, IC and TFT patterns. Its high resolution, 3D imaging, ultra-high depth-of-field, and operational simplicity complement SEMs. No specimen processing or coating is required.

More Info

Contact Information
Keyence
Tel. (888) 539-3623
E-mail: keyence@keyence.com
www.keyence.com

by John J. Urh

Global resourcing and production have increased the demand for food manufacturers to ensure the safety and integrity of their products. Though a weakening U.S. dollar and rising costs originally forced U.S. food manufacturers to consider less expensive imported protein sources, they have had to reevaluate that strategy because of the vast opportunity for adulterated shipments and lack of accurate and timely testing procedures. Customs inspectors and food manufacturers receive a multitude of large shipments every day of wheat gluten, rice protein, soy meal, and other protein-rich ingredients. Laboratories are already backlogged, and having to wait days for test results creates a bottleneck that costs suppliers and end users time and money. More importantly, test methods that do not measure protein directly are inaccurate and can inadvertently allow tainted or substandard ingredients into the food supply, jeopardizing consumers' health as well as their trust in the manufacturers of the products they use...

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FOSS NIRSystems, Inc. has announced its new Web site for all NIR analyzer needs-www.foss nirsystems.com. FOSS NIRSystems is a unit of FOSS A/S and is the world's leading supplier of laboratory, at-line, and process NIR solutions.

METTLER TOLEDO announces the introduction of its new Titration Compact line for simple and secure Karl Fischer titration.  Water determination has never been easier with solvent exchange, drift determinations, sample runs and sample series only needing One Click.  New security features include the new Solvent Manager pump, which completely eliminates contact with solvents and individual user-specific Home Screens, featuring One Click Hot Keys.

Click here for more information:
www.mt.com/one-click-water-determination

Contact Information
Mettler-Toledo, Inc.
Tel. (800) METTLER (638-8537)
www.mt.com

by James A. Finch

Working on the Global NIR ID (Identification) Project, the author needed a way to create a user friendly, straightforward, easy-to-follow, procedurally driven software application that could be used to perform the functions of his role in the development, validation, and maintenance of the FT-NIR material discriminators at Perrigo (Allegan, MI). With the company receiving well over 500 raw materials approved for use, it had to find a way to identify raw materials in an efficient manner that was equivalent to or exceeded the quality of current compendial identification methods. NIR ID was selected using the ABB Bomem (Quebec, Canada) MB-160 series (now FTLA-2000-160 series) and the Advanced Infra Red (AIRS) software (DHC Analysis Inc., Cleveland, OH)...

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HORIBA Instruments and HORIBA Jobin Yvon have concluded an exclusive strategic agreement with the Qwest Scientific Group, a West Coast-based manufacturer's representative organization for analytical laboratory instruments, to represent their elemental analyzer product lines in California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska. This collaboration will expand the HORIBA Instruments sales team with the introduction of seven Qwest representatives across the territory. The Qwest Scientific team of experienced problem solvers works closely with industrial and laboratory users to supply them with reliable and cost-effective instrumentation as well as complementary product lines

Featuring best-in-class sensitivity (30,000:1) and increased stability and usability, Shimadzu’s IRAffinity-1 is ideal for high-precision infrared analysis to confirm, identify and detect foreign matter in a variety of application areas. A compact FTIR, the instrument features:

• Long-term stability
• Protection from humidity
• Increased reliability
• Analysis support programs
• Easy-to-use software
• Compatibility with a wide range of accessories

Learn more at www.ssi.shimadzu.com/SPMAG

Contact Information
Shimadzu Scientific Instruments
Phone: 800-477-1227
E-mail: webmaster@shimadzu.com
Learn more at www.ssi.shimadzu.com

In July of this year, the new United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) Chapter <467> testing procedure for residual solvent will go into effect. In anticipation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already begun to pressure companies to demonstrate that they are compliant with <467> control limits before submitting a new drug application (NDA). The new testing guidelines significantly increase the requirements with which a pharmaceutical company must comply in order to demonstrate that its drug product is compliant with Chapter <467> limits...

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Olympus America has announced the judges for its fifth annual BioScapes International Digital Imaging Competition, which honors the world's finest life science images, both still and moving, as captured through light microscopes. Visit www.olympusbioscapes.com.

New Brunswick Scientific offers three unique ultra-low temperature storage solutions for labs short on space. First, the Innova U101—this personal-sized freezer fits on or under the bench to help utilize every inch of your lab space. Second, the ultra-slender Innova U360. At just 26.4” wide–including the handle–this 12.7 cubic foot freezer fits where other models simply cannot. Third, all Innova freezers use vacuum insulation panel technology to reduce thickness of the inner walls, leaving more space for your samples without impacting sample quality, energy-efficiency or freezer footprint.

To request a quote or download a brochure on NBS’ full line of space-efficient freezers, see www.nbsc.com/ab3a or call 877-723-3314.

Contact Information
New Brunswick Scienific
Tel. (877) 723-3314
www.nbsc.com/ab3a

Laser desorption mass spectrometry (LDMS) has been demonstrated as a useful tool for the forensic analysis of questioned documents (QD). This may involve determining the type of ink used to sign a document, whether an additional pen was used to alter a written document, or to estimate the time the ink has been on the paper. It could involve a simple handwritten document or a multicolor driver's license or passport. Historically, colorants found on a QD were mostly soluble dyes from pen inks. Now pigments are becoming more commonly encountered. Pigmented pen inks are attracting attention since insoluble pigments cannot be washed from a used check, while dye-based inks can, in the crime of check washing. Also, many inkjet printers now use pigmented inks instead of dyebased inks because insoluble pigment particles, commonly found in paints, are much more light-stable. The appearance of pigments in documents can be a point of frustration for document examiners, who had often used thin-layer chromatography (TLC) for the analysis of ink components. While TLC is ideal for analyzing dyes, it is incompatible with insoluble pigments. LDMS has proven to be a powerful tool for analyzing both dyes and pigments, and two examples here demonstrate pigment analysis...

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Uniquely quantifying varying levels of acidity or basicity in polyol samples has traditionally required two different methods utilizing less than desirable titrants with less than optimal results. These parameters are extremely important production determinations, since the quality of yield is dependent on the small variances in these results...

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Gel imaging is a critical component in a wide variety of today's life science applications, and the need for clear, precise, highly sensitive images is crucial. However, large gel imaging systems often take up valuable laboratory space. The red^TM gel imaging system (Alpha Innotech Corp., San Leandro, CA) provides quality imaging capabilities to laboratories with limited space. The system is small enough to fit on a benchtop, yet provides highly sensitive and quantitative images for the most demanding experiments. This article demonstrates how the imaging system enables scientists to achieve highly sensitive imaging results normally associated with larger imaging systems...

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The ion exchange technique described in this article enables the formation of controlled, externally generated pH gradients over the pH range 2-12 on either anionic or cationic stationary phases. The pISep kit (CryoBioPhysica, Rockville, MD) consists of a software package and two buffers, acidic and basic, composed of small zwitterions with overlapping pKas. The pISep software computes column volume and time-based protocols for the development of multishape, multistep, and multislope pH gradients on ion exchange (IEX) chromatography columns. An extension of the pISep technology allows the formation of fully controlled, externally generated pH gradients in the presence of arbitrary levels of NaCl ranging from 0 to 1.0 M. The ability to add salt while retaining control over the formation of pH gradients provides much improved flexibility for the separation of proteins sensitive to extremes of pH. It also provides fast, efficient scouting of pH gradients at varying isocratic salt concentrations in order to determine the optimal binding and separation conditions for a particular set of proteins...

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