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Objectives: Now, a lot of researchers have tried to make recycled rigid materials from the sludge cake produced in paper mill industries for the purpose of decreasing its volume. In this study, the researchers tried to make economically a disposable bin and to examine whether it is toxic or not to the outside environment., Methods: To make a disposable bin, the researchers used the sludge cake, a plastic basket, as a fixed mold, white cloth or newspaper, as a removable supporter for wrapping around the mold, and latex or plaster, as a binder. The strength of the samples was measured by tensile-stress testing. The water absorption was evaluated by Cobb test. As toxicological tests, leaching test and seed germination test were selected., Results: It was possible to form the disposal bin from the cleaned sludge cake. They seemed safe to carry garbage in the industry judging from the results of tensile-stress testing. Some of them showed less water absorptiveness (higher water resistance) in the results of Cobb test. The results of leaching test showed small values of three heavy metals, lead, nickel and copper, in the leachate. The seed germination test suggested no adverse effects of the bins in the clay and sand on the tomato growth., Conclusions: The results of these tests suggest that the bins have good strength, sufficient water resistance and no toxicological effect on the environment. This new recycled bin has the possibility to solve the environmental and health problems at disposing the sludge cake.

The article discusses the acquisition of Thai Tapioca Limited of Bangkok, Thailand. Thai Tapioca Limited is being acquired by National Starch and Chemical Corporation of New Jersey out of Bridgewater. Thai Tapioca Limited is a producer of modified tapioca starches, and National Starch and Chemical Corporation will market the tapioca starches following the acquisition. The focus of the market of the tapioca starches will be the textile, paper, and food industries. The starches will be marketed globally.

We evaluated the use of culture and PCR-based assay for the direct detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) from sputum collected and stored on filter paper at room temperature for 5 days; the results were compared with those of staining and conventional culture of fresh sputum before storage (the 'gold standard'). Out of 231 sputum specimens examined, MTB was recovered from 124 samples by culture before storage. The culture positivity rate was significantly decreased to 70% after 5 days storage. For PCR assay, a fragment of 377 bp of the IS6110 sequence was amplified and detected using three methods: first PCR product combined with agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE); first PCR product with dot blot hybridization (DBH); nested PCR with AGE. Compared with culture, the sensitivity, specificity, and efficiency for first PCR with AGE were 71.8, 100 and 84.9% respectively; PCR with DBH gave results of 89.5, 96.3 and 92.6% respectively; the same values for nested PCR were 96.0, 97.2, and 96.5% respectively. Of these three methods, nested PCR gave excellent sensitivity and specificity with no significant difference (p = 0.727) from conventional culture. The storage of sputum on filter paper and storage at room temperature for 5 days had no apparent effect on the performance of nested PCR. We propose that this collection and storage method be considered for transporting sputum specimens from peripheral health centers or from the field; specimens may be sent by post to a central point for both culture and PCR analysis by trained technicians supervised in accordance with a well-established quality control system.

Glucose oxidase paper strips for semiquantitative determination of glucose in urine are commercially available but details of their preparation are not published. The purpose of this study was to produce such strips, using a coupled enzyme glucose oxidase-peroxidase reaction which would yield purple color with ortho-tolidine, and safranin upon dipping into urine containing glucose. In this present study, without any special equipment, special humidity and temperature control, the new reagent strip named R-strip could be successfully prepared in the atmospheric conditions of Thailand. R-strips were evaluated against random urine added with various amounts of glucose in comparison with a commercial strip (T-strip), Benedict's test, and a commercial tablet (C-tablet), routinely used in laboratories. The developed strips were found to be as specific as T-strip and more sensitive than other tests.