Engineering topics

Wells, A. F.

Publications and source records attributed to Wells, A. F..

4 records

NASA NTRS1978

Water system virus detection

The performance of a waste water reclamation system is monitored by introducing a non-pathogenic marker virus, bacteriophage F2, into the waste-water prior to treatment and, thereafter, testing the reclaimed water for the presence of the marker virus. A test sample is first concentrated by absorbing any marker virus onto a cellulose acetate filter in the presence of a trivalent cation at low pH and then flushing the filter with a limited quantity of a glycine buffer solution to desorb any marker virus present on the filter. Photo-optical detection of indirect passive immune agglutination by polystyrene beads indicates the performance of the water reclamation system in removing the marker virus. A closed system provides for concentrating any marker virus, initiating and monitoring the passive immune agglutination reaction, and then flushing the system to prepare for another sample.

Fraser, A. S.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Virus detection system

Nonpathogenic marker virus, monitored by compact automatic detection system, is used to determine ability of water-reclamation system to reject passage of viruses into potable water.

Fraser, A. S.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Development of a preliminary design of a method to measure the effectiveness of virus exclusion during water process reclamation at zero-G

Organon Diagnostics has developed, under NASA sponsorship, a monitoring system to test the capability of a water recovery system to reject the passage of viruses into the recovered water. In this system, a non-pathogenic marker virus, bacteriophage F2, is fed into the process stream before the recovery unit and the reclaimed water is assayed for its presence. An engineering preliminary design has been performed as a parallel effort to the laboratory development of the marker virus test system. Engineering schematics and drawings present a preliminary instrument design of a fully functional laboratory prototype capable of zero-G operation.

Fraser, A. S.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Water system virus detection

A monitoring system developed to test the capability of a water recovery system to reject the passage of viruses into the recovered water is described. A nonpathogenic marker virus, bacteriophage F2, is fed into the process stream before the recovery unit and the reclaimed water is assayed for its presence. Detection of the marker virus consists of two major components, concentration and isolation of the marker virus, and detection of the marker virus. The concentration system involves adsorption of virus to cellulose acetate filters in the presence of trivalent cations and low pH with subsequent desorption of the virus using volumes of high pH buffer. The detection of the virus is performed by a passive immune agglutination test utilizing specially prepared polystyrene particles. An engineering preliminary design was performed as a parallel effort to the laboratory development of the marker virus test system. Engineering schematics and drawings of a fully functional laboratory prototype capable of zero-G operation are presented. The instrument consists of reagent pump/metering system, reagent storage containers, a filter concentrator, an incubation/detector system, and an electronic readout and control system.

Fraser, A. S.↗