Towards the timely detection of toxicants

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel entropy-based analysis method called CASSANDRA for early detection of toxicants using biosensors, demonstrating its ability to identify toxicant influence well before observable effects occur.

Contribution

The paper introduces the CASSANDRA entropy method for analyzing non-stationary time series to detect toxicants earlier than traditional methods.

Findings

CASSANDRA detects toxicant influence 30 minutes before rate drops.

Effective at low toxicant concentrations (2 nanomoles).

Reveals toxicant effects through a new complexity perspective.

Abstract

We address the problem of enhancing the sensitivity of biosensors to the influence of toxicants, with an entropy method of analysis, denoted as CASSANDRA, recently invented for the specific purpose of studying non-stationary time series. We study the specific case where the toxicant is tetrodotoxin. This is a very poisonous substance that yields an abrupt drop of the rate of spike production at t approximatively 170 minutes when the concentration of toxicant is 4 nanomoles. The CASSANDRA algorithm reveals the influence of toxicants thirty minutes prior to the drop in rate at a concentration of toxicant equal to 2 nanomoles. We argue that the success of this method of analysis rests on the adoption of a new perspective of complexity, interpreted as a condition intermediate between the dynamic and the thermodynamic state.