Recent Advances in Polymer Science and Fabrication Processes for Enhanced Microfluidic Applications: An Overview.

This review explores significant advancements in polymer science and fabrication processes that have enhanced the performance and broadened the application scope of microfluidic devices. Microfluidics, essential in biotechnology, medicine, and chemical engineering, relies on precise fluid manipulation in micrometer-sized channels. Recent innovations in polymer materials, such as flexible, biocompatible, and structurally robust polymers, have been pivotal in developing advanced microfluidic systems.

Assessment of the association between the Implant Disease Risk Assessment (IDRA) tool and peri-implantitis: a retrospective cohort study with up to 8 years of follow-up.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the Implant Disease Risk Assessment (IDRA) tool in predicting the occurrence of peri-implantitis in patients who have received at least one implant, with a follow-up of up to 8 years. The records of patients who received one or more implants in the periodontology or oral surgery department of Saint Joseph University of Beirut between 2014 and 2018 were collected. Parameters related to the IDRA tool were obtained and the risk level calculated.

Exploitation of Luminescent Lanthanide Nanoparticles for a Sensitivity-Enhanced ELISA Detection Method.

A new detection method based on the photoluminescence properties of dye-sensitized lanthanide nanoparticles (Ln NPs) was developed for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). In this method, the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of phenol derivatives in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, providing dimers that are able to interact with the Ln NP surface and to efficiently photosensitize the Ln ions. Due to the very long emission lifetime of Ln, the time-gated detection of Ln NP luminescence allows the elimination of background noise due to the biological environment.

Dietary Fat Modulation of Gut Microbiota and Impact on Regulatory Pathways Controlling Food Intake.

Obesity is a multifactorial disease that continues to increase in prevalence worldwide. Emerging evidence has shown that the development of obesity may be influenced by taxonomic shifts in gut microbiota in response to the consumption of dietary fats. Further, these alterations in gut microbiota have been shown to promote important changes in satiation signals including gut hormones (leptin, ghrelin, GLP-1, peptide YY and CCK) and orexigenic and anorexigenic neuropeptides (AgRP, NPY, POMC, CART) that influence hyperphagia and therefore obesity.

Dye-sensitized lanthanide containing nanoparticles for luminescence based applications.

Due to their exceptional luminescent properties, lanthanide (Ln) complexes represent a unique palette of probes in the spectroscopic toolkit. Their extremely weak brightness due to forbidden Ln electronic transitions can be overcome by indirect dye-sensitization from the antenna effect brought by organic ligands. Despite the improvement brought by the antenna effect, (bio)analytical applications with discrete Ln complexes as luminescent markers still suffers from low sensitivity as they are limited by the complex brightness.