The Impact of Environmental and Housing Factors on the Distribution of Triatominae (Hemiptera, Reduviidae) in an Endemic Area of Chagas Disease in Puebla, Mexico.

Background: Chagas disease (CD), a Neglected Tropical Disease caused by , affects millions of people in Latin America and the southern US and spreads worldwide. CD results from close interactions between humans, animals, and vectors, influenced by sociodemographic factors and housing materials.

Methods: This study aimed to evaluate how these factors, along with seasonal changes, affect the distribution of CD vectors in an endemic community near Puebla, Mexico, using a cross-sectional survey.

A review of cardiac troponin I detection by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy: Under the spotlight of point-of-care testing.

Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is a biomarker widely related to acute myocardial infarction (AMI), one of the leading causes of death around the world. Point-of-care testing (POCT) of cTnI not only demands a short turnaround time for its detection but the highest accuracy levels to set expeditious and adequate clinical decisions. The analytical technique Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) possesses several properties that tailor to the POCT format, such as its flexibility to couple with rapid assay platforms like microfluidics and paper-based immunoassays.

Microtexture analysis of copper-doped iron oxide thin films prepared by air pneumatic spray.

The stereometric and fractal concepts are crucial tools to analyse, to verify, to report 3-D microtexture of thin film surfaces on the nanometre scale and thereby to generate useful topographic characteristics for better understanding and steering them toward further improvements and rational use in modern applications. At first, the present work aimed to prepare hematite α-Fe O thin films with (0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 wt%) of Cu doping by using the air pneumatic spray method. Subsequently, the obtained pure α-Fe O and Cu-doped α-Fe O thin films were characterised by XRD device, which determines their polycrystalline nature with the rhombohedral hematite structure.

A Review on SERS-Based Detection of Human Virus Infections: Influenza and Coronavirus.

The diagnosis of respiratory viruses of zoonotic origin (RVsZO) such as influenza and coronaviruses in humans is crucial, because their spread and pandemic threat are the highest. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an analytical technique with promising impact for the point-of-care diagnosis of viruses. It has been applied to a variety of influenza A virus subtypes, such as the H1N1 and the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Indirect Quantification of Glyphosate by SERS Using an Incubation Process With Hemin as the Reporter Molecule: A Contribution to Signal Amplification Mechanism.

The indirect determination of the most used herbicide worldwide, glyphosate, was achieved by the SERS technique using hemin chloride as the reporter molecule. An incubation process between hemin and glyphosate solutions was required to obtain a reproducible Raman signal on SERS substrates consisting of silicon decorated with Ag nanoparticles (Si-AgNPs). At 780 nm of excitation wavelength, SERS spectra from hemin solutions do not show extra bands in the presence of glyphosate.

The effect of dental LED light-curing unit photoactivation mode on 3D surface morphology of dental nanocomposites evaluated by two-dimensional multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of two photoactivation modes of dental LED light-curing unit (LCUs) (conventional and "Soft Start" mode) on surface texture parameters of two dental resin-based nanocomposites. LED LCUs were considered as standard light-curing devices in contemporary dental practice. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was applied to investigate surface morphology on 90 × 90 μm scanning area through 2D multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis with computational algorithms basis.

Emerging pollutant treatments in wastewater: Cases of antibiotics and hormones.

Because of the intensive use of pharmaceutical substances in human life, studies on the detection of these chemical compounds and their metabolites as pollutants in water bodies are continuously reported. Some pharmaceutical agents are associated with adverse effects to aquatic life, even at very low concentrations (ng L to μg L). For instance, the presence of antibiotics and hormones has been associated with increasing proliferation of antibiotic resistant pathogens and feminization and masculinization of some aquatic organisms.

Biocatalytic spectrophotometric method to detect paracetamol in water samples.

A biocatalytic methodology based on the quantification of the laccase inhibition during the oxidation of a standard substrate ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) for the indirect determination of paracetamol in drinking water has been developed. The method displayed a fast response time (20 s), and high selectivity to paracetamol in presence of interfering substances such as naproxen, estradiol, ketoprofen, sulfamethoxazole, and diclofenac. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were noticed to be 0.