Superficial venous morphometry in the antecubital fossa: An autonomous robotic ultrasound-based analysis.

Background: The antecubital fossa is an important site for venepuncture and intravenous procedures. The size and location of a vein can affect the success of venepuncture and intravenous access. Several studies have investigated the superficial vein morphometry, but they had small sample sizes or focused on specific populations or groups.

Real-time cancer diagnosis of breast cancer using fluorescence lifetime endoscopy based on the pH.

A biopsy is often performed for the diagnosis of cancer during a surgical operation. In addition, pathological biopsy is required to discriminate the margin between cancer tissues and normal tissues in surgical specimens. In this study, we presented a novel method for discriminating between tumor and normal tissues using fluorescence lifetime endoscopy (FLE).

Photoinduced electron transfer upon supramolecular complexation of (porphyrinato)Sn-viologen with cucurbit[7]uril.

The synthesis of (porphyrinato)Sn-viologen, 1, and its supramolecular complexation with cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) were studied. H NMR spectroscopic studies obviously reveal that 1 forms a 1 : 2 supramolecular complex with CB[7] through the inclusion of viologen moieties of 1 into the cavity of CB[7]. The cyclic voltammetric study supports that the binding affinity of the radical cation forms is comparable to that of the di-cation viologen toward CB[7].

Gold nanorods-conjugated TiO nanoclusters for the synergistic combination of phototherapeutic treatments of cancer cells.

Background: Recently, a combination of photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) and heat to kill cancer cells, respectively has attracted considerable attention because it gives synergistic effects on the cancer treatment by utilizing the radiation of nontoxic low-energy photons such as long wavelength visible light and near IR (NIR) penetrating into subcutaneous region. For the effective combination of the phototherapies, various organic photosensitizer-conjugated gold nanocomplexes have been developed, but they have still some disadvantages due to photobleaching and unnecessary energy transfer of the organic photosensitizers.

Results: In this study, we fabricated novel inorganic phototherapeutic nanocomplexes (Au NR-TiO NCs) by conjugating gold nanorods (Au NRs) with defective TiO nanoparticle clusters (d-TiO NP clusters) and characterized their optical and photothermal properties.

Simultaneous multicolor imaging of wide-field epi-fluorescence microscopy with four-bucket detection.

We demonstrate simultaneous imaging of multiple fluorophores using wide-field epi-fluorescence microscopy with a monochrome camera. The intensities of the three lasers are modulated by a sinusoidal waveform in order to excite each fluorophore with the same modulation frequency and a different time-delay. Then, the modulated fluorescence emissions are simultaneously detected by a camera operating at four times the excitation frequency.

Fabrication of ZnO nanoplates for visible light-induced imaging of living cells.

Visible light-sensitive ZnO nanoplates (ZnO NPls) were successfully synthesized using a hydrothermal sol-gel method and their structures were characterized by using techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmitting electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and FT-IR analysis. From these studies it was found that the nanoplates have excellent crystallinity and a perfect nanoplate morphology with diameter ranging from 50 nm to 250 nm and a thickness of ∼10 nm. Surfaces of the ZnO NPls were further conjugated with hydrophilic amino groups such as aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES) to enhance the biocompatibility and cell penetrations.

Visible light-sensitive APTES-bound ZnO nanowire toward a potent nanoinjector sensing biomolecules in a living cell.

Nanoscale cell injection techniques combined with nanoscopic photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy have been important issues in high-resolution optical biosensing, gene and drug delivery and single-cell endoscopy for medical diagnostics and therapeutics. However, the current nanoinjectors remain limited for optical biosensing and communication at the subwavelength level, requiring an optical probe such as semiconductor quantum dots, separately. Here, we show that waveguided red emission is observed at the tip of a single visible light-sensitive APTES-modified ZnO nanowire (APTES-ZnO NW) and it exhibits great enhancement upon interaction with a complementary sequence-based double stranded (ds) DNA, whereas it is not significantly affected by non-complementary ds DNA.

Highly fluorescent peptide nanoribbon impregnated with Sn-porphyrin as a potent DNA sensor.

Highly fluorescent and thermo-stable peptide nanoribbons (PNRs) were fabricated by solvothermal self-assembly of a single peptide (D,D-diphenyl alanine peptides) with Sn-porphyrin (trans-dihydroxo[5,10,15,20-tetrakis(p-tolyl)porphyrinato] Sn(IV) (SnTTP(OH)2)). The structural characterization of the as-prepared nanoribbons was performed by transmitting electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy, indicating that the lipophilic Sn-porphyrins are impregnated into the porous surface formed in the process of nanoribbon formation through intermolecular hydrogen bonding of the peptide main chains. Consequently the Sn-porphyrin-impregnated peptide nanoribbons (Sn-porphyrin-PNRs) exhibited typical UV-visible absorption spectrum of the monomer porphyrin with a red shifted Q-band, and their fluorescence quantum yield was observed to be enhanced compared to that of free Sn-porphyrin.

Optical waveguiding and lasing action in porphyrin rectangular microtube with subwavelength wall thicknesses.

Lasing action by planar-, fiber-, or ring-type waveguide has been extensively investigated with different types of microcavities such as thin films, wires, cylindrical tubes, or ribbons. However, the lasing action by sharp bending waveguide, which promises efficient interconnection of amplified light in the photonic circuits, remains unexplored. Here, we report the first observation of microcavity effects in the organic rectangular microtubes (RMTs) with sharp bends (ca.