Impedance-Based Rapid Diagnostic Tool for Single Malaria Parasite Detection.

This paper presents a custom, low-cost electronic system specifically designed for rapid and quantitative detection of the malaria parasite in a blood sample. The system exploits the paramagnetic properties of malaria-infected red blood cells (iRBCs) for their magnetophoretic capture on the surface of a silicon chip. A lattice of nickel magnetic micro-concentrators embedded in a silicon substrate concentrates the iRBCs above coplanar gold microelectrodes separated by 3 μm for their detection through an impedance measurement.

Active Opto-Magnetic Biosensing with Silicon Microring Resonators.

Integrated optical biosensors are gaining increasing attention for their exploitation in lab-on-chip platforms. The standard detection method is based on the measurement of the shift of some optical quantity induced by the immobilization of target molecules at the surface of an integrated optical element upon biomolecular recognition. However, this requires the acquisition of said quantity over the whole hybridization process, which can take hours, during which any external perturbation (e.

On-chip magnetophoretic capture in a model of malaria-infected red blood cells.

The search for new rapid diagnostic tests for malaria is a priority for developing an efficient strategy to fight this endemic disease, which affects more than 3 billion people worldwide. In this study, we characterize systematically an easy-to-operate lab-on-chip, designed for the magnetophoretic capture of malaria-infected red blood cells (RBCs). The method relies on the positive magnetic susceptibility of infected RBCs with respect to blood plasma.

A Lab-On-chip Tool for Rapid, Quantitative, and Stage-selective Diagnosis of Malaria.

Malaria remains the most important mosquito-borne infectious disease worldwide, with 229 million new cases and 409.000 deaths in 2019. The infection is caused by a protozoan parasite which attacks red blood cells by feeding on hemoglobin and transforming it into hemozoin.

On-Chip Selective Capture and Detection of Magnetic Fingerprints of Malaria.

The development of innovative diagnostic tests is fundamental in the route towards malaria eradication. Here, we discuss the sorting capabilities of an innovative test for malaria which allows the quantitative and rapid detection of all malaria species. The physical concept of the test exploits the paramagnetic property of infected erythrocytes and hemozoin crystals, the magnetic fingerprints of malaria common to all species, which allows them to undergo a selective magnetophoretic separation driven by a magnetic field gradient in competition with gravity.

Are all patches worth exploring? Foraging desert birds do not rely on environmental indicators of seed abundance at small scales.

Background: Consumers should show strong spatial preferences when foraging in environments where food availability is highly heterogeneous and predictable. Postdispersal granivores face this scenario in most arid areas, where soil seed bank abundance and composition associates persistently with vegetation structure at small scales (decimetres to metres). Those environmental features should be exploited as useful pre-harvest information, at least to avoid patches predicted to be poor.

Thermoluminescence at a heating rate threshold in stressed fused silica.

The emissive properties of proton implanted fused silica surfaces have been studied by laser beam annealing. When submitted to a high thermal step from a focused CO2 laser, an intense near infra-red transient incandescence (TI) peak rises from stressed silica. The TI presents the characteristics of a thermoluminescent (TL) emission that occurs above a thermal rate threshold.

High extinction ratio 10 Gbit/s silicon optical modulator.

High speed and high extinction ratio silicon optical modulator using carrier depletion is experimentally demonstrated. The phase-shifter is a 1.8 mm-long PIPIN diode which is integrated in a Mach Zehnder interferometer.

High speed silicon optical modulator with self aligned fabrication process.

With the imminent commercialisation of silicon photonic devices comes the requirement for a fabrication process capable of high yield and device performance repeatability. The precise alignment of the different elements of a device can be a major fabrication challenge for minimising performance variation or even device failure. In this paper a new design of high speed carrier depletion silicon optical modulator is introduced which features the use of a self-aligned fabrication process to form the pn junction.

Bronchogenic cysts of the neck: a rare localization and review of the literature.

Personal experience in the diagnosis and management of two patients, one adult and one child, with pathologically proven bronchogenic cysts is described. Both patients presented with a solitary neck mass that proved to be bronchogenic cysts on histological examination. Aim of the review is to define the cytology, histopathological and clinical characteristics of bronchogenic cysts and discuss the features that distinguish them from other cervical cysts.

[Computerized tomography in the surgical planning of supraglottic carcinoma: analysis of cost-effectiveness in 69 patients].

This study was aimed at investigating the role of CT in the surgical planning (partial vs. total laryngectomy) of supraglottic laryngeal carcinoma. Sixty-nine patients affected with supraglottic cancers were reviewed to assess the accuracy and the clinical role of CT and laryngoscopy.

[Late pancreatic metastasis of renal carcinoma. Description of 2 cases and review of the literature].

Authors report two cases of pancreatic metastasis from renal clear cell carcinoma, discovered in a 62 years-old-man and in a 73 years-old woman, respectively 17 and 11 years after undergoing curative nephrectomy for primary tumor. Immunological forces and slow doubling times of tumor may explain this type of late recurrence, whereas, the endocrine status is lacking in importance. The risk of a recurrence of tumour ten years or later after nephrectomy suggests a lifelong follow-up of patients with an history of renal cell carcinoma.

[MTBE perfusion via nasobiliary drainage followed by endoscopic lithotripsy in cases of complicated lithiasis of the common bile duct].

Pernasal catheter perfusion with MTBE and subsequent endoscopic lithotripsy is an effective treatment of complicated common bile duct lithiasis in which a first endoscopic attempt has failed. The authors analyzed their experience in 1990.