Real-Time Cardiac Beat Detection and Heart Rate Monitoring from Combined Seismocardiography and Gyrocardiography.

Cardiography is an indispensable element of health care. However, the accessibility of at-home cardiac monitoring is limited by device complexity, accuracy, and cost. We have developed a real-time algorithm for heart rate monitoring and beat detection implemented in a custom-built, affordable system.

Double-Stranded Biotinylated Donor Enhances Homology-Directed Repair in Combination with Cas9 Monoavidin in Mammalian Cells.

Homology-directed repair (HDR) induced by site specific DNA double-strand breaks with CRISPR-Cas9 is a precision gene editing approach that occurs at low frequency in comparison to indel forming non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). In order to obtain high HDR percentages in mammalian cells, we engineered a Cas9 protein fused to a monoavidin domain to bind biotinylated donor DNA. In addition, we used the cationic polymer, polyethylenimine, to deliver Cas9-donor DNA complexes into cells.

Real time plasmonic qPCR: how fast is ultra-fast? 30 cycles in 54 seconds.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a critical tool for biological research investigators but recently it also has been making a significant impact in clinical, veterinary and agricultural applications. Plasmonic PCR, which employs the very efficient heat transfer of optically irradiated metallic nanoparticles, is a simple and powerful methodology to drive PCR reactions. The scalability of next generation plasmonic PCR technology will introduce various forms of PCR applications ranging from small footprint portable point of care diagnostic devices to large footprint central laboratory multiplexing devices.

Prostate-specific membrane antigen-directed nanoparticle targeting for extreme nearfield ablation of prostate cancer cells.

Almost all biological therapeutic interventions cannot overcome neoplastic heterogeneity. Physical ablation therapy is immune to tumor heterogeneity, but nearby tissue damage is the limiting factor in delivering lethal doses. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes offer a number of unique properties: chemical stability, photonic properties including efficient light absorption, thermal conductivity, and extensive surface area availability for covalent chemical ligation.

Correction: Engineering Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Therapeutic Bionanofluids to Selectively Target Papillary Thyroid Cancer Cells.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Engineering Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Therapeutic Bionanofluids to Selectively Target Papillary Thyroid Cancer Cells.

Background: The incidence of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) has risen steadily over the past few decades as well as the recurrence rates. It has been proposed that targeted ablative physical therapy could be a therapeutic modality in thyroid cancer. Targeted bio-affinity functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (BioNanofluid) act locally, to efficiently convert external light energy to heat thereby specifically killing cancer cells.

Design and analysis of a spectro-angular surface plasmon resonance biosensor operating in the visible spectrum.

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing is one of the most widely used methods to implement biosensing due to its sensitivity and capacity for label-free detection. Whilst most commercial SPR sensors operate in the angular regime, it has recently been shown that an increase in sensitivity and a greater robustness against noise can be achieved by measuring the reflectivity when varying both the angle and wavelength simultaneously, in a so-called spectro-angular SPR biosensor. A single value decomposition method is used to project the two-dimensional spectro-angular reflection signal onto a basis set and allow the image obtained from an unknown refractive index sample to be compared very accurately with a pre-calculated reference set.

Coexistence of malignant struma ovarii and cervical papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Context: Struma ovarii is an uncommon monodermal teratoma in which thyroid tissue is the predominant element. Malignant transformation of struma ovarii is an even rarer occurrence.

Case Presentation: We describe a 42-year-old woman who underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy for a symptomatic left pelvic mass.

Demonstration of a plasmonic thermocycler for the amplification of human androgen receptor DNA.

A plasmonic heating method for the polymerase chain reaction is demonstrated by the amplification of a section of the human androgen receptor gene. The thermocycler has a simple low-cost design, demonstrates excellent temperature stability and represents the first practical demonstration of plasmonic thermocycling.

Dynamical thermal effects in InGaAsP microtubes at telecom wavelengths.

We report on the observation of a dynamical thermal effect in InGaAsP microtubes at telecom wavelengths. The microtubes are fabricated by releasing a strained semiconductor bilayer and are picked up by abruptly tapered optical fibers for subsequent coupling with adiabatically tapered optical fibers. As a result of absorption by InAs quantum dots embedded in the tube structure, these microtubes show dynamical thermal effects at wavelengths around 1525 nm and 1578 nm, while they are passive at longer wavelengths near 1634 nm.

Analysis of surface plasmon spectro-angular reflectance spectrum: real-time measurement, resolution limits, and applications to biosensing.

A surface plasmon biosensing technique based on real-time measurement of the spectro-angular reflectance spectrum of a gold surface is presented. A significant improvement in refractive index resolution and drift compensation has been achieved for the spectro-angular technique to demonstrate a biosensing platform that is, in addition, applicable to plasmonic bandgap measurements. Instrumental improvements are detailed and constants for the model bovine serum albumin (BSA):oxacillin bioassay are presented.

Genetic signs of connectivity in Primula vulgaris (Primulaceae) in a hedgerow network landscape.

The effects of landscape configuration on the genetic connectivity of the heterostylous species Primula vulgaris Huds. (Primulaceae) were studied using AFLP markers. Isolation by distance pattern was shown by spatial autocorrelation analysis; moreover, hedgerow network distances were found to contribute less than Euclidian distances to spatial genetic structure.

Active and passive dispersal of an invading land snail in Mediterranean France.

1. Land snail dispersal abilities are considered poor; however, the current invasion of the French Mediterranean region by Xeropicta derbentina (Krynicki 1836), as well as the past invasions of this region by several other species, seems to contradict this view. 2.

Spatio-temporal growth dynamics of a subAlpine Pinus uncinata stand in the French Alps.

Natural forests are characterised by a high level of both spatial and temporal heterogeneity. The major processes involved in the creation and maintenance of forest heterogeneity in temperate climates are small-sized canopy disturbances. The resulting openings also modify the growth conditions for the remaining trees.