In vitro effect of DNA topoisomerase inhibitors on Candida albicans.

In this study we investigated the in vitro antifungal activity of 10 DNA topoisomerase inhibitors on the growth of Candida albicans. The EUCAST broth microdilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the compounds for C. albicans.

Noninvasive metabolomic profiling of embryo culture media using Raman and near-infrared spectroscopy correlates with reproductive potential of embryos in women undergoing in vitro fertilization.

Objective: To determine if metabolomic profiling of embryo culture media correlates with reproductive potential of individual embryos.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: An academic and a private assisted reproduction program; a university research center.

Surface plasmon-quantum dot coupling from arrays of nanoholes.

The coupling of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) to the surface plasmon (SP) modes of nanohole arrays in a metal film was demonstrated for the first time, showing enhancement in the spontaneous emission by 2 orders of magnitude. The SP-enhanced transmission resonances of the nanohole arrays were tuned around the photoluminescence (PL) peak of polystyrene-b-poly(acrylic acid) (PS-b-PAA)-stabilized cadmium sulfide (CdS) quantum dots (QDs) in contact with the arrays. As a result the overall PL from the SP-QD system was enhanced by 2 orders of magnitude, even after excluding the enhanced transmission of the nanohole array without the QDs.

Enhanced fluorescence from arrays of nanoholes in a gold film.

Arrays of sub-wavelength holes (nanoholes) in gold films were used as a substrate for enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy. Seven arrays of nanoholes with distinct periodicities (distances between the holes) were fabricated. The arrays were then spin-coated with polystyrene films containing different concentrations of the fluorescent dye oxazine 720.