Excellent Dielectric Properties and Finite Element Simulation of Al-Epoxy Composites with Constructed Ultrathin AlO Parallel-Plate Microcapacitors.

Metal-polymer dielectric composites show promising potential as embedded capacitors, whereas it remains a great challenge to achieve a high dielectric constant (ε) and low dielectric loss (tan δ) simultaneously. This work demonstrates a strategy for overcoming this challenge. Al nanoparticles with self-passivated ultrathin AlO shells are compacted under the uniaxial pressure (), and Al-epoxy composites are prepared by curing the liquid epoxy monomer that infiltrates into Al compacts.

Obtaining Greatly Improved Dielectric Constant in BaTiO-Epoxy Composites with Low Ceramic Volume Fraction by Enhancing the Connectivity of Ceramic Phase.

Ceramic-polymer dielectric composites show promising potential as embedded capacitors, whereas it is a great challenge to obtain a high dielectric constant (ε) at a low ceramic volume fraction (). This work demonstrates a strategy for overcoming this challange. By employing a high sintering temperature () and introducing porogen, BaTiO ceramics with both great connectivity and high porosity are obtained, and the composites with improved ε at a low are prepared after curing the epoxy monomer, which is infiltrated into the porous ceramic bodies.

MicroRNA Biosensing with Two-Dimensional Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging.

Two-dimensional surface plasmon resonance (2D-SPR) imaging, which provides a real-time, sensitive, and high-throughput analysis of surface events in a two dimensional manner, is a valuable tool for studying biomolecular interactions and biochemical reactions without using any tag labels. The sensing principle of 2D-SPR includes angular, wavelength, and phase interrogation. In this chapter, the 2D-SPR imaging technique is applied for sensing a target microRNA by its corresponding oligonucleotide probes, with sequence complementarity, immobilized on the gold SPR sensing surface.

Allergy Testing and Drug Screening on an ITO-Coated Lab-on-a-Disc.

A lab-on-a-disc (LOAD) is a centrifugal microfluidic set-up based on centrifugal force without using micro-pumps to drive reagents and cells to various chambers through channels and valves for reactions. A LOAD coated with conductive transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) for thermal control was developed to screen allergy-blocking agents. When the acridine orange (AO)-loaded KU-812 human basophilic cells were activated in the LOAD by stimuli, AO trapped in the cytoplasmic granules was released externally as an allergic mediator mimetic to report degranulation.

Common-path spectral interferometry with temporal carrier for highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance sensing.

Incorporating the temporal carrier technique with common-path spectral interferometry, we have successfully demonstrated an advanced surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensing system which achieves refractive index resolution (RIR) up to 2 × 10(-8) refractive index unit (RIU) over a wide dynamic range of 3 × 10(-2) RIU. While this is accomplished by optimizing the SPR differential phase sensing conditions with just a layer of gold, we managed to address the spectral phase discontinuity with a novel spectral-temporal phase measurement scheme. As the new optical setup supersedes its Michelson counterpart in term of simplicity, we believe that it is a significant contribution for practical SPR sensing applications.

Detection of Panton-Valentine Leukocidin DNA from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus by resistive pulse sensing and loop-mediated isothermal amplification with gold nanoparticles.

This report describes a novel diagnostic assay for rapid detection of the Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) toxin of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) utilizing resistive pulse sensing (RPS), loop-mediated isothermal DNA amplification (LAMP) in combination with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The PVL DNA from MRSA was specifically amplified by LAMP using four primers at one temperature (65 °C). The DNA products with biotin were then conjugated to a first AuNP1 (55±2 nm) through biotin-avidin binding.

Hydrodynamic behaviors in fermentative hydrogen bioreactors by pressure fluctuation analysis.

Three bioreactor configurations were employed in these investigations, which consisted of working volumes of 10, 1.2 and 1.2L.

White-light spectral interferometry for surface plasmon resonance sensing applications.

A novel differential phase detecting surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor based on white-light spectral interferometry is presented. Our proposed scheme employs a white-light source for SPR excitation and measures the corresponding SPR phase change at the optimized coupling wavelength with fixed angle of incidence across the visible spectrum. Compared to existing laser based phase detecting schemes, this system offers optimal sensitivity and extended dynamic range of measurement without any compromise in phase detection resolution.

Sensory involvement in the SOD1-G93A mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

A subset of patients of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) present with mutation of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), and such mutants caused an ALS- like disorder when expressed in rodents. These findings implicated SOD1 in ALS pathogenesis and made the transgenic animals a widely used ALS model. However, previous studies of these animals have focused largely on motor neuron damage.

Distribution of the alleles at loci D16S539, D7S820, and D13S317 in hydatidiform mole genome from Chinese women and its relationship with clinical prognosis.

Using polymerase chain reaction and denaturating polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic techniques, we studied 53 cases of hydatidiform moles. Of these, 41 cases were genetically complete hydatidiform moles (g-CHM) whose genome were totally paternally derived. We investigated the distribution of the alleles in the short tandem repeat sequences at loci D16S539, D7S820, and D13S317 in these cases.

Application of surface plasmon resonance sensing to studying elastohydrodynamic lubricant films.

We present a new technique based on the spectral characteristics associated with the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect for studying lubricants in elastohydrodynamic (EHD) dimples. The pressure inside the EHD dimple causes a localized change of the refractive index (RI) of the entrapped lubricant. This also results in a shift in the spectral SPR absorption dip.

Randomized, double-blind, controlled trial of mifepristone in capsule versus tablet form followed by misoprostol for early medical abortion.

Objective: To compare the efficacy and side-effects of mifepristone 75 mg in capsule form versus 150 mg in tablet form followed by misoprostol for medical termination of early pregnancy.

Study Design: In a prospective randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, a total of 480 women who were 49 days or less pregnant were randomized by means of a random number table to receive either two tablets in the morning and one tablet 12 h later for 2 days (group A) or three capsules orally twice daily for 2 days, the first dose being double all subsequent doses (group B). After a further 48 h, 600 microg misoprostol was given orally.

[Effects of serum from a patient with acute motor axonal neuropathy on spinal motor neurons cultured in vitro].

The effect of serum from a patient with acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN) on cultured motor neurons was studied. The ventral spinal ventral tissue was isolated from embryonic rats and digested into dissociated cell suspension for culture in vitro. The cultured cells were stained with SMI-32, a non-phosphorylated neurofilment marker monoclonal antibody to identify motor neurons.