One-Step Fabrication of a Multifunctional Aggregation-Induced Emission Nanoaggregate for Targeted Cell Imaging and Enzyme-Triggered Cancer Chemotherapy.

A novel multifunctional aggregation-induced emission (AIE) nanoaggregate for targeted imaging and enzyme-triggered chemotherapy was successfully fabricated via a one-step assembly. In this system, a quaternary ammonium-modified tetraphenylethene derivative (QA-TPE) acted as the AIE fluorophore as well as the chemotherapeutic agent, and a water-soluble acidic polysaccharide, hyaluronic acid (HA) acted as the aggregation-inducing scaffold, AIE turn-on agent, and targeting agent for CD44 receptor-mediated cancer cells. More importantly, HA endowed the QA-TPE/HA nanoaggregate both good biocompatibility and hysteretic chemotherapy activity, which were achieved by controlling the release of QA-TPE using the endogenous HAase in CD44 receptor-mediated cancer cells.

Identification of polymer materials using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy combined with artificial neural networks.

A combination of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) has been used for the identification of polymer materials, including polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyoxymethylene (POM), polyethylene (PE), polyamide or nylon (PA), polycarbonate (PC) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). After optimization of the experimental setup and the spectrum acquisition protocol, successful identification rates between 81 and 100% were achieved using spectral features gathered from single spectra without averaging (1 second acquisition time) over a wide spectral range (240-820 nm). Furthermore, ten different materials based on PVC were tested using the identification procedure.