Aptamer decorated PDA@magnetic silica microparticles for bacteria purification.

One significant constraint in the advancement of biosensors is the signal-to-noise ratio, which is adversely affected by the presence of interfering factors such as blood in the sample matrix. In the present investigation, a specific aptamer binding was chosen for its affinity, while exhibiting no binding affinity towards non-target bacterial cells. This selective binding property was leveraged to facilitate the production of magnetic microparticles decorated with aptamers.

Earthquake Nucleation Along Faults With Heterogeneous Weakening Rate.

The transition from quasistatic slip growth to dynamic rupture propagation constitutes one possible scenario to describe earthquake nucleation. If this transition is rather well understood for homogeneous faults, how the friction properties of may influence the of seismogenic faults remains largely unclear. Combining classical nucleation theory and concepts borrowed from condensed matter physics, we propose a comprehensive analytical framework that predicts the influence of heterogeneities of weakening rate on the nucleation length for linearly slip-dependent friction laws.

Assembling Pentatopic Terpyridine Ligands with Three Types of Coordination Moieties into a Giant Supramolecular Hexagonal Prism: Synthesis, Self-Assembly, Characterization, and Antimicrobial Study.

Three dimensional (3D) supramolecules with giant cavities are attractive due to their wide range of applications. Herein, we used pentatopic terpyridine ligands with three types of coordination moieties to assemble two giant supramolecular hexagonal prisms with a molecular weight up to 42 608 and 43 569 Da, respectively. Within the prisms, two double-rimmed Kandinsky Circles serve as the base surfaces as well as the templates for assisting the self-sorting during the self-assembly.

Fragmentation approach to the point-island model with hindered aggregation: Accessing the barrier energy.

We study the effect of hindered aggregation on the island formation process in a one- (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) point-island model for epitaxial growth with arbitrary critical nucleus size i. In our model, the attachment of monomers to preexisting islands is hindered by an additional attachment barrier, characterized by length l_{a}. For l_{a}=0 the islands behave as perfect sinks while for l_{a}→∞ they behave as reflecting boundaries.

Large-scale synthesis, size control, and anisotropic growth of gamma-Fe2O3 nanoparticles: organosols and hydrosols.

Monodispersed, spherical gamma-Fe2O3 nanoparticles with controllable size in large-scale were prepared by thermolytic decomposition of FeCl3.6H2O in aliphatic amines. The nanoparticles gave very stable colloidal solution in organic solvents and can be easily converted to water-soluble by a very simple route.

Dual-color fluorescence-burst analysis to probe protein efflux through the mechanosensitive channel MscL.

The mechanosensitive channel protein of large conductance, MscL, from Escherichia coli has been implicated in protein efflux, but the passage of proteins through the channel has never been demonstrated. We used dual-color fluorescence-burst analysis to evaluate the efflux of fluorescent labeled compounds through MscL. The method correlates the fluctuations in intensity of fluorescent labeled membranes and encapsulated (macro)molecules (labeled with second fluorophore) for each liposome diffusing through the observation volume.