Sensitive and Selective Detection of Antibiotic D-Penicillamine Based on a Dual-Mode Probe of Fluorescent Carbon Dots and Gold Nanoparticles.

This paper reported a dual-mode probe for D-penicillamine on the basis of pH-mediated gold nanoparticles aggregation and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from carbon dots. D-penicillamine is a zwitterionic compound and has different forms depending on specific pH ranges. The thiol group of D-penicillamine has high affinity towards the surface of gold nanoparticles and can replace other surface ligands.

A Tactile Sensor Decoupling Process.

An improved hybrid homotopy method is proposed to decouple the multi-input model of tactile sensors. The time-embedded homotopy algorithm is proved to be very suitable for solving the problem. Three tracking factors that control the efficiency of the algorithm are studied: tracking operator, stepsize, and accuracy.

Development of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy application for determination of illicit drugs: Towards a practical sensor.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been widely applied to identify or detect illicit drugs, because of the ability for highly specific molecular fingerprint and independence of aqueous solutions impact. We summarize the progress in determination of illicit drugs using SERS, including trace illicit drugs, suspicious objects and drugs or their metabolites in real biological system (urine, saliva and so on). Even though SERS detection of illicit drugs in real samples still remains a huge challenge because of the complex unknown environment, the efficient sample separation and the improved hand-held Raman analyzer will provide the possibility to make SERS a practically analytical technique.

Synthesis of ultra-large ZrO nanosheets as novel adsorbents for fast and efficient removal of As(III) from aqueous solutions.

Consumption of water having excessive arsenic (As) contamination can cause adverse health effects on human beings. In this study, novel ultra-large zirconium oxide (ZrO) nanosheets were successfully synthesized using graphene oxide (GO) templates and their adsorption-ability was studied for arsenite (As(III)). Owing to higher values of surface area, numbers of available hydroxyl groups and strong chemisorption binding affinity towards As(III), the synthesized novel ultra-large ZrO nanosheets showed high adsorption-ability for As(III) over a wide pH range.

Association between household physical activity level and type 2 diabetes among urban males in northern China.

Objectives: Physical activity contributes to preventing type 2 diabetes (T2D). Doing housework is an unstructured mild-intensity physical activity. We aimed to investigate the association between household physical activity level (HPAL) and T2D in urban Chinese men.

NeuN-Specific Fluorescent Probe Revealing Neuronal Nuclei Protein and Nuclear Acids Association in Living Neurons under STED Nanoscopy.

Neuronal nuclei (NeuN) protein is a key RNA-associated protein to guide the transcription of RNA and regulate mRNA splicing in neurons. However, the lack of effective labeling and tracking method has hindered the elucidation of the biological mechanism of NeuN operation in living neurons to understand correlated central nervous system disorders. Here, we report a molecular probe that can be inserted into a neighboring hydrophobic-hydrophilic region in NeuN, which upon binding becomes capable of emitting light in red region.

EDTA-Fe(III) Fenton-like oxidation for the degradation of malachite green.

Industrial waste, urban sewage and aquaculture have led to severely increased grades of environment pollutants such as dyes, pesticides and fertilizer. The use of technologies for purifying contaminated waters can be difficult and toxic due to the anti-photolysis, anti-oxidation and anti-bio-oxidation characteristics of organic pollutants, and there is therefore a significant need for new approaches. Here, we report methods of Fenton oxidation and EDTA-Fe(III) Fenton-like oxidation which can be used to degrade malachite green (MG: a dye and antibiotic-like substance) from contaminated water.

Heterogeneous Reaction of HCOOH on NaCl Particles at Different Relative Humidities.

The contribution of volatile organic acids to chloride depletion still remains unclear under ambient conditions in the coast and inland. In this work, the heterogeneous reaction of HCOOH on the NaCl surface at a series of relative humidities (RHs) was investigated using diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS). The formate was found to be formed on NaCl surface under dry and wet conditions, accompanied by the corresponding chloride depletion.

Ratiometric fluorescent test paper based on silicon nanocrystals and carbon dots for sensitive determination of mercuric ions.

Classical dye absorption-based pH test papers are widely used to measure the degree of acidity of media for quantification or semi-quantification by the observation of the naked eye on the variation of colour. However, it remains a challenging task to extend portable and cheap methods to a wide range of analytes for accurate quantification. Here, we report a dosage-sensitive test paper for the assay of mercury ions (Hg) with wide colour evolution.

Size-tunable Ag nanoparticles sensitized porous ZnO nanobelts: controllably partial cation-exchange synthesis and selective sensing toward acetic acid.

Porous ZnO nanobelts sensitized with Ag nanoparticles have been prepared via a partial cation-exchange reaction assisted by a thermal oxidation treatment, employing ZnSe·0.5NH nanobelts as precursors. After partially exchanged with Ag cations, the belt-like morphology of the precursors is still preserved.

An Effective Capillary Valve Based on Micro-hole Array for Microfluidic Systems.

With the development of microfluidic systems for portable devices where the capillary force as the driving force drove the liquid in a microchannel. An effective capillary microvalve based on a micro-hole array is proposed in this paper for the purpose of good performance, and programmable control, and easy-to-fabricate. The Wenzel model was used to slow down the velocity of fluid flow.

A CNN-SVM combined model for pattern recognition of knee motion using mechanomyography signals.

The commonly used classifiers for pattern recognition of human motion, like backpropagation neural network (BPNN) and support vector machine (SVM), usually implement the classification by extracting some hand-crafted features from the human biological signals. These features generally require the domain knowledge for researchers to be designed and take a long time to be tested and selected for high classification performance. In contrast, convolutional neural network (CNN), which has been widely applied to computer vision, can learn to automatically extract features from the training data by means of convolution and subsampling, but CNN training usually requires large sample data and has the overfitting problem.

Defect- and phase-engineering of Mn-mediated MoS nanosheets for ultrahigh electrochemical sensing of heavy metal ions: chemical interaction-driven in situ catalytic redox reactions.

An ultrasensitive electrochemical detection of heavy metal ions is achieved via defect- and phase-engineering of Mn-mediated MoS2 nanosheets. We find for the first time that chemical interactions between Pb(ii) and active S atoms in Mn-MoS2 facilitate the electron transfer and in situ catalytic redox reactions.

Assessment of the cytotoxic and mutagenic potential of the Jialu River and adjacent groundwater using human-hamster hybrid cells.

The Jialu River in China has been seriously polluted by the direct discharge of industrial and domestic wastewater. The predominant contaminants of the Jialu River and its adjacent groundwater were recently investigated. However, the potential genotoxic impact of polluted water on human health remains to be clarified.

Simultaneous Determination of Inorganic Cations and Anions in Microchip Electrophoresis Using High-voltage Relays.

A new and simple method for the simultaneous determination of cations and anions by microchip electrophoresis with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (ME-CD) is described. The best analytical performance was found by applying a sinusoidal wave with 800 kHz frequency and 20 V amplitude. An optimized background electrolyte (BGE) composed of 20 mM His/MES and 0.

DynSig: Modelling Dynamic Signaling Alterations along Gene Pathways for Identifying Differential Pathways.

Although a number of methods have been proposed for identifying differentially expressed pathways (DEPs), few efforts consider the dynamic components of pathway networks, i.e., gene links.

A plug-in electrophoresis microchip with PCB electrodes for contactless conductivity detection.

A plug-in electrophoresis microchip for large-scale use aimed at improving maintainability with low fabrication and maintenance costs is proposed in this paper. The plug-in microchip improves the maintainability of a device because the damaged microchannel layer can be changed without needing to cut off the circuit wires in the detection component. Obviously, the plug-in structure reduces waste compared with earlier microchips; at present the whole microchip has to be discarded, including the electrode layer and the microchannel layer.

The Joint Effects of Smoking and Alcohol Drinking on Lipid-Related Indices among Chinese Males-Comparing Exercise and Non-Exercise Groups.

Background: Smoking and drinking are two predisposing factors for dyslipidemia. Exercise has been proposed as a strategy to improve the blood lipids. However, it remains unclear how smoking and drinking jointly affect blood lipids and whether exercise influences their effects.

Increased foot-stretcher height improves rowing performance: evidence from biomechanical perspectives on water.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether changes on foot-stretcher height were associated with characteristics of better rowing performance. Ten male rowers performed a 200 m rowing trial at their racing rate at each of three foot-stretcher heights. A single scull was equipped with an accelerometer to collect boat acceleration, an impeller with embedded magnets to collect boat speed, specially designed gate sensors to collect gate force and angle, and a compact string potentiometer to collect leg drive length.

[Digital System for the Geriatric Somatic Function Assessment].

At present, the somatic function assessment of the elderly mostly depends on the doctor's observation and the scale evaluation, and there isn't the objective and quantitative assessment criteria. In this paper, we design and construct a digital system for the geriatric somatic function assessment, which is based on digital ground, inertial unit, mobile terminal and PC terminal. The gait and balance parameters of the elderly were obtained by the Time Up and Go test and five postures test.

[Walking Ability Assessment System for Parkinson's Patients Based on Inertial Sensor].

In order to evaluate the ability of Parkinson's patients to walk comprehensively, a system based on MEMS to aid clinical quantification of ability in Parkinson's is established. The inertial units are respectively fixed on the back and the waist of subject to be measured. The Kalman fusion algorithm is used to extract the characteristic parameters of accelerometer and gyroscope data.

Rationally Designed Graphene/Bilayer Silver/Cu Hybrid Structure with Improved Sensitivity and Stability for Highly Efficient SERS Sensing.

A simple and cost-effective strategy was rationally designed to fabricate a special sandwich structure consisting of graphene, bilayer silver, and a copper plate, which was used as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate for highly efficient SERS sensing and detection of trace molecules. Silver dendrite (AgD) nanostructures were subsequently grown on a silver nanosphere (AgNS)/Cu surface to form a bilayer silver/Cu structure, which showed a 1.5-fold Raman enhancement compared to that of the AgNS/Cu substrate.

Sticky-flares for in situ monitoring of human telomerase RNA in living cells.

Human telomerase RNA (hTR), a template of telomerase for telomeric repeat synthesis, was used to reflect the telomerase activity and act as a potential target of antitumor therapy. Here, we report a novel DNA-conjugated AuNP probe termed sticky-flares for the in situ detection of intracellular human telomerase RNA. The sticky-flares probe is capable of entering living cells directly without any auxiliary and recognizing the binding domain of human telomerase RNA.

Efficient removal of hexavalent chromium from water by an adsorption-reduction mechanism with sandwiched nanocomposites.

Hexavalent chromium Cr(vi), one of the most toxic contaminants, is released in the environment due to various anthropogenic activities. This study presents a novel sandwiched nanocomposite synthesized using graphene oxide (GO), manganese dioxide (MnO) nanowires, iron oxide (FeO) nanoparticles and polypyrrole (PPy) to remove hexavalent chromium ion Cr(vi) from water by an adsorption-reduction mechanism. In the sandwiched nanocomposites, GO provided enough surface area, functional groups, and hydrophilic surface for efficient absorption.