A review on immobilised aptamers for high throughput biomolecular detection and screening

The discovery of Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX) assay has led to the generation of aptamers from libraries of nucleic acids. Concomitantly, aptamer-target recognition and its potential biomedical applications have become a major research endeavour. Aptamers possess unique properties that make them superior biological receptors to antibodies with a plethora of target molecules. Some specific areas of opportunities explored for aptamer-target interactions include biochemical analysis, cell signalling and targeting, biomolecular purification processes, pathogen detection and, clinical diagnosis and therapy. Most of these potential applications rely on the effective immobilisation of aptamers on support systems to probe target species. Hence, recent research focus is geared towards immobilising aptamers as oligosorbents for biodetection and bioscreening. This article seeks to review advances in immobilised aptameric binding with associated successful milestones and respective limitations. A proposal for high throughput bioscreening using continuous polymeric adsorbents is also presented.     

Aqueous behaviour of cationic surfactants containing a cleavable group

The aggregation behaviour of two novel cationic RAFT agents (transfer surfactants); N,N-dimethyl-N-(4-(((phenylcarbonothioyl)thio)methyl)benzyl)ethanammonium bromide (PCDBAB) and N-(4-((((dodecylthio)-carbonothioyl)thio)methyl)benzyl)-N,N-dimethylethanammonium bromide (DCTBAB) in diluted solutions have been investigated by surface tension, conductimetry and microcalorimetry measurements. The thermodynamic parameters i.e. the critical micelle concentration (cmc), the degree of micelle ionization (alpha), the head group surface area (a 0), Delta H mic, Delta G mic and T Delta S mic are reported at 303 K. The thermodynamic parameters have been compared to those of the conventional surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in order to specify structural relationships. The obtained results have been discussed considering the hydrophobic behaviour of the S-C=S- linkage and the specific interactions that arise from the introduction of the benzene ring into the hydrophobic part.     

ACQ-to-AIE Transformation: Tuning Molecular Packing by Regioisomerization for Two-Photon NIR Bioimaging

The traditional design strategies for highly bright solid-state luminescent materials rely on weakening the intermolecular π–π interactions, which may limit diversity when developing new materials. Herein, we propose a strategy of tuning the molecular packing mode by regioisomerization to regulate the solid-state fluorescence. TBP-e-TPA with a molecular rotor in the end position of a planar core adopts a long-range cofacial packing mode, which in the solid state is almost non-emissive. By shifting molecular rotors to the bay position, the resultant TBP-b-TPA possesses a discrete cross packing mode, giving a quantum yield of 15.6±0.2 %. These results demonstrate the relationship between the solid-state fluorescence efficiency and the molecule's packing mode. Thanks to the good photophysical properties, TBP-b-TPA nanoparticles were used for two-photon deep brain imaging. This molecular design philosophy provides a new way of designing highly bright solid-state fluorophores.     

Destabilisation of a compressed vortex by a round jet

This paper presents data and analysis related to the compression and the breakdown of a tumbling motion after radial disruption in a simple geometry of the compression chamber of a model engine with large optical access. The disruption is a round jet injection perpendicular to the vorticity tube. Two configurations of injection are selected. They correspond respectively to a straight jet that competes with the tumble and an inclined jet that adds angular momentum to the large-scale rotating motion. The ratio between the angular momentum brought by the spray and the initial angular momentum of the tumble is of the order of 30% and is representative of the direct-injection engine situation at moderate rotation rate. The injection is performed at bottom dead centre (BDC) in a well-defined and well-known tumbling motion. The data are obtained in the symmetry plane of a square chamber by using particle image velocimetry (PIV) and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF). A calibration is made in order to take account of acetone fluorescence yield during compression. The analysis of the injection phase at BDC shows that the mean topology of the flow after both injections differs significantly and that the vorticity tube is significantly distorted only in the vicinity of the injection plane. Strong transverse mean flows are detected by analysing the divergence of the mean velocity field. Although a mean rotation is still observed after injection during the compression phase, the authors show that no strong vortex core is evident. An important consequence of this finding, confirmed by the evolution of the global in-plane mean and fluctuating kinetic energy in the symmetry plane is that no vortex breakdown occurs during the compression after the injection event. Therefore, the global fluctuating kinetic energy at the end of the compression is much lower after an injection. During the first half of the compression, an inhomogeneous distribution of the jet fluid in the chamber is detected by the PLIF measurements. The transport of the jet fluid clearly results from both in-plane and out-of-plane motions triggered by the injection jet. This spatial repartition depends strongly on the injection strategy and can be very difficult to control accurately from cycle to cycle. The mixture is more homogeneous at top dead centre (TDC) with a low value of the spatial variance of the mean concentration field.     

Quantitative imaging of equivalence ratios in a natural gas SI engine flow bench using acetone fluorescence

Although compressed natural gas (CNG) is a gaseous fuel, the mixing process is quite different from air-liquid fuel mixing. The aim of this work is to understand the effect of the fuel feeding system on mixture homogeneity. Planar laser-induced fluorescence has been used to produce quantitative equivalence ratio maps in the intake manifold. Fluorescence results from excitation of doped acetone in natural gas. Its emission is proportional to the fuel mass. Collected images were post processed to obtain the equivalence ratio. This work shows the difference between continuous injection at low speed and sequential injection. In the first part, we present the behaviour of the injection jet in the intake manifold. The second part displays a smaller section of the duct upstream of the intake valve. The study shows clearly the stratification effect obtained with continuous injection at low speed. A very homogenous mixture is observed for sequential injection with fuel trapped for a cycle and aspirated in the next cycle.     

Reduced-order models for control of fluids using the eigensystem realization algorithm

As sensors and flow control actuators become smaller, cheaper, and more pervasive, the use of feedback control to manipulate the details of fluid flows becomes increasingly attractive. One of the challenges is to develop mathematical models that describe the fluid physics relevant to the task at hand, while neglecting irrelevant details of the flow in order to remain computationally tractable. A number of techniques are presently used to develop such reduced-order models, such as proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), and approximate snapshot-based balanced truncation, also known as balanced POD. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses: for instance, POD models can behave unpredictably and perform poorly, but they can be computed directly from experimental data; approximate balanced truncation often produces vastly superior models to POD, but requires data from adjoint simulations, and thus cannot be applied to experimental data. In this article, we show that using the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA) (Juang and Pappa, J Guid Control Dyn 8(5):620?C627, 1985) one can theoretically obtain exactly the same reduced-order models as by balanced POD. Moreover, the models can be obtained directly from experimental data, without the use of adjoint information. The algorithm can also substantially improve computational efficiency when forming reduced-order models from simulation data. If adjoint information is available, then balanced POD has some advantages over ERA: for instance, it produces modes that are useful for multiple purposes, and the method has been generalized to unstable systems. We also present a modified ERA procedure that produces modes without adjoint information, but for this procedure, the resulting models are not balanced, and do not perform as well in examples. We present a detailed comparison of the methods, and illustrate them on an example of the flow past an inclined flat plate at a low Reynolds number.     

Solvent-induced crystallinity in poly(aryl-ether-ether-ketone) [PEEK]

The amount and structure of the crystals formed by the solvent-induced crystallization (SIC) following a sorption-desorption cycle of five fluids (benzene, toluene, chloroform, methylene chloride, and carbon disulfide) in amorphous PEEK was determined by wideangle x-ray scattering (WAXS). The SIC crystal structure was compared with that produced by thermal methods, both those formed at low temperature by heating the amorphous material 10–20°C above T_g or by cooling from the melt. Although smaller in size, the SIC crystals are tighter and more organized than those produced thermally. The WAXS data indicates that all five fluids produce approximately 35% crystallinity in PEEK. Gravimetric data suggest that a low-density region, consisting of either microvoids or highly disordered amorphous region, surrounds the crystals.     

Apparate zur Wasseruntersuchung

Ohne Zusammenfassung