Comparison of infrared-excited up-converting phosphors and europium nanoparticles as labels in a two-site immunoassay

Research in the field of immunoassays and labels used in the detection has been recently focused on particulate reporters, which possess very high specific activity that excludes the label as a sensitivity limiting factor. However, the large size and shape of the particulate labels may produce additional problems to immunoassay performance. The aim of this work was to study with two identical non-competitive two-site immunoassays whether up-converting phosphor (UCP) particles are comparable in performance with europium(III) chelate-dyed nanoparticles as particulate labels. In addition we strived to verify the common assumption of the photostability of up-converting phosphor particles supporting their potential applicability in imaging. Detection limits in two-site immunoassay for free prostate-specific antigen (free-PSA) were 0.53 ng L⁻¹ and 1.3 ng L⁻¹ using two different up-converting phosphors and 0.16 ng L⁻¹ using europium(III) nanoparticle. Large size distribution and non-specific binding of up-converting phosphor particles caused assay variation in low analyte concentrations and limited the analytical detection limit. The non-specific binding was the major factor limiting the analytical sensitivity of the immunoassay. The results suggests the need for nanoscaled and uniformely sized UCP-particles to increace the sensitivity and applicability of up-converting phosphor particles. Anti-Stokes photoluminescence of up-converting phosphor particles did not photobleach when measured repeatedly, on the contrary, the time-resolved fluorescence of europium nanoparticles photobleached relatively rapidly.     

Hollow nanoparticle nanotubes with a nanoscale brick wall structure of clay mineral platelets

Long hollow inorganic nanoparticle nanotubes have been synthesized by templating of block copolymer electrospun fibers with clay mineral platelets followed by interlinking of the platelets using condensation reactions.     

Search for Higgs bosons in SUSY cascades in CMS and dark matter with non-universal gaugino masses

In grand-unified theories (GUT), non-universal boundary conditions for the gaugino masses may arise at the unification scale and may affect the observability of the neutral MSSM Higgs bosons (h/H/A) at the LHC. The implications of such non-universal gaugino masses are investigated for Higgs boson production in the SUSY cascade decay chain , , , produced in pp interactions. In the singlet representation with universal gaugino masses only the light Higgs boson can be produced in this cascade with the parameter region of interest for us, while with non-universal gaugino masses heavy neutral MSSM Higgs boson production may dominate. The allowed parameter space in the light of the WMAP constraints on the cold dark-matter relic density is investigated in the above scenarios for gaugino mass parameters. We also demonstrate that combination of representations can give the required amount of dark matter in any point of the parameter space. In the non-universal case we show that heavy Higgs bosons can be detected in the cascade studied in parameter regions with the WMAP preferred neutralino relic density.     

Signatures for right-handed neutrinos at the large hadron collider

We explore possible signatures for right-handed neutrinos in a TeV scale B-L extension of the standard model at the Large Hadron Collider. The studied four lepton signal has a tiny standard model background. We find the signal experimentally accessible at the LHC for the considered parameter regions.     

Gas-chromatographic study of the thermodynamic properties of systems containing linear alkenes and alkynes

Chromatographia - The selectivity of silicone phases OV-101, OV-17 and OV-225 with respect to the retention indices and thermodynamic functions of solution (relative molar enthalpies, entropies and...     

Capillary gas chromatography of C6−C14 n-alkenes on polyphenyl ether and polyethylene glycol 4000

Summary The retention indices (I) and their structural increments (l/°C, H, l) of C₆–C₁₄ n-alkenes on polyphenyl ether (PFE) and C₁₂–C₁₄ n-alkenes on polyethylene glycol 4000 (PEG) at 20–160 °C have been determined and correlated with the molecular structure of the isomers. A number of common regularities in gas chromatographic behaviour on these liquid phases and squalane (SQ) [1–3] have been found. On PFE the elution order of isomeric n-alkenes is similar to that on SQ (except C₈–C₁₀ 1-alkenes and cis-4-tetradecene), for pairs with cis- and trans-configuration it depends on the column temperature, position of double bond and the number of carbon atoms (n) in the molecule. On PEG the cis- are always retained longer than the corresponding trans-alkenes. The linear relationships between 1 and n on PFE and PEG are given in equation form.