Detection of Trace Zinc by an Electrochemical Microsensor based on Carbon Nanotube Threads

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted intense interest due to their excellent properties, such as increased electrode surface area, fast electron transfer rate, significant mechanical strength and good chemical stability. CNT threads, spun from shorter CNTs, inherit the advantages of CNTs, while avoiding the potential toxicity caused by individual CNTs. In this work, microelectrodes based on CNT threads were used to detect trace zinc by anodic stripping voltammetry with an estimated detection limit of 1.4 nM without mercury or bismuth films. CNT threads showed promise for measuring trace metals in small sample volumes without stirring such as encountered in some in vivo and in vitro applications.     

Modelling of Ground Moling Dynamics by an Impact Oscillator with a Frictional Slider

This paper describes current research into the mathematical modelling of a vibro-impact ground moling system. Due to the structural complexity of such systems, in the first instance the dynamic response of an idealised impact oscillator is investigated. The model is comprised of an harmonically excited mass simulating the penetrating part of the mole and a visco-elastic slider, which represents the soil resistance. The model has been mathematically formulated and the equations of motion have been developed. A typical nonlinear dynamic analysis reveals a complex behaviour ranging from periodic to chaotic motion. It was found out that the maximum progression coincides with the end of the periodic regime.     

Is gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI limited in tumor characterization for patients with chronic liver disease?

Purpose

There are pros and cons to the use of gadoxetic acid in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) workup due to the potential for high false positive diagnosis. This study was conducted to investigate the preoperative diagnostic performance of gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI protocol including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with emphasis on tumor characterization developed in high risk HCC patients.

Materials and methods

We included 144 patients (102 men, 42 women; age range 33–74 years) with chronic viral hepatitis or cirrhosis and 183 focal hepatic tumors (size range, 0.4–11.0 cm; mean, 3.2 cm), including 148 HCCs, 13 cholangiocarcinomas, 12 hemangiomas, three hepatocellular adenomas, two focal nodular hyperplasias, and five other tumors. All patients underwent gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI protocol with DWI. MRIs were independently interpreted by three observers for the detection and characterization of hepatic tumors.

Results

Sensitivities for detecting all 183 liver tumors were 98.4%, 97.8%, and 96.2% for each observer, respectively, with a 97.5% for pooled data. Among 183 hepatic tumors, 91.3% (n = 167), 87.4% (n = 160), and 86.9% (n = 159) were correctly characterized according to their reference standard by each observer, respectively. In 13 cholangiocarcinomas, one to three were misinterpreted as HCC, and the remaining tumors were correctly characterized by each observer. The accuracies (Az) of MRI for HCC diagnosis were 0.952 for observer 1, 0.906 for observer 2, and 0.910 for observer 3, with 0.922 for pooled data. There was good inter-observer agreement.

Conclusion

The gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI including DWI showed a reasonable performance for tumor characterization with high sensitivity for tumor detection in patients with chronic liver disease, despite concerns of high false positive diagnosis of hypervascular tumors.     

W 1, p(·)-Regularity for Elliptic Equations with Measurable Coefficients in Nonsmooth Domains

We establish global W ^{1, p(·)}-estimates for second order elliptic equations in divergence form under the natural assumption that p(·) is log-Hölder continuous. To this end, we assume that the coefficients are measurable in one variable and have small BMO semi-norms in the other variables and the boundary of the domain is Reifenberg flat. Our work is an optimal and natural extension of W ^1,p -regularity for such equations with merely measurable coefficients beyond Lipschitz domains.     

Realization of high-performance blue organic light-emitting diodes using multi-emissive layers

High-performance blue organic light-emitting diodes （OLEDs） are developed. A concept of using multiple-emissive layer （EML） configuration is adopted. In this letter, bis（2-methyl-8-quinolinolate）-4- （phenylphenolato）A1 （BAlq） and 9,10-di（naphtha-2-yl）anthracene （ADN）, which serve n- and p-type EMLs, respectively, are used to evaluate and demonstrate the multi-EML concept for blue OLEDs. The thickness effect of individual EMLs and the number of EMLs, e.g., triple and quadruple EML components, on the power efficiency of blue OLEDs are systematically investigated. To illustrate the point, the total thickness of the emissive region in different blue OLEDs are kept contact at 30 nm for comparison. The power efficiency of blue OLEDs with a quadruple EML structure of BAlq/ADN/BAlq/ADN is about 40% higher than that of blue OLEDs having a single EML unit. The Commission Internationale deL＇eclairage color coordinates of multi-EML OLEDs have values that represent the average of blue emissions from individual EMLs of BAlq and ADN.     

Synthesis,Characterization, and Directional Binding of Anisotropic Biohybrid Microparticles for Multiplexed Biosensing

Anisotropic microarchitectures with different physicochemical properties have been developed as advanced materials for challenging industrial and biomedical applications including switchable displays, multiplexed biosensors and bioassays, spatially‐controlled drug delivery systems, and tissue engineering scaffolds. In this study, anisotropic biohybrid microparticles (MPs) spatio‐selectively conjugated with two different antibodies (Abs) are first developed for fluorescence‐based, multiplexed sensing of biological molecules. Poly(acrylamide‐co‐acrylic acid) is chemically modified with maleimide‐ or acetylene groups to introduce different targeting biological moieties into each compartment of anisotropic MPs. Modified polymer solutions containing two different fluorescent dyes are separately used for electrohydrodynamic co‐jetting with side‐by‐side needle geometry. The anisotropic MPs are chemically stabilized by thermal imidization, followed by bioconjugation of two different sets of polyclonal Abs with two individual compartments via maleimide‐thiol coupling reaction and Huisgen 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition. Finally, two compartments of the anisotropic biohybrid MPs are spatio‐selectively associated with the respective monoclonal Ab‐immobilized substrate in the presence of the antigen by sandwich‐type immunocomplex formation, resulting in their ordered orientation due to the spatio‐specific molecular interaction, as confirmed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. In conclusion, anisotropic biohybrid MPs capable of directional binding have great potential as a new fluorescence‐based multiplexing biosensing system.