Ratiometric Detection of microRNA Using Hybridization Chain Reaction and Fluorogenic Silver Nanoclusters

miRNA (miR)-155 is a potential biomarker for breast cancers. We aimed at developing a nanosensor for miR-155 detection by integrating hybridization chain reaction (HCR) and silver nanoclusters (AgNCs). HCR serves as an enzyme-free and isothermal amplification method, whereas AgNCs provide a built-in fluorogenic detection probe that could simplify the downstream analysis. The two components were integrated by adding a nucleation sequence of AgNCs to the hairpin of HCR. The working principle was based on the influence of microenvironment towards the hosted AgNCs, whereby unfolding of hairpin upon HCR has manipulated the distance between the hosted AgNCs and cytosine-rich toehold region of hairpin. As such, the dominant emission of AgNCs changed from red to yellow in the absence and presence of miR-155, enabling a ratiometric measurement of miR with high sensitivity. The limit of detection (LOD) of our HCR-AgNCs nanosensor is 1.13 fM in buffered solution. We have also tested the assay in diluted serum samples, with comparable LOD of 1.58 fM obtained. This shows the great promise of our HCR-AgNCs nanosensor for clinical application.     

Chiral Interlocked Corrole Dimers Directly Linked at Inner Carbon Atoms of Confused Pyrrole Rings

A facile synthetic strategy towards conformationally stable chiral chromophores based on dimeric porphyrinoids has been established. A peculiar class of face-to-face intramolecularly interlocked corrole dimers were formed by the oxidative C−C coupling linked at the inner carbon sites upon simple treatment of copper(II) ions. Their intrinsic electronic structures were modulated by the peripheral corrole ring annulations, which lead to distinct optical properties and redox profiles. The stereogenic carbon centers implemented in the confused corrole skeleton provided a rationale for designing novel chiral materials.     

Hierarchical structure observation and nanoindentation size effect characterization for a limnetic shell

In the present research, hierarchical structure observation and mechanical property characterization for a type of biomaterial are carried out. The investigated biomaterial is Hyriopsis cumingii, a typical limnetic shell, which consists of two different structural layers, a prismatic "pillar"structure and a nacreous "brick and mortar" structure. The prismatic layer looks like a "pillar forest" with variationsection pillars sized on the order of several tens of microns.The nacreous material looks like a "brick wall" with bricks sized on the order of several microns. Both pillars and bricks are composed of nanoparticles. The mechanical properties of the hierarchical biomaterial are measured by using the nanoindentation test. Hardness and modulus are measured for both the nacre layer and the prismatic layer, respectively.The nanoindentation size effects for the hierarchical structural materials are investigated experimentally. The results show that the prismatic nanostructured material has a higher stiffness and hardness than the nacre nanostructured material.In addition, the nanoindentation size effects for the hierarchical structural materials are described theoretically, by using the trans-scale mechanics theory considering both strain gradient effect and the surface/interface effect. The modeling results are consistent with experimental ones.     

Polyvinylpyrrolidone and graphene-modified hematite nanoparticles for efficient electrocatalytic oxidation of p-nitrophenol

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and graphene (G)-modified iron oxides (Fe2O3-PVP-G) are prepared by a simple hydrothermal reaction. Their morphology and...     

Investigations in the recrystallization of evolved gases from pyrolysis process of melamine

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - A complete analysis of the thermal process about melamine was presented, in which different methods were applied to determine the characteristic of the...     

新型含吡啶基团二羧酸配体的合成及单晶培养

以1，4-二溴-2，5-二甲基苯和4-吡啶硼酸为原料，经两步合成了一种新颖的含吡啶基团的二羧酸配体。通过核磁共振氢谱及傅里叶变换红外光谱对配体结构进行表征，通过热重分析对配体的热稳定性进行了测试；通过溶剂热法对配体的单晶进行培养，并考察反应温度、时间、pH和溶剂等条件对单晶培养的影响。结果表明：在反应温度为80 ℃，反应时间为12 h、溶剂为蒸馏水、溶液pH=5的条件下可获得高质量单晶。该配体为单斜晶系，属于C2/c空间群，结构中含有4个氧原子和2个氮原子，可为金属离子的配位提供足够的位点，有望应用于配合物的设计或催化、吸附和医药载体等行业。     

Sentinel-2卫星的多光谱轻量级船舶目标检测算法

近年来深度卷积神经网络在可见光船舶检测方面取得了显著的进展，然而，大多数相关研究是通过改进大型的网络结构来提高检测性能，因此加大了对更高计算机性能的需求。此外，可见光图像难以在云、雾、海杂波、黑夜等复杂场景检测到船舶。针对以上问题，提出了一种融合红（red, R）、绿（green, G）、蓝（blue, B）和近红外（NIR）4个波段光谱信息的由粗到精细的轻量型船舶检测算法。与现有的方法中根据光谱特性利用水体检测算法提取水体区域不同之处是该算法是利用改进的水体检测算法来提取船舶候选区域。为获取更准确的候选区域，对船舶、厚云、薄云、平静海面、杂波海面5种场景中4个波段的像素值进行了统计分析，选取近红外大于阈值作为辅助判断，并以其中心点获取候选区域32×32大小的切片，并对切片进行非极大值抑制，由此获得了船舶粗检测结果。随后构建了轻量级LSGFNet网络对船舶候选区域切片进行精细识别。构建的网络融合了1×1卷积提取的波谱特征与3×3的提取几何特征，为防止光谱特征与几何特征的信息在融合时“信息不流通”，在LSGFNet网络中引入了ShuffleNet中的通道打乱机制，并减小了模型结构，与典型的轻量级网络相比具有更好的效果且模型较小。最后，利用Sentinel-2卫星多光谱10 m分辨率数据构建了512×512大小的1 120组数据进行粗检测，以及32×32大小的6 014组数据进行精细网络训练，其中候选区域粗提取的查全率为98.99%，精细识别网络精确度为96.04%，不同场景下的平均精确度为92.98%。实验表明该算法在抑制云层、海浪杂波等干扰的复杂背景下具有较高的检测效率，且训练时间短、计算机性能需求低。     

从废水到新能源:光催化燃料电池的优化与应用

随着经济的飞速发展,社会对能源的需求日益扩大,对工业废水的无害化处理也提出了更高的要求。光催化燃料电池 (photocatalytic fuel cell, PFC) 在燃料电池中引入半导体光催化材料作为电极,实现了有机污染物高效降解和同步对外产电的双重功能,在废水无害化与资源化利用方面具有潜在的应用价值。半导体光催化电极是PFC系统高效运行的核心组件,增强其可见光响应和光生载流子分离是提高PFC性能的关键策略。反应器结构设计和运行参数优化也有利于改善PFC性能。本文从PFC基本原理和应用入手,综述了PFC在环境污染物资源化处理中的研究进展,并详细阐述了提高PFC的污染控制性能和产电效率的优化手段,为进一步设计高效稳定的PFC系统并实现其在水污染控制和清洁能源生产中的应用提供理论指导。