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.     

Recent Advances of Freestanding Cathodes for Li-S Batteries

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) with high energy density and low cost have been recognized as one of the most promising next-generation energy storage systems. Although it has taken decades of development, the practical application of LSBs has been hindered by several inherent obstacles, particularly the severe shuttle effect and sluggish reaction kinetics in the sulfur cathode. Various strategies have been proposed to address these problems via rational design of electrode materials and configurations. Freestanding sulfur cathode could be a promising strategy to improve the sulfur mass loading at the cathode level and energy density of LSBs. This minireview will briefly summary the recent advances in freestanding cathodes for LSBs. The advantages and disadvantages of various freestanding cathodes are discussed and the prospects for the development of flexible cathodes are envisioned.     

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。     

Dynamic behavior and stability analysis of nonlinear modes in the fourth-order generalized Ginzburg–Landau model with near $$\mathcal{PT}$$ PT -symmetric potentials

Nonlinear Dynamics - Parametrically excited oscillators are used in several domains, in particular to improve the dynamical behaviour of systems like in the case of the parametric amplification or...     

Effect of palladium oxide electrode on potentiometric sensor response to carbon monoxide

Ionics - This study aims to explore the potential merits of palladium oxide sensing electrode. PdO is applied on a solid-state potentiometric sensor on an yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ)...     

Random copolymerization of macromonomers as a versatile strategy to synthesize mixed-graft block copolymers

The random copolymerization of norbornene-functionalized macromonomers was explored as a method of synthesizing mixed-graft block copolymers (mGBCPs). The copolymerization kinetics of a model system of polystyrene (PS) and poly(lactic acid) (PLA) macromonomers was first analyzed, revealing a gradient composition of side chains along the mGBCP backbone. The phase separation behavior of mGBCPs with PS and PLA side chains of various backbone lengths and side chain molar ratios was investigated, and increasing the backbone length was found to stabilize the phase-separated nanostructures. The graft architecture was also demonstrated to improve the processability of the mGBCP, compared to a linear counterpart. Investigations of mGBCPs comprised of polydimethylsiloxane and poly(ethylene oxide) side chains exemplified the diverse self-assembled morphologies, including a Frank-Kasper A15 phase, that can be obtained with mGBCPs synthesized by random copolymerization of macromonomers. Lastly, a ternary mGBCP was synthesized by the copolymerization of three macromonomers.