Sensitive Electrochemical Detection of Horseradish Peroxidase at Disposable Screen‐Printed Carbon Electrode

A rapid, simple and sensitive electrochemical assay of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) performed on disposable screen‐printed carbon electrode was developed. HRP activities were monitored by square‐wave voltammetric (SWV) measuring the electroactive enzymatic product in the presence of o‐aminophenol and hydrogen peroxide substrate solution. SWV analysis demonstrated a greater sensitivity and shorter analysis time than the widely used amperometric and differential‐pulsed voltammetric methods. The voltammetric characteristics of substrate and enzymatic product as well as the parameters of SWV analysis were optimized. Under optimized conditions, a linear response for HRP from 0.003 to 0.1 U/mL and a detection limit of 0.002 U/mL (1.25×10^?15 mol in 25 μL) were obtained with a good precision (RSD=8%; n=6). This rapid and sensitive HRP assay with microliter‐assay volume could be readily integrated to portable devices and point‐of‐care (POC) diagnosis applications.     

Differential interactions of plasmid DNA, RNA and endotoxin with immobilised and free metal ions

Separation of negatively charged molecules, such as plasmid DNA (pDNA), RNA and endotoxin forms a bottleneck for the development of pDNA vaccine production process. The use of affinity interactions of transition metal ions with these molecules may provide an ideal separation methodology. In this study, the binding behaviour of pDNA, RNA and endotoxin to transition metal ions, either in immobilised or free form, was investigated. Transition metal ions: Cu2+, Ni2+, Zn2+, Co2+ and Fe3+, typically employed in the immobilised metal affinity chromatography (IMAC), showed very different binding behaviour depending on the type of metal ions and their existing state, i.e. immobilised or free. In the alkaline cell lysate, pDNA showed no binding to any of the IMAC chemistries tested whereas RNA interacted significantly with Cu2+-iminodiacetic acid (IDA) and Ni2+-IDA but showed no substantial binding to the rest of the IMAC chemistries. pDNA and RNA, however, interacted to varying degrees with free metal ions in the solution. The greatest selectivity in terms of pDNA and RNA separation was achieved with Zn2+ which enabled almost full precipitation of RNA while keeping pDNA soluble. For both immobilised and free metal ions, ionic strength of solution affected the metal ion-nucleic acid interaction significantly. Endotoxin, being more flexible, was able to interact better with the immobilised metal ions than the nucleic acids and showed binding to all the IMAC chemistries. The specific interactions of immobilised and/or free metal ions with pDNA, RNA and endotoxin showed a good potential, by selectively removing RNA and endotoxin at high efficiency, to develop a simplified pDNA purification process with improved process economics.     

Numerical flow visualization of stall suppression of a symmetrical aerofoil by leading-edge moving durface

This paper applies the numerical simulation techniques based on the generalized conservation of circulation (GCC) method to investigate the effects of momentum injection by a leading-edge moving surface on flow past a two-dimensional aerofoil at a Reynolds number of 1000. The stream function and vorticity contours obtained together with the animated flow visualization show that the stall flow region is highly unsteady and consist mainly of large vortices being shed alternately. They are confined to a narrow region near the upper surface of aerofoil asC _u (the ratio of the speed of the moving surface to the free stream velocity) is raised. The proximity of vortices to the upper surface of aerofoil at highC _u is caused by the ability of free stream to negotiate around the leading edge since the leading-edge moving surface suppresses the growth of boundary layer by reducing the relative between the inviscid flow and the wall. As well-formed large scale vortices are associated with low pressure regions, their proximity to the aerofoil leads to increase in lift as speed ratio increases     

Study of Antibacterial and Anticancer Properties of bioAgNPs Synthesized Using Streptomyces sp. PBD-311B and the Application of bioAgNP-CNC/Alg as an Antibacterial Hydrogel Film against P. aeruginosa USM-AR2 and MRSA

Here, we report the extracellular biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and determination of their antibacterial and anticancer properties. We also explore the efficacy of bioAgNPs incorporated in cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and alginate (Alg) for the formation of an antibacterial hydrogel film. Streptomyces sp. PBD-311B was used for the biosynthesis of AgNPs. The synthesized bioAgNPs were characterized using UV-Vis spectroscopy, TEM, XRD, and FTIR analysis. Then, the bioAgNPs’ antibacterial and anticancer properties were determined using TEMA and cytotoxicity analysis. To form the antibacterial hydrogel film, bioAgNPs were mixed with a CNC and Alg solution and further characterized using FTIR analysis and a disc diffusion test. The average size of the synthesized bioAgNPs is around 69 ± 2 nm with a spherical shape. XRD analysis confirmed the formation of silver nanocrystals. FTIR analysis showed the presence of protein capping at the bioAgNP surface and could be attributed to the extracellular protein binding to bioAgNPs. The MIC value of bioAgNPs against P. aeruginosa USM-AR2 and MRSA was 6.25 mg/mL and 3.13 mg/mL, respectively. In addition, the bioAgNPs displayed cytotoxicity effects against cancer cells (DBTRG-0.5MG and MCF-7) and showed minimal effects against normal cells (SVG-p12 and MCF-10A), conferring selective toxicity. Interestingly, the bioAgNPs still exhibited inhibition activity when incorporated into CNC/Alg, which implies that the hydrogel film has antibacterial properties. It was also found that bioAgNP-CNC/Alg displayed a minimal or slow release of bioAgNPs owing to the intermolecular interaction and the hydrogel’s properties. Overall, bioAgNP-CNC/Alg is a promising antibacterial hydrogel film that showed inhibition against the pathogenic bacteria P. aeruginosa and MRSA and its application can be further evaluated for the inhibition of cancer cells. It showed benefits for surgical resection of a tumor to avoid post-operative wound infection and tumor recurrence at the surgical site.     

Curved traversable wormholes in (3+1)-dimensional spacetime

We present the general method of constructing curved traversable wormholes in (3+1)-d spacetime and proceed to thoroughly discuss the physics of a zero tidal force metric without cross-terms. The (3+1)-d solution is compared with the recently studied lower-dimensional counterpart, where we identify that the much richer physics—involving pressures and shear forces of the mass-energy fluid supporting the former—is attributed to the mixing of all three spatial coordinates. Our (3+1)-d universe is the lowest dimension where such nontrivial terms appear. An explicit example, the static zero tidal force (3+1)-d catenary wormhole is analysed and we show the existence of a geodesic through it supported locally by non-exotic matter, similar to the (2+1)-d version. A key difference is that positive mass-energy is used to support the entire (3+1)-d catenary wormhole, though violation of the null energy condition in certain regions is inevitable. This general approach of first constructing the geometry of the spacetime and then using the field equations to determine the physics to support it has the potential to discover new solutions in general relativity or to generalise existing ones. For instance, the metric of a time-evolving inflationary wormhole with a conformal factor can actually be geometrically constructed using our method.     

Impact of quantum–classical correspondence on entanglement enhancement by single-mode squeezing

Quantum entanglement between two field modes can be achieved through the collective squeezing of the two respective modes. If single-mode squeezing is performed prior to such a two-mode squeezing, an enhancement of entanglement production can happen. Interestingly, the occurrence of this enhancement can be implicitly linked to the local classical dynamical behavior via the paradigm of quantum–classical correspondence. In particular, the entanglement generated through quantum chaos is found to be hardly enhanced by prior squeezing, since it is bounded by the saturation value of the maximally entangled Schmidt state with fixed energy. These results illustrate that entanglement enhancement via initial squeezing can serve as a useful indicator of quantum chaotic behaviour.     

Polymerization of water-in-oil microemulsions: Methyl methacrylate,acrylic acid,and sodium acrylamidostearate

Water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsions of methyl methacrylate (MMA), acrylic acid (AA), sodium acrylamidostearate (NaAAS), and water were investigated. MMA, AA, and NaAAS could be terpolymerized in these microemulsions. For a composition of 54% MMA, 34% AA, 2% NaAAS, and 10% H₂O, polymers of high molecular weights of about 1,000,000 were obtained between 3.5 to 24% polymer conversion. The system became a transparent gel when conversion exceeded 36%. Transparent solid terpolymer containing water up to 16% were also obtained after fully polymerizations of certain compositions.     

Total chromatic number of complete r-partite graphs

Rosenfeld (1971) proved that the Total Colouring Conjecture holds for balanced complete r-partite graphs. Bermond (1974) determined the exact total chromatic number of every balanced complete r-partite graph. Rosenfeld's result had been generalized recently to complete r-partite graphs by Yap (1989). The main result of this paper is to prove that the total chromatic number of every complete r-partite graph G of odd order is Δ (G) + 1. This result gives a partial generalization of Bermond's theorem.