Optical properties and upconversions in Er doped Li:TeO2 glass

A NIR excitation of Er³⁺ doped Lithium modified tellurite (Li:TeO₂) glass results in antistokes fluorescent emission near 380, 530, 551 and 654 nm (ultraviolet, green and red regions) in addition to NIR Stokes emission. The antistokes emissions are ascribed to transition from the excited ⁴G_11/2, ⁴S_3/2(²H_11/2) and ⁴F_9/2 levels in Er³⁺. The excitation involves three and two incident photons. On excitation with the green laser line at 532 nm also leads to similar emissions. The mechanisms involved in these processes are discussed on the basis of the known energy level diagram and the upconversion efficiency has been calculated. Lifetime of the ⁴S_3/2 level has been measured. The temperature dependence of the upconversion process has also been investigated.     

Electrokinetics in micro devices for biotechnology applications

Electrokinetics is the study of the motion of bulk fluids or selected particles embedded in fluids when they are subjected to electric fields. With the recent developments in microfabrication, electrokinetics provides effective manipulation techniques in the micro and nano domains, which matches the length scale of various biological objects. The ability to manipulate objects down to molecular levels opens new avenues to exploit biological science and technology. Understanding of the fundamental characteristics and limitations of the forces becomes a crucial issue for successful applications of these force fields. In this paper, we review and examine the range of influence for electrokinetically manipulated biological objects in microdevices, which can lead to interesting applications in biotechnology.     

A Flexible Composite Mechanical Energy Harvester from a Ferroelectric Organoamino Phosphonium Salt

A new binary organic salt diphenyl diisopropylamino phosphonium hexaflurophosphate (DPDP?PF₆) was shown to exhibit a good ferroelectric response and employed for mechanical energy harvesting application. The phosphonium salt crystallizes in the monoclinic noncentrosymmetric space group Cc and exhibits an H‐bonded 1D chain structure due to N?H???F interactions. Ferroelectric measurements on the single crystals of DPDP?PF₆ gave a well‐saturated rectangular hysteresis loop with a remnant (P_r) polarization value of 6 μC cm^?2. Further, composite devices based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films for various weight percentages (3, 5, 7, 10 and 20 wt %) of DPDP?PF₆ were prepared and examined for power generation by using an impact test setup. A maximum output peak‐to‐peak voltage (V_PP) of 8.5 V and an output peak‐to‐peak current (I_PP) of 0.5 μA was obtained for the non‐poled composite film with 10 wt % of DPDP?PF₆. These results show the efficacy of organic ferroelectric substances as potential micropower generators.     

Selective detection of mercury (II) ion using nonlinear optical properties of gold nanoparticles

Contamination of the environment with heavy metal ions has been an important concern throughout the world for decades. Driven by the need to detect trace amounts of mercury in environmental samples, this article demonstrates for the first time that nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of MPA-HCys-PDCA-modified gold nanoparticles can be used for rapid, easy and reliable screening of Hg(II) ions in aqueous solution, with high sensitivity (5 ppb) and selectivity over competing analytes. The hyper Rayleigh scattering (HRS) intensity increases 10 times after the addition of 20 ppm Hg(2+) ions to modified gold nanoparticle solution. The mechanism for HRS intensity change has been discussed in detail using particle size-dependent NLO properties as well as a two-state model. Our results show that the HRS assay for monitoring Hg(II) ions using MPA-HCys-PDCA-modified gold nanoparticles has excellent selectivity over alkali, alkaline earth (Li(+), Na(+), K(+), Mg(2+), Ca(2+)), and transition heavy metal ions (Pb(2+), Pb(+), Mn(2+), Fe(2+), Cu(2+), Ni(2+), Zn(2+), Cd(2+)).     

Judd-Ofelt analysis of Tm and energy transfer studies between Tm and Er codoped in lithium tellurite network

Optical properties of Tm(3+) and Er(3+) and Tm(3+)+Er(3+) codoped tellurite glass have been studied using different wavelengths from a Ti-Sapphire laser as excitation source. The energy transfer from one rare earth to other on excitation with different wavelengths has been studied. The Judd-Ofelt theory has been used to calculate various optical parameters suitable for laser oscillation.     

UVB‐Induced Inflammatory Cytokine Release,DNA Damage and Apoptosis of Human Oral Compared with Skin Tissue Equivalents

People can get oral cancers from UV (290–400 nm) exposures. Besides high outdoor UV exposures, high indoor UV exposures to oral tissues can occur when consumers use UV‐emitting tanning devices to either tan or whiten their teeth. We compared the carcinogenic risks of skin to oral tissue cells after UVB (290–320 nm) exposures using commercially available 3D‐engineered models for human skin (EpiDerm?), gingival (EpiGing?) and oral (EpiOral?) tissues. To compare the relative carcinogenic risks, we investigated the release of cytokines, initial DNA damage in the form of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs), repair of CPDs and apoptotic cell numbers. We measured cytokine release using cytometric beads with flow cytometry and previously developed a fluorescent immunohistochemical assay to quantify simultaneously CPD repair rates and apoptotic cell numbers. We found that interleukin‐8 (IL‐8) release and the initial CPDs are significantly higher, whereas the CPD repair rates and apoptotic cell numbers are significantly lower for oral compared with skin tissue cells. Thus, the increased release of the inflammatory cytokine IL‐8 along with inefficient CPD repair and decreased death rates for oral compared with skin tissue cells suggests that mutations are accumulating in the surviving population of oral cells increasing people's risks for getting oral cancers.     

Threshold and complexity results for the cover pebbling game

Given a configuration of pebbles on the vertices of a graph, a pebbling move is defined by removing two pebbles from some vertex and placing one pebble on an adjacent vertex. The cover pebbling number of a graph, γ(G), is the smallest number of pebbles such that through a sequence of pebbling moves, a pebble can eventually be placed on every vertex simultaneously, no matter how the pebbles are initially distributed. We determine Bose-Einstein and Maxwell-Boltzmann cover pebbling thresholds for the complete graph. Also, we show that the cover pebbling decision problem is NP-complete.     

Is high electric field capable of selectively inducing a covalent-like bond between polar and non-polar molecular species?

It is demonstrated through the present ab initio theoretical investigation that an external electric field can bring about a phenomenal enhancement in the strength of the bond between water and carbon-dioxide molecules from a van der Waals type (binding energy ~0.085 eV), to strong covalent type (binding energy ~7.45 eV), resulting in an exotic molecular complex. The onset of this effect is characterized by an abrupt change in the dipole moment of the composite system at a particular field-value, concomitant with the O–C=O ? O=C–O resonance in the CO₂ moiety of the complex. This field-induced bond formation is further confirmed by the emergence of a characteristic intermolecular stretching mode (~317 cm^?1) in the vibrational response of the system. This exotic bond that exhibits a covalent-like character, which accompanied by a charge-transfer, renders the carbon atom a substantial negative charge.     

An effective continuum approach for modeling non-equilibrium structural evolution of protein nanofiber networks

We quantify the formation and evolution of protein nanofibers using a new phase field modeling framework and compare the results to transmission electron microscopy measurements (TEM) and time-dependent growth measurements given in the literature. The modeling framework employs a set of effective continuum equations combined with underlying nanoscale forces and chemical potential relations governing protein nanofiber formation in solution. Calculations based on the theoretical framework are implemented numerically using a nonlinear finite element phase field modeling approach that couples homogenized protein molecular structure via a vector order parameter with chemical potential relations that describe interactions between the nanofibers and the surrounding solution. Homogenized, anisotropic molecular and chemical flux relations are found to be critical in obtaining nanofiber growth from seed particles or a random monomer bath. In addition, the model predicts both sigmoidal and first-order growth kinetics for protein nanofibers for unseeded and seeded models, respectively. These simulations include quantitative predictions on time scales of typical protein self-assembly behavior which qualitatively match TEM measurements of the RADA16-I protein and growth rate measurements for amyloid nanofibers from the literature. For comparisons with experiments, the numerical model performs multiple nanofiber protein evolution simulations with a characteristic length scale of ～2.4 nm and characteristic time scale of ～9.1 h. These results provide a new modeling tool that couples underlying monomer structure with self-assembling nanofiber behavior that is compatible with various external loadings and chemical environments.     

Nanomaterials for targeted detection and photothermal killing of bacteria

Despite the modern treatment processes, contamination of food, water and medical equipment by pathogenic bacteria is very common in this world. Since the last two decades, one of the most important and complex problems our society has been facing is that several human pathogens became resistant to most of the clinically approved antibiotics. Recent advancement in nanoscience and nanotechnology has expanded our ability to design and construct nanomaterials with targeting, therapeutic, and diagnostic functions. These multifunctional materials have attracted our attention to be used as the promising tool for selective bacteria sensing and therapy without the current drugs. This tutorial review provides the basic concepts and critical properties of the different nanostructures that are useful for the pathogen detection and photothermal applications. In addition, bio-conjugated nanomaterial based strategies have been discussed with the aim to provide readers an overview of exciting opportunities and challenges in this field.