Probing in vitro digestion at oil–water interfaces

Interfacial layers have been widely applied to study the formation and stability of emulsion-based systems. However, the application of isolated interfaces to address digestibility of emulsions is often limited because of the complexity of experimental methods and results. This review summarizes the latest developments in analytical methods and literature data on effects of digestion on interfacial layers. Particular emphasis is given to understand the changes on interfacial magnitudes during oral, gastric, and duodenal digestion, either applied separately or sequentially. Limitations of interfacial aspects and key factors that influence emulsion microstructure in bulk and lipid digestion are identified. Understanding the behavior of interfacial layers upon gastrointestinal digestion promotes an accurate tracking of the physiological fate of emulsions.     

Simultaneous determination of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim in human plasma by capillary zone electrophoresis

A capillary electrophoretic method for the simultaneous determination of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim in plasma was developed. Sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim extracted from human plasma with ethyl acetate were analyzed at 20 kV and 25 degrees C using 15 mm phosphate buffer (pH 6.2) as the electrolyte. The detection was by UV at 220 nm. The run time was 8.0 min and the limit of quantification was 10.00 microg/mL for sulfamethoxazole and 2.00 microg/mL for trimethoprim. The recovery was >99% for both compounds. This method enabled the detection of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim in plasma of patients after oral ingestion of their combined formulation. The present simple and rapid method is applicable to drug monitoring in immunocompromised patients who are taking the combined formulation of these compounds for the treatment or prophylaxis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.     

Fluorescence immunological determination of immunoglobulin G in human serum by high-performance liquid gel-permeation chromatography

Summary A high-performance liquid gel-permeation chromatographic method is described for the determination of human serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) by separating the fluorescent immuno complex from the free fluorescence-labeled antibody. Fluorescence-labeled antibody used in this study was fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled Fab fragment goat anti-human IgG (anti-IgG Fab). Immuno complexes and antibody of different molecular sizes can be separated. FITC-labeled anti-IgG Fab was added to the serum and the mixture is passed through the column. An immuno complex separates as well-delineated peak in the column void volume, and was measured by the fluorescence of the column eluate (Ex=490nm, Em=520nm). The total analysis time for a serum sample was approximately 15min. The minimum detection limit was 25 mg/dl. The relative standard deviation was below 2% (peak area). The results of the HPL-GPC analysis correlate well with those obtained by laser nephelometric assay (r=0.992).     

牛血清蛋白对手性物质的毛细管电泳拆分

采用聚氧乙烯涂层毛细管柱，以牛血清蛋白(BSA)为手性添加剂，运用毛细管电泳电导检测对手性药物沙丁胺醇和多沙唑嗪以及DL-组氨酸、色氨酸、苏氨酸进行拆分。考察了涂层柱的稳定性和重现性。对影响手性分离的主要因素：缓冲溶液的浓度和酸度、BSA的浓度、有机溶剂的种类和浓度以及分离电压进行了系统的研究。结果表明：在选择的最佳实验条件下，各对映异构体在22min内得到基线分离。     

LC Determination of Propylene Glycol in Human Plasma After Pre-Column Derivatization with Benzoyl Chloride

A simple high-performance liquid chromatographic method, using photodiode array detection was developed for the determination of propylene glycol in human plasma and in the fluid retreived after continuous veno-venous hemofiltration. The method entailed alkaline derivatization with benzoyl chloride and ethylene glycol as internal standard. The separation of the compounds, after extraction with pentane, was carried out on a Pursuit C8 column with UV-detection at 230 nm. Validation samples were analyzed with an accuracy between 95 and 105%, and intra- and inter-day coefficients of variation of less than 8%. The calibration curve was linear over a concentration range of 5–100 mg L⁻¹ with a detection limit of 1 mg L⁻¹. Blood plasma samples of several patients were analysed by using the prescribed method with propylene glycol concentrations varying from 5 to 98 mg L⁻¹. Compared to previously described LC methods, this method is ten times more sensitive and thus suitable for use in pharmacokinetic studies of propylene glycol.     

MTT法测定稀土离子对BEL-7402及K562细胞的毒性及增殖毒性

用MTT法测定稀土离子在不同浓度、不同培养液中,与BEL 7402和K562细胞作用不同时间,对细胞的毒性和增殖毒性。结果表明,在含10%小牛血清培养液中,仅个别稀土离子在较高浓度时对BEL 7402细胞增殖有较弱的抑制作用;对于K562细胞,稀土离子在低浓度时对细胞增殖即表现出较强的抑制作用(P<0.05)。当培养液不含小牛血清时,较低浓度的稀土离子即可抑制BEL 7402细胞的增殖(P<0 05)。     

Surface Control and Electrical Tuning of MXene Electrode for Flexible Self-Powered Human–Machine Interaction

MXene materials emerge as promising candidates for energy harvesting and storage application. In this study, the effect of the surface chemistry on the work function of MXenes, which determines the performance of MXene-based triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), is elucidated. First-principles calculations reveal that the surface functional group greatly influences MXene work function:  OH termination reduces the work function with respect to that of bare surface, while  F and  Cl increase it. Then, work functions are experimentally determined by Kelvin probe force microscopy. The MXene prepared by gentle etching at 40 °C for 48 h (GE_40/48) has the largest work function. Furthermore, an electron-cloud potential-well model is established to explain the mechanism of electron emission-dominated charge transfer and assemble a triboelectric device to verify experimentally its conclusions. It is found that GE_40/48 has the best performance with a 281 V open-circuit voltage, 9.7 µA short-current current, and storing 1.019 µC of charge, which is consistent with the model. Last, a patterned TENG is demonstrated for self-powered human–machine interaction application. This finding enhances the understanding of the inherent mechanism between the surface structure and the output performance of MXene-based TENG, which can be applied to other TENG based on 2D materials.     

An admittance based hierarchical control framework for dual-arm cobots

Dual-arm robotic platforms have solid arguments to match the growing need for versatility in the industry. Coupling the control of two manipulators for cooperative purposes enlarges the scope of feasible operations, while adding perception capabilities allows to navigate in dynamic environments. In this respect, we propose a complete online kinematic control framework for dual-arm robots operating in unstructured industrial settings. We base our approach on admittance control in the cooperative task space. Regulating internal and external efforts offer safe bimanual task execution and enables physical interaction. We implement a hierarchical quadratic programming architecture that applies a prioritization of tasks: most efforts are concentrated on the proper tracking of relative motions of the arms, which is the most critical for safety reasons. We demonstrate the performance of our framework through a “teaching-by-demonstration” experiment on the dual-arm mobile cobot BAZAR.     

基于Focal-EIOU函数的被动式太赫兹图像违禁物品识别

针对被动式太赫兹安检系统因环境影响导致图像质量波动,从而影响识别算法,导致准确率大幅降低的问题,提出了基于Focal-EIOU损失函数的改进YOLOv4算法,并用被动式太赫兹人体安检图像对刀、枪违禁物品进行模型训练获得模型。建立不同环境、不同位置角度携带刀枪嫌疑物人员的太赫兹图像数据库,采用图像增广的方法构建丰富数据集;将YOLOv4的CIOU loss改进为Focal-EIOU loss,提高算法对太赫兹图像识别的鲁棒性,进而经过训练获得较优的模型。在本文的测试集中,使用改进后的算法训练的模型平均检测精确度(mAP)达到96.4%,检测速度在28 ms左右,交并比(IOU)平均值为0.95,在同等条件下高于常规算法,改善了检测识别的效果。实验结果表明,本文方法能够有效提高被动式太赫兹人体安检系统的嫌疑物识别准确率,有利于该项技术在人体安检领域的推广应用。     

RFID-based 3D human pose tracking: A subject generalization approach

Three-dimensional (3D) human pose tracking has recently attracted more and more attention in the computer vision field. Real-time pose tracking is highly useful in various domains such as video surveillance, somatosensory games, and human-computer interaction. However, vision-based pose tracking techniques usually raise privacy concerns, making human pose tracking without vision data usage an important problem. Thus, we propose using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) as a pose tracking technique via a low-cost wearable sensing device. Although our prior work illustrated how deep learning could transfer RFID data into real-time human poses, generalization for different subjects remains challenging. This paper proposes a subject-adaptive technique to address this generalization problem. In the proposed system, termed Cycle-Pose, we leverage a cross-skeleton learning structure to improve the adaptability of the deep learning model to different human skeletons. Moreover, our novel cycle kinematic network is proposed for unpaired RFID and labeled pose data from different subjects. The Cycle-Pose system is implemented and evaluated by comparing its prototype with a traditional RFID pose tracking system. The experimental results demonstrate that Cycle-Pose can achieve lower estimation error and better subject generalization than the traditional system.