Polarized Lidar Reflectance Measurements of Vegetation at Near-Infrared and Green Wavelengths

There is growing interest in the use of lidar for remote sensing of vegetation owing to the emergence of reliable and rugged lasers and highly sensitive detectors. Lidar remote sensing has a distinct advantage over conventional techniques in vegetation remote sensing due to its capability for three-dimensional characterization of vegetative targets. The Multiwavelength Airborne Polarimetric Lidar (MAPL) system was developed primarily for vegetation remote sensing applications from an airborne platform of up to 1,000 -m altitude. The lidar system has full waveform capture and polarimetric measurement capability at two wavelengths in the near-infrared (1064 nm) and the green (532 nm) spectral regions. This study presents preliminary ground-based lidar reflectance measurements on a variety of deciduous and coniferous trees under fully foliated conditions with a view towards tree species discrimination. Variations in the reflectance characteristics of selected deciduous trees under unfoliated and fully foliated conditions were also investigated. Our study reveals distinct differences in the reflectance characteristics of various trees.     

Fiber Optical Bragg Grating Refractometer

We have demonstrated an evanescent field refractive indexfiber sensor comprising a 42-mm Bragg grating in an etched fiber together with a tunable Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) laser. Characterization of different aqueous sucrose solutions resulted in a resolution of roughly 10 mM sucrose. The sensor in the presented form has a theoretical sensitivity of higher than 10 5 refractive index unit (riu) in a refractive index region close to the cladding index of the fiber. However, the technique allows for an even higher sensitivity than 10 6 riu with a proper signal processing scheme.     

纳米晶La_（1－_x）Sr_xFeO_3的合成及气敏特性的研究

用柠檬酸盐法合成出Ｌａ_（１－_ｘ）Ｓｒ_ｘＦｅＯ_３（ｘ＝０．１，０．２，０．３，０．４）原粉，再经固相反应得到纳米晶粉末，用ＴＧ、ＤＴＡ、ＸＲＤ、ＩＲ进行了表征，确证复合氧化物Ｌａ_（１－_ｘ）Ｓｒ_ｘＦｅＯ_３为钙钛矿型结构，粒径在１０～２５ｎｍ之间。实验结果表明，随着固相反应条件不同，产物粒径呈规律性变化．气敏特性研究表明，该纳米晶材料对乙醇有较高的选择性和灵敏度，其选择性顺序为Ｌａ_（０．９）Ｓｒ_（０．１）ＦｅＯ_３＞ＬａＦｅＯ_３＞ＬａＦｅＯ_３（大晶粒）。     

Kilogram-scale synthesis of carbon quantum dots for hydrogen evolution,sensing and bioimaging

A facile, low-cost, green, kilogram-scale synthesis of high quality CQDs were synthesized. The throughput of CQDs is 1.4975 kg in one pot and the as-prepared CQDs have a highly crystalline hexagonal structure with remarkable solubility, stability, and biocompatibility. It showed outstanding electrocatalytic activity, Fe³⁺ sensitivity and good biocompatibility.     

Effect of purified fractions from cell culture supernate of high‐density pre‐B acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells (ALL3) on the growth of ALL3 cells at low density

The mechanisms underlying the aberrant growth and interactions between cells are not understood very well. The pre‐B acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells directly obtained from an adult patient grow very poorly or do not grow at all at low density (LD), but grow better at high starting cell density (HD). We found that the LD ALL3 cells can be stimulated to grow in the presence of diffusible, soluble factors secreted by ALL3 cells themselves growing at high starting cell density. We then developed a biochemical purification procedure that allowed us to purify the factor(s) with stimulatory activity and analyzed them by nanoliquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry (nanoLC‐MS/MS). Using nanoLC‐MS/MS we have identified several proteins which were further processed using various bioinformatics tools. This resulted in eight protein candidates which might be responsible for the growth activity on non‐growing LD ALL3 cells and their involvement in the stimulatory activity are discussed.     

Electrochemical Characterizations of four Main Redox–metabolites of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

Bacterial identification is of first importance in clinic nowadays. For few years, electrochemistry appears as a reliable route for characterizations outside of laboratories. Nowadays, researchers mainly focus on the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa because of its production of the Pyocyanin toxin which has an electrochemical case study behavior. Other P. aeruginosa secreted molecules are also studied in a lesser extent. This work deals with the systematic electrochemical characterizations in aprotic and protic solvents of 4 main metabolites of this bacterium in the view of multispecies detection of P. aeruginosa . We report here the behavior of the 2‐Heptyl‐4(1H)‐quinolone (HHQ), Pseudomonas Quinolone Signal (PQS), Pyocyanin (PYO) and the 2′aminoacetophenone (2‐AA). All the mentioned species are clearly visible by using electrochemical techniques (cyclic and square wave voltammetries). The 2 most suitable species for electrochemical detection appear to be PQS and PYO because of their detection at low potential.     

Sustainable alternative in environmental monitoring using carbon nanoparticles as optical probes

Environmental monitoring is getting more important nowadays due to the greater stress faced by the natural environment in the era of urbanisation and industrialisation. To accomplish the task, rapid and reliable analytical probes are essentially needed to perform the monitoring at real time basis with high sensitivity and accuracy. In view of this, analytical probes developed using carbon nanoparticles are one of the latest alternatives that are proven with capability to detect various analytes of the environment. Carbon nanoparticles portray good fluorescence property that enables the integration onto optical sensing transducers. Further engineering via surface functionalization can be performed in the interest to improve the selectivity and sensitivity of the probes. There are several advantages of using carbon nanoparticles and the most significant benefit is the sustainability prospect as compared to other groups of fluorophores. Carbon nanoparticles can be synthesised with greener approach via simple pyrolysis or hydrolysis processes that involve minimum use of toxic or harmful starting precursors, besides able to tap on using renewable resources such as carbon rich agricultural wastes. The synthesis is often performed under mild condition and produces less or no side chemical products. Carbon nanoparticles by nature show low toxicity effect to the environment. This review focuses specifically of the sustainable significances, advantages and achievements in adopting carbon nanoparticles as an alternative for environmental monitoring.     

Imidazolium Based Surface Active Ionic Liquids as Novel Micellar Media for Simultaneous and Sensitive Electrochemical Detection of Dopamine and Ascorbic Acid

Surface active ionic liquid (SAIL) micelle assisted, simultaneous and highly sensitive electrochemical sensing of dopamine (DA) and ascorbic acid (AA) is presented. Results presented herein establish that SAILs viz.1‐dodecyl‐3‐methyl imidazolium chloride ([DDMIM][Cl]), 1‐octyl‐3‐methyl imidazolium chloride ([OMIM][Cl]) and 1‐butyl‐3‐methyl imidazolium chloride ([BMIM][Cl]) exhibit a probe and SAIL nature/concentration specific impact on the redox behaviour of hydroquinone (H₂Q), dopamine (DA) and ascorbic acid (AA). To our observations, the electrochemical behaviour of DA and AA is affected oppositely by SAILs with the apparent effects being more appreciable in presence of [DDMIM][Cl]. In the presence of [DDMIM][Cl] micelles, the electro‐oxidation of AA was observed to occur at potentials about 350 mV less positive than required for electrooxidation of DA, an important advantage that minimises the interference of former in sensing of the later. The peak to peak potential separation of 350 mV observed in presence of [DDMIM][Cl] micelles is the largest to be reported so far. The DPV signal for DA and AA displayed a linear response in the concentration range of 6.6 to 99.9 μM and 6.6 to 131.5 μM respectively. Very low detection limits of 0.0161 μM for DA in presence of 39.8 μM AA and 0.0227 μM for AA in presence of 39.8 μM DA were estimated in micellar phase of [DDMIM][Cl].     

The Formation of Luminescent Supramolecular Ternary Complexes in Water: Delayed Luminescence Sensing of Aromatic Carboxylates Using Coordinated Unsaturated Cationic Heptadentate Lanthanide Ion Complexes

The synthesis of four lanthanide ion complexes Eu?1, Eu?2, Tb?1 and Tb?2, from the heptadentate tri-arm cyclen (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane) ligands 1 and 2 that were made in one-pot syntheses is described. These coordinatively unsaturated complexes have two labile metal-bound water molecules, as demonstrated by X-ray crystallography. This was also confirmed by evaluating their hydration state (q～2) by measuring their lifetimes in D²O and H²O, respectively. The above complexes were all designed as being “photophysically silent” prior to the recognition of the anion, since they do not possess antenna that can participate in sensitisation of the Eu(III) or the Tb(III) excited state. However, the two water molecules can be displaced upon anion binding by the appropriate aromatic carboxylates to give ternary complexes in water, through either four- or six-member ring chelates (q～0), or possibly via a monodentate binding. In the case of Tb?1 and Tb?2, large luminescence enhancements were observed upon the formation of such ternary complexes with N,N-dimethylaminobenzoic acid at ambient pH. Such binding and luminescent enhancements were also observed for Tb?1 in the presence of salicylic acid. On all occasions, the anion recognition “switched” the emission “on” over two logarithmic units. At higher concentrations, the emission is reduced possibly due to quenching. In the case of aspirin, the binding was too weak to be measured, indicating that Tb?1 selectively detects salicylic acid, the active form of aspirin in water. In the case of Eu?1 and Eu?2, the affinity of these complexes towards such aromatic carboxylates was too weak for efficient ternary complex formation.