Analytics

Accurate analysis of microRNAs (miRNAs) at the single-cell level is extremely important for deeply understanding their multiple and intricate biological functions. Despite some advancements in analyzing single-cell miRNAs, challenges such as intracellular interferences and insufficient detection limits still remain. In this work, an ultrasensitive nanopore sensor for quantitative single-cell miRNA-155 detection is constructed based on ionic current rectification (ICR) coupled with enzyme-free catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA)...

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a common liver disease with a high rate of morbidity, and its pathogenesis is closely associated with the overproduction of highly reactive hypochlorite (ClO- ) in the liver. However, bioluminescence imaging of endogenous hypochlorite in nontransgenic natural mice remains challenging. Herein, to address this issue, we report a strategy for imaging ClO- in living cells and DILI mice by harnessing a bioluminescent probe formylhydrazine luciferin ( ClO-Luc ) combined with firefly luciferase (fLuc) mRNA-loaded lipid nanoparticles (LNPs)...

Electronic excitation transfer dynamics in photosynthetic systems, including the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex, are often modeled using the interaction picture of three two-level systems, also known as the 3-site system. Among the two possible configurations, uphill and downhill, a recent publication reported an intriguing correlation between population dynamics and the intersite coupling. Specifically, the uphill configuration has been shown to have a pronounced dependence on perturbations in the intersite coupling, whereas the downhill configuration displays negligible dependence...

Capillary flow has garnered significant attention due to its unique dynamic characteristics that require no external force. Creating a quantitative analytical model to evaluate capillary flow behaviors in root-like networks is essential for enhancing fluid control properties in functional textiles. In this study, we explore the capillary dynamics within root-like networks under the influence of gravity and derive the most rapid capillary flow via structural optimization. The flow time in a capillary is dominated by the capillary pressure, viscous pressure loss, and gravity, each of which exhibits diverse sensitivities to the structures of root-like networks...

Drug abuse is a severe social problem worldwide. Particularly, the issue of new psychoactive substances (NPSs) have increasingly emerged. NPSs are structural or functional analogs of traditional illicit drugs, such as cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamine; these molecules provide the same or more severe neurological effects. Usually, immunoassays are utilized in the preliminary screening method. However, NPSs have poor detectability in commercially available immunoassay kits. Meanwhile, various chromatography combined with the mass spectrometry platform have been developed to quantify NPSs...

Microplastics (MPs) can act as carriers of environmental arsenic species into the stomach with food and release arsenic species during digestion, which threatens human health. Herein, an integrated dynamic stomach model (DSM)-capillary electrophoresis-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (CE-ICPMS) is developed for online monitoring of the release and transformation behaviors of arsenic species loaded on MPs (As-MPs) in the simulated human stomach. The 3D-printed DSM with a soft stomach chamber enables the behaviors of gastric peristalsis, gastric and salivary fluid addition, pH adjustment, and gastric emptying (GE) to be controlled by a self-written program after oral ingestion of food with As-MPs...

With the rapid development of Quantum Machine Learning, quantum neural networks (QNN) have experienced great advancement in the past few years, harnessing the advantages of quantum computing to significantly speed up classical machine learning tasks. Despite their increasing popularity, the quantum neural network is quite counter-intuitive and difficult to understand, due to their unique quantum-specific layers (e.g., data encoding and measurement) in their architecture. It prevents QNN users and researchers from effectively understanding its inner workings and exploring the model training status...

To enhance the appeal and informativeness of data news, there is an increasing reliance on data analysis techniques and visualizations, which poses a high demand for journalists' abilities. While numerous visual analytics systems have been developed for deriving insights, few tools specifically support and disseminate viewpoints for journalism. Thus, this work aims to facilitate the automatic creation of sports news from natural language insights. To achieve this, we conducted an extensive preliminary study on the published sports articles...

The issue of traffic congestion poses a significant obstacle to the development of global cities. One promising solution to tackle this problem is intelligent traffic signal control (TSC). Recently, TSC strategies leveraging reinforcement learning (RL) have garnered attention among researchers. However, the evaluation of these models has primarily relied on fixed metrics like reward and queue length. This limited evaluation approach provides only a narrow view of the model's decision-making process, impeding its practical implementation...

BACKGROUND: Tulathromycin (TUL) is a triamilide antibacterial drug which has been approved for use in the European Union and the United States for the treatment and prevention of bovine respiratory diseases. The existing methods for determination of TUL in its pharmaceutical bulk form are very limited and suffer from major drawbacks. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was the development of two innovative microwell spectrophotometric methods (MW-SPMs) for determination of TUL in its pharmaceutical bulk form...

Peptide mapping with mass spectrometry (MS) is an important tool for protein characterization in the biopharmaceutical industry. Historically, peptide mapping monitors post-translational modifications (PTMs) of protein products and process intermediates during development. Multi-attribute monitoring (MAM) methods have been used previously in commercial release and stability testing panels to ensure control of selected critical quality attributes (CQAs). Our goal is to use MAM methods as part of an overall analytical testing strategy specifically focused on CQAs, while removing or replacing historical separation methods that do not effectively distinguish CQAs from non-CQAs due to co-elution...

BACKGROUND: Active participation of cancer patients and their caregivers in decision-making, along with high-quality communication, is crucial in patient-centered cancer management. Although numerous factors affecting patients' communication and decision-making involvement have been identified, it is still unclear which ones are the most prevalent and critical. OBJECTIVE: To identify factors that contribute to high-quality patient-centered communication and decision-making participation from the perspectives of cancer patients, informal caregivers, and/or healthcare professionals...

This study elucidates the mass transfer mechanism of myoglobin (Mb) within a single silica particle with a 50 nm pore size at various pH levels (6.0, 6.5, 6.8, and 7.0). Investigation of Mb distribution ratio (R) and distribution kinetics was conducted using absorption microspectroscopy. The highest R was observed at pH 6.8, near the isoelectric point of Mb, as the electrostatic repulsion between Mb molecules on the silica surface decreased. The time-course absorbance of Mb in the silica particle was rigorously analyzed based on a first-order reaction, yielding the intraparticle diffusion coefficient of Mb (Dp )...

A metallacrown-type ionophore, 2,3-pyridinediolate-bridged (3,5-dimethylanisole)ruthenium trinuclear complex, has a high extraction selectivity for Li+ , but the extraction reaction is very slow. To solve this problem, the effect of temperature on the rapidity and equilibrium of the extraction of Li+ and Na+ as picrates from water to toluene with the metallacrown was investigated in this study. While the extraction of Li+ requires 6 h of shaking for equilibration at 25 °C, the distribution ratio becomes nearly constant after 4 h and 2 h of shaking at 37 °C and 50 °C, respectively...

BACKGROUND: Resistance exercise is the most common training modality included within strength and conditioning (S&C) practice. Understanding dose-response relationships between resistance training and a range of outcomes relevant to physical and sporting performance is of primary importance for quality S&C prescription. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this meta-analysis was to use contemporary modelling techniques to investigate resistance-only and resistance-dominant training interventions, and explore relationships between training variables (frequency, volume, intensity), participant characteristics (training status, sex), and improvements across a range of outcome domains including maximum strength, power, vertical jump, change of direction, and sprinting performance...

INTRODUCTION: Atopic dermatitis is associated with intense itch, which has been shown to cause sleep disruption that significantly impacts the lives of patients with atopic dermatitis. Despite this, little is known about its burden to the healthcare system and society. This study aimed to quantify the economic burden of itch-related sleep loss in moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis in the UK. METHODS: A literature-based decision-analytic model was developed from a healthcare payer and societal perspective...

A perennial challenge in harnessing the rich biological activity of medicinal and edible plants is the accurate identification and sensitive detection of their active compounds. In this study, an innovative, ultra-sensitive detection platform for plant chemical profiling is created using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technology. The platform uses silver nanoparticles as the enhancing substrate, excess sodium borohydride prevents substrate oxidation, and methanol enables the tested molecules to be better adsorbed onto the silver nanoparticles...

A dual-mode (colorimetric/fluorescence) nanoenzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (NLISA) was developed based on Au-Cu nanocubes generating Prussian blue nanoparticles (PBNPs). It is expected that this method can be used to detect the residues of sulfonamides in the field, and solve the problem of long analysis time and high cost of the traditional method. Sulfadimethoxine (SDM) was selected as the proof-of-concept target analyte. The Au-Cu nanocubes were linked to the aptamer by amide interaction, and the Au-Cu nanocubes, SDM and antibody were immobilized on a 96-well plate using the sandwich method...

A novel dual-mode fluorometric and colorimetric sensing platform is reported for determining glutathione S-transferase (GST) by utilizing polyethyleneimine-capped silver nanoclusters (PEI-AgNCs) and cobalt-manganese oxide nanosheets (CoMn-ONSs) with oxidase-like activity. Abundant active oxygen species (O2 •- ) can be produced through the CoMn-ONSs interacting with dissolved oxygen. Afterward, the pink oxDPD was generated through the oxidation of colorless N,N-diethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPD) by O2 •- , and two absorption peaks at 510 and 551 nm could be observed...

Millions of people are subject to infertility worldwide and one in every six people, regardless of gender, experiences infertility at some period in their life, according to the World Health Organization. Assisted reproductive technologies are defined as a set of procedures that can address the infertility issue among couples, culminating in the alleviation of the condition. However, the costly conventional procedures of assisted reproduction and the inherent vagaries of the processes involved represent a setback for its successful implementation...