Nano-Aptasensing in Mycotoxin Analysis: Recent Updates and Progress.

Recent years have witnessed an overwhelming integration of nanomaterials in the fabrication of biosensors. Nanomaterials have been incorporated with the objective to achieve better analytical figures of merit in terms of limit of detection, linear range, assays stability, low production cost, etc. Nanomaterials can act as immobilization support, signal amplifier, mediator and artificial enzyme label in the construction of aptasensors.

Three-Dimensional Lupinus-like TiO Nanorod@SnO Nanosheet Hierarchical Heterostructured Arrays as Photoanode for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Performance.

A novel photoelectrode of three-dimensional (3D) lupinus-like TiO nanorod@SnO nanosheet hierarchical heterostructured arrays (TiO@SnO HHAs) on a transparent F-doped SnO glass substrate was designed and fabricated by a two-step solvothermal growth process. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurements showed that the 3D lupinus-like TiO@SnO HHAs photoelectrode displayed enhanced photocurrent density (3-fold increase with respect to that of pure TiO), improved conversion efficiency, more negative onset potential (from -0.13 to -0.

Heavy metals in soil at a waste electrical and electronic equipment processing area in China.

For the objective of evaluating the contamination degree of heavy metals and analysing its variation trend in soil at a waste electrical and electronic equipment processing area in Shanghai, China, evaluation methods, which include single factor index method, geo-accumulation index method, comprehensive pollution index method, and potential ecological risk index method, were adopted in this study. The results revealed that the soil at a waste electrical and electronic equipment processing area was polluted by arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, zinc, and chromium. It also demonstrated that the concentrations of heavy metals were increased over time.

Great Thermal Conductivity Enhancement of Silicone Composite with Ultra-Long Copper Nanowires.

In this paper, ultra-long copper nanowires (CuNWs) were successfully synthesized at a large scale by hydrothermal reduction of divalent copper ion using oleylamine and oleic acid as dual ligands. The characteristic of CuNWs is hard and linear, which is clearly different from graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The thermal properties and models of silicone composites with three nanomaterials have been mainly researched.

Early developmental exposure to pentachlorophenol causes alterations on mRNA expressions of caspase protease family in zebrafish embryos.

Caspase proteases play an essential role in cell apoptosis and inflammation, thus matter greatly in animal development and other biological processes. As a ubiquitous environmental pollutant, pentachlorophenol (PCP) is considered to have adverse effects on animal apoptosis during embryonic development, yet the evidence that PCP interfere with caspase genes was seldom reported. To uncover the effects of PCP on caspases expression in early embryos of zebrafish, two concentrations of PCP (5 μg/L and 200 μg/L) were chosen and 14 types of caspase genes at two different developmental stages, 8 h post-fertilization (hpf) and 24 hpf were analyzed.

A Gelated Colloidal Crystal Attached Lens for Noninvasive Continuous Monitoring of Tear Glucose.

Patients of diabetes mellitus urgently need noninvasive and continuous glucose monitoring in daily point-of-care. As the tear glucose concentration has a positive correlation with that in blood, the hydrogel colloidal crystal integrated into contact lens possesses promising potential for noninvasive monitoring of glucose in tears. This paper presents a new glucose-responsive sensor, which consists a crystalline colloidal array (CCA) embedded in hydrogel matrix, attached onto a rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lens.

Significantly enhanced base activation of peroxymonosulfate by polyphosphates: Kinetics and mechanism.

Base activation of peroxydisulfate (PDS) is a common process aiming for water treatment, but requires high doses of PDS and strongly basic solutions. Peroxymonosulfate (PMS), another peroxygen of sulfurate derived from PDS, may also be activated by a less basic solution. However, enhancing the base-PMS reactivity is still challenging.

Current and Emerging Technology for Continuous Glucose Monitoring.

Diabetes has become a leading cause of death worldwide. Although there is no cure for diabetes, blood glucose monitoring combined with appropriate medication can enhance treatment efficiency, alleviate the symptoms, as well as diminish the complications. For point-of-care purposes, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices are considered to be the best candidates for diabetes therapy.

The Regulatory Roles of MicroRNA in Effects of 2,2'4,4'-Tetrabromodiphenyl Ether (BDE47) on the Transcriptome of Zebrafish Larvae.

The developmental neurotoxicity caused by environmental pollutants has received great concern; however, there were still barely known about the underlying toxic mechanisms, especially the influence of varieties of regulatory factors such as microRNA (miRNA). A representative flame retardant, 2,2',4,4'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE47), was found to disrupt zebrafish development in visual perception and bone formation in previous study, thus here we investigated its effects on miRNA expression profiling of 6 days post fertilization (dpf) zebrafish larvae by deep sequencing. To overcome the shortage of zebrafish miRNA annotation, multiple data processing approaches, especially constructed network based on the interactions between miRNAs and enrichment terms, were adopted and helped us acquire several validated zebrafish miRNAs and two novel miRNAs in BDE47-induced effects, and identify corresponding biological processes of the miRNAs.

Effects of three different embryonic exposure modes of 2, 2', 4, 4'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether on the path angle and social activity of zebrafish larvae.

The toxicological research of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) has focused on its neurotoxicity; however, many questions still remain. For example, behavioral effects other than basic locomotion are seldom reported. To further evaluate the neurobehavioral toxicity of 2, 2', 4, 4'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47), a typical PBDE congener in animal tissues, we employed three different exposure modes, namely, continuous, early pulse, and interval exposure, to investigate the path angle and social activity changes of zebrafish larvae exposed to BDE-47 using automated equipment (Zebrabox).

The developmental effects of pentachlorophenol on zebrafish embryos during segmentation: A systematic view.

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a typical toxicant and prevailing pollutant whose toxicity has been broadly investigated. However, previous studies did not specifically investigate the underlying mechanisms of its developmental toxicity. Here, we chose zebrafish embryos as the model, exposed them to 2 different concentrations of PCP, and sequenced their entire transcriptomes at 10 and 24 hours post-fertilization (hpf).