Detection of magnetic nanoparticles using simple AMR sensors in Wheatstone bridge

Wheatstone bridges incorporating a serially connected ensemble of simple AMR elements of Ni80Fe20 film were produced, targeting an application of a pinned magnetic field along the sensing magnetoresistor length. For the optimal dimension, the magnetoresistive element with length l = 4 mm, width w = 150 μm and thickness t = 5 nm still shows a rather modest AMR ratio (of about 0.85% only). However, the resulting bridge exhibits a sensitivity as large as 2.15 mV/Oe. This is according to a standard sensitivity of 1.80 mV/V/Oe and a detection limit better than 10−6 emu, which is almost doubled with respect to that in the typical commercial AMR devices and is comparable with Permalloy based PHE sensor. This is suitable to detect the superparamagnetic fluid of 50 nm-Fe3O4-chitosan

Interest of anorectal manometry during long-term follow-up of patients operated on for Hirschsprung's disease

Background/Aims Although many advances in the management of Hirschsprung's disease have recently been achieved, postoperative outcomes of these patients remain difficult in a non-negligible number of cases. Therefore, this study aims at investigating characteristics of anorectal manometry and its relationship with postoperative outcomes during long-term follow-up in Hirschsprung patients. Methods Patients over 4 years of age operated on for Hirschsprung's disease were interviewed to complete detailed questionnaires on bowel function. The patients who consented to undergo an anorectal manometry during follow-up were enrolled in this study. We investigated their clinical characteristics, manometric findings, and their postoperative bowel function. Results Nineteen patients out of 53 patients (35.8%) were enrolled, 68.4% who were male. Mean age of patients at manometry was 11.3 ± 6.3 years. Twelve out of 19 patients (63.2%) were incontinent. The mean anal resting pressures of incontinent patients were significantly lower than continent patients (47 ± 12 mmHg versus 63 ± 11 mmHg, P < 0.05, t test). Due to neurological impairment, only 11 patients (57.9%) were able to perform a complete manometry. A dyssynergic defecation was found in 4 patients during strain tests. Maximum tolerated volume of the incontinent patients was significantly lower than that of the continent patients (97 ± 67 mL versus 181 ± 74 mL, P < 0.05, t test). Conclusion Anorectal manometry is an objective method providing useful information that could guide a more adapted management in patients with defecation disorders after Hirschsprung's disease operation.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Noble metal -doped graphitic carbon nitride photocatalyst for enhancement photocatalytic decomposition of antibiotic pollutant in wastewater under visible light

This study the noble metal (Ag)-doped graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) photocatalyst was synthesized via a facial thermal condensation method. The structure and surface elements distribution of synthesized materials were characterized using XRD, SEM, XPS, UV–vis and N2 adsorption-desorption experiment. The doping of Ag not only decreased the band-gap energy and particle size, but also enhanced the separation of charge carriers and decreased the electron/hole recombination in the g-C3N4 structure. The photocatalytic activity of Ag-doped g-C3N4 was investigated using oxytetracycline (OTC) as a model pollutant. The loading of 7% Ag onto g-C3N4 showed highest photocatalytic degradation efficiency of OT. The synthesized photocatalyst showed extremely high stability after 5 cycles as confirmed through various characterization techniques such as SEM and XRD. Eventually, several degradation intermediates of OTC were identified, and possible decomposition pathways were proposed. The 7-AgCN also was applied for the degradation of complex antibiotic wastewater, the removal efficiencies of OTC within 120 min was 98.7%. Overall, this work provides a novel strategy for the green synthesis of Ag-supportedg-C3N4, and its promising application prospect in environmental remediation.This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant number 104.05-2018.354 . Appendix AScopu

a new anonymous password-based authenticated key exchange protocol

Indian Inst Technol Kharagpur, Dept Comp Sci & Engn, Cryptol Res Soc IndiaIn Indocrypt 2005 Viet et al. first proposed an anonymous password-based key exchange protocol: APAKE and its extension: k-out-of-n APAKE. Then Shin et al. presented an improved protocol TAP. In this paper, we first show that the TAP protoco

Validation and utilization of an internally controlled multiplex Real-time RT-PCR assay for simultaneous detection of enteroviruses and enterovirus A71 associated with hand foot and mouth disease

Background: Hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a disease of public health importance across the Asia-Pacific region. The disease is caused by enteroviruses (EVs), in particular enterovirus A71 (EV-A71). In EV-A71-associated HFMD, the infection is sometimes associated with severe manifestations including neurological involvement and fatal outcome. The availability of a robust diagnostic assay to distinguish EV-A71 from other EVs is important for patient management and outbreak response. Methods: We developed and validated an internally controlled one-step single-tube real-time RT-PCR in terms of sensitivity, linearity, precision, and specificity for simultaneous detection of EVs and EV-A71. Subsequently, the assay was then applied on throat and rectal swabs sampled from 434 HFMD patients. Results: The assay was evaluated using both plasmid DNA and viral RNA and has shown to be reproducible with a maximum assay variation of 4.41 % and sensitive with a limit of detection less than 10 copies of target template per reaction, while cross-reactivity with other EV serotypes was not observed. When compared against a published VP1 nested RT-PCR using 112 diagnostic throat and rectal swabs from 112 children with a clinical diagnosis of HFMD during 2014, the multiplex assay had a higher sensitivity and 100 % concordance with sequencing results which showed EVs in 77/112 (68.8 %) and EV-A71 in 7/112 (6.3 %). When applied to clinical diagnostics for 322 children, the assay detected EVs in throat swabs of 257/322 (79.8 %) of which EV-A71 was detected in 36/322 (11.2 %) children. The detection rate increased to 93.5 % (301/322) and 13.4 % (43/322) for EVs and EV-A71, respectively, when rectal swabs from 65 throat-negative children were further analyzed. Conclusion: We have successfully developed and validated a sensitive internally controlled multiplex assay for rapid detection of EVs and EV-A71, which is useful for clinical management and outbreak control of HFMD