Resonating Behaviour of Nanomachined Holed Microcantilevers

The nanofabrication of a nanomachined holed structure localized on the free end of a microcantilever is here presented, as a new tool to design micro-resonators with enhanced mass sensitivity. The proposed method allows both for the reduction of the sensor oscillating mass and the increment of the resonance frequency, without decreasing the active surface of the device. A theoretical analysis based on the Rayleigh method was developed to predict resonance frequency, effective mass, and effective stiffness of nanomachined holed microresonators. Analytical results were checked by Finite Element simulations, confirming an increase of the theoretical mass sensitivity up to 250%, without altering other figures of merit. The nanomachined holed resonators were vibrationally characterized, and their Q-factor resulted comparable with solid microcantilevers with same planar dimensions

Microcantilver-based DNA hybridization sensors for Salmonella identification

The detection of pathogenic microorganisms in foods remains a challenging since the safety of foodstuffs has to be ensured by the food producing companies. Conventional methods for the detection and identification of bacteria mainly rely on specific microbiological and biochemical identification. Biomolecular methods, are commonly used as a support for traditional techniques, thanks to their high sensitivity, specificity and not excessive costs. However, new methods like biosensors for example, can be an exciting alternative to the more traditional tecniques for the detection of pathogens in food. In this study we report Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis DNA detection through a novel class of label-free biosensors: microcantilevers (MCs). In general, MCs can operate as a microbalance and is used to detect the mass of the entities anchored to the cantilever surface using the decrease in the resonant frequency. We use DNA hybridization as model reaction system and for this reason, specific single stranded probe DNA of the pathogen and three different DNA targets (single-stranded complementary DNA, PCR product and serial dilutions of DNA extracted from S. Enteritidis strains) were applied. Two protocols were reported in order to allow the probe immobilization on cantilever surface: i) MC surface was functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and glutaraldehyde and an amino-modified DNA probe was used; ii) gold-coated sensors and thiolated DNA probes were used in order to generate a covalent bonding (Th-Au). For the first one, measures after hybridization with the PCR product showed related frequency shift 10 times higher than hybridization with complementary probe and detectable signals were obtained at the concentrations of 103 and 106 cfu/mL after hybridization with bacterial DNA. There are currently optimizations of the second protocol, where preliminary results have shown to be more uniform and therefore more precise within each of the three hybridizations

Correlations of Behavioral Deficits with Brain Pathology Assessed through Longitudinal MRI and Histopathology in the R6/2 Mouse Model of HD

Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by the expansion of a CAG repeat in the huntingtin (HTT) gene. The R6/2 mouse model of HD expresses a mutant version of exon 1 HTT and develops motor and cognitive impairments, a widespread huntingtin (HTT) aggregate pathology and brain atrophy. Despite the vast number of studies that have been performed on this model, the association between the molecular and cellular neuropathology with brain atrophy, and with the development of behavioral phenotypes remains poorly understood. In an attempt to link these factors, we have performed longitudinal assessments of behavior (rotarod, open field, passive avoidance) and of regional brain abnormalities determined through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (whole brain, striatum, cortex, hippocampus, corpus callosum), as well as an end-stage histological assessment. Detailed correlative analyses of these three measures were then performed. We found a gender-dependent emergence of motor impairments that was associated with an age-related loss of regional brain volumes. MRI measurements further indicated that there was no striatal atrophy, but rather a lack of striatal growth beyond 8 weeks of age. T2 relaxivity further indicated tissue-level changes within brain regions. Despite these dramatic motor and neuroanatomical abnormalities, R6/2 mice did not exhibit neuronal loss in the striatum or motor cortex, although there was a significant increase in neuronal density due to tissue atrophy. The deposition of the mutant HTT (mHTT) protein, the hallmark of HD molecular pathology, was widely distributed throughout the brain. End-stage histopathological assessments were not found to be as robustly correlated with the longitudinal measures of brain atrophy or motor impairments. In conclusion, modeling pre-manifest and early progression of the disease in more slowly progressing animal models will be key to establishing which changes are causally related. © 2013 Rattray et al

Development of an innovative microcantilever-based biosensor for 17β-estradiol detection in bovine muscles: preliminary results

17β-estradiol is the most powerful substance with estrogenic effect, commonly used as illegal growth promoter in livestock production. To avoid health risks for consumers, sensitive, reliable and low-cost methods for quantification of extremely low concentrations of such carcinogenic residues in food are needed. Antibody-immobilised microcantilever resonators were proposed as innovative biosensors able to quantify an adsorbed target mass thanks to a shift in resonance frequency. Furthermore, the quantification of masses on the order of few picograms has recently shown to be successfully achievable with very high precision. In this study, we analysed the performance of our microcantilever sensors using extracted samples of bovine muscle from experimental animals, containing variable concentrations of 17β-estradiol (HPLC-MS/MS tested). Preliminary data showed that treated animals are correctly revealed, exhibiting large negative frequency shifts. More experiments, though, are needed to obtain a correct quantification of 17β-estradiol concentration

Search for CP Violation in the Decay Z -> b (b bar) g

About three million hadronic decays of the Z collected by ALEPH in the years 1991-1994 are used to search for anomalous CP violation beyond the Standard Model in the decay Z -> b \bar{b} g. The study is performed by analyzing angular correlations between the two quarks and the gluon in three-jet events and by measuring the differential two-jet rate. No signal of CP violation is found. For the combinations of anomalous CP violating couplings, ${\hat{h}}_b = {\hat{h}}_{Ab}g_{Vb}-{\hat{h}}_{Vb}g_{Ab}$ and $h^{\ast}_b = \sqrt{\hat{h}_{Vb}^{2}+\hat{h}_{Ab}^{2}}$, limits of \hat{h}_b < 0.59$and$h^{\ast}_{b} < 3.02$ are given at 95\% CL.Comment: 8 pages, 1 postscript figure, uses here.sty, epsfig.st

Search for R-Parity Violating Decays of Supersymmetric Particles in e+e−e^{+}e^{-} Collisions at Centre-of-Mass Energies near 183 GeV

Searches for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a single dominant $LL{\bar E}$, $LQ{\bar D}$ or ${\bar U} {\bar D} {\bar D}$ coupling are performed using the data collected by the \ALEPH\ collaboration at centre-of-mass energies of 181--184~\gev. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. Upper limits on the production cross-sections and lower limits on the masses of charginos, sleptons, squarks and sneutrinos are de rived

Production of excited beauty states in Z decays

A data sample of about 3.0 million hadronic Z decays collected by the ALEPH experiment at LEP in the years 1991 through 1994, is used to make an inclusive selection of B~hadron events. In this event sample 4227 \pm 140 \pm 252 B^* mesons in the decay B^* \to B \gamma and 1944 \pm 108 \pm 161 B^{**} mesons decaying into a B~meson and a charged pion are reconstructed. For the well established B^* meson the following quantities areobtained: \Delta M = M_{B^*} - M_{B} = (45.30\pm 0.35\pm 0.87)~\mathrm{MeV}/c^2 and N_{B^*}/(N_B+N_{B^*}) = (77.1 \pm 2.6 \pm 7.0)\%. The angular distribution of the photons in the B^* rest frame is used to measure the relative contribution of longitudinal B^* polarization states to be \sigma_L/(\sigma_L + \sigma_T)= (33 \pm 6 \pm 5)\%. \\ Resonance structure in the M(B\pi)-M(B) mass difference is observed at (424 \pm 4 \pm 10)~\mathrm{MeV}/c^2. Its shape and position is in agreement with the expectation for B^{**}_{u,d} states decaying into B_{u,d}^{(*)} \pi^\pm. The signal is therefore interpreted as arising from them. The relative production rate is determined to be \frac{BR(Z \to b \to B_{u,d}^{**})}{BR(Z \to b \to B_{u,d})} = [27.9 \pm 1.6(stat) \pm 5.9(syst) \phantom{a}^{+3.9}_{-5.6}(model)]\%. where the third error reflects the uncertainty due to different production and decay models for the broad B_{u,d}^{**} states