Portable Electrochemical Gas Sensing System with a Paper-Based Enzyme Electrode

An unconventional portable electrochemical gas sensor composed of a smartphone, a finger-sized sensing chip and a single use paper-based enzyme electrode was proposed to detect a particular target gaseous inclusion for self-breath-analysis with ease. This attempt allowed us to monitor our physical status immediately and continuously regardless of a time, place or person due to the improved convenience, immediacy, and affordability. The custom CMOS chip with the capability of performing an amperometric determination when the power voltage supplied from the earphone jack of a smartphone was designed as an analytical device. A disposable enzyme electrode was prepared simply from a chromatography paper and a commercial carbon pencil instead of the conventional indisposable material and complex manufacturing process. The quantification of ethanol in gaseous samples was demonstrated in range from 50 to 500ppm (V/V) in accord with concentrations in exhaled breath. The response current increased linearly with increasing vapor ethanol concentration

Portable Electrochemical Sensing System Attached to Smartphones and Its Incorporation with Paper-based Electrochemical Glucose Sensor

This paper described the development of a small and low cost biosensor consisting of a smartphone-based electrochemical biosensor device and a paper-based biosensor. The device harvested power from the smartphone and transferred data through audio jack. We designed CMOS circuits including a power supply circuit, a potentiostat, and a ΔΣ modulator. The fabrication of a paper-based biosensor was simple: the three electrodes were directly drawn on chromatography paper using a carbon pencil. The paper-based biosensor was low cost, disposable, portable and friendly to the environment. The sensing system was designed to perform the chronoamperometry measurement, and the glucose concentration in a liquid specimen was detected. Results showed that the sensing system was capable of measuring the glucose concentration as precisely as expensive equipments

Ectopic Breast Cancer Arising within an Axillary Lymph Node

We report our experience with the diagnosis and treatment of an ectopic breast cancer arising within an axillary lymph node. The patient was a 65-year-old woman diagnosed breast cancer and axillary lymph node metastasis. We performed a partial mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection. Postoperative pathology revealed no malignant lesions in the breast; however, a nodule in one of axillary lymph nodes had mixed benign and malignant components, leading to a diagnosis of invasive ductal carcinoma derived from ectopic mammary tissue. This case represents a very rare form of breast cancer, and the malignancy was difficult to distinguish from metastasis

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

An Electrochemical Gas Biosensor Based on Enzymes Immobilized on Chromatography Paper for Ethanol Vapor Detection

This paper presents a novel method of fabricating an enzymatic biosensor for breath analysis using chromatography paper as enzyme supporting layer and a liquid phase layer on top of screen printed carbon electrodes. We evaluated the performance with ethanol vapor being one of the breathing ingredients. The experimental results show that our sensor is able to measure the concentration of ethanol vapor within the range of 50 to 500 ppm. These results suggest the ability of detecting breath ethanol, and it can possibly be applied as a generic vapor biosensor to a wide range of diseases

The Relationship between Tumor Development and Sarcoidosis in Aspects of Carcinogenesis before and after the Onset of Sarcoidosis

Background and Objectives: It is still unclear whether sarcoidosis is likely to be associated with tumors. In addition, the use of an immune checkpoint inhibitor has been reported to initiate the onset of sarcoidosis. We retrospectively analyzed tumor development before and after the diagnosis of sarcoidosis and examined the impact of having a history of tumors on the activity or the severity of sarcoidosis. Materials and Methods: We recruited 312 consecutive cases of sarcoidosis and analyzed the tumor development before and after the onset of sarcoidosis. Results: Among them, 25 cases were diagnosed with malignant tumor after diagnosis of sarcoidosis. In the analysis of the tumor-development group after diagnosis of sarcoidosis, both serum angiotensin I-converting enzyme and mediastinal lymph node size were significantly reduced at the time of malignant tumor diagnosis compared to at the onset of sarcoidosis, indicating that the decreasing activity of sarcoidosis may be partly associated with tumor development. Furthermore, we examined 34 cases having tumor history before the onset of sarcoidosis and analyzed the effect of tumor history on the severity of sarcoidosis. Cases with a malignant tumor in the past were older and had less complicated organs of sarcoidosis than cases without malignant tumors in the past. Oral corticosteroid therapy was administrated more frequently in cases without malignant tumors in the past, indicating that the history of a malignant tumor may influence the severity of sarcoidosis. Conclusion: These results indicate that tumor development may be partly associated with the activity or severity of sarcoidosis

Effective treatment with mepolizumab in a patient with severe eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis complicated with small intestine perforation

Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) is systemic vasculitis caused by eosinophilia affecting small to medium-sized blood vessels, which damages the organs. Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis EGPA treatment guidelines added anti-interleukin-5 antibody mepolizumab to the standard treatment protocol for active-non-severe EGPA based on the MIRRA study. Nevertheless, the role of mepolizumab in treating patients with active severe EGPA has not been established. We treated a patient with EGPA complicated with small intestine perforation using steroid pulse intravenous, high-dose glucocorticoids, intravenous high-dose immunoglobulin therapy, and mepolizumab without immunosuppression agents; the patient went into remission, suggesting that mepolizumab is an effective therapeutic agent that could lead to remission in severe EGPA

Inflammatory markers in blood and use of COPD medication in patients between patients with normal and higher IgG titer against <i>Porphyromonas gingivalis.</i>

<p>High-IgG titer group includes subjects whose titers against <i>Porphyromonas gingivalis</i> (<i>Pg</i>FDC381 and/or <i>Pg</i>Su63) are above mean+2SD of healthy subsets <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0040570#pone.0040570-Sugi1" target="_blank">[20]</a>.</p><p>Data area expressed as medians (25th–75th percentiles).</p

Comparison of baseline characteristics between patients with normal and higher IgG titer against <i>Porphyromonas gingivalis.</i>

<p>High-IgG titer group includes subjects whose titers against <i>Porphyromonas gingivalis</i> (<i>Pg</i>FDC381 and/or <i>Pg</i>Su63) are above mean+2SD of healthy subsets <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0040570#pone.0040570-Sugi1" target="_blank">[20]</a>.</p><p>“Frequent exacerbations” are defined as ≥2 exacerbations per year.</p><p>FEV₁, forced expiratory volume in one second; GOLD, Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease.; MRC, British Medical Research Council. Data are expressed as medians (25th–75th percentiles).</p