Characterization of antioxidants activity in a microfluidic channel

Antioxidant is the common designation for substances that have a potential action in the prevention of oxidative stress. The characterization of the reactivity of these substances has attracted the attention of many researchers, with the aim to establish correlations between the intake of antioxidants and health maintenance or to detect early stages of diseases associated with oxidative stress. The measurement of antioxidant capacity of physiological fluids (blood serum, saliva or urine) or foodstuff is currently performed by means of different methods, mostly based on spectrophotometric detection. Voltammetry has gained popularity in this context.[1] Whereas peak potentials are used to characterize the reactivity of the antioxidant, the peak currents (or the area under voltammograms) are used for the antioxidant capacity evaluation. Although voltammetric methods constitute one of the most effective means to monitor the antioxidant electron-transfer reactions, quantitative information is not directly obtained from voltammograms of antioxidants mixtures. The antioxidant capacity is usually evaluated by relative parameters defined towards a reference substance. The significance of this result is limited and cannot be translated in the effective protection degree provided by the antioxidant. In a recent work, we have proposed an analytical method for the evaluation of the reducing antioxidant capacity of antioxidants evaluated by electrolysis (RACE). [2] The oxidation of antioxidants is analyzed in large scale controlled potential electrolysis and its consumption is monitored at the anode by the current decrease. The monitored charge for the complete oxidation of active antioxidants provides a quantitative measure of their ability to eliminate a given reactive oxygen species, according to the selected potential used in the electrolysis. In order to transfer the RACE methodology to a sensor design, electrochemical microfluidic devices were built and tested. Experimental variables such as device geometry and flow rate were optimised in order to achieve a thin-layer regime in mass transport [3]. The chronoamperometric response of antioxidants was analyzed to evaluate its reducing power at selected potentials, according to the nature of the reactive oxygen species whose action is simulated. These results demonstrated the validity of the concept

Theoretical Modeling and Optimization of the Detection Performance: a New Concept for Electrochemical Detection of Proteins in Microfluidic Channels

In this work, we present a complete theoretical analysis of a new concept of electrochemical detector for application in proteomics upon considering two band microelectrodes performing in generator-collector mode. This concept of an original electrochemical detector is aimed at the detection of proteins following their separation in microfluidic biochips. The theoretical analysis is based on the use of the time-dependent coordinate transformation which allows performing precise modeling for a wide range of the key parameters governing the electrochemical detector performance. This allows defining a precise optimization procedure for its best efficiency upon considering the qualitative and quantitative effects of each of the main operational parameters

Magnetic resonance imaging of the erector spinae muscles in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: implication for scoliotic deformities

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the muscular degeneration often leads to the development of scoliosis. Our objective was to investigate how anatomical changes in back muscles can lead to scoliosis. Muscular volume and the level of fat infiltration in those muscles were thus evaluated, in non-scoliotic, pre-scoliotic and scoliotic patients. The overlying skin thickness over the apex level of scoliotic deformations was also measured to facilitate the interpretation of electromyographic signals when recorded on the skin surface.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In 8 DMD patients and two healthy controls with no known muscular deficiencies, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to measure continuously at 3 mm intervals the distribution of the erector spinae (ES) muscle in the T8-L4 region as well as fat infiltration in the muscle and overlying skin thickness: four patients were non-scoliotic (NS), two were pre-scoliotic (PS, Cobb angle < 15°) and two were scoliotic (S, Cobb angle ≥ 15°). For each subject, 63 images 3 mm thick of the ES muscle were obtained in the T8-L4 region on both sides of the spine. The pixel dimension was 0.39 × 0.39 mm. With a commercial software, on each 12 bits image, the ES contour on the left and on the right sides of the spine were manually determined as well as those of its constituents i.e., the iliocostalis (IL), the longissimus (LO) and the spinalis (SP) muscles. Following this segmentation, the surfaces within the contours were determined, the muscles volume were obtained, the amount of fat infiltration inside each muscle was evaluated and the overlying skin thickness measured.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The volume of the ES muscle of our S and PS patients was found smaller on the convex side relative to the concave one by 5.3 ± 0.7% and 2.8 ± 0.2% respectively. For the 4 NS patients, the volume difference of this muscle between right and left sides was 2.1 ± 1.5% and for the 2 controls, it was 1.4 ± 1.2%. Fat infiltration for the S and the PS patients was larger on the convex side than on the concave one (4.4 ± 1.6% and 4.5 ± 0.7% respectively) and the difference was more important near the apex. Infiltration was more important in the lateral IL muscle than in the medial SP and it was always larger near L2 than at any other spinal level. Fat infiltration was much more important in the ES for the DMD patients (49.9% ± 1.6%) than for the two controls (2.6 ± 0.8%). As for the overlying skin thickness measured near the deformity of the patients, it was larger on the concave than on the convex side: 14.8 ± 6.1 vs 13.5 ± 5.7 mm for the S and 10.3 ± 6.3 vs 9.8 ± 5.6 mm for the PS.</p> <p>Interpretation</p> <p>In DMD patients, our results indicate that a larger replacement of muscles fibers by fat infiltration on one side of the spine is a factor that can lead to the development of scoliosis. Efforts to slow such an infiltration on the most affected side of the spine could thus be beneficial to those patients by delaying the apparition of the scoliotic deformation. In addition to anatomical considerations, results obtained from the same patients but in experiments dealing with electromyography recordings, point to differences in the muscular contraction mechanisms and/or of the neural input to back muscles. This is similar to the adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) where a role of the nervous system in the development of the deformation has also been suggested.</p

Bandwidth Estimation for Admission Control in MANET: Review and Conceptual MANET Admission Control Framework

The widespread of wireless mobile network have increased the demand for its applications. Providing a reliable QoS in wireless medium, especially mobile ad-hoc network (MANET), is quite challenging and remains an ongoing research trend. One of the key issues of MANET is its inability to accurately predict the needed and available resources to avoid interference with already transmitting traffic flow. In this work, we propose a resource allocation and admission control (RAAC) solution. RAAC is an admission control scheme that estimates the available bandwidth needed within a network, using a robust and accurate resource estimation technique. Simulation results obtained show that our proposed scheme for MANET can efficiently estimate the available bandwidth and outperforms other existing approaches for admission control with bandwidth estimation

IT Outsourcing in Finnish Business

This paper reviews the characteristics and magnitude of information technology (IT) outsourcing as well as studies its labor productivity effects with a representative sample of Finnish businesses. Depending on the IT task in question, on average from one-third to two-thirds of IT has been outsourced; of the ten categories considered, the development of non-Internet business-to-business applications (e.g., EDI) is the leading activity in this respect. The various dimensions of IT outsourcing are all highly positively correlated. After controlling for industry and regional effects as well as characteristics of firms and their employees, it is found that an externally-supported computer user is about 20% more productive than an otherwise similar worker without a computer, which corresponds to about 5% output elasticity of outsourced IT; the effect of internally-supported computer use is not statistically significantly different for zero, and it is also several times smaller in magnitude. While the issues of causality, timing, self-selection, and unobserved firm heterogeneity are not fully addressed, the findings nevertheless suggest that IT outsourcing may have significant economic consequences

Concentrations of potentially toxic elements and soil environmental quality evaluation of a typical Prosecco vineyard of the Veneto region (NE Italy)

Purpose The aim of this work was to assess the concentrations of potentially toxic elements and to evaluate the soil quality of a typical Prosecco Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin vineyard of the Veneto region, NE Italy. Materials and methods Soil samples and leaves of Taraxacum officinale and Vitis vinifera were collected during spring–summer 2014. Element determination (Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, P, Pb, V, and Zn) were performed with ICP-OES after microwave digestion of samples. Soil quality was assessed via the biological soil quality (BSQ-ar) index. Lipid peroxidation test was performed to evaluate the vegetation oxidative stress, based on malondialdehyde (MDA) content via spectrophotometer. Results and discussion High concentrations of Al,Mg, and P were identified in soil, while high contents of Al, Cu, Fe, and Zn were found in V. vinifera leaves. The high concentrations in soil are probably due to agricultural activities, whereas those in leaves are probably due to atmospheric deposition and repeated use of foliar sprays in viticulture. The bioconcentration factor showed an effective transport of Cu, P, and Zn, from soil to leaf. The BSQ-ar values registered were similar to those obtained in preserved soils; hence, the biological class (VI) of these soils is high. The MDA content in T. officinale and V. vinifera leaves was below the reference value for T. officinale (2.9 ± 0.2 μM), suggesting that the metal content did not stress the vegetation in the investigated site. Conclusions The MDA value for V. vinifera (1.1 ± 0.7 μM) could be adopted as another control value for soil quality, which in our case is of Bgood quality.^ Moreover, our results suggest that high concentrations of elements detected in the analyzed samples do not influence negatively the quality of soil, but a better agronomic management could improve soil quality in the studied area

Confocal microscopy imaging of electrochemiluminescence at double band microelectrode assemblies: numerical solution of the inverse optical problem.

A realistic theoretical model describing the outcome of confocal microscopic imaging of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) light emission is derived for a two parallel band microelectrodes assembly operated under steady state. The model takes into account the experimental distortions ensuing from a) the specific finite shape of the sampling volume in confocal microscopy, b) the light arising directly from out-of-focus area but transmitted through the microscope diaphragm or c) transmitted after reflection from the polished platinum band electrodes. The model is based on a detailed optical, physico-mathematical and numerical analysis of the problem at hand, and on simulations of the concentration distribution of the species giving rise to the ECL generation. Its outcome allows the reconstruction of the real spatial distribution of ECL light emission based on the confocal microscopy measurements upon correcting for the effect of experimental distortions using numerical fitting procedure

A comparison of NMDAR-antibody detection methods

N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptor antibody (NMDAR-ab) encephalitis is the most common antibody-mediated encephalitis. We compared four NMDAR-Ab assay methods: 1) live (a, L-CBA) or fixed (b, F-CBA) cell-based assays (CBA); 2) immunohistochemistry (IHC); 3) a commercially available CBA (C-CBA, Euroimmun AG). 180 sera and 48 CSFs were tested. Sera previously positive by the Oxford L-CBA but with unlikely phenotypes were intentionally over-represented. The results of the four assays agreed in only 55.6% of sera and 82% of CSFs. C-CBA was least likely to agree with other methods (37.7% in serum). Diagnosis was available, so far, for 54 patients (NMDAR ab-encephalitis ‘definite’ in 34, ‘unlikely’ in 20). In serum, L-CBA detected NMDAR-abs in 88% of ‘definite’ patients, but had a high false-positive rate (consistent with the biased selection). IHC was negative in all unlikely patients, but positive in only 73.5% ‘definite’ patients. F-CBA and C-CBA had intermediate performances. There was a worrying lack of concordance between tests. Assay results should be interpreted in the light of clinical information and a combination of L-CBA and IHC may give the most useful results. Further clinical information is being made available in order to increase the serum numbers and determine assay performance using CSF alone