Short Response Research Articles

Genetics-guided therapy in neuroendocrine carcinoma: response to BRAF- and MEK-inhibitors

Background: Metastatic neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) is associated with short survival. Other than platinum-based chemotherapy, there is no clear standard regimen. Current guidelines suggest that combination treatment with BRAF-inhibitors should be considered for patients with BRAF V600E-mutated NEC. However, since only eight such patients have been reported in the literature, our object was to confirm the validity of this recommendation.
 Methods: This was a single-center retrospective cohort study conducted at Uppsala University Hospital. The included patients 1) had a histopathologically confirmed diagnosis of NEC, 2) were diagnosed between January 1st, 2018 and December 31st, 2023, 3) had tumor tissue genetically screened by a broad next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel, and 4) showed a tumor mutation for which there is a currently available targeted therapy.
 Results: We screened 48 patients diagnosed with NEC between January 1st, 2018 and December 31st, 2023. Twelve had been analyzed with a broad NGS-panel, and two had a targetable mutation. Both these patients harbored a BRAF V600E-mutated colon-NEC and were treated with BRAF- and MEK-inhibitors dabrafenib and trametinib in second-line. At first radiological evaluation (RECIST 1.1), both patients had a reduction of tumor size, which decreased by 31 and 40%. Both had short response periods, and their overall survival was 12 and 9 months.
 Conclusions: BRAF-mutated NEC is sensitive to treatment with BRAF- and MEK-inhibitor combination. These results further support that DNA sequencing should be considered as standard of care in NECs to screen for potential treatment targets.

SOX11/PRDX2 axis modulates redox homeostasis and chemoresistance in aggressive mantle cell lymphoma

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an incurable B-cell neoplasm characterized by an aggressive behavior, short responses to conventional therapies and SOX11 overexpression, which is associated with aggressive disease features and inferior clinical outcome of patients. Oxidative stress is known to induce tumorigenesis and tumor progression, whereas high expression levels of antioxidant genes have been associated with chemoresistance in different cancers. However, the role of oxidative stress in MCL pathogenesis and the involvement of SOX11 regulating redox homeostasis in MCL cells are largely unknown. Here, by integrating gene set enrichment analysis of two independent series of MCL, we observed that SOX11+ MCL had higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels compared to SOX11− MCL primary tumors and increased expression of Peredoxine2 (PRDX2), which upregulation significantly correlated with SOX11 overexpression, higher ROS production and worse overall survival of patients. SOX11 knockout (SOX11KO) significantly reduced PRDX2 expression, and SOX11KO and PRDX2 knockdown (PRDX2KD) had increased ROS levels and ROS-mediated tumor cell death upon treatment with drugs, compared to control MCL cell lines. Our results suggest an aberrant redox homeostasis associated with chemoresistance in aggressive MCL through SOX11-mediated PRDX2 upregulation, highlighting PRDX2 as promising target for new therapeutic strategies to overcome chemoresistance in aggressive MCLs.

Highly sensitive flexible graphene pressure sensor based on indocalamus leaves’ microstructure

In recent years, high-performance flexible pressure sensors have attracted much attention due to their important application potential in intelligent robotics, wearable electronics, and electronic skin. Here, a wearable pressure sensor with high sensitivity in a large useable range is demonstrated. By utilizing indocalamus leaf as a template, the sensing layer of the sensor was prepared in the form of Graphene films with a bionic composite microstructure. Due to the hierarchical deformation of bionic composite microstructure, the sensor demonstrates high sensitivity and wide detection range at the same time. The sensitivity of sensor is 4.56 kPa−1 (5 Pa-20 kPa), 1.87 kPa−1 (20 Pa-100 kPa) and 0.70 kPa−1 (100 kPa-250 kPa). Therefore, it is not only sensitive to slight pressure as low as 5 Pa but also has a detection limit up to 250 kPa. At the same time, sensor has a short response time of 130 ms. After 1000 pressure cycles, the current change rate of the sensor can still reach 90% of the original. Meanwhile, the flexible pressure sensor could be used for monitoring human physiological signals, such as wrist pulse, voice recognition, and human activities, which shows a broad application prospect.

Highly Sensitive Humidity Sensor Based on Composite Film of Partially Reduced Graphene Oxide and Bacterial Cellulose

Breathing is an important physiological activity of human body, which not only reflects the state of human movement, but also is one of the important health indicators. Breathing can change the concentration of water molecules, so monitoring humidity has gradually become a hot topic in modern research. In this study, a humidity sensing composite film with high sensitivity and short response time was made by using the mixture of graphene oxide (GO) and bacterial cellulose (BC) with simple dry film-forming method. L-ascorbic acid was used as reducing agent to reduce GO and improve the conductivity of GO/BC composite film (BG). The influence of different BC contents and the different reduction degree on the resistance change rate of composite film was investigated in details. The maximum resistance change rate of partially reduced BG humidity sensitive composite film reached up to 94%, and the response and recovery time were 13 s and 47 s respectively. Furthermore, the sensor shows obvious resistance change in noncontact sensing test and different breathing states. This kind of humidity sensitive film with fast response and high sensitivity has great potential in human health monitoring and noncontact sensing, and is of great significance in promoting health detection and intelligent life.

A novel di-functional fluorescent probe for ONOO− and Zn2+ imaging in cells

Peroxynitrite (ONOO−) is one of the most significant reactive oxygen species (ROS) in living cells. Zn2+ in living cells plays an essential part in different physiological processes. The abnormal concentration of ONOO− and Zn2+ in living cells are related to many kinds of diseases, such as anemia, epilepsy, diarrhea, Alzheimer's disease, and so on. The relationship of ONOO− and Zn2+ in living cells when the relative disease occurs remains unknown. So we develop the first probe H-1 for detecting ONOO− and Zn2+ at the same time. The probe H-1 shows high selectivity, good anti-interference capability, low detection limit and short response time to ONOO− and Zn2+. When the probe was applied to detect ONOO− and Zn2+ in HeLa cells, we could observe the fluorescence changing in the green and blue channels separately without interference in real time. It has the potential to employ the relation of ONOO− and Zn2+ in some disease mechanism research.

A novel triboelectric-optical hybrid tactile sensor for human-machine tactile interaction

Tactile interaction is one of the primary modes of human-machine interaction, which requires artificial devices to possess tactile sensing abilities. In recent years, to enrich the tactile information perceived by artificial devices, tactile sensors based on hybrid sensing mechanisms have attracted extensive attention. However, for wearable or flexible artificial devices, the development of tactile sensors with a simple structure and preparation process, low cost and power consumption, and good maintainability and integration remains a tough challenge. Herein, we presented a triboelectric-optical hybrid tactile sensor (TOHTS) with a separable modular structure, comprising two units: a triboelectric unit designed based on the single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator to receive external tactile stimuli, and a photoelectric unit with a liquid-membrane liquid lens structure and a function of translating the tactile stimuli into a photoelectric signal. Both units exhibit a simple structure, and their parts can be easily cannibalized and replaced. The triboelectric unit can control the on-off behavior of the light source embedded in the photoelectric unit to minimize power consumption and improve tactile response speed, according to its output signal. The photoelectric unit possesses superior electromagnetic interference immunity, making the TOHTS accurately and quantitatively perceive contact force. The sensing performance test results validate the TOHTS’s advantages of a short response time (about 9 ms), strong linearity (R2≈0.9952) in sensing contact force, and excellent durability and stability. Due to the above features, the TOHTS exhibits outstanding practicability in tactile interactive tasks, which is proved by some interactive input experiments, and it will have extensive application prospects for human-machine interactive devices.

A novel self-powered sensitive porous ZnO NWs/PDMS sponge capacitive pressure sensor

The demand for flexible sensors has increased due to the explosive expansion of flexible electronic applications, but there are concerns that the development of high-precision measurement is limited. Capacitive pressure sensors are extensively utilized among diverse sensors due to their simple structure, high resolution, and outstanding dynamic response characteristics. Therefore, by sandwiching a porous ZnO NWs PDMS (PZP) sponge dielectric layer between two ITO/PET electrodes, a flexible capacitive pressure sensor with high sensitivity, short response time, and wide working range was prepared. The porous PDMS sponge was prepared utilizing the salt particle as a template, then ZnO NWs in different precise proportions were added to it. The sensitivity of PZP sponge capacitive pressure sensors with different salt particle sizes and ZnO NWs dosages were compared. The research results indicate that when salt particle sizes less than 150 μm, and the amount of ZnO NWs in PZP sponge is increased to 200 mg, the sensor sensitivity is highest in the pressure range of 2.5-7.5 kPa, reaching 0.1279 kPa-1, response time less than 70 ms. When the PZP sponge sensor is used as a self-powered source, it achieves the best output of 1.2 V and 6.8 nA at 5.74 kPa pressure. It provides a new way to tackle the challenge of low sensitivity of flexible sensors to capacitive signal and lays a foundation for expanding the application scenarios of ZnO NWs.

Transient simulation and experimental analysis for the response of dual-cycle air-carrying energy radiant diffuse terminal

A novel air-carrying energy radiant diffuse terminal is proposed, and the response of the terminal is investigated by field experiment and numerical simulation. This paper explores the dynamic operation characteristics of the new system to guide the optimal operation of the system. A transient simulation method of three factors (conduction, convection, and radiation) with dual-circulation (air-carrying energy zone and occupied zone) is put forward for the radiant diffuse terminal with a fresh air system. This transient simulation sets up the porous baffle model coupling radiation model concurrently, revealing the dynamic thermal performance for the system's response accurately, quickly, and comprehensively. This method avoids the limits for the complexity of mini porous (Pore size of 1 mm–3mm) geometric models and the transient uncertainty in multiple combination models. The results show that the average error between the convective-conductive model and the convective-conductive-radiative model is about 8% at five different heights. This system has high response performance, which can quickly heat the room while maintaining the comfort requirements of vertical temperature. The radiated heat transfer between the radiant diffuse terminal and the occupied zone is greater than the convective heat transfer (Radiation accounts for 74%). This system has a short response time, high energy efficiency, uniform airflow, and eliminates draught rating. Moreover, the indoor non-uniform transient thermal and humid environments, the thermal comfort, and air quality for the response of the terminal with fresh air system under four different diffuser placements are compared using computational fluid dynamic simulation. The results indicate that introducing heating strategies featuring higher-positioned fresh air inlet and lower-positioned recirculation return air outlet for this system leads to a temperature efficiency increase by 5%, velocity uniformity by 8%, and age of air reduction by 16–50% in human-breathed zone and the response time by 25%, which shows substantial potential for energy savings. The transient simulation and experiments in the paper are beneficial to optimize design parameters and carry out energy-saving applications of operation energy consumption for the response of this terminal with a fresh air system in the future.

A novel colormetric and light-up fluorescent sensor from flavonol derivative grafted cellulose for rapid and sensitive detection of Hg2+ and its applications in biological and environmental system

Mercury ion (Hg2+) is one of harmful heavy metal ions that can accumulate inside the human organism and cause some health problems. In the article, a highly effective fluorescent probe named EC-T-PCBM was prepared by grafting flavonol derivatives onto ethyl cellulose for the specific recognition of Hg2+. EC-T-PCBM exhibited a remarkable fluorescence light-up response toward Hg2+ with excellent sensitivity. EC-T-PCBM possessed several prominent sensing properties for Hg2+, such as low detection limit (43.9 nM), short response time (5 min), and wide detection pH range (6–9). The response mechanism of EC-T-PCBM to Hg2+ has been verified through 1H NMR titration and DFT computation. Additionally, EC-T-PCBM not only can be used for accurately determining trace amount of Hg2+ in actual environmental water samples, but also can serve as a portable and rapid device by loading it on test strips for sensitive and selective visualization of Hg2+. More importantly, the confocal fluorescence imaging of onion cells suggested the favorable cell membrane permeability of EC-T-PCBM and its prominent ability to continuously monitor the enrichment from Hg2+ within fresh plant tissues.

Study on ESIPT process of fluorescence probe BT-ITC for detecting H2S in DMF/H2O mixed solution

A probe molecule named BT-ITC with an isothiocyanate group was synthesized and evaluated for its H2S sensing ability based on the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) process J K Kim, S Y Bong, R Park, J Park, D Ok Jang 2022 An ESIPT-based fluorescent turn-on probe with isothiocyanate for detecting hydrogen sulfide in environmental and biological systems, Spectrochimica Acta Part A 278 121333. The BT-ITC molecule has a large Stokes shift, short response time, and low detection limit. The end result of the reaction between the molecules BT-ITC and H2S is the BTC-NH2 molecule. The hydrogen bond of the Enol structure BTC-NH2 molecule in excited-state (S1 state) is strengthened, compared to the ground-state (S0 state). The calculated absorption and fluorescence spectra were in good agreement with the experimental values. The frontier molecule orbitals (FMOs), the potential energy curve (PEC), and scatter plots of reduced density gradient (RDG) were calculated. According to aforementioned, it was discovered that the charges of BTC-NH2 molecule were rearranged via an electron transition brought on by photoexcitation. This changes the acidity and alkaline of the proton donor and acceptor, and thus promotes the ESIPT process.

Synthesis and Sensing Response of Magnesium Antimoniate Oxide (MgSb2O6) in the Presence of Propane Atmospheres at Different Operating Voltages.

Nanoparticles of MgSb2O6 were synthesized using a microwave-assisted wet chemistry method, followed by calcination at 700 °C. Their ability to detect different concentrations of propane gas (C3H8) at various operating voltages was evaluated. The material's crystalline phase was identified using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The morphology was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), finding bar- and polyhedron-type geometries. Through transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we found particle sizes of 8.87-99.85 nm with an average of ~27.63 nm. Employing ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, we found a band gap value of ~3.86 eV. Thick films made with MgSb2O6 powders were exposed to atmospheres containing 150, 300, 400, and 600 ppm of propane gas for dynamic testing. The time-dependent sensitivities were ~61.09, ~88.80, ~97.65, and ~112.81%. In addition, tests were carried out at different operating voltages (5-50 V), finding very short response and recovery times (~57.25 and ~18.45 s, respectively) at 50 V. The excellent dynamic response of the MgSb2O6 is attributed mainly to the synthesis method because it was possible to obtain nanometric-sized particles. Our results show that the trirutile-type oxide MgSb2O6 possesses the ability, efficiency, and thermal stability to be applied as a gas sensor for propane.

Visual and rapid fluorescence sensing for hexavalent chromium by hydroxypropyl chitosan passivated bismuth-based perovskite quantum dots.

Hydroxypropyl chitosan-Cs3Bi2Cl9 perovskite quantum dots (HPCS-PQDs) weresynthesized by a simple ligand-assisted reprecipitation method via green hydroxypropyl chitosan as the ligand and used as the specific signal of a fluorescence probe to achieve the highly sensitive detection of hexavalent chromium(Cr(VI)) and compared with chitosan-Cs3Bi2Cl9 QDs (CS-PQDs). HPCS-PQDs with multiple active hydroxyl passivations were found to enhance the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) by 90%. After being placed in aqueous solution and irradiated with ultraviolet light for 96h the fluorescence intensity of HPCS-PQDs remained above 60%. The blue emission ofHPCS-PQDs hasa good selectivity and short response time (30s) for Cr(VI). Agood linear relationship is established between the fluorescence quenching rate of the HPCS-PQDs and concentration of Cr(VI) from 0.8 to 400µM, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.27µM. Thefluorescence quenching mechanism is the static quenching and internal filtration effect caused by HPCS-PQDs forming a non-fluorescent ground-state complex with Cr(VI). Thesensor cannot only be used to detectCr(VI) in water samples with high accuracy but canalso be prepared as a test paper for the detection for Cr(VI).

Meta learning-based few-shot intrusion detection for 5G-enabled industrial internet

AbstractWith the formation and popularization of the 5G-enabled industrial internet, cybersecurity risks are increasing, and the limited number of attack samples, such as zero-day, leaves a short response time for security protectors, making it substantially more difficult to protect industrial control systems from new types of malicious attacks. Traditional supervised intrusion detection models rely on a large number of samples for training and their performance needs to be improved. Therefore, there is an urgent need for few-shot intrusion detection. Aiming at the above problems, this paper proposes a detection model based on a meta-learning framework, which aims to effectively improve the accuracy and real-time performance of intrusion detection, and designs a meta-learning intrusion detection model containing a sample generation module, a feature mapping module and a feature metric module. Among them, the sample generation module introduces the residual block into the Natural GAN and proposes a new method to generate high-quality antagonistic samples—Res-Natural GAN, which is used to enhance the antagonism of the generated samples and the feature mining degree, to improve the accuracy of malicious traffic detection; the feature mapping module proposes a new attention mechanism, the multi-head fast attention mechanism, which is applied to the encoder structure of the transformer and combined with a parameter optimization algorithm based on particle swarm mutation to shorten the mapping time and improve the real-time performance of the model while mapping the features effectively; the feature metric module proposes a prototype structure based on a prototype storage update algorithm and combines it with a prototype network to achieve correct classification by measuring the Euclidean distance between the detected samples and the class of prototypes, and to shorten the inference time while ensuring the detection accuracy; finally, the three modules are combined to form a real-time meta-learning intrusion detection model. To evaluate the proposed model, five different types of experiments are conducted on multiple public datasets. The experimental results show that the model has higher detection accuracy than the traditional model for both few-shot and zero-shot malicious attacks, and is not only applicable to 5G-enabled industrial internet, but also generalized to different network environments and attack types.

Abstract 7662: Convolutional neural network algorithms and hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained images predict clinical outcomes in high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients with advanced age and stage

Abstract Ovarian cancer is the deadliest among gynecologic cancers. It is partly due to the mild symptoms in early stages and relatively high diagnostic age (about 63-year-old median age). These factors contribute to the short chemotherapy response time and survival time with about 18- and 36-months median progression-free survival and overall survival duration, respectively. The advancements of convolutional neural network (CNN) machine learning algorithms provide opportunities for the development of cost- and time-effective models which is urgently needed for ovarian cancer patients, especially for those with elevated risk. A CNN model was trained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained tumor whole slide images (WSIs) from ovarian cancer patients with advanced stages. 773 WSIs of 335 patients from TCGA-OV dataset were separated randomly for training and testing cohort. The model was then applied on testing cohort with advanced stage and age patients for H&E survival score. The c-index of the predicted risk on overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were 0.66 and 0.63, respectively. The log-rank p-values of patients between low and high risk were 0.00137 and 0.00138, respectively. The model was then further evaluated with an external dataset. The c-index of the predicted risk were 0.64 and 0.72 for OS and PFS, respectively. And the log-rank test between patients with low and high risk achieved p-values 0.017 and 0.0047 for OS and PFS, respectively. In conclusion, a novel prognostic CNN model was developed for ovarian cancer patients with advanced age and stage for better disease management. Citation Format: Chun Wai Ng, Kwong-kwok Wong, Berrett Lawson, Sammy Ferri-Borgogno, Samuel Mok. Convolutional neural network algorithms and hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained images predict clinical outcomes in high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients with advanced age and stage [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 7662.

Abstract 5100: Multimodal real world data reveals immunogenomic drivers of acquired and primary resistance to immune checkpoint blockade

Abstract Background: Why some patients fail or have short lived response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) immunotherapy remains largely unknown. While baseline molecular assessments have provided clues to prognostic factors, insights into resistance drivers remains elusive. This is partially due to the difficulty in getting access to post progression samples from patients that were either primary resistant or developed acquired resistance after an initial response to ICB. Thus, the tumor-intrinsic and -extrinsic features that are selected for during progression and potentially drive primary and acquired resistance to immunotherapy remain underexplored. Methods: To compare clinical features and immunogenomic drivers of acquired and primary resistance to ICB across major cancers, we analysed and annotated de-identified patient records in the Tempus real-world database. We built an immuno-oncology cohort consisting of >2500 multimodal (DNA, RNA and clinical outcome data) pre-treatment baseline with >1500 post-treatment tumour biopsy samples from mainly NSCLC, TNBC, HNC and Bladder cancer patients. We used bulk RNA-seq data to estimate activation of the hallmark oncogenic pathways and immune cell composition and used panel DNA-seq data (>500 genes) to quantify mutation selection at the gene and pathway levels using dndscv. Results: Compared to acquired, primary resistant patients tended to have a higher observation of liver lesions at progression. Post-ICB, acquired resistant NSCLC and HNC patients showed a significantly inflamed tumour microenvironment (TME) characterised by higher estimation of infiltration of T cells and myeloid cells and higher activation of interferon gamma (IFNg) signalling as compared to primary resistant patients. In addition, in post-ICB acquired resistance in NSCLC we observed selection for mutations in genes involved in known immunomodulatory pathways, including loss-of-function mutations in B2M. Consistently, acquired resistance patients showed stronger selection for mutations in Hedgehog and Notch pathways as compared to primary resistance patients across NSCLC, HNC and TNBC post-ICB. Conclusions: Acquired and primary ICB resistant patients have distinct clinical and molecular features at progression. Their tumours’ TME is fundamentally different with acquired resistance TMEs being infiltrated with immune cells albeit escaped post progression. In addition, ICB selects mutations that potentially activate pathways such as Notch and Hedgehog. This multi-modal Real-World Data with post therapy biopsies has given insights for patient selection strategies and provides rational into combination treatment options for acquired resistant patients. Citation Format: Mohamed Reda Keddar, Sebastian Carrasco Pro, Kathleen Burke, Ana Camelo Stewart, Mark Cobbold, Ross Stewart, Sajan Khosla, Ben Sidders, Scott Hammond, Douglas C. Palmer, Jonathan Dry, Martin L. Miller. Multimodal real world data reveals immunogenomic drivers of acquired and primary resistance to immune checkpoint blockade [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 5100.

Testing prescribed burning to shift an agronomic grass community to a diverse native plant community

Prescribed burning can be an effective land management tool. Here, we study changes in plant diversity and composition following experimental fire disturbance in microcosm units extracted from a twenty-five-year-old historically reclaimed grassland located at Highland Valley Copper mine in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. Experimental microcosm units were dominated by agronomic grass species Elymus lanceolatus, Thinopyrum intermedium and Bromus inermis. The disturbance treatment was fire intensity, represented by three levels (light, moderate, and heavy), replicated six times per treatment. Fire intensity was controlled by modifying the weight of dried litter applied to each microcosm unit (50 g,150 g, 200g), along with the time each grass turf was burned (10 s, 15 s, 20 s). One day after the fire treatment was applied, microcosm units were seeded with a native species mix consisting of six grassland species common to southern B.C. to examine effectiveness of plant establishment postburn. Disturbance treatments resulted in higher overall alpha diversity, richness, evenness, and beta diversity. Plant community changes included colonization of seeded native forbs, grasses, and legumes in response to disturbance. Aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) was net neutral within the light and moderate burning disturbance treatments but resulted in increased ANPP with heavy disturbance. Litter mass reduced plant diversity and ANPP, indicating that litter was a major factor in plant community dynamics. These results suggest disturbance by burning leads to short term positive plant community response towards increasing diversity of semi-arid grasslands, and aids in shifting plant communities to higher diversity composed of an increase in native plant species. Our results also suggest that without active management the gains observed in native species establishment might quickly be out shadowed and restricted by the previously dominant agronomic plant community.

A novel dual-responsive colorimetric/fluorescent probe for the detection of N2H4 and ClO− and its application in environmental analysis and bioimaging

Hydrazine (N2H4) and hypochlorite (ClO−) are both reactive chemical substances extensively utilized across various industrial domains. Excessive hydrazine (N2H4) and hypochlorite (ClO−) can pose significant risks to the environment, ecosystems, and human health. In order to assess and control the environmental hazard caused by N2H4 and ClO−, there is an imperative need for efficient methods capable of rapid and precise detection of these contaminants. This paper introduces a novel dual-responsive colorimetric/fluorescent probe (MDT) for the detection of N2H4 and ClO− in environmental and biological samples. The probe exhibits turn-on fluorescent responses to N2H4 or ClO− with low detection limits (N2H4: 8 nM; ClO−: 15 nM), large Stokes shifts (N2H4: 175 nm; ClO−: 203 nm), short response time (N2H4: 4 min; ClO−: 5 s) and broad pH range (5−10). In practical applications, MDT has been successfully employed in detecting N2H4 and ClO− in water and soil samples from diverse locations. Test strips loaded with MDT offer a visual and convenient means to track N2H4 vapor and quantify N2H4 and ClO− concentrations in solutions. Finally, MDT has been utilized for sensing N2H4 and ClO− in Arabidopsis thaliana roots and living zebrafish. This study presents a promising tool for monitoring N2H4 and ClO− in the environment and living organisms.

Towards providing a priority-based vital sign offloading in healthcare with serverless computing and a fog-cloud architecture

Smart cities and healthcare services have been gaining much attention in recent years, as the benefits offered by this field of research are significant and improve quality of life. Systems can proactively detect health problems by monitoring a person’s vital signs and make automated decisions to prevent these problems from worsening. With this in mind, we highlight two essential requirements that smart city architectures should consider to achieve elevated quality of experience in the healthcare domain. The first is to process high-priority vital signs with short response times, so people with comorbidities can have health problems identified as soon as possible. The second is to employ scalability techniques to deal with high usage peaks resulting from people concentrating in specific city neighborhoods. This paper contributes to this field of research by proposing SmartVSO - a computational model of a hierarchic, scalable, tree-based, fog-cloud architecture that executes healthcare services with reduced response time for urgent vital signs. Fog computing is employed to reduce response times, and cloud computing is used to provide virtually infinite computing resources. Serverless computing is the main technology we consider for deploying and running healthcare services because this allows authorized companies to implement their own services in a distributed and pluggable approach, without recompiling the proposed modules and reducing scalability concerns for engineers. An experiment with 80,000 vital signs indicates that our solution processes 60% of the very critical ones in no more than 5.3 s, while an architecture without fog computing and without prioritization takes up to 231 min (around 3 h and 51 min) to process 60% of very critical vital signs.

Sensitive organic/inorganic polarized photodetectors enhanced by charge transfer with image sensing capacity.

Organic photodetectors (OPDs) have attracted increasing attention in the future wearable sensing and real-time health monitoring, due to their intrinsic features including the mechanical flexibility, low-cost processing and cooling-free operations; while their performances are lagging as the results of inferior carrier mobility and small exciton diffusion coefficient of organic molecules. Graphene exhibits the great photoresponse with wide spectral bandwidth and high response speed. However, weak light absorption and the absence of a gain mechanism have limited its photoresponsivity. Here, we report a sensitive organic/inorganic phototransistor with fast response speed by coupling PTCDA organic single crystal with the monolayer graphene. The long range exciton diffusion in highly ordered π-conjugated molecules, efficient exciton dissociation and charge transfer at the PTCDA/graphene heterointerfaces, and the high mobility of graphene enable a high responsivity (8 × 104A/W), short response time (220 µs) and excellent specific detectivity (>1011 Jones), which is higher than the level of commercial on-chip device. This interfacial photogating effect is verified by the high-resolution spatial photocurrent mapping experiment. In addition, the high sensitivity to polarization is clear and the ultrahigh photoconductive gain enables a near-infrared (NIR) response for 980 and 1550 nm. Finally, high-speed visible and NIR imaging applications are successfully demonstrated. This work suggests that high quality organic single crystal/graphene is a promising platform for future high performance optoelectronic systems and imaging applications.

Construction of microstructurally controllable B/BaCrO4 particles based on droplet microfluidic technology for enhanced usability and delay precision

Tuning the microstructure of composite energetic materials is an effective way to improve charging, safety, and combustion performance. In this paper, boron (B)/barium chromate (BaCrO4) composite particles with controllable microstructure were prepared using droplet microfluidic technology (DMT). Based on the theory of droplet template self-assembly, composite particles with controllable morphology, size, and composition were prepared, revealing the regulation mechanism of the particle microstructure. The composite particles prepared using DMT exhibit a uniform distribution of characteristic elements, high circularity, smooth surface, enhanced bulk density, and excellent flow properties. The thermal decomposition characteristics, safety, and combustion properties of the samples were investigated by thermal weight loss, mechanical sensitivity, and combustion tests. Thermal weight loss and mechanical sensitivity tests showed that the samples had stable thermal decomposition properties and significantly increased mechanical stability compared to the control. The combustion test results showed that the DMT-prepared samples had a short ignition response time and significantly improved delay precision. This paper presents a straightforward method for preparing B/BaCrO4 particles with high delay accuracy, which can serve as a reference for preparing other composites.