Influence of Matrices on Oxygen Sensing of Three Sensing Films with Chemically Conjugated Platinum Porphyrin Probes and Preliminary Application for Monitoring of Oxygen Consumption of Escherichia coli (E. coli)

Oxygen sensing films were synthesized by a chemical conjugation of functional platinum porphyrin probes in silica gel, polystyrene (PS), and poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) matrices. Responses of the sensing films to gaseous oxygen and dissolved oxygen were studied and the influence of the matrices on the sensing behaviors was investigated. Silica gel films had the highest fluorescence intensity ratio from deoxygenated to oxygenated environments and the fastest response time to oxygen. PHEMA films had no response to gaseous oxygen, but had greater sensitivity and a faster response time for dissolved oxygen than those of PS films. The influence of matrices on oxygen response, sensitivity and response time was discussed. The influence is most likely attributed to the oxygen diffusion abilities of the matrices. Since the probes were chemically immobilized in the matrices, no leaching of the probes was observed from the sensing films when applied in aqueous environment. One sensing film made from the PHEMA matrix was used to preliminarily monitor the oxygen consumption of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. E. coli cell density and antibiotics ampicillin concentration dependent oxygen consumption was observed, indicating the potential application of the oxygen sensing film for biological application.     

Interactive visualization and analysis of transitional flow

A stand-alone visualization application has been developed by a multi-disciplinary, collaborative team with the sole purpose of creating an interactive exploration environment allowing turbulent flow researchers to experiment and validate hypotheses using visualization. This system has specific optimizations made in data management, caching computations, and visualization allowing for the interactive exploration of datasets on the order of 1TB in size. Using this application, the user (co-author Calo) is able to interactively visualize and analyze all regions of a transitional flow volume, including the laminar, transitional and fully turbulent regions. The underlying goal of the visualizations produced from these transitional flow simulations is to localize turbulent spots in the laminar region of the boundary layer, determine under which conditions they form, and follow their evolution. The initiation of turbulent spots, which ultimately lead to full turbulence, was located via a proposed feature detection condition and verified by experimental results. The conditions under which these turbulent spots form and coalesce are validated and presented.