Gold immunochromatographic sensor for the rapid detection of twenty-six sulfonamides in foods

A gold immunochromatographic sensor (GICS) was developed for the rapid detection of 26 sulfonamides in honey samples.The sensor was based on a group-specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) that can recognize all 26 sulfonamides.Three haptens (hapten 1 with a thiazole ring,hapten 2 with a benzene ring,and hapten 3 with a straight carbon chain) were used for antigen preparation.With hybridoma technology,a group-specific mAb was screened with a 50％ maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) against sulfathizole (STZ) and the other 25 analogues ranging from 0.08 to 90.18 ng/mL.Mono-dispersed gold nanoparticles were conjugated with the mAb to develop the lateral immunochromatographic strip.A labeled antibody concentration of 0.1 μg/mL and a coating antigen concentration of 0.2 μg/mL in the test line were chosen for strip preparation.Under optimized conditions,the visual limits of detection (vLOD) for the concentrations of STZ,sulfamethoxazole,sulfamethizole,sulfadiazine,sulfamerazine,sulfadimethoxine,sulfamonomethoxine,sulfameter,sulfamethoxypyridazine,and sulfachloropyridazine were 5,0.25,0.25,10,5,10,25,2.5,5,0.25,and 10 μg/kg,respectively.Scanner analysis in honey samples revealed good performance for detection of the 26 sulfonamides.Commercial honey samples were tested with the sensor and positive results were confirmed with high-performance liquid chromatography.The proposed strip sensor provides a convenient method for the rapid and reliable determination of sulfonamides pollutants in honey samples.     

Gold nanoparticle-based paper sensor for ultrasensitive and multiple detection of 32 (fluoro)quinolones by one monoclonal antibody

For rapid and simultaneous detection of (fluoro)quinolones, a broadly specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) that recognizes 32 (fluoro)quinolone antibiotics was prepared using a mixture of a norfloxacin derivative and a sarfloxacin derivative as the hapten. An immunochromatographic strip based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was then assembled with goat anti-mouse antibody and antigen (sarfloxacin coupled to ovalbumin), used to form the C line and T line, respectively. This antigen competes with the (fluoro)quinolones in a sample incubated with mAbs labeled with AuNPs. The strip can detect 32 (fluoro)quinolones including oxolinic acid, nalidixic acid, miloxacin, pipemidic acid, piromidic acid, rosoxacin, cinoxacin, norfloxacin, pefloxacin, lomfloxacin, enofloxacin, fleroxacin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, dafloxacin, orbifloxacin, sparfloxacin, gemifloxacin, besifloxacin, balofloxacin, gatifloxacin, moxifloxacin, nadifloxacin, ofloxacin, marbofloxacin, flumequine, pazufloxacin, prulifloxacin, sarafloxacin, difloxacin, trovafloxacin, and tosufloxacin in milk within 10 min with the naked eye. The cut-off values of the strip range from 1 to 100 ng/mL and the limits of detection are 0.1–10 ng/mL. The strip does not cross-react with antibiotics including tetracycline, sulfamethazine, ampicillin, erythromycin, aflatoxin B1, or gentamicin. In short, this immunochromatographic strip is a very useful tool for the primary screening of (fluoro)quinolones in milk.

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Targeting orthotopic gliomas with renal-clearable luminescent gold nanoparticles

A major clinical translational challenge in nanomedicine is the potential of toxicity associated with the uptake and long-term retention of non-degradable nanoparticles (NPs) in major organs.The development of inorganic NPs that undergo renal clearance could potentially resolve this significant biosafety concern.However,it remains unclear whether inorganic NPs that can be excreted by the kidneys remain capable of targeting tumors with poor permeability.Glioblastoma multiforme,the most malignant orthotopic brain tumor,presents a unique challenge for NP delivery because of the blood-brain barrier and robust blood-tumor barrier of reactive microglia and macroglia in the tumor microenvironment.Herein,we used an orthotopic murine glioma model to investigate the passive targeting of glutathione-coated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of 3 nm in diameter that undergo renal clearance and 18-nm AuNPs that fail to undergo renal clearance.Remarkably, we report that 3-nm AuNPs were able to target intracranial tumor tissues with higher efficiency (2.3x relative to surrounding non-tumor normal brain tissues) and greater specificity (3.0x)than did the larger AuNPs.Pharmacokinetics studies suggested that the higher glioma targeting ability of the 3-nm AuNPs may be attributed to the longer retention time in circulation.The total accumulation of the 3-nm AuNPs in major organs was significantly less (8.4x) than that of the 18-nm AuNPs.Microscopic imaging of blood vessels and renal-clearable AuNPs showed extravasation of NPs from the leaky blood-tumor barrier into the tumor interstitium.Taken together,our results suggest that the 3-nm AuNPs,characterized by enhanced permeability and retention,are able to target brain tumors and undergo renal clearance.     

A Non-Contact Original-State Online Real-Time Monitoring Method for Complex Liquids in Industrial Processes

Failures are very common during the online real-time monitoring of large quantities of complex liquids in industrial processes, and can result in excessive resource consumption and pollution. In this study, we introduce a monitoring method capable of non-contact original-state online real-time monitoring for strongly coated, high-salinity, and multi-component liquids. The principle of the method is to establish the relationship among the concentration of the target substance in the liquid (C), the color space coordinates of the target substance at different concentrations (L¹, a¹, b¹), and the maximum absorption wavelength (λ_max); subsequently, the optimum wavelength λ_T of the liquid is determined by a high-precision scanning-type monitoring system that is used to detect the instantaneous concentration of the target substance in the flowing liquid. Unlike traditional monitoring methods and existing online monitoring methods, the proposed method does not require any pretreatment of the samples (i.e., filtration, dilution, oxidation/reduction, addition of chromogenic agent, constant volume, etc.), and it is capable of original-state online real-time monitoring. This method is employed at a large electrolytic manganese plant to monitor the Fe³⁺ concentration in the colloidal process of the plant’s aging liquid (where the concentrations of Fe³⁺, Mn²⁺, and (NH₄)₂SO₄ are 0.5–18 mg·L⁻¹, 35–39 g·L⁻¹, and 90–110 g·L⁻¹, respectively). The relative error of this monitoring method compared with an off-line laboratory monitoring is less than 2%.     

Synchronization of complex dynamical networks under recoverable attacks

In this paper, the synchronization of complex dynamical networks (CDNs) under ‘successful’ but recoverable attacks is studied by utilizing the framework of switching systems. ‘Successful’ attacks refer to a class of attacks that break a network into a group of isolated clusters. Recoverable attacks refer to a class of attacks that the network can recover from after a period of time. To facilitate the investigation of the synchronization of a CDN under ‘successful’ but recoverable attacks, the attack frequency and the average recovering time are introduced. By using a piecewise Lyapunov function, the upper bounds of the attack frequency and the average recovering time are obtained to ensure that the whole network can achieve global synchronization under attacks.     

A relativistic extension of the complex scaling method using oscillator basis functions

We develop the complex scaling method within the relativistic framework by expanding the Dirac spinors in the complete set of eigensolutions of a harmonic oscillator potential, and present the theoretical formalism of describing the discrete bound and resonant states on the same footing. Based on a well established and frequently used model, we demonstrate the utility and applicability of the extended method and examine the stability of the results with respect to the variations of the parameters of the model. Satisfactory agreements are found for all the calculated results in comparison with some other calculations in references. Especially, the present calculation in the nonrelativistic limit gives a consistent result with that in the nonrelativistic calculation.     

A systematic method for efficient computation of full and subsets Zernike moments

A new method is proposed for fast and accurate computation of Zernike moments. This method presents a novel formula for computing exact Zernike moments by using exact complex moments where the exact values of complex moments are computed by mathematical integration of the monomials over digital image pixels. The proposed method is applicable to compute the full set of Zernike moments as well as the subsets of individual order, repetition and an individual moment. A comparison with other conventional methods is performed. The results show the superiority of the proposed method.     

Adaptive synchronization of uncertain coupled stochastic complex networks

In this paper, the problem of adaptive synchronization of uncertain coupled complex networks is investigated. Some controllers and adaptive laws are designed to ensure achieving synchronization of a general complex network model. In particular, synchronization of coupled stochastic networks subject to random perturbations is studied, with a referenced node introduced as the target node for synchronization. An example is simulated on delayed neural networks coupled in a small‐world network topology, which demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed adaptive control method. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

一种新型筒形矿仓物位测量方案的设计

针对常用的矿仓物位测量方式受粉尘和堆矿死角因素的影响而存在矿仓物位测量不准确的问题,提出了一种新型的矿仓物位测量方案。该方案选择重锤物位计消除粉尘干扰、采用多点布局求取均值的方法消除堆矿死角干扰。实际应用表明,该方案解决了粉尘和堆矿死角对物位测量的影响,降低了矿仓岗位人员的劳动强度。