Selective determination of toxic hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is a stringent important due to its huge negative impact on the health and environment. Recently, the high sensitivity, rapidness, and ...cost-effectiveness of the fluorescent sensors for Cr(VI) have been developed. A fluorescent nanocomposite (NC) has been synthesized based on doped polyaniline (PANI), 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPSA) capped Ag nanoparticles (NPs) and graphene oxide (GO) quantum dots (QDs) via in situ reaction for highly selective sensing of Cr(VI) ions based on the luminescent quenching in the range from 0.01 to 7.5 mg/L. This NC showed an emission peak at 348 nm with a linear range from 0.01 to 0.05 mg/L and the low limit of detection (LOD) was 0.0065 mg/L (~ 6 µg/L). PANI/Ag (AMPSA) GO QDs NC displayed high selectivity for Cr(VI) over other common metal ions. Notably, the PANI/Ag (AMPSA) GO QDs NC can be used for distinguishing Cr(VI) and Cr(III) in solutions. The sensitive determination of Cr(VI) in real surface water samples was also confirmed and demonstrated recoveries in the range 95.3-99.2%. This NC will emerge as a new class of fluorescence materials that could be suitable for practical applications.
The genome editing revolution: review Khalil, Ahmad M.
Journal of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology,
10/2020, Letnik:
18, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Background
Development of efficient strategies has always been one of the great perspectives for biotechnologists. During the last decade, genome editing of different organisms has been a fast ...advancing field and therefore has received a lot of attention from various researchers comprehensively reviewing latest achievements and offering opinions on future directions. This review presents a brief history, basic principles, advantages and disadvantages, as well as various aspects of each genome editing technology including the modes, applications, and challenges that face delivery of gene editing components.
Main body
Genetic modification techniques cover a wide range of studies, including the generation of transgenic animals, functional analysis of genes, model development for diseases, or drug development. The delivery of certain proteins such as monoclonal antibodies, enzymes, and growth hormones has been suffering from several obstacles because of their large size. These difficulties encouraged scientists to explore alternative approaches, leading to the progress in gene editing. The distinguished efforts and enormous experimentation have now been able to introduce methodologies that can change the genetic constitution of the living cell. The genome editing strategies have evolved during the last three decades, and nowadays, four types of “programmable” nucleases are available in this field: meganucleases, zinc finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases, and the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated protein 9 (Cas9) (CRISPR/Cas-9) system. Each group has its own characteristics necessary for researchers to select the most suitable method for gene editing tool for a range of applications. Genome engineering/editing technology will revolutionize the creation of precisely manipulated genomes of cells or organisms in order to modify a specific characteristic. Of the potential applications are those in human health and agriculture. Introducing constructs into target cells or organisms is the key step in genome engineering.
Conclusions
Despite the success already achieved, the genome editing techniques are still suffering certain difficulties. Challenges must be overcome before the full potential of genome editing can be realized.
Many attempts have been made to investigate the classical heat transfer of Fourier, and a number of improvements have been implemented. In this work, we consider a novel thermoelasticity model based ...on the Moore–Gibson–Thompson equation in cases where some of these models fail to be positive. This thermomechanical model has been constructed in combination with a hyperbolic partial differential equation for the variation of the displacement field and a parabolic differential equation for the temperature increment. The presented model is applied to investigate the wave propagation in an isotropic and infinite body subjected to a continuous thermal line source. To solve this problem, together with Laplace and Hankel transform methods, the potential function approach has been used. Laplace and Hankel inverse transformations are used to find solutions to different physical fields in the space–time domain. The problem is validated by calculating the numerical calculations of the physical fields for a given material. The numerical and theoretical results of other thermoelastic models have been compared with those described previously.
The recent discovery that the human and other mammalian genomes produce thousands of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) raises many fascinating questions. These mRNA-like molecules, which lack ...significant protein-coding capacity, have been implicated in a wide range of biological functions through diverse and as yet poorly understood molecular mechanisms. Despite some recent insights into how lncRNAs function in such diverse cellular processes as regulation of gene expression and assembly of cellular structures, by and large, the key questions regarding lncRNA mechanisms remain to be answered. In this review, we discuss recent advances in understanding the biology of lncRNAs and propose avenues of investigation that may lead to fundamental new insights into their functions and mechanisms of action. Finally, as numerous lncRNAs are dysregulated in human diseases and disorders, we also discuss potential roles for these molecules in human health.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the career aspirations of individuals belonging to the Gen Z cohort, i.e. born between 1995 and 2012.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a systematic review ...of the literature. The authors accessed four databases to collect literature for review. The databases included were Academic Search Ultimate, Business Source Ultimate, ERIC and Google Scholar. Keywords used to conduct the search process were as follows: career development, career aspiration, generation Z, Gen Z and iGen. The authors imported all articles to RefWorks, read article abstracts and decided on whether to include or exclude the article in the review.
Findings
Based on this systematic review, the authors found that intrinsic and extrinsic factors determine Gen Z's career aspirations. Further, based on past studies' predictions, the authors concluded that Gen Z has well-defined career expectations and career development plans.
Research limitations/implications
Gen Z is the newest generation to enter the workforce. With limited research on this cohort, this study synthesized the existing knowledge of Gen Z students' career aspirations and their future employers' expectations. All research around Gen Z is currently focused on students, and hence, it is challenging to predict their workplace behavior. In this work, the authors provided organizations and practitioners guidelines to be prepared with Gen Z's expectations as they enter the workplace.
Originality/value
This systematic literature review synthesizes empirical research from around the world on career aspirations related to Gen Z.
Robot-world, hand-eye calibration is the problem of determining the transformation between the robot end-effector and a camera, as well as the transformation between the robot base and the world ...coordinate system. This relationship has been modeled as
AX
=
ZB
, where
X
and
Z
are unknown homogeneous transformation matrices. The successful execution of many robot manipulation tasks depends on determining these matrices accurately, and we are particularly interested in the use of calibration for use in vision tasks. In this work, we describe a collection of methods consisting of two cost function classes, three different parameterizations of rotation components, and separable versus simultaneous formulations. We explore the behavior of this collection of methods on real datasets and simulated datasets and compare to seven other state-of-the-art methods. Our collection of methods returns greater accuracy on many metrics as compared to the state-of-the-art. The collection of methods is extended to the problem of robot-world hand-multiple-eye calibration, and results are shown with two and three cameras mounted on the same robot.
BK polyomavirus (BKV) is a challenging problem for the transplant nephrologist. Various strategies have been used to prevent or treat BK virus nephropathy (BKVN). These include reduction in ...immunosuppression, intravenous immune globulin, cidofovir, leflunomide, and the fluoroquinolone antibiotics. All these agents have their own toxicities. Great interest was shown to use fluoroquinolones to prevent BKVN after its useful experience was reported in bone marrow transplant. Fluoroquinolones being cheap and easily available, attracted nephrologists to use it, for prevention of BKVN. These agents have been shown in vitro studies to be effective. However, there are mixed results about their effectiveness in prevention of BKVN in clinical setting. This review will focus the evidence available for using fluoroquinolones in prevention of BKVN and its usefulness. Furthermore, a way forward to use these agents or not for prevention of BKVN will also be discussed.
Sperm cells undergo a wide variety of swimming patterns by a beating flagellum to maintain high speed regardless of the rheological and physical properties of the background fluid. In this work, we ...develop and control a soft robotic sperm that undergoes controllable switching between swimming modes like biological sperm cells. The soft robotic sperm consists of a magnetic head and an ultra-thin flexible flagellum, and is actuated using external magnetic fields. We observe that out-of-plane wobbling of the head results in helical wave propagation along the flagellum, whereas in-plane wobbling achieves planar wave propagation. Our theoretical predictions and experimental results show the ability of the soft robotic sperm to change its swimming speed by tuning the beating frequency of its flagellum and the propulsion pattern. The average speed of the soft robotic sperm increases by factors of 2 and 1.2 in fluids with viscosity of 1 Pa.s and 5 Pa.s at relatively low actuation frequencies, respectively, when they switch between planar to helical flagellar propulsion.
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