Electrical discharge treatment was shown to be a viable substitution for chelating agent in genomic assays. Divalent cation Mg2+ inhibits the performance of DNA hybridization based genomic assays by binding...

A gold nanoparticle-quenched graphene quantum dot-based aptasensor was developed to perform clustered detection of 11 phthalic acid esters (PAEs). The binding of the target PAEs to the aptasensor frees the graphene quantum dots that are otherwise quenched by the carrier gold nanoparticle. The resultant fluorescence upon excitation is proportional to the number of freed graphene quantum dots and hence the target PAE concentration. The synthesis of the proposed aptasensor was first verified step-by-step via FT-IR measurement, scanning electron microscopy, and fluorescence measurement. Selectivity was evaluated for individual and combined target PAEs and compared against seven non-PAE endocrine disrupting compounds. The proposed aptasensor successfully quantified 11 PAEs in test samples with varying concentrations of 0.001−50 ng PAEs/mL and demonstrated a limit of detection of ∼4 pg./mL. Finally, the AuNP-gQD aptasensor was employed to detect multiple combinations of commonly regulated PAEs (DBP, DIBP, DEHP, and BBP). The recovery (%) for all four PAEs combination in environmentally relevant concentrations of 0.5, 1, 5, and 10 ng/mL were ∼100%.

This paper presents the issue that is predicting the movement of an agent in an enclosed space by using the MDP (Markov Decision Process). Recent researches on the optimal path finding are confined to derive the shortest path with the use of deterministic algorithm such as A* or Dijkstra. On the other hand, this study focuses in predicting the path that the agent chooses to escape the limited space as time passes, with the stochastic method. The MDP reward structure from GIS (Geographic Information System) data contributed this model to a feasible model. This model has been approved to have the high predictability after applied to the route of previous armed red guerilla.

Contrary to the understanding that divalent cations only result in under-estimation of gene quantification via DNA hybridization-based assays, we have discovered that Mg2+ could cause either under or over-estimation at...

No abstract