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Using a case-control method, we studied the role of environmental risk factors and viral infection in the development of Parkinson''s disease (PD) in China. Ninety-three PD patients and 186 controls were investigated with a questionnaire and from most of them, blood was taken to test the antibody levels of four virus (measles, rubella, HSV-1, CMV) IgG. The study result showed that positive family history, living near rubber plants, drinking river-water were associated with an increased risk of developing PD. In contrast, living in small cities, drinking well-water, drinking hard-liquor frequently, were associated with a decreased risk for PD. PD cases and controls did not differ with respect to other factors investigated including smoking and viral infection. These findings suggest that some environmental factors may be related to the development of PD, but further standardized studies will be required to confirm our results.

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Carbon nanofluidic structures made of carbon nanotubes or graphene/graphene oxide have shown great promise in energy and environment applications due to the newly discovered fast and selective mass transport. However, they have yet to be utilized in nanofluidic devices for lab-on-a-chip applications because of great challenges in their fabrication and integration. Herein we report the fabrication of two-dimensional planar graphene nanochannel devices and the study of ion transport inside a graphene nanochannel array. A MEMS fabrication process that includes controlled nanochannel etching, graphene wet transfer, and vacuum anodic bonding is developed to fabricate graphene nanochannels where graphene conformally coats the channel surfaces. We observe higher ionic conductance inside the graphene nanochannels compared with silica nanochannels with the same geometries at low electrolyte concentrations (10 M-10 M). Enhanced electroosmotic flow due to the boundary slip at graphene surfaces is attributed to the measured higher conductance in the graphene nanochannels. Our results also suggest that the surface charge on the graphene surface, originating from the dissociation of oxygen-containing functional groups, is crucial to the enhanced electroosmotic flow inside the nanochannels.

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