An integrated wearable sticker based on extended-gate AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors for real-time cortisol detection in human sweat.

Cortisol hormone imbalances can be detected through non-invasive sweat monitoring using field-effect transistor (FET) biosensors, which provide rapid and sensitive detection. However, challenges like skin compatibility and integration with sweat collection have hindered FET biosensors as wearable sensing platforms. In this study, we present an integrated wearable sticker for real-time cortisol detection based on an extended-gate AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) combined with a soft bottom substrate and flexible channel for sweat collection. The developed devices exhibit excellent linearity (R2 = 0.990) and a high sensitivity of 1.245 µA dec-1 for cortisol sensing from 1 nM to 100 µM in high-ionic-strength solution, with successful cortisol detection demonstrated using authentic human sweat samples. Additionally, the chip's microminiature design effectively reduces bending impact during the wearable process of traditional soft binding sweat sensors. The extendedgate structure design of the HEMT chip enhances both width-to-length ratio and active sensing area, resulting in an exceptionally low detection limit of 100 fM. Futhermore, due to GaN material's inherent stability, this device exhibits long-term stability with sustained performance within a certain attenuation range even after 60 days. These stickers possess small, lightweight, and portable features that enable real-time cortisol detection within 5 minutes through direct sweat collection. The application of this technology holds great potential in the field of personal health management, facilitating users to conveniently monitor their mental and physical conditions.

Real-time free spectral range measurement based on a correlated resonance-tracking technology.

In this paper, we present a real-time measurement technology for the free spectral range (FSR) of an ultrahigh-aspect-ratio silicon nitride (Si3N4) waveguide ring resonator (WRR). Two different correlated resonant modes were tracked by two optical single-sideband frequency-shifted lights to eliminate interference noise in the Pound-Drever-Hall error signals. A relative precision of 0.1474 ppm was achieved for a 35 mm WRR with FSR = 1,844,944.5 kHz and finesse (F) = 13.2. Furthermore, a cross-correlation of 0.913 between FSR-calculated and thermistor-measured temperatures indicated a high correlation between the real-time FSR and room temperature. We believe this technology is currently the best way to realize low-finesse (F < 50) real-time FSR measurements in the GHz range.

Discovery of anti-allergic components in Guomingkang Formula using sensitive HEMT biochips coupled with in vitro and in vivo validation.

BACKGROUND: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a prevalent allergic disease, which seriously affects the sufferers' life quality and increases the socioeconomic burden. Guominkang (GMK), a well-known prescription for AR treatment, showed satisfactory effects; while its anti-allergic components remain to be disclosed. AlGaN/GaN HEMT biochip is more sensitive and cost-effective than other binding equipments, indicating its great potential for screening of active ingredients from herbal medicines. METHODS: AR mouse models were first established to test the anti-allergic effect of GMK and discover the ingredients absorbed into blood by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectra (UHPLC-MS). Then, novel Syk/Lyn/Fyn-functionalized high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) biochips with high sensitivity and specificity were constructed and applied to screen the active components. Finally, the results from HEMT biochips screening were validated via in silico (molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation), in vitro (RBL-2H3 cells), and in vivo (PCA mice model) assays. RESULTS: GMK showed a potent therapeutic effect on AR mice, and fifteen components were identified from the medicated plasma. Furthermore, hamaudol was firstly found to selectively inhibit the Syk and Lyn, and emodin was to selectively inhibit Lyn, which were further confirmed by isothermal titration calorimetry, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulation analyses. Suppression of the activation of FcεRI-MAPK signals might be the possible mechanism of the anti-allergic effect of hamaudol. CONCLUSIONS: The targets of emodin and hamaudol were discovered by HEMT biochips for the first time. This study provided a novel and effective strategy to discover active components in a complex herbal formula by using AlGaN/GaN HEMT biochips.

Sensitivity-dependent dynamic searching approach coupling multi-intelligent surrogates in homotopy mechanism for groundwater DNAPL-source inversion.

Equifinality and premature convergence can result in considerable errors when simultaneously characterizing groundwater contamination sources and estimating contaminant transport parameters. To resolve this problem, we design a sensitivity-dependent progressive optimization system embedding ensemble-learning technique. To avoid repetitive CPU-demanding model evaluations in Sobol' global sensitivity analysis and swarm intelligence optimization inverse modeling, Kriging, support vector regression (SVR), kernel extreme learning machine (KELM), and deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) are compared and ensembled to build an accurate surrogate of the numerical model. In addition, the sensitivities of different source characteristics and contaminant transport parameters are set as important indicators to adjust the displacement vectors of the swarm in each iteration during the optimization process to achieve a balanced identification of sensitivity-varied elements. Moreover, a homotopy-based progressive searching mechanism approach to the global optimum in large areas is developed, with the aim of preventing premature convergence for multimodal search problems. The results indicate that the ensemble learning model efficiently captures the complex input-output relationship of the numerical model with an increased determination coefficient (R2 = 0.9988), while the mean relative error is limited to 0.9314%. Although the contribution of source characteristics and contaminant transport parameters to the spatial-temporal distribution of contaminants vary dramatically, the combined application of sensitivity analysis, homotopy theory, and swarm intelligence optimization provides a more stable and accurate estimation of all the elements. The mean relative error of the identification results significantly reduced from 7.2184% to 3.2718%, whereas the maximum relative error is limited to 9.9501%.

Effects of anthropogenic activities on hydrochemical characteristics of ground water of Da'an irrigation area in Western of Jilin Province.

The groundwater environment changes under the influence of anthropogenic activities. Because of the construction of the Da'an irrigation area, the amount of irrigation and fertilizer there has changed. Achieving the coordinated development of groundwater resources and economic benefits requires a deeper understanding of the impact of the construction of irrigation areas on groundwater chemistry. In this study, the variations in groundwater chemistry characteristics were studied using statistics and hydrogeochemical methods. Further, the groundwater quality was assessed using the support vector machine method. The results show that the primary water chemistry type was the HCO3 - Ca - Mg type, with local Fe3+ and F- pollution. After the construction of irrigation area, the SO42-, HCO3-, K+ + Na+, and Ca2+ contents decreased, but the Cl- and Mg2+ contents increased. The main nitrogen source in phreatic water was anthropogenic activities, and the main pollution component was NH4+. After the construction of the irrigation area, the NH4+ concentration increased significantly, and the ratio of samples exceeding the standard increased by 37.5%. The over-standard regions spread to the northwest, east, and southeast of Da'an City and east and southeast of the irrigation area. The groundwater quality was predominantly grade IV and V, which accounted for an increase of 16.35%, widely distributed in the south, east, and southwest of the irrigation area and urban areas. The construction of the irrigation area reduced the suitability of phreatic water for agricultural irrigation in the southeast but increased in the west and north.

Highly Sensitive Uric Acid Detection Based on a Graphene Chemoresistor and Magnetic Beads.

In this study, we developed a low-cost, reusable, and highly sensitive analytical platform for the detection of the human metabolite uric acid (UA). This novel analysis platform combines the graphene chemoresistor detection technique with a magnetic bead (MB) system. The heterojunction (single-layer graphene and HfO2 thin-film material) of our graphene-based biosensor worked as a transducer to detect the pH change caused by the specific catalytic reaction between UA and uricase, and hence acquires a UA concentration. Immobilization of uricase on MBs can decouple the functionalization steps from the sensor surface, which allows the sensor to be reusable. Our microsensor platform exhibits a relatively lower detection limit (1 µM), high sensitivity (5.6 mV/decade), a linear range (from 1 µM to 1000 µM), and excellent linearity (R2 = 0.9945). In addition, interference assay and repeatability tests were conducted, and the result suggests that our method is highly stable and not affected by common interfering substances (glucose and urea). The integration of this high-performance and compact biosensor device can create a point-of-care diagnosis system with reduced cost, test time, and reagent volume.

Correction: An electronic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay platform for protein analysis based on magnetic beads and AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors.

Correction for 'An electronic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay platform for protein analysis based on magnetic beads and AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors' by Jin Wang et al., Analyst, 2020, 145, 2725-2730, DOI: 10.1039/C9AN01809C.

An electronic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay platform for protein analysis based on magnetic beads and AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors.

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) biosensors have attracted attention due to their high sensitivity, stability, and fast response characteristics. Some related studies have been explored but a Debye screening problem exists in physiological solutions hindering the detection of bio-macromolecules. Herein, a novel fast analytical platform for electronic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (e-ELISA) is proposed based on AlGaN/GaN HEMT with magnetic beads (MBs); MB-based e-ELISA decouples the modified area from the sensing surface to simplify the assay. Combining the advantages of e-ELISA and MBs, the resulting analytical platform presents a sensing capability beyond the Debye-screening limit and a novel ability to be reused. This platform offers a fast response toward prostate specific antigen (PSA) and the lowest concentration of detection is 1 fg mL-1. Compared with conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMT biosensors, it shows higher sensitivity (3.73 µA dec-1) in a linear range (1 fg mL-1 to 1 pg mL-1), which is within the constraints of emergency care applications. The platform's high sensitivity and fast repeatability endow it with great potential for early and rapid diagnosis.

Electrical detection of trace zinc ions with an extended gate-AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility sensor.

In this report, we have developed a high sensitivity zinc ion (Zn2+) detection method based on a Schiff base functionalized extended gate (EG)-AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility (HEMT) sensor. The complexation reaction between the Schiff base and the zinc ions would cause surface potential change on the extended gate, and achieve the purpose of zinc ion detection. Compared with conventional methods, the Schiff base functionalized EG-AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility sensor showed a rapid response (less than 10 seconds) and the limit of detection (LOD) was 1 fM. At the same time, the real-time detection of zinc ion concentration ranging from 1 fM to 1 µM showed good linearity (R2 = 0.9962). These results indicated that it provides a promising real-time detection method for trace-free zinc ion trace detection.

Highly sensitive AlGaN/GaN HEMT biosensors using an ethanolamine modification strategy for bioassay applications.

In this paper, we propose a highly efficient surface modification strategy on an AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT), where ethanolamine (EA) was utilized to functionalize the surface of GaN and provided amphoteric amine groups for probe molecular immobilization for bioassay application. The molecular gated-AlGaN/GaN HEMT was utilized for pH and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) detection to verify its performance as a biosensor. Benefitting from the high coating quality on the GaN surface, the performance of our biosensor is drastically improved compared to other AlGaN/GaN HEMT based pH and PSA biosensors reported before. Our molecular gated-AlGaN/GaN HEMT biosensor has achieved good static electrical performance for pH sensing, such as high sensitivity, good linearity and chemical stability. Moreover, after further immobilization of PSA antibody onto the EA aminated GaN surface, the limit of detection (LOD) for PSA detection is as low as 1 fg mL-1 in PBS buffer, which has reached an at least two orders of magnitude decrease compared to any other AlGaN/GaN HEMT based PSA biosensor reported before. And the sensitivity of our PSA biosensor has achieved a substantial increase, reaching up to 2.04% for 100 ng mL-1. The measurements of pH and PSA utilizing the EA modified AlGaN/GaN HEMT biosensor indicate that the surface modification strategy on the GaN proposed in this paper can effectively improve the performance of the AlGaN/GaN HEMT based biosensor, which demonstrates a promising application prospect in the AlGaN/GaN HEMT based biological detection field.

Molecular gated-AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor for pH detection.

A molecular gated-AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor has been developed for pH detection. The sensing surface of the sensor was modified with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane to provide amphoteric amine groups, which would play the role of receptors for pH detection. On modification with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, the transistor exhibits good chemical stability in hydrochloric acid solution and is sensitive for pH detection. Thus, our molecular gated-AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor acheived good electrical performances such as chemical stability (remained stable in hydrochloric acid solution), good sensitivity (37.17 µA/pH) and low hysteresis. The results indicate a promising future for high-quality sensors for pH detection.

Synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic activity of porous La-N-co-doped TiO2 nanotubes for gaseous chlorobenzene oxidation.

The photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous chlorobenzene (CB) by the 365nm-induced photocatalyst La/N-TiO2, synthesized via a sol-gel and hydrothermal method, was evaluated. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to model and optimize the conditions for synthesis of the photocatalyst. The optimal photocatalyst was 1.2La/0.5N-TiO2 (0.5) and the effects of La/N on crystalline structure, particle morphology, surface element content, and other structural characteristics were investigated by XRD (X-ray diffraction), TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy), FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), UV-vis (Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy), and BET (Brunauer Emmett Teller). Greater surface area and smaller particle size were produced with the co-doped TiO2 nanotubes than with reference TiO2. The removal of CB was effective when performed using the synthesized photocatalyst, though it was less efficient at higher initial CB concentrations. Various modified Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic models involving the adsorption of chlorobenzene and water on different active sites were evaluated. Fitting results suggested that competitive adsorption caused by water molecules could not be neglected, especially for environments with high relative humidity. The reaction intermediates found after GC-MS (Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) analysis indicated that most were soluble, low-toxicity, or both. The results demonstrated that the prepared photocatalyst had high activity for VOC (volatile organic compounds) conversion and may be used as a pretreatment prior to biopurification.