An ultrasensitive electrical detection method of nucleic acids has been developed on a nanogapped biosensor. In this study, peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes were immobilized in the gaps of a pair of finger microelectrodes first and were then hybridized with their complementary target DNA. After that, pectin molecules were introduced into the DNA strand via zirconium-phosphate and zirconium-car...

A nerve-agent simulant based on a phosphate ester is hydrolyzed using a MOF-based catalyst. Suspensions of MOF-808 (6-connected), a material featuring 6-connected zirconium nodes, display the highest hydrolysis rates among all MOFs that have been reported to date. A plug-flow reactor was also prepared with MOF-808 (6-connected) as the active layer. Deployed in a simple filtration scheme, the re...

Carcinogenic nickel compounds alter the program of gene expression in normal cells and induce a pattern of gene expression similar to that found in nickel-induced cancers. Here we have demonstrated that nickel exposure induced hypoxic signaling pathways by inducing hypoxia-inducible transcription factor-1 (HIF-1), which mediated the induction of genes required by cells to survive hypoxia. We al...

Bimodal polyethylene is generated from a single immobilized catalyst on support under set of reaction conditions without introducing chain transfer agents. Using rac-ethylenebis(1-indenyl)zirconium dichloride [(EBI)ZrCl2] nickel-containing layered double hydroxide (LDH) produces two distinct molecular weight distributions. The ratio these fractions can be tuned by varying the LDH as well changi...

The dielectric properties of electrochemically grown zirconium oxide films by anodisation of zirconium in 1.0 mol dm-3 phosphoric acid solution were investigated in a 3 to 30 V potential range with a view to inducing surface modifications for eventual use in biomedical and electronic applications. The oxide films grown at different potentials were characterised by Atomic Force Microscopy, X-ray...

A simple, automated colorimetric method for determining oxalic acid in plant material is based on the quantitative reduction in colour of a zirconium/3,4-dihydroxyazobenzene-2'-carboxylic.acid complex by microgram quantities of oxaIic acid. I t is suitable for use over a wide range of oxalic acid concentrations. Interference from phosphate, sulphate, citric acid and malic acid was encountered b...