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Detecting urea is crucial for diagnosing related health conditions and ensuring timely medical intervention. The addition of machine learning (ML) technologies has completely changed the field of biochemical sensing, providing enhanced accuracy and reliability. In the present work, an ML-assisted screen-printed, flexible, electrochemical, non-enzymatic biosensor was proposed to quantify urea concentrations. For the detection of urea, the biosensor was modified with a multi-walled carbon nanotube-zinc oxide (MWCNT-ZnO) nanocomposite functionalized with copper oxide (CuO) micro-flowers (MFs). Further, the CuO-MFs were synthesized using a standard sol-gel approach, and the obtained particles were subjected to various characterization techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The sensor's performance for urea detection was evaluated by assessing the dependence of peak currents on analyte concentration using cyclic voltammetry (CV) at different scan rates of 50, 75, and 100 mV/s. The designed non-enzymatic biosensor showed an acceptable linear range of operation of 0.5–8 mM, and the limit of detection (LoD) observed was 78.479 nM, which is well aligned with the urea concentration found in human blood and exhibits a good sensitivity of 117.98 mA mM−1 cm−2. Additionally, different regression-based ML models were applied to determine CV parameters to predict urea concentrations experimentally. ML significantly improves the accuracy and reliability of screen-printed biosensors, enabling accurate predictions of urea levels. Finally, the combination of ML and biosensor design emphasizes not only the high sensitivity and accuracy of the sensor but also its potential for complex non-enzymatic urea detection applications. Future advancements in accurate biochemical sensing technologies are made possible by this strong and dependable methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work delves into the preparation of ATO thin films and their characterization, fabrication, and calibration of a NO2 gas sensor, as well as the development of the packaged sensor. ATO thin films were prepared by e-beam evaporation using green synthesized ATO nanomaterials on different substrates and annealed at 500 and 600 °C for one hour. The structural and morphological properties of the developed thin films were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. An orthorhombic SnO2 crystal structure was recognized through XRD analysis. The granular-shaped nanoparticles were revealed through SEM and TEM images. The films annealed at 600 °C exhibited improved crystallinity. ATO films prepared on normal 5 µm interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) and annealed at 600 °C exhibited a response of 10.31 ± 0.25 with an optimum temperature of 200 °C for a 4.8 ppm NO2 gas concentration. The packaged NO2 gas sensor developed using IDEs with a microheater demonstrated an improved response of 16.20 ± 0.25 for 4.8 ppm of NO2 gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel, portable deep learning-assisted smartphone-based electrochemiluminescence (ECL) cost-effective (~10$) sensing platform was developed and used for selective detection of lactate. Low-cost, fast prototyping screen printing and wax printing methods with paper-based substrate were used to fabricate miniaturized single-pair electrode ECL platforms. The lab-made 3D-printed portable black box served as a reaction chamber. This portable platform was integrated with a smartphone and a buck-boost converter, eliminating the need for expensive CCD cameras, photomultiplier tubes, and bulky power supplies. This advancement makes this platform ideal for point-of-care testing applications. Foremost, the integration of a deep learning approach served to enhance not just the accuracy of the ECL sensors, but also to expedite the diagnostic procedure. The deep learning models were trained (3600 ECL images) and tested (900 ECL images) using ECL images obtained from experimentation. Herein, for user convenience, an Android application with a graphical user interface was developed. This app performs several tasks, which include capturing real-time images, cropping them, and predicting the concentration of required bioanalytes through deep learning. The device's capability to work in a real environment was tested by performing lactate sensing. The fabricated ECL device shows a good liner range (from 50 µM to 2000 µM) with an acceptable limit of detection value of 5.14 µM. Finally, various rigorous analyses, including stability, reproducibility, and unknown sample analysis, were conducted to check device durability and stability. Therefore, the developed platform becomes versatile and applicable across various domains by harnessing deep learning as a cutting-edge technology and integrating it with a smartphone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidently, microfluidic devices are proven to be one of the most effective and powerful tools for manipulating, preparing, functionalizing and producing new generation nanoparticles and nanocomposites. Their benefits include low solution/sample feeding, excellent handling of reagents, exceptional control of size and composition, compactness, easy to process with rapid thermal management and cost-effectiveness. Such advantages have led to the endorsement of nano-microscale fabrication methods to develop highly controllable and reproducible minuscule devices. This work aims to design and develop a microscale-based temperature control device with added features like low-cost, portability, miniaturized, easy-to-use, minuscule reaction volume and point-of-source system for the synthesis of nanoparticles. The device incorporates many features such as real-time data access with a GUI interface with a smartphone open-source app for Bluetooth and Database cloud for an Internet of Things module. The portable thermal device is then calibrated and is capable of achieving a maximum temperature of 250 °C in 25 min. The fabricated device is harnessed for the synthesis of manganese oxide (MnO2) nanoparticles. The synthesized nanoparticles were subjected to various characterization techniques like SEM and XPS to analyze the surface morphology. To test the applicability, as a proof of concept, the synthesized nanoparticles were tested for electrochemical sensing of hydrogen peroxide and dopamine. Overall, the portable device can be utilized for carrying out diverse temperature-controlled reactions in a microfluidic system in a user-friendly and automated manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significance: Fluorescence sensing within tissue is an effective tool for tissue characterization; however, the modality and geometry of the image acquisition can alter the observed signal., Aim: We introduce a novel optical fiber-based system capable of measuring two fluorescent contrast agents through 2 cm of tissue with simple passive electronic switching between the excitation light, simultaneously acquiring fluorescence and excitation data. The goal was to quantify indocyanine green (ICG) and protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) within tissue, and the sampling method was compared with wide-field surface imaging to contrast the value of deep sensing versus surface imaging., Approach: This was achieved by choosing filters for specific wavelengths that were mutually exclusive between ICG and PpIX and coupling these filters to two separate detectors, which allows for direct swapping of the excitation and emission channels by switching the on-time of each excitation laser between 780- and 633-nm wavelengths., Results: This system was compared with two non-contact surface imaging systems for both ICG and PpIX, which revealed that the fluorescence depth sensing system was superior in its ability to resolve kinetics differences in deeper tissues that would normally be dominated by strong signals from skin and other surface tissues. Specifically, the system was tested using pancreatic adenocarcinoma tumors injected into murine models, which were imaged at several time points throughout tumor growth to its ∼ 6 - mm diameter. This demonstrated the system's capability to track longitudinal changes in ICG and PpIX kinetics that result from tumor growth and development, with larger tumors showing sluggish uptake and clearance of ICG, which was not observable with surface imaging. Similarly, PpIX was quantified, which showed slower kinetics over different time points, and was further compared with the wide-filed imager. These results were further validated through depth measurements in tissue phantoms and model-based interpretation., Conclusion: This fluorescence depth sensing system can be used to sample the interior blood flow characteristics by ICG sensing of tissue as deep as 20 mm into the tissue with sensitivity to kinetics that are superior to surface imaging and may be combined with other imaging modalities such as ultrasound to provide guided deep fluorescence measurements., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Evidently, microfluidic devices are proven to be one of the most effective and powerful tools for manipulating, preparing, functionalizing and producing new generation nanoparticles and nanocomposites. Their benefits include low solution/sample feeding, excellent handling of reagents, exceptional control of size and composition, compactness, easy to process with rapid thermal management and cost-effectiveness. Such advantages have led to the endorsement of nano-microscale fabrication methods to develop highly controllable and reproducible minuscule devices. This work aims to design and develop a microscale-based temperature control device with added features like low-cost, portability, miniaturized, easy-to-use, minuscule reaction volume and point-of-source system for the synthesis of nanoparticles. The device incorporates many features such as real-time data access with a GUI interface with a smartphone open-source app for Bluetooth and Database cloud for an Internet of Things module. The portable thermal device is then calibrated and is capable of achieving a maximum temperature of 250 °C in 25 min. The fabricated device is harnessed for the synthesis of manganese oxide (MnO 2 ) nanoparticles. The synthesized nanoparticles were subjected to various characterization techniques like SEM and XPS to analyze the surface morphology. To test the applicability, as a proof of concept, the synthesized nanoparticles were tested for electrochemical sensing of hydrogen peroxide and dopamine. Overall, the portable device can be utilized for carrying out diverse temperature-controlled reactions in a microfluidic system in a user-friendly and automated manner.