The harmonic shears are as safe and effective as the commonly used clip and cautery technique in achieving safe closure and division of the cystic duct in the laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Further, it provides a superior alternative to the currently used high-frequency monopolar technology in terms of shorter operative time and lower incidence of gallbladder perforation.

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The affordable and reliable detection of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) RNA is a cornerstone in the management and control of infection, affecting approximately 3% of the global population. However, the existing technologies are expensive, labor intensive and time consuming, posing significant limitations to their wide-scale exploitation, particularly in economically deprived populations. Here, we utilized the unique optical and physicochemical properties of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to develop a novel assay platform shown to be rapid and robust in sensing and quantifying unamplified HCV RNA in clinical samples. The assay is based on inducing aggregation of citrate AuNPs decorated with a specific nucleic acid probe. Two types of cationic AuNPs, cysteamine and CTAB capped, were compared to achieve maximum assay performance. The technology is simple, rapid, cost effective and quantitative with 93.3% sensitivity, high specificity and detection limit of 4.57 IU/µl. Finally, our data suggest that RNA folding impact the aggregation behavior of the functionalized AuNPs, with broader applications in other nucleic acid detection technologies.

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