We present a catalog of 37842 quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7, which have counterparts within 6 ′′ in the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Preliminary Data Release. The overall WISE detection rate of the SDSS quasars is 86.7%, and it decreases to less than 50.0% when the quasar magnitude is fainter than i = 20.5. We derive the median color-redshift relations based on this SDSS-WISE quasar sample and apply them to estimate the photometric redshifts of the SDSS-WISE quasars. We find that by adding the WISE W1-and W2-band data to the SDSS photometry we can increase the photometric redshift reliability, defined as the percentage of sources with the photometric and spectroscopic redshift difference less than 0.2, from 70.3% to 77.2%. We also obtain the samples of WISE-detected normal and late-type stars with SDSS spectroscopy, and present a criterion in the z − W 1 versus g − z colorcolor diagram, z − W 1 > 0.66(g − z) + 2.01, to separate quasars from stars. With this criterion we can recover 98.6% of 3089 radio-detected SDSS-WISE quasars with redshifts less than four and overcome the difficulty in selecting quasars with redshifts between 2.2 and 3 from SDSS photometric data alone. We also suggest another criterion involving the WISE color only, W 1 − W 2 > 0.57, to efficiently separate quasars with redshifts less than 3.2 from stars. In addition, we compile a catalog of 5614 SDSS quasars detected by both WISE and UKIDSS surveys and present their color-redshift relations in the optical and infrared bands. By using the SDSS ugriz, UKIDSS YJHK and WISE W1-and W2-band photometric data, we can efficiently select quasar candidates and increase the photometric redshift reliability up to 87.0%. We discuss the implications of our results on the future quasar surveys. An updated SDSSWISE quasar catalog consisting of 101,853 quasars with the recently released WISE all-sky data is also provided.

Point-of-care (POC) applications have expanded hugely in recent years and is likely to continue, with an aim to deliver cheap, portable, and reliable devices to meet the demands of healthcare industry. POC devices are designed, prototyped, and assembled using numerous strategies but the key essential features that biosensing devices require are: (1) sensitivity, (2) selectivity, (3) specificity, (4) repeatability, and (5) good limit of detection. Overall the fabrication and commercialization of the nanohole array (NHA) setup to the outside world still remains a challenge. Here, we review the various methods of NHA fabrication, the design criteria, the geometrical features, the effects of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) on sensing as well as current state-of-the-art of existing NHA sensors. This review also provides easy-to-understand examples of NHA-based POC biosensing applications, its current status, challenges, and future prospects.

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In this paper, the stationary probability distribution (SPD) and mean first passage time (MFPT) in a vegetation model with time delay are investigated, where the vegetation dynamics is assumed to be disturbed by both intrinsic and extrinsic noises. The impacts of the intrinsic noise strength α, extrinsic noise strength D, time delay τ and cross-correlation strength q between two noises on the SPD and MFPT of the regime shifts between the sustainable vegetation and barren states are discussed, respectively. Our main results are as follows. (i) The increase of α will cause regime shifts from the barren state to the sustainable vegetation state, while the increase of D or τ will cause regime shifts from the sustainable vegetation state to the barren state. (ii) The MFPT as a function of the noise intensities (i.e., α and D) exhibits one maximum value in the case of q < 0.0, and the maximum MFPT shows the characteristic of the noise enhanced stability of the sustainable vegetation biomass. (iii) However, for the case of q 0.0, the increase of α or D causes a decrease of the MFPT, i.e., the noises can enhance the probability of regime shifts to the barren state. (iv) Although the cross-correlation between two noises is positive (q > 0.0), the presence of time delay can also cause the existence of extrinsic noise enhanced stability.

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The electrokinetic behavior of molecules in nanochannels (<100 nm in length) have generated interest due to the unique transport properties observed that are not seen in microscale channels. These nanoscale dependent transport properties include transverse electromigration arising from partial electrical double layer overlap, enhanced solute/wall interactions due to the small channel diameter, and field-dependent intermittent motion produced by surface roughness. In this study, the electrokinetic transport properties of deoxynucleotide monophosphates (dNMPs) were investigated, including the effects of electric field strength, surface effects, and composition of the carrier electrolyte (ionic concentration and pH). The dNMPs were labeled with a fluorescent reporter (ATTO 532) to allow tracking of the electrokinetic transport of the dNMPs through a thermoplastic nanochannel fabricated via nanoimprinting (110 nm × 110 nm, width × depth, and 100 μm in length). We discovered that the transport properties in plastic nanochannels of the dye-labeled dNMPs produced differences in their apparent mobilities that were not seen using microscale columns. We built histograms for each dNMP from their apparent mobilities under different operating conditions and fit the histograms to Gaussian functions from which the separation resolution could be deduced as a metric to gage the ability to identify the molecule based on their apparent mobility. We found that the resolution ranged from 0.73 to 2.13 at pH = 8.3. Changing the carrier electrolyte pH > 10 significantly improved separation resolution (0.80-4.84) and reduced the standard deviation in the Gaussian fit to the apparent mobilities. At low buffer concentrations, decreases in separation resolution and increased standard deviations in Gaussian fits to the apparent mobilities of dNMPs were observed due to the increased thickness of the electric double layer leading to a partial parabolic flow profile. The results secured for the dNMPs in thermoplastic nanochannels revealed a high identification efficiency (>99%) in most cases for the dNMPs due to differences in their apparent mobilities when using nanochannels, which could not be achieved using microscale columns.

amounts of input material. [1,2] While the sequencing-by-synthesis technology dominates currently, this technology requires significant sample preparation and amplification steps, the use of costly biological reagents such as fluorescently labeled molecules, and expensive imaging and data handling instruments. [3][4][5][6][7] Singlemolecule sequencing, which does not require amplification and labeling steps, would simplify the entire sequencing process significantly reducing costs and time of acquiring sequencing data, and is thus more adaptable to clinical translation to enable precision medicine even from mass-limited samples such as those provided by liquid biopsies. [8] Nanopores offer a fast and low-cost sequencing platform that does not require labeling and sample amplification. [6,7,[9][10][11][12][13] The basic principle of nanopore sequencing is to electrically drive charged single molecules, either an intact DNA molecule in strand sequencing or individual nucleotides cleaved from the DNA in exonuclease sequencing, [10,[13][14][15] through a nanopore and determine the identity of each constituent nucleotide by monitoring small changes in the ionic current flowing through the pore while individual nucleotides temporarily reside within the pore (i.e., resistive pulse sensing, RPS). [13,16] Strand nanopore sequencing has demonstrated whole-genome sequencing [14] Nanoscale electrophoresis allows for unique separations of single molecules, such as DNA/RNA nucleobases, and thus has the potential to be used as single molecular sensors for exonuclease sequencing. For this to be envisioned, label-free detection of the nucleotides to determine their electrophoretic mobility (i.e., time-of-flight, TOF) for highly accurate identification must be realized. Here, for the first time a novel nanosensor is shown that allows discriminating four 2-deoxyribonucleoside 5'-monophosphates, dNMPs, molecules in a label-free manner by nanoscale electrophoresis. This is made possible by positioning two sub-10 nm in-plane pores at both ends of a nanochannel column used for nanoscale electrophoresis and measuring the longitudinal transient current during translocation of the molecules. The dual nanopore TOF sensor with 0.5, 1, and 5 µm long nanochannel column lengths discriminates different dNMPs with a mean accuracy of 55, 66, and 94%, respectively. This nanosensor format can broadly be applicable to label-free detection and discrimination of other single molecules, vesicles, and particles by changing the dimensions of the nanochannel column and in-plane nanopores and integrating different pre-and postprocessing units to the nanosensor. This is simple to accomplish because the nanosensor is contained within a fluidic network made in plastic via replication.