We establish, using single-cell analysis of metabolism and division in a droplet microfluidic system, that yeast can adapt, resuming division, extremely rapidly to an unforeseen environmental challenge, and that adaptation is an active process, requiring the consumption of a characteristic amount energy. The adapted state is stable over at least several days, showing that this is a genuine adaptation process. The adaptation rate (10−3 cells per hour) is orders of magnitude higher than expected based on known mutation rates, suggesting an epigenetic origin, and the tight energetic coupling implies that there is active exploration of different states, and fixation of the solution(s) that allow adaptation.

Metabolic alterations are a hallmark of the malignant transformation in cancer cells, which is characterized by multiple changes in metabolic pathways that are linked to macromolecule synthesis. This study aimed to explore whether salivary metabolites could help discriminate between breast cancer patients and healthy controls. Saliva samples from 23 breast cancer patients and 35 healthy controls were subjected to untargeted metabolomics using liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry and a bioinformatics tool (XCMS Online), which revealed 534 compounds, characterized by their retention time in reverse-phase liquid chromatography and by the m/z ratio detected, that were shared by the two groups. Using the METLIN database, 31 compounds that were upregulated in the breast cancer group (p < 0.05) were identified, including seven oligopeptides and six glycerophospholipids (PG14:2, PA32:1, PS28:0, PS40:6, PI31:1, and PI38:7). In addition, pre-treatment and post-treatment saliva samples were analyzed for 10 patients who experienced at least a partial response to their treatment. In these patients, three peptides and PG14:2 were upregulated before but not after treatment. The area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity for PG14:2 was 0.7329, 65.22%, and 77.14%, respectively. These results provide new information regarding the salivary metabolite profiles of breast cancer patients, which may be useful biomarkers. View Full-Text

The early detection of breast cancer enables the use of less aggressive treatment and increases patient survival. The transmembrane glycoprotein mucin 1, which is also known as cancer antigen 15‑3 (CA15‑3), is aberrantly glycosylated and overexpressed in a variety of epithelial cancers, and serves a crucial role in the progression of the disease. CA15‑3 is currently used as a marker of breast cancer. In the present study, CA15‑3 concentrations in saliva and blood of patients with breast cancer were evaluated to test new assays to detect salivary CA15‑3 in addition to ELISA and its diagnostic value. To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous reports of the use of chemiluminescence assay (CLIA) and electrochemiluminescence assay (ECLIA) in saliva. Saliva and blood were collected on the same day from patients with breast cancer (n=26) and healthy controls (n=28). For each subject, the level of serum CA15‑3 was measured using ECLIA, and the level of salivary CA15‑3 was measured using ECLIA, CLIA and enzyme‑linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). ELISA and CLIA were able to detect CA15‑3 in saliva; however, ECLIA could not detect salivary CA15‑3. There was no significant difference between the mean serum and salivary CA15‑3 levels in patients with breast cancer or healthy controls. The levels of CA15‑3 were highest for luminal breast cancer subtypes and stage IV cases. A moderate correlation was observed between salivary and serum CA15‑3 levels as measured by ELISA in breast cancer patients (r=0.56; P=0.0047). The results demonstrated that ECLIA was not a good method to detect salivary CA15‑3, although it is the gold standard for detecting serum CA15‑3. The presence of CA15‑3 in saliva was confirmed, and this will be useful in future research. Further investigations are necessary to confirm the ability to detect salivary CA15‑3 and its correlation with serum CA15‑3.

Two high‐resolution mass spectrometers (HRMS) with different analyzer technology, Orbitrap and hybrid quadrupole time‐of‐flight (QTOF), were compared with a low‐resolution mass spectrometer, quadrupole, to analyse a set of 35 difficult allergens. These difficult allergens are commonly coeluted fragrance allergens with matrix compounds, using standard gas chromatography‐mass spectrometer conditions, from the extended list of the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS). Although the fundamental role of chromatographic separation has been demonstrated many times, the aim of this work is to demonstrate the benefits of high‐resolution. The added value of high‐resolution was illustrated in both a qualitative and a quantitative way. For qualitative aspect, the high resolution extracted ion signals of these two detectors were compared with the low‐resolution extracted ion signals. About 50% of the coeluted cases observed with the low‐resolution detector are easily resolved by the two high‐resolution detectors. For the quantitative aspect, an accuracy profile methodology and a performance metric were used to propose an overall evaluation. The Orbitrap mass spectrometer demonstrated a better overall performance, while the QTOF presented similar or even lower quantification performances than the quadrupole on the set of analysed fragrance

For the first time, to our knowledge, anionic and nonionic surfactants were analyzed in an oil matrix by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS). The feasibility of this analysis was studied using synthetic mixtures of surfactants prepared in water (quality controls), binary THF/toluene 50/50 v/v (surfactant + THF/toluene), and binary THF/toluene containing 1 and 10% crude oil (Crude1% and Crude10%). These compositions were chosen in order to be as close as possible to petroleum related samples to be investigated in the future. Analyses were carried out by UHPLC methods using both reverse phase and anion-exchange mechanisms with a mixed mode column. Despite the complexity of the oil matrix and the presence of organic solvents used for dilution, the retention times of the surfactants were not affected whatever the concentration of crude oil present in the sample. Nevertheless, a significant matrix effect caused a loss of signal when the concentration of oil reached 10% in mass. For the analysis of samples with this crude oil concentration range, it would be advisable to dilute the sample.

The transport of bio-particles in viscous flows exhibits a rich variety of dynamical behaviour, such as
morphological transitions, complex orientation dynamics or deformations. Characterising such complex
behaviour under well controlled flows is key to understanding the microscopic mechanical properties of
biological particles as well as the rheological properties of their suspensions. While generating regions of
simple shear flow in microfluidic devices is relatively straightforward, generating straining flows in which
the strain rate is maintained constant for a sufficiently long time to observe the objects’ morphologic
evolution is far from trivial. In this work, we propose an innovative approach based on optimised design
of microfluidic converging–diverging channels coupled with a microscope-based tracking method to
characterise the dynamic behaviour of individual bio-particles under homogeneous straining flow.
The tracking algorithm, combining a motorised stage and a microscopy imaging system controlled by
external signals, allows us to follow individual bio-particles transported over long-distances with highquality
images. We demonstrate experimentally the ability of the numerically optimised microchannels
to provide linear velocity streamwise gradients along the centreline of the device, allowing for extended
consecutive regions of homogeneous elongation and compression. We selected three test cases (DNA,
actin filaments and protein aggregates) to highlight the ability of our approach for investigating dynamics
of objects with a wide range of sizes, characteristics and behaviours of relevance in the biological world

We report an experimental study concerning the capillary relaxation of a confined liquid droplet in a microscopic channel with a rectangular cross section. The confinement leads to a droplet that is extended along the direction normal to the cross section. These droplets, found in numerous microfluidic applications, are pinched into a peanutlike shape thanks to a localized, reversible deformation of the channel. Once the channel deformation is released, the droplet relaxes back to a pluglike shape. During this relaxation, the liquid contained in the central pocket drains towards the extremities of the droplet. Modeling such viscocapillary droplet relaxation requires considering the problem as 3D due to confinement. This 3D consideration yields a scaling model incorporating dominant dissipation within the droplet menisci. As such, the self-similar droplet dynamics is fully captured.

The 17O resonances of Zirconium-oxo clusters that can be found in porous Zr carboxylate metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been investigated by magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy enhanced by dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). High-resolution 17O spectra at 0.037 % natural abundance could be obtained in 48 hours, thanks to DNP enhancement of the 1H polarization by factors e(1H) = Swith/Swithout = 28, followed by 1H®17O cross-polarization, allowing a saving in experimental time by a factor of ca. 800. The distinct 17O sites from the oxo-clusters can be resolved at 18.8 T. Their assignment is supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations of chemical shifts and quadrupolar parameters.

This manuscript has been accepted after peer review and appears as an Accepted Article online prior to editing, proofing, and formal publication of the final Version of Record (VoR). This work is currently citable by using the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) given below. The VoR will be published online in Early View as soon as possible and may be different to this Accepted Article as a result of editing. Readers should obtain
the VoR from the journal website shown below when it is published to ensure accuracy of information. The authors are responsible for the content of this Accepted Article.

We analyze the application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for untangling the main contributions to changing diffracted intensities upon variation of site occupancy and lattice dimensions induced by external stimuli. The information content of the PCA output consists of certain functions of Bragg angles (loadings) and their evolution characteristics that depend on external variables like pressure or temperature (scores). The physical meaning of the PCA output is to date not well understood. Therefore, in this paper, the intensity contributions are first derived analytically, then compared with the PCA components for model data; finally PCA is applied for the real data on isothermal gas uptake by nanoporous framework γ –Mg(BH 4 ) 2 . We show that, in close agreement with previous analysis of modulation diffraction, the variation of intensity of Bragg lines and the displacements of their positions results in a series of PCA components. Every PCA extracted component may be a mixture of terms carrying information on the average structure, active sub-structure, and their cross-term. The rotational ambiguities, that are an inherently part of PCA extraction, are at the origin of the mixing. For the experimental case considered in the paper, the extraction of the physically meaningful loadings and scores can only be achieved with a rotational correction. Finally, practical recommendations for non-blind applications, i.e., what boundary conditions to apply for the the rotational correction, of PCA for diffraction data are given.