ALBERT

Description: 〈p〉A rapid, direct, and low-cost method for detecting bacterial toxins associated with common gastrointestinal diseases remains a great challenge despite numerous studies and clinical assays. Motion-based detection through tracking the emerging micro- and nanorobots has shown great potential in chemo- and biosensing due to accelerated "chemistry on the move". Here, we described the use of fluorescent magnetic spore–based microrobots (FMSMs) as a highly efficient mobile sensing platform for the detection of toxins secreted by 〈i〉Clostridium difficile〈/i〉 (〈i〉C. diff〈/i〉) that were present in patients’ stool. These microrobots were synthesized rapidly and inexpensively by the direct deposition of magnetic nanoparticles and the subsequent encapsulation of sensing probes on the porous natural spores. Because of the cooperation effect of natural spore, magnetic Fe〈sub〉3〈/sub〉O〈sub〉4〈/sub〉 nanoparticles, and functionalized carbon nanodots, selective fluorescence detection of the prepared FMSMs is demonstrated in 〈i〉C. diff〈/i〉 bacterial supernatant and even in actual clinical stool samples from infectious patients within tens of minutes, suggesting rapid response and good selectivity and sensitivity of FMSMs toward 〈i〉C. diff〈/i〉 toxins.〈/p〉

Description: Convective precipitation—localized, short-lived, intense, and sometimes violent—is at the root of challenges associated with observation, simulation, and prediction of precipitation. The understanding of long-term changes in convective precipitation characteristics and their role in precipitation extremes and intensity over extratropical regions are imperative to future water resource management; however, they have been studied very little. We show that annual convective precipitation total has been increasing astonishingly fast, at a rate of 18.4%/°C, of which 16% is attributable to an increase in convective precipitation occurrence, and 2.4% is attributable to increased daily intensity based on the 35 years of two (combined) historical data sets of 3-hourly synoptic observations and daily precipitation. We also reveal that annual daily precipitation extreme has been increasing at a rate of about 7.4%/°C in convective events only. Concurrently, the overall increase in mean daily precipitation intensity is mostly due to increased convective precipitation, possibly at the expanse of nonconvective precipitation. As a result, transitional seasons are becoming more summer-like as convective becomes the dominant precipitation type that has accompanied higher daily extremes and intensity since the late 1980s. The data also demonstrate that increasing convective precipitation and daily extremes appear to be directly linearly associated with higher atmospheric water vapor accompanying a warming climate over northern Eurasia.