The article describes bio-monitoring study concerning recent and long-term exposure of Czech women to toxic metals. Blood cadmium, mercury and lead levels were measured in groups of women with various life styles, etc., to have comparable results in the course of a long study period; a strong emphasis was laid on the quality control of the whole process during the study. Higher cadmium level wa...

Autonomous under robots are highly demanded in environmental monitoring, intelligent collection, and deep water exploration. Aquatic animals (e.g., fishes, whales, rays, etc.) are ultimate examples of superior swimmers as a result of millions of years of evolution, endowed with a variety of morphological and structural features for moving through water with speed, agility, and efficiency. Recen...

A novel sensor for in situ monitoring of the body reaction to implants has been developed. A piezoelectric wafer active sensor was adapted for biomedical applications (bio-PWAS). A number of bio-PWAS sensors have been implanted in rats and left in place up to 64 days. The bio-PWAS were able to oscillate in several resonance modes, radial-wise (in-plane) and thickness-wise (out-of-plane). The el...

A highly selective and sensitive bioluminescent sensor (DME) for human carboxylesterase 1 (hCE1) has been developed and well characterized. DME could be used for real-time monitoring of hCE1 activities in complex biological samples and for bio-imaging of endogenous hCE1 in living cells.

We explore the analytical performance and limitations of optically monitoring aqueous-phase temperature using protein-protected gold nanoclusters (AuNCs). Although not reported elsewhere, we find that these bio-passivated AuNCs show pronounced hysteresis upon thermal cycling. This unwanted behaviour can be eliminated by several strategies, including sol-gel coating and thermal denaturation of t...

Remote monitoring is an essential part of future mHealth systems for the delivery of personal and pervasive healthcare, especially to allow the collection of personal bio-data outside clinical environments. Yet, by its very nature, it presents considerable challenges: it will be a highly distributed task, requiring collection of bio-data for a myriad of cources, to be marshalled at the clinical...

BACKGROUND Biomineralization processes have recently been applied in situ to protect and consolidate decayed ornamental stone of the Royal Chapel in Granada (Spain). While this promising method has demonstrated its efficacy regarding strengthening of the stone, little is known about its ecological sustainability. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Here, we report molecular monitoring of the stone...

Background: Anzali wetland has been subjected to high levels of pollution due to contamination from several industrial sites in addition to agricultural chemicals. Mussels have been widely used for monitoring pollution in aquatic ecosystems, because they, as filter feeders, bioaccumulate pollutants. Therefore we decided to evaluate Anodonta cygnea for its application as a bio-monitor for copp...