Electrically Guided DNA Immobilization and Multiplexed DNA Detection with Nanoporous Gold Electrodes.

Molecular diagnostics have significantly advanced the early detection of diseases, where the electrochemical sensing of biomarkers (e.g., DNA, RNA, proteins) using multiple electrode arrays (MEAs) has shown considerable promise. Nanostructuring the electrode surface results in higher surface coverage of capture probes and more favorable orientation, as well as transport phenomena unique to nanoscale, ultimately leading to enhanced sensor performance. The central goal of this study is to investigate the influence of electrode nanostructure on electrically-guided immobilization of DNA probes for nucleic acid detection in a multiplexed format. To that end, we used nanoporous gold (np-Au) electrodes that reduced the limit of detection (LOD) for DNA targets by two orders of magnitude compared to their planar counterparts, where the LOD was further improved by an additional order of magnitude after reducing the electrode diameter. The reduced electrode diameter also made it possible to create a np-Au MEA encapsulated in a microfluidic channel. The electro-grafting reduced the necessary incubation time to immobilize DNA probes into the porous electrodes down to 10 min (25-fold reduction compared to passive immobilization) and allowed for grafting a different DNA probe sequence onto each electrode in the array. The resulting platform was successfully used for the multiplexed detection of three different biomarker genes relevant to breast cancer diagnosis

Local damage in a 5-harness satin weave composite under static tension, part II: meso-FE modelling

International audienceThis study forms the second part of a paper on the local damage analysis in a thermo-plastic 5-harness satin weave composite under uni-axial static tensile load. The experimental observations of Part I are confronted with the meso-FE simulations. Part II describes the following steps regarding the unit cell meso-FE modeling starting from: 1) Construction of the unit cell geometrical model; 2) Estimation of the homogenized elastic constants of the unit cell using different boundary conditions; 3) Evaluation of the local stress and damage behavior of the unit cell using meso-FE simulations. The aim of the numerical analysis is to investigate the dependency of local ply stress and damage profiles on the adjacent layers of the laminate

Data Mining Ancient Script Image Data Using Convolutional Neural Networks

The recent surge in ancient scripts has resulted in huge image libraries of ancient texts. Data mining of the collected images enables the study of the evolution of these ancient scripts. In particular, the origin of the Indus Valley script is highly debated. We use convolutional neural networks to test which Phoenician alphabet letters and Brahmi symbols are closest to the Indus Valley script symbols. Surprisingly, our analysis shows that overall the Phoenician alphabet is much closer than the Brahmi script to the Indus Valley script symbols

Convolutional Neural Networks Analysis Reveals Three Possible Sources of Bronze Age Writings between Greece and India

This paper analyzes the relationships among eight ancient scripts from between Greece and India. We used convolutional neural networks combined with support vector machines to give a numerical rating of the similarity between pairs of signs (one sign from each of two different scripts). Two scripts that had a one-to-one matching of their signs were determined to be related. The result of the analysis is the finding of the following three groups, which are listed in chronological order: (1) Sumerian pictograms, the Indus Valley script, and the proto-Elamite script; (2) Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear B; and (3) the Phoenician, Greek, and Brahmi alphabets. Based on their geographic locations and times of appearance, Group (1) may originate from Mesopotamia in the early Bronze Age, Group (2) may originate from Europe in the middle Bronze Age, and Group (3) may originate from the Sinai Peninsula in the late Bronze Age

Progressive fatigue damage modeling of textile composite on meso-scale with FE-method

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A method of identifying allographs in undeciphered scripts and its application to the Indus Valley Script

This work describes a general method of testing for redundancies in the sign lists of ancient scripts by data mining the positions of the signs within the inscriptions. The redundant signs are allographs of the same grapheme. The method is applied to the undeciphered Indus Valley Script, which stands out from other ancient scripts by having a large proposed sign list that contains dozens of asymmetric signs that have mirrored pairs. By a statistical analysis of mirrored asymmetric signs, this paper shows that the Indus Valley Script was multi-directional and the mirroring of signs often denotes only the direction of writing without any difference in meaning. For this and five other specific reasons listed in the paper, 50 pairs of signs, 23 mirrored, and 27 non-mirrored, can be grouped together because each pair consists of only insignificant variations of the same original sign. The reduced sign list may make decipherment easier in the future

FE-modeling of damage of twill carbon/epoxy composite on meso-scale, materials characterization and experimental verification

Aim of this work is to evaluate the damage in twill carbon/epoxy composites on meso-scale level (fabric unit cell level). Averaged stiffness, Poisson ratios of pre- and post damage phase are calculated based on numerical homogenization technique with periodic boundary conditions (PBCs). The static strengths and initiation of the damage are calculated and validated by experiments. The anisotropic stiffness degradation model is implemented into Abaqus (R) UMAT. The algorithm of quasi-static damage is further used to model the cycles of the fatigue loading, together with the experimental S-N curves of unidirectional composite (UD), utilized as input data for the impregnated yarns. The output of the model is S-N curve of textile composites

Macro-mechanical and microscopic study of the fatigue damage behaviour of a carbon fabric/PPS thermoplastic composite

This manuscript elaborates on the tension-tension fatigue behaviour of a carbon fabric reinforced polyphenylene sulphide. The damage behaviour will be investigated by (i) conducting fatigue experiments, in order to determine the macroscopic behaviour such as permanent deformation and stiffness degradation and (ii) a microscopic investigation using both optical and scanning electron (SEM) microscopy. It may be concluded that for the [(0°,90°)]4s stacking sequence the material does not show significant stiffness reduction and that only limited permanent deformation is present. Furthermore, the material shows very brittle failure behaviour. For the [(+45°,-45°)]4s stacking sequence, however, a different behaviour manifests itself. Stiffness reduction does occur and there is a significant permanent deformation, in combination with a high rise in temperature, above the softening temperature of the matrix

Improving Embedded Image Coding Using Zero Block - Quad Tree

The traditional multi-bitstream approach to the heterogeneity issue is very constrained and inefficient under multi bit rate applications. The multi bitstream coding techniques allow partial decoding at a various resolution and quality levels. Several scalable coding algorithms have been proposed in the international standards over the past decade, but these former methods can only accommodate relatively limited decoding properties. To achieve efficient coding during image coding the multi resolution compression technique is been used. To exploit the multi resolution effect of image, wavelet transformations are devolved. Wavelet transformation decompose the image coefficients into their fundamental resolution, but the transformed coefficients are observed to be non-integer values resulting in variable bit stream. This transformation result in constraint bit rate application with slower operation. To overcome stated limitation, hierarchical tree based coding were implemented which exploit the relation between the wavelet scale levels and generate the code stream for transmission