A simple device for multiplex ELISA made from melt-extruded plastic microcapillary film

We present a simple device for multiplex quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays (ELISA) made from a novel melt-extruded microcapillary film (MCF) containing a parallel array of 200µm capillaries along its length. To make ELISA devices different protein antigens or antibodies were immobilised inside individual microcapillaries within long reels of MCF extruded from fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP). Short pieces of coated film were cut and interfaced with a pipette, allowing sequential uptake of samples and detection solutions into all capillaries from a reagent well. As well as being simple to produce, these FEP MCF devices have excellent light transmittance allowing direct optical interrogation of the capillaries for simple signal quantification. Proof of concept experiments demonstrate both quantitative and multiplex assays in FEP MCF devices using a standard direct ELISA procedure and read using a flatbed scanner. This new multiplex immunoassay platform should find applications ranging from lab detection to point-of-care and field diagnostics

Measurement of boundary layer transition on oscillating airfoil using cntTSP in low-speed wind tunnel

cntTSP is a flow visualization technique that combines temperature-sensitive paint (TSP) and carbon nanotube (CNT). TSP is a sprayable temperature sensor, and CNT is used as a thin inner electric heater for the TSP. The cntTSP technique allows the visualization of the movement of the boundary layer transition on a moving airfoil. In this study, cntTSP was applied to a pitch-oscillating airfoil in a low-speed wind tunnel. Three methods were compared as methods for detecting the boundary layer transition position. The transition position was successfully evaluated using a heat transfer coefficient that was calculated by the surface temperature. Moreover, at a high-reduced frequency, the detected transition positions were different between the pitching-up and pitching-down procedure. Moreover, we observed a hysteresis loop of the transition position