A note on the penetration of a rigid wedge into a nonisotropic brittle material

In the present note an existing wedge penetration theory for isotropic brittle materials is extended to explain some `bedding plane' effects observed in a series of experiments on Indiana limestone.The general features of the theory presented by Paul and Sikarskie [Trans. AIME 232, 372-383 (1965)] are kept here and in order to extend the analysis to the anisotropic case Jaeger's modification of the Coulomb-Mohr failure criteria is used.Two specific cases of bedding plane orientation are considered, namely those in which the bedding planes are parallel and perpendicular to the direction of penetration.The theory presented gives an insight into the anisotropic effects and predicts, in reasonable agreement with the experimental results, the observed differences in specific energies for the different penetration directions.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32941/1/0000324.pd

A paper based graphene-nanocauliflower hybrid composite for point of care biosensing

Graphene paper has diverse applications in printed circuit board electronics, bioassays, 3D cell culture, and biosensing. Although development of nanometal-graphene hybrid composites is commonplace in the sensing literature, to date there are only a few examples of nanometal-decorated graphene paper for use in biosensing. In this manuscript, we demonstrate the synthesis and application of Pt nano cauliflower-functionalized graphene paper for use in electrochemical biosensing of small molecules (glucose, acetone, methanol) or detection of pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia coli O157:H7). Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy were used to show that graphene oxide deposited on nanocellulose crystals was partially reduced by both thermal and chemical treatment. Fractal platinum nanostructures were formed on the reduced graphene oxide paper, producing a conductive paper with an extremely high electroactive surface area, confirmed by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. To show the broad applicability of the material, the platinum surface was functionalized with three different biomaterials: 1) glucose oxidase (via chitosan encapsulation); 2) a DNA aptamer (via covalent linking), or 3) a chemosensory protein (via his linking). We demonstrate the application of this device for point of care biosensing. The detection limit for both glucose (0.08 ± 0.02 μM) and E. coli O157:H7 (1.3 ± 0.1 CFU mL-1) were competitive with, or superior to, previously reported devices in the biosensing literature. The response time (6 sec for glucose and 10 min for E. coli) were also similar to silicon biochip and commercial electrode sensors. The results demonstrate that the nanocellulose-graphene-nanoplatinum material is an excellent paper-based platform for development of electrochemical biosensors targeting small molecules or whole cells for use in point of care biosensing

A modified empirical criterion for strength of transversely anisotropic rocks with metamorphic origin

A modified empirical criterion is proposed to determine the strength of transversely anisotropic rocks. In this regard, mechanical properties of intact anisotropic slate obtained from three different districts of Iran were taken into consideration. Afterward, triaxial rock strength criterion introduced by Rafiai was modified for transversely anisotropic rocks. The criterion was modified by adding a new parameter α for taking the influence of strength anisotropy into consideration. The results obtained have shown that the parameter α can be considered as the strength reduction parameter due to rock anisotropy. The modified criterion was compared to the modified Hoek–Brown (Saroglou and Tsiambaos) and Ramamurthy criteria for different anisotropic rocks. It was concluded that the criterion proposed in this paper is a more accurate and precise criterion in predicting the strength of anisotropic rocks

Pentachlorophenol Induction of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa mexAB-oprM Efflux Operon: Involvement of Repressors NalC and MexR and the Antirepressor ArmR

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) induced expression of the NalC repressor-regulated PA3720-armR operon and the MexR repressor-controlled mexAB-oprM multidrug efflux operon of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. PCP's induction of PA3720-armR resulted from its direct modulation of NalC, the repressor's binding to PA3720-armR promoter-containing DNA as seen in electromobility shift assays (EMSAs) being obviated in the presence of this agent. The NalC binding site was localized to an inverted repeat (IR) sequence upstream of PA3720-armR and overlapping a promoter region whose transcription start site was mapped. While modulation of MexR by the ArmR anti-repressor explains the upregulation of mexAB-oprM in nalC mutants hyperexpressing PA3720-armR, the induction of mexAB-oprM expression by PCP is not wholly explainable by PCP induction of PA3720-armR and subsequent ArmR modulation of MexR, inasmuch as armR deletion mutants still showed PCP-inducible mexAB-oprM expression. PCP failed, however, to induce mexAB-oprM in a mexR deletion strain, indicating that MexR was required for this, although PCP did not modulate MexR binding to mexAB-oprM promoter-containing DNA in vitro. One possibility is that MexR responds to PCP-generated in vivo effector molecules in controlling mexAB-oprM expression in response to PCP. PCP is an unlikely effector and substrate for NalC and MexAB-OprM - its impact on NalC binding to the PA3720-armR promoter DNA occurred only at high µM levels - suggesting that it mimics an intended phenolic effector/substrate(s). In this regard, plants are an abundant source of phenolic antimicrobial compounds and, so, MexAB-OprM may function to protect P. aeruginosa from plant antimicrobials that it encounters in nature