Fabrication of palladium coated nanoporous gold film electrode via underpotential deposition and spontaneous metal replacement: A low palladium loading electrode with electrocatalytic activity

An electrochemical approach to nanoporous film-based gold catalyst design using the underpotential deposition and redox replacement technique is presented. The procedure consisted of the underpotential deposition (UPD) of copper on the gold nanoporous film, with subsequent replacement of the copper by palladium at open circuit in a palladium containing solution. The resulting electrode was studied using cyclic voltammetry and scanning electron microscopy. The electrocatalytic activity of as-prepared palladium nanoporous gold film electrodes toward the oxygen reduction reaction is presented.     

Hybrid Paper–Plastic Microchip for Flexible and High‐Performance Point‐of‐Care Diagnostics

A low‐cost and easy‐to‐fabricate microchip remains a key challenge for the development of true point‐of‐care (POC) diagnostics. Cellulose paper and plastic are thin, light, flexible, and abundant raw materials, which make them excellent substrates for mass production of POC devices. Herein, a hybrid paper–plastic microchip (PPMC) is developed, which can be used for both single and multiplexed detection of different targets, providing flexibility in the design and fabrication of the microchip. The developed PPMC with printed electronics is evaluated for sensitive and reliable detection of a broad range of targets, such as liver and colon cancer protein biomarkers, intact Zika virus, and human papillomavirus nucleic acid amplicons. The presented approach allows a highly specific detection of the tested targets with detection limits as low as 10² ng mL^?1 for protein biomarkers, 10³ particle per milliliter for virus particles, and 10² copies per microliter for a target nucleic acid. This approach can potentially be considered for the development of inexpensive and stable POC microchip diagnostics and is suitable for the detection of a wide range of microbial infections and cancer biomarkers.     

A new quantum-dot cellular automata full-adder

A novel expandable five-input majority gate for quantum-dot cellular automata and a new full-adder cell are presented. Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) is an emerging technology and a possible alternative for semiconductor transistor based technologies. A novel QCA majority-logic gate is proposed. This component is suitable for designing QCA circuits. The gate is simple in structure and powerful in terms of implementing digital functions. By applying these kinds of gates, the hardware requirement for a QCA design can be reduced and circuits can be simpler in level, gate counts and clock phases. In order to verify the functionality of the proposed device, some physical proofs are provided. The proper functionality of the FA is checked by means of computer simulations using QCADesigner tool. Both simulation results and physical relations confirm our claims and its usefulness in designing every digital circuit.     

Effectiveness of pressurised carbon dioxide for inactivation of Escherichia coli isolated from sewage sludge

This research explored the possible application of pressurised carbon dioxide (P CO(2)), a promising non-thermal sterilisation technique, for the treatment of sewage sludge (SS) before anaerobic digestion to inactivate pathogenic microorganisms. Escherichia coli was selected as the test organism and was isolated from SS and maintained in pure culture. The growth curve of the isolated strain was determined by measuring the optical density (OD) in liquid culture medium and relating this information to the spread plate count so that a culture of known cell density could be grown for optimisation experiments. Inactivation of E. coli was enhanced by increase in pressure (1,500, 2,000 and 2,800 kPa) and treatment time (from 0.75 to 24 h). A short exposure time at high pressure was sufficient to provide a degree of inactivation which could also be achieved by longer exposure at lower pressure. Complete inactivation (8 log(10) reduction) was possible at all three pressures. scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy studies of E. coli treated with P CO(2) revealed that the cell walls were ruptured, and the cytoplasm was unevenly distributed and had lost its density, indicating the possible leakage of intracellular substances.     

CFD and artificial neural network modeling of two-phase flow pressure drop

A large number of experiments in a 2 cm diameter and 6 m length tube were carried out in order to study the two-phase flow regimes and pressure drops in it. The two-phase flow in the experimental tube was modeled using commercial CFD code, Fluent 6.2. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with three inputs including gas and liquid velocities and tube slope was designed and trained to predict average pressure drop across the tube. The comparison between CFD and ANN predictions of pressure drops with experimental measurements shows that the CFD results are more accurate than the ANN evaluations for new conditions.     

Poly(DL-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) and poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) blends for biomedical application: Physical properties,cell compatibility,and in vitro degradation behavior

Poly(DL-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) (PLCL) and poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) blends of various compositions were prepared. Fractured sections of PLCL/PLGA blends did not evidence phase separation and blend glass transition temperatures suggested some degree of blend compatibility. The elastic modulus showed a negative deviation from the additive law of mixture. Superior biocompatibility in terms of fibroblast NIH 3T3 cell adhesion and proliferation, better mechanical properties, and a more homogeneous phase were obtained with PLCL/PLGA 25/75 blend. Rapid degradation of PLCL phase (4–8 weeks) in PLCL/PLGA 25/75 blend led to a porous structure, which makes it a potential candidate for drug delivery systems.     

Electrooxidation of formaldehyde as a fuel for fuel cells using Fe2+-nano-zeolite modified carbon paste electrode

This study aimed to investigate the application of nano ZSM-5 zeolite for preparation of modified carbone paste electrode for electrocatalytic oxidation of formaldehyde. The electrochemical behavior of modified carbon paste electrodes in the forms of Fe/FeZSM-5CPE and unmodified carbon paste electrode were studied using cyclic voltammetric and chronoamprometric techniques. The obtained results show that the modified carbon paste electrode (Fe/FeZSM-5CPE) is the suitable electrode for electrooxidation of formaldehyde in the acidic solution. The transfer coefficient and current density for formaldehyde were calculated 0.23 and 19.8 mA/cm², respectively. The rate constant for catalytic reaction was calculated as 3.6 × 10³ cm³ s^?1 mol^?1 via Cottrell equation.     

PiSHi: click the images and I tell if you are a human

This paper introduces pictorial intelligent system for human identification (PiSHi), an image-based captcha which uses three human cognitive abilities to distinguish humans from machines. The first is the human ability to easily recognise the image’s upright orientation. The second is the human brain’s ability in recognising a picture’s content when it is only partially visible. And the third is the human ability in unconscious decision making when encountering pictorial challenges. This work models such complicated human patterns in problem solving for the first time. In order to extract these behavioural patterns and save them in a pattern database, we have implemented our own captcha and performed a series of experiments. PiSHi’s interface presents the user with a set of distorted pictures and asks her to click on the upright orientation of all the pictures in any preferred order. Next, it captures the user’s interaction patterns, compares them with the ones saved in the pattern database, and grants her a corresponding credit. Based on this credit, the user either passes or fails the test, and participates in updating the picture database. Our experiments indicate that human users can solve our proposed captcha effectively—with an accuracy of 99.44 %. Besides, our proposed system is secure against several types of attacks including random guessing and reverse image search engines. The results offer the possibility of utilising the identified human behavioural models in practical captchas.