Nucleotide-Driven Molecular Sensing of Monkeypox Virus Through Hierarchical Self-Assembly of 2D Hafnium Disulfide Nanoplatelets and Gold Nanospheres

Liquid interfaces facilitate the organization of nanometer-scale biomaterials with plasmonic properties suitable for molecular diagnostics. Using hierarchical assemblage of 2D hafnium disulfide nanoplatelets and zero-dimensional spherical gold nanoparticles, the design of a multifunctional material is reported. When the target analyte is present, the nanocomposites’ self-assembling pattern changes, altering their plasmonic response. Using monkeypox virus (MPXV) as an example, the findings reveal that adding genomic DNA to the nanocomposite surface increases the agglomeration between gold nanoparticles and decreases the π-stacking distance between hafnium disulfide nanoplatelets. Further, this self-assembled nanomaterial is found to have minimal cross-reactivity toward other pathogens and a limit of detection of 7.6 pg µL⁻¹ (i.e., 3.57 × 10⁴ copies µL⁻¹) toward MPXV. Overall, this study helped to gain a better understanding of the genomic organization of MPXV to chemically design and develop targeted nucleotides. The study has been validated by UV–vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning transmission electron microscopy, surface-enhanced Raman microscopy and electromagnetic simulation studies. To the best knowledge, this is the first study in literature reporting selective molecular detection of MPXV within a few minutes and without the use of any high-end instrumental techniques like polymerase chain reactions.     

Flow physics of planar bistable fluidic oscillator with backflow limbs

Fluidic oscillators (FOs) are used in a variety of applications, including process control and process intensification. Despite the simple design and operation of FOs, the fluid dynamics of FOs exhibit rich complexities. The inherently unstable flow, jet oscillations, and resulting vortices influence mixing and other transport processes. In this work, we computationally investigated the fluid dynamics of a new design of a planar FO with backflow limbs. The design comprised of two symmetric backflow limbs leading to bistable flow. The unsteady flow dynamics, internal recirculation, jet oscillations, secondary flow vortices were computationally studied over a range of inlet Reynolds numbers (2400–12,000). The nature and frequency of the jet oscillations were quantified. The computed jet oscillation frequency was compared with the experimentally measured (using imaging techniques) jet oscillation frequency. The flow model was then used to quantitatively understand mixing, heat transfer, and residence time distribution. The approach and the results presented in this work will provide a basis for designing FO's with desired flow and transport characteristics for various engineering applications.     

Deep-learning-based data-manipulation attack resilient supervisory backup protection of transmission lines

Neural Computing and Applications - Cyber-attacks on smart-grid systems have become increasingly more complicated, and there is a need for taking detection and mitigation measures to combat their...