Immobilized Enzymes-Based Biosensing Cues for Strengthening Biocatalysis and Biorecognition

Catalysis Letters - The versatility of immobilized enzyme systems enables rapid recovery of both product and enzyme, numerous re-uses of enzymes, continuous enzymatic processes, quick reaction...     

Implementation of Advanced Tunnel Field Effect Transistor (DP-TFET) for High Power Switching Applications

Silicon - As the technology advances to the nanoscale, advanced Tunnel Field-Effect Transistors are very prominent as a part of integrated circuits in the present trend. Advanced Tunnel FET devices...     

Preferential cell response to anisotropic electro-spun fibrous scaffolds under tension-free conditions

Anisotropic alignment of collagen fibres in musculoskeletal tissues is responsible for the resistance to mechanical loading, whilst in cornea is responsible for transparency. Herein, we evaluated the response of tenocytes, osteoblasts and corneal fibroblasts to the topographies created through electro-spinning and solvent casting. We also evaluated the influence of topography on mechanical properties. At day 14, human osteoblasts seeded on aligned orientated electro-spun mats exhibited the lowest metabolic activity (P < 0.001). At day 5 and at day 7, no significant difference was observed in metabolic activity of human corneal fibroblasts and bovine tenocytes respectively seeded on different scaffold conformations (P > 0.05). Osteoblasts and corneal fibroblasts aligned parallel to the direction of the aligned orientated electro-spun mats, whilst tenocytes aligned perpendicular to the aligned orientated electro-spun mats. Mechanical evaluation demonstrated that aligned orientated electro-spun fibres exhibited significant higher stress at break values than their random aligned counterparts (P < 0.006) and random orientated electro-spun fibres exhibited significant higher strain at break values than the aligned orientated scaffolds (P < 0.006). While maintaining fibre structure, we also developed a co-deposition method of spraying and electro-spinning, which enables the incorporation of microspheres within the three-dimensional structure of the scaffold.     

Macroscale assessment of low-velocity impact on hybrid composite laminates

Composites are usually brittle materials and have low impact properties. Structural dimensions, stacking sequence, ply materials, ply thicknesses and ply angles are standard variables that influence composite‘s performance against impact loads. Stacking sequence in hybrid laminates affects the failure and impact resistance. Failure mechanisms at the low-velocity impact of a rigid object in hybrid laminates are complex, and the subsurface damage in a composite laminate cannot be detected directly. However, various simulation platforms make it easy to see the impact damage between the plies of laminate. This paper numerically investigated the effect of stack sequence and hybridization of two fiber types against low-velocity impact. The current study adopted four-layer composite laminates of carbon and glass fiber layers with a stacking plan [C/C/C/C], [C/G/C/G] and [G/C/G/C], having lay-up angles as [0°/45°/−45°/90°]. Keeping the impactor mass and the incident velocity constant, the laminates were subjected to low-velocity impact. The damage contours for a failure mode were recorded and compared at the ply level. The numerical study resulted in impact imitations showing comparisons of the damage contours using Hashin failure criteria. Hybrid laminates display better performance in absorbing impact energies; however, hybrid laminates experienced more subsurface damage due to more impact energy absorption.     

Nanosilver Mitigates Biofilm Formation via FapC Amyloidosis Inhibition

Multidrug resistance of bacteria is a major challenge due to the wide‐spread use of antibiotics. While a range of strategies have been developed in recent years, suppression of bacterial activity and virulence via their network of extracellular amyloid has rarely been explored, especially with nanomaterials. Here, silver nanoparticles and nanoclusters (AgNPs and AgNCs) capped with cationic branched polyethylenimine polymer are synthesized, and their antimicrobial potentials are determined at concentrations safe to mammalian cells. Compared with the ultrasmall AgNCs, AgNPs entail stronger binding to suppress the fibrillization of FapC, a major protein constituent of the extracellular amyloid matrix of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Both types of nanoparticles exhibit concentration‐dependent antibiofilm and antimicrobial properties against P. aeruginosa. At concentrations of 1 × 10^?6 m or below, both the bactericidal activity of AgNCs and the antibiofilm capacity of AgNPs are associated with their structure‐mediated bio–nano interactions but not ion release. For AgNPs, specifically, their antibiofilm potency correlates with their capacity of FapC fibrillization inhibition, but not with their bactericidal activity. This study demonstrates the antimicrobial potential of safe nanotechnology through the novel route of amyloidosis inhibition.     

Artificial wavelet neural network and its application in neuro-fuzzy models

In the proposed work, two types of artificial neural networks are proposed by using well-known advantages and valuable features of wavelets and sigmoidal activation functions. Two neurons are derived by adding and multiplying the outputs of the wavelet and the sigmoidal activation functions. These neurons in a feed-forward single hidden layer network result summation wavelet neural network (SWNN) and multiplication wavelet neural network (MWNN). An algorithm is introduced for structure determination of the proposed networks. Approximation properties of SWNN and MWNN have been evaluated with different wavelet functions. The above networks in the consequent part of the neuro-fuzzy model result summation wavelet neuro-fuzzy (SWNF) and multiplication wavelet neuro-fuzzy (MWNF) models. Different types of wavelet function are tested with the proposed networks and fuzzy models on four different dynamical examples. Convergence of the learning process is also guaranteed by adaptive learning rate and performing stability analysis using Lyapunov function.     

Enabling remote learning system for virtual personalized preferences during COVID-19 pandemic

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The education system worldwide has been affected by the Corona Virus Diseases 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, resulting in the interruption of all educational...