Self-test System Research Articles

A dual-chamber “one-pot” CRISPR/Cas12a-based portable and self-testing system for rapid HPV diagnostics

Long-lasting infection of high-risk HPV infection has long been recognized as the leading cause of cervical cancer and has garnered widespread attention. However, in resource-limited areas, effective HPV screening is often not easily accessible, resulting in a continuous growth in the incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer in these areas. In this study, we present a rapid, efficient, and accurate method for HPV detection based on the CRISPR/Cas12a dual-chamber “one-pot” test (DROPT) system. Clinical samples are able to be rapidly tested in the DROPT system to get quantitative fluorescence readout with a simple one-time press. The entire reaction process, including RPA and CRISPR assays, happens within 30 min in a portable device composed of an isothermal heating chamber, laser diode source, and silicon photodiode. The results demonstrate that this approach achieves a remarkable limit of detection of 10−18 M. In the testing of HPV16/18 in 60 cervical swab samples, the system reached a sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 95.8%, respectively. Consequently, the DROPT system offers ease of use, requires no large-scale equipment or laboratory personnel, and effectively avoids aerosol contamination, which potentially fills the gap for HPV self-testing and on-site nucleic acid testing.

Retracted: Design and Research of Artificial Intelligence in Multimedia Intelligent Question-Answering System and Self-Test System

Retracted: Design and Research of Artificial Intelligence in Multimedia Intelligent Question-Answering System and Self-Test System

Soft microfiber-based hollow microneedle array for stretchable microfluidic biosensing patch with negative pressure-driven sampling

Wearable point-of-care testing devices are essential for personalized and decentralized healthcare. They can collect biofluid samples from the human body and use an analyzer to detect biomolecules. However, creating an integrated system is challenging due to the difficulty of achieving conformality to the human body, regulating the collection and transport of biofluids, developing a biosensor patch capable of precise biomolecule detection, and establishing a simple operation protocol that requires minimal wearer attention. In this study, we propose using a hollow microneedle (HMN) based on soft hollow microfibers and a microneedle-integrated microfluidic biosensor patch (MIMBP) capable of integrated blood sampling and electrochemical biosensing of biomolecules. The soft MIMBP includes a stretchable microfluidic device, a flexible electrochemical biosensor, and a HMN array made from flexible hollow microfibers. The HMNs are fabricated by electroplating flexible and mechanically durable hollow microfibers made from a nanocomposite matrix of polyimide, a poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) copolymer, and single-walled carbon nanotubes. The MIMBP uses the negative pressure generated by a single button push to collect blood and deliver it to a flexible electrochemical biosensor modified with a gold nanostructure and Pt nanoparticles. We have demonstrated that glucose can be accurately measured up to the molar range in whole human blood collected through the microneedle. The MIMBP platform with HMNs has great potential as a foundation for the future development of simple, wearable, self-testing systems for minimally invasive biomolecule detection. This platform capable of sequential blood collection and high sensitivity glucose detection, which are ideal for personalized and decentralized healthcare.

Decompressor for hardware applications

The use of lossless compression in the application specific computers provides such advantages as minimized amount of memory, increased bandwidth of interfaces, reduced energy consumption, and improved self-testing systems. The article discusses known algorithms of lossless compression with the aim of choosing the most suitable one for implementation in a hardware-software decompressor. Among them, the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) algorithm makes it possible to perform the associative memory of the decompressor dictionary in the simplest way by using the sequential reading the symbols of the decompressed word. The analysis of the existing hardware implementations of the decompressors showed that the main goal in their development was to increase the bandwidth at the expense of increasing hardware costs and limited functionality. It is proposed to implement the LZW decompressor in a hardware module based on a microprocessor core with a specialized instruction set. For this, a processor core with a stack architecture was selected, which is developed by the authors for the tasks of the file grammar analyzing. Additional memory block for the dictionary storing and an input buffer which converts the byte stream of the packed file into a sequence of unpacked codes are added to it. The processor core instruction set is adjusted to both speed up decompression and reduce hardware costs. The decompressor is described by the Very high-speed integral circuit Hardware Description Language and is implemented in a field programable gate array (FPGA). At a clock frequency of up to two hundred megahertz, the average throughput of the decompressor is more than ten megabytes per second. Because of the hardware and software implementation, an LZW decompressor is developed, which has approximately the same hardware costs as that of the hardware decompressor and has a lower bandwidth at the costs of flexibility, multifunctionality, which is provided by the processor core software. In particular, a decompressor of the Graphic Interchange Format files is implemented on the basis of this device in FPGA for the application of dynamic visualization of patterns on the embedded system display

Rapid and Sensitive Diagnosis of COVID-19 Using an Electricity-Free Self-Testing System.

Rapid and sensitive detection of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is essential for early diagnosis and effective treatment. Nucleic acid testing has been considered the gold standard method for the diagnosis of COVID-19 for its high sensitivity and specificity. However, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method in the central lab requires expensive equipment and well-trained personnel, which makes it difficult to be used in resource-limited settings. It highlights the need for a sensitive and simple assay that allows potential patients to detect SARS-CoV-2 by themselves. Here, we developed an electricity-free self-testing system based on reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) that allows for rapid and accurate detection of SARS-CoV-2. Our system employs a heating bag as the heat source, and a 3D-printed box filled with phase change material (PCM) that successfully regulates the temperature for the RT-LAMP. The colorimetric method could be completed in 40 min and the results could be read out by the naked eye. A ratiometric measurement for exact readout was also incorporated to improve the detection accuracy of the system. This self-testing system is a promising tool for point-of-care testing (POCT) that enables rapid and sensitive diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 in the real world and will improve the current COVID-19 screening efforts for control and mitigation of the pandemic.

Design and Research of Artificial Intelligence in Multimedia Intelligent Question-Answering System and Self-Test System

With the development of computer science and technology, online education is gradually accepted by more and more users, and has become one of the main teaching methods in schools under the influence of the epidemic in recent years. In addition, online vocational education or higher education has also captured the psychology of national learning, and online tutoring has gradually entered into nonstudent groups such as office workers. Although online education has the advantages of low cost and no limitation of time and space, it also has some problems, such as low classroom satisfaction, delayed feedback from students, and poor teaching effect. Therefore, this paper aims at this problem by combining the development background of foreign intelligent answer system and self-test system, and introducing it into our computer application, using artificial intelligence for natural language processing, aiming at online teaching students cannot get timely answer, and self-test questions intelligent system design. The final experimental results show that the system effectively alleviates the problems of students’ delay in answering questions and poor self-test effect, and increases the satisfaction of online classroom by 13%.

76- to 81-GHz CMOS Built-In Self-Test With 72-dB C/N and Less Than 1 ppm Frequency Tolerance for Multi-Channel Radar Applications

A built-in self-test (BIST) system with a 72-dB carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N) and less than 1-ppm frequency tolerance of down-converted BIST tone for a multi-channel radar application is presented. The BIST consists of a frequency doubler, an up-conversion mixer (UPMIX), a variable gain amplifier, a phase shifter, an eight-way splitter, and an RF PAD coupler for BIST signal distribution. The proposed BIST system can operate from 76 to 81 GHz, mixing with arbitrary offset frequencies from 600 kHz to 42.7 MHz generated by a fully-synchronized phase locked loop (PLL). The proposed UPMIX can generate zero or non-zero offset frequencies by switching between two modes flexibly implemented in the same layout area. The measured relative phase among all eight channels was less than 2° from −25 °C to 150 °C through on-chip 12-bit analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The proposed BIST was fabricated using a 40-nm CMOS process and assembled with a wafer-level chip-sized package (WLCSP). Also, state-of-the-art BIST beamformer analyses were demonstrated as one of the future methods for self-diagnosis with a null-depth monitoring for a multi-channel radar application.

Efficient self-testing system for quantum computations based on permutations* *Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61372076, 61971348, and 62001351), Foundation of Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Information Communication Network and Security (Grant No. ICNS201802), Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi, China (Grant No. 2021JM-142), and Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province, China

Verification in quantum computations is crucial since quantum systems are extremely vulnerable to the environment. However, verifying directly the output of a quantum computation is difficult since we know that efficiently simulating a large-scale quantum computation on a classical computer is usually thought to be impossible. To overcome this difficulty, we propose a self-testing system for quantum computations, which can be used to verify if a quantum computation is performed correctly by itself. Our basic idea is using some extra ancilla qubits to test the output of the computation. We design two kinds of permutation circuits into the original quantum circuit: one is applied on the ancilla qubits whose output indicates the testing information, the other is applied on all qubits (including ancilla qubits) which is aiming to uniformly permute the positions of all qubits. We show that both permutation circuits are easy to achieve. By this way, we prove that any quantum computation has an efficient self-testing system. In the end, we also discuss the relation between our self-testing system and interactive proof systems, and show that the two systems are equivalent if the verifier is allowed to have some quantum capacity.

A Built-in Self-Test System for External DRAM

In the fast-growing Integrated Circuits (IC) industry, memory is one of the few keys to have systems with improved and fast performance. Only one transistor and a capacitor are required for Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) bit. It is widely used for mass storage. Although the high-efficiency tests are performed to provide the reliability of the memories, maintaining acceptable yield and quality is still the most critical task. To perform a high-speed effective test of DRAM memories, a built-in self-test (BIST) mechanism is proposed.

Desenvolvimento de equipamento de autoteste para defeitos em placas de potência de lavadoras de roupas

In this work a test equipment called RBS was developed to monitor the operation of a washing machine power board. The RBS identify the main defects of Brastemp and Consul washing machines. The developed RBS equipment verifies that the machine's power plate is sending electrical signal to its peripherals such as valve 1, the drainage pump, the clockwise motor and the counterclockwise motor. The operation of each machine peripherals is represented by an LED on the circuit. The defect in the board can be verified by the LED that does not light up in the circuit. Thus, through RBS it is possible to save time in identifying washing machine problems and to obtain a reliable test system after repairing them. Additionally, it is important to note that the cost of the equipment developed is approximately R$ 26.00, while commercial self-test systems cost approximately two hundred reais.

Design of an Oscillation-Based BIST System for Active Analog Integrated Filters in 0.18 µm CMOS

In this paper, an oscillation-based built-in self-test system for active an analog integrated circuit is presented. This built-in self-test system was used to detect catastrophic and parametric faults, introduced during chip manufacturing. As circuits under test (CUT), second-order Sallen-Key, Akerberg-Mossberg and Tow-Thomas biquad filters were designed. The proposed test hardware detects parametric and catastrophic faults on changeable limits. The influence of both oscillation and test hardware on fault detection limits were investigated and analyzed. The proposed oscillation based self-test system was designed and simulated in 0.18 µm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Due to the easiness of implementation and configuration for testing of different active analog filters, such self-test systems can be effectively used in modern integrated circuits, made of a large number of devices and circuits, such as the multi-standard transceivers used in the core hardware of software-defined radios. Using the proposed test strategy, the fault tolerance limits for catastrophic faults varied from 96% to 100% for all injected faults in different structures of low pass filters (LPF). The detection range of parametric faults of passive components’ nominal value, depending on the used structure of the filter, did not exceed –0.74% – 0.72% in case of Sallen-Key, –3.31% – 1.00% in case of Akerberg-Mossberg and –2.39% – 1.44% in case of Tow-Thomas LPF.

Formation of self-control skills in foreign study books for teaching reading: features of didactic positions in the 21st century

The article is devoted to the study of didactic approaches used for creation of self-test blocks in text-books.The system of self-control skills formation is considered on the example of text-books for learning to read. The leading approaches of the text-books authors to the organization of self-control are considered on the basis of content and structure analysis of the ABC-books published in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Turkey and Greece in Cyrillic, Latin and Greek alphabets.The article characterizesthese publications' didactic features from the standpoint of implementing the possibility of self-verification correctness of the tasks and exercises performed. German, Turkish and Greek study books are highlighted and analyzed in detail, and offer an original self-test system in illustrative and textual form.The types of tasks aimed to develop the schoolchildren'sthinking are distinguished on the basis of cluster analysis. The article draws attention to the similarities and differences in the implementation of the idea of the self-control skills formation on the example of the ABC-books publicationsfrom different countries.

Tuning of Multiple Parameters With a BIST System

This paper presents a low-power built-in self-test system to compensate for mismatch and variations in CMOS IC. The system is designed and compiled on a low-power field programmable analog array (FPAA) fabricated on a 350-nm CMOS process. A second-order bandpass filter is used as a device under test. A set of 12 parallel filter banks are compiled on three different FPAA chips and compensated for local mismatch and variations in the bias current, and mismatch in parasitic and routing capacitances. The bandpass filters are biased in subthreshold regime and the system of 12 parallel filter banks consumes a power of $7.072~\mu \text{W}$ . The proposed tuning algorithm reduces variation in center frequency to 5.07% compared with a variation of 10.16% when they are not tuned, variation in quality factor to 8.52% from 13.86%, and variation in the gain at the center frequency to 3.83% from 21.04%. These values are deviation of the parameters from its mean for the data taken from three different FPAA chips fabricated on the same wafer.

The patients' perspective of international normalized ratio self-testing, remote communication of test results and confidence to move to self-management.

To elicit the perceptions of patients, who self-tested their international normalized ratio and communicated their results via a text or phone messaging system, to determine their satisfaction with the education and support that they received and to establish their confidence to move to self-management. Self-testing of international normalized ratio has been shown to be reliable and is fast becoming common practice. As innovations are introduced to point of care testing, more research is needed to elicit patients' perceptions of the self-testing process. This three site study used a cross-sectional prospective descriptive survey. Three hundred and thirty patients who were prescribed warfarin and using international normalized ratio self-testing were invited to take part in the study. The anonymous survey examined patient profile, patients' usage, issues, perceptions, confidence and satisfaction with using the self-testing system and their preparedness for self-management of warfarin dosage. The response rate was 57% (n=178). Patients' confidence in self-testing was high (90%). Patients expressed a high level of satisfaction with the support received, but expressed the need for more information on support groups, side effects of warfarin, dietary information and how to dispose of needles. When asked if they felt confident to adjust their own warfarin levels 73% agreed. Chi-squared tests for independence revealed that none of the patient profile factors examined influenced this confidence. The patients cited the greatest advantages of the service were reduced burden, more autonomy, convenience and ease of use. The main disadvantages cited were cost and communication issues. Patients were satisfied with self-testing. The majority felt they were ready to move to self-management. The introduction of innovations to remote point of care testing, such as warfarin self-testing, needs to have support at least equal to that provided in a hospital setting.

Built-In Self-Test Methodology With Statistical Analysis for Electrical Diagnosis of Wearout in a Static Random Access Memory Array

We present an electrical diagnosis methodology for a variety of wearout mechanisms, including back-end time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB), electromigration, stress-induced voiding, gate oxide TDDB, and bias temperature instability, in an SRAM array. First, the built-in self-test (BIST) system detects wearout and identifies the locations of the faulty cells. Next, the physical location of the failure sites within SRAM cells is determined. There are some fault sites for different mechanisms which result in exactly the same electrical failure signature. For these faulty sites, the cause of failure probabilities for each wearout mechanism is estimated by matching the observed failure rate from BIST and the failure rate distribution computed by simulation and as a function of circuit use scenarios. The estimation of wearout distributions is helpful in determining the wearout limiting mechanisms in the field.

Testing of an automated tablet‐based method for the determination of low contrast near visual acuity in ophthalmic patients

PurposeTo test an automated, tablet‐based self‐testing method for the determination of low contrast near visual acuity in ophthalmic patients.MethodsThe Mobile Assessment of Vision by intERactIve Computer (MAVERIC) system consists of a calibrated tablet computer (Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4) running purpose‐built software housed in a bespoke physical booth. Near low contrast (25%) visual acuity was measured in one eye using the MAVERIC system and a near ETDRS chart at a distance of 40 cm on a population of ophthalmic patients with various retinal conditions. Patients independently completed testing using the MAVERIC system once an explanation of its use had been given. Repeat measures of near acuity were also conducted using the MAVERIC system.ResultsThe MAVERIC system displayed excellent repeatability. Bland Altman analysis of data showed reasonable agreement between measurements obtained using MAVERIC and the near ETDRS chart. The degree of difference between data sets was consistent.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates the potential viability of the MAVERIC self‐testing system as a means to test low contrast near visual acuity in ophthalmic patients with a high degree of reliability and thus a potential method of both initial assessment and monitoring of near visual acuity in such patients.

Development and Validation of a Portable Hearing Self-Testing System Based on a Notebook Personal Computer.

Hearing loss affects more than 27 million people in mainland China. It would be helpful to develop a portable and self-testing audiometer for the timely detection of hearing loss so that the optimal clinical therapeutic schedule can be determined. The objective of this study was to develop a software-based hearing self-testing system. The software-based self-testing system consisted of a notebook computer, an external sound card, and a pair of 10-Ω insert earphones. The system could be used to test the hearing thresholds by individuals themselves in an interactive manner using software. The reliability and validity of the system at octave frequencies of 0.25 Hz to 8.0 kHz were analyzed in three series of experiments. Thirty-seven normal-hearing particpants (74 ears) were enrolled in experiment 1. Forty individuals (80 ears) with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) participated in experiment 2. Thirteen normal-hearing participants (26 ears) and 37 participants (74 ears) with SNHL were enrolled in experiment 3. Each participant was enrolled in only one of the three experiments. In all experiments, pure-tone audiometry in a sound insulation room (standard test) was regarded as the gold standard. SPSS for Windows, version 17.0, was used for statistical analysis. The paired t-test was used to compare the hearing thresholds between the standard test and software-based self-testing (self-test) in experiments 1 and 2. In experiment 3 (main study), one-way analysis of variance and post hoc comparisons were used to compare the hearing thresholds among the standard test and two rounds of the self-test. Linear correlation analysis was carried out for the self-tests performed twice. The concordance was analyzed between the standard test and the self-test using the kappa method. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Experiments 1 and 2: The hearing thresholds determined by the two methods were not significantly different at frequencies of 250, 500, or 8000 Hz (p > 0.05) but were significantly different at frequencies of 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz (p < 0.05), except for 1000 Hz in the right ear in experiment 2. Experiment 3: The hearing thresholds determined by the standard test and self-tests repeated twice were not significantly different at any frequency (p > 0.05). The overall sensitivity of the self-test method was 97.6%, and the specificity was 98.3%. The sensitivity was 97.6% and the specificity was 97% for the patients with SNHL. The self-test had significant concordance with the standard test (kappa value = 0.848, p < 0.001). This portable hearing self-testing system based on a notebook personal computer is a reliable and sensitive method for hearing threshold assessment and monitoring.

The Design of Signal Generator Based on FPGA High Resolution

In view of the digital geophone self-test system application demand for a variety of high quality waveform signal. This paper introduces a kind of design method of direct digital synthesis waveform signal generator based on FPGA. It mainly discusses the principle of the method of frequency synthesis technology, design thinking and implementation method. And using the design method of pipeline structure to improve circuit structure of 48 bits phase accumulator, so as to improve the running speed, and further increase the resolution of frequency synthesis. The test shows that the signal generator can produce sine wave, square wave, sawtooth wave, triangle wave. The frequency resolution can reach 0.18μHz. The highest output frequency is up to 20MHz, and frequency switch time is 20ns.

The Study on Maintainability Design of the Air Bus A380

The maintainability of aircraft has a direct relationship with the reliability, availability, security and economy of the airplane and its components. From adopting the new composite material, innovative self-test system and the close cooperation with airlines, airports and airworthiness institutions, the airbus A380 will ensure its better maintainability. This paper intends to discuss the developing and designing direction of the civil aircrafts’ maintainability in expectation of marking some active contribution to the industry of large aircrafts in China.

Study and Realization of Circuit Analysis Online Test System Based on Web

Circuit analysis is an important professional basic course for the majors of mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, which has basic, practical and advanced features. In order to improve the teaching quality and to provide the services to teachers and students, the construction method of online self-test system of circuit analysis course is studied. Aiming at the characteristics of self-test system, the relative application technologies, including the development modes and development software, are analyzed. According to the performance requirements, the online test system is divided into three modules, administrator module, teacher module and student module, and the main functions are discussed in detail. The system is realized based on ASP.NET, the discussions are emphasized on the principles and strategies of intelligent paper combination, and system security mechanism. The system is convenient to provide the services of self-test and course evaluation for students, and to promote the teaching management and enhance the teaching quality.