Mutagenic Effects of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles on Biological Cells

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in the design and use of iron oxide materials with nanoscale dimensions for magnetic, catalytic, biomedical, and electronic applications. The increased manufacture and use of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) in consumer products as well as industrial processes is expected to lead to the unintentional release of IONPs into the environment. The impact of IONPs on the environment and on biological species is not well understood but remains a concern due to the increased chemical reactivity of nanoparticles relative to their bulk counterparts. This review article describes the impact of IONPs on cellular genetic components. The mutagenic impact of IONPs may damage an organism’s ability to develop or reproduce. To date, there has been experimental evidence of IONPs having mutagenic interactions on human cell lines including lymphoblastoids, fibroblasts, microvascular endothelial cells, bone marrow cells, lung epithelial cells, alveolar type II like epithelial cells, bronchial fibroblasts, skin epithelial cells, hepatocytes, cerebral endothelial cells, fibrosarcoma cells, breast carcinoma cells, lung carcinoma cells, and cervix carcinoma cells. Other cell lines including the Chinese hamster ovary cells, mouse fibroblast cells, murine fibroblast cells, Mytilus galloprovincialis sperm cells, mice lung cells, murine alveolar macrophages, mice hepatic and renal tissue cells, and vero cells have also shown mutagenic effects upon exposure to IONPs. We further show the influence of IONPs on microorganisms in the presence and absence of dissolved organic carbon. The results shed light on the transformations IONPs undergo in the environment and the nature of the potential mutagenic impact on biological cells.     

An image processing IC for backprojection and spatial histogrammingin a pipelined array

The first VLSI digital signal processor that performs both high-precision image backprojection and spatial histogram calculations at raster-scan rates as high as 30 MHz is described. Realized in 1 μm CMOS technology, this 13.3 mm×13.3 mm chip is designed to handle images as large as 1024×1024 12 b pixels. Loadable coefficients and a unified architecture allow this IC to be used with a variety of computed-tomography scanners for image reconstructions, including fan- and parallel-beam reconstruction. This chip also computes the forward Radon transform, which is a spatial histogram, permitting it to be used for iterative reconstruction algorithms. The bit lengths in the fixed-point architecture assure 12 b reconstruction accuracy     

PROCESS CONTROL PERSPECTIVE FOR PROCESS ANALYTICAL TECHNOLOGY: INTEGRATION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PRACTICE INTO SEMICONDUCTOR AND PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES

FDA's Process Analytical Technology (PAT) initiative provides an unprecedented opportunity for chemical engineers to play significant roles in the pharmaceutical industry. In this article, the authors provide their perspectives on (1) the need for chemical engineering principles in pharmaceutical development for a thorough process understanding; (2) applications of chemical engineering principles to meet the challenges from the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries; and (3) the integration of chemical engineering practice into the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries to achieve process understanding and the desired state of quality-by-design. A real-world case study from the semiconductor industry is presented to demonstrate how a classic chemical engineering concept, mixing homogeneity, can be implemented by inducing forced flow to ensure an excellent copper electrochemical plating process performance and to improve product quality substantially. Further, a case study of brake system design is discussed with the concept of Dr. Taguchi's robust engineering design to illustrate how quality-by-design can be achieved through appropriate experimental design, in conjunction with the discussion on the concept of quality-by-design in pharmaceuticals. Third, a case study of freeze-dried sodium ethacrynate is presented to demonstrate the vital importance of controlling the processing factors to achieve the desired product stability. Finally, the problems of the current pharmaceutical manufacturing mode, the opportunities and engineering challenges during implementation of PAT in the pharmaceutical industry, and the role of chemical engineering in implementation of PAT is discussed in detail.     

Application of the MOSFET device structure in characterizing imperfection centers in indium-doped silicon

C.T. Sah has published a review article demonstrating the application of high-frequency small signal capacitance and current transients of a space charge layer. Application of such transients is a powerful technique in characterizing deep level imperfection center concentrations, energy levels, thermal and optical emission rates and thermal capture cross sections. The MOSFET device structure is particularly convenient for low temperature measurements of shallow levels where deionization occurs and the substrate becomes highly resistive, seriously limiting capacitance transient techniques. Examples are given by results on indium-doped silicon, such as employed in extrinsic IR detectors. The emission time constant of holes from the neutral indium center has been found to depend on the indium doping. Measurements on lightly doped samples yield a value for the emission rate, $\text{1}\text{e}{}_{\mathrm{p}}$, of 6.0 msec at 77°K and a thermal activation energy of 0.15 eV. Measurements on heavily doped samples yield values of $\text{1}\text{e}{}_{\mathrm{p}}$ of 20 μsec at 77°K and an activation energy of 0.117 eV. These results are consistent with the Poole-Frenkel effect describing field enhanced thermal emission of holes from the indium center. Measurements of the hole capture coefficient at 77°K yield values for c_p of 3.7 × 10^?7 cm³/sec. These measurements have been made on heavily doped samples. The capture coefficient measured is the zero field or quasi-equilibrium value. The temperature dependence of the hole capture coefficient has been found to be T^?4. Small transients in the thermal emission rate measurements have been observed. These transients have thermal activation energies of around 0.08 eV and are associated with the 0.11 eV level as reported by Hughes Research Labs after accounting for barrier lowering by the Poole-Frenkel effect.     

Algorithmic analogue-to-quaternary convertor circuit using current-mode CMOS

A new current-mode CMOS algorithmic analogue-to-quaternary data convertor circuit has been realised in a standard polysilicon-gate CMOS technology. This circuit accepts an analogue current input and develops a set of quaternary, base-four, output currents. A single type of convertor cell may be cascaded to the desired number of quaternary output digits. The reference current that defines the full scale input range may be set externally. This circuit is input-output compatible with other previously described VLSI-compatible current-mode CMOS quaternary threshold logic and memory circuits.<>     

Demonstration of an Analog IC Function Maintenance Strategy, Including Direct Calibration, Built-in Self-test, and Commutation of Redundant Functional Blocks

A new analog subsystem maintenance strategy is presented that can be used to improve the accuracy, reliability, yield, and testability of analog and mixed-signal ICs. This scheme is a generally applicable design approach that combines hybrid redundancy, direct subcircuit parameter adjustment (calibration), and on-chip analog function verification (built-in self-test). Improvements are realized in a system-transparent fashion through careful function block commutation. The cost is a moderate die area increase. This design strategy is applicable to a wide range of moderately complex analog functions. An example analog function is used here to illustrate this new maintenance approach. Experimental data demonstrate the capabilities of this new approach to analog IC design fortestability.     

A CMOS Voltage Comparator with Rail-to-Rail Input-Range

A simple new continuous-time CMOS comparator circuit with rail-to-rail input common-mode range and rail-to-rail output is presented. This design uses parallel complementary decision paths to accommodate power-supply-valued inputs. The 2 decision results are combined at a current summing node, converted to a voltage, and buffered to drive voltage loads. The circuit has been realized in an area of 416 m×221 m in a MOSIS 2-micron CMOS technology. Average delay of about 63 ns has been measured at 3 V (1.3 mA), and about 89 ns at 5 V (1.1 mA).     

An improved heuristic for the capacitated arc routing problem

The capacitated arc routing problem (CARP) is an important and practical problem in the OR literature. In short, the problem is to identify routes to service (e.g., pickup or deliver) demand located along the edges of a network such that the total cost of the routes is minimized. In general, a single route cannot satisfy the entire demand due to capacity constraints on the vehicles. CARP belongs to the set of NP-hard problems; consequently numerous heuristic and metaheuristic solution approaches have been developed to solve it. In this paper an “ellipse rule” based heuristic is proposed for the CARP. This approach is based on the path-scanning heuristic, one of the mostly used greedy-add heuristics for this problem. The innovation consists basically of selecting edges only inside ellipses when the vehicle is near the end of each route. This new approach was implemented and tested on three standard datasets and the solutions are compared against: (i) the original path-scanning heuristic; (ii) two other path-scanning heuristics and (iii) the three best known metaheuristics. The results indicate that the “ellipse rule” approach lead to improvements over the three path-scanning heuristics, reducing the average distance to the lower bound in the test problems by about 44%.     

一种组合式双管正激变换器的控制系统设计和研究

结合一种6KVA组合式双管正激变换器，对平均值电流内环和瞬时值外环的双环控制系统进行建模和仿真分析。平均值电流模式控制具有限流，不需外加斜坡补偿等优点，电压外环用来获得恒定的电压输出。最后通过实验验证了理论分析的正确性。     

Surface Activation and Adhesion Properties of Wood-Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites

Four surface activation methods were evaluated on a series of wood-fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites (WPCs) as a means to improve the adhesion of a water-based acrylic coating. Treatments with chromic acid and oxygen plasma performed best, increasing the acrylic coating peel load to WPCs by 170 and 122%, respectively, and yielding adhesion levels equivalent to or higher than those obtained on wood. The benzophenone/ultraviolet and flame treatments also improved the coating adhesion by 100 and 64%, respectively, but did not reach the adhesion levels achieved on wood. For both the chromic acid and oxygen plasma treatments, the WPC formulation impacted the treatment efficacy. Profilometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the chromic acid treatment acted mainly by roughening WPC surfaces. While surface oxidation was not evident from attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), the improved wettability of WPCs with water suggested that the oxygen plasma treatment oxidized WPCs.