Measurement of Electrophysiological Signals In Vitro Using High-Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistors

Biological environments use ions in charge transport for information transmission. The properties of mixed electronic and ionic conductivity in organic materials make them ideal candidates to transduce physiological information into electronically processable signals. A device proven to be highly successful in measuring such information is the organic electrochemical transistor (OECT). Previous electrophysiological measurements performed using OECTs show superior signal-to-noise ratios than electrodes at low frequencies. Subsequent development has significantly improved critical performance parameters such as transconductance and response time. Here, interdigitated-electrode OECTs are fabricated on flexible substrates, with one such state-of-the-art device achieving a peak transconductance of 139 mS with a 138 µs response time. The devices are implemented into an array with interconnects suitable for micro-electrocorticographic application and eight architecture variations are compared. The two best-performing arrays are subject to the full electrophysiological spectrum using prerecorded signals. With frequency filtering, kHz-scale frequencies with 10 µV-scale voltages are resolved. This is supported by a novel quantification of the noise, which compares the gate voltage input and drain current output. These results demonstrate that high-performance OECTs can resolve the full electrophysiological spectrum and suggest that superior signal-to-noise ratios could be achieved in high frequency measurements of multiunit activity.     

Results of Studies on Strengthening Retaining Walls with Composite Materials

Power Technology and Engineering - The experimental results on retaining reinforced-concrete walls reinforced with anchor ties and carbon composite materials on the face side of hydraulic...     

Radiolabeling,Preparation, and Bioevaluation of 99mTc-Azathioprine as a Potential Targeting Agent for Solid Tumor Imaging

Radiochemistry - Azathioprine, an antitumor agent, was labeled with 99mTc using stannous chloride dihydrate as a reducing agent. Factors such as the amounts of the reducing agent and substrate, pH,...     

Improving weld formability by a novel dual-rotation bobbin tool friction stir welding

A novel dual-rotation bobbin tool friction stir welding (DBT-FSW) was developed, in which the upper shoulder (US) and lower shoulder (LS) have different rotational speeds. This process was tried to weld 3.2 mm thick aluminum-lithium alloy sheets. The metallographic analysis and torque measurement were carried out to characterize the weld formability. Experimental results show that compared to conventional bobbin tool friction stir welding, the DBT-FSW has an excellent process stability, and can produce the defect-free joints in a wider range of welding parameters. These can be attributed to the significant improvement of material flow caused by the formation of a staggered layer structure and the unbalanced force between the US and LS during the DBT-FSW process.     

On Application of Carbon-Containing Electrode Materials in Technology of Electrospark Alloying: Part 1. Peculiarities of Coating Formation Using Electrospark Treatment of Titanium Alloy OT4-1

Electrospark treatment of OT4-1 titanium alloy was performed sequentially with a STIM-20N hard-alloy electrode (TiC–20% Ni) and carbon-containing material (graphite and carbon-based composite materials). Kinetics of the mass transfer of the hard-alloy electrode was studied. The cathode mass loss during the first minute of the treatment was established. The kinetics results were processed using the methods of mathematical statistics. The erosion resistance of the applied carbon-containing materials was determined. Phase composition and relief of the coatings formed were analyzed. It was found that the application of the carbon-containing material increases the content of refractory phases in the coatings. Increase in the time of the treatment using the carbon-containing materials decreases the roughness of the coatings.     

The Influence of Magnetron Sputtering Conditions on the Structure of Zr–Pd Coatings

Technical Physics Letters - Using the method of DC magnetron sputtering, nonstructured amorphous metal coatings of Zr75Pd25 composition were obtained with an average deposition rate of 1.3 nm/s at...     

Reoptimization framework and policy analysis for maritime inventory routing under uncertainty

We study a maritime inventory routing problem, in which shipments between production and consumption nodes are carried out by a fleet of vessels. The vessels have specific capacities and can be chartered under different agreements. The inventory levels of all consumption nodes and some production nodes should be maintained within specified bounds; for the remaining production nodes, orders should be picked up within pre-defined time windows. We propose a discrete-time mixed-integer programming model. In the face of new information and uncertainty, this optimization model has to be re-solved, as the horizon is rolled forward. We discuss how to account for different sources of uncertainty. We present a rolling-horizon reoptimization framework that allows us to study different policies that impact the quality of the implemented solution, so we can identify the optimal set of policies.