Vic-dioximes: A new class of sensitive materials for chemical gas sensing

Vic-dioximes, a class of organic chemical compounds, are proposed and characterized for the first time as sensitive materials for volatile organic compound sensing with sorption based chemical gas sensors. Their peculiar sensing properties described in this work originate in the oxime functional group which is a powerful H bond donor interacting strongly but reversibly with H bond acceptors. These specific interactions result in a high preferential enrichment of analyte molecules with H bonding acceptor capabilities in the sensitive material. Accordingly, sensitivity and selectivity for these compounds of vic-dioxime based sensors are high. The advantageous sensing properties are demonstrated in this work with quartz crystal microbalance sensors using 11 selected volatile organic compounds and a set of vic-dioximes varied in their substituents. Vic-dioximes with short alkylthiol substituents were found highly sensitive to such H bond acceptors as organic amines, alcohols, and esters with partition coefficients up to 26,000. At the same time they showed low affinity for aromatic compounds and chlorocarbons. Vic-dioximes are considered powerful sensing materials and interesting for practical use in chemical gas sensor arrays.     

Hybrid phenol biosensor based on modified phenoloxidase electrode

Electrolytic deposition has been widely used to immobilize biomacromolecules, and it is always the most important factor to preserve or even increase an activity of the immobilized protein. We report here simple and rather universal method for the highly efficient immobilization of laccase for amperometric biosensing. Laccase from Cerrena unicolor has been successfully immobilized (electrolytic deposition) on the surface of thin, ordered polythiophene films (3-methylthiophene/3-thiopheneacetic acid/N-heptyl-3,6-bis(2-thiophene)carbazole). Two different compounds capable of mediating laccase-catalyzed reactions have been tested by cyclic voltammetry. They exhibited quasi-reversible electrodic behaviour with formal redox potentials ranging from 68 and 918 mV (E⁰vs. SCE). The immersion of the laccase-coated electrode in solution with substrate generated large catalytic currents easily recorded by cyclic voltammetry at low potential scan rates. Considering the fact, that immobilization strategy showed high efficiency, obtained results suggest that method for phenoloxidase immobilization has a great potential of enabling high throughput fabrication of bioelectronics’ devices.     

Probabilistic Grammars and Languages

Using an asymptotic characterization of probabilistic finite state languages over a one-letter alphabet we construct a probabilistic language with regular support that cannot be generated by probabilistic CFGs. Since all probability values used in the example are rational, our work is immune to the criticism leveled by Suppes (Synthese 22:95–116, 1970) against the work of Ellis (1969) who first constructed probabilistic FSLs that admit no probabilistic FSGs. Some implications for probabilistic language modeling by HMMs are discussed.     

Antichains and compositional algorithms for LTL synthesis

In this paper, we present new monolithic and compositional algorithms to solve the LTL realizability problem. Those new algorithms are based on a reduction of the LTL realizability problem to a game whose winning condition is defined by a universal automaton on infinite words with a k-co-Büchi acceptance condition. This acceptance condition asks that runs visit at most k accepting states, so it implicitly defines a safety game. To obtain efficient algorithms from this construction, we need several additional ingredients. First, we study the structure of the underlying automata constructions, and we show that there exists a partial order that structures the state space of the underlying safety game. This partial order can be used to define an efficient antichain algorithm. Second, we show that the algorithm can be implemented in an incremental way by considering increasing values of k in the acceptance condition. Finally, we show that for large LTL formulas that are written as conjunctions of smaller formulas, we can solve the problem compositionally by first computing winning strategies for each conjunct that appears in the large formula. We report on the behavior of those algorithms on several benchmarks. We show that the compositional algorithms are able to handle LTL formulas that are several pages long.     

Nano-structured solid oxide fuel cell design with superior power output at high and intermediate operation temperatures

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with a thin-film yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte was developed and tested. This novel SOFC shows a similar multilayer set-up as other current anode-supported SOFCs and is composed of a Ni/8YSZ anode, a gas-tight 8YSZ electrolyte layer, a dense Sr-diffusion barrier layer and a LSCF cathode. To increase the power density and lower the SOFC operating temperature, the thickness of the electrolyte layer was reduced from around 10 μm in current cells to 1 μm, using a nanoparticle deposition method. By using the novel 1 μm electrolyte layer, the current density of our SOFC progressed to 2.7, 2.1 and 1.6 A/cm² at operation temperatures of 800, 700 and 650°C, respectively, and out-performs all similar cells reported to date in the literature. An important consideration is also that cost-effective dip-coating and spin-coating methods are applied for the fabrication of the thin-film electrolyte. Processing of 1 μm layers on the very porous anode substrate material was initially experienced as very difficult and therefore 8YSZ nanoparticle coatings were developed and optimized on porous 8YSZ model substrates and transferred afterwards to regular anode substrates. In this paper, the preparation of the novel SOFC is shown and its morphology is illustrated with high resolution SEM pictures. Further, the performance in a standard SOFC test is demonstrated.     

Digitally-controlled array of solid-state microcoolers for use in surgery

This paper presents an approach for generating a well-defined cooling pattern over an area of tissue. An array of solid-state microcoolers is used, which could be included in a probe that provides local cooling. This medical instrument can be used for removal of scar tissue in the eye or for the rapid stopping of bleeding due to micro-cuts, which makes it a useful tool to medical doctors and could make surgery more secure to the patient. The array of microcoolers is composed of 64 independent thermo-electric elements, each controlled using an integrated circuit designed in CMOS. The independent control allows the flexible programming of the surface temperature profile. This type of control is very suitable in case abrupt temperature steps should be avoided. Cooling by lateral heat flow was selected in order to minimize the influence of heat by dissipation from the electronic circuits. Moreover, a thermo-electric component with lateral heat allows fabrication of the cooling elements using planar thin-film technology, lithography and wet etching on top of the silicon wafer. This approach is potentially CMOS compatible, which would allow for the fabrication of the thermo-electric elements on top of a pre-fabricated CMOS wafer as a post-process step. Each pixel is composed of thin-films of n-type bismuth telluride, Bi₂Te₃ and p-type antimony telluride, Sb₂Te₃, which are electrically interconnected as thermocouple. These materials have excellent thermoelectric characteristics, such as thermoelectric figures-of-merit, ZT, at room temperatures of 0.84 and 0.5, respectively, which is equivalent to power-factors, PF, of 3.62 × 10⁻³ W K⁻¹ m⁻² and 2.81 × 10⁻³ W K⁻¹ m⁻², respectively. The theoretical study presented here demonstrates a cooling capability of 15°C at room temperature (300 K ≈ 27°C). This cooling performance is sufficient to maintain a local tissue temperature at 25°C, which makes it suitable for the intended application. A first prototype was successfully fabricated to demonstrate the concept.     

Fabrication and electrical characterization of integrated nano-scale fluidic channels

We present the fabrication and characterization of nanoscale fluidic channels with embedded electrodes. Arrays of 2.25 μm long and 60 nm tall nanochannels with widths ranging from 60 to 500 nm were microfabricated in SiO₂ with Au electrodes embedded inside and outside of the nanochannels. The built-in electrodes were able to probe nanochannel conductance via a redox reaction of \textFe(\textCN)₆^{3 - /4 -} {\text{Fe}}({\text{CN}})_{6}^{3 - /4 - } . Amperometric characterization showed that conductance of nanochannel arrays varied linearly both with the width and number of nanochannels and was in the 10–100 pS range. Further, we show that electrical current was largely diffusion based and could be predicted from channel geometry using standard diffusion equations. We also discuss the potential of such nanochannel arrays as electronic biomolecular sensors and show preliminary streptavidin detection results.     

The use of fuzzy logic and neural networks models for sensory properties prediction from process and structure parameters of knitted fabrics

In a competitive business environment, the textile industrialists intend to propose diversified products according to consumers preference. For this purpose, the integration of sensory attributes in the process parameters choice seems to be a useful alternative. This paper provides fuzzy and neural models for the prediction of sensory properties from production parameters of knitted fabrics. The prediction accuracy of these models was evaluated using both the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean relative percent error (MRPE). The results revealed the models ability to predict tactile sensory attributes based on the production parameters. The comparison of the prediction performances showed that the neural models are slightly powerful than the fuzzy models.