Improved dynamic equations for the generally configured Stewart platform manipulator

In this paper, a Newton-Euler approach is utilized to generate the improved dynamic equations of the generally configured Stewart platform. Using the kinematic model of the universal joint, the rotational degree of freedom of the pods around the axial direction is taken into account in the formulation. The justifiable direction of the reaction moment on each pod is specified and considered in deriving the dynamic equations. Considering the theorem of parallel axes, the inertia tensors for different elements of the manipulator are obtained in this study. From a theoretical point, the improved formulation is more accurate in comparison with previous ones, and the necessity of the improvement is clear evident from significant differences in the simulation results for the improved model and the model without improvement. In addition to more feasibility of the structure and higher accuracy, the model is highly compatible with computer arithmetic and suitable for online applications for loop control problems in hardware.     

Molecularly imprinted nanoparticles prepared by miniemulsion polymerization as selective receptors and new carriers for the sustained release of carbamazepine

Water-compatible imprinted nanoparticles were prepared for carbamazepine as a template and used for the selective extraction and controlled release of carbamazepine. Assay materials and drug delivery carriers were typically used in aqueous environments, so it is generally preferable to prepare solvent-free molecularly imprinted nanoparticles in water using the miniemulsion polymerization method. The present work investigates a bio-analytical strategy generically applicable to imprinted materials for molecular recognition studies, including equilibrium and non-equilibrium binding, and release experiments, increasing the knowledge of the molecular interactions between the template molecules and imprinted nanoparticles. The results showed that the imprinted nanoparticles exhibited a higher binding level and slower release rate than non-imprinted nanoparticles. The selectivity of imprinted nanoparticles for carbamazepine studied in comparison with an analogue compound, oxcarbazepine, the main metabolite of carbamazepine. The recovery and selectivity of carbamazepine in human serum was determined to be 100%, 1.7 times that of oxcarbazepine. The results indicated that carbamazepine-imprinted nanoparticles are appropriate for serum level determination of the drug in therapeutic range. The template to functional monomer ratio as a key factor controlling the recognition and release kinetic mechanism of imprinted nanoparticles is discussed. The imprinted nanoparticles prepared at the appropriate template to functional monomer mole ratio (2:8) exhibited the best drug affinity (5.1 times higher) and a slower drug release rate due to the interaction of carbamazepine with the imprinted cavities within the nanoparticles. Loaded imprinted nanoparticles as drug reservoirs were able to prolong carbamazepine release, in 1% wt sodium dodecyl sulfate aqueous solution, for more than 8 days.     

Integrated Ka-band finline mixer/modulator

A new mixer/modulator for millimetre-wave applications is presented. The circuit is implemented with a combination of finlines, coplanar lines and microstrip lines. By applying the described mixer/modulator to millimetre-wave systems a twofold use of active elements such as the Gunn element and Schottky diodes is possible. The size of the whole planar structure is about 4 × 4 cm and there is no need for a variable short.     

Flow into an Arterial Branch Model

Arterial branches are found to be a major site for formation of arterial plaque. In this study, several of the main parameters that influence the local flow into an arterial branch model are investigated. In particular, the role of the local geometric parameters of the bifurcation on the overall flow is thought to be interesting. How the changes in the bifurcation geometry influence the distribution of axial wall shear and pressure in the model, is investigated. The major geometric factors influencing this flow are the bifurcation area ratio and angle. The flow in a large number of geometric variations of the branch model is numerically simulated. The models at several branch area ratios in the range of 0·4≤ AR≤ 2·0 are considered. In the above range of area ratios, a range of branch opening half-angle of is also studied. The flow in the above models is calculated for the inlet-flow Reynolds numbers of 250, 500, 1000, and 2000. The asymmetric mass flow into the branches by imposing different exit pressures at the branch outlets is also investigated. Area ratio seems to have the largest influence on the flow within the physiologically relevant range of the parameters considered. Increasing the area ratio can lead to relatively large flow separation in the vicinity of the bifurcation region. At higher values of the opening angle of the bifurcation, the possibility and severity of flow separation at the appropriate wall location increases. Having asymmetric mass flow into different branches also increases the chance of separation at the opening of the constricted branch. The relative influence of the convective acceleration of the flow, as represented by the value of the flow Reynolds number, is also investigated. The particular value of the area ratio or bifurcation angle, necessary to initiate flow separation, is influenced by the Reynolds number of the incoming flow in the mother tube. In particular, the influence of all these parameters on flow properties and their relative importance is quantified. The relation between the influence of these parameters on the flow and the formation of some vascular diseases reported in the literature, is also examined.     

Optimised relay selection for route discovery in reactive routing

On-demand routing protocols have the potential to provide scalable information delivery in large ad hoc networks. The novelty of these protocols is in their approach to route discovery, where a route is determined only when it is required by initiating a route discovery procedure. Much of the research in this area has focused on reducing the route discovery overhead when prior knowledge of the destination is available at the source or by routing through stable links. Hence, many of the protocols proposed to date still resort to flooding the network when prior knowledge about the destination is un-available. This paper proposes a novel routing protocol for ad hoc networks, called On-demand Tree-based Routing Protocol (OTRP). This protocol combines the idea of hop-by-hop routing (as used by AODV) with an efficient route discovery algorithm called Tree-based Optimised Flooding (TOF) to improve scalability of ad hoc networks when there is no prior knowledge about the destination. To achieve this in OTRP, route discovery overheads are minimised by selectively flooding the network through a limited set of nodes, referred to as branching nodes. The key factors governing the performance of OTRP are theoretically analysed and evaluated, including the number of branch nodes, location of branching nodes and number of Route REQuest (RREQ) retries. It was found that the performance of OTRP (evaluated using a variety of well-known metrics) improves as the number of branching nodes increases and the number of consumed RREQ retries is reduced. Additionally, theoretical analysis and simulation results shows that OTRP outperforms AODV, DYMO, and OLSR with reduced overheads as the number of nodes and traffic load increases.     

A 5.8 GHz Low Noise Amplifier for Wireless LAN Applications in Silicon Bipolar Technology

A monolithic integrated low-noise amplifier for operation in the 5.8-GHzband is described. Two different versions have been implemented where the biasing wasadapted to allow operation over a different range of supply voltage. At 5-V, theamplifiers gain is about 17-dB, with a noise figure of 4.2-dB and 1-dB compressionpoint at –15-dBm input power. The circuits have been designed utilizing a0.6-micron silicon bipolar production technology, featuring npn transistors with and of about20-GHz.     

Fabrication of low defect density 3C-SiC on SiO2 structures using wafer bonding techniques

This paper reports on a process to fabricate single-crystal 3C-SiC on SiO₂ structures using a wafer bonding technique. The process uses the bonding of two polished polysilicon surfaces as a means to transfer a heteroepitaxial 3C-SiC film grown on a Si wafer to a thermally oxidized Si wafer. Transfer yields of up to 80% for 4 inch diameter 3C-SiC films have been achieved. Homoepitaxial 3C-SiC films grown on the 3C-SiC on SiO₂ structures have a much lower defect density than conventional 3C-SiC on Si films.     

Synthesis and characterization of paclitaxel-imprinted nanoparticles for recognition and controlled release of an anticancer drug

Imprinted nanoparticles as drug delivery carriers have been considered because owing to their cross-linked network, they act as the drug reservoir for controlled release. In this study, selective MIPs nanoparticles of paclitaxel (PTX) were successfully developed for application in the biological molecular recognition and in the design of new anticancer drug delivery systems. The MIPs nanoparticles prepared by miniemulsion polymerization technique using methacrylic acid (MAA) and methyl methacrylate as non-covalent functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate and trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM) as cross-linker agent, azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator, and hexadecane as hydrophobic agent. In order to prepare of MIP nanoparticles, the synthesis conditions and effective parameters, such as: cross-linker agent, different molar ratios of template–functional monomer–cross-linker agent, were investigated. In addition, the effect of different molar ratios of template and monomers on polymers binding and morphology were characterized. Structure and thermal properties of MIPs were confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. Imprinted nanoparticles showed significant drug loading and encapsulation efficiency, 17.8 and 100 %, respectively. The particle size of MIP nanoparticles varies between 187 and 726 nm, according the SEM images and laser light scattering data. The imprinted nanoparticles showed satisfactory affinity (84 %) to PTX with a binding of 12 times higher than non-imprinted nanoparticles in biological samples when MAA and TRIM were used as functional and cross-linker monomer, respectively. Results from release experiments of MIPs showed a very slow and controlled release of PTX which would be helpful for sustained drug delivery.     

Dipyridamole recognition and controlled release by uniformly sized molecularly imprinted nanospheres

We used novel synthetic conditions of precipitation polymerization to obtain uniformly sized molecularly imprinted nanospheres of dipyridamole for application in the design of new drug delivery systems. In addition, the morphology, drug release, and binding properties of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were studied, and the effects of morphology on other properties were investigated. The MIPs prepared by acetonitrile/chloroform (19:1, v/v) were uniformly sized nanospheres with an average mean diameter of approximately 88 nm at a wetted state, 50 nm at a dry state, and a polydispersity index of 0.062. The imprinted nanospheres showed excellent binding properties and had 62.7% of template binding compared with 17.1% of its blank polymer. The imprinted nanospheres with 67.5 (mg template/of polymer) of binding capacity had better imprinting efficiency than the 50.5% of binding capacity shown by irregularly shaped MIP particles that were prepared by chloroform. The molecular binding abilities of imprinted nanospheres in human serum were evaluated by HPLC analysis (binding about 77% of dipyridamole). Results from release experiments of MIPs showed a very slow, controlled, and satisfactory release of dipyridamole. The loaded drug was released up to 99% in 17 days for nanospheres and 22 days for irregularly shaped particles.     

Preparation of nanocrystalline MgO by surfactant assisted precipitation method

Nanocrystalline magnesium oxide with high surface area was prepared by a simple precipitation method using pluronic P123 triblock copolymer (Poly (ethylene glycol)-block, Poly (propylene glycol)-block, Poly (ethylene glycol)) as surfactant and under refluxing conditions. The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N₂ adsorption (BET) and scanning and transmission electron microscopies (SEM and TEM). The obtained results revealed that the refluxing time and temperature and the molar ratio of surfactant to metal affect the structural properties of MgO, because of the changes in the rate and extent of P123 adsorption on the prepared samples. The results showed that the addition of surfactant is effective to prepare magnesium oxide with high surface area and affects the morphology of the prepared samples. With increasing the P123/MgO molar ratio to 0.05 the pore size distribution was shifted to larger size. The sample prepared with addition of surfactant showed a plate-like shape which was completely different with the morphology of the sample prepared without surfactant. The formation of nanoplate-like MgO was related to higher surface density of Mg ions on the (0 0 1) plane than that on the other planes of the Mg(OH)₂ crystal. The (0 0 1) plane would be blocked preferentially by the adsorbed P123 molecules during the growing process of Mg(OH)₂ nanoentities and the growth on the (0 0 1) plane would be markedly restricted, and the consequence is the generation of nanoplate-like MgO. In addition, increase in refluxing temperature and time increased the specific surface area of the prepared MgO samples.