Dip Coating of Water-Resistant PEDOT:PSS Films Based on Physical Crosslinking

Water-resistant poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films are valuable in biomedical applications; however, they typically require crosslinkers to stabilize the films, which can introduce undesired aggregation or phase separation reactions. Herein, a dipping-based process to prepare PEDOT:PSS films on nonplanar surfaces without crosslinker is developed. Sequential soaking of a dip-coated PEDOT:PSS film in ethanol and water imparts water resistance to the film. Microscopic and spectroscopic techniques are used to monitor the process and confirm that the ethanol soaking elutes the excess PSS from the film bulk, which stabilizes the film prior to the water-soaking process. The obtained films act as conductors and semiconductors on curved surfaces, including 3D-printed objects. A film deposited on a curved surface is successfully applied as the channel layer in a neuromorphic organic electrochemical transistor. This approach can enable integrated bioelectronic and neuromorphic applications that can be readily deployed for facile prototyping.     

Robust digital control of a DC–DC buck converter with low frequency samplings

A robust DC?CDC converter which can covers extensive load change and also input voltage changes with one controller is needed. Then the demand to suppress output voltage change becomes still severer. We propose an approximate 2-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) digital controller which realized start-up response and dynamic load response independently. The controller makes a control bandwidth wider, and at the same time makes variations of the output voltage small at sudden changes of a load and an input voltage. In this paper, a new approximate 2DOF digital control system with additional zeros is proposed. Using the additional zeros, the second-order differential transfer characteristics between equivalent disturbances and a output voltage are realized. Therefore, the new controller makes variations of the output voltage smaller and the sudden changes of the load and the input voltage. This controller is actually implement on a DSP and is connected to the DC?CDC converter. Experimental results demonstrate that this type of digital controller can satisfy given severe specifications with low frequency sampling.     

Biocatalytic Synthesis of Nitriles through Dehydration of Aldoximes: The Substrate Scope of Aldoxime Dehydratases

Nitriles, which are mostly needed and produced by the chemical industry, play a major role in various industry segments, ranging from high‐volume, low‐price sectors, such as polymers, to low‐volume, high‐price sectors, such as chiral pharma drugs. A common industrial technology for nitrile production is ammoxidation as a gas‐phase reaction at high temperature. Further popular approaches are substitution or addition reactions with hydrogen cyanide or derivatives thereof. A major drawback, however, is the very high toxicity of cyanide. Recently, as a synthetic alternative, a novel enzymatic approach towards nitriles has been developed with aldoxime dehydratases, which are capable of converting an aldoxime in one step through dehydration into nitriles. Because the aldoxime substrates are easily accessible, this route is of high interest for synthetic purposes. However, whenever a novel method is developed for organic synthesis, it raises the question of substrate scope as one of the key criteria for application as a “synthetic platform technology”. Thus, the scope of this review is to give an overview of the current state of the substrate scope of this enzymatic method for synthesizing nitriles with aldoxime dehydratases. As a recently emerging enzyme class, a range of substrates has already been studied so far, comprising nonchiral and chiral aldoximes. This enzyme class of aldoxime dehydratases shows a broad substrate tolerance and accepts aliphatic and aromatic aldoximes, as well as arylaliphatic aldoximes. Furthermore, aldoximes with a stereogenic center are also recognized and high enantioselectivities are found for 2‐arylpropylaldoximes, in particular. It is further noteworthy that the enantiopreference depends on the E and Z isomers. Thus, opposite enantiomers are accessible from the same racemic aldehyde and the same enzyme.     

CuI and H2O2 Inactivate and FeII Inhibits [Fe]‐Hydrogenase at Very Low Concentrations

[Fe]‐Hydrogenase (Hmd) catalyzes reversible hydride transfer from H₂. It harbors an iron‐guanylylpyridinol as a cofactor with an Fe^II that is ligated to one thiolate, two COs, one acyl‐C, one pyridinol‐N, and solvent. Here, we report that Cu^I and H₂O₂ inactivate Hmd (half‐maximal rates at 1 μM Cu^I and 20 μM H₂O₂) and that Fe^II inhibits the enzyme with very high affinity (K_i=40 nM ). Infrared and EPR studies together with competitive inhibition studies with isocyanide indicated that Cu^I exerts its inhibitory effect most probably by binding to the active site iron‐thiolate ligand. Using the same methods, it was found that H₂O₂ binds to the active‐site iron at the solvent‐binding site and oxidizes Fe^II to Fe^III. Also it was shown that Fe^II reversibly binds away from the active site iron, with binding being competitive to the organic hydride acceptor; this inhibition is specific for Fe^II and is reminiscent of that for the [FeFe]‐hydrogenase second iron, which specifically interacts with H₂.     

Development of lateral displacement sensor for real‐time detection of structural damage

We have developed a novel sensor that enables us to measure the relative story displacement of a building structure in real time. This lateral displacement sensor (LDS) is composed of a light‐emitting diode (LED) array, which is fixed on the ceiling, and a position‐sensitive detector (PSD) unit, which is placed on the floor. We optimized the LDS to achieve high accuracy in lateral displacement measurement. The accuracy was evaluated to be 60 µm by conducting shaking table tests. Two LDSs were implemented in an actual building equipped with an active variable stiffness (AVS) system, and the building was vibrated with seismic waveforms by an exciter placed on the rooftop. The seismic displacement of the second floor relative to the first floor was measured using the LDS. Furthermore, the inclination angle of the second floor could be measured using the LDS during the seismic vibration. Using the AVS system, we realized the residual displacement of the second floor without inducing damage to the building, and succeeded in real‐time residual displacement measurement for the first time. These results indicate that the LDS is useful for the health diagnosis of a building structure. © 2011 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Selective High‐Frequency Mechanical Actuation Driven by the VO2 Electronic Instability

Relaxation oscillators consist of periodic variations of a physical quantity triggered by a static excitation. They are a typical consequence of nonlinear dynamics and can be observed in a variety of systems. VO₂ is a correlated oxide with a solid‐state phase transition above room temperature, where both electrical resistance and lattice parameters undergo a drastic change in a narrow temperature range. This strong nonlinear response allows to realize spontaneous electrical oscillations in the megahertz range under a DC voltage bias. These electrical oscillations are employed to set into mechanical resonance a microstructure without the need of any active electronics, with small power consumption and with the possibility to selectively excite specific flexural modes by tuning the value of the DC electrical bias in a range of few hundreds of millivolts. This actuation method is robust and flexible and can be implemented in a variety of autonomous DC‐powered devices.     

Pressure-sensitive molecular film for investigation of micro gas flows

For the development of micro- and nano-technology, it has been strongly desired to understand thermo-fluid phenomena inside or around micro- and nano-devices. An optical measurement technique based on the absorption and the emission of photons by molecules is useful for experimental analyses of thermo-fluid phenomena of micro and nanoflows. The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique is a potential diagnostic tool for pressure measurements of micro/nano gas flows because it works as a so-called “molecular sensor”. However, the micro-scale measurement of PSP has been limited by the aggregation of the luminescent molecules and their thick film due to the use of a polymer binder. In our previous work, we adopted the Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) technique to fabricate pressure-sensitive molecular film (PSMF) with ordered molecular assemblies, and investigated properties of PSMF. In this study, a novel approach to enhance the luminescent intensity of PSMF is proposed, and the pressure distribution in a micro-nozzle is successfully measured by using PSMF. Moreover, we compared the pressure distribution measured by PSMF with that numerically analyzed by the direct simulation monte carlo (DSMC) method, showing good agreement with each other.     

Experiments on fast cell search algorithm for intercellasynchronous W-CDMA mobile radio

Laboratory and field experiment results for a two-step cell search algorithm using scramble code masking for intercell asynchronous W-CDMA mobile radio are presented. The scramble code is masked at different time positions during each scramble period in the forward link common control channel (CCH) for scramble code timing detection at the mobile receiver. 16 scramble codes are used. The cell search time achievable with the authors' recently proposed three-step cell search algorithm is estimated from the experimental results; cell search can be accomplished within ~960 ms at a probability of 93% in the case of 512 scramble codes and 16 scramble code groups     

A system for synchronizing the nods of a CG character and a human using thermal image processing and a moving-average model

The purpose of this study was to develop a system for communication between a human and a computer generated (CG) character to make him or her more peaceful and cheerful. Nonverbal communication using such things as facial expression, a nod, or a hand gesture is very important for reciprocal communication between humans. In this study, an image registered by infrared rays which describes the thermal distribution of the face and neck has been used to develop a system for communication between a human and a CG character. The CG character can synchronize its nod with a person’s nod by predicting his or her nod angle. The measured feature parameter is input to a fuzzy algorithm system to obtain the nod angle of a person in front of an infrared camera, and then a moving-average model is used to predict the nod angle of the person. The average error of the nod angle obtained by the system has been estimated as about 5°. The CG character nods its head, not only when the human nods his or her head, but also when the human shakes his or her head to the left or right.