Wireless Monitoring Using a Stretchable and Transparent Sensor Sheet Containing Metal Nanowires

Mechanically and visually imperceptible sensor sheets integrated with lightweight wireless loggers are employed in ultimate flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) to reduce vital stress/nervousness and monitor natural biosignal responses. The key technologies and applications for conceptual sensor system fabrication are reported, as exemplified by the use of a stretchable sensor sheet completely conforming to an individual's body surface to realize a low-noise wireless monitoring system (<1 µV) that can be attached to the human forehead for recording electroencephalograms. The above system can discriminate between Alzheimer's disease and the healthy state, thus offering a rapid in-home brain diagnosis possibility. Moreover, the introduction of metal nanowires to improve the transparency of the biocompatible sensor sheet allows one to wirelessly acquire electrocorticograms of nonhuman primates and simultaneously offers optogenetic stimulation such as toward-the-brain–machine interface under free movement. Also discussed are effective methods of improving electrical reliability, biocompatibility, miniaturization, etc., for metal nanowire based tracks and exploring the use of an organic amplifier as an important component to realize a flexible active probe with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Overall, ultimate FHE technologies are demonstrated to achieve efficient closed-loop systems for healthcare management, medical diagnostics, and preclinical studies in neuroscience and neuroengineering.     

Stabilizing Atomically Dispersed Catalytic Sites on Tellurium Nanosheets with Strong Metal–Support Interaction Boosts Photocatalysis

The utilization of appropriate supports for constructing single‐atom‐catalysts is of vital importance to achieve high catalytic performances, as the strong mutual interactions between the atomically dispersed metal atoms and supports significantly influence their electronic properties. Herein, it is reported that atomic cobalt species (ACS) anchored 2D tellurium nanosheets (Te NS) can act as a highly active single‐atom cocatalyst for boosting photocatalytic H₂ production and CO₂ reduction reactions under visible light irradiation, wherein Te NS serves as the ideal support material to bridge the light absorbers and ACS catalytic sites for efficient electron transfer. X‐ray absorption near‐edge structure spectroscopy reveals that the ACS are built by a Co center coordinated with five Co? O bonding, which are anchored on Te NS through one Co? Te bonding. The strong mutual interaction between the Te NS and ACS alters the electronic structure of Te NS, inducing the introduction of intermediate energy states, which act as trap sites to accommodate the photogenerated electrons for promoting photocatalytic reactions. This work may inspire further capability in designing other Te‐based single‐atom‐catalysts for highly efficient solar energy conversion.     

High-energy x-ray backlighter spectrum measurements using calibrated image plates

The x-ray spectrum between 18 and 88 keV generated by a petawatt laser driven x-ray backlighter target was measured using a 12-channel differential filter pair spectrometer. The spectrometer consists of a series of filter pairs on a Ta mask coupled with an x-ray sensitive image plate. A calibration of Fuji? MS and SR image plates was conducted using a tungsten anode x-ray source and the resulting calibration applied to the design of the Ross pair spectrometer. Additionally, the fade rate and resolution of the image plate system were measured for quantitative radiographic applications. The conversion efficiency of laser energy into silver Kα x rays from a petawatt laser target was measured using the differential filter pair spectrometer and compared to measurements using a single photon counting charge coupled device.     

Ultra-steep cut-off double mode SAW filter and its application to a PCS duplexer

This paper describes the double mode surface acoustic wave (DMS) filter design techniques for achieving the ultra-steep cut-off characteristics and low insertion loss required for the Rx filter in the personal communications services (PCS) duplexer. Simulations demonstrate that the optimal combination of the additional common ground inductance Lg and the coupling capacitance Cc between the input and output terminals of the DMS filters drastically enhances the skirt steepness and attenuation for the lower frequency side of the passband. Based on this result, we propose a novel DMS filter structure that utilizes the parasitic reactance generated in bonding wires and interdigital transducer (IDT) busbars as Lg and Ce, respectively. Because the proposed structure does not need any additional reactance component, the filter size can be small. Moreover, we propose a compact multiple-connection configuration for low insertion loss. Applying these technologies to the Rx filter, we successfully develop a PCS SAW duplexer.     

Current status of biobased and biodegradable food packaging materials: Impact on food quality and effect of innovative processing technologies

Fossil-based plastic materials are an integral part of modern life. In food packaging, plastics have a highly important function in preserving food quality and safety, ensuring adequate shelf life, and thereby contributing to limiting food waste. Meanwhile, the global stream of plastics into the oceans is increasing exponentially, triggering worldwide concerns for the environment. There is an urgent need to reduce the environmental impacts of packaging waste, a matter raising increasing consumer awareness. Shifting part of the focus toward packaging materials from renewable resources is one promising strategy. This review provides an overview of the status and future of biobased and biodegradable films used for food packaging applications, highlighting the effects on food shelf life and quality. Potentials, limitations, and promising modifications of selected synthetic biopolymers; polylactic acid, polybutylene succinate, and polyhydroxyalkanoate; and natural biopolymers such as cellulose, starch, chitosan, alginate, gelatine, whey, and soy protein are discussed. Further, this review provides insight into the connection between biobased packaging materials and innovative technologies such as high pressure, cold plasma, microwave, ultrasound, and ultraviolet light. The potential for utilizing such technologies to improve biomaterial barrier and mechanical properties as well as to aid in improving overall shelf life for the packaging system by in-pack processing is elaborated on.     

Determination of the phosphorus content in potato starch using an energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence method

Potato starch is unique because of its high starch phosphorus content. The textural characteristics of potato starch change due to the presence of the starch phosphate. Thus, the measurement of phosphorus in potato starch is needed, but conventional methods require a considerable amount of time and labour. In this investigation, a simple and fast analytical procedure has been developed for the determination of the phosphorus content of potato starch with a non-destructive energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) technique. Potato starch samples were analyzed as pressed pellets using detection times of 200 s. Reference values, measured by a conventional method, namely, wet chemical analysis, were used to calibrate the ED-XRF. Calibration was done using 20 potato starch samples, and the results were validated using a second set of 15 samples. The results indicated the validity of ED-XRF as a rapid and non-destructive method for the quantitative determination of phosphorus content of potato starch. Based on the combined results of ED-XRF and Rapid Visco-Analyzer (RVA), ED-XRF is promising for predicting the peak viscosity, by RVA, of potato starch paste through the measurement of starch phosphorus content.     

Green‐Chemical Synthesis of Ultrathin β‐MnOOH Nanofibers for Separation Membranes

Ultrathin β‐MnOOH nanofibers can be produced on a large scale via a green‐chemical method using an aqueous solution of very dilute Mn(NO₃)₂ and aminoethanol at room temperature. High‐magnification electron microscopy demonstrates that the β‐MnOOH nanofibers are 3–5 nm thin and up to 1 micrometer long and the nanofibers are parallel assembled into bundles with an average diameter of 25 nm. By a filtration process, ultrathin mesoporous membranes with strong mechanical, thermal, and chemical stabilities are prepared from the β‐MnOOH nanofiber bundles. The membranes can separate 10‐nm nanoparticles from water at a flux of 15120 L m^?2·h^?1·bar^?1, which was 2–3 times higher than that of commercial membranes with similar rejection properties. Based on the Young‐Laplace equation, β‐MnOOH nanofiber/polydimethylsiloxane composite membranes are developed through a novel downstream‐side evaporation process. From nanoporous to dense separation membranes can be achieved by optimizing the experimental conditions. The membranes show desirable separation performance for proteins, ethanol/water mixtures, and gases. The synthesis method of β‐MnOOH nanofibers is simple and environmentally friendly, and it is easily scalable for industry and applicable to other metal oxide systems. These composite membranes constitute a significant contribution to advanced separation technology.     

Palladium‐Catalyzed Benzylic C?H Benzylation via Bis‐Benzylpalladium(II) Complexes in Water: An Effective Pathway for the Direct Construction of N‐(1,2‐Diphenylethyl)anilines

A strategy for the N‐benzylation/benzylic C H benzylation cascade of anilines by the π‐benzylpalladium system using a water‐soluble palladium(0)/sodium diphenylphosphinobenzene‐3‐sulfonate (TPPMS) catalyst and benzyl alcohol in water has been developed. This tandem process is devised as a novel and efficient synthetic route for N‐(1,2‐diphenylethyl)anilines. Benzylic C H activation of a mono‐N‐benzylated intermediate with a π‐benzylpalladium(II) complex affords a bis‐π‐benzylated palladium(II) intermediate. The nucleophilic η¹‐σ‐benzyl anion ligand attacks the electrophilic η³‐π‐benzyl ligand to give a dibenzylated product. The intermolecular competition between mono‐N‐benzylaniline and its monodeuterated form (monodeuterated at the benzylic group) with benzyl alcohol gave a KIE=4.6, suggesting that C H bond cleavage was involved in the rate‐determining step. Hammett studies on the rate constants of benzylation by various substituted anthranilic acids and mono‐N‐benzylanilines show a good correlation between the log(k_X/k_H) and the σ values of the respective substituents. From the slope, negative ρ values are obtained, suggesting that there is a build‐up of positive charge in the transition state. The reaction of anilines with electron‐donating and electron‐withdrawing groups affords the corresponding N‐(1,2‐diphenylethyl)anilines in moderate to good yields (54–86%). Interestingly, the reaction of anthranilic acids proceeded smoothly to give only the corresponding dibenzylated products in good to excellent yields (70–87%). The carboxyl group of the anthranilic acids acts as a directing group in the benzylic C H activation process.

     

A Real-time Scalable Object Detection System using Low-power HOG Accelerator VLSI

As described in this paper, a real-time object detection system using a Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) feature extraction accelerator VLSI is presented. The VLSI [1, 2] enables the system to achieve real-time performance and scalability for multiple object detection under limited power condition. The VLSI employs three techniques: a VLSI-oriented HOG algorithm with early classification in Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification, a dual-core architecture for parallel feature extraction, and a detection-window-size scalable architecture with a reconfigurable MAC array for processing objects of different shapes. The test chip was fabricated using 65 nm CMOS technology. The measurement result shows that the VLSI consumes 43 mW at 42.9 MHz and 1.1 V to process HDTV (1920?×?1080 pixels) at 30 frames per second (fps). A multiple object detection system and a multiple scale object detection system are presented to demonstrate the system flexibility and scalability realized by VLSI and applicability for versatile application of object detection. On the multiple object detection system, a real-time object detection for HDTV resolution video is achieved with 84 mW of power consumption on a task to detect 2 types of targets while keeping comparable detection accuracy as software-based system. On the multiple scale object detection system, a task to detect 5 scales of a target is accomplished using a single VLSI. The power consumption of the VLSI is estimated to 102 mW on the task.     

Maritime VHF communications with polarization diversity over a Rician channel

In this paper, we propose a polarization diversity scheme to enhance maritime VHF communications. Multiple antenna systems require an antenna separation of 5–10 wavelengths to keep the correlation coefficient below 0.7 to permit the realization of space diversity. However, this may be difficult to implement in a maritime VHF system, because the maritime VHF is working in the frequency range from 156 to 174 MHz, with wavelength of approximately 2 m. On the other hand, the polarization device technique allows two co‐located antennas by using a micro‐strip technique. For this reason, the polarization technique is a practical method of attaining diversity. However, the theoretical model of polarization is very difficult and complex. Therefore, we express the cross correlation of each polarization antenna and the cross polarization discrimination of multiple polarization antennas with a simple model. Simulations show that the polarization diversity of a maritime VHF system shows better BER performance than that of the conventional reception diversity on the basis of vertical antenna with the antenna separation of 10 wavelengths. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.