Glucose-sensitive holographic sensors for monitoring bacterial growth

A glucose sensor comprising a reflection hologram incorporated into a thin, acrylamide hydrogel film bearing the cis-diol binding ligand, 3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid (3-APB), is described. The diffraction wavelength (color) of the hologram changes as the polymer swells upon binding cis-diols. The effect of various concentrations of glucose, a variety of mono- and disaccharides, and the alpha-hydroxy acid, lactate, on the holographic response was investigated. The sensor displayed reversible changes in diffraction wavelength as a function of cis-diol concentration, with the sensitivity of the system being dependent on the cis-diol tested. The effect of varying 3-APB concentration in the hydrogel on the holographic response to glucose was investigated, and maximum sensitivity was observed at a functional monomer concentration of 20 mol %. The potential for using this holographic sensor to detect real-time changes in bacterial cell metabolism was demonstrated by monitoring the germination and subsequent vegetative growth of Bacillus subtilis spores.     

Synthesis and characterization of yttrium aluminum garnet nanostructures by cathodic electrodeposition method

Pure nanostructures of yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) was prepared based on the cathodic electrodeposition method from the mixture of YCl₃ and AlCl₃ dissolved in water/ethanol solution. At first, hydroxide precursors cathodically were grown on the steel substrates then, the hydroxide powders heat treated at 850 °C for 4 h in dry air atmosphere. The formation of crystalline YAG nanopowder was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (DSC-TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The results of the SEM showed that applied current density and bath temperature have the prominent effect on the morphology and particle size of the products. The results revealed that cathodic electrodeposition followed by heat-treatment can be used as a facile method for preparation of YAG nanostructures with different morphology.     

Enhancement in Physical Properties of Silver-Doped Fe–Ni Invar Nano-alloy Using Chemical Reduction Method

Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism - Silver-substituted Fe–Ni nano invar alloy is a new and innovative field of research due to their interesting invar, magnetic and electrical...     

移动代理系统的评测基准

移动代理技术已经成为设计、实现分布式应用的一种极具前景的技术，现有许多移动代理系统已经在研究及商业领域得以实现．但是移动代理系统至今仍然没有得到很广泛的应用，其原因除了使用移动代理系统所涉及的安全性问题之外，另一个主要因素就是缺少一个对移动代理系统性能进行量化评价的基准．本文对于现有的能够对各种不同移动代理系统进行量化评测的基准进行综述，并且讨论哪些因素会对移动代理架构性能产生根本的影响．     

Study of Cu-doping effects on magnetic properties of Fe-doped ZnO by first principle calculations

Using ab initio calculations on Zn_{0.975? x} Fe_0.025Cu _x O (x = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.05), we study the variations of magnetic moments vs Cu concentration. The electronic structure is calculated by using the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (KKR) method combined with coherent potential approximation (CPA). We show that the total magnetic moment and magnetic moment of Fe increase on increasing Cu content. From the density of state (DOS) analysis, we show that Cu-induced impurity bands can assure, by two mechanisms, the enhancement of Fe magnetic moment in Zn_{0.975? x} Fe_0.025Cu _x O.     

Characterization of Al2O3 thin films fabricated through atomic layer deposition on polymeric substrates

This paper reports on the fabrication of good quality Al₂O₃ thin films on flexible substrates including polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and Polyamide at different temperatures down to 50 °C under very short water purging steps of 10 s. Al₂O₃ films with appreciable growth rates having good morphological, chemical, electrical and optical characteristics have been produced. Growth rates of 1.16, 1.14 and 1.15 Å/cycle have been observed at 50 °C for PET, PEN and polyamide substrates respectively. The surface morphology has been improved with the increase in deposition temperature. Low average arithmetic roughness of 0.88 and 0.78 nm have been recorded for the Al₂O₃ films deposited at 150 °C on PEN and polyamide respectively. The XPS analysis confirmed the fabrication of Al₂O₃ films without any carbon contamination and Al 2p, Al 2s and O 1s peaks were appeared at binding energies of 74, 119 and 531 eV, respectively. Excellent insulating properties were observed for the Al₂O₃ films and optical transmittance of more than 85 % was recorded in the visible region. The experimental results suggest that polymeric materials are excellent candidates to be used as substrates in the fabrication of Al₂O₃ thin films through atomic layer deposition.     

Coupled heat conduction and thermal stress analyses in particulate composites

This study introduces two micromechanical modeling approaches to analyze spatial variations of temperatures, stresses and displacements in particulate composites during transient heat conduction. In the first approach, a simple micromechanical model based on a first order homogenization scheme is adopted to obtain effective mechanical and thermal properties, i.e., coefficient of linear thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, and elastic constants, of a particulate composite. These effective properties are evaluated at each material (integration) point in three dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) models that represent homogenized composite media. The second approach treats a heterogeneous composite explicitly. Heterogeneous composites that consist of solid spherical particles randomly distributed in homogeneous matrix are generated using 3D continuum elements in an FE framework. For each volume fraction (VF) of particles, the FE models of heterogeneous composites with different particle sizes and arrangements are generated such that these models represent realistic volume elements “cut out” from a particulate composite. An extended definition of a RVE for heterogeneous composite is introduced, i.e., the number of heterogeneities in a fixed volume that yield the same expected effective response for the quantity of interest when subjected to similar loading and boundary conditions. Thermal and mechanical properties of both particle and matrix constituents are temperature dependent. The effects of particle distributions and sizes on the variations of temperature, stress and displacement fields are examined. The predictions of field variables from the homogenized micromechanical model are compared with those of the heterogeneous composites. Both displacement and temperature fields are found to be in good agreement. The micromechanical model that provides homogenized responses gives average values of the field variables. Thus, it cannot capture the discontinuities of the thermal stresses at the particle-matrix interface regions and local variations of the field variables within particle and matrix regions.     

Second-order effects at microindentation of elastic polymers using sharp indenters

Sharp indentation of elastic polymers is investigated numerically using the finite element method. Large deformation theory is relied upon for accuracy. Both cone and Vickers indentation is considered and in particular, the study focuses on second-order effects on relevant indentation quantities in the microindentation regime. The second-order effects include indenter tip roundness, friction and also, for generality, effects due to different values on the included angle of the cone indenter, α. It is shown that frictional effects as well as effects due to indenter tip roundness are small at cone indentation but friction can substantially influence the results in case of Vickers indentation. The latter feature is most likely due to frictional effects at the ridges of the indenter and as such behavior is not accurately described using conventional theory of friction, a numerical approach for this purpose is discussed.     

Biexciton emission and crystalline quality of ZnO nano-objects

The design of cost-effective standards for the quality of nano-objects is currently a key issue toward their massive use for optoelectronic applications. The observation by photoluminescence of narrow excitonic and biexcitonic emission lines in semiconductor nanowires is usually accepted as evidence for high structural quality. Here, we perform time-resolved cathodoluminescence experiments on isolated ZnO nanobelts grown by chemical vapor deposition. We observe narrow emission lines at low temperature, together with a clear biexciton line. Still, drastic alterations in both the CL intensity and lifetime are observed locally along the nano-object. We attribute these to non-radiative recombinations at edge dislocations, closing basal plane stacking faults, inhomogeneously distributed along the NB length. This leads us to the conclusion that the observation of narrow excitonic and biexcitonic emission lines is far from sufficient to grade the quality of a nano-object.