Cantilever-based sensor for the detection of different chromophore isomers

We report the use of microcantilevers (MCs) for the detection of three retinoid isomers: 9-cis-retinal, 13-cis-retinal and all-trans-retinal. Detection of synthetic and natural retinoids in topical cosmetic products is important, and their presence can be used to predict reactions with the skin surface. In this study the MC surfaces were functionalized in order to promote the formation of covalent bonds with the chromophores. The lowest mass shift we detected with the functionalized MCs was 1.2 ppt, which is in the range needed by the cosmetics industry. Our results indicate that properly designed and functionalized microcantilevers can be used to construct economical, fast, and sensitive sensors for quality control in cosmetics.     

Transmissibility of swine flu at Fort Dix, 1976.

The 1976 outbreak of A/New Jersey/76 influenza in Fort Dix is a rare example of an influenza virus with documented human to human transmission that failed to spread widely. Despite extensive epidemiological investigation, no attempt has been made to quantify the transmissibility of this virus. The World Health Organization and the United States Government view containment of emerging influenza strains as central to combating pandemic influenza. Computational models predict that it may be possible to contain an emergent pandemic influenza if virus transmissibility is low. The A/New Jersey/76 outbreak at the United States Army Training Center at Fort Dix, New Jersey in January 1976 caused 13 hospitalizations, 1 death and an estimated 230 cases. To characterize viral transmission in this epidemic, we estimated the basic reproductive number and serial interval using deterministic epidemic models and stochastic simulations. We estimated the basic reproductive number for this outbreak to be 1.2 (supported interval 1.1-1.4), the serial interval to be 1.9 days (supported interval 1.6-3.8 days), and that the virus had at least six serial human to human transmissions. This places the transmissibility of A/New Jersey/76 virus at the lower end of circulating flu strains, well below the threshold for control.     

Waveguide bandpass filter with easily adjustable transmission zeros and 3-dB bandwidth

This paper presents a compact waveguide bandpass filter with adjustable transmission zeros (TZs) and bandwidth. The design provides the flexibility to place the TZs at the desired locations for better interference rejection. To demonstrate, initially a three-pole bandpass filter has been designed by placing three single slot resonator structures inside a WR-90 waveguide. Next, two additional asymmetrical slot structures have been used with each of the above resonators to generate two TZs, one on each side of the passband. Since three resonators were used, this process results in six asymmetric slot structures those results in six TZs. The final filter operates at 9.98 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of 1.02 GHz and TZs at 8.23/8.70/9.16/10.9/11.6 and 13.115 GHz. Equivalent circuits and necessary design equations have been provided. To validate the simulation, the proposed filter has been fabricated and measured. The measured data show good agreement with simulated data.     

Nanoscale Origins of Nonlinear Behavior in Ferroic Thin Films

The nonlinear response of a ferroic to an applied field has been studied through the phenomenological Rayleigh Law for over a hundred years. Yet, despite this, the fundamental physical mechanisms at the nanoscale that lead to macroscopic Rayleigh behavior have remained largely elusive, and experimental evidence at small length scales is limited. Here, it is shown using a combination of scanning probe techniques and phase field modeling, that nanoscale piezoelectric response in prototypical Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ films appears to follow a distinctly non‐Rayleigh regime. Through statistical analysis, it is found that an averaging of local responses can lead directly to Rayleigh‐like behavior of the strain on a macroscale. Phase‐field modeling confirms the twist of the ferroelastic interface is key in enhancing piezoelectric response. The studies shed light on the nanoscale origins of nonlinear behavior in disordered ferroics.     

Measuring Domain Sizes and Compositional Heterogeneities in P3HT‐PCBM Bulk Heterojunction Thin Films with 1H Spin Diffusion NMR Spectroscopy

The application of ¹H spin diffusion nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is expanded to polymer‐fullerene blends for bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic photovoltaics (OPV) by developing a new experimental methodology for measuring the thin films used in poly‐3‐hexylthiophene–phenyl C61‐butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT‐PCBM) OPV devices and by creating an analysis framework for estimating domain size distributions. It is shown that variations in common P3HT‐PCBM BHJ processing parameters such as spin‐coating speed and thermal annealing can significantly affect domain size distributions, which in turn affect power conversion efficiency. ¹H spin diffusion NMR analysis reveals that films spin‐cast at fast speeds in dichlorobenzene are primarily composed of small (<10 nm) domains of each component; these devices exhibit low power conversion efficiencies (η = 0.4%). Fast‐cast films improve substantially by thermal annealing, which causes nanometer‐scale coarsening leading to higher efficiency (η = 2.2%). Films spin‐cast at slow speeds and then slowly dried exhibit larger domains and even higher efficiencies (η = 2.6%), but do not benefit from thermal annealing. The ¹H spin diffusion NMR results show that a significant population of domains tens of nanometers in size is a common characteristic of samples with higher efficiencies.     

Graph laplacian tomography from unknown random projections

We introduce a graph Laplacian-based algorithm for the tomographic reconstruction of a planar object from its projections taken at random unknown directions. A Laplace-type operator is constructed on the data set of projections, and the eigenvectors of this operator reveal the projection orientations. The algorithm is shown to successfully reconstruct the Shepp-Logan phantom from its noisy projections. Such a reconstruction algorithm is desirable for the structuring of certain biological proteins using cryo-electron microscopy.     

Safari: A self-organizing, hierarchical architecture for scalable ad hoc networking

As wireless devices become more pervasive, mobile ad hoc networks are gaining importance, motivating the development of highly scalable ad hoc networking techniques. In this paper, we give an overview of the Safari architecture for highly scalable ad hoc network routing, and we present the design and evaluation of a specific realization of the Safari architecture, which we call Masai. We focus in this work on the scalability of learning and maintaining the routing state necessary for a large ad hoc network. The Safari architecture provides scalable ad hoc network routing, the seamless integration of infrastructure networks when and where they are available, and the support of self-organizing, decentralized network applications. Safari’s architecture is based on (1) a self-organizing network hierarchy that recursively groups participating nodes into an adaptive, locality-based hierarchy of cells; (2) a routing protocol that uses a hybrid of proactive and reactive routing information in the cells and scales to much larger numbers of nodes than previous ad hoc network routing protocols; and (3) a distributed hash table grounded in the network hierarchy, which supports decentralized network services on top of Safari. We evaluate the Masai realization of the Safari architecture through analysis and simulations, under varying network sizes, fraction of mobile nodes, and offered traffic loads. Compared to both the DSR and the L+ routing protocols, our results show that the Masai realization of the Safari architecture is significantly more scalable, with much higher packet delivery ratio and lower overhead.     

Hybrid Proton and Electron Transport in Peptide Fibrils

Protons and electrons are being exploited in different natural charge transfer processes. Both types of charge carriers could be, therefore, responsible for charge transport in biomimetic self‐assembled peptide nanostructures. The relative contribution of each type of charge carrier is studied in the present work for fibrils self‐assembled from amyloid‐β derived peptide molecules, in which two non‐natural thiophene‐based amino acids are included. It is shown that under low humidity conditions both electrons and protons contribute to the conduction, with current ratio of 1:2 respectively, while at higher relative humidity proton transport dominates the conductance. This hybrid conduction behavior leads to a bimodal exponential dependence of the conductance on the relative humidity. Furthermore, in both cases the conductance is shown to be affected by the peptide folding state under the entire relative humidity range. This unique hybrid conductivity behavior makes self‐assembled peptide nanostructures powerful building blocks for the construction of electric devices that could use either or both types of charge carriers for their function.     

Inaudible Sound Covert Channel with Anti-Jamming Capability: Attacks vs. Countermeasure

When an inaudible sound covert channel (ISCC) attack is launched inside a computer system, sensitive data are converted to inaudible sound waves and then transmitted. The receiver at the other end picks up the sound signal, from which the original sensitive data can be recovered. As a forceful countermeasure against the ISCC attack, strong noise can be used to jam the channel and literally shut down any possible sound data transmission. In this paper, enhanced ISCC is proposed, whose transmission frequency can be dynamically changed. Essentially, if the transmitter detects that the covert channel is being jammed, the transmitter and receiver both will switch to another available frequency and re-establish their communications, following the proposed communications protocol. Experimental results show that the proposed enhanced ISCC can remain connected even in the presence of a strong jamming noise source. Correspondingly, a detection method based on frequency scanning is proposed to help to combat such an anti-jamming sound channel. With the proposed countermeasure, the bit error rate (BER) of the data communications over enhanced ISCC soars to more than 48%, essentially shutting down the data transmission, and thus neutralizing the security threat.