Multiscale vascular surface model generation from medical imaging data using hierarchical features

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of blood flow from image-based patient specific models can provide useful physiologic information for guiding clinical decision making. A novel method for the generation of image-based, 3-D, multiscale vascular surface models for CFD is presented. The method generates multiscale surfaces based on either a linear triangulated or a globally smooth nonuniform rational B-spline (NURB) representation. A robust local curvature analysis is combined with a novel global feature analysis to set mesh element size. The method is particularly useful for CFD modeling of complex vascular geometries that have a wide range of vasculature size scales, in conditions where 1) initial surface mesh density is an important consideration for balancing surface accuracy with manageable size volumetric meshes, 2) adaptive mesh refinement based on flow features makes an underlying explicit smooth surface representation desirable, and 3) semi-automated detection and trimming of a large number of inlet and outlet vessels expedites model construction.     

Deconvoluting Energy Transport Mechanisms in Metal Halide Perovskites Using CsPbBr3 Nanowires as a Model System

Understanding energy transport in metal halide perovskites is essential to effectively guide further optimization of materials and device designs. However, difficulties to disentangle charge carrier diffusion, photon recycling, and photon transport have led to contradicting reports and uncertainty regarding which mechanism dominates. In this study, monocrystalline CsPbBr₃ nanowires serve as 1D model systems to help unravel the respective contribution of energy transport processes in metal-halide perovskites. Spatially, temporally, and spectrally resolved photoluminescence (PL) microscopy reveals characteristic signatures of each transport mechanism from which a robust model describing the PL signal accounting for carrier diffusion, photon propagation, and photon recycling is developed. For the investigated CsPbBr₃ nanowires, an ambipolar carrier mobility of μ = 35 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ is determined, and is found that charge carrier diffusion dominates the energy transport process over photon recycling. Moreover, the general applicability of the developed model is demonstrated on different perovskite compounds by applying it to data provided in previous related reports, from which clarity is gained as to why conflicting reports exist. These findings, therefore, serve as a useful tool to assist future studies aimed at characterizing energy transport mechanisms in semiconductor nanowires using PL.     

A low-power low-noise CMOS amplifier for neural recording applications

There is a need among scientists and clinicians for low-noise low-power biosignal amplifiers capable of amplifying signals in the millihertz-to-kilohertz range while rejecting large dc offsets generated at the electrode-tissue interface. The advent of fully implantable multielectrode arrays has created the need for fully integrated micropower amplifiers. We designed and tested a novel bioamplifier that uses a MOS-bipolar pseudoresistor element to amplify low-frequency signals down to the millihertz range while rejecting large dc offsets. We derive the theoretical noise-power tradeoff limit - the noise efficiency factor - for this amplifier and demonstrate that our VLSI implementation approaches this limit by selectively operating MOS transistors in either weak or strong inversion. The resulting amplifier, built in a standard 1.5-/spl mu/m CMOS process, passes signals from 0.025Hz to 7.2 kHz with an input-referred noise of 2.2 /spl mu/Vrms and a power dissipation of 80 /spl mu/W while consuming 0.16 mm/sup 2/ of chip area. Our design technique was also used to develop an electroencephalogram amplifier having a bandwidth of 30 Hz and a power dissipation of 0.9 /spl mu/W while maintaining a similar noise-power tradeoff.     

Comparison of thin epitaxial film silicon photovoltaics fabricated on monocrystalline and polycrystalline seed layers on glass

We fabricate thin epitaxial crystal silicon solar cells on display glass and fused silica substrates overcoated with a silicon seed layer. To confirm the quality of hot‐wire chemical vapor deposition epitaxy, we grow a 2‐µm‐thick absorber on a (100) monocrystalline Si layer transfer seed on display glass and achieve 6.5% efficiency with an open circuit voltage (V_OC) of 586 mV without light‐trapping features. This device enables the evaluation of seed layers on display glass. Using polycrystalline seeds formed from amorphous silicon by laser‐induced mixed phase solidification (MPS) and electron beam crystallization, we demonstrate 2.9%, 476 mV (MPS) and 4.1%, 551 mV (electron beam crystallization) solar cells. Grain boundaries likely limit the solar cell grown on the MPS seed layer, and we establish an upper bound for the grain boundary recombination velocity (S_GB) of 1.6x10⁴ cm/s. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Low‐Cost Self‐Assembled Oxide Separator for Rechargeable Batteries

Rechargeable battery cells having a liquid electrolyte require a separator permeable to the electrolyte between the two electrodes. Because the electrodes change their volume during charge and discharge, the porous separators are flexible polymers with an electronic energy gap E_g large enough for the Fermi levels of the two electrodes to be within it. In this work, a porous film of self‐assembled SiO₂ nanoparticles is developed as the separator for a Li‐ion battery with a liquid electrolyte. This coating does not require the plasticity of a polymer membrane and has the required large E_g. If adsorbed water is removed from the SiO₂ surface, the nanoparticles bond to one another and to an oxide cathode to form a plastic self‐assembling porous layer into which the liquid electrolyte can penetrate. The Li‐ion batteries with a LiCoO₂ cathode coated with SiO₂ as a separator show similar performance to cells with a traditional polypropylene separator and improved cyclability with a reduced volume of liquid electrolyte owing to the electrolyte wetting properties of the SiO₂ nanoparticles. The SiO₂ nanoparticles are easy to prepare, cheap, and environmentally friendly.     

Polymeric Multilayers that Contain Silver Nanoparticles can be Stamped onto Biological Tissues to Provide Antibacterial Activity

The design of polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) that can be prefabricated on an elastomeric stamp and mechanically transferred onto biomedically‐relevant soft materials, including medical‐grade silicone elastomers (E’～450–1500 kPa; E’‐elastic modulus) and the dermis of cadaver skin (E’～200–600 kPa), is reported. Whereas initial attempts to stamp PEMs formed from poly(allylamine hydrochloride) and poly(acrylic acid) resulted in minimal transfer onto soft materials, we report that integration of micrometer‐sized beads into the PEMs (thicknesses of 6–160 nm) led to their quantitative transfer within 30 seconds of contact at a pressure of ～196 kPa. To demonstrate the utility of this approach, PEMs were impregnated with a range of loadings of silver‐nanoparticles and stamped onto the dermis of human cadaver skin (a wound‐simulant) that was subsequently incubated with bacterial cultures. Skin dermis stamped with PEMs that released 0.25 ± 0.01 μg cm^?2 of silver ions caused a 6 log₁₀ reduction in colony forming units of Staphylococcus epidermidis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa within 12 h. Significantly, this level of silver release is below that which is cytotoxic to NIH 3T3 mouse fibroblast cells. Overall, this study describes a general and facile approach for the functionalization of biomaterial surfaces without subjecting them to potentially deleterious processing conditions.     

Partial scan flip-flop selection by use of empirical testability

Partial serial scan as a design for testability technique permits automatic generation of high fault coverage tests for sequential circuits with less hardware overhead and less performance degradation than full serial scan. The objective of the partial scan flip-flop selection method proposed here is to obtain maximum fault coverage for the number of scan flip-flops selected. Empirical Testability Difference (ETD), a measure of potential improvement in the testability of the circuit, is used to successively select one or more flip-flops for addition or deletion of scan logic. ETD is calculated by using testability measures based on empirical evaluation of the circuit with the acutal automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) system. In addition, once such faults are known, ETD focuses on the hard-to-detect faults rather than all faults and uses heuristics to permit effective selection of multiple flip-flops without global optimization. Two ETD algorithms have been extensively tested by using FASTEST ATPG [1, 2] on fourteen of the ISCAS89 [3] sequential circuits. The results of these tests indicate that ETD yields, on average, 35% fewer uncovered detectable faults for the same number of scanned flip-flops or 27% fewer scanned flip-flops for comparable fault coverage relative to cycle-breaking methods.This work was performed while the author was with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.     

The BER analysis of OFDMA and SC‐FDMA under pilot‐assisted channel estimation and pilot jamming in rayleigh slow‐fading channel

In this paper, the authors derived the analytical bit error rate expressions for orthogonal frequency division multiple access and single‐carrier frequency‐division multiple access (SC‐FDMA) in Rayleigh slow‐fading channel for binary phase‐shift keying/quadrature phase‐shift keying/16‐quadrature amplitude modulations under pilot jamming and pilot symbol‐assisted channel estimation. Beginning with the bit error rate analysis from the general case of pilot symbol‐assisted channel estimation technique in Rayleigh slow‐fading channel, the expressions are first modified for different modulations and then further customized to account for the Zero‐Forcing equalization in frequency or time direction with application respectively to orthogonal frequency division multiple access or SC‐FDMA without and with pilot jamming. Piecewise‐linear interpolation is used for its simplicity. The simulation results match perfectly with the theoretical predictions except for some discrepancies with SC‐FDMA, which imply that the generalized equations developed here have to be further modified to account for system‐specific features like discrete Fourier transform precoding for SC‐FDMA. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluating performability: Most probable states and bounds

The number of states examined by most probable state algorithms for performability computations can be reduced dramatically by incorporating simple connectivity-based bounds, even when the performability measure is much more complex than connectivity. Modifications to Yang and Kubat's most probable state method are presented that permit the use of simple auxiliary bounds with only a small effect on the time per iteration. Computational results for a variety of performability measures are given.