Chromophore-Free Sealing and Repair of Soft Tissues Using Mid-Infrared Light-Activated Biosealants

Poor strength, infection, leakage, long procedure times, and inflammation limit the efficacy of common tissue sealing devices in surgeries and trauma. Light-activated sealing is attractive for tissue sealing and repair, and can be facilitated by the generation of local heat following absorption of nonionizing laser energy by chromophores. Here, the inherent ability of biomaterials is exploited to absorb nonionizing, mid-infrared (midIR) light in order to engender rapid photothermal sealing and repair of soft tissue wounds. In this approach, the biomaterial simultaneously acts as a photothermal convertor as well as a biosealant, which dispenses the need for exogeneous light-absorbing nanoparticles or dyes. Biomechanical recovery, mathematical modeling, histopathology analyses, tissue strain mapping using digital imaging correlation, and visualization of the biosealant-tissue interface using hyperspectral imaging indicate superior performance of midIR sealing in live mice compared to conventional sutures and glue. The midIR-biosealant approach demonstrates rapid sealing of soft tissues, improves cosmesis, lowers potential for scarring, obviates safety concerns because of the nonionizing light used, and allows adoption of a wide diversity of biomaterials. Taken together, the studies demonstrate a novel advance both in biomaterials for surgical sealing along with the use of nonionizing midIR light, with high potential for clinical translation.     

A framework for harmonizing internet of things (IoT) in cloud: analyses and implementation

Internet of Things (IoT) refers to uniquely identifiable entities. Its vision is the world of connected objects. Due to its connected nature the data produced by IoT is being used for different purposes. Since IoT generates huge amount of data, we need some scalable storage to store and compute the data sensed from the sensors. To overcome this issue, we need the integration of cloud and IoT, so that the data might be stored and computed in a scalable environment. Harmonization of IoT in Cloud might be a novel solution in this regard. IoT devices will interact with each other using Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP). In this paper, we have implemented harmonizing IoT in Cloud. We have used CoAP to get things connected to each other through the Internet. For the implementation we have used two sensors, fire detector and the sensor attached with the door which is responsible for opening it. Thus our implementation will be storing and retrieving the sensed data from the cloud. We have also compared our implementation with different parameters. The comparison shows that our implementation significantly improves the performance compared to the existing system.

     

PbS and CdS Quantum Dot‐Sensitized Solid‐State Solar Cells: “Old Concepts,New Results”

Lead sulfide (PbS) and cadmium sulfide (CdS) quantum dots (QDs) are prepared over mesoporous TiO₂ films by a successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) process. These QDs are exploited as a sensitizer in solid‐state solar cells with 2,2′,7,7′‐tetrakis(N,N‐di‐p‐methoxyphenylamine)‐9,9′‐spirobifluorene (spiro‐OMeTAD) as a hole conductor. High‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images reveal that PbS QDs of around 3 nm in size are distributed homogeneously over the TiO₂ surface and are well separated from each other if prepared under common SILAR deposition conditions. The pore size of the TiO₂ films and the deposition medium are found to be very critical in determining the overall performance of the solid‐state QD cells. By incorporating promising inorganic QDs (PbS) and an organic hole conductor spiro‐OMeTAD into the solid‐state cells, it is possible to attain an efficiency of over 1% for PbS‐sensitized solid‐state cells after some optimizations. The optimized deposition cycle of the SILAR process for PbS QDs has also been confirmed by transient spectroscopic studies on the hole generation of spiro‐OMeTAD. In addition, it is established that the PbS QD layer plays a role in mediating the interfacial recombination between the spiro‐OMeTAD⁺ cation and the TiO₂ conduction band electron, and that the lifetime of these species can change by around 2 orders of magnitude by varying the number of SILAR cycles used. When a near infrared (NIR)‐absorbing zinc carboxyphthalocyanine dye (TT1) is added on top of the PbS‐sensitized electrode to obtain a panchromatic response, two signals from each component are observed, which results in an improved efficiency. In particular, when a CdS‐sensitized electrode is first prepared, and then co‐sensitized with a squarine dye (SQ1), the resulting color change is clearly an addition of each component and the overall efficiencies are also added in a more synergistic way than those in PbS/TT1‐modified cells because of favorable charge‐transfer energetics.     

Prioritized Medium Access Control in Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks: Protocol and Analysis

Cognitive radio (CR) technology enables opportunistic exploration of unused licensed channels. By giving secondary users (SUs) the capability to utilize the licensed channels (LCs) when there are no primary users (PUs) present, the CR increases spectrum utilization and ameliorates the problem of spectrum shortage. However, the absence of a central controller in CR ad hoc network (CRAHN) introduces many challenges in the efficient selection of appropriate data and backup channels. Maintenance of the backup channels as well as managing the sudden appearance of PUs are critical issues for effective operation of CR. In this paper, a prioritized medium access control protocol for CRAHN, PCR-MAC, is developed which opportunistically selects the optimal data and backup channels from a list of available channels. We also design a scheme for reliable switching of a SU from the data channel to the backup channel and vice-versa. Thus, PCR-MAC increases network throughput and decreases SUs’ blocking rate. We also develop a Markov chain-based performance analysis model for the proposed PCR-MAC protocol. Our simulations, carried out in \(NS-3\) , show that the proposed PCR-MAC outperforms other state-of-the-art opportunistic medium access control protocols for CRAHNs.     

Cross-layer selective routing for cost and delay minimization in IEEE 802.11ac wireless mesh network

Wireless Networks - A Wireless Internet-access Mesh NETwork (WIMNET) provides scalable and reliable internet access through the deployment of multiple access points (APs) and gateways (GWs). In...     

Node to Node Performance Evaluation through RYU SDN Controller

In this paper a novel jamming technique is presented. The idea of the proposed jamming technique is based on adding inphase and quadrature impairments to the jamming signal. The jammer is simply a quadrature phase shift keying signal. The bit error rate probability (BER) of the proposed jamming signal is derived analytically and validated with the aid of the software defined radio SystemVue design software. The standard multi input multi output (MIMO) wireless local area network (WLAN) IEEE802.11n communication system is chosen as the victim system. Its BER performance is simulated in the presence of the proposed jamming signal in multipath fading channel. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed jamming signal on the MIMO WLAN IEEE802.11n communication system is practically measured in the laboratory where a practical experiment is held and the efficiency of the proposed jamming signal is compared with the traditional single tone jamming signal. It will be shown practically that the proposed jamming technique outperforms the traditional single tone jamming signal by nearly 15 dBm on the impact of efficiently jam the MIMO WLAN IEEE802.11n communication system.

     

Delay‐insensitive identification of neighbors using unslotted and slotted protocols

For many applications, it is desirable for a node to be able to identify the neighbor nodes currently within range. However, the identification procedures for terrestrial communication networks (TCNs) are inefficient when implemented in long‐delay networks (LDNs) such as underwater acoustic networks or satellite networks, where the propagation time of a packet cannot be neglected. Here, we propose a time‐efficient and power‐efficient procedure, which is insensitive to propagation delay, for identifying neighbors in an LDN by optimizing the network offered load using either unslotted or slotted protocols. The procedure is adapted to the scenario when node cardinality and distribution are either known or unknown in advance. We achieve improvements as high as 80% in time and 45% in power consumption for our proposed approach compared with approaches developed previously for TCN. Furthermore, we analyze our proposed approach with the inclusion of the capture effect and packet receive time variations. We also provide a closed form formula for finding the optimum guard time and a procedure to estimate the packet receive time variations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of energy-tax for multipath routing in wireless sensor networks

Recently, multipath routing in wireless sensor networks (WSN) has got immense research interest due to its capability of providing increased robustness, reliability, throughput, and security. However, a theoretical analysis on the energy consumption behavior of multipath routing has not yet been studied. In this paper, we present a general framework for analyzing the energy consumption overhead (i.e., energy tax) resulting from multipath routing protocol in WSN. The framework includes a baseline routing model, a network model, and two energy consumption schemes for sensor nodes, namely, periodic listening and selective wake-up schemes. It exploits the influence of node density, link failure rates, number of multiple paths, and transmission environment on the energy consumption. Scaling laws of energy-tax due to routing and data traffic are derived through analysis, which provide energy profiles of single-path and multipath routing and serve as a guideline for designing energy-efficient protocols for WSN. The crossover points of relative energy taxes, paid by single-path and multipath routing, reception, and transmission, are obtained. Finally, the scaling laws are validated and performance comparisons are depicted for a reference network via numerical results.     

Inorganic-Based Printed Thermoelectric Materials and Devices

One of the simplest ways to generate electric power from waste heat is thermoelectric (TE) energy conversion. So far, most of the research on thermoelectrics has focused on inorganic bulk TE materials and their device applications. However, high production costs per power output and limited shape conformity hinder applications of state-of-the-art thermoelectric devices (TEDs). In recent years, printed thermoelectrics has emerged as an exciting pathway for their potential in the production of low-cost shape-conformable TEDs. Although several inorganic bulk TE materials with high performance are successfully developed, achieving high performance in inorganic-based printed TE materials is still a challenge. Nevertheless, significant progress has been made in printed thermoelectrics in recent years. In this review article, it is started with an introduction signifying the importance of printed thermoelectrics followed by a discussion of theoretical concepts of thermoelectricity, from fundamental transport phenomena to device efficiency. Afterward, the general process of inorganic TE ink formulation is summarized, and the current development of the inorganic and hybrid inks with the mention of their TE properties and their influencing factors is elaborated. In the end, TEDs with different architecture and geometries are highlighted by documenting their performance and fabrication techniques.     

Solution‐Processed Ti3C2Tx MXene Antennas for Radio‐Frequency Communication

Highly integrated, flexible, and ultrathin wireless communication components are in significant demand due to the explosive growth of portable and wearable electronic devices in the fifth‐generation (5G) network era, but only conventional metals meet the requirements for emerging radio‐frequency (RF) devices so far. Here, it is reported on Ti₃C₂T_x MXene microstrip transmission lines with low‐energy attenuation and patch antennas with high‐power radiation at frequencies from 5.6 to 16.4 GHz. The radiation efficiency of a 5.5 µm thick MXene patch antenna manufactured by spray‐coating from aqueous solution reaches 99% at 16.4 GHz, which is about the same as that of a standard 35 µm thick copper patch antenna at about 15% of its thickness and 7% of the copper weight. MXene outperforms all other materials evaluated for patch antennas to date. Moreover, it is demonstrated that an MXene patch antenna array with integrated feeding circuits on a conformal surface has comparable performance with that of a copper antenna array at 28 GHz, which is a target frequency in practical 5G applications. The versatility of MXene antennas in wide frequency ranges coupled with the flexibility, scalability, and ease of solution processing makes MXene promising for integrated RF components in various flexible electronic devices.