Cellular Behavior of Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells on Wettable Gradient Polyethylene Surfaces

Appropriate surface wettability and roughness of biomaterials is an important factor in cell attachment and proliferation. In this study, we investigated the correlation between surface wettability and roughness, and biological response in human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs). We prepared wettable and rough gradient polyethylene (PE) surfaces by increasing the power of a radio frequency corona discharge apparatus with knife-type electrodes over a moving sample bed. The PE changed gradually from hydrophobic and smooth surfaces to hydrophilic (water contact angle, 90º to ~50º) and rough (80 to ~120 nm) surfaces as the power increased. We found that hADSCs adhered better to highly hydrophilic and rough surfaces and showed broadly stretched morphology compared with that on hydrophobic and smooth surfaces. The proliferation of hADSCs on hydrophilic and rough surfaces was also higher than that on hydrophobic and smooth surfaces. Furthermore, integrin beta 1 gene expression, an indicator of attachment, and heat shock protein 70 gene expression were high on hydrophobic and smooth surfaces. These results indicate that the cellular behavior of hADSCs on gradient surface depends on surface properties, wettability and roughness.     

Sustainable Vibration Energy Harvesting Based on Zr‐Doped PMN‐PT Piezoelectric Single Crystal Cantilevers

In this paper, we present the results of a preliminary study on the piezoelectric energy harvesting performance of a Zr‐doped PbMg_1/3Nb_2/3O₃‐PbTiO₃ (PMN‐PZT) single crystal beam. A novel piezoelectric beam cantilever structure is used to demonstrate the feasibility of generating AC voltage during a state of vibration. The energy‐harvesting capability of a PMN‐PZT beam is calculated and tested. The frequency response of the cantilever device shows that the first mode resonance frequency of the excitation model exists in the neighborhood of several hundreds of hertz, which is similar to the calculated value. These tests show that several significantly open AC voltages and sub‐mW power are achieved. To test the possibility of a small scale power source for a ubiquitous sensor network service, energy conversion and the testing of storage experiment are also carried out.     

A Serial Input/Output Circuit with 8 bit and 16 bit Selection Modes

This paper presents a serial interface circuit that permits selection of the amount of data converted from serial‐to‐parallel and parallel‐to‐serial and overcomes the disadvantages of the conventional serial input/output interface. Based on the selected data length operating mode, 8 bit or 16 bit serial‐to‐parallel and 8 bit or 16 bit parallel‐to‐serial conversion takes place in data blocks of the selected data length.     

High‐Performance n‐Channel Thin‐Film Field‐Effect Transistors Based on a Nanowire‐Forming Polymer

A new electrontransport polymer, poly{[N,N′‐dioctylperylene‐3,4,9,10‐bis(dicarboximide)‐1,7(6)‐diyl]‐alt‐[(2,5‐bis(2‐ethyl‐hexyl)‐1,4‐phenylene)bis(ethyn‐2,1‐diyl]} (PDIC8‐EB), is synthesized. In chloroform, the polymer undergoes self‐assembly, forming a nanowire suspension. The nanowire's optical and electrochemical properties, morphological structure, and field‐effect transistor (FET) characteristics are investigated. Thin films fabricated from a PDIC8‐EB nanowire suspension are composed of ordered nanowires and ordered and amorphous non‐nanowire phases, whereas films prepared from a homogeneous PDIC8‐EB solution consist of only the ordered and amorphous non‐nanowire phases. X‐ray scattering experiments suggest that in both nanowires and ordered phases, the PDIC8 units are laterally stacked in an edge‐on manner with respect to the film plane, with full interdigitation of the octyl chains, and with the polymer backbones preferentially oriented within the film plane. The ordering and orientations are significantly enhanced through thermal annealing at 200 °C under inert conditions. The polymer film with high degree of structural ordering and strong orientation yields a high electron mobility (0.10 ± 0.05 cm² V^?1 s^?1), with a high on/off ratio (3.7 × 10⁶), a low threshold voltage (8 V), and negligible hysteresis (0.5 V). This study demonstrates that the polymer in the nanowire suspension provides a suitable material for fabricating the active layers of high‐performance n‐channel FET devices via a solution coating process.     

Hybrid Analog and Digital Precoding Based on Adaptive Method in P2P Massive MIMO

To achieve a far higher capacity in massive multi-input multi-output, the hybrid analog and digital precoding has been studied recently. In this paper, we consider the downlink single user communication system and propose an efficient matrix adaptive gradient descent algorithm to design the radio frequency precoder and combiner, and use the singular value decomposition method to obtain the digital precoder and combiner. Simulation results show that the proposed method can approach the performance of the conventional full digital precoding with a fast convergence rate.     

Generalized Linear Mixed Models for Reliability Analysis of Multi-Copy Repairable Systems

The power law process (PLP) is usually applied to failure data from a single repairable system. When a system has a number of copies for analysis, the usual approach is to assume homogeneity among all system copies, and then to pool data from these copies. In the real world, however, it may be more reasonable to assume heterogeneity among the system copies. Therefore, this paper proposes a new generalized linear mixed model (GLMM), called PLP-GLMM, to analyse failure data from multi-copy repairable systems. In the PLP-GLMM, the underlying model for each system copy is assumed to be a PLP at Stage 1, and parameters vary among copies at Stage 2. The PLP-GLMM can make inferences about both the population, and each system copy when accounting for copy-to-copy variance. A modified Anderson-Darling test is adapted to the goodness-of-fit test of the PLP-GLMM. A numerical application is given to show the effectiveness of the model     

Digitally Alloyed Modulated Precursor Flow Epitaxial Growth of Ternary AlGaN with Binary AlN and GaN Sub-Layers and Observation of Compositional Inhomogeneity

We report the growth of ternary aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) layers on AlN/sapphire template/substrates by digitally alloyed modulated precursor flow epitaxial growth (DA-MPEG), which combined an MPEG AlN sub-layer with a conventional metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)-grown GaN sub-layer. The overall composition in DA-MPEG Al _x Ga_1−x N was controlled by adjustment of the growth time (i.e., the thickness) of the GaN sub-layer. As the GaN sub-layer growth time increased, the Al composition in AlGaN decreased to 50%, but the surface morphology of the AlGaN layer became rough, and a three-dimensional structure with islands appeared for the DA-MPEG AlGaN with relatively thick GaN sub-layers, possibly resulting from the Ga adatom surface migration behavior and/or the strain built up from lattice mismatch between AlN and GaN sub-layers with increasing GaN sub-layer growth time. Through strain analysis by high-resolution x-ray diffraction, reciprocal space mapping, and scanning transmission electron microscopy, it was found that there was compositional inhomogeneity in the DA-MPEG AlGaN with AlN and GaN binary sub-layers for the case of the layer with relatively thick GaN sub-layers.     

PSR enhancement techniques for output-capacitor-free LDO regulator design

In this paper, power-supply rejection (PSR) enhancement techniques for a output-capacitor-free low drop-out (LDO) regulator with an NMOS pass transistor are presented. For DC PSR and bandwidth enhancement, DC PSR compensation and capacitor cancelation circuits were developed on the basis of precisely derived PSR models of the conventional LDO regulator. The effectiveness of the PSR enhancement techniques were verified using analytic PSR models, SPICE simulation, and measurements. The fabricated LDO regulator using 0.18 \(\upmu\)m CMOS technology maintains PSR less than \(-74\,\hbox {dB}\) up to 10 MHz, while delivering the output current and voltage of 25 mA and 1.2 V, respectively.     

Multi‐robot Mapping Using Omnidirectional‐Vision SLAM Based on Fisheye Images

This paper proposes a global mapping algorithm for multiple robots from an omnidirectional‐vision simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) approach based on an object extraction method using Lucas–Kanade optical flow motion detection and images obtained through fisheye lenses mounted on robots. The multi‐robot mapping algorithm draws a global map by using map data obtained from all of the individual robots. Global mapping takes a long time to process because it exchanges map data from individual robots while searching all areas. An omnidirectional image sensor has many advantages for object detection and mapping because it can measure all information around a robot simultaneously. The process calculations of the correction algorithm are improved over existing methods by correcting only the object's feature points. The proposed algorithm has two steps: first, a local map is created based on an omnidirectional‐vision SLAM approach for individual robots. Second, a global map is generated by merging individual maps from multiple robots. The reliability of the proposed mapping algorithm is verified through a comparison of maps based on the proposed algorithm and real maps.     

Transparent Photo‐Stable Complementary Inverter with an Organic/Inorganic Nanohybrid Dielectric Layer

Transparent electronics has been one of the key terminologies forecasting the ubiquitous technology era. Several researchers have thus extensively developed transparent oxide‐based thin‐film transistors (TFTs) on glass and plastic substrates. However, work in transparent electronics has been limited mostly to high‐voltage devices operating at more than a few tens of volts, and has mainly focused on transparent display drivers. Low‐voltage logic devices, such as transparent complementary inverters, operating in an electrically stable and photo‐stable manner, are now very necessary to practically realize transparent electronics. Electrically stable dielectrics with high strength and high capacitance must also be proposed to support this mission, and simultaneously these dielectrics must be compatible with both n‐ and p‐channel TFTs in device fabrication. Here, a nanohybrid dielectric layer that is composed of multiple units of inorganic oxide and organic self‐assembled monolayer is proposel to support a transparent complementary TFT inverter operating at 3 V.