Measurement techniques for conducted HPEM signals

High-power electromagnetic (HPEM) signals are a serious threat for modern electronic systems. Intentionally generated electromagnetic interferences might cause upsets or permanent defects in electronics, particularly in the electronics' interface. There are numerous military and especially civil targets, which might be interesting for criminals or terrorists to interfere. Therefore, there is a need to characterize the overall problem by means of simulations and measurements. This paper discusses measurement procedures for conducted HPEM signals. The measurement of transmission line coupled HPEM signals with a steepness in the order of 10-10E14 V/s is a very challenging task. This paper discusses the state of the art in electromagnetic pulse measurements with a focus on conducted ultra wide band and RPEM signals respectively.     

A method to test whether a system is near failure

A method is presented for the identification of system states near system failure before its occurrence, from observations of component states. State vectors of components are classified into finite system states, based on two measures of the distance from system failure; the logical distance and the probabilistic distance. The method first obtains the Boolean function representing the structural relation between component states and system states classified by the logical distance and then computes the probabilistic distance of the current state vector from system failure.     

Efficient Nd:YAG slab longitudinally pumped by diode lasers

An efficient scalable 1.06-μm continuous-wave (CW) Nd:YAG slab laser longitudinally pumped by diode lasers is discussed. The 809-nm diode radiation is focused into every laser channel emerging from the reflection points of the 1.06-μm beam on the coated slab surfaces. A maximum CW TEM₀₀ output power of 675 mW has been obtained at a diode pump power of 2 W resulting in a slope efficiency of 40%     

A Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) Based Transceiver for an In-Tire-Pressure Monitoring Sensor Node

Attaching a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) on the inner liner of a tire allows sensing of important additional technical parameters, such as vehicle load or tire wearout. The maximum weight of the sensor is limited to 5 grams including package, power supply, and antenna. Robustness is required against extreme levels of acceleration. The node size is limited to about 1 cm3 to avoid high force-gradients due to device-deformation and finally, a long power supply lifetime must be achieved. In this paper a low-power FSK transceiver is presented. Exploiting BAW resonators the use of a bulky and shock-sensitive crystal and a PLL can be avoided. This makes the system more robust and radically reduces the start-up time to 2 ?s from few ms as in state-of-the-art crystal oscillator based systems. The current consumption of the transceiver is 6 mA in transmit mode with a transmit output power of 1 dBm and 8 mA in receive mode with a sensitivity of -90 dBm at a data rate of 50 kBit/s and a bit error rate of 10^-2. The transceiver ASIC and a microcontroller ASIC, a MEMS sensor, and a BAW die are arranged in a 3-D chip stack for best compactness, lowest volume, and highest robustness. The sensor node allows sensing of pressure, acceleration, supply voltage and temperature.     

Selective Functionalization of Microstructured Surfaces by Laser‐Assisted Particle Transfer

Microcavity arrays represent millions of different reaction compartments to screen, for example, molecular interactions, exogenous factors for cells or enzymatic activity. A novel method is presented to selectively synthesize different compounds in arrays of microcavities with up to 1 000 000 cavities per cm². In this approach, polymer microparticles with embedded pre‐activated monomers are selectively transferred into microcavities with laser radiation. After particle patterning, heating of the particle matrix simultaneously leads to diffusion and coupling of the monomers inside each microcavity separately. This method exhibits flexibility, not only in the choice of compounds, but also in the choice of particle matrix material, which determines the chemical reaction environment. The laser‐assisted selective functionalization of microcavities can be easily combined with the intensively growing number of laser applications for patterning of molecules and cells, which is useful for the development of novel biological assays.     

MI-Pack: Increased confidence of metabolite identification in mass spectra by integrating accurate masses and metabolic pathways

Metabolite identification is of central importance to metabolomics as it provides the route to new knowledge. Automated identification of the thousands of peaks detected by high resolution mass spectrometry is currently not possible, largely due to the finite mass accuracy of the spectrometer and the complexity that one peak can be assigned to one or more empirical formula(e) and each formula maps to one or more metabolites. Biological samples are not, however, composed of random metabolite mixtures, but instead comprise of thousands of compounds related through specific chemical transformations. Here we evaluate if prior biological knowledge of these transformations can improve metabolite identification accuracy.Our identification algorithm - which uses metabolite interconnectivity from the KEGG database to putatively identify metabolites by name - is based on mapping an experimentally-derived empirical formula difference for a pair of peaks to a known empirical formula difference between substrate-product pairs derived from KEGG, termed transformation mapping (TM). To maximize identification accuracy, we also developed a novel semi-automated method to calculate a mass error surface associated with experimental peak-pair differences. The TM algorithm with mass error surface has been extensively validated using simulated and experimental datasets by calculating false positive and false negative rates of metabolite identification. Compared to the traditional identification method of database searching accurate masses on a single-peak-by-peak basis, the TM algorithm reduces the false positive rate of identification by > 4-fold, while maintaining a minimal false negative rate. The mass error surface, putative identification of metabolite names, and calculation of false positive and false negative rates collectively advance and improve upon related previous research on this topic [1, 2]. We conclude that inclusion of prior biological knowledge in the form of metabolic pathways provides one route to more accurate metabolite identification.     

Optoacoustic imaging using a three-dimensional reconstructionalgorithm

A novel three-dimensional (3-D) computational algorithm to reconstruct 3-D optoacoustic images from two-dimensional (2-D) pressure distributions generated at the sample surface is presented. The 2-D pressure distributions were measured as images at different delay times after the excitation laser pulse. The pressure images were captured with a gated CCD camera as the local pressure induces intensity changes of a reflected probe beam at the surface of the irradiated sample. The illumination time was 10 ns and the resolution of the surface pressure image was 20 μm. The reconstruction algorithm is based on the decomposition into plane waves. The algorithm was tested in the back projection of simulated pressure transients of three sources, and applied to different biological systems. Furthermore the algorithm was compared with the time of flight back projection algorithm. Optoacoustic images with a depth resolution of 15 μm and a lateral resolution of 100 μm are presented     

Photoluminescence and electroluminescence imaging of perovskite solar cells

Fast camera‐based luminescence‐imaging measurements on perovskite solar cells are presented. The fundamental correlation between the luminescence intensity and the open circuit voltage predicted by the generalised Planck law is confirmed, enabling various quantitative methods for the detection of efficiency‐limiting defects to be applied to this new cell structure. Interstinegly, it is found that this fundamental correlation is valid only for light‐soaked devices. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Heparin-Functionalized Adsorbents Eliminate Central Effectors of Immunothrombosis,including Platelet Factor 4, High-Mobility Group Box 1 Protein and Histones

Inflammation and thrombosis are closely intertwined in numerous disorders, including ischemic events and sepsis, as well as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Thrombotic complications are markers of disease severity in both sepsis and COVID-19 and are associated with multiorgan failure and increased mortality. Immunothrombosis is driven by the complement/tissue factor/neutrophil axis, as well as by activated platelets, which can trigger the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and release further effectors of immunothrombosis, including platelet factor 4 (PF4/CXCL4) and high-mobility box 1 protein (HMGB1). Many of the central effectors of deregulated immunothrombosis, including activated platelets and platelet-derived extracellular vesicles (pEVs) expressing PF4, soluble PF4, HMGB1, histones, as well as histone-decorated NETs, are positively charged and thus bind to heparin. Here, we provide evidence that adsorbents functionalized with endpoint-attached heparin efficiently deplete activated platelets, pEVs, PF4, HMGB1 and histones/nucleosomes. We propose that this elimination of central effectors of immunothrombosis, rather than direct binding of pathogens, could be of clinical relevance for mitigating thrombotic complications in sepsis or COVID-19 using heparin-functionalized adsorbents.