Phase dependent growth of superficial nanowalls-like structure on TiO2 thin films in molecular hydrogen (H2) annealing environment

We report the surface modification and growth of nanostructures on the surface of titanium oxide thin films during post deposition annealing in molecular hydrogen ambient. Titanium oxide thin films of a thickness of 200 nm were deposited by electron-beam evaporation at a substrate temperature of 300 °C. Films were annealed in 50 and 100 sccm flow rates of hydrogen in the temperature range of 200 °C–600 °C for 4 h. X-ray diffraction analysis showed a polycrystalline structure of the films. Anatase-to-rutile phase transformation took place, and was influenced by the hydrogen flow rate. Atomic force microscopy indicated the growth of 4–6 μm domains enclosed by nanowalls-like boundaries on the surface when the rutile phase was formed. Spectrophotometer measurements indicated that the films were transparent and a red shift in absorption edge was observed due to annealing. The direct band gaps of anatase and rutile were found to be 3.5 eV and 3.2 eV, respectively.     

Drug release profile in core–shell nanofibrous structures: A study on Peppas equation and artificial neural network modeling

Release profile of drug constituent encapsulated in electrospun core–shell nanofibrous mats was modeled by Peppas equation and artificial neural network. Core–shell fibers were fabricated by co-axial electrospinning process using tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) as the core and poly(l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) or polycaprolactone (PCL) as the shell materials. The density and hydrophilicity of the shell polymers, feed rates and concentrations of core and shell phases, the contribution of TCH in core material and electrical field were the parameters fed to the perceptron network to predict Peppas constants in order to derive release pattern. This study demonstrated the viability of the prediction tool in determining drug release profile of electrospun core–shell nanofibrous scaffolds.     

How bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells respond to poorly crystalline apatite coated orthopedic and dental titanium implants

Due to the delayed and weak bone-implant integration in dental and orthopedic devices, there have been several attempts to enhance implant–bone interactions for rapid osseointegration. In this paper, the interactions of human bone marrow-derived stromal (mesenchymal) stem cells (hMSCs) with uncoated and coated titanium alloy implants with poorly crystalline apatite are studied. First the configuration and chemical composition of the apatite coatings and their deposition progress in different experimental conditions are investigated and discussed. Then, hMSCs are cultured on different substrates and cell attachment and proliferation are monitored and evaluated for different time intervals. Although the uncoated and coated substrates indicate good cell attachment, the differences in proliferation and morphology of the cells spread over the coated samples are significant. It is concluded that the coated samples improve the capability for accepting the cells in three-dimensional and slender shapes. The migration of hMSCs on both substrates are discussed. As such cell migration is directly associated to the osteoconduction, the findings confirm the hypothesis of enhancement in bone formation on the surface of biomimetically poorly crystalline apatite coated titanium implants. This in vitro study demonstrates that the coated samples are nontoxic and biocompatible enough for ongoing osteogenic studies in bone or dental defects in animal models in vivo.     

Thermal,Dynamic Mechanical,and Barrier Studies of Potassium Permanganate-LDPE Nanocomposites

This study investigated nanocomposites based on low density polyethylene containing 2, 3, 5 and 7 wt% potassium permanganate (KMnO₄) nanoparticles as a new novel material used for film packaging in fruit industry. This work included preparation and modification of nano-KMnO₄, fabrication and characterization of the nanocomposites. Presence of filler caused reduction in degree of crystallinity that was confirmed by WXRD and DSC analysis. Barrier properties of nanocomposite against oxygen were improved up to 24%.     

Mechanics of axial plastic collapse in multi-cell,multi-corner crush tubes

Quasi-static nonlinear finite element simulations are performed to study the energy absorption characteristics of axially crushed thin-walled aluminum tubes with different multi-cell, multi-corner configurations. By considering the kinematically consistent representation of plastic collapse as observed in the crush simulations, an analytical formula for the mean crush force is derived using the super folding element theory. In this model, the isotropic material is treated as rigid-perfectly plastic and the total internal energy is calculated by considering both bending and membrane deformation during the folding process. The simulation results show a strong correlation between the cross-sectional geometry and the crush response of the tubes. The analytical predictions for the mean crush force are compared with the FE results as well as other analytical models reported in the literature.     

CFD study on influence of fuel temperature on NOx emission in a HiTAC furnace

The influence of the fuel temperature on NOx formation was investigated numerically. For this purpose CFD modeling of NOx emission in an experimental furnace equipped with high temperature air combustion (HiTAC) system was studied. The comparison between the predicted results and measured values have shown good agreement, which implies that the adopted combustion and NOx formation models are suitable for predicting the characteristics of the flow, combustion, heat transfer, and NOx emissions in the HiTAC chamber. Moreover the predicted results show that increase of the fuel temperature results in a higher fluid velocity, better fuel jet mixing with the combustion air, smaller flame and lower NOx emission.     

Effect of sintering temperature and cooling rate on the morphology, mechanical behavior and apatite-forming ability of a novel nanostructured magnesium calcium silicate scaffold prepared by a freeze casting method

In this research, sol–gel-derived nanostructured calcium magnesium silicate (merwinite)-based scaffolds were fabricated by water-based freeze casting method. The effect of cooling rate and sintering temperature on pore sizes and mechanical characteristics of the scaffolds was studied. Microstructure and surface morphology of scaffolds were also observed by scanning electron microscopy before and after various time intervals of soaking in simulated body fluid. The results showed that increasing temperature at the constant rate led to increasing the parameters of volume and linear shrinkage, strength (σ), and Young’s modulus (E) but decreasing porosity. This increase was significant for strength and Young’s modulus. In addition, with the increase of rate at the constant temperature, the parameters of volume and linear shrinkage and also porosity decreased whereas strength and Young’s modulus increased significantly. According to the obtained mechanical results, the best mechanical properties were achieved when the scaffold was prepared at cooling rate and sintering temperature of 277.15°K/min and 1623.15°K, respectively (E = 0.048 GPa and σ = 2 MPa). These values were closer to the lower limit of the values for cancellous bone. The acellular in vitro bioactivity revealed that different apatite morphologies were formed on the surfaces for various periods of soaking time when the scaffolds prepared at the freezing temperature of 277.15°K/min and at the two different sintering temperatures. The favorable mechanical behavior of the porous constructs, coupled with the ability of forming apatite particles on the surface of scaffold, indicates the potential of the present freeze casting route for the production of porous scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.     

Design of a novel MEMS resonator based neuromorphic oscillator

A novel MEMS based neuromorphic oscillator is presented. Due to compatibility with CMOS process, on-chip integration of electro-statically actuated microresonators is possible with very small size. Also, taking advantage of sacrificial sidewall spacer technique for fabrication of 100 nm vertical gap, as low actuation voltages as 0.5 V is enough for such resonators. Oscillatory neuron dynamics are also studied and design of the resonator and its characteristics are described as a neuromorphic oscillator. There are several practical barriers associated with MEMS implementation of neuromorphic oscillators such as existence of near-to-main mode spurious modes, requiring of UHF high gain trans-impedance amplifier because of very high motional resistance of such resonators, and automatic amplitude control circuit which all investigated in the paper and surmounted as well. A coupling technique for weak connection of such resonators is also described in the paper which allows mechanical low velocity connection of UHF contour mode disk resonators for the first time.     

Developing Inherently Resilient Software Against Soft-Errors Based on Algorithm Level Inherent Features

A potential peculiarity of software systems is that a large number of soft-errors are inherently derated (masked) at the software level. The rate of error-deration may depend on the type of algorithms and data structures used in the software. This paper investigates the effects of the underlying algorithms of programs on the rate of error-deration. Eight different benchmark programs were used in the study; each of them was implemented by four different algorithms, i.e. divide-and-conquer, dynamic, backtracking and branch-and-bound. About 10,000 errors were injected into each program in order to quantify and analyze the error-derating capabilities of different algorithm-designing-techniques. The results reveal that about 40.0 % of errors in the dynamic algorithm are derated; this figure for backtracking, branch-and-bound and divide-and-conquer algorithms are 39.5 %, 38.1 % and 28.8 %, respectively. These results can enable software designers and programmers to select the most efficient algorithms for developing inherently resilient programs. Furthermore, an analytical examination of the results using one-way ANOVA acknowledged the statistical significance of difference between the algorithm-designing-techniques in terms of resiliency at 95 % level of confidence.