Improved cytotoxicity testing of magnesium materials

Metallic magnesium (Mg) and its alloys are highly suitable for medical applications as biocompatible and biodegradable implant materials. Magnesium has mechanical properties similar to bone, stimulates bone regeneration, is an essential non-toxic element for the human body and degrades completely within the body environment. In consequence, magnesium is a promising candidate as implant material for orthopaedic applications. Protocols using the guideline of current ISO standards should be carefully evaluated when applying them for the characterization of the cytotoxic potential of degradable magnesium materials. For as-cast material we recommend using 10 times more extraction medium than recommended by the ISO standards to obtain reasonable results for reliable cytotoxicity rankings of degradable materials in vitro. In addition primary isolated human osteoblasts or mesenchymal stem cells should be used to test magnesium materials.     

Critical aspects of sinter-hardening of prealloyed Cr–Mo steel

In recent years, growing demand for greater mechanical properties of PM steel components with competitive fabrication cost has led to significant innovations in different fields of powder metallurgy. Recent research has been focused on reaching higher performance with lower cost. To this end, the possibility of combining the conventional sintering and post-sintering processes for a particular powder composition has been introduced. Sinter-hardening is a result of the research conducted along this line. Elimination of any secondary operation such as quench-hardening by incorporating it in the sintering process (i.e. sinter-hardening) is of great interest, as it will lead to lower processing costs and equal, if not higher mechanical performance. However, to ensure the desired mechanical properties of the final component and robustness of the performance, critical aspects of the sinter-hardening process should be rigorously studied.Hence with specific attention to a Cr–Mo steel powder (FL-5305), this study deals with the influence of density on cooling rate, the effect of different sintering temperatures (e.g. 1120 °C and 1250 °C) on austenite grain size and consequently, hardenability. The microstructure development in sinter-hardened FL-5305 material has been analyzed and predicted by means of the available literature for solid steel and also using the commercial software (JMatPro 5.0) for materials assessment based on thermodynamic and kinetics modeling. Finally, inaccurate carbon control and its adverse impact on excessive formation of cementite have been addressed.     

Review of Polymer‐Based Nanodielectric Exploration and Film Scale‐Up for Advanced Capacitors

The uprising demands for electrical power and electrification requires advanced dielectric functionalities including high capacitance density, high energy density, high current handling capability, high voltage, high temperature, high thermal conductivity, light weight, and environmental reliability. Nanodielectric engineering emerges and attracts extensive efforts from many countries as a result. Unlike prior reviews focusing on lab scale nanocomposite study, this review focuses on recent innovations in polymer‐based nanodielectric design on a large scale and their film scale‐up efforts for advanced capacitors. The unconventional polymer‐nanofiller engineering and their process in the last two decades are discussed. The nanofunctionalized polymers on a molecular level for high dielectric constants and high dielectric strength are briefly described. The challenge associated with film scale‐up and retention of nanodielectric properties are then pointed out to be crucial toward a transfer of dielectric and capacitor technology. Several important attempts at scaling up dielectric films and capacitors recently supported by the US government and industry are reviewed. An alternative strategic approach to achieving high performance polymer films is introduced by leveraging 2D surface coating on commercially mature large‐scale polymer films. Future pathways for high quality scalable dielectric films exhibiting desirable dielectric properties and feasibility for capacitor manufacturing are suggested.     

Artifact removal in magnetoencephalogram background activity with independent component analysis

The aim of this study was to assess whether independent component analysis (ICA) could be valuable to remove power line noise, cardiac, and ocular artifacts from magnetoencephalogram (MEG) background activity. The MEGs were recorded from 11 subjects with a 148-channel whole-head magnetometer. We used a statistical criterion to estimate the number of independent components. Then, a robust ICA algorithm decomposed the MEG epochs and several methods were applied to detect those artifacts. The whole process had been previously tested on synthetic data. We found that the line noise components could be easily detected by their frequency spectrum. In addition, the ocular artifacts could be identified by their frequency characteristics and scalp topography. Moreover, the cardiac artifact was better recognized by its skewness value than by its kurtosis one. Finally, the MEG signals were compared before and after artifact rejection to evaluate our method.     

Design of a Variable Depth Axially Corrugated Horn Antenna at X-Band for Low Cross-Polarization Applications

Wireless Personal Communications - This paper presents a study of a class of iris localization algorithms in the presence of blurring. The effect of blurring is a serious problem in most image...     

A cascode modulated class-E power amplifier for wireless communications

A cascode modulated CMOS class-E power amplifier (PA) is presented in this paper. It is shown that by applying a modulated signal to the gate of the cascode transistor the output power is modulated. The main advantage of the proposed technique is a high 35 dB output power dynamic range. The peak power added efficiency (PAE) is 35%. The concept of the cascode power control of class-E RF PA operating at 2.2 GHz with 18 dBm output power was implemented in a CMOS technology and the performance has been verified by measurements. The prototype CMOS PA is tested by single tone excitation and by enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) modulated signal. Digital predistortion is used to linearize the transfer characteristic. The EDGE spectrum mask is met and the rms error vector magnitude (EVM) is less than 4° in the entire output power range.     

Development and characterisation of nanowire-based FETs

Development of Si nanowire-based FETs, suitable for sensor applications is reported. Process sequences for SOI and bulk p-channel FinFETs are described. SEM observations of the fabricated devices (180 nm wide, 87 nm or 175 nm high) are presented and discussed. Electrical characteristics measurements and basic characterisation results obtained for these devices are described. A procedure for serial resistance extraction has been mentioned in more detail, due to its high value inherent in the process used. Several aspects of the device sensitivity to front- and back-gate control have been discussed from the point of view of its application in biochemical detectors.