A wireless embedded tongue tactile biofeedback system for balance control

We describe the architecture of an original biofeedback system for balance improvement for fall prevention and present results of a feasibility study. The underlying principle of this biofeedback consists of providing supplementary information related to foot sole pressure distribution through a wireless embedded tongue-placed tactile output device.Twelve young healthy adults voluntarily participated in this experiment. They were asked to stand as immobile as possible with their eyes closed in two conditions of no-biofeedback and biofeedback. Centre of foot pressure (CoP) displacements were recorded using a force platform. Results showed reduced CoP displacements in the biofeedback relative to the no-biofeedback condition.On the whole, the present findings evidence the effectiveness of this system in improving postural control on young healthy adults. Further investigations are needed to strengthen the potential clinical value of this device.     

Engineering Transition Metal Layers for Long Lasting Anionic Redox in Layered Sodium Manganese Oxide

Oxygen-redox-based-layered cathode materials are of great importance in realizing high-energy-density sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) that can satisfy the demands of next-generation energy storage technologies. However, Mn-based-layered materials (P2-type Na-poor Na_y[A_xMn_1−x]O₂, where A = alkali ions) still suffer from poor reversibility during oxygen-redox reactions and low conductivity. In this work, the dual Li and Co replacement is investigated in P2-type-layered Na_xMnO₂. Experimentally and theoretically, it is demonstrated that the efficacy of the dual Li and Co replacement in Na_0.6[Li_0.15Co_0.15Mn_0.7]O₂ is that it improves the structural and cycling stability despite the reversible Li migration from the transition metal layer during de-/sodiation. Operando X-ray diffraction and ex situ neutron diffraction analysis prove that the material maintains a P2-type structure during the entire range of Na⁺ extraction and insertion with a small volume change of ≈4.3%. In Na_0.6[Li_0.15Co_0.15Mn_0.7]O₂, the reversible electrochemical activity of Co³⁺/Co⁴⁺, Mn³⁺/Mn⁴⁺, and O^2-/(O₂)^n- redox is identified as a reliable mechanism for the remarkable stable electrochemical performance. From a broader perspective, this study highlights a possible design roadmap for developing cathode materials with optimized cationic and anionic activities and excellent structural stabilities for SIBs.     

High Q 2D-length extension mode resonators for potential time–frequency applications

Microsystem Technologies - This paper presents recent advances on two dimensional length-extension mode (2D-LEM) quartz resonators providing high quality (Q) factor on resonances at a few MHz. The...     

Adversarial example detection for DNN models: a review and experimental comparison

Deep learning (DL) has shown great success in many human-related tasks, which has led to its adoption in many computer vision based applications, such as security surveillance systems, autonomous vehicles and healthcare. Such safety-critical applications have to draw their path to success deployment once they have the capability to overcome safety-critical challenges. Among these challenges are the defense against or/and the detection of the adversarial examples (AEs). Adversaries can carefully craft small, often imperceptible, noise called perturbations to be added to the clean image to generate the AE. The aim of AE is to fool the DL model which makes it a potential risk for DL applications. Many test-time evasion attacks and countermeasures, i.e., defense or detection methods, are proposed in the literature. Moreover, few reviews and surveys were published and theoretically showed the taxonomy of the threats and the countermeasure methods with little focus in AE detection methods. In this paper, we focus on image classification task and attempt to provide a survey for detection methods of test-time evasion attacks on neural network classifiers. A detailed discussion for such methods is provided with experimental results for eight state-of-the-art detectors under different scenarios on four datasets. We also provide potential challenges and future perspectives for this research direction.

     

Dual‐Action Cancer Therapy with Targeted Porous Silicon Nanovectors

There is a pressing need to develop more effective therapeutics to fight cancer. An idyllic chemotherapeutic is expected to overcome drug resistance of tumors and minimize harmful side effects to healthy tissues. Antibody‐functionalized porous silicon nanoparticles loaded with a combination of chemotherapy drug and gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) are developed. These nanocarriers are observed to selectively deliver both payloads, the chemotherapy drug and AuNCs, to human B cells. The accumulation of AuNCs to target cells and subsequent exposure to an external electromagnetic field in the microwave region render them more susceptible to the codelivered drug. This approach represents a targeted two‐stage delivery nanocarrier that benefits from a dual therapeutic action that results in enhanced cytotoxicity.     

New synthesis method of HA/P(D,L)LA composites: study of fibronectin adsorption and their effects in osteoblastic behavior for bone tissue engineering

A novel synthetic method to synthesize hydroxyapatite/poly (D,L) lactic acid biocomposite is presented in this study by mixing only the precursors hydroxyapatite and (D,L) LA monomer without adding neither solvent nor catalyst. Three compositions were successfully synthesized with the weight ratios of 1/1, 1/3, and 3/5 (hydroxyapatite/(D,L) lactic acid), and the grafting efficiency of poly (D,L) lactic acid on hydroxyapatite surface reaches up to 84?%. Scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that the hydroxyapatite particles were successfully incorporated into the poly (D,L) lactic acid polymer and X ray diffraction analysis showed that hydroxyapatite preserved its crystallinity after poly (D,L) lactic acid grafting. Differential scanning calorimetry shows that Tg of hydroxyapatite/poly (D,L) lactic acid composite is less than Tg of pure poly (D,L) lactic acid, which facilitates the shaping of the composite obtained. The addition of poly (D,L) lactic acid improves the adsorption properties of hydroxyapatite for fibronectin extracellular matrix protein. Furthermore, the presence of poly (D,L) lactic acid on hydroxyapatite surface coated with fibronectin enhanced pre-osteoblast STRO-1 adhesion and cell spreading. These results show the promising potential of hydroxyapatite/poly (D,L) lactic acid composite as a bone substitute material for orthopedic applications and bone tissue engineering.     

Manipulation of matter by electric and magnetic fields: Toward novel synthesis and processing routes of inorganic materials

The use of external electric and magnetic fields for the synthesis and processing of inorganic materials such as metals and ceramics has seen renewed interest in recent years. Electromagnetic energy can be utilized in different ways to improve or accelerate phase formation and stabilization, chemical ordering, densification and coarsening of particle-based materials (pore elimination and grain growth), and mechanical deformation (plasticity and creep). In these new synthesis and processing routes, the resulting microstructures and macroscopic material behavior are determined by the interaction of the applied fields with defects such as single or clustered point defects, dislocation networks, and interfaces. Multiscale experimental investigations and modeling are necessary to unveil the mechanisms underlying this field-assisted manipulation of matter.     

The role of microcrystalline structure on optical scattering characteristics of semi-crystalline thermoplastics and the accuracy of numerical input for IR-heating modeling

Infrared (IR) heating is widely used for thermoforming of thermoplastic polymers. The key benefit of radiation heating is that a significant amount of the radiative energy penetrates into the polymers thanks to their semi-transparency. For the case of heating unfilled semi-crystalline polymers, the relation between their microcrystalline structure and optical properties is the key to develop a predictive IR-heating model as microcrystalline structure introduces an optically heterogeneous medium. In this study, a relation between the microcrystalline structure of a polyethylene (PE) and its effect on the thermo-optical properties was experimentally analyzed considering a two-step analysis. At very first step, the relation was analyzed considering samples with identical thicknesses and different morphologies, characterized here in terms of degree of crystallinity (X_c (%)). Using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and integrating sphere, optical characteristics of the PE samples were analyzed in near-infrared (NIR) and middle-infrared (MIR) spectral ranges. The analyses showed that a slight variation in X_c (%) has a great effect on the optical characteristics of PE, particularly the transmission characteristics in NIR range. The wavelength-dependent effect of X_c (%) on the transmission behaviors opened a discussion about the fact that the microcrystalline structures -in particular spherulites or their substructures such as lamellae- are responsible for optical scattering. Using the optical properties obtained from the two-step experimental analyses, two different thermo-optical properties were calculated, namely extinction and absorption coefficients, and used as a numerical input for the parametric numerical studies. The numerical studies were performed using an in-house developed radiation heat transfer algorithm -RAYHEAT-. Both the experimental and numerical analyses demonstrated the importance of the optical scattering regarding the identification of thermo-optical properties, used as a numerical input for radiation heat transfer models.