CANDYBOTS: A New Generation of 3D-Printed Sugar-Based Transient Small-Scale Robots

Sugars are ubiquitous in food, and are among the main sources of energy for almost all forms of life. Sugars can also form structural building blocks such as cellulose in plants. Because of their inherent degradability and biocompatibility characteristics, sugars are compelling materials for transient devices. Here, an additive manufacturing approach for the production of magnetic sugar-based composites is introduced. First, it is shown that sugar-based 3D architectures can be 3D printed by selective laser sintering. This method enables not only the caramelization chemistry but also the mechanical properties of the sugar architectures to be adjusted by varying the laser energy. It is also demonstrated that mixtures of sugar and magnetic particles can be processed as 3D composites. As a proof of concept, a sugar-based millimeter-scale helical swimmer, which is capable of corkscrew motion in a solution with a viscosity comparable to those of biological fluids, is fabricated. The millirobot quickly dissolves in water, while being manipulated through magnetic fields. The present fabrication method can pave the way to a new generation of transient sugar-based small-scale robots for minimally invasive procedures. Due to their rapid dissolution, sugars can be used as an intermediate step for transporting swarms of particles to specific target locations.     

Modelling the vibration response of a gas turbine using machine learning

This work deals with modelling the vibration response of a gas turbine obtained during the start-up process until reaching the nominal speed for power generation. Analysing the vibrations of a complex systems like a gas turbine is useful for the diagnostic of faults or damages in the internal mechanical components of the different stages that integrate a turbine. This work focuses on the study of the shaft vibrations of the bearing radial type mounted between the shaft and the bearing compressor associated with the speed of the turbine. This relationship is studied using experimental data collected from a particular gas turbine model. In particular, we propose a methodology to synthesize a computational model following a supervised learning approach implemented through different machine learning techniques, including a multi-layers perceptron network, support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF) and genetic programming (GP) with local search. Results show that SVM, RF and GP perform very well in this task, producing accurate predictive models. Moreover, there are some interesting trade-offs between the methods, regarding generalization error, overfitting and model interpretability that are relevant for future applications and research.     

Oregano: properties, composition and biological activity

The oregano spice includes various plant species. The most common are the genus Origanum, native of Europe, and the Lippia, native of Mexico. Among the species of Origanum. their most important components are the limonene, gamma-cariofilene, rho-cymenene, canfor, linalol, alpha-pinene, carvacrol and thymol. In the genus Lippia, the same compounds can be found. The oregano composition depends on the specie, climate, altitude, time of recollection and the stage of growth. Some of the properties of this plant's extracts are being currently studied due to the growing interest for substituting synthetic additives commonly found in foods. Oregano has a good antioxidant capacity and also presents antimicrobial activity against pathogenic microorganisms like Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, among others. These are all characteristics of interest for the food industry because they may enhance the safety and stability of foods. There are also some reports regarding the antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic effect of oregano; representing an alternative for the potential treatment and/or prevention of certain chronic ailments, like cancer.     

Intercalation of epoxy resin in organically modified montmorillonite

Various methods of preparation of epoxy resin/clay mixtures, before the addition of the crosslinking agent and curing to form epoxy‐based polymer layered silicate (PLS) nanocomposites, have been investigated to determine their effect on the nanostructure. Organically modified montmorillonite clay was used, and the mixtures were prepared by both simple mixing and solvent‐based methods. X‐ray diffraction shows that intercalation of the resin into the clay galleries occurs for all clay loadings up to 25 wt % and for both preparation methods, but the dispersion of the clay in the resin, observed by optical microscopy, is significantly better for the solvent preparation method. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) shows that the intercalated resin has the same molecular mobility as the extra‐gallery resin, but suggests that the intercalated resin does not penetrate completely into the galleries. Prolonged storage of the resin/clay mixtures at room temperature leads to changes in the DSC response, as well as in the response to thermogravimetry, which are interpreted as resulting from homopolymerization of the epoxy resin, catalyzed by the onium ion in the modified clay. This confirms and explains the earlier observation of Benson Tolle and Anderson (J Appl Polym Sci 2004, 91, 89) that “conditioning” of the resin/clay mixtures at ambient temperature has a significant effect when the crosslinking agent is subsequently added, and indicates that the preparation method has important consequences for the nanostructure development in the PLS nanocomposites. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102:3751–3763, 2006     

Practical Harmonic Cancellation Techniques for the On-Chip Implementation of Sinusoidal Signal Generators for Mixed-Signal BIST Applications

Harmonic cancellation strategies have been recently presented as a promising solution for the efficient on-chip implementation of accurate sinusoidal signal generators. Classical harmonic cancellation techniques consist in combining a set of time-shifted and scaled versions of a periodical signal in such a way that some of the harmonic components of the resulting signal are cancelled. This signal manipulation strategy can be easily implemented using digital resources to provide a set of phase-shifted digital square-wave signals and a summing network for scaling and combining the phase-shifted square-waves. A critical aspect in the practical implementation of the harmonic cancellation technique is the stringent accuracy required for the scaling weight ratios between the different phase-shifted signals. Small variations between these weights due to mismatch and process variations will reduce the effectiveness of the technique and increase the magnitude of undesired harmonic components. In this work, different harmonic cancellation strategies are presented and analyzed with the goal of simplifying the practical on-chip implementation of the scaling weights. Statistical behavioral simulations are provided in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.     

Influence of the pretreatment and curing of alkoxysilanes on the protection of the titanium–aluminum–vanadium alloy

The use of coatings based on alkoxysilanes is one of the most effective ways to control the release of cytotoxic ions by metal implants. To improve the success rate of titanium–aluminum–vanadium implants, in this study, we evaluated the physicochemical, morphological, mechanical, and electrochemical behavior of hybrid coatings based on alkoxysilanes applied on the alloy. The coatings were prepared with the precursors 3‐(trimethoxysilyl propyl)methacrylate and tetraethoxysilane alkoxides by the sol–gel method. The curing of the coatings was evaluated at different temperatures (90, 180, and 300 °C) for 1 h. We carried out the pretreatment of the alloy by polishing and attacking it with sodium hydroxide. The results indicate that the temperature of 90 °C was effective for solvent evaporation and complete crosslinking of the film, and the alkaline pretreatment allowed the formation of a film with better anticorrosive performance; this indicated that the presence of hydroxyl groups on the surface improved the coating adhesion. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 45470.     

A combined analysis of backward trajectories and aerosol chemistry to characterise long-range transport episodes of particulate matter: the Madrid air basin, a case study

This study has investigated the influence of synoptic weather patterns and long-range transport episodes on the concentration levels of airborne particulate matter (TSP, PM10 and PM2.5) and some major ions (SO(4)(2-), NO(3)(-) and NH(4)(+)) at a background rural station in central Spain. Air mass back-trajectories arriving at the site in 1999-2005 have been analysed by statistical methods. First, cluster analysis was used to group trajectories into 8 clusters depending on their direction and speed. Meteorological scenarios associated to each cluster have been obtained and interpreted. Then, the incidence of different air mass transport patterns on particle concentrations and composition recorded at this station was evaluated. This evaluation included PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations and chemical composition data, obtained at three representative sites of the Madrid air basin during sampling campaigns carried out in the course of the 1999-2005 period. Finally, a residence time analysis of trajectories was also performed to detect remote sources and transport pathways. Significantly elevated concentrations of TSP and PM10 were observed for Northern African flows as a consequence of the transport of mineral dust. Significant inter-cluster differences were also observed for PM2.5 and secondary inorganic compounds, with the highest concentrations associated with low baric gradient situations and Southern European flows. The residence time analysis confirmed that current TSP and PM10 concentrations in central Spain are likely to be influenced significantly by long-range transport of desert dust from different desert regions in North Africa. Furthermore, emissions from continental Europe with a high time of residence in the western and central areas of the Mediterranean basin, seem to significantly influence PM2.5 and secondary inorganic aerosol concentrations in this region.     

Sulphur poisoning of palladium catalysts used for methane combustion: effect of the support

Four different supported palladium catalysts (using alumina, silica, zirconia and titania as supports), prepared by incipient wetness impregnation, were tested as catalysts for methane oxidation in presence of sulphur dioxide. The catalyst supported on zirconia showed the best performance, whereas the silica-supported one showed the fastest deactivation. Temperature-programmed desorption experiments of the poisoned catalysts suggest that SO(2) adsorption capacity of the support plays a key role in the catalyst poisoning. In order to study the effect of promoters, expected to improve the thermal stability and thioresistance of the catalyst, commercial zirconia modified by yttrium and lantane was tested as supports. It was found that the presence of these promoters does not improve the performance of the zirconia-supported catalyst. A deactivation model -- considering two different active sites (fresh and poisoning), pseudo-first order dependence on methane concentration and poisoning rate depending on sulphur concentration and fraction of non-poisoned palladium -- was used for modelling the deactivation behaviour.     

Kinetics of elimination and distribution in blood and liver of biocompatible ferrofluids based on Fe3O4 nanoparticles: An EPR and XRF study

In this study, we evaluated the biodistribution and the elimination kinetics of a biocompatible magnetic fluid, Endorem™, based on dextran-coated Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles endovenously injected into Winstar rats. The iron content in blood and liver samples was recorded using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques. The EPR line intensity at g = 2.1 was found to be proportional to the concentration of magnetic nanoparticles and the best temperature for spectra acquisition was 298 K. Both EPR and XRF analysis indicated that the maximum concentration of iron in the liver occurred 95 min after the ferrofluid administration. The half-life of the magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) in the blood was (11.6 ± 0.6) min measured by EPR and (12.6 ± 0.6) min determined by XRF. These results indicate that both EPR and XRF are very useful and appropriate techniques for the study of kinetics of ferrofluid elimination and biodistribution after its administration into the organism.