Dual-Use Space Technology Transfer Conference and Exhibition

This document contains papers presented at the Dual-Use Space Technology Transfer Conference and Exhibition held at the Johnson Space Center February 1-3, 1994. Possible technology transfers covered during the conference were in the areas of information access; innovative microwave and optical applications; materials and structures; marketing and barriers; intelligent systems; human factors and habitation; communications and data systems; business process and technology transfer; software engineering; biotechnology and advanced bioinstrumentation; communications signal processing and analysis; new ways of doing business; medical care; applications derived from control center data systems; human performance evaluation; technology transfer methods; mathematics, modeling, and simulation; propulsion; software analysis and decision tools systems/processes in human support technology; networks, control centers, and distributed systems; power; rapid development perception and vision technologies; integrated vehicle health management; automation technologies; advanced avionics; ans robotics technologies. More than 77 papers, 20 presentations, and 20 exhibits covering various disciplines were presented b experts from NASA, universities, and industry

Wide Bandgap Based Devices: Design, Fabrication and Applications, Volume II

Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors are becoming a key enabling technology for several strategic fields, including power electronics, illumination, and sensors. This reprint collects the 23 papers covering the full spectrum of the above applications and providing contributions from the on-going research at different levels, from materials to devices and from circuits to systems

Nanotechnology in Ophthalmology, new developments

Η νανοτεχνολογία, η οποία περιγράφηκε αρχικά από τον Richard Feynman, αποτελεί ένα πολλά υποσχόμενο διατομεακό πεδίο της επιστήμης με αναφορά στον σχεδιασμό, στην εξέλιξη και στην κατασκευή δομών σε διαστάσεις νανομέτρων. Ο M. Saladin El Naschie το 2006 χαρακτηρίζει την νανοτεχνολογία ως την εφαρμογή της τεχνολογίας στην γκρίζα ζώνη μεταξύ της κλασικής μηχανικής και της κβαντομηχανικής. Σήμερα η ταχεία εξέλιξη της νανοτεχνολογίας οφείλεται στην ανάπτυξη καινοτόμων τεχνικών για την ανίχνευση, τον έλεγχο και τον χαρακτηρισμό των νανοσωματιδίων. Η εφαρμογή της νανοτεχνολογίας στην βιολογία αδρά περιγράφεται ως νανοβιοτεχνολογία με την νανοϊατρική να αποτελεί κλάδο της. Η οφθαλμολογία συνιστά τομέα της ιατρικής που δύναται να ωφεληθεί ουσιαστικά από τις εφαρμογές της νανοτεχνολογίας. Ο ανθρώπινος οφθαλμός ως ένα εξαιρετικά πολύπλοκο μικρό αισθητήριο όργανο, μεταξύ άλλων, διαθέτει πολύ ειδικούς φραγμούς έναντι του εξωτερικού περιβάλλοντος. Φάρμακα και άλλοι φαρμακευτικοί παράγοντες οφείλουν να υπερκεράσουν τέτοιους φραγμούς ώστε να θεραπευθεί η οφθαλμική νόσος. Οι περισσότερες από τις παθήσεις αυτές είναι χρόνιες, απαιτούν μακροχρόνιες θεραπείες και οδηγούν δυστυχώς σε τύφλωση. Επιπλέον οι χρόνιες θεραπείες δεν φείδονται παρενεργειών και εγείρουν δυσκολίες στην συμμόρφωση των ασθενών. Νανοσωματίδια, όπως τα λιποσωμάτια, τα μικύλια, τα δενδριμερή, τα πολυμερή και οι νανογέλες φαίνονται πολύ ελκυστικά ως καινοτόμα συστήματα χορήγησης φαρμάκων στον οφθαλμό. Δύνανται να ξεπεράσουν τους οφθαλμικούς φραγμούς και να παραδώσουν το φαρμακευτικό φορτίο τους με πολύ ειδικό και χωροχρονικά ελεγχόμενο τρόπο. Ως εκ τούτου τέτοιου είδους νανοσωματίδια διευκολύνουν την ελεγχόμενη αποδέσμευση και βιοδιαθεσιμότητα των φαρμάκων. Επιπλέον η επικάλυψη της επιφάνειάς τους με ειδικούς προσδέτες καθιστά δυνατή την στοχευμένη χορήγηση σε κυτταρικό επίπεδο. Η συμβολή της νανοτεχνολογίας στην παρακολούθηση, στην διάγνωση και στην απεικόνιση των οφθαλμικών νόσων είναι επίσης σημαντική. Ο συνδυασμός δε διαγνωστικών και θεραπευτικών προσεγγίσεων στο ίδιο νανοσωμάτιο εισάγει τον πολυτροπικό όρο των “theragnostics” στην οφθαλμολογία. Επίσης η αναγεννητική οφθαλμολογία αποτελεί έναν άλλο τομέα όπου η χρήση των νανοϋλικών στη μορφή νανοϊκριωμάτων και νανοφορέων γονιδίων μπορεί να συνεισφέρει στην αντιμετώπιση εκφυλιστικών οφθαλμικών παθήσεων. Όλες οι παραπάνω προσεγγίσεις οδηγούν στην εποχή της προσωποποιημένης ιατρικής. Εμπόδια που πρέπει να υπερνικηθούν είναι η ασφαλής παραγωγή των νανοδομών σε μεγάλη κλίμακα με οικονομικά πρόσφορους τρόπους. Επίσης θέματα νανοτοξικότητας πρέπει να ληφθούν υπόψη δεδομένης της διαρκώς αυξανόμενης χρήσης των νανοϋλικών.Nanotechnology, initially described by Richard Feynman, is a promising multidisciplinary field of science that dealing with the design, development and manufacturing of structures in the dimensions of nanometers. M. Saladin El Naschie’s in 2006 [1] defines nanotechnology as the application of the technology in the gray area between the classical mechanism and quantum mechanics. Nowadays the rapid evolution of nanotechnology is due to the development of novel technological procedures for detection, control and characterization of nanoparticles. The application of nanotechnology in biology is loosely designated nanobiotechnology. Nanomedicine is a derivative of nanobiotechnology. Ophthalmology is a field of medicine that could really be benefit from nanotechnology's applications. The human eye is a very sophisticated small sensory organ that among others includes very specific barriers against the external environment. Drugs and pharmaceutical agents have to overcome these barriers in order to treat ocular diseases. Most of these diseases are chronic in their nature, need chronic expensive treatments and unfortunately commonly result to blindness. Chronic treatments besides of side effects engender issues in compliance and adherence to treatment. Nanoparticles like liposomes, micelles, dendrimers, polymers, nanogels look very attractive as novel ocular drug delivery systems. They can overpass the ocular barriers and deliver their drug load with a very specific spatiotemporal controlled manner. Hence such NPs facilitate the sustained release and bioavailability of medicaments. Furthermore the coating of nanoparticles with surface targeting moieties makes possible the drug delivery precisely to the diseased cell. The contribution of nanotechnology in monitoring, diagnosis and imaging of ocular diseases is also significant. Indeed the combination of diagnostic and therapeutic properties in the same NP introduced the multimodality of theragnostics into the ophthalmology field. Regenerative ophthalmology is another area where the use of nanomaterials in the form of nano scaffolds and genes nanocarriers can conduce to significant improvements mainly in the treatment of degenerative ocular diseases. All the above very promising approaches lead to the era of personalized medicine. Obstacles to be overcome are the scale production of nanostructures in a safety manner and in an economically advantageous way. Likewise nanotoxicity issues must be taken into account as nanoapplications in everyday practice will be increase

Plasmons in nanoparticles: atomistic Ab Initio theory for large systems

205 p.El trabajo realizado en esta tesis doctoral se centra en la implementación de nuevos algoritmos y de suaplicación en diferentes tipos de nanoestructuras. El programa científico en el que se han llevado a cabolas extensiones es una implementación eficiente de la teoría funcional de densidad dependiente deltiempo, conocida como MBPT-LCAO.Las principales extensiones realizadas son las siguientes: implementación de la espectroscopía de pérdidade energía de electrones en el espacio real, mejora del procedimiento iterativo para permitir cálculos degran tamaño sin precedentes, cálculo del campo eléctrico inducido e implementación de la espectroscopíade dispersión Raman.Estas implementaciones se han utilizado en agregados y agregados dímeros de sodio y plata, así como ennanotubos de carbono y nitruro de boro. Se han calculado tanto el espectro de absorción como los camposeléctricos inducidos para todos estos sistemas. De esta forma, este trabajo nos ha permitido entendermejor la respuesta de tales nanoestructuras bajo la influencia de una perturbación externa

Nanomaterial Characterization Using Actuated Microelectromechanical Testing Stages

In this work, microfabricated mechanical systems have been created in a variety of forms and operated to perform nanomaterials characterization tests. A simplified integrated test system was developed and used to collect data from a range of materials including gallium nitride nanowires. A new force estimation approach was developed which enables estimation of the forces provided by electrothermal microelectromechanical (MEMS) actuators, and with knowledge of a material specimen cross-section area, an estimation of the engineering stress within the nanomaterial specimen. In an expanded design, a MEMS micromanipulator probe interfaced with a removable specimen holder, also known as a test coupon, to apply strain to and acquire tensile data from carbon nanotubes grown directly on a test coupon. A novel approach for removably interfacing two microfabricated chips was created. This interface mechanism enables the test coupon to incorporate a selection of possible experiments. These test devices can be operated in vacuum or air environments, and serve as a proof-of-concept of a microsystem testbed for mechanical measurements that can be performed simultaneously with other types of measurements such as electron diffraction, piezoresistive measurement, scanning tunneling microscope observation, or optical measurements. The goal of this thesis was the demonstration of a microsystem capable of performing tensile characterization of nanowire or nanotube specimens that are not permanently interfaced to the actuators used to apply mechanical strain, with emphasis on the overall operation and characterization of this system

Group III-V Nanowire Growth and Characterization

Electronic and optical devices typically use bulk or quantum wells today, but nanowires are promising building blocks for future devices, due to their structural characterizations of larger aspect ratio and smaller volume. In situ growth of semiconductor devices is extremely attractive, as it doesn’t require expensive lithography treatment. Over the past ten years, a great deal of work has been done to explore NW, incorporation of group III-V materials and band engineering for the electronic and optoelectronic devices. Because pseudo one-dimensional heterostructures may be grown without involving lattice mismatch defects, NWs may give rise to superior electronic, photonic, and magnetic performances as compared to conventional bulk or planar structures

Viral infections in 47 CVID patients in allergy and immunology department of Rasool E Akram hospital in Tehran

Background: CVID is a heterogeneous primary immune deficiency with infectious, autoimmune and autoinflamatory features. It is most common symptomatic PID in Iran, with prevalence of 1 in 25000 to 50000 people. CVID has been divided into some phenotypes to produce more homogenized subpopulations. CVID is not a pure Ab deficiency .and because of both abnormalities in Tcell and innate immunity in combination with B cell dysfunction these patients are predisposed to viral and opportunistic infections. Method: prevalence of viral infections is reported in 47 CVID patients registered in Rasool E Akram hospital in Tehran. Patients have been diagnosed as CVID with the PAGID-ESID diagnostic criteria in our department or referred from other clinics for follow up and treatment. Diagnosis of viral germs has been made by clinical signs, pathological significances and in some cases by PCR. Cases: 9 patients (19%) had problems with viral infections. Infections occurred befor diagnosis of CVID in some cases or after that. Four patients (8.5 %) had problems with wart. Sever mucocutaneus HSV infection has occurred in 3 (6 %), recurrent zona in one (2 %) and CMV infection as colitis or pneumonitis in 3(6 %) patients. Sever progressive lethal CNS infection with JC virus occurred in one patient. Conclusion: evidences show that CVID is not a pure B cell defect, and we should be aware of opportunistic and viral infections that in some cases may be fatal

Plasmons in nanoparticles: atomistic Ab Initio theory for large systems

205 p.El trabajo realizado en esta tesis doctoral se centra en la implementación de nuevos algoritmos y de suaplicación en diferentes tipos de nanoestructuras. El programa científico en el que se han llevado a cabolas extensiones es una implementación eficiente de la teoría funcional de densidad dependiente deltiempo, conocida como MBPT-LCAO.Las principales extensiones realizadas son las siguientes: implementación de la espectroscopía de pérdidade energía de electrones en el espacio real, mejora del procedimiento iterativo para permitir cálculos degran tamaño sin precedentes, cálculo del campo eléctrico inducido e implementación de la espectroscopíade dispersión Raman.Estas implementaciones se han utilizado en agregados y agregados dímeros de sodio y plata, así como ennanotubos de carbono y nitruro de boro. Se han calculado tanto el espectro de absorción como los camposeléctricos inducidos para todos estos sistemas. De esta forma, este trabajo nos ha permitido entendermejor la respuesta de tales nanoestructuras bajo la influencia de una perturbación externa