10,387 research outputs found
Energy Harvesting and Management for Wireless Autonomous Sensors
Wireless autonomous sensors that harvest ambient energy are attractive solutions, due to their convenience and economic benefits. A number of wireless autonomous sensor platforms which consume less than 100?W under duty-cycled operation are available. Energy harvesting technology (including photovoltaics, vibration harvesters, and thermoelectrics) can be used to power autonomous sensors. A developed system is presented that uses a photovoltaic module to efficiently charge a supercapacitor, which in turn provides energy to a microcontroller-based autonomous sensing platform. The embedded software on the node is structured around a framework in which equal precedent is given to each aspect of the sensor node through the inclusion of distinct software stacks for energy management and sensor processing. This promotes structured and modular design, allowing for efficient code reuse and encourages the standardisation of interchangeable protocols
Correlation of Impedance and Effective Electrode Area of Iridium Oxide Neural Electrodes
Iridium oxide is routinely used for bionic applications owing to its high charge injection capacity. The electrode impedance at 1 kHz is typically reported to predict neural recording performance. In this article, the impedance of activated iridium oxide films (AIROFs) has been examined. The impedance of unactivated iridium electrodes was half that of platinum electrodes of similar geometry, indicating some iridium oxide was present on the electrode surface. A two time constant equivalent circuit was used to model the impedance of activated iridium. The impedance at low and intermediate frequencies decreased with increasing number of activation pulses and total activation charge. The impedance at 12 Hz correlated with the steady-state diffusion electroactive area. The impedance at 12 Hz also correlated with the charge density of the electrode. The high charge density and low impedance of AIROFs may provide improved neural stimulation and recording properties compared with typically used platinum electrodes
Predicting neural recording performance of implantable electrodes
Recordings of neural activity can be used to aid communication, control prosthetic devices or alleviatedisease symptoms. Chronic recordings require a high signal-to-noise ratio that is stable for years. Currentcortical devices generally fail within months to years after implantation. Development of novel devices toincrease lifetime requires valid testing protocols and a knowledge of the critical parameters controllingelectrophysiological performance. Here we present electrochemical and electrophysiological protocolsfor assessing implantable electrodes. Biological noise from neural recording has significant impact on signal-to-noise ratio. A recently developed surgical approach was utilised to reduce biological noise. This allowed correlation of electrochemical and electrophysiological behaviour. The impedance versus frequency of modified electrodes was non-linear. It was found that impedance at low frequencies was astronger predictor of electrophysiological performance than the typically reported impedance at 1 kHz.Low frequency impedance is a function of electrode area, and a strong correlation of electrode area with electrophysiological response was also seen. Use of these standardised testing protocols will allow future devices to be compared before transfer to preclinical and clinical trials
Characteristics of period doubling in the rat cone flicker ERG
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Experimental Eye Research 90 (2010): 196-202, doi:10.1016/j.exer.2009.10.006.When the eye is stimulated by a flickering light, the electroretinogram (ERG) and other
electrophysiological responses in the visual pathway often exhibit period doubling. This
phenomenon is manifested as an alternation in the shape of the response waveform from cycle to
cycle, and also as spectral components at the half-fundamental frequency (F/2) and its odd
multiples. Although period doubling has been described in humans as well as in other animals,
its features in the rodent flicker ERG have not been characterized. We investigated the properties
of period doubling in the rat cone flicker ERG elicited with full field, sinusoidal photic stimuli.
Period doubling was observed when the temporal frequency of the stimulus was in the range of
20 to 30 Hz. The F/2 component of the Fourier spectrum of the ERG was more pronounced than
its odd harmonics. The magnitude of the cycle-to-cycle variation in amplitude differed
depending on whether measurements were based on peak-to-trough or trough-to-peak
amplitudes, owing to the relative phase relationship between F/2 and F as a function of stimulus
frequency. The frequency-response characteristics of period doubling varied with stimulus
contrast, such that reducing the contrast shifted the peak F/2 amplitude to a lower stimulus
frequency. Period doubling was evident in rat eyes in which PDA was administered
intravitreally, indicating that the phenomenon can occur independently of OFF-pathway activity
in the rat retina. The period doubling properties we observed in the flicker ERG response of the
rat cone system provide constraints on the nature of the nonlinear feedback mechanism presumed
to underlie the period doubling phenomenon.This work was
supported by a grant from the Pearle Vision Foundation (HQ), the Joyce Schroeder Fund (HQ),
NIH research grant EY08301 (KRA), NIH core grant EY01792, an Alcon Research Institute
Award (HR), RPB Senior Scientific Investigator Awards (KRA, HR), and an unrestricted
departmental award from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc
Lift-off dynamics in a simple jumping robot
We study vertical jumping in a simple robot comprising an actuated
mass-spring arrangement. The actuator frequency and phase are systematically
varied to find optimal performance. Optimal jumps occur above and below (but
not at) the robot's resonant frequency . Two distinct jumping modes
emerge: a simple jump which is optimal above is achievable with a squat
maneuver, and a peculiar stutter jump which is optimal below is generated
with a counter-movement. A simple dynamical model reveals how optimal lift-off
results from non-resonant transient dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Physical Review Letters, in press (2012
California Solar Regatta
This Final Design Review report details the research, analysis, and design conducted by a Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering senior project team working on the propulsion system for a solar powered boat. Working in coordination with another senior project team responsible for making the hull, the two teams comprised the Cal Poly team who entered the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) 2020 California Solar Regatta Competition. The SMUD Solar Regatta is an annual competition for high school and college students to design and build boats powered by solar power. The solar panels are provided by SMUD, and the battery storage is limited by competition regulations. The scope of this project was to design a propulsion system that would efficiently transfer energy, be easily integrated into the hull design and be competitive in the three races: endurance, slalom, and sprint. This document covers research conducted, objectives for the design, design concepts considered, the chosen final design, manufacturing and verification plans, and project management
How the gene ontology evolves.
BACKGROUND: Maintaining a bio-ontology in the long term requires improving and updating its contents so that it adequately captures what is known about biological phenomena. This paper illustrates how these processes are carried out, by studying the ways in which curators at the Gene Ontology have hitherto incorporated new knowledge into their resource. RESULTS: Five types of circumstances are singled out as warranting changes in the ontology: (1) the emergence of anomalies within GO; (2) the extension of the scope of GO; (3) divergence in how terminology is used across user communities; (4) new discoveries that change the meaning of the terms used and their relations to each other; and (5) the extension of the range of relations used to link entities or processes described by GO terms. CONCLUSION: This study illustrates the difficulties involved in applying general standards to the development of a specific ontology. Ontology curation aims to produce a faithful representation of knowledge domains as they keep developing, which requires the translation of general guidelines into specific representations of reality and an understanding of how scientific knowledge is produced and constantly updated. In this context, it is important that trained curators with technical expertise in the scientific field(s) in question are involved in supervising ontology shifts and identifying inaccuracies
Chandra Observations of 3C Radio Sources with z<0.3: Nuclei, Diffuse Emission, Jets and Hotspots
We report on our Chandra Cycle 9 program to observe half of the 60
(unobserved by Chandra) 3C radio sources at z<0.3 for 8 ksec each. Here we give
the basic data: the X-ray intensity of the nuclei and any features associated
with radio structures such as hot spots and knots in jets. We have measured
fluxes in soft, medium and hard bands and are thus able to isolate sources with
significant intrinsic column density. For the stronger nuclei, we have applied
the standard spectral analysis which provides the best fit values of X-ray
spectral index and column density. We find evidence for intrinsic absorption
exceeding a column density of 10^{22} cm^{-2} for one third of our sources.Comment: 12 pages, 37 figures (the complete version of the paper with all
figures is available on line, see appendix for details), ApJ accepte
Absence of phase coexistence in disordered exclusion processes with bypassing
Adding quenched disorder to the one-dimensional asymmetric exclusion process
is known to always induce phase separation. To test the robustness of this
result, we introduce two modifications of the process that allow particles to
bypass defect sites. In the first case, particles are allowed to jump l sites
ahead with the probability p_l ~ l^-(1+sigma), where sigma>1. By using Monte
Carlo simulations and the mean-field approach, we show that phase coexistence
may be absent up to enormously large system sizes, e.g. lnL~50, but is present
in the thermodynamic limit, as in the short-range case. In the second case, we
consider the exclusion process on a quadratic lattice with symmetric and
totally asymmetric hopping perpendicular to and along the direction of driving,
respectively. We show that in an anisotropic limit of this model a regime may
be found where phase coexistence is absent.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, to appear in JSTA
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