Transparent Fingerprint Sensor System for Large Flat Panel Display

In this paper, we introduce a transparent fingerprint sensing system using a thin film transistor (TFT) sensor panel, based on a self-capacitive sensing scheme. An armorphousindium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFT sensor array and associated custom Read-Out IC (ROIC) are implemented for the system. The sensor panel has a 200 ?? 200 pixel array and each pixel size is as small as 50 ??m ?? 50 ??m. The ROIC uses only eight analog front-end (AFE) amplifier stages along with a successive approximation analog-to-digital converter (SAR ADC). To get the fingerprint image data from the sensor array, the ROIC senses a capacitance, which is formed by a cover glass material between a human finger and an electrode of each pixel of the sensor array. Three methods are reviewed for estimating the self-capacitance. The measurement result demonstrates that the transparent fingerprint sensor system has an ability to differentiate a human finger???s ridges and valleys through the fingerprint sensor array

Interaction of Veratrum nigrum

Obesity has become a major health threat in developed countries. However, current medications for obesity are limited because of their adverse effects. Interest in natural products for the treatment of obesity is thus rapidly growing. Korean Medicine (KM) is characterized by the wide use of herbal formulas. However, the combination rule of herbal formulas in KM lacks experimental evidence. According to Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica, the earliest book of herbal medicine, Veratrum nigrum (VN) has antagonistic features against Panax ginseng (PG), and the PG-VN pair is strictly forbidden. In this study, we have shown the effects of PG, VN, and their combination on obesity in high-fat (HF) diet-induced obese mice and in 3T3-L1 cells. PG, VN, and PG-VN combination significantly reduced weight gain and the fat pad weight in HF diet-induced obese mice. They also significantly decreased lipid accumulation and the expressions of two major adipogenesis factors, PPARγ and C/EBPα, in 3T3-L1 cells. In addition, the PG-VN combination had synergistic effects compared with the mixture of extracts of PG and VN on inhibition of PPARγ and C/EBPα expressions at lower doses. These results indicate a new potential anti-obese pharmacotherapy and also provide scientific evidence supporting the usage of herbal combinations instead of mixtures in KM

The size-controlled synthesis of monodisperse spherical mesoporous TiO2 particles and high dispersions of Pt, Pd, and Ag clusters on their surfaces

Monodisperse spherical mesoporous TiO2 particles with controlled sizes are synthesized with a simple sol-gel approach from a mixture of poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(propylene glycol)-poly(ethylene glycol) triblock copolymer, titanium isopropoxide, and 2,4-pentanedione in aqueous solution. We find that a low concentration of surfactant dissolved in the aqueous solution results in the synthesis of large particles (approx. 2200 nm) with a broad size distribution, but that a high surfactant concentration produces smaller particles (approx. 1100 nm) with a narrow size distribution. FE-SEM and HR-TEM images reveal that the aggregation of the anatase nanocrystalline phase results in the formation of micrometer-size mesoporous TiO2 with a well-defined spherical morphology. Our BET and BJH analyses show that the surface areas (above 213.9 m(2) g(-1)) and average pore sizes of the mesoporous TiO2 materials increase with increases in the calcination temperature: 6.1 nm (400 degrees C), 7.0 nm (500 degrees C), and 10.1 nm (600 degrees C). The photocatalytic activities of these materials in the degradations of methylene blue in aqueous solution and acetaldehyde in the gas phase are higher than that of the Degussa P25 TiO2. Furthermore, the pores of mesoporous TiO2 can be used as nanoscale reactors, so nanosized metal clusters of Pt, Pd, and Ag can be deposited onto the surface of mesoporous TiO2 with an incipient-wetness method. The nanosized Pt, Pd, and Ag clusters (approx. 20-50 nm) are highly dispersed on the surface of the mesoporous TiO2. (c) 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc

FlexVi: PHY Aided Flexible Multicast for Video Streaming over IEEE 802.11 WLANs

Wireless video multicast over IEEE 802.11 WLANs is a viable approach to bridging the gap between limited wireless resources and the ever-increasing mobile video traffic demand. However, existing wireless multicast mechanisms have several limitations, such as low spectral efficiency, high feedback overhead, and lack of consideration of the frame aggregation feature of current WLANs. In this paper, we propose FlexVi, a flexible wireless multicast solution for efficient video streaming over WLANs. Considering the frame aggregation of the current WLANs, FlexVi allows an access point to dynamically adjust the data rate on the basis of three factors: available wireless bandwidth, heterogeneity of the channel qualities among the clients, and the priorities among the video frames in terms of video quality. In addition, by harnessing the orthogonality of the subcarriers in the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, FlexVi enables multiple clients to deliver their feedback to an access point simultaneously without collision, which results in very low feedback overhead. We verified the feasibility of FlexVi through experiments on a software defined radio platform. We also conducted an extensive simulation study and found that FlexVi outperforms the latest wireless multicast mechanisms.11Nsciescopu

Pore Size Distribution Analysis of Mesoporous TiO2 Spheres by H-1 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Cryoporometry

Mesoporous TiO2, spheres with various pore sizes were prepared by varying the calcination temperature in the range of 300-700 degrees C. Increasing, calcination temperature was found to increase the crystal size, decrease the surface area, and increase the pore size. The morphologies of mesoporous TiO2 spheres consist of well-defined spherical shapes of monodisperse sizes near 0.8 mu m. To determine the pore size distributions (PSDs) of these mesoporous TiO2 spheres, Ill nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) cryoporometry and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) analysis were conducted. NMR cryoporometry is based on the theory of the melting point depression (MPD) of probe molecule confined within a pore. which is dependent on the pore diameter. MPD was determined by analyzing the variation of the NMR spin echo intensity with temperature. From the resulting spin echo intensity versus temperature (l-T) curves, it was found that the maximum MPD of a probe molecule confined within the pores of mesoporous TiO2 decreases with increasing calcination temperature; that is, the pore size increases with increasing calcination temperature. Because mesoporous TiO2 spheres consist of aggregates of nanocrystallite TiO2 and mesopores located at intercrystallites. in increase in the calcination temperature induces an increase in the crystallite size and, thus, in the pore size because the small pores collapse and die large pores increase in size. We also confirmed by BJH analysis that the pore size of mesoporous TiO2 increases with increasing calcination temperature. This trend is hi agreement with our H-1 NMR cryoporometry results. Overall, these findings indicate that NMR cryoporometry is a very effective method for determining the PSDs of mesoporous TiO2 spheres