The Story of My Father

Pages 38-3

Rain

Pages 36-3

Advances and Insights into Neurological Practice 2016-17

Papers published by the European Journal of Neurology reflect the broad interest of practicing neurologists in advances in the aetiology, diagnosis and management of neurological disorders. As a general journal, the proportion of papers in the different subject areas reasonably reflects the case load of a practising neurologist. Stroke represents the largest proportion of papers published, including those on pathophysiology (1-23), acute stroke management (24-47) and the outcome of patients who have suffered stroke (48-72). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

19: Use One, Get One Free Prompt!

Using synesthesia to create surprise: Synesthetes are people whose senses cross over one another. They see music as colors, feel tastes as touch, etc. Practice describing a subject with the wrong sense(s); describe a smell in terms of how it sounds, describe a sound in terms of how it tastes, describe a taste in terms of what it looks like. You may need metaphors and similes to get your point across flowers that titter like middle school girls or the smell of diesel as hot as August sunlight. Try creating a few synesthetic descriptions and see where the writing takes you. Writing with texts: This is an exercise I use myself when generating new material; I often use texts I’m reading as inspiration for my own work in a variety of ways. This is one of them. Grab whatever you’re reading at the moment—poetry, literary prose, and good journalism are my favorite textual sources, but even the language in an instruction manual can be fodder for the imagination. Scan back over 1-2 pages of the text looking for interesting words and language. “Interesting” can mean a variety of things: words that are unusual or that you don’t often use in your own writing; words that spark your imagination in some way; words that connect with whatever is on your mind; feel free to use your intuition in making your decisions. Make a list of 5 or more words you feel intrigued by and write a draft of a poem using those words. Make a note of the source you used to give credit if needed/desired

Morphology and conductivity of Au electrodes on polydimethylsiloxane using (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane (MPTMS) as an adhesion promoter

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA) are often referred to as artificial muscles due to their high specific continuous power, which is comparable to that of human skeletal muscles, and because of their millisecond response time. We intend to use nanometer-thin DEA as medical implant actuators and sensors to be operated at voltages as low as a few tens of volts. The conductivity of the electrode and the impact of its stiffness on the stacked structure are key to the design and operation of future devices. The stiffness of sputtered Au electrodes on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was characterized using AFM nanoindentation techniques. 2500 nanoindentations were performed on 10 x 10 μm2 regions at loads of 100 to 400 nN using a spherical tip with a radius of (522 ± 2) nm. Stiffness maps based on the Hertz model were calculated using the Nanosurf Flex-ANA system. The low adhesion of Au to PDMS has been reported in the literature and leads to the formation of Au-nanoclusters. The size of the nanoclusters was (25 ± 10) nm and can be explained by the low surface energy of PDMS leading to a Volmer-Weber growth mode. Therefore, we propose (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane (MPTMS) as a molecular adhesive to promote the adhesion between the PDMS and Au electrode. A beneficial side effect of these self-assembling monolayers is the significant improvement of the electrode’s conductivity as determined by four-point probe measurements. Therefore, the application of a soft adhesive layer for building a dielectric elastomer actuator appears promising