A Flexible Doubly Clamped Beam Energy Harvester with a Standard Rectifier Electric Circuit

While wearable electronics are rapidly developing nowadays, it is greatly limited by the power solutions. Flexible piezoelectric energy harvester presents advantages of high energy density, compact architecture, and easy integration with MEMS, which provides an attractive prospect to power these next generation electronics. Since the flexible devices are usually devised with wavy, island-bridge, and precisely controlled buckling structures, the doubly clamped beam structure for energy harvesting application is analytically studied in this paper. Combine with Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and separation variable method, the analytical expression for output voltage is derived. By conducting the analytical simulation, it is found that the output power is related with the geometry dimensions, external excitation and load resistances. For further validation, experiment is systematically studied. By connecting the standard rectifier electric circuit with the energy harvesting device, it is found that a 0.1uF capacitor can be fully charged in 0.15 s, and the charged output voltage is about 2.5 V, which are successfully used for powering LEDs

A New Method of Image Compression Using Irreducible Covers of Maximal Rectangles

In recent years there has been a tremendous spurt in research and activity in finding efficient compression techniques for image processing applications. Particularly when an image is structured over a non-rectangular region it is always advantageous to define a method of covering a region by minimal numbers of maximal rectangles. Towards this objective, we analyze the binary image compression problem using irreducible cover of maximal rectangles. We also give a bound on the minimum rectangular cover problem for image compression under certain conditions that previously have not been analyzed. It is demonstrated for a simply connected image that, the irreducible cover proposed here uses less than four times the number of the rectangles in a minimum cover. With n pixels in a square, the parallel algorithm of obtaining the irreducible cover presented in the paper uses (n/log n) concurrent-read-exclusive-write (CREW) processors in O(log n) time

Summary of the 13th IACHEC Meeting

We summarize the outcome of the 13th meeting of the International Astronomical Consortium for High Energy Calibration (IACHEC), held at Tenuta dei Ciclamini (Avigliano Umbro, Italy) in April 2018. Fifty-one scientists directly involved in the calibration of operational and future high-energy missions gathered during 3.5 days to discuss the current status of the X-ray payload inter-calibration and possible approaches to improve it. This summary consists of reports from the various working groups with topics ranging from the identification and characterization of standard calibration sources, multi-observatory cross-calibration campaigns, appropriate and new statistical techniques, calibration of instruments and characterization of background, and communication and preservation of knowledge and results for the benefit of the astronomical community.Comment: 12 page

Exchange through nonmagnetic insulating matrix

Exchange interactions between hard-magnetic particles in a nonmagnetic matrix are investigated by model calculations. A Landau–Ginzburg approach is developed to describe the net exchange interactions between spheres of arbitrary diameters. Introducing cylindrical coordinates and integrating over the surfaces of the adjacent spheres yields an exchange coupling which decreases with a decay length depending on interatomic exchange, intra-atomic exchange, and temperature. Typically, the decay length does not exceed a few interatomic distances. The decay is exponential but also contains a prefactor depending on the surface curvature of the grains. It increases with decreasing curvature, but this dependence is only a small correction to the leading exponential term

Half-metallic magnetism in Ti3Co5-xFexB2

Bulk alloys and thin films of Fe-substituted Ti3Co5B2 have been investigated by first-principle density-functional calculations. The series, which is of interest in the context of alnico magnetism and spin electronics, has been experimentally realized in nanostructures but not in the bulk. Our bulk calculations predict paramagnetism for Ti3Co5B2, Ti3Co4FeB2 and Ti3CoFe4B2, whereas Ti3Fe5B2 is predicted to be ferromagnetic. The thin films are all ferromagnetic, indicating that moment formation may be facilitated at nanostructural grain boundaries. One member of the thin-film series, namely Ti3CoFe4B2, is half-metallic and exhibits perpendicular easy-axis magnetic anisotropy. The half-metallicity reflects the hybridization of the Ti, Fe and Co 3d orbitals, which causes a band gap in minority spin channel, and the limited equilibrium solubility of Fe in bulk Ti3Co5B2 may be linked to the emerging half metallicity due to Fe substitution

Radiation Hardness Study on SiC Power MOSFETs

As an emerging technology, silicon carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs are showing great potential for higher temperature/power rating, higher efficiency, and reduction in size and weight, which makes this technology ideal for high temperature, harsh environment applications such as downhole, medical, avionic, or even space applications. Radiation tolerance therefore becomes a critical aspect of the device performance in such environments. In this work, we explored radiation hardness of SiC devices to total ionizing dose (TID), neutron-induced single-event burnout (SEB), and heavy-ion induced single-event effects (SEE)

Development of an in vitro model to study clot lysis activity of thrombolytic drugs

BACKGROUND: Thrombolytic drugs are widely used for the management of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis patients. Several in vitro models have been developed to study clot lytic activity of thrombolytic drugs, but all of these have certain limitations. There is need of an appropriate model to check the clot lytic efficacy of thrombolytic drugs. In the present study, an attempt has been made to design and develop a new model system to study clot lysis in a simplified and easy way using a thrombolytic drug, streptokinase. METHODS: Whole blood from healthy individuals (n = 20) was allowed to form clots in a pre-weighed sterile microcentrifuge tubes; serum was removed and clot was weighed. After lysis by streptokinase fluid was removed and remnants of clot were again weighed along with the tube. Percentage of Clot lysis was calculated on the basis of the weight difference of microcentrifuge tubes obtained before and after clot lysis. RESULTS: There was a significant percentage of clot lysis observed when streptokinase was used. On the other hand with water (negative control), minimal (2.5%) clot lysis was observed. There was a significant difference between clot lysis done by streptokinase and water. CONCLUSION: Our study could be a rapid and effective methodology to study clot-lytic effect of newly developed drugs as well as known drugs

Ulocuplumab (BMS-936564 / MDX1338): a fully human anti-CXCR4 antibody induces cell death in chronic lymphocytic leukemia mediated through a reactive oxygen species-dependent pathway.

The CXCR4 receptor (Chemokine C-X-C motif receptor 4) is highly expressed in different hematological malignancies including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The CXCR4 ligand (CXCL12) stimulates CXCR4 promoting cell survival and proliferation, and may contribute to the tropism of leukemia cells towards lymphoid tissues. Therefore, strategies targeting CXCR4 may constitute an effective therapeutic approach for CLL. To address that question, we studied the effect of Ulocuplumab (BMS-936564), a fully human IgG4 anti-CXCR4 antibody, using a stroma--CLL cells co-culture model. We found that Ulocuplumab (BMS-936564) inhibited CXCL12 mediated CXCR4 activation-migration of CLL cells at nanomolar concentrations. This effect was comparable to AMD3100 (Plerixafor--Mozobil), a small molecule CXCR4 inhibitor. However, Ulocuplumab (BMS-936564) but not AMD3100 induced apoptosis in CLL at nanomolar concentrations in the presence or absence of stromal cell support. This pro-apoptotic effect was independent of CLL high-risk prognostic markers, was associated with production of reactive oxygen species and did not require caspase activation. Overall, these findings are evidence that Ulocuplumab (BMS-936564) has biological activity in CLL, highlight the relevance of the CXCR4-CXCL12 pathway as a therapeutic target in CLL, and provide biological rationale for ongoing clinical trials in CLL and other hematological malignancies