NAND flash compiler using the SkyWater 130nm Process

NAND flash memory is commonly used for data storage, with applications in SSDs and flash drives. NAND flash research in academia can be limited by insufficient access to memory of varied sizes. This thesis discusses the design of a NAND flash memory compiler. This compiler provides researchers access to a customizable flash array. The array is built using the SkyWater Technology 130nm Process Design Kit (PDK) and SONOS flash technology. A detailed review of the implementation is included covering both the physical design of the flash array as well as the design of the compiler. The result of the compiler is able to be fabricated, as shown by an approved submission to Efabless' Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) shuttle program. The results consist of simulations that prove the functionality of the flash array

Design, fabrication, and implementation of a wireless, passive implantable pressure sensor based on magnetic higher-order harmonic fields

A passive and wireless sensor was developed for monitoring pressure in vivo. Structurally, the pressure sensor, referred to as the magneto-harmonic pressure sensor, is an airtight chamber sealed with an elastic pressure membrane. A strip of magnetically-soft material is attached to the bottom of the chamber and a permanent magnet strip is embedded inside the membrane. Under the excitation of an externally applied AC magnetic field, the magnetically-soft strip produces a higher-order magnetic signature that can be remotely detected with an external receiving coil. As ambient pressure varies, the pressure membrane deflects, altering the separation distance between the magnetically-soft strip and the permanent magnet. This shifts the higher-order harmonic signal, allowing for detection of pressure change as a function of harmonic shifting. The wireless, passive nature of this sensor technology allows for continuous long-term pressure monitoring, particularly useful for biomedical applications such as monitoring pressure in aneurysm sac and sphincter of Oddi. In addition to demonstrating its pressure sensing capability, an animal model was used to investigate the efficacy and feasibility of the pressure sensor in a biological environment

A wireless, passive sensor for quantifying packaged food quality

This paper describes the fabrication of a wireless, passive sensor based on aninductive-capacitive resonant circuit, and its application for in situ monitoring of thequality of dry, packaged food such as cereals, and fried and baked snacks. The sensor ismade of a planar inductor and capacitor printed on a paper substrate. To monitor foodquality, the sensor is embedded inside the food package by adhering it to the package’sinner wall; its response is remotely detected through a coil connected to a sensor reader. Asfood quality degrades due to increasing humidity inside the package, the paper substrateabsorbs water vapor, changing the capacitor’s capacitance and the sensor’s resonantfrequency. Therefore, the taste quality of the packaged food can be indirectly determined bymeasuring the change in the sensor’s resonant frequency. The novelty of this sensortechnology is its wireless and passive nature, which allows in situ determination of foodquality. In addition, the simple fabrication process and inexpensive sensor material ensure alow sensor cost, thus making this technology economically viable

Implantable biosensors for real-time strain and pressure monitoring

Implantable biosensors were developed for real-time monitoring of pressure and strain in the human body. The sensors, which are wireless and passive, consisted of a soft magnetic material and a permanent magnet. When exposed to a low frequency AC magnetic field, the soft magnetic material generated secondary magnetic fields that also included the higher-order harmonic modes. Parameters of interest were determined by measuring the changes in the pattern of these higher-order harmonic fields, which was achieved by changing the intensity of a DC magnetic field generated by a permanent magnet. The DC magnetic field, or the biasing field, was altered by changing the separation distance between the soft magnetic material and the permanent magnet. For pressure monitoring, the permanent magnet was placed on the membrane of an airtight chamber. Changes in the ambient pressure deflected the membrane, altering the separation distance between the two magnetic elements and thus the higher-order harmonic fields. Similarly, the soft magnetic material and the permanent magnet were separated by a flexible substrate in the stress/strain sensor. Compressive and tensile forces flexed the substrate, changing the separation distance between the two elements and the higher-order harmonic fields. In the current study, both stress/strain and pressure sensors were fabricated and characterized. Good stability, linearity and repeatability of the sensors were demonstrated. This passive and wireless sensor technology may be useful for long term detection of physical quantities within the human body as a part of treatment assessment, disease diagnosis, or detection of biomedical implant failures

Multi-AGV's Temporal Memory-based RRT Exploration in Unknown Environment

With the increasing need for multi-robot for exploring the unknown region in a challenging environment, efficient collaborative exploration strategies are needed for achieving such feat. A frontier-based Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree (RRT) exploration can be deployed to explore an unknown environment. However, its' greedy behavior causes multiple robots to explore the region with the highest revenue, which leads to massive overlapping in exploration process. To address this issue, we present a temporal memory-based RRT (TM-RRT) exploration strategy for multi-robot to perform robust exploration in an unknown environment. It computes adaptive duration for each frontier assigned and calculates the frontier's revenue based on the relative position of each robot. In addition, each robot is equipped with a memory consisting of frontier assigned and share among fleets to prevent repeating assignment of same frontier. Through both simulation and actual deployment, we have shown the robustness of TM-RRT exploration strategy by completing the exploration in a 25.0m x 54.0m (1350.0m2) area, while the conventional RRT exploration strategy falls short.Comment: 8 pages, 10 Figure

Bench-scale fire tests of Dark Red Meranti and Spruce finger joints in tension

This study investigates the secondary failure of Malaysian Dark Red Meranti (Shorea spp.) and Spruce (Picea abies) finger joints in a glulam beam in a fire test using a bench-scale test set-up. Secondary failure is the occurrence of failure of the bond lines due to fire and the falling off of the outermost tension layers, exposing the uncharred inner layers to a sudden increase of fire intensity. The lack of published work and the difficulties in describing the behaviour of the finger joints after the secondary failure in a full-scale fire test has identified the need for a simple benchscale method, incorporating the conditions of the standard fire test. This paper focusses on the performance of the finger joints which together with other defects such as knots and splits are generally the weakest component in the glulam beam. The finger joints were bonded with structural adhesives, specifically phenol resorcinol formaldehyde (PRF) and polyurethane (PUR). They were tested in tension to imitate the failure of finger joints on the tension side of a standard fire test of a glulam beam. Constant heat flux was introduced to the finger-jointed specimens to replicate the secondary failure of a glulam beam in the standard fire test. The results of this study indicate a relationship between the charring rate and density of the specimens, with higher density Dark Red Meranti showing lower charring rate compared to the lower density Spruce specimens. Factors such as constant heat flux as opposed to the time-increasing heat flux exposure and specimen size influenced the charring rate of the specimens. The char rate was measured at the early stages of the fire test, which is known to have higher values since the build-up of the charred layers was not sufficiently substantial to protect the inner unburnt wood. Overall, the bench-scale fire test set-up was able to differentiate the fire performance of the adhesives, with PRF showing better fire performance compared to the specimens finger-jointed with PUR adhesive. In addition, tensile tests at ambient temperature showed no significant difference in tensile strength between finger joints bonded with different adhesives for the same wood species. The tensile strengths of the finger joints bonded with different adhesives were influenced by the temperature profile through the joint. The proposed bench-scale fire test was used to compare the quality of the adhesives in a fire situation, specifically with respect to secondary failure. The PRF was selected as the reference adhesive

Diffusion of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training to Chinese Immigrants with Limited English Proficiency

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an effective intervention for prehospital cardiac arrest. Despite all available training opportunities for CPR, disparities exist in participation in CPR training, CPR knowledge, and receipt of bystander CPR for certain ethnic groups. We conducted five focus groups with Chinese immigrants who self-reported limited English proficiency (LEP). A bilingual facilitator conducted all the sessions. All discussions were taped, recorded, translated, and transcribed. Transcripts were analyzed by content analysis guided by the theory of diffusion. The majority of participants did not know of CPR and did not know where to get trained. Complexity of CPR procedure, advantages of calling 9-1-1, lack of confidence, and possible liability discourage LEP individuals to learn CPR. LEP individuals welcome simplified Hands-Only CPR and are willing to perform CPR with instruction from 9-1-1 operators. Expanding the current training to include Hands-Only CPR and dispatcher-assisted CPR may motivate Chinese LEP individuals to get trained for CPR

Fire performance of hardwood finger joints

This paper investigates the performance of Malaysian hardwood, dark red meranti finger joints in fire. Finger joints were prepared using two load-bearing type adhesives and tested in tension by means of a bench-scale fire test. They were tested in tension to replicate the failure of finger joints in tension layers of a glulam beam, which commonly occurs in a standard fire resistance test. Finger joints from softwood were also prepared and tested for comparison purposes. In addition, tensile tests at ambient temperature were conducted for both the hardwood and softwood finger joints in order to determine the approximate load level applied during the bench-scale fire tests. The time to failure, residual cross section and charring rate were determined and analysed. Results showed that the type of adhesive significantly influenced the time to failure. Furthermore, a lower residual cross-section was found in the finger joints bonded with phenol resorcinol formaldehyde (PRF) compared to the finger-jointed polyurethane (PUR) specimens. Therefore, PRF is better able to resist fire tests, has a higher residual strength and a longer time to failure compared to PUR.</p

Isolation of Diverse Members of the Aquificales from Geothermal Springs in Tengchong, China

The order Aquificales (phylum Aquificae) consists of thermophilic and hyperthermophilic bacteria that are prominent in many geothermal systems, including those in Tengchong, Yunnan Province, China. However, Aquificales have not previously been isolated from Tengchong. We isolated five strains of Aquificales from diverse springs (temperature 45.2–83.3°C and pH 2.6–9.1) in the Rehai Geothermal Field from sites in which Aquificales were abundant. Phylogenetic analysis showed that four of the strains belong to the genera Hydrogenobacter, Hydrogenobaculum, andSulfurihydrogenibium, including strains distant enough to likely justify new species ofHydrogenobacter and Hydrogenobaculum. The additional strain may represent a new genus in theHydrogenothermaceae. All strains were capable of aerobic respiration under microaerophilic conditions; however, they had variable capacity for chemolithotrophic oxidation of hydrogen and sulfur compounds and nitrate reduction

The mitosis and neurodevelopment proteins NDE1 and NDEL1 form dimers, tetramers and polymers with a folded-back structure in solution

Paralogs NDE1 (nuclear distribution element 1) and NDEL1 (NDE-like 1) are essential for mitosis and neurodevelopment. Both proteins are predicted to have similar structures, based upon high sequence similarity, and they co-complex in mammalian cells. X-ray diffraction studies and homology modeling suggest that their N-terminal regions (residues 8–167) adopt continuous, extended α-helical coiled-coil structures, but no experimentally derived information on the structure of their C-terminal regions or the architecture of the full-length proteins is available. In the case of NDE1, no biophysical data exists. Here we characterize the structural architecture of both full-length proteins utilizing negative stain electron microscopy along with our established paradigm of chemical cross-linking followed by tryptic digestion, mass spectrometry, and database searching, which we enhance using isotope labeling for mixed NDE1-NDEL1. We determined that full-length NDE1 forms needle-like dimers and tetramers in solution, similar to crystal structures of NDEL1, as well as chain-like end-to-end polymers. The C-terminal domain of each protein, required for interaction with key protein partners dynein and DISC1 (disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1), includes a predicted disordered region that allows a bent back structure. This facilitates interaction of the C-terminal region with the N-terminal coiled-coil domain and is in agreement with previous results showing N- and C-terminal regions of NDEL1 and NDE1 cooperating in dynein interaction. It sheds light on recently identified mutations in the NDE1 gene that cause truncation of the encoded protein. Additionally, analysis of mixed NDE1-NDEL1 complexes demonstrates that NDE1 and NDEL1 can interact directly