A handheld high-sensitivity micro-NMR CMOS platform with B-field stabilization for multi-type biological/chemical assays

We report a micro-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system compatible with multi-type biological/chemical lab-on-a-chip assays. Unified in a handheld scale (dimension: 14 x 6 x 11 cm³, weight: 1.4 kg), the system is capable to detect<100 pM of Enterococcus faecalis derived DNA from a 2.5 μL sample. The key components are a portable magnet (0.46 T, 1.25 kg) for nucleus magnetization, a system PCB for I/O interface, an FPGA for system control, a current driver for trimming the magnetic (B) field, and a silicon chip fabricated in 0.18 μm CMOS. The latter, integrated with a current-mode vertical Hall sensor and a low-noise readout circuit, facilitates closed-loop B-field stabilization (2 mT → 0.15 mT), which otherwise fluctuates with temperature or sample displacement. Together with a dynamic-B-field transceiver with a planar coil for micro-NMR assay and thermal control, the system demonstrates: 1) selective biological target pinpointing; 2) protein state analysis; and 3) solvent-polymer dynamics, suitable for healthcare, food and colloidal applications, respectively. Compared to a commercial NMR-assay product (Bruker mq-20), this platform greatly reduces the sample consumption (120x), hardware volume (175x), and weight (96x)

Attitude, acceptability and knowledge of HPV vaccination among local university students in Hong Kong

© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has the great potential to prevent HPV-related infections for millions of women and men worldwide. However, the success of the vaccine is highly dependent on the vaccination rate. Factors influencing the attitudes of undergraduate students towards HPV vaccination should be studied. This is a cross-sectional survey that was conducted to estimate the HPV vaccination rate among undergraduate students in Hong Kong, and to identify the predictors of their attitude towards HPV vaccination. The results showed that the HPV vaccination rate was 13.3%. Factors related to knowledge of vaccination were the main predictors of the studentsâ attitude towards vaccination (there were seven predictors, with B = 1.36 to 2.30; p < 0.05), followed by gender (B =-1.40; p < 0.05), acceptable maximum price (B = 0.35; p < 0.05), and willingness to receive the HPV vaccine if it can protect against cervical/anal cancer and genital warts (B =-1.90; p < 0.001).Theregressionmodelthatwasdevelopedbasedonthepredictorshadamoderateeffect size (adj-R 2 = 0.33). To conclude, the HPV vaccination rate among undergraduate students in Hong Kong was low. They should be provided with more active education and activities to promote HPV vaccination to improve their knowledge on the subject.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Ultra-low-power and ultra-low-cost short-range wireless receivers in nanoscale CMOS

This book provides readers with a description of state-of-the-art techniques to be used for ultra-low-power (ULP) and ultra-low-cost (ULC), short-range wireless receivers. Readers will learn what is required to deploy these receivers in short-range wireless sensor networks, which are proliferating widely to serve the internet of things (IoT) for “smart cities.” The authors address key challenges involved with the technology and the typical tradeoffs between ULP and ULC. Three design examples with advanced circuit techniques are described in order to address these trade-offs, which specially focus on cost minimization. These three techniques enable respectively, cascading of radio frequency (RF) and baseband (BB) circuits under an ultra-low-voltage (ULV) supply, cascoding of RF and BB circuits in current domain for current reuse, and a novel function-reuse receiver architecture, suitable for ULV and multi-band ULP applications such as the sub-GHz ZigBee. ·         Summarizes the state-of-the-art in ultra-low-power (ULP) wireless receivers; ·         Includes novel, ultra-low-power and ultra-low-cost (ULC), analog and RF circuit techniques--from concepts to practice; ·         Describes and demonstrates the first RF-to-baseband current-reuse 2.4GHz receiver and the first gain-boosted function-reuse sub-GHz receiver, with ULP and ULC in 65nm CMOS.  

Circuits and systems education: viewpoint of GOLD and industry

This paper discusses Circuits and Systems (CAS) education, its strengths and shortcomings, and areas that need improvement from the perspective of two GOLD (graduates of the last decade) members and one industry member. The GOLD members highlight the need for hardware experiments, and active education methods such as self-learning-the-theory through practices, and the importance of lab work to relate theory to practice, and also discuss the impact of new emerging technologies on educational reforms, also suggesting ways to get industry involved in the formulation of a new multi-discipline education curriculum. The GOLD members also discuss the impact of globalization on the CAS education in less-developed countries and the role of the IEEE CAS Society on the subject matter. The author from industry discusses the importance of CAS education, and contrary to the general belief, points out the importance of understanding the fundamentals of electrical engineering in industry. The author also discusses the importance of being flexible in a work environment, and establishing a broad knowledge in engineering to have a positive impact in the company.Fil: Tarim, Tuna B.. Texas Instruments; Estados UnidosFil: Di Federico, Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Mak, Pui In. University of Macau; Chin

Guest editorial special issue on magnetic sensing systems for biomedical application

Magnetic field sensors have been of great interest due to their possible applications in biomedical application over the past decade. Miniaturizing magnetic based sensing systems for biological and chemical assays offer a prospect to modernize the large laboratory instruments into easy-to-use lab-on-a-chip platforms, bringing down the cost, size, and sample use by orders of magnitude. Such sensing systems need to provide fast response, high-sensitivity, and low-cost to be considered viable products. These devices can serve as high-performance diagnostic platforms in a wide range of applications from home healthcare over epidemic disease control and environmental monitoring to biothreat detection