Preparation and characterization of ZnO microcantilever for nanoactuation

Zinc oxide [ZnO] thin films are deposited using a radiofrequency magnetron sputtering method under room temperature. Its crystalline quality, surface morphology, and composition purity are characterized by X-ray diffraction [XRD], atomic force microscopy [AFM], field-emission scanning electron microscopy [FE-SEM], and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy [EDS]. XRD pattern of the ZnO thin film shows that it has a high c-axis-preferring orientation, which is confirmed by a FE-SEM cross-sectional image of the film. The EDS analysis indicates that only Zn and O elements are contained in the ZnO film. The AFM image shows that the film's surface is very smooth and dense, and the surface roughness is 5.899 nm. The microcantilever (Au/Ti/ZnO/Au/Ti/SiO2/Si) based on the ZnO thin film is fabricated by micromachining techniques. The dynamic characterizations of the cantilever using a laser Doppler vibrometer show that the amplitude of the cantilever tip is linear with the driving voltage, and the amplitude of this microcantilever's tip increased from 2.1 to 13.6 nm when the driving voltage increased from 0.05 to 0.3 Vrms. The calculated transverse piezoelectric constant d31 of the ZnO thin film is -3.27 pC/N. This d31 is high compared with other published results. This ZnO thin film will be used in smart slider in hard disk drives to do nanoactuation in the future

Endometrial microbiota in women with and without adenomyosis: A pilot study

IntroductionThe endometrial microbiota plays an essential role in the health of the female reproductive system. However, the interactions between the microbes in the endometrium and their effects on adenomyosis remain obscure.Materials and methodsWe profile endometrial samples from 38 women with (n=21) or without (n=17) adenomyosis to characterize the composition of the microbial community and its potential function in adenomyosis using 5R 16S rRNA gene sequencing.ResultsThe microbiota profiles of patients with adenomyosis were different from the control group without adenomyosis. Furthermore, analysis identified Lactobacillus zeae, Burkholderia cepacia, Weissella confusa, Prevotella copri, and Citrobacter freundii as potential biomarkers for adenomyosis. In addition, Citrobacter freundii, Prevotella copri, and Burkholderia cepacia had the most significant diagnostic value for adenomyosis. PICRUSt results identified 30 differentially regulated pathways between the two groups of patients. In particular, we found that protein export, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism were upregulated in adenomyosis. Our results clarify the relationship between the endometrial microbiota and adenomyosis.DiscussionThe endometrial microbiota of adenomyosis exhibits a unique structure and Citrobacter freundii, Prevotella copri, and Burkholderia cepacia were identified as potential pathogenic microorganisms associated with adenomyosis. Our findings suggest that changes in the endometrial microbiota of patients with adenomyosis are of potential value for determining the occurrence, progression, early of diagnosis, and treatment oadenomyosis

Retinal status analysis method based on feature extraction and quantitative grading in OCT images

Background: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is widely used in ophthalmology for viewing the morphology of the retina, which is important for disease detection and assessing therapeutic effect. The diagnosis of retinal diseases is based primarily on the subjective analysis of OCT images by trained ophthalmologists. This paper describes an OCT images automatic analysis method for computer-aided disease diagnosis and it is a critical part of the eye fundus diagnosis. Methods: This study analyzed 300 OCT images acquired by Optovue Avanti RTVue XR (Optovue Corp., Fremont, CA). Firstly, the normal retinal reference model based on retinal boundaries was presented. Subsequently, two kinds of quantitative methods based on geometric features and morphological features were proposed. This paper put forward a retinal abnormal grading decision-making method which was used in actual analysis and evaluation of multiple OCT images. Results: This paper showed detailed analysis process by four retinal OCT images with different abnormal degrees. The final grading results verified that the analysis method can distinguish abnormal severity and lesion regions. This paper presented the simulation of the 150 test images, where the results of analysis of retinal status showed that the sensitivity was 0.94 and specificity was 0.92.The proposed method can speed up diagnostic process and objectively evaluate the retinal status. Conclusions: This paper aims on studies of retinal status automatic analysis method based on feature extraction and quantitative grading in OCT images. The proposed method can obtain the parameters and the features that are associated with retinal morphology. Quantitative analysis and evaluation of these features are combined with reference model which can realize the target image abnormal judgment and provide a reference for disease diagnosi

Ocular changes during hemodialysis in patients with end-stage renal disease

Abstract Background To explore ocular changes during hemodialysis (HD) in chronic renal failure patients and to determine the effects of different causes of renal failure during HD. Methods A total of 90 eyes from 45 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing HD were evaluated in this study. All ophthalmological examinations were conducted within 1 h before and after a single HD session. The HD patients were divided into primary kidney disease (KD), hypertensive KD, diabetic KD (DM-KD) and unknown etiology subgroups according to the primary etiology of renal failure. The statistics of 38 eyes from 19 healthy people were set as normal control. Results Tear break-up time (TBUT) (P = 0.020), Schirmer’s I test results (P = 0.030), anterior chamber depth (ACD) (P = 0.006), lens thickness (LT) (P < 0.001) and choroidal thickness (CHT) (P < 0.001)decreased significantly after a single HD. The retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness and average retinal thickness (RT) increased after HD, especially in the nasal inner macula (NIM) subfield (P < 0.001), the inferior inner macula (IIM) subfield (P = 0.004) and the superior outer macula (SOM) subfield (P = 0.012). TBUT, Schirmer’s I test, IOP, RT, and CHT were correlated with one or more parameters. All ESRD patients regardless of etiology had the same trend for most parameters during HD, with the exception of the logMAR of BCVA, central corneal thickness, RNFL thickness and CHT. Conclusions HD may affect a range of ocular parameters in ESRD patients. Dry eye parameters, RT and CHT exhibited the most obvious changes. Different etiologies tended to have similar trends in ocular parameter changes during HD

An Innovative Survey Design to Understand Sustainable Travel Behaviors: Potential of a Rolling Sample Survey to Replace Traditional Household Travel Surveys

We propose an innovative survey with rolling samples to address a major fiscal challenge faced by many MPOs. Faced with a small, but continuous budget, MPOs are increasingly unable to continue the current survey practice: conducting a large survey every 10 years. A rolling sample design also has other benefits over the current practice. Yet, for its implementation in household travel surveys, many questions exist. Some are technical issues while others are cost and procedural-related. The primary purpose of this project is to understand these issues and provide recommendations for a future household travel survey with rolling samples. It is also expected that a rolling sample design can help us understand travel behavior better for the purpose of VMT reduction. By sampling participants living in very different neighborhoods, it can help us devise better VMT reduction strategies. The second purpose of this project is to assess the potential of a rolling sample design in addressing the potential of land use and infrastructure related strategies for VMT reduction. The research will help transportation planners and analysts to proactively reposition their service in light of the changing budgetary environment by developing a new approach to travel surveys based on small samples but continuous enrollment. This new approach is also more consistent with the recent changes in data collection methods used by the US Census Bureau. Our empirical results demonstrate the reliability of a rolling sample and points to the potential of using it to replacing the traditional household travel surveys. We also demonstrate an innovative parcel-based sampling procedure to allow an empirical examination of the effects of built environments on transportation outcomes based on data collected from continuous enrollment.Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium Washington State Department of Transportatio

Deposition, characterization and optimization of zinc oxide thin film for piezoelectric cantilevers

In this work, piezoelectric zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films are deposited under different deposition conditions using RF magnetron sputtering method. The influence of RF power, O2/(Ar + O2) gas ratio and sputtering pressure on the deposition rate, crystalline structures, surface roughness and composition purity of ZnO film are investigated by X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atom force microscopy (AFM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). All the fabricated ZnO films have a preferred ZnO(0 0 2) orientation. When the gas ratio of O2/(Ar + O2) is 25% and the working pressure is 0.8 Pa, the grain size in the ZnO thin film is of the largest and the ZnO film has a very smooth and dense surface. The SEM cross-sectional image of the ZnO film confirms that the ZnO thin film has a columnar structure and the c-axis is perpendicular to the substrate surface. The EDS analysis shows the ZnO film has only Zn and O elements. Different ZnO film based piezoelectric micro cantilevers are fabricated using micromachining techniques and the dynamic response of these piezoelectric cantilevers are measured by laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV). The tested results from LDV show that the deflection of the piezoelectric cantilever is linear with the driving voltage. The transverse piezoelectric constant d31 of the ZnO thin film deposited under best conditions is calculated as −3.21 pC/N by the LDV data. This value is higher than other published works. In future, these ZnO thin films will be used in our ongoing project for the design, simulation and fabrication of smart slider with a built-in ZnO sensor/actuator in the hard disk drives