Computational Design of Wearable Chemical Sensors for Personalized Healthcare

Wearable sweat sensors have the potential to revolutionize precision medicine as they can non-invasively collect molecular information closely associated with an individual’s health status. However, the majority of clinically relevant biomarkers cannot be continuously detected in situ using existing wearable approaches. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are a promising candidate to address this challenge but haven’t yet gained widespread use due to their complex design and optimization process yielding variable selectivity. Despite their promise, MIPs have historically been known to be exceedingly difficult to optimize. Changes in the monomer/monomers used, polymerization solvent, and crosslinking agent have been shown to change the performance of MIP sensors significantly. This is particularly a concern in sweat-based sensors where the concentration of analytes is very low and chemical diversity is very high as a drop of sweat can contain vitamins, hormones, and amino acids. Consequentially, any sweat based sensor must exhibit high sensitivity (ability to detect low analyte concentrations) and selectivity (ability to distinguish one analyte from another). Computational methods have been introduced to design MIP sensitivity alone, however these prior methods do not cover all aspects essential for using a sensor in a wearable device such as selectivity optimization, detection of non-electroactive analytes, and scalable manufacturing. Here, we introduce a full computational method that allows for high throughput materials discovery for wearable devices. We will describe how to design novel sensing materials with QuantumDock, an automated computational framework for universal MIP development toward wearable applications. Then we delve into further technical details on signal transduction and scalable manufacturing approaches for these wearable devices. We present a number of novel devices designed with these computational methods including a wearable non-invasive phenylalanine monitoring system (the first of its kind), a wearable nutritional tracker ‘Nutritrek’ capable of monitoring a range of metabolic disorders, and an implantable pharmaceutical drug monitoring system for cancer patients

The effect of molybdenum on precipitation behaviour in low-carbon strip-cast steels containing niobium

This study addresses the effects of molybdenum on phase transformation and precipitation behaviour in low-carbon niobium-containing strip-cast steels, which is beneficial for the development of new high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels, designed specifically for production by direct strip casting

Arts, Leisure, and the Construction of “Gentlemanly” (shi 士) Identities in 7th–14th Century China

Historians regularly conceive of “gentlemen” (shi 士) in 7th–14th century China as men belonging to an elite social stratum, defined by their study of the classical and literary canons, participation in the civil service examinations, officeholding in the imperial bureaucracy, engagement in various literary or intellectual undertakings, hereditary status from a patriline, or connection to certain marriage, kinship, or friendship networks. This dissertation seeks to expand as well as complicate this perception of “gentlemen” as a social category, by understanding the label as referring not to an elite social stratum but to an identity, internalized and enacted in a variety of ways by men in low and high social positions alike. Using this framework to analyze the construction of “gentlemanly” identities in various arts and activities that served as leisure for some and livelihoods for others, this dissertation reveals a significant expansion in the repertory of signals and strategies used to create and perform “gentlemanly” identities in these fields, reshaping what it meant to be a “gentleman” in middle period China. Each chapter draws upon extensive source material from libraries, digital databases, and museums, to examine processes of identity construction and presentation in a series of different arts or activities in which both the “gentlemanly” and “non-gentlemanly” participated: painting, music making, practicing medicine, divining, farming and gardening, fishing and woodcutting, and playing the board game weiqi 圍棋 (also known as go). In each of these fields, between the 7th and 14th centuries, new “gentlemanly” identity signals were constructed to distinguish the “gentlemanly” sort from social categories like “artisan” (gong 工) that they viewed as inferior. New kinds of “gentlemen” like the “qin-zither gentleman” (qinshi 琴士), “painting gentleman” (huashi 畫士), and “classicist physician” (ruyi 儒醫) emerged; older labels like “recluse” (yinshi 隱士) expanded to encompass a wider variety of ways of living. New offices and titles at court were created that could signal membership in “gentlemanly” communities despite a close connection with arts like medicine or painting. And beyond these labels, men developed new “gentlemanly” identities through distinct modes of engagement in the respective field: the way one divined others’ fates, the strategies one used to win a board game, the metaphysical elements and ideals expressed in one’s art and discursive artistic judgments, the tools one didn’t use when fishing, and so on. These identity signals were situational, and each chapter draws upon examples of disagreement or doubt over the inclusion or exclusion of certain men as “gentlemen” to explore instances in which such signals were performed with varying degrees of efficacy. In my conclusion, I discuss the connection between many of these “gentlemanly” identity signals and an emerging form of social snobbery that I call the “discourse of ‘gentlemanly’ expertise.” In the 7th century and earlier, if the “gentlemanly” sort compared themselves to “artisans,” it would almost certainly be based on what they did. However, around the 9th–13th centuries, the “gentlemanly” sort became more actively involved (or vocal about their involvement) in the arts, and started to contrast their own practice and appreciation of these arts more actively with the (ostensibly inferior) practice and appreciation of “non-gentlemanly” sorts. In doing so, they began to define and distinguish themselves not by what they did, but by how they did it. They did not stop with simply articulating “gentlemanly” practices as different but equally good; they asserted that their practices and products were superior, claiming expertise in these fields on the basis of their ethical values, cultural norms, aesthetic preferences, and abstract knowledge of the cosmos and the ineffable “Way” (Dao 道). I argue that, ironically, this snobbish discourse of social distinction actually made it increasingly possible for people earning a livelihood in various arts to enact “gentlemanly” identities, by associating symbolic capital with the demonstration or depiction of “gentlemanly” modes of engagement. By focusing on the increasing number of ways in which “gentlemanly” identities were constructed and performed in 7th–14th century China, this dissertation offers insight into how individuals and groups made decisions of inclusion or exclusion, offered or obtained access to resources, and developed a sense of self and place in society. In doing so, it enriches our understandings of both the social forces shaping the middle period Chinese social world, and the individuals and groups who inhabited it

Effect of strip-cast micro-segregation on phase transformations in medium to high-carbon steels

The solidification of strip-cast alloys resulted in chemical heterogeneities known as micro-segregation, which were found to significantly impact phase transformations in nano-bainitic steels. The presence of micro-segregation resulted in an increase in the kinetics of isothermal nano-bainite formation, and a competitive transformation between bainite and pearlite during continuous cooling

Official Proceedings of the One Thousand Four Hundred and Seventy-One Meeting of the Board of Trustees, Columbus, Ohio, August 28, 29, & 30, 2013

This item is the meeting minutes of the Board of Trustees of The Ohio State University held on August 28, 29, & 30, 2013 at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, Columbus, Ohio. Interim President Alutto gave the President's Report. The committee reports were then discussed. The consent agenda included the following resolutions: Adoption of the Bylaws for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Board; Appointment of Members to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Board, Resolutions in Memoriam; Establishment and Appointment of a Presidential Search Committee and Contract to Retain Presidential Search Consultant; Personnel Actions; University Foundation Report; Naming of the Emergency Department; Authorization of the Credentialing and Privileging Process and the Expedited Credentialing Process; Authorization to Modify Audit Requirements for Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment; Creation of a Comprehensive Investment Policy; Authorization to Enter into Professional Services and Construction Contracts. The appendices included processes, budgets, building plans, and maps that were not already present in the minutes

Aerospace medicine and biology: A cumulative index to a continuing bibliography (supplement 371)

This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in Supplements 359 through 370 of Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography. It includes seven indexes: subject, personal author, corporate source, foreign technology, contract number, report number, and accession number

Aerospace medicine and biology: A cumulative index to a continuing bibliography (supplement 345)

This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in Supplements 333 through 344 of Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography. Seven indexes are included -- subject, personal author, corporate source, foreign technology, contract number, report number, and accession number

Metal dusting of iron and low alloy steel

Metal dusting is a kind of catastrophic corrosion phenomenon that can be observed in several of petrochemical processes. It occurs on iron-, nickel- and cobalt-base metals in carbonaceous atmospheres at high temperature when gaseous carbon activity is higher than one. The process is particularly rapid for ferritic alloys.The aim of this project was to compare the dusting kinetics of pure iron and a 2.25Cr-1Mo alloy steel under CO-H2-H2O atmosphere at 650°C.Polished (3μm) samples of iron and the steel were exposed to flowing CO-H2-H2O gas atmospheres at 650ºC, when the gases were supersaturated with respect to graphite. The partial pressure of CO was varied between 0.25 and 0.9 atm, and the carbon activity was varied from 2.35 to 16, in order to obtain a series of experimental conditions. In most experiments, pO2 was less than 7.37E-24 atm, and no iron oxide could form. However, Cr2O3 would always have been stable. When exposed to these gases, both iron and steel developed a surface scale of Fe3C which was buried beneath a deposit of carbon, containing iron-rich nanoparticles (the dust). Examination by Scanning Electron Microscopy allowed the observation of fine and coarse carbon nanotubes, and also spiral filaments. However, the morphology of the graphitic carbon was not sensitive to pCO and aC. Moreover, the carbon deposit was gas permeable, allowing continuing gas access to the underlying metal.At a fixed=4.5, the carburizing rate clearly increased with CO content from 0.25 to 0.68 atm. However, increasing the CO content to higher value led to decreased rates, indicating that carburizing rate reaches a maximum value at pCO=0.68 atm. When pCO was fixed at 0.25 atm and 0.68 atm, and carbon activity was varied. The induction period was extended by the formation of protective oxide layers at low values of carbon activity (aC= 2.35 and 2.55) where pO2 exceed the iron oxide formation value. For other reaction conditions, the carbon uptake rate for iron and steel did not increase with aC. The present work showed that the carbon deposition rates were not proportional to pCO or pCOpH2. Instead, the rate was affected by the partial pressure of all three reaction gases, and the carbon uptake rate for both materials could be expressed at r=k1pCOpH2+k2pCO2+k3pH22 and the rate constant k3 has a negative value, corresponding to coke gasification. From XRD analyses, it was found that cementite was the only iron-containing phase in the dusting product. The cementite particles acted as catalysts for carbon deposition from the gas. The same deposition process at the surface of the cementite layer led to its disintegration, thereby producing the particles. This disintegration process was faster on the steel than on pure iron. Consequently, the rates of both metal wastage and coke accumulation were faster for the steel.It is concluded that chromium and molybdenum do not stabilize the carbide but accelerate its disintegration process. It is suggested that Cr2O3 fine particles in the cementite layers provide more nucleation sites in the cementite layer on steel, explaining its more rapid dusting kinetics. However, appropriate methods of proving this assumption, such as TEM and FIB, are required