Ultraviolet (UV) Bonding Process

This disclosure describes techniques to enable utilization of UV-activated bonding in a variety of devices and scenarios. The techniques can be utilized even in geometries where line of sight between an external UV radiation source and a bonding site is unavailable. Photoluminescent materials are added to the photoresist, UV-activated adhesive, stamp, etc., and are activated by utilizing incident X-ray beams. The specific photoluminescent material is selected based on the wavelength required by the curing process. The photoluminescent materials absorb the X-ray radiation and emit UV radiation that in turn activates the curing process. X-ray radiation can pass through a variety of materials and do not require a direct line of sight from their source to the bonding site in order to activate the photoluminescent material. Photoluminescent material is mixed with the UV-activated adhesive prior to its application at the bonding sites or is applied directly

Seeing fearful body expressions activates the fusiform cortex and amygdala

AbstractDarwin's evolutionary approach to organisms' emotional states attributes a prominent role to expressions of emotion in whole-body actions. Researchers in social psychology [1, 2] and human development [3] have long emphasized the fact that emotional states are expressed through body movement, but cognitive neuroscientists have almost exclusively considered isolated facial expressions (for review, see [4]). Here we used high-field fMRI to determine the underlying neural mechanisms of perception of body expression of emotion. Subjects were presented with short blocks of body expressions of fear alternating with short blocks of emotionally neutral meaningful body gestures. All images had internal facial features blurred out to avoid confounds due to a face or facial expression. We show that exposure to body expressions of fear, as opposed to neutral body postures, activates the fusiform gyrus and the amygdala. The fact that these two areas have previously been associated with the processing of faces and facial expressions [5–8] suggests synergies between facial and body-action expressions of emotion. Our findings open a new area of investigation of the role of body expressions of emotion in adaptive behavior as well as the relation between processes of emotion recognition in the face and in the body

It's all in the eyes: subcortical and cortical activation during grotesqueness perception in autism

Atypical face processing plays a key role in social interaction difficulties encountered by individuals with autism. In the current fMRI study, the Thatcher illusion was used to investigate several aspects of face processing in 20 young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 20 matched neurotypical controls. “Thatcherized” stimuli were modified at either the eyes or the mouth and participants discriminated between pairs of faces while cued to attend to either of these features in upright and inverted orientation. Behavioral data confirmed sensitivity to the illusion and intact configural processing in ASD. Directing attention towards the eyes vs. the mouth in upright faces in ASD led to (1) improved discrimination accuracy; (2) increased activation in areas involved in social and emotional processing; (3) increased activation in subcortical face-processing areas. Our findings show that when explicitly cued to attend to the eyes, activation of cortical areas involved in face processing, including its social and emotional aspects, can be enhanced in autism. This suggests that impairments in face processing in autism may be caused by a deficit in social attention, and that giving specific cues to attend to the eye-region when performing behavioral therapies aimed at improving social skills may result in a better outcome

Cultural effects on the association between election outcomes and face-based trait inferences

How competent a politician looks, as assessed in the laboratory, is correlated with whether the politician wins in real elections. This finding has led many to investigate whether the association between candidate appearances and election outcomes transcends cultures. However, these studies have largely focused on European countries and Caucasian candidates. To the best of our knowledge, there are only four cross-cultural studies that have directly investigated how face-based trait inferences correlate with election outcomes across Caucasian and Asian cultures. These prior studies have provided some initial evidence regarding cultural differences, but methodological problems and inconsistent findings have complicated our understanding of how culture mediates the effects of candidate appearances on election outcomes. Additionally, these four past studies have focused on positive traits, with a relative neglect of negative traits, resulting in an incomplete picture of how culture may impact a broader range of trait inferences. To study Caucasian-Asian cultural effects with a more balanced experimental design, and to explore a more complete profile of traits, here we compared how Caucasian and Korean participants’ inferences of positive and negative traits correlated with U.S. and Korean election outcomes. Contrary to previous reports, we found that inferences of competence (made by participants from both cultures) correlated with both U.S. and Korean election outcomes. Inferences of open-mindedness and threat, two traits neglected in previous cross-cultural studies, were correlated with Korean but not U.S. election outcomes. This differential effect was found in trait judgments made by both Caucasian and Korean participants. Interestingly, the faster the participants made face-based trait inferences, the more strongly those inferences were correlated with real election outcomes. These findings provide new insights into cultural effects and the difficult question of causality underlying the association between facial inferences and election outcomes. We also discuss the implications for political science and cognitive psychology

Raman Spectroscopy Study of Graphene Under High Pressure

Due to its exceptional mechanical and electrical properties, graphene (one layer sheet of carbon atoms) has attracted a lot of attention since its discovery in 2004. The purpose of this research is to compare the Raman spectra of graphene with plasma treated graphene sheets which have been treated by changing the different parameters affecting the plasma treatment like gas flow, power and pressure and treatment time. The graphene we used for our high pressure studies are 4-5 layer CVD deposited graphene samples prepared by our collaborators in Dr. W. B. Choi’s group. First we report a Raman spectroscopy study of graphene on copper substrate at high pressures. Diamond anvil cell (DAC) was used to generate pressure. In situ Raman spectra were collected at pressures up to 10 GPa. The results indicate that the G band of graphene shifts with pressure significantly (about 5 cm-1/GPa) whereas the 2D band changes very little. The plasma treated samples were loaded into DAC. Raman spectrum was captured. Parts of the spectrum which were not related to the grapheme peak position were eliminated. The background was reduced. Peaks were found and fitted using FITYK software and the shift of each peak compared to its last position was observed when the pressure was increased. Next we studied plasma treated graphene samples treated with different partial pressure treatments under high pressure and compared them to each other using zirconia anvil cell with the same method

Nanofabrication and Spectroscopy of Magnetic Nanostructures Using a Focused Ion Beam

This research used a focused ion beam in order to fabricate record small nano-magnetic structures, investigate the properties of magnetic materials in the rarely studied range of nanometer size, and exploit their extraordinary characteristics in medicine and nano-electronics. This study consists of two parts: (i) Fabrication and study of record small magnetic tunnel junctions (ii) Introduction of a novel method for detection of magnetoelectric nanoparticles (MENs) in the tissue. A key challenge in further scaling of CMOS devices is being able to perform non-volatile logic with near zero power consumption. Sub-10-nm nanomagnetic spin transfer torque (STT) magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs) have the potential for a universal memory that can address this key challenge. The main problem is to decrease the switching current density. This research studied these structures in sub-10-nm size range. In this range, spin related excitations consume considerably smaller amounts of energy as compared to the larger scale. This research concluded that as predicted a decrease in switching current superior to that of the linear scaling will happen in this size range. Magneto-electric nanoparticles (MENs) can be used to directly couple intrinsic electric-field-driven processes with external magnetic fields for controlling neural activity deep in the brain. These particles have been proven to be capable of inducing deep brain stimulation non-invasively. Furthermore, these magneto-electric nano-particles can be used for targeted drug delivery and are contenders to replace conventional chemotherapy. The circulatory system can deliver a drug to almost every cell in the body; however, delivering the drug specifically into the tumor cell and then releasing it on demand remains a formidable task. Nanomedicine can accomplish this, but ensuring that the drug is released at an appropriate rate once at the target site is an important task. In order to have a complete understanding of the behavior of these MENs when injected into the body, a comprehensive bio-distribution study was performed. This study introduced a novel spectroscopy method for tracing the nanoparticles in the bloodstream. This study investigated the post injection distribution of the MENs in vital organs throughout a period of two months