Fully Printed High-Frequency Phased-Array Antenna on Flexible Substrate

To address the issues of flexible electronics needed for surface-to-surface, surface-to-orbit, and back-to-Earth communications necessary for manned exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond, a room-temperature printing process has been developed to create active, phased-array antennas (PAAs) on a flexible Kapton substrate. Field effect transistors (FETs) based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), with many unique physical properties, were successfully proven feasible for phased-array antenna systems. The carrier mobility of an individual CNT is estimated to be at least 100,000 sq cm/V(dot)s. The CNT network in solution has carrier mobility as high as 46,770 sq cm/V(dot)s, and has a large current-density carrying capacity of approx. 1,000 mA/sq cm , which corresponds to a high carrying power of over 2,000 mW/ sq cm. Such high carrier mobility, and large current carrying capacity, allows the achievement of high-speed (>100 GHz), high-power, flexible electronic circuits that can be monolithically integrated on NASA s active phasedarray antennas for various applications, such as pressurized rovers, pressurized habitats, and spacesuits, as well as for locating beacon towers for lunar surface navigation, which will likely be performed at S-band and attached to a mobile astronaut. A fully printed 2-bit 2-element phasedarray antenna (PAA) working at 5.6 GHz, incorporating the CNT FETs as phase shifters, is demonstrated. The PAA is printed out at room temperature on 100-mm thick Kapton substrate. Four CNT FETs are printed together with microstrip time delay lines to function as a 2-bit phase shifter. The FET switch exhibits a switching speed of 0.2 ns, and works well for a 5.6-GHz RF signal. The operating frequency is measured to be 5.6 GHz, versus the state-of-the-art flexible FET operating frequency of 52 MHz. The source-drain current density is measured to be over 1,000 mA/sq cm, while the conventional organic FETs, and single carbon nanotube-based FETs, are typically in the mA to mA/sq cm range. The switching voltage used is 1.8 V, while the state-of-the-art flexible FET has a gate voltage around 50 V. The gate voltage can effectively control the source-drain current with an ON-OFF ratio of over 1,000 obtained at a low Vds bias of 1.8 V. The azimuth steering angles of PAA are measured at 0deg, -14.5deg, -30deg, and 48.6deg. The measured far-field patterns agree well with simulation results. The efficiency of the 2-bit 2-element PAA is measured to be 39 percent, including the loss of transmission line, FET switch, and coupling loss of RF probes. With further optimization, the efficiency is expected to be around 50-60 percent

In vitro models of cartilage degradation following joint injury : mechanical overload, inflammatory cytokines and therapeutic approaches

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biological Engineering, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of joint disorder. Individuals who have sustained an acute traumatic joint injury are at greater risk for the development of OA. The mechanisms by which injury causes cartilage degradation are not fully understood, but the elevated levels of injury-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNFa and IL-6, have been implicated to play important roles in the pathogenesis of OA. We have used in vitro models of cartilage injury to examine the interplay between mechanical and cytokine-mediated pathways and to identify processes associated with cartilage degradation following joint injury. The overall aims of this thesis were to characterize the combined effect of TNFa and IL-6/sIL6R on matrix degradation and chondrocyte gene expression in mechanically injured cartilage, and to investigate whether cartilage degradation could be inhibited by potential therapeutic approaches. TNFa and IL-6/sIL-6R interacted to cause aggrecanase-mediated proteoglycan degradation. Importantly, the combined catabolic effects of cytokines were highly potentiated by mechanical injury. Furthermore, cartilage degradation caused by the in vitro injury model appeared to be initiated at the transcriptional level, since the gene expression of matrix proteases, cytokines and iNOS were all highly elevated in the treatment conditions. The degradative effects of TNFa in injured cartilage was due, in part, to the action of endogenous IL-6, as proteoglycan degradation was partly reduced by an IL-6 blocking Fab fragment. Interestingly, cartilage degradation induced by the combinations of proinflammatory cytokines and mechanical injury was fully abrogated by short-term treatments with dexamethasone. The results of this work are significant in that they provide evidence suggesting joint injury affects cell-mediated responses as well as the transport of cytokines and proteases in extracellular matrix, making cartilage tissue more susceptible to further degradation by biochemical mediators.by Yihong C.S. Lu.Ph.D

Fully Printed, Flexible, Phased Array Antenna for Lunar Surface Communication

NASAs future exploration missions focus on the manned exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond, which will rely heavily on the development of a reliable communications infrastructure from planetary surface-to-surface, surface-to-orbit, and back to Earth. Flexible antennas are highly desired in many scenarios. Active phased array antennas (active PAAs) with distributed control and processing electronics at the surface of an antenna aperture offer numerous advantages for radar communications. Large-area active PAAs on flexible substrates are of particular interest in NASA s space radars due to their efficient inflatable package that can be rolled up during transportation and deployed in space. Such an inflatable package significantly reduces stowage volume and mass. Because of these performance and packaging advantages, large-area inflatable active PAAs are highly desired in NASA s surface-to-orbit and surface-to-relay communications. To address the issues of flexible electronics, a room-temperature printing process of active phased-array antennas on a flexible Kapton substrate was developed. Field effect transistors (FETs) based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), with many unique physical properties, were successfully proved feasible for the PAA system. This innovation is a new type of fully inkjet-printable, two-dimensional, high-frequency PAA on a flexible substrate at room temperature. The designed electronic circuit components, such as the FET switches in the phase shifter, metal interconnection lines, microstrip transmission lines, etc., are all printed using a special inkjet printer. Using the developed technology, entire 1x4, 2x2, and 4x4 PAA systems were developed, packaged, and demonstrated at 5.3 GHz. Several key solutions are addressed in this work to solve the fabrication issues. The source/drain contact is developed using droplets of silver ink printed on the source/drain areas prior to applying CNT thin-film. The wet silver ink droplets allow the silver to wet the CNT thin-film area and enable good contact with the source and drain contact after annealing. A passivation layer to protect the device channel is developed by bonding a thin Kapton film on top of the device channel. This film is also used as the media for transferring the aligned CNT thin-film on the device substrate. A simple and cost-effective technique to form multilayer metal interconnections on flexible substrate is developed and demonstrated. Contact vias are formed on the second substrate prior to bonding on the first substrate. Inkjet printing is used to fill the silver ink into the via structure. The printed silver ink penetrates through the vias to contact with the contact pads on the bottom layer. It is then annealed to form a good connection. One-dimensional and two-dimensional PAAs were fabricated and characterized. In these circuits, multilayer metal interconnects were used to make a complete PAA system

A high-density theta burst paradigm enhances the aftereffects of transcranial magnetic stimulation: Evidence from focal stimulation of rat motor cortex

Background: Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is an efficient noninvasive neuromodulation paradigm that has been widely adopted, clinically. However, the efficacy of TBS treatment remains similarly modest as conventional 10 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Objective/hypothesis: To develop a new TBS paradigm that enhances the effects of TMS administration while maintaining high time-efficiency. Methods: We describe here a new TMS paradigm, named High-Density Theta Burst Stimulation (hdTBS). This paradigm delivers up to 6 pulses per burst, as opposed to only 3 in conventional TBS, while maintaining the inter-burst interval of 200 ms (or 5 Hz) - a critical parameter in inducing long-term potentiation. This paradigm was implemented on a TMS stimulator developed in-house; its physiological effects were assessed in the motor cortex of awake rats using a rodent specific focal TMS coil. Microwire electrodes were implanted into each rat\u27s limb muscles to longitudinally record motor-evoked potential (MEP). Four different TBS paradigms (3, 4, 5 or 6 pulses per burst, 200 s per session) were tested; MEP signals were recorded immediately before (baseline) and up to 35 min post each TBS session. Results: We developed a stimulator based on a printed-circuit board strategy. The stimulator was able to deliver stable outputs of up to 6 pulses per burst. Animal experiments (n = 15) revealed significantly different aftereffects induced by the four TBS paradigms (Friedman test, p = 0.018). Post hoc analysis further revealed that, in comparison to conventional 3-pulse TBS, 5- and 6-pulse TBS enhanced the aftereffects of MEP signals by 56% and 92%, respectively, while maintaining identical time efficiency. Conclusion(s): A new stimulation paradigm is proposed, implemented and tested in the motor cortex of awake rats using a focal TMS coil developed in the lab.We observed enhanced aftereffects as assessed by MEP, with no obvious adverse effects, suggesting the translational potentials of this paradigm

Hazard Footprint-Based Normalization of Economic Losses from Tropical Cyclones in China During 1983–2015

Abstract Loss normalization is the prerequisite for understanding the effects of socioeconomic development, vulnerability, and climate changes on the economic losses from tropical cyclones. In China, limited studies have been done on loss normalization methods of damages caused by tropical cyclones, and most of them have adopted an administrative division-based approach to define the exposure levels. In this study, a hazard footprint-based normalization method was proposed to improve the spatial resolution of affected areas and the associated exposures to influential tropical cyclones in China. The meteorological records of precipitation and near-surface wind speed were used to identify the hazard footprint of each influential tropical cyclone. Provincial-level and national-level (total) economic loss normalization (PLN and TLN) were carried out based on the respective hazard footprints, covering loss records between 1999–2015 and 1983–2015, respectively. Socioeconomic factors—inflation, population, and wealth (GDP per capita)—were used to normalize the losses. A significant increasing trend was found in inflation-adjusted losses during 1983–2015, while no significant trend was found after normalization with the TLN method. The proposed hazard footprint-based method contributes to a more realistic estimation of the population and wealth affected by the influential tropical cyclones for the original year and the present scenario

Platinum composition dependence of spin-orbit torque in (Fe0.8Mn0.2)1−xPtx single-layer ferromagnet

We have investigated the effect of the Pt composition on the spin–orbit torque in a (Fe0.8Mn0.2)1xPtx single-layer ferromagnet. We observed that while the field-like torque decreases and even reverses sign with increasing the Pt composition, the damping-like torque increases monotonically and reaches 0.99 Oe=ð1010 A=m2Þ in a single-layer (Fe0.8Mn0.2)0.52Pt0.48 film. The results corroborate the anomalous Hall effect and surface spin rotation model presented previously, and the relative ratio between the damping-like and field-like torques can be qualitatively understood as the relative phase change in spin-conserving and spin-flip scattering

Deciphering the role of QPCTL in glioma progression and cancer immunotherapy

BackgroundGlioma is the most lethal and most aggressive brain cancer, and currently there is no effective treatment. Cancer immunotherapy is an advanced therapy by manipulating immune cells to attack cancer cells and it has been studied a lot in glioma treatment. Targeting the immune checkpoint CD47 or blocking the CD47-SIRPα axis can effectively eliminate glioma cancer cells but also brings side effects such as anemia. Glutaminyl-peptide cyclotransferase-like protein (QPCTL) catalyzes the pyroglutamylation of CD47 and is crucial for the binding between CD47 and SIRPα. Further study found that loss of intracellular QPCTL limits chemokine function and reshapes myeloid infiltration to augment tumor immunity. However, the role of QPCTL in glioma and the relationship between its expression and clinical outcomes remains unclear. Deciphering the role of QPCTL in glioma will provide a promising therapy for glioma cancer immunotherapy.MethodsQPCTL expression in glioma tissues and normal adjacent tissues was primarily analyzed in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and further validated in another independent cohort from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA), and Human Protein Atlas (HPA). The relationships between QPCTL expression and clinicopathologic parameters and overall survival (OS) were assessed using multivariate methods and Kaplan-Meier survival curves. And the proteins network with which QPCTL interacted was built using the online STRING website. Meanwhile, we use Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) databases to investigate the relationships between QPCTL expression and infiltrated immune cells and their corresponding gene marker sets. We analyzed the Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) including GO/KEGG and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) based on QPCTL-high and -low expression tumors.ResultsIn contrast to normal tissue, QPCTL expression was higher in glioma tumor tissue (p ConclusionHigh QPCTL expression predicts high grades of gliomas and poor prognosis with impaired infiltration of adaptive immune cells in the tumor microenvironment as well as higher cancer stemness. Moreover, targeting QPCTL will be a promising immunotherapy in glioma cancer treatment.</p

Room Temperature Mott Hopping and Spin pumping Characterization of Amorphous Gd-alloyed Bi2Se3

Disordered films have gained intense interest because of their possibility for spintronics applications by benefiting from other exotic transport properties. Here, we have fabricated disordered Gd-alloyed Bi_x Se_(1-x) (BSG) thin films by magnetron sputtering methods and have investigated their magneto-transport and spin-torque properties. Structural characterizations show a mainly amorphous feature for the 8nm thick BSG film, while Bi rich crystallites are developed inside the 16nm thick BSG film. The bulk resistivity of BSG film is found to be relatively high, up to 6x10^4 uOhm.cm, with respect to the resistivity of the polycrystalline Bi_x Se_(1-x) film. Temperature dependent resistivity measurements display the evident character of a variable range hopping transport from 80K to 300K. Spin pumping transport characterizations have been performed on the BSG(t)/CoFeB(5 nm) bilayer structures with different thickness of BSG (t= 6, 8, 12, 16 nm). The possible various origins of the spin-to-charge conversion are related to extrinsic effects. Our study provides a new experimental direction, beyond crystalline solids, to the search for strong SOC systems in amorphous solids and other engineered random systems

Transport of anti-IL-6 antigen binding fragments into cartilage and the effects of injury

The efficacy of biological therapeutics against cartilage degradation in osteoarthritis is restricted by the limited transport of macromolecules through the dense, avascular extracellular matrix. The availability of biologics to cell surface and matrix targets is limited by steric hindrance of the matrix, and the microstructure of matrix itself can be dramatically altered by joint injury and the subsequent inflammatory response. We studied the transport into cartilage of a 48 kDa anti-IL-6 antigen binding fragment (Fab) using an in vitro model of joint injury to quantify the transport of Fab fragments into normal and mechanically injured cartilage. The anti-IL-6 Fab was able to diffuse throughout the depth of the tissue, suggesting that Fab fragments can have the desired property of achieving local delivery to targets within cartilage, unlike full-sized antibodies which are too large to penetrate beyond the cartilage surface. Uptake of the anti-IL-6 Fab was significantly increased following mechanical injury, and an additional increase in uptake was observed in response to combined treatment with TNFα and mechanical injury, a model used to mimic the inflammatory response following joint injury. These results suggest that joint trauma leading to cartilage degradation can further alter the transport of such therapeutics and similar-sized macromolecules.National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (U.S.) (Grant AR45779)National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (U.S.) (Grant AR60331)Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. (Research and Development Grant