Delicate Processing Research Articles

Femtosecond scalpel-optical tweezers: efficient tool for assisted hatching and trophectoderm biopsy

Ultrashort laser pulses have enabled highly precise and delicate processing of biological specimens. We present the results of using femtosecond (fs) laser pulses for dissection of zona pellucida (ZP) in mouse embryos during assisted hatching procedure and for trophectoderm biopsy as well. We studied the effects of application of fs laser radiation in the infrared (1028 nm) and visible (514 nm) wavelength ranges. Laser irradiation parameters were optimized so as not to compromise the viability of the treated embryos. Embryo biopsy was carried out in late-stage mouse preimplantation embryos. Femtosecond laser pulses were applied to detach the desired amount of trophectoderm cells from the blastocyst, while the optical tweezers trapped the cells and moved them out of the embryo. The parameters of laser radiation were optimized so as to efficiently perform embryo biopsy and preserve the viability of the treated embryos. The thermal effects can be significantly lower when fs lasers are used as compared to CW or long-pulse lasers. It is crucial when dealing with living cells or organisms.

Identifying herbal leaves using shape context with ant colony and bipartite matching

Leaves are assuming basic part in today's life, on the grounds that numerous leaves are going about as herbs to plan drugs to cure diseases. In any case, every one of the leaves cannot be arranged effectively as herbs by people. To maintain a strategic distance from such trouble, we need to examine the morphological characters of every leave in light of the fact that morphological qualities of every plant and leaf differ for every crew. For breaking down morphological characters of leaves PCs are utilised, in the field of software engineering computerised picture handling strategies are utilised to investigate the pictures painstakingly. In this paper, we present shape context which is accustomed to extricating different elements from leaves, rather than separating symmetry driven components by SIFT, relative and SURF operators. Shape context is utilised to concentrate nearby and worldwide components from form focuses. In the wake of extricate components, for perceiving leaves delicate processing systems, for example, ant colony optimisation and bipartite matching calculations are utilised.

Femtosecond laser assisted hatching: Dependence of zona pellucida drilling efficiency and embryo development on laser wavelength and pulse energy

Ultrashort laser pulses have enabled highly precise and delicate processing of biological specimens. We present the results of using femtosecond laser pulses for dissection of zona pellucida (ZP) in mouse embryos during assisted hatching procedure. We studied the effects of application of femtosecond laser radiation in the infrared (1028 nm) and visible (514 nm) wavelength ranges. Laser irradiation parameters were optimized so as not to compromise the viability of the treated embryos. We have demonstrated that application of femtosecond laser pulses with the energies in the range of 250–320 nJ (for the wavelength of 1028 nm) and 47–112 nJ (for 514 nm) resulted in efficient ZP dissection. Femtosecond laser-assisted ZP drilling does not slow down the development of pre-implantation embryos and leads to 90–95% frequency of complete hatching. The thermal effects can be significantly lower when femtosecond lasers are used as compared to continuous wave or long-pulse lasers. It is crucial when dealing with living cells or organisms. By optimizing femtosecond laser radiation parameters assisted hatching as well as a wide range of embryo-surgical procedures can be efficiently performed, thus creating a great potential of using femtosecond lasers as a multi-purpose “tool of choice” for specialists in the fields of embryology and developmental biology.

Determination of Optimum Process for Thermal Debinding and Sintering Using Taguchi Method

Debinding involves long and delicate processing periods of removing binder components from a green body after injection moulding; failure to completely remove the binder components results in distortion, cracking, blisters and contamination at elevated temperatures. This study focuses on optimising thermal debinding process parameters on the basis of obtaining a defect-free part after sintering and also determining a sintering time that gives high sintering density. Thermal debinding was conducted after solvent debinding. The feedstock used to produce green compacts composed of Ti6Al4V powder and a wax-based binder. The binder’s backbone component is a low density polyethylene (LDPE). Careful selection of thermal debinding parameters was guided by thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) results. The Taguchi method was used to determine an optimum debinding process. Thermally debound compacts were analysed for residual binder using a TGA. Archimedes’ principle and optical microscopy were done to analyse the sintering density and microstructure of the sintered product, respectively. Optimum debinding and sintering conditions were identified. The study demonstrated that heating rate during debinding was the most influential factor that contributes to minimum residual binder followed by debinding dwell time and temperature. Longer sintering time of 4 h favoured higher density of 91.6 ±1.55%. A typical radial shrinkage level of 11.1 ±0.0816% was determined.

Laser micromachining of TiN coatings with variable pulse durations and shapes in ns regime

The micro-structuring of thin surface coatings has become increasingly popular following the discovery of improved performance, especially in terms of the resulting tribological properties. The direct writing of microstructures via laser ablation offers flexibility, extending the applicability of micro-structuring to various materials and machined geometries. However, the laser ablation of coatings requires better comprehension to provide sufficient machining quality with improved productivity to render such processes more viable for industrial applications. This paper presents the processing conditions for the ablation of approximately 4-μm-thick coatings of TiN in the ns pulse regime, which is generally characterised by higher productivity with low machining quality. A range of pulse durations between 12ns and 200ns was employed. The effect of pulse duration on ablation threshold fluence and irradiance was investigated. The pulse shape was decomposed into peak and tail regions to investigate their respective effects on the ablation process. The opportune regulation of pulse properties allowed for the maintenance of high productivity and high-quality laser micromachining under delicate processing conditions, in the case of ceramic TiN surface coatings with limited thickness.

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy fusion of sensor data

A framework is proposed, which consolidates the benefits of a fuzzy rationale and a neural system. The framework joins together Kalman separating and delicate processing guideline i.e. ANFIS to structure an effective information combination strategy for the target following framework. A novel versatile calculation focused around ANFIS is proposed to adjust logical progressions and to weaken the questionable aggravation of estimation information from multisensory. Fuzzy versatile combination calculation is a compelling device to make the genuine quality of the leftover covariance steady with its hypothetical worth. ANFIS indicates great taking in and forecast proficiencies, which makes it a productive device to manage experienced vulnerabilities in any framework. A neural system is presented, which can concentrate the measurable properties of the samples throughout the preparation sessions. Reproduction results demonstrate that the calculation can successfully alter the framework to adjust context oriented progressions and has solid combination capacity in opposing questionable data. This sagacious estimator is actualized utilizing Matlab/Simulink and the exhibitions are explored.

Wafer Backside Thinning Process Integrated with Post-Thinning Clean and TSV Exposure Recess Etch

The development of 3D-SIC technology has been requiring more delicate backside processing with increasing complexity and process requirements. As one of the key enabling process steps, wafer backside thinning must also evolve to satisfy the emerging demands. In addition to extreme wafer thickness control, the process requirements has also been extended into contamination control and cost reduction aspects, etc. In this work, we demonstrated a novel wafer backside thinning process integrated with post thinning clean and TSVs exposure recess etch in the context of imec's 300 mm wafer backside integration scheme. We expected that implementation of this process in the production line could dramatically simplify and eventually reduce the totally cost of wafer backside processing for 3D-SIC.

Electron Transportation and Recombination in TiO<sub>2</sub> Film for Flexible Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

Research on the flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) has been more and more extensively conducted during the recent years both academically and comercially for the sake of its further reduced expense and even broader application. However, significant promotion of electron transport properties and consequently the photovoltaic performances of such devices are perpetually hindered by the key problem that the poor heat tolerance of the plastic substrates employed in flexible DSCs makes high-temperature sintering of the photoanode films impossible. Based on a brief overview of the current state of research on flexible DSCs, including new materials and delicate processing techniques, and the research results from the author’s own group, this chapter specially treats the profound mechanistic issue of electron transport and recombination in flexible DSCs, which is rarely discussed and relatively less well understood up to now. It is pointed out that the electron transport and recombination dominate photovoltaic performance of the flexible DSCs and suppressing the recombination of injected electrons with electrolyte redox species is of crucial sense for performance promotion. Besides, the methods for restraining electron recombination are proposed and the developing trend and prospects of flexible DSCs are also presented.

AIMS in silico & PeakPick: a software package supporting unbiased screening of DNA differential methylation in cancer

Successful DNA differential methylation screening by unbiased fingerprinting-like techniques such as amplification of intermethylated sites (AIMS) is ensured by state-of-the art bioinformatic approaches providing virtual imaging. As an instrument for designing AIMS experiments by preliminary modeling of expected results in silico, we have developed an AIMS in silico computer program. This program predicts the total number of the PCR products obtainable with AIMS with preset conditions, the distribution of the products by their lengths, and their individual sequences. Graphical information is presented as a virtual capillary electrophoregram. Our AIMS in silico 2.0 version also allows virtual restriction analysis of the AIMS products, assisting in validation of the DNA fragments mapping to the genome. In an original AIMS approach, radioactively labeled DNA fragments are visualized with slab gels exposed on X-ray films. We have chosen to improve the method by separation of the AIMS products by capillary electrophoresis; thus, the results are witnessed as the sets of peaks of the capillary electrophoregram. In order to view the raw data and to perform exact sizing and comparative analysis of the DNA fragments, we have developed the PeakPick computer program. The necessity for this product is explained by inhability of the existing commercial software to analyze complex fingerprint-like capillary electrophoregrams, where the adjacent peaks tend to influence each other distorting the landscape. PeakPick provides very delicate but thorough processing in order to achieve exact sizing and to preserve true peak shapes, amplitudes, and squares. This allows high quality correlation and differentiation of capillary electrophoregrams in order to highlight methylation differences. PeakPick software, as well as the AIMS in silico program, may in principle be applicable to other fingerprint-like laboratory techniques, such as amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) or a recently proposed amplification of unmethylated Alu’s (AUMA). The programs are freely available at http://abif.freeflux.net. This research was supported by Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test (USA); Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 08-04-01685-а); and by the Federal Target Program “Scientific and scientific-educational personnel of innovation Russia” of the Federal Science and Innovations Agency (Rosnauka), contract no. 02.740.11.0089. INTEGRATED ANALYSIS OF DNA COPY NUMBER ALTERATIONS AND GENE EXPRESSION MICROARRAY DATA OF UTERINE LEIOMYOMAS

Multiferroic BiFeO3 thick film fabrication by aerosol deposition

BiFeO3 (BFO) multiferroic materials in the crystalline phase require very delicate processing conditions. In order to fabricate a high quality BFO thick film, aerosol deposition (AD) was employed and the phase evolution and multiferroic properties of the film were investigated for different annealing temperatures. A BFO thick film annealed at 500 °C had a dielectric constant of 80 at 1 kHz and possessed ferroelectric characteristics. At an applied electric field of ∼900 kV/cm, the remaining polarization and coercive field (Ec) were approximately 7.5 μC/cm2 and 370 kV/cm, respectively. In addition, the BFO thick film fabricated via AD and annealed at 500 °C showed weak ferromagnetic behavior between −1250 Oe and +1250 Oe and was saturated at the higher magnetic field strength, showing ferromagnetic behavior.

Changes in taste compounds of duck during processing

Nanjing cooked duck is one of the few low temperature cooked meat products in traditional Chinese featured meat products. It is famous for its delicate processing, savoury, and tender flavour. Taste compounds of Nanjing cooked duck during processing, namely free amino acids, peptides and nucleotides, were analyzed. During boiling, both free amino acids and flavour nucleotides decreased significantly. Most peptides decreased during processing and the changes of total peptides were consistent with the nucleotides. Results showed that the special processes before boiling, especially brining, produced an increased of effect on the taste compounds, which could be the reason for the savoury taste of Nanjing cooked duck.

Femtosecond laser deep hole drilling of silicate glasses in air

Femtosecond laser pulses are ideal for many precise and delicate laser processing applications. In this work, we demonstrate that femtosecond laser pulses can be used to produce microscopic holes (<100 μm diameter) with macroscopic depth (>1 mm) in silicate glasses at atmospheric pressures. These experiments indicate that self-focusing is an important factor affecting hole depth at high laser intensity.

Active sound extraction for noise control in the presence of duct mean flow

A method of controlling noise level in duct flows is described. The method is based on the principle of energy extraction by active source(s), rather than by wave cancellation as in ‘‘antisound.’’ As such, the method of energy extraction is robust; it does not need the delicate signal processing, perfect phase, and amplitude matching, crucial to sound cancellation. An improved control strategy useful for both low and high frequencies is described, and its effectiveness in the presence of mean flow is analyzed. It is found that in the presence of through flow the control is effective in extracting energy from any waves traversing it. As the duct flow Mach number increases the control appears to be less effctive for waves produced upstream of it but it is more effective for the waves produced downstream of the device. Further, this conclusion remains valid whether the detector is placed on the upstream or downstream side of the control device.

Active sound extraction for noise control

A method of controlling the noise level in duct flows is described. The method is based on the principle of energy extraction by active source(s), rather than by wave cancellation as in ‘‘antisound.’’ As such the method of energy extraction is robust; it does not need the delicate signal processing, perfect phase, and amplitude matching, crucial to sound cancellation. Two useful modes of control are discussed, one for quieting low frequencies and the other effective for higher frequencies. The possibility of perfect ‘‘noise trapping’’ in a finite region is also considered, even though it is difficult to implement such complete control in practice. A preliminary experiment that substantiates the concept is described. Extension of this method of noise control to three-dimensional cases is also briefly discussed.