Effective Diameter Research Articles

An overview of aeroacoustics-related analyses for the Artemis-I mission

To improve noise scaling laws for rockets and heated, supersonic jets, this paper discusses jet aeroacoustics-related scalings for the Space Launch System (SLS). Data from four measurement stations at the Artemis-I launch, located 1.4–1.8 km from the launchpad, are used in the analysis. First, SLS maximum overall sound pressure levels are compared against other rocket noise measurements at the same scaled distance using effective nozzle diameter. Second, Strouhal number frequency-scaling is used to compare the one-third-octave sound pressure and power level spectra with other jets and rockets. Third, the Oertel convective Mach number is used to interpret a maximum directivity angle of 60°–70°. Finally, SLS’s acoustic efficiency is evaluated relative to that of other rockets.

Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester Encapsulated in Self-Assemble Rice Peptides Nanoparticles: Storage Stability, In Vitro Release, and Their Interaction Mechanisms.

Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) is an important active component of propolis with many bioactivities. However, its efficiency and practical application are restricted due to its poor aqueous solubility and storage stability. In this study, a nanocarrier was fabricated to encapsulate CAPE using self-assembled rice peptides obtained by controllable enzymolysis. The physicochemical properties, encapsulation efficiency, and loading capacity of rice peptides nanoparticles (RPNs) were characterized. The storage stability, in vitro release, and interaction mechanisms between CAPE and RPNs were investigated. The results showed that RPNs, mainly assembled by disulfide bonds and hydrogen bonds, possessed an effective diameter of around 210 nm and a high encapsulation efficiency (77.77%) and loading capacity (3.89%). Importantly, the water solubility of CAPE was increased by 45 times after RPNs encapsulation. Moreover, RPNs encapsulation also significantly increased CAPE stability, about 1.4-fold higher than that of unencapsulated CAPE after 18-day storage. An in vitro release study demonstrated that RPNs could delay the release of CAPE, implying a better CAPE protection against extreme environments during digestion. Hydrogen bond and van der Waals force are the predominant interaction forces between RPNs and CAPE. Therefore, the newly developed nanoparticle is a potential delivery system that could effectively improve the aqueous solubility and stability of CAPE.

On the dependence of electrical mobility on temperature, humidity and structure of alkylammonium ions

Insights into the effect of temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) as well as structure and polarisation on ion mobility help the comparison and interpretation of mobility and mass-based data. We measured alkylammonium ions in air under different T (14 °C, 24 °C, 34 °C and 41 °C) and RH (0 %, 20 %, 40 %) conditions using two individual setups (in both cases a planar differential mobility analyser coupled with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer) and the results are in excellent agreement. Mobility increases with rising T and decreases with water vapour loading. When separating the measurement mobility by structures, clear mass dependence was observed. The measured mobilities exhibited large deviations from theoretically calculated results in dry conditions, which are possibly caused by adduct formation on the monomer ions via clustering (or reactions). This phenomenon seems to be unavoidably associated with light ions under atmospheric pressures, which is worth further exploration and bearing in mind when comparing measurements to calculations. Both methanol and oxygen (occasionally nitrogen or alkyl chain elongation) are possible candidates of the adduct. Under spherical assumption, we used the modified Mason–Schamp's approximation to link the measured mobility to the mobility equivalent diameter. The drag enhancement factor ξ and the effective gas-molecule collision diameter dg derived from our measurement data are comparable to literature values. Our data also exposed a non-linear dependence on the polarisation parameter ε*. Polarisation, ξ and dg were parameterised using linear models against ion structures, T, and RH for primary, secondary and tertiary alkylammonium ions with identical alkyl groups. Our model parametrisations predict mobilities within ±10 % deviation from the measured data. The model also has satisfying predicting power for alkylammonium ions with unidentical alkyl structures.

Impact of local plastic deformation on thermo-magnetic instability of high-J c Nb3Sn strand

The future fusion reactor devices built by Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science will be a compact burning plasma facility to fill the gap between ITER and the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor, with the mission of studying the deuterium–tritium plasma in steady-state operation. The winding-package (WP) of its toroidal field coil is graded into high-field WP and low-field WP, and the high critical current density (J c) Nb3Sn strand will be applied to the high-field WP based on the current design. The thermo-magnetic instability is the main issue in the application of high-J c Nb3Sn strand, which may induce premature quenching in the low field regions. This issue can be improved by reducing the effective filament diameter (d eff) to suppress flux jumps and increasing the residual resistivity ratio (RRR) to enhance the release of heat generated by flux jumps. However, in the conductor manufacturing process, local plastic deformations (indentation) of strands can impact the sub-element layout and degrade the RRR of the strand, which would increase again the risk on instability. In this study, magnetization measurements and V–I tests were performed on samples with different indentation depths. The hysteresis loss and d eff of the indented sample was obtained from the test results. The impact of local plastic deformation on the thermo-magnetic instability of two types of Nb3Sn strand was confirmed by cross-sectional metallographic observation and quantitative microstructure analysis. It was shown that flux jumps were suppressed at indentation depths below 0.3 mm. Further indentation increase leads to severe flux jumps.

The Use of Data Mining for Obtaining Deeper Insights into the Fabrication of Prednisolone-Loaded Chitosan Nanoparticles.

The present work explores a data mining approach to study the fabrication of prednisolone-loaded chitosan nanoparticles and their properties. Eight PLC formulations were prepared using an automated adaptation of the antisolvent precipitation method. The PLCs were characterized using dynamic light scattering, infrared spectroscopy, and drug release studies. Results showed that that the effective diameter, loading capacity, encapsulation efficiency, zeta potential, and polydispersity of the PLCs were influenced by the concentration and molecular weight of chitosan. The drug release studies showed that PLCs exhibited significant dissolution enhancement compared to pure prednisolone crystals. Principal components analysis and partial least squares regression were applied to the infrared spectra and the DLS data to extract higher-order interactions and correlations between the critical quality attributes and the diameter of the PLCs. Principal components revealed that the spectra clustered according to the type of material, with PLCs forming a separate cluster from the raw materials and the physical mix. PLS was successful in predicting the ED of the PLCs from the FTIR spectra with R2 = 0.98 and RMSE = 27.18. The present work demonstrates that data mining techniques can be useful tools for obtaining deeper insights into the fabrication and properties of PLCs, and for optimizing their quality and performance. It also suggests that FTIR spectroscopy can be a rapid and non-destructive method for predicting the ED of PLCs.

A Case Report of Modified Pancreatic Transplantation With a Limited Splenic Arteriovenous Fistula to Elude Thrombosis

In classic pancreatic transplantation, the splenic artery and vein are ligated at the tail of the pancreas graft. This leads to slowed blood flow in the splenic vein and may cause thrombosis and graft loss. In this study, a patient received a pancreas after kidney transplantation. A modified surgical technique was used in the pancreatic graft preparation. The donor splenic artery and vein were anastomosed end to end at the tail of the pancreas. The splenic artery near the anastomosis was partially ligated, and an effective diameter of 2 mm was reserved to limit arterial blood pressure and flow. The patient recovered very well. Contrasted computed tomography scans on days 11 and 88 after pancreas transplantation indicated sufficient backflow of the splenic vein. We believe that this procedure may avoid the risk of splenic vein thrombosis after pancreas transplantation. This modified technique has not been reported in clinical cases previously and may help reduce the risk of thrombosis after pancreas transplantation.

Simulation of ultrasonic scattering from scatterer size distributions using Field II.

Quantitative analysis of radio frequency (RF) signals obtained from ultrasound scanners can yield objective parameters that are gaining clinical relevance as imaging biomarkers. These include the backscatter coefficient (BSC) and the effective scatterer diameter (ESD). Biomarker validation is typically performed in phantoms which do not provide the flexibility of systematic variation of scattering properties. Computer simulations, such as those from the ultrasound simulator Field II, can allow more flexibility. However, Field II does not allow simulation of RF data from a distribution of scatterers with finite size. In this work, a simulation method is presented which builds upon previous work by including Faran theory models representative of distributions of scatterer size. These are systematically applied to RF data simulated in Field II. The method is validated by measuring the root mean square error of the estimated BSC and percent bias of the ESD and comparing to experimental results. The results indicate the method accurately simulates distributions of scatterer sizes and provides scattering similar to that seen in data from clinical scanners. Because Field II is widely used by the ultrasound community, this method can be adopted to aid in validation of quantitative ultrasound imaging biomarkers.

Automated size-specific dose estimates framework in thoracic CT using convolutional neural network based on U-Net model.

This study aimed to develop an automated method that uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) for calculating size-specific dose estimates (SSDEs) based on the corrected effective diameter (Deff corr ) in thoracic computed tomography (CT). Transaxial images obtained from 108 adult patients who underwent non-contrast thoracic CT scans were analyzed. To calculate the Deff corr according to Mihailidis etal., the average relative electron densities for lung, bone, and other tissues were used to correct the lateral and anterior-posterior dimensions. The CNN architecture based on the U-Net algorithm was used for automated segmentation of three classes of tissues and the background region to calculate dimensions and Deff corr values. Then, 108 thoracic CT images and generated segmentation masks were used for network training. The water-equivalent diameter (Dw ) was determined according to the American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group 220. Linear regression and Bland-Altman analysis were performed to determine the correlations between SSDEDeff corr(automated) , SSDEDeff corr(manual) , and SSDEDw . High agreement was obtained between the manual and automated methods for calculating the Deff corr SSDE. The mean values for the SSDEDeff corr(manual) , SSDEDw , and SSDEDeff corr(automated) were 14.3±2.1 mGy, 14.6±2.2 mGy, and 14.5±2.4 mGy, respectively. The U-Net model was successfully trained and used to accurately predict SSDEs, with results comparable to manual-labeling results. The proposed automated framework using a CNN offers a reliable and efficient solution for determining the Deff corr SSDE in thoracic CT.

Bushfire-smoke trigger hospital admissions with cerebrovascular diseases: Evidence from 2019-20 bushfire in Australia.

Exposure to ambient air pollution is strongly associated with increased cerebrovascular diseases. The 2019-20 bushfire season in Australia burnt 5.4 million hectares of land in New South Wales alone, with smoke so severe it affected cities in Argentina, 11,000 km away. The smoke emitted by bushfires consists of both gaseous and particle components. It is important to note that exposure to particulate matter has been shown to be linked to a heightened risk of stroke, which is the primary kind of cerebrovascular illness, as well as an increased likelihood of hospitalisations and mortality. However, the available data is inadequate in terms of documenting the response of patients diagnosed with a proven cerebrovascular illness to bushfire smoke. Additionally, there is a lack of information about the health effects associated with particulate matter throughout the bushfire season and on days when smoke was present in 2019 and 2020.Therefore, we aimed to determine the effects of (i) short-term air pollution triggered by bushfires and (ii) high smoke days in increasing the daily number of hospital admissions with cerebrovascular diseases. Hospitalisation data were accessed from the admitted patient dataset from seven local Government areas of Hunter New England Local Health District. The bushfire period was defined from 1 October 2019 to 10 February 2020, and a same period from 2018-19 as the control. High bushfire smoke days were days when the average daily concentration of particulate matter was higher than the 95th percentile of the control period. Poisson regression models and fixed effect meta-analysis were used to analyse the data. In total, 275 patients with cerebrovascular admissions were identified, with 147 (53.5%) during the bushfire (2019-20) and 128 (46.5%) in the control period (2018-19). There was no significant increase in daily admissions for cerebrovascular disease (Incidence Rate Ratio, IRR: 1.04; 95% CI: 0.81-1.34; p-value: 0.73), acute stroke (IRR: 1.15; 95% CI: 0.88-1.50; p-value: 0.29) or acute ischaemic stroke (IRR: 1.18; 95% CI: 0.87-1.59; p-value: 0.28), over the entire bushfire period. However, the high bushfire smoke days were associated with increased acute ischaemic stroke-related hospital admissions across lead 0-3 and the highest cumulative effect was observed with lead 0 (IRR:1.52; 95% CI: 1.01-2.29; p-value: 0.04). In addition, during the bushfire period, particulate matter, both PM10 and PM2.5 (defined as particulates that have an effective aerodynamic diameter of 10, and 2.5 microns, respectively), were also associated with increased acute ischaemic stroke admissions with a lag of 0-3 days. The results suggested a possible association between particulate matter and high smoke days with increased hospital admissions due to acute ischaemic stroke during the recent Australian bushfire season.

Development and efficacy evaluation of a novel water-in-oil-in-water adjuvant for an inactivated foot-and-mouth disease vaccine

ABSTRACT To develop a novel water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) adjuvant and evaluate the effect on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) inactivated vaccine, in this study, we prepared the novel nano-emulsion adjuvant based on QS-21 (BEA) which is composed of the mixture of mineral oil Marcol52, surfactant Tween80, oleate polyoxyethylene ether ester, polyoxyethylene palmitic acid ester and span80, cosurfactant polyethylene glycol and QS-21. The two-step emulsification method formed the W/O/W nano-emulsion with two films and three-phase structures. The effective particle diameter of the BEA was about 184 nm, and it has good thermal stability. Then, BEA was emulsified as an adjuvant to prepare for the inactivated FMDV vaccine, and BALB/c mice and pigs were immunized to evaluate its safety and immunization effect. The results showed that the inactivated BEA-FMDV vaccine significantly increased BALB/c mice and pigs' antibodies and cytokine IFN-γ in serum. Meanwhile, the pig-neutralizing antibodies were higher than control group. Safety tests found no symptoms of FMD or significant toxic reactions. After 28 days of immunization, the protection rate can reach 93.3%. The BEA vaccine had good stability at 4 °C, no stratification after 180 days, and the content of 146S in the vaccine did not decrease. In conclusion, the BEA prepared in this study is suitable for FMDV inactivated vaccine and is an effective adjuvant.

Estimation of size-specific dose estimate (SSDE) of CT scans using an effective diameter electron density

ObjectiveAn assessment of the effective diameter of a patient’s body using electron densities of tissues inside the scan area (Deffρe) was proposed to overcome challenges associated with the estimation of water-equivalent diameter (Dw), which is used for size-specific dose estimate (SSDE). The aims of this study were to (1) investigate the Deffρe method in two different forms using a wide range of patient sizes and scanning protocols, and (2) compare between four methods used to estimate the patient size for SSDE. Materials and methodsUnder IRB approval, a total of 350 patients of varying sizes have been collected retrospectively from the Hospital. The Dw values were assessed over six different CT body protocols: (1) chest with contrast media, (2) chest High-Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT) without contrast media, (3) abdomen-pelvis with contrast media, (4) abdomen-pelvis without contrast media, (5) chest-abdomen-pelvis with contrast media, and (6) pelvis without contrast media. A MATLAB-based code was developed in-house to assess the size of each patient using the conventional effective diameter method (Deff), Deffρe by correcting either both the lateral (LAT) and anterior-posterior (AP) dimensions (Deff,LAT+APρe) or LAT only (Deff,LATρe), and Dw at the mid-CT slice of the patient images. ResultsThe results of Deff,LAT+APρe and Deff,LATρe provided a better estimation for the chest protocols with the averages of absolute percentage difference (PD) values in the range of 3 – 7 % for all patient sizes as compared to the Dw method, whereas the averages of PD values for the Deff method were 9 – 15 %. However, Deff gave a better estimation for Dw values for the other body protocols, with differences of 2 – 4 %, which were lower than those obtained with the Deff,LAT+APρe and Deff,LATρe methods. For the chest protocols, statistically significant differences were found between Deff and the other methods, but there were no significant differences between all the methods for the other scanning protocols. The results show that the correction of both dimensions, LAT and AP, did not improve the accuracy of the Deffρe method, and, for most protocols, Deff,LAT+APρe gave larger range differences compared to those based on correction of the LAT dimension only. ConclusionIf the Dw cannot be assessed, the Deff,LATρe method may only be considered for the chest protocols as an alternative approach. The Deff method may also be used for all regions taking into account the application of a correction factor for the chest protocols to avoid a significant under or overestimation of the patient dose.

High-flux and chlorine-resistant nanofiltration membrane fabricated via phase inversion using polysulfone-b-polyglycerol hyperbranched block copolymer

The nanofiltration (NF) membranes having excellent chlorine resistance and sufficient perm-selectivity are highly desired in drinking water treatment and other applications. Herein, a novel block copolymer NF membrane with superior chlorine resistance, especially high water permeance was prepared via phase inversion, using a tailor-made polysulfone-block-hyperbranched polyglycerol (PSf-b-hPG) material. The fabricated PSf-b-hPG NF membrane shows an extremely thin separation layer with a thickness of around 80 nm and a high overall porosity of 65 %, thanks to the structural advantage of hyperbranched hydrophilic hPG segments and the unique feature of the PSf-b-hPG casting solution of possessing a very low viscosity at a high solid content. The membrane exhibits an effective pore diameter of 1.6 nm, and the molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) was around 4 kDa. The membrane displayed extremely high pure water permeance of 34 LMH/bar as well as a satisfactory Na2SO4 rejection of 74 %. Moreover, the membrane exhibits superior chlorine resistance with no change in separation performance when challenged with 36,000 ppm∙h chlorination intensity and also maintains a stable Na2SO4 rejection and water permeance during the 14 h NF test. Our results suggest the NF membrane prepared by PSf-b-hPG has superior chlorine resistance and high water permeance, and is capable of efficiently removing sulfate from drinking water or others.

Capillary enhancement effects and kinetic performances of internal helical protrusion micropores

To enhance the capillary rise behavior in micropores, an internal helical protrusion micropore (MIHP) is proposed based on biomimetic ideas. The capillary dynamics models of the MIHP and the traditional smooth cylindrical micropore (MSC) were established and numerically simulated. The capillary rise behaviors in the pores were compared to reveal the mechanism of capillary enhancement. The result shows that: the internal helical protrusion structure reduces the effective diameter of the micropore, thus increasing the capillary rise effect. The pressure and velocity of the liquid in the MIHP are higher than those in the MSC. Within a cycle of the helical structure in the MIHP, the capillary behavior of the liquid is closely related to the shape of the helical structure. The lower edge of the protrusion suppresses the capillary rise of the liquid, while the upper edge of the protrusion promotes the capillary rise. The contact angle changes dynamically with the flow position of the liquid on the protrusion, which affects the wetting difficulty and leads to opposite effects of the upper and lower edges on the capillary rise. The structure optimization of the lower edge in the future will be an effective way to further improve the capillary effect.

Characterization of a segmented printed circuit board (PCB) as a standard for absorbed dose to water from alpha-emitting radionuclides.

Our previous work introduced and evaluated a standard for surface absorbed dose rate per unit radioactivity to water from unsealed alpha-emitting radionuclides used in targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT). An overall uncertainty over 4.0% at k=1 was reported for the absorbed dose to air measurements, which was partially attributed to the rotational alignment uncertainty in the geometrical setup. A printed circuit board (PCB) with a segmented guard was constructed to align the extrapolation chamber (EC) and the source plates using a differential capacitance technique. The PCB EC aimed to enhance the repeatability of the ionization current measurements. The PCB EC was evaluated using a thin film 210Po source. The measured absorbed dose to air cavity was compared with the Monte Carlo (MC) calculations. Using the extrapolation method, the surface absorbed dose rate to water was calculated. The PCB EC was constructed with a 4.50mm diameter collector surrounded by four sectors and a guard electrode. The sectors were isolated for rotational alignment and later connected to the guard for ionization current measurements. A bridge circuit measured differential capacitance between opposing sectors, and a hexapod motion stage rotated the source substrate to minimize the differential capacitance. The EC was evaluated using a 210Po source with a 3.20mm diameter and 1.253 Ci radioactivity. MC simulations were performed to calculate the , , and correction factors. Ionization current measurements were performed for air gaps in the 0.3-0.525mm range and surface absorbed dose rate to water was calculated. Rotational offsets of up to 3.0° were found and the current repeatability was found to increase with the absorbed dose to air uncertainty calculated to be ∼2.0%. Using the capacitance method, the effective EC diameter was measured to be 4.53mm. The recombination, polarity, and electrometer corrections were reported to be within 1.00% across all measurement trials. The MC-calculated correction factors were calculated to be much larger than the recombination and polarity correction factors. The average , , and corrections were calculated to be 1.063, 0.9402, and 2.136, respectively. The MC-calculated absorbed dose to air was found to overestimate the absorbed dose by over 4.00% when compared with the measured absorbed dose to air. The surface absorbed dose rate to water was calculated to be Gy/s/Bq with an overall uncertainty of 4.07%. The constructed PCB EC was deemed suitable as an absorbed dose standard. A repeatable rotational alignment was achieved using the differential capacitance technique. The metal electrodes on the PCB made a difference of<1.00% on the backscatter correction when compared to the EC comprised of polystyrene-equivalent collector. A 20% difference in the surface absorbed dose rate to water was found between the two ECs, which is attributed to the cavity diameter differences leading to different magnitudes of dose fall-off along the lateral direction.

Evaluation of organ dose using size-specific dose estimation (SSDE) and related cancer risk due to chest CT scan during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aimed to estimate lung and breast doses for individual patients using the size-specific dose estimate (SSDE) method, as well as calculating effective doses, in patients who underwent chest CT scans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cancer risk incidence was estimated using excess relative risk (ERR), excess absolute risk (EAR), and lifetime attributable risk (LAR) models from the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation Report VII (BEIR-VII). Data from about 570 patients who underwent CT scans for COVID-19 screening were utilized for this study. Using the header of the CT images in a Python script, SSDE and effective dose were calculated for each patient. The SSDE obtained by water equivalent effective diameter (wSSDE) was considered as lung and breast dose, and applied in organ-specific cancer risk estimation. The mean wSSDE value for females (13.3mGy) was slightly higher than that for males (13.1mGy), but the difference was not statistically significant (P value=0.41). No significant differences were observed between males and females in terms of calculated EAR and ERR for lung cancer at 5 and 30years after exposure (P value=0.47, 0.46, respectively). Similarly, there was no significant difference in lung cancer LAR values between females and males (P value=0.48). The results also indicated a decrease in LAR values for both lung and breast cancers with increasing exposure age. In accordance with the ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) principle, it is important for medical staff and the general public to consider the benefits of CT imaging in detecting such infections. Additionally, imaging medical physicists and CT scan experts should optimize imaging protocols and strike a balance between image quality for detecting abnormalities and radiation dose, all while adhering to the ALARA principle.

Accuracy of Effective Diameter and Water Equivalent Diameter Using Phantoms in Various CT Systems

The effects of scanning parameters such as CT system performance, CT bed geometry, and upper limb position on effective diameter (ED) and water equivalent diameter (WED) have not been assessed. The purpose of this study was to compare both ED and WED obtained with various CT systems with theoretical values and to assess their accuracy. Jaszczak cylindrical phantom (Data Spectrum, Durham, NC, USA), NEMA IEC body phantom (AcroBio, Tokyo), and thoracic bone phantom were used in this study with and without upper limb phantom. The ED, WED, and size-specific dose estimate (SSDE) obtained using 8 types of CT systems were computed using radiation dose control software. The EDs had <5% error for all systems, but the error increased as the aspect ratio of the phantom increased. The accuracy of WED varied depending on the CT systems, with a maximum difference of 3.57 cm between systems. The influence of the upper limb depended on the shape of the bed of the CT systems, which affected the correlation between ED as well as WED and SSDE. Although the ED did not show any dependence on the CT system, the accuracy of WED for fusion CT was low. We found that there are issues in the management of scanning data, including the upper limb.

Determination and Analysis of Working Diameters and Working Angle of the Torus Cutter Blade in Multi-axis Machining in the Aspect of Tool Wear

The aim of this study is to provide a theoretical and experimental analysis of the multi-axis milling process by the torus milling cutter of nickel-based superalloy parts in terms of surface quality and tool wear. In the analytical part, using, among other things, matrix calculus and trigonometric relationships, mathematical models were developed to describe the relationships between the tool axis orientation and the geometric parameters of the cutting layer at the contact point. On this basis, mathematical relationships for contact diameter and effective diameter were derived. The basis for these considerations is the very rarely considered working angle of the cutter blade. In part of the experimental study, machining tests were carried out for selected kinematic variants of multi-axis cutting. Based on the results obtained, it was found that as the tool axis inclination angle increases, the contact diameter increases. The effective diameter at the upper characteristic point of the cutting layer increases up to a certain angle of inclination, after which it begins to decrease. The rotational angle of the tool axis does not affect any of the diameters, but it does affect the displacement of the contact point, the values of the working angle of the tool blade and the feed-related component decrease. The result of this displacement is a change from climb milling to conventional milling, which has significantly degraded surface quality and tool life. The best results of the machining test were obtained when only the angle of inclination of the tool axis was used. It was concluded that the parameter tool blade working angle can be a control variable in a multi-axis milling process and has a major impact on the physical aspects of the cutting process.

Detection and identification of single ribonucleotide monophosphates using a dual in-plane nanopore sensor made in a thermoplastic via replication.

We report the generation of ∼8 nm dual in-plane pores fabricated in a thermoplastic via nanoimprint lithography (NIL). These pores were connected in series with nanochannels, one of which served as a flight tube to allow the identification of single molecules based on their molecular-dependent apparent mobilities (i.e., dual in-plane nanopore sensor). Two different thermoplastics were investigated including poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, and cyclic olefin polymer, COP, as the substrate for the sensor both of which were sealed using a low glass transition cover plate (cyclic olefin co-polymer, COC) that could be thermally fusion bonded to the PMMA or COP substrate at a temperature minimizing nanostructure deformation. Unique to these dual in-plane nanopore sensors was two pores flanking each side of the nanometer flight tube (50 × 50 nm, width × depth) that was 10 μm in length. The utility of this dual in-plane nanopore sensor was evaluated to not only detect, but also identify single ribonucleotide monophosphates (rNMPs) by using the travel time (time-of-flight, ToF), the resistive pulse event amplitude, and the dwell time. In spite of the relatively large size of these in-plane pores (∼8 nm effective diameter), we could detect via resistive pulse sensing (RPS) single rNMP molecules at a mass load of 3.9 fg, which was ascribed to the unique structural features of the nanofluidic network and the use of a thermoplastic with low relative dielectric constants, which resulted in a low RMS noise level in the open pore current. Our data indicated that the identification accuracy of individual rNMPs was high, which was ascribed to an improved chromatographic contribution to the nano-electrophoresis apparent mobility. With the ToF data only, the identification accuracy was 98.3%. However, when incorporating the resistive pulse sensing event amplitude and dwell time in conjunction with the ToF and analyzed via principal component analysis (PCA), the identification accuracy reached 100%. These findings pave the way for the realization of a novel chip-based single-molecule RNA sequencing technology.

Modelling the effects of charge on antibiotic diffusion and adsorption in liquid crystalline virus suspensions.

We develop a microscopic model of antibiotic diffusion in virus suspensions in a liquid crystalline state. We then approximate this with an effective homogenised model that is more amenable to analytical investigation, to understand the effect of charge on the antibiotic tolerance. We show that liquid crystalline virus suspensions slow down antibiotics significantly, and that electric charge strongly contributes to this by influencing the effective diameter and adsorptive capacity of the liquid crystalline viruses so that charged antibiotics diffuse much slower than neutral ones; this can be directly and efficiently derived from the homogenised model and is in good agreement with experiments in microbiology. Charge is also found to affect the relationship between antibiotic diffusion and viral packing density in a nontrivial way. The results elucidate the effect of charge on antibiotic tolerance in liquid crystalline biofilms in a manner that is straightforwardly extendable to other soft matter systems.

Effective patchiness from critical points of a coarse-grained protein model with explicit shape and charge anisotropy.

Colloidal model systems are successful in rationalizing emergent phenomena like aggregation, rheology and phase behaviour of protein solutions. Colloidal theory in conjunction with isotropic interaction models is often employed to estimate the stability of such solutions. In particular, a universal criterion for the reduced second virial coefficient at the critical point is frequently invoked which is based on the behavior of short-range attractive fluids (Noro-Frenkel rule, ). However, if anisotropic models for the protein-protein interaction are considered, e.g. the Kern-Frenkel (KF) patchy particle model, the value of the criterion is shifted to lower values and explicitly depends on the number of patches. If an explicit shape anisotropy is considered, as e.g. in a coarse-grained protein model, the normalization of becomes ambiguous to some extent, as no unique exclusion volume can be defined anymore. Here, we investigate a low-resolution, coarse-grained model for the globular protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) and study effects of charge-anisotropy on the phase diagram (determined by simulations) at the isoelectric point. We present methods of assigning an "effective patchiness" to our protein model by comparing its critical properties to the KF model. We find that doubling the native charges increases the critical temperature Tc by ≈14% and that our BSA model can be compared to a 3 to 5 patch KF model. Finally, we argue that applying existing criteria from colloidal theory should be done with care, due to multiple, physically plausible ways of how to assign effective diameters to shape-anisotropic models.