Objectives: Medical devices and the hospital environment can be contaminated easily by multidrug-resistant bacteria. The effectiveness of cleaning practices is often suboptimal because environmental cleaning in hospitals is complex and depends on human factors, the physical and chemical characteristics of environment, and the viability of the microorganisms. Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) lamps can be used to reduce the spread of microorganisms. We evaluated the effectiveness of an ultraviolet-C (UV-C) device on terminal room cleaning and disinfection. Methods: The study was conducted at an ICU of a medical center in Taiwan. We performed a 3-stage evaluation for the effectiveness of UV-C radiation, including pre–UV-C radiation, UV-C radiation, and a bleaching procedure. The 3 stages of evaluation were implemented in the ICU rooms from which a patient had been discharged or transferred. We collected the data from adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence testing, colonized strains, and their corresponding colony counts by sampling from the environmental surfaces and air. We tested 8 high-touch surfaces, including 2 sides of bed rails, headboards, footboards, bedside tables, monitors, pumping devices, IV stands, and oxygen flow meters. Results: In total, 1,696 environmental surfaces and 72 air samples were analyzed. The levels of ATP bioluminescence and colony counts of isolated bacteria decreased significantly after UV-C radiation and bleaching disinfection for both the environmental and air samples (P < .001). Resistant bacteria (vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, VRE) were commonly isolated on the hard-to-clean surfaces of monitors, oxygen flow meters, and IV pumps. However, they were also eradicated (P < .001). Conclusions: UV-C can significantly reduce environmental contamination by multidrug-resistant microorganisms. UV-C is an effective device to assist staff in cleaning the hospital environment.

In this paper, we introduce a lower extremity exoskeleton CUHK-EXO that is developed to help paraplegic patients, who have lost the motor and sensory functions of their lower limbs to perform basic daily life motions. Since the sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit (STS) motion is the first step for paraplegic patients toward walking, analysis of the exoskeleton's applicability to the STS motion assistance is performed. First, the human-exoskeleton system (HES) is modeled as a five-link model during the STS motion, and the center of pressure (COP) on the ground and center of gravity of the whole system are calculated. Then, a description of the CUHK-EXO hardware design is presented, including the mechatronics design and actuator selection. The COP position is an important factor indicating system balance and wearer's comfort. Based on the COP position, a trajectory online modification algorithm (TOMA) is proposed for CUHK-EXO to counteract disturbances, stabilize system balance, and improve the wearer's comfort in the STS motion. The results of STS motion tests conducted with a paraplegic patient demonstrate that CUHK-EXO can provide a normal reference pattern and proper assistive torque to support the patient's STS motion. In addition, a pilot study is conducted with a healthy subject to verify the effectiveness of the proposed TOMA under external disturbances before future clinical trials. The testing results verify that CUHK-EXO can counteract disturbances, and help the wearer perform the STS motion safely and comfortably.

Superelasticity of shape memory alloy (SMA) results from the reversible thermoelastic martensitic transformation. Although this property has been studied extensively at the macroscale, the study of this superelastic behavior at the micro/nanoscale is relatively new. In this work, we processed TiNi-based SMAs with different compositions and different phase transformation temperatures. Nanoindentations were performed with different peak loads and at various temperatures to systematically characterize the degree of localized stress-induced martensitic transformation at the nanoscale for each SMA. Micropillar compression tests were also performed to study the global superelastic behavior at the microscale. The physics of stress-induced martensitic transformation versus the phase transformation temperature, the testing temperature, and the peak load relations was explored and the difference between the localized and the global superelastic behaviors was discussed. Our results demonstrate the potential of integrating TiNi-based SMAs into functional micro- and nanodevices.

Magnetite nanoparticles have been synthesized by thermal decomposition of hematite (Fe2O3) powder in the presence of high boiling point solvent. The mixture of hematite and 1- octadecene solvent was heated and stirred in nitrogen gas at the temperature of 320 °C for the desired time (∼2 to 28 hrs). The influence of the reaction time on transformation process was analyzed with X-ray diffraction (XRD), Mössbauer spectroscopy (MS), and magnetic measurements. XRD patterns show that the phase of intermediate was composed of spinel phase and corundum phase (α-Fe2O3). The 57Fe Mössbauer spectra show that the spinel phase originated from the magnetite particles. The structure transformation proportion of hematite to magnetite strongly depends on reaction times. After reflux for 28 hrs the hematite-magnetite transformation was complete. The mean crystallite size of pure phase of magnetite particles is about 40 nm. The saturation magnetization increases with the reaction time, which corresponds to an increase of concentration of magnetite in the samples. A pronounced feature of the Hc and σr/σs observed in samples is the steplike change which appears at 125 K and is characteristic of the Verwey transition. The hyperfine parameters of Mössbauer spectrum measured at low temperature also indicate that the Verwey phase transition occurs. In other words, the Verwey transition is an indication that the magnetite particles exactly grew up in the synthesized compounds. This thermal decomposition process provided a method to prepare pure magnetite as well as magnetite/hematite nanocomposites useful for various magnetic applications.

Biomaterials such as DNA are currently being explored as potential application in nanotechnology. DNA templates were immobilized on crystal-violet-treated mica by spin coating as a grid-like network. The DNA templates were then activated with PdCl2, followed by reduction with dimethylamine borane (DMAB) to form seeding nanoclusters on the DNA chain. Afterward the DNA chain with deposition of zero-valence Pd nanoclusters was grew in a Co electroless plating bath. SEM/EDS analysis revealed that Co nanoparticles could be assembled on the DNA template to form magnetic nanowires with a diameter of 25nm to 250nm by a conventional electroless plating. Vibrating Sample Magnetometer analysis indicated that Co-DNA nanowires showed a paramagnetic characteristic. Grid-like networks of DNA template were effectively preserved after Co electroless plating. These characteristics indicated that DNA is an ideal template for the production of magnetic nanowires, which could be useful in the development of high-density memory storage or magnetic field sensors.

In this paper, location-controlled Silicon crystal grains are fabricated by a novel excimer laser crystallization method. An array of 1.8-μm-sized disk-liked grains are formed by this method, and the high-performance n-channel LTPS TFTs with field-effect-mobility reaching 308 cm2/Vs can be fabricated owing to the artificially-controlled lateral grain growth. This position-manipulated Silicon grains are essential to high performance and good uniformity thin film transistors.

A novel T-shaped-gated (T-Gate) polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor (poly-Si TFT) with vacuum gaps has been proposed and fabricated only with a simple process. The T-Gate structure is formed only by a selective undercut-etching technology of the Mo/Al bi-layers. Then, vacuum gaps are in-situ embedded in this T-Gate structure subsequent to capping the SiH4-based passivation oxide under the vacuum process chamber. Experimental results reveal that the proposed T-Gate poly-Si TFTs have excellent electrical performance, which has higher maximum on-off current ratio of 4.6 e107, and the lower off-state leakage current at VGS = -10 V and VDS = 5V of about 100 times less than that of the conventional one. It is attributed to the additional undoped offset region and the vacuum gap to reduce the maximum electric field at drain junction while ascribed to the sub-gate to maintain the on-current. Therefore, such a T-Gate poly-Si TFT is very suitable for the applications and manufacturing in active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs) and active matrix organic light emitting diodes (AMOLEDs).

Breakdown characteristics of ultra-thin gate oxides caused by plasma charging were studied in this work. It is observed that as oxide thickness is scaled down to 4 nm, some traditional monitor parameters may lose their sensitivity for detecting oxide degradation induced by plasma charging damage, due to insignificant trap generation. Even the gate leakage current, although sensitive for 4 nm oxide, may no longer be sensitive enough for even thinner oxide (e.g., 2.6 nm), due to the existence of large tunneling current. Moreover, several soft-breakdown events were found to occur in ultrathin oxide before the final onset of a catastrophic hard-breakdown. Finally, an equivalent local oxide thickness is calculated using local oxide thinning model to estimate the stepwise increase of gate current after soft-breakdown event.