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Silicon nanowires grown by the VLS mechanism resulted as efficient chemical and biological sensors as field effect transistors, nevertheless up to date a key point is the integration of the nanostructure in actual integrated circuit. The basic requirement appears the possibility to perform the deposition at low temperature, directly on the backside of the already finished integrated circuit. This would combine the high chemical sensitivity of the nanowires with the sensitivity, the elaboration capability, and the low production cost of CMOS technology. This paper presents a new technique which allows the grow of silicon nanowires at temperature lower than 200°C. MW CVD technique is used combined with nano-susceptors.

The ability to detect and distinguish interactions in the workplace can shed light over productivity, team work and on employees’ use of space. Questionnaires and direct observations have often been used as mechanisms to identify office based interactions, however, these are either very time consuming, yield coarse grained information or do not scale to large numbers of people. Technology has been recently employed to cut costs and improve output, however precise interaction dynamics gathering often requires individuals to wear custom hardware. In this paper, we present an extensive evaluation of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) as a technology to monitor people proximity in the workplace. We examine the key parameters that affect the accuracy of the detected contacts and their impact on power consumption. We study how this system can be implemented on popular wearable devices (i.e., Android Wear and Tizen) and the resulting limitations. Through a real world deployment in a commercial organisation with 25 participants we evaluate the performances of a BLE-based proximity detection technique. Our results show the suitability of BLE for workplace inter- action detection and give guidance to vendors and Operating System (OS) developers on the impact of the restrictions regard- ing the use of BLE on commodity wearables.

This paper describes modeling, fabrication and high power optical characterization of thin gold films embedded in silicon dioxide. The propagation vector of surface plasmon polaritons has been calculated by the effective index method for the wavelength range of 750-1700 nm and film thickness of 15, 30 and 45 nm. The fabrication process of such plasmonic waveguides with width in the range of 1-100 μm and their quality inspection are described. The results of optical characterization of plasmonic waveguides using a high power laser with the peak power wavelength 1064 nm show significant deviation from the linear propagation regime of surface plasmon polaritons at the average input power of 100 mW and above. Possible reasons for this deviation are heating of the waveguides and subsequent changes in the coupling and propagation losses.

In this paper authors present an open source low-cost basic robotic end effector platform for facilitating research on robotic grasping. The 3D design model of a three fingered underactuated robotic gripper is presented and manufactured with minimal number of 3D printed components and an off-the-shelf servomotor actuator. An underactuated finger, gear train mechanisms and an overall gripper assembly design are described in details followed by illustration and discussion of grasping of objects with various geometries. The presented open source gripper design will be released for downloading on the authors' research lab web-site www.alaris.kz and can be useful for robotic researchers as a platform to build their own robotic end effector solutions for research and educational purposes.

Toluidine red pigment nanoparticles were prepared by anti-solvent precipitation and were modified by different surfactants aimed to use as the electrophoretic particles. Experimental conditions have been discussed in this paper including the effect of different surfactants, the concentration of surfactants, the reaction temperature and the agitation rate. Binary mixtures of organic solvents have been selected as suspending medium to improve the dispersion stability of the prepared particles. The produced nanoparticles have been characterized by scanning electron microscopy, laser diffractometer and electrophoretic display measuring system. The results indicated that the prepared particles modified by alkyl hydroxy oximido acid are in the average size of 80 nm with a spherical shape within narrow particle size distribution. The optimum content of AHOA, reaction temperature agitation rate are 3.75 g/L, 20 degrees C and 900 rpm, respectively. The prepared nanoparticles exhibit superior electrophoretic properties. Finally, the sedimentation of prepared particles dispersed into binary mixtures of tetrachloroethylene (C2Cl4) and cyclohexane is 4.76% for 2 months.

The effect of chemical oxidation on the gas sensing properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) is presented in this paper. The MWNT were chemically oxidised in a mixture of concentrated sulphuric and nitric acids. The oxidation time was varied from 4 h to 12 h. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to study the effect on the chemical composition of the nanotube surface. The results show that 8 h oxidation may be the favourite condition to introduce enough functional groups with inherent properties of MWNT being retained as much as possible. The different MWNT samples were deposited onto gas sensor substrates by drop coating method. The gas sensing properties of samples with different oxidation time for NO2 and NH3 were investigated at different concentration and temperature. The MWNT oxidised for 8 h showed the best gas sensing performance. As obtained MWNT did not show responsiveness below 30 ppm NO2 while chemically oxidised MWNT can credibly detect NO2 as low as 5 ppm at room temperature. M...

A light and portable-type wireless physiological signal retrieving system has always been a medical personnel's dream. To fulfill this dream, this paper investigates a feasible method to create a wireless-type physiological signal measuring system using a PDA and the bluetooth technology. The proposed system will reduce the service costs and raise the service efficiency for current medical care systems. The waveforms and data of physiological signals, such as electrocardiograms (ECGs), phonocardiograms (PCGs), electroencephalograms (EEGs), body temperatures, and so forth, are always the vital references for medical doctors to diagnose the patients' body condition. The traditional physiological signal measuring instruments or devices possess some shortcomings, such as high prices, bulky dimensions, ill-portability and excessive connection cables. In contrast, the proposed wireless-type physiological signal measuring system, being able to get rid of said shortcomings, holds apparent advantages in service costs and service efficiency and, hence, shall be the trend for the future. This study has completed some tests in ECG, PCG, and body temperature measurements. The proposed prototype system has successfully using the bluetooth technology to invisibly transmit and receive physical signals through the air.