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Weight disorders are strikingly prevalent globally and can contribute to a wide array of potentially fatal diseases spanning from type II diabetes to coronary heart disease. These disorders have a common cause: poor calorie balance. Since energy expenditure (EE) (kcal d−1) constitutes one half of the calorie balance equation (the other half being food intake), its measurement could be of great value to those suffering from weight disorders. A technique for contact free assessment of EE is presented, which only relies on CO2 concentration monitoring within a sealed office space, and assessment of carbon dioxide production rate (VCO2). Twenty healthy subjects were tested in a cross-sectional study to evaluate the performance of the aforementioned technique in measuring both resting EE (REE) and exercise EE using the proposed system (the ‘SmartPad’) and a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared gold standard reference instrument for EE measurement. For VCO2 and EE measurements, the method showed a correlation slope of 1.00 and 1.03 with regression coefficients of 0.99 and 0.99, respectively, and Bland–Altman plots with a mean bias = −0.232% with respect to the reference instrument. Furthermore, two subjects were also tested as part of a proof-of-concept longitudinal study where EE patterns were simultaneously tracked with body weight, sleep, stress, and step counts using a smartwatch over the course of a month, to determine correlation between the aforementioned parameters and EE. Analysis revealed moderately high correlation coefficients (Pearson’s r) for stress (r average = 0.609) and body weight (r average = 0.597) for the two subjects. The new SmartPad method was demonstrated to be a promising technique for EE measurement under free-living conditions.

One typical remote consultation envisioned for in-home telerehabilitation involves having the patient exercise on a stationary bike. Making sure that the patient is breathing well while pedaling is of primary concern for the remote clinician. One key requirement for in-home telerehabilitation is to make the system as simple as possible for the patients, avoiding, for instance, to have them wear sensors and devices. This paper presents a contact-free respiration rate monitoring system measuring temperature variations between inspired and expired air in the mouth–nose region using thermal imaging. The thermal camera is installed on a pan–tilt unit and coupled to a tracking algorithm, allowing the system to keep track of the mouth–nose region as the patient exercises. Results demonstrate that the system works in real time even when the patient moves or rotates its head while exercising. Recommendations are also made to minimize limitations of the system, such as the presence of people in the background or when the patient is talking, for its eventual use in in-home telerehabilitation sessions.

The macrostructure of nickel foam with porosity of 20, 30, 45, and 60 ppi is investigated by X-ray tomography at voltage U = 300 kV, current I = 300 mA, and exposure time texp = 354 ms; the number of frames is 2500. It is established that the actual pore parameters deviate from theoretical ones. It is shown that, the higher porosity is, the more uniform pore size is. The X-ray tomography makes it possible to evaluate such characteristics as the wall thickness between the pores, which had not been taken into account previously. It is revealed that the size uniformity of the wall thickness lowers as the sample porosity increases. The results of the X-ray tomography make it possible to recommend it as the method for studying and monitoring foam materials, powders, and various sintered materials, and its data can be used to develop actual three-dimensional models.

Researchers perform high-precision cell lysis using an alternating magnetic field and magnetic polymer surface for downstream molecular detection.

This study uses video and a pretrained deep convolutional neural network to analyze facial photoplethysmographic signals in detection of atrial fibrillation.

Traditional sensors and systems for wrist pulse acquisition, known as inconvenient, contact, depends on the digital and analog circuits. In this paper, a method in video motion processing at one-demensional signal extraction and analysis is proposed. It can be applied for wrist pulse acquisition and based on subtle video motion amplification algorithm. This is the demostraction of a low-cost (only need ordinary camera on the cell phone), accurate method for cantact-free wrist pulse acquiring that is capable of performing measurements in different illumination conditions. As the ultimate recovered single and all periodic pulse signal shown, it can be demonstracted that the proposed method can get accurate pulse signal compared to traditional methods.

The contact free camera-based estimation of human vital signs is more comfortable than the classical contact-based methods. Current methods suffer in realistic environments from e.g. occlusions by hair or glasses. Several approaches use complex methods to extract the pulse signals from the skin, but use basic geometric defined regions of the face, which ignore possible occlusions. In this paper we compare for the first time the influence of several region based methods and a newly proposed parameter-free skin segmentation approach on the performance of the heart rate estimation for nine different algorithms from the literature on two datasets with strong facial and head movement.

Most proteins are electrical insulators or poor conductors. We present temperature resolved conductivity measurements on electrically conducting proteins. Temperature-resolved THz spectroscopy was used as a contact free method to measure the conductivity. We measured the conductivity of the wild-type pili as well as for two bioengineered pili.

We present a method for automated diagnosis and classification of severity of sleep apnea using an array of non-contact pressure-sensitive sensors placed underneath a mattress as an alternative to conventional obtrusive sensors. Our algorithm comprises two stages: i) A decision tree classifier that identifies patients with sleep apnea, and ii) a subsequent linear regression model that estimates the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI), which is used to determine the severity of sleep disordered breathing. We tested our algorithm on a cohort of 14 patients who underwent overnight home sleep apnea test. The machine learning algorithm was trained and performance was evaluated using leave-one-patient-out cross-validation. The accuracy of the proposed approach in detecting sleep apnea is 86.96%, with sensitivity and specificity of 81.82% and 91.67%, respectively. Moreover, classification of severity of the sleep disorder was correctly assigned in 11 out of 14 cases, and the mean absolute error in the AHI estimation was calculated to be 3.83 events/hr.

ObjectiveNowadays direct and indirect resin composites are frequently applied to build up the occlusion when extensive tooth wear took place. To achieve long-lasting restorations it is essential to obtain knowledge about their interactions due to occlusal contacts. Therefore, the two- and three-body wear between frequently used direct and indirect resin composites was investigated.Materials and methodsThe two- and three-body wear of three direct resin composites and three indirect resin composites, with Clearfil AP-X, Filtek Z250, and Filtek Supreme XT as antagonists, were measured, using the ACTA wear device. The wear rates were determined and the surfaces were evaluated with SEM.ResultsThe most remarkable outcome was that the two-body wear rate of the different composites opposing the Z250 wheel were significantly higher. Furthermore, it was shown that the three-body wear rate was independent on the antagonist and in general higher than the two-body wear rate.ConclusionsTo reduce abrasion of the opposing resin composite surface the resin composite fillers should consist of a softer glass, e.g. barium glass or in case of a harder filler the size should be reduced to nano-size.

This study investigates the feasibility of a novel concept, contact-free support structures, for part overhangs in powder-bed metal additive manufacturing. The intent is to develop alternative support designs that require no or little post-processing, and yet, maintain effectiveness in minimizing overhang distortions. The idea is to build, simultaneously during part fabrications, a heat sink (called “heat support”), underneath an overhang to alter adverse thermal behaviors. Thermomechanical modeling and simulations using finite element analysis were applied to numerically research the heat support effect on overhang distortions. Experimentally, a powder-bed electron beam additive manufacturing system was utilized to fabricate heat support designs and examine their functions. The results prove the concept and demonstrate the effectiveness of contact-free heat supports. Moreover, the method was tested with different heat support parameters and applied to various overhang geometries. It is concluded that the heat support proposed has the potential to be implemented in industrial applications.

Rapid and specific diagnostic techniques are needed to expedite specific treatment of bacterial skin infections with narrow-spectrum antibiotics, rather than broad-spectrum. Through this work a device was developed to determine the presence of and species responsible for a bacterial skin infection using differences in Mie scatter spectra created by different bacterial species. A 650 nm LED at five different incident angles is used to illuminate the tissue, with Mie scatter being detected by PIN photodiodes at eight different detection angles. Mie scatter patterns are collected at all photodiode angles for each of the incident light angles, resulting in a Mie scatter spectra. Detectable differences in Mie scatter spectra were found using the device developed between commensal bacteria (no infection) and bacteria inoculated (infection) on the surface of both porcine and human cadaveric epidermis. Detectable differences were found between species of infection, specifically Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, with differences summarized through principle component analysis. Mie scatter spectra can be detected within a few seconds without skin contact. This device is the first to rapidly and specifically diagnose bacterial skin infections in a contact-less manner, allowing for initial treatment with narrow spectrum antibiotics, and helping to reduce the likelihood of resistance.

In the area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the concept of Around Device Interaction (ADI) is gaining special attention nowadays. It provides the possibility of interacting with the device by making use of gestures made in the surrounding space, as well as by detecting certain ambient changes, thus eliminating the need of direct physical contact. Contact-free interaction can be useful for wearable and smart devices, especially in cases where operating with small buttons and touchscreens appears to be particularly inconvenient. This paper presents alternative techniques for smartphone interaction based on different sensory inputs. Namely, external sources of magnetic field, light, and infrared (IR) signals are used to manipulate device sensors' readings which are in turn interpreted as the corresponding interaction commands. Proof-of-concept mobile applications are developed and here presented, demonstrating both the potentials and utility of the contact-free interaction. Specifically, small neodymium magnet was used for smartphone text entry, typical battery flashlight served for sending information to device via Morse code, as well as for alarm triggering, and voice-enabled control device was utilized for invoking smartphone calls from a distance. The presented interaction techniques do not require smartphone hardware alterations. While the usage of built-in magnetic field and ambient light sensors is assumed, peripheral infrared receiver can be used in order to provide IR-based support.

To validate a contact-free system designed to achieve maximal comfort during long-term sleep monitoring, together with high monitoring accuracy.We used a contact-free monitoring system (EarlySense, Ltd., Israel), comprising an under-the-mattress piezoelectric sensor and a smartphone application, to collect vital signs and analyze sleep. Heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), body movement, and calculated sleep-related parameters from the EarlySense (ES) sensor were compared to data simultaneously generated by the gold standard, polysomnography (PSG). Subjects in the sleep laboratory underwent overnight technician-attended full PSG, whereas subjects at home were recorded for 1 to 3 nights with portable partial PSG devices. Data were compared epoch by epoch.A total of 63 subjects (85 nights) were recorded under a variety of sleep conditions. Compared to PSG, the contact-free system showed similar values for average total sleep time (TST), % wake, % rapid eye movement, and % non-rapid eye movement sleep, with 96.1% and 93.3% accuracy of continuous measurement of HR and RR, respectively. We found a linear correlation between TST measured by the sensor and TST determined by PSG, with a coefficient of 0.98 (R = 0.87). Epoch-by-epoch comparison with PSG in the sleep laboratory setting revealed that the system showed sleep detection sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 92.5%, 80.4%, and 90.5%, respectively.TST estimates with the contact-free sleep monitoring system were closely correlated with the gold-standard reference. This system shows good sleep staging capability with improved performance over accelerometer-based apps, and collects additional physiological information on heart rate and respiratory rate.

We characterize the impact of high-energy, 172 nm vacuum ultraviolet photons on the molecular weight and the glass transition temperature of poly(methyl methacrylate). We found that the molecular weight is reduced strongly on the surface of the exposed samples with a continuous transition towards the unexposed bulk material being located below the modified region. The glass transition temperature was found to be significantly lowered in the exposed region to well below 50°C compared to that of the 122°C of the bulk region. We could use this material contrast to selectively reflow the top surface of the exposed samples only. This allowed us to create ultra-smooth micro-optical structures by post-processing without influencing the overall geometry that is required for the optical functionality.

In this chapter results on light-activated microstructures are surveyed. A short introduction is given on the preparation and actuation methods that make these applications most versatile. The presented structures are fabricated with two-photon polymerization, a 3D direct laser writing technique. With this technique, 3D objects with practically unlimited complexity can be polymerized with 100 nm feature size. The demonstrated systems exploit radiation pressure, single or multibeam optical tweezing and the combination of the two. We also discuss how the microtools can be functionalized with specific physical, chemical, and biochemical methods. With the appropriate surface treatment, specific tailored interactions between the microtools and the targeted objects can be designed into the system, further enhancing the capabilities of this extended optical manipulation approach.

Microwell arrays are showing great potentials for various optoelectronic and biological applications. However, large-scale fabrication of microwell arrays remains a big challenge to modern micro- and nanotechnology. Here, we report a novel fabrication method that can produce massive aligned microwells in a cost-effective way. With using ionic wind, the hole arrays of pre-fabricated masks can be projected on polymer films and form microwell arrays in a contact-free way, and at high efficiency. Thousands of microwells can be rapidly fabricated in several minutes with their parameters, such as shape, size, and density, being widely tunable, through adjusting the mask’s design and its location in the ionic wind. The fabricated circle and square holes in microwells perfectly replicate the features from the mask, thus being successfully used to trap suspension cells and culture them sustainably till significant cell patterns are formed.

Hand detection is the first step of any hand biometric recognition process, which determines the outcome of the following treatments. In this study, the authors propose a robust method for hand detection without contact and without constraints on the capture environment. This method is based on a data-mining process for skin-colour modelling. The presented data-mining process offers several advantages like the choice of the most relevant colour axes and the automatic choice of the decision rules. To improve the achieved results of skin detection and to determine the hand region in the image, a succession of postprocessings was proposed. The authors hand detection method was evaluated experimentally on a real database, namely, ‘Sfax-Miracl hand database’; the outcomes of this evaluation show promising results and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Zusammenfassung In diesem Beitrag wird ein 3D Visionsystem zur Vermessung von Spannbetonfertigteilen beschrieben, das eine Vollprüfung im Fertigungsprozess ermöglicht. Mit Hilfe von Lasertriangulationsensoren werden die zu untersuchenden Merkmale erfasst und als Punktewolke der Bildverarbeitung zugänglich gemacht. Insbesondere wird dargestellt, wie die Vermessung des Objektes mittels zweier Sensoren, realisiert wurde.

Aim: Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has already proven efficient at disinfection of microorganisms including biofilms. The objective of the present study is to assess the efficacy of CAP against the dermatophytes Trichophyton rubrum and Microsporum canis in vitro. Materials & methods:T. rubrum and M. canis were exposed to CAP for different treatment times and time intervals in vitro. Treatment with ciclopirox olamine or UVC radiation (0.120 J/cm2) served as controls. CAP was generated by the surface microdischarge technology. Fungal colony growth was measured upon CAP treatment. Results: Repeated daily CAP treatments of 10 min demonstrated an inhibition of growth during the treatment period of 9 days. Single CAP treatment sessions for 5, 8 and 10 min, as well as treatments for 5 or 8 min daily, resulted in less fungal growth inhibition. UVC radiation treatment failed, but not ciclopirox olamine. Conclusion: CAP shows promising potential for future application in the treatment of dermatophyte infections.

Real-time temperature co-axial profiles in a bed of mesoporous alumosilicate were recorded by means of FPA-based infrared thermography during air drying vacuum swing adsorption cycles. The good correlation between experimentally measured temperature profiles and profiles simulated on the basis of linear driving force model of mass and heat transfer in nonadiabatic regime is observed.

The aims of this study are to determine the extent to which the ranking order for clinical Contact-Free-Occlusal-Area (CFOA) wear performance of composites correlates with the ranking based on in vitro scratch hardness, and to analyze the extent to which the microstructure influences the overall trend.The patient data and CFOA wear measurements of 16 Tetric-C, 17 Tetric-EC, 16 Gradia-DP, 18 Filtek Supreme, 19 Z100 restorations in 31 subjects (8 males, 23 females) of two randomized clinical trials were fitted in a mixed-effect model. The in vivo performance of the restoratives was summarized by ranking the estimated material-related coefficients in the model. Scratch tests on two specimens per composite were run at a constant speed of 0.05 mm/s under indenter with normal loads of 15, 25, and 35 mN. Scratch width, depth and hardness calculated by imaging the scratch tracks were summarized in a model, the material-related coefficients were ranked and correlated with that of in vivo ranking order.The best in vivo model included as significant factors (p0.0001) the variables material, time/month, cavity type, and jaw type. The CFOA wear ranking order - Filtek Supreme, Z100Tetric-C, Tetric-ECGradia-DP-correlated closely (R(2)=0.991) with the order of scratch hardness - Z100Filtek SupremeTetric-C, Tetric-ECGradia-DP.Scratch tests could roughly categorize a new material as to whether it will probably exhibit a high or low in vitro scratch resistance and/or clinical CFOA wear rate.

We discuss a correlated reduction in the cross sections of two neighboring micropipes (MPs) along their axes (generally parallel to the growth direction). Such variations in MP cross sections can lead to MP healing. We provide experimental evidence of this effect and discuss its reasons and a possible mechanism. Our main idea is that MPs can remotely interact with each other by the exchange of full-core dislocations. We propose a theoretical model describing the energetics of this process.

The monitoring of free flaps, free transplants or organs for transplantation still poses a problem in medicine. Available systems for the measurement of perfusion and oxygenation can only perform localized measurements and usually need contact with the tissue. Contact free hyperspectral imaging and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for the analysis of tissue oxygenation and perfusion have been used in many scientific studies with good results. But up to now the clinical and scientific application of this technology has been hindered by the lack of hyperspectral measurement systems usable in clinical practice. We will introduce the application of a new hyperspectral camera system for the quick and robust recording of remission spectra in the combined VIS and NIR spectral range with high spectral and spatial resolution. This new system can be applied for the clinical monitoring of free flaps and organs providing high quality oxygenation and perfusion images.

Nowadays, electronic products have been trended to light and thin. The circuit board productions are also thinner. The substrates, whose thickness is from 0.2 mm to 0.1 mm, even to 0.06 mm, are mass production in lots of board mills. However, the yield is limited by the type of production; it cannot avoid contacting with the plate surface. In horizontal production line, the boards are usually crushed, scratched, and even stuck. In gantry production line, there are some problems such as making the jig, automated production, and damaged sheet by personnel operated when loading or unloading. It is impossible to produce by those two ways mentioned above, if the substrate thickness is 0.06 mm or less. This article introduced the new vertical continuous transport equipment, U-VCPS, which can produce the substrate to a thickness of 0.03 mm or less. U-VCPS applies to the desmear process and the electroless copper process, and it can fully meet the demand for contact free. By the closed equipment production line, it can reduce the impact of the external environment risks, and its simple structure is easy to maintain. It can effectively reduce the amounts of solution dropped out when boards transported, so the unnecessary reagent costs is reduced. Moreover, it can rapidly increase the thickness of electroless copper in hole. Therefore, it is exactly an ideal thin plate production equipment for low cost and high quality.

Sleep apnea is a highly prevalent yet under-diagnosed condition. This study tested a novel algorithm for sleep apnea screening with a contact-free system based on a piezo-electric sensor (PE system — EarlySense Ltd). The study population included 96 subjects who were referred to a sleep study, and underwent a full overnight polysomnography (PSG) in a sleep lab. 16 participants were diagnosed with severe sleep apnea, 18 with moderate, 30 with mild and 32 with no sleep apnea. All subjects were simultaneously measured with the PE system. Respiration waveform was analyzed to extract time and frequency domain features and calculated an internal index for the number of apnea/hypopnea events. It also used an algorithm for sleep wake detection which is described elsewhere. Based on the internal apnea index and the duration of sleep, the system classified the subjects into two groups: one above and one below an Apnea-Hypopnea-Index (AHI) of 15. The classification was compared to a PSG classification of a blinded sleep expert. The novel algorithm detected moderate-to-severe sleep apnea patients with sensitivity of 88% (100% of the severe sleep apnea patients, and 78% of moderate sleep apnea), specificity of 89%, and positive predictive value (PPV) of 81%. These results together with the convenience of being contact-free make the PE system, with the novel algorithm, suitable for apnea screening at home or hospital setups. It may also be usable for long-term monitoring.

In heart rate monitoring, the Electrocardiogram (ECG) is commonly used and is considered to be the gold standard in the field. However, long term monitoring with ECG is rarely used except for ICU and 24-hours Holter. Prolonged cardiac monitoring in various setups can be achieved using a Ballistocardiogram (BCG), which serves as a convenient way for contact free monitoring of the heart activity. This study was aimed to assess the potential of measuring cardiac Inter Beat Interval (IBI) series in real-time using a BCG signal using a contact-free piezo-electric sensor placed under the mattress (EarlySense Ltd.). In this paper, we evaluated three real-time novel algorithm that provide IBI measurement, predicated IBI measurement accuracy and IBI statistic. The performance of these algorithms was evaluated using IBI series derived from one-lead ECG signal. The results support the claim that under the mattress piezoelectric sensor can be used to accurately measure IBI in real-time, and establish the basis for Heart Rate Variability (HRV) analysis.

Independent Component Analysis (ICA) on a color model can be applied to measure heart rate without physical contact with subjects. Unfortunately, current non-contact systems need accuracy improvements to make them suitable for some medical applications. While others employed the most dominant frequency calculated by FFT as a heart rate, we propose to accumulate power spectrums across frequencies and compute weighted average. This is highly effective when a subject's heart rate significantly changes during data acquisition. This work also systematically studied impacts of color models and found that straightforward combination of color models could lower performance. Yet, combining power spectrums from each color models marginally increases accuracy. Finally, impacts of time-window length were examined and the proposed method demonstrates improved robustness on most time-window lengths.

The aim of this report is to present potential interest of a new technology of sensor for measuring terahertz radiation at room temperature and its application in imaging systems as a volumetric, safe, contact free and real-time Non-Destructive Testing systems. These imaging systems could be easily integrated in industrial facilities allowing the detection of surface, subsurface and in-depth defects for a large variety of materials with high precision and sensitivity.

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the Fifth CoSDEO Workshop in conjunction with the IEEE Intemational Conference on Pe1vasive Computing and Communications (PerCom 2016). This is the first time that the CoSDEO comes to Australia and the first time that it is co-located with PerCom. This year's edition focuses on contact-free ambient sensing, localisation and tracking, extending the successful theme of the fourth CoSDEO workshop on Device-Free Radio-Based Recognition. This years program has selected 6 exciting papers embracing a number of diverse perspectives across the field. Regarding the submission and review process for CoSDEO 2016, each paper was reviewed by at least two to five technical program committee (TPC) members. This year, 6 excellent papers were finally selected for inclusion at the workshop. The topics of the papers reflect the wide spectrum research around mobile computing, se1vices, and applications, ranging from activity recognition, sentiment sensing, advances towards accurate Radio-Tomographic Imaging, Deep-Leaming approaches to RFbased recognition, Audio-based mechanisms, implementations utilising depth-sensors as well as multivariate ambient sensing.

Presents a collection of slides covering the following: digital torque sensor; contact-free sensing technology; signal processing; torque test bench; and static calibration test stand.

The cognitive overload not only affects the physical and mental diseases, but also affects the work efficiency and safety. Hence, the research of measuring cognitive load has been an important part of cognitive load theory. In this paper, we proposed a method to identify the state of cognitive load by using eye movement data in a noncontact manner. We designed a visual experiment to elicit human’s cognitive load as high and low state in two light intense environments and recorded the eye movement data in this whole process. Twelve salient features of the eye movement were selected by using statistic test. Algorithms for processing some features are proposed for increasing the recognition rate. Finally we used the support vector machine (SVM) to classify high and low cognitive load. The experimental results show that the method can achieve 90.25% accuracy in light controlled condition.

We report thermally induced rapid phase separation in PS/PVME polymer blends using a unique contact free droplet based architecture. De-mixing of homogeneous blends due to inter component dynamic asymmetry is aggravated by the externally supplied heat. Separation of polymer blends is usually investigated in the bulk which is a tedious process and requires several hours for completion. Alternatively, separation in droplet configuration reduces the process timescale by about 3-5 orders due to a constrained micron-sized domain [fast processing and high throughput] while maintaining similar separation morphologies as in the bulk. We observed the effect of heating rates on the phase separation length and timescales. Furthermore, the separation length scale can be precisely controlled across one order by simply tuning the heating rate. The methodology can be scaled up for applications ranging from surface patterning to pharmaceutics.

The paper presents LiB 3 O 5 crystal growth under oscillating temperature regime provided by sequential switching of the heaters placed around the crucible. First results have demonstrated the ability to grow high-quality crystals under dynamicaly changed (rotating) heat field confirming the possibility to control over heat-mass-transfer processes by proposed contact free method.

In this study we investigated the sensitivity of Deinococcus radiodurans to contact-free cold atmospheric plasma treatment as part of a project to establish new efficient procedures for disinfection of inanimate surfaces. The Gram-positive D. radiodurans is one of the most resistant microorganisms worldwide. Stationary phases of D. radiodurans were exposed to cold atmospheric plasma for different time intervals or to ultraviolet C (UVC) radiation at dose rates of 0.001–0.0656 J cm−2, respectively. A methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain (MRSA) served as control for Gram-positive bacteria. The surface microdischarge plasma technology was used for generation of cold atmospheric plasma. A plasma discharge was ignited using ambient air. Surprisingly, D. radiodurans was sensitive to the cold atmospheric plasma treatment in the same range as the MRSA strain. Survival of both bacteria decreased with increasing plasma exposure times up to 6 log10 cycles (>99.999 %) within 20 s of plasma treatment. In contrast, UVC radiation of both bacteria demonstrated that D. radiodurans was more resistant to UVC treatment than MRSA. Cold atmospheric plasma seems to be a promising tool for industrial and clinical purposes where time-saving is a critical point to achieve efficient disinfection of inanimate surfaces and where protection from corrosive materials is needed.

The alignment layers and spacers between two polymeric substrates are indispensable components for flexible liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Photoalignment layers with spacers were prepared by a contact-free method using UV patternable and UV-curable materials on polyethersulfone (PES) films. Well-aligned liquid crystal with the direction of the photoalignment layer was observed by polarized microscope. Spacers played a significant role in preventing disruption of the ordering of the liquid crystal. The photoalignment layer with spacers prepared on a polymeric substrate without any physical contact was free from problems that are found in the rubbing method or the micro stamp replication method. Additionally this method can be used in wide areas for the manufacturing of large sized displays.

Contact free vibrating capacitor results have shown that the SiC surface is more stable, compared to Si, and it is possible to identify the different (Si or C) planes on SiC substrates. The surface charge density seems to be higher after compression welding process. Electrostatic (corona) charge on the surface results in accumulation and depletion, and probably avalanche breakdown instead of equilibrium inversion. However, the equilibrium Q – V curve still can be measured starting from the inversion region. Among C – V methods the capabilities of V – Q and mercury C – V have been investigated, as two major electrical measurement techniques for SiC qualification. SiC–silicon-dioxide interfaces and SiC epitaxial layers were characterized with HF/LF C – V and V – Q measurement techniques. These methods were developed basically for Si measurements, but they could easily be adapted for measuring SiC too.

Candida albicans is one of the main species able to form a biofilm on almost any surface, causing both skin and superficial mucosal infections. The worldwide increase in antifungal resistance has led to a decrease in the efficacy of standard therapies, prolonging treatment time and increasing health care costs. Therefore, the aim of this work was to demonstrate the applicability of atmospheric plasma at room temperature for inactivating C. albicans growing in biofilms without thermally damaging heat-sensitive materials. This so-called cold atmospheric plasma is produced by applying high voltage to accelerate electrons, which ionize the surrounding air, leading to the production of charged particles, reactive species, and photons. A newly developed plasma device was used, which exhibits a large plasma-generating surface area of 9 by 13 cm (117 cm 2 ). Different time points were selected to achieve an optimum inactivation efficacy range of ≥3 log 10 to 5 log 10 reduction in CFU per milliliter, and the results were compared with those of 70% ethanol. The results obtained show that contact-free antifungal inactivation of Candida biofilms by cold atmospheric plasma is a promising tool for disinfection of surfaces (and items) in both health care settings and the food industry, where ethanol disinfection should be avoided.

It has been generally accepted that any reaction between micropipes in silicon carbide (SiC) crystals requires a direct contact of the micropipes. We propose a new model of contact-free reactions that are realized through the emission and absorption of full-core dislocations by micropipes. This model can explain the correlated reduction in micropipe radii in the samples with low micropipe densities which has been observed in synchrotron radiation (SR) phase contrast images supported by computer simulations. We provide a theoretical description of a contact-free reaction between two parallel micropipes.