Technology Partnership (United Kingdom)

This review discusses the theoretical basis and examples of implementation of various molecular modeling approaches to the investigation of the properties of surfactants. These surfactant properties include the ability to reduce the interfacial tension and alter the wettability and viscosity of solutions for the purposes of chemical flooding of crude oil reservoirs. A comparative analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the existing molecular dynamics simulation methods is further provided. It is shown that molecular modeling methods can significantly facilitate the choice of surfactants for specific oil field conditions and can serve as a potential alternative to experimental measurements.

This economic analysis brief summarizes the efforts and results of the data collection and analysis of NIST's calibration customer information. Summary statistics for calibration customers are provided for fiscal years 2010 through 2015. Included in the analysis are demographically descriptive variables such as the age, location, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, number of employees and geographic distribution of NIST calibration customers. Overall, these features provide an understanding of the demographic characteristics of entities that purchase calibration services from NIST.

This economic analysis brief summarizes the efforts and results of the data collection and analysis of NIST's patent licensee information. Summary statistics for licensees are provided for fiscal years 2006 through 2015. Included in the analysis are demographically descriptive variables such as the age, location, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, number of employees and geographic distribution of NIST licensees. Overall, this publication provides demographics of companies that licensed NIST technologies.

This economic analysis brief summarizes the efforts and results of the data collection and analysis of NIST's CRADA partner information. Summary statistics for CRADA partners are provided for fiscal years 2006 through 2015. Included in the analysis are demographically descriptive variables such as the age, location, industry NAICS codes, number of employees and geographic distribution of NIST CRADA partners. Overall, these features provide an understanding of the demographic characteristics of companies that collaborate on NIST technologies.

NIST has a large and growing impact on invention -two orders of magnitude greater than indicated by NIST-invented patents alone.

The focus of university classrooms is changing from a lecturing approach to a learning-by- doing approach. Consequently, many universities are moving towards incorporating hands-on or experiential learning approaches in their teaching methods. In this paper we present a training demonstration that we have developed to support experiential learning in the teaching of Open Process Control (OPC) based access to process automation data. This is a topic in the Advanced Components and System Integration course of the joint McMaster University and Mohawk College bachelor of technology program. Generally, the paper presents the design and implementation of an OPC data access system, and how the system is used as demonstration to inspire learning.

The well-known γ-surface concept originally proposed by V.Vitek [1] has been extended to the case of the shift of one part of the crystal with respect to another in two adjacent {111} planes of the stacking fault. The proposed approach has been applied for evaluation of the effective γ-surface in {111} crystallographic plane in L12 Ni3Al. Five stable planar stacking faults has been found, in particular, superlattice intrinsic stacking fault (SISF), superlattice extrinsic stacking fault (SESF), complex stacking fault (CSF), antiphase boundary (APB) and complex extrinsic stacking fault (CESF). The last planar fault configuration has neither been observed experimentally nor predicted analytically in L12 Ni3Al before.

Regenerative medicines based on human cells demand their harvesting, culture, and processing. Manufacturing processes are likely to include cell concentration and subsequent controlled dosing of concentrates, for example, to the patient or tissue construct. The integrity and functionality of the cells must be maintained during these processing stages. In this study the performance of two different cell concentration protocols (involving centrifugation and resuspension) are compared and consideration given to possible causes of cell loss. Further studies examine cell size and rheological behavior of anchorage-dependent mammalian cell suspensions, and the effect of capillary flow stress (0.5-15 Pa, laminar flow regime) on cell number and membrane integrity as quantified by flow cytometry. The cell concentration protocols achieved maximum cell volume fraction of around 0.3 and the improved protocol exhibited intact cell yield of 80 +/- 13%, demonstrating proof-of principle for achieving tissue-like cell concentrations by a process of centrifugation and orbital shaking. Volume mean cell diameter (cell diameter at the mean cell volume) for the rat aortic smooth muscle cells (CRL-1444) used in this study was 22.4 microm. Concentrated cell suspension rheology approximated to power law behavior and exhibited similar trends to reports for plant and yeast cells. Capillary transfer at 2-15 Pa (wall shear stress) did not significantly affect cell number or membrane integrity while losses observed at low shear (0.5, 1.0 Pa) were probably due to surface attachment of cells in the apparatus.

The resonant absorption of microwave radiation by thin, two-dimensional microcavity arrays has been studied. Resonant modes associated with these structures, formed from copper-clad FR4 laminates, exhibit both an azimuthal and polar angle independent electromagnetic response. The experimental data agree well with the predictions of a finite element method computer model, which has been utilized to explore the electromagnetic character of the resonant modes supported.