From the Publisher:Journalism Online tackles the pressing question of how to apply fundamental journalism skills to the online medium. It provides an essential guide to the internet as a research and publishing tool. In particular, it examines how to forge key journalism skills with the distinctive qualities of the World Wide Web to provide compelling web content.

In recent years, wireless sensor network systems have increasingly been used to monitor infrastructure health. Advances in electronics and sensing systems have enabled the development of various pressure-sensing methods for pipe-pressure monitoring. This article presents laboratory-based test results as part of the development and validation of a pipeline pressure-monitoring method based on force sensitive resistors (FSR). Additionally, to validate the data, the proposed pressure-sensing method is compared with a commercially available direct-pressure sensor. Analysis of the data shows a significant correlation (correlation factor = 0.9928) between the commercial sensor and the proposed sensor. These results showed that the proposed method has an acceptable accuracy and reliability even though it is not ultimately intended for absolute-pressure measurements, but for monitoring relative pressure changes in pipes. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.

In the clinical/microbiological laboratory there are currently several ways of separating specific cells from a fluid suspension. Conventionally cells can be separated based on size, density, electrical charge, light-scattering properties, and antigenic surface properties. Separating cells using these parameters can require complex technologies and specialist equipment which may damage sensitive cells. The pumping mechanism described here leaves samples undamaged either mechanically or chemically unlike many other current filtration techniques. This paper proposes new Bio-MEMS filtration chips manufactured using micro systems technology (MST) that, when used in conjunction with an optical microscope and a syringe, can filter and grade cells for size without the requirement for additional expensive equipment. These chips also offer great versatility in terms of design and their low cost allows them to be disposable, eliminating sample contamination.

In this paper, a simple method of measuring process-induced variations is proposed using a chain of nominally identical microelectromechanical resonators. The method is based upon the fact that the n eigenfrequencies of a chain of mechanically coupled resonators can be determined from the response of only one resonator in the chain. However, these n values do not provide enough information to determine the 2n - 1 elements of the system matrix. The extra information needed to obtain the system matrix is therefore obtained by perturbing the characteristics of one of the resonators and measuring the resulting eigenfrequencies. A resonator whose effective spring constant can be perturbed by varying an applied voltage has therefore been used to validate the proposed method. The validity of the proposed method is then demonstrated in several different ways. First, the extracted system matrix is used to predict the effects of perturbations to one or more of the resonators. Second, the eigenvectors of the system matrix are shown to correspond to the measured eigenmodes of the system. Finally, it is shown that, as expected, a change to one resonator only changes the corresponding diagonal element of the system matrix. Most importantly, this test shows that the method can determine the critical diagonal elements of a system matrix to an accuracy of 0.1%.

This paper reports a method of determining the system matrix of a nearest neighbor coupled array of micro/nanomechanical resonators. The simple method requires contacts to only one element of the array to determine two sets of eigenvalues related to the system matrix. The elements of the system matrix are then determined from these eigenvalues. This system matrix can then be used to determine the characteristics of the individual resonators or as the starting point for a perturbation analysis to determine the changes observed when a functionalized array of resonators is used as a sensor.

Coupling between micro/nanomechanical resonators has been suggested as a means of monitoring the responses of several resonant sensors. In this paper a method is described to determine the system matrix for a linear chain of resonators based upon an inverse eigenvalue analysis. This method relies upon the ability to induce a temporary change to one of the terminal resonators, which is made possible by electrostatic softening. The proposed method has been validated by showing that a system matrix obtained using the method can accurately predict both the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors of the associated set of coupled resonators.

Their small mass means that the resonant frequency of Microelectromechanical (MEMs) resonators is sensitive to the absorption of a small additional mass onto their surface. Any change in resonant frequency caused by this additional mass can be detected by monitoring the amplitude or phase of a resonators response at a specific frequency. This means that the very sudden change in the amplitude and phase of a Duffing resonator at two critical frequencies is a phenomenon that could be exploited in this type of sensor. In this paper results are presented which show that a MEMs resonator can be made to act as a Duffing resonator using electronic feedback. The result is the basis for a new method of increasing the sensitivity of resonant sensors operating in air.

The silicon diaphragm is a fundamental structure widely used in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). However, it may suffer from creep deformation when it services in relatively high temperature. As a result, this paper presents the fabrication of micromachined silicon diaphragms and their creep behaviour under atmospheric pressure at 900^oC. The diaphragms with a radius in the range of 1.25-2.5mm showed an increased deflection as a function of annealing time. The observation is in good agreement to the prediction based on the von Mises theory.

Single crystal silicon diaphragms are widely used as pressure sensitive elements in micromachined pressure sensors. When designing such a sensor it is usual to assume that the silicon is an isotropic material and the average elastic constants are used. However, the mechanical properties of single crystal silicon are orthotropic, and this has an important effect on the mechanical behaviour of silicon diaphragms under pressure. In this work, the deflections of orthotropic silicon circular diaphragms which are orientated against the (100) and the (110) planes are presented. It is found that by assuming silicon is isotropic material, the maximum stress is underestimated by 9.4% for (110) orientated silicon diaphragms, while the maximum stress is underestimated by 8% for (100) orientated silicon diaphragms. Therefore, when a silicon diaphragm is used in a MEMS sensor, the orthotropic properties should be taken into account for accuracy. Finally, the performance of a capacitive sensor is predicted by using finite element method.

In this paper we describe the design and fabrication of a mechanical autonomous impact oscillator with a MEMS resonator as the frequency control element. The design has been developed with scalability to large 2-D arrays of coupled oscillators in mind. The dynamic behaviour of the impact oscillator was numerically studied and it was found that the geometry nonlinearity has an effect on the static pull-in voltage and equilibrium position. The external driving power can alter the frequency of the impact oscillator. The autonomous nature of the oscillator simplifies the complexity of the drive circuitry and is essential for large 2-D arrays.

Europe's Innovative Medicines Initiative officially unveiled the first 18 projects it will fund under a 5-year, €2 billion program to relieve bottlenecks in drug discovery and development and for the first time it disclosed the industry members that have signed on to each project.

Microfabricated systems have recently become useful for routing particles to precise locations in microfluidic channels. In this paper we discuss the modeling, fabrication and characterization of such a platform that combines acoustic forces and ac dielectrophoresis (DEP). This system integrates a bulk lead zirconate titanate (PZT) slab with substrate patterned microelectrodes for DEP manipulation of particles. Moreover, a one-dimensional transmission line model is presented to understand the coupling of the acoustic and dielectrophoretic transducers with the microdevice. While the acoustic model does not predict the lateral coupling in the system, it does provide some insight into axial (thickness-mode) frequencies of operation. Experiments are also conducted in which particles were routed into a large (0.75mm wide) microchannel and preconcentrated and focused into coarse bundles by coupling an acoustic wave into the channel. Subsequently, particles are further focused into single file particle streams using interdigitated DEP electrodes. This system can be used for high throughput assays for which it is necessary to isolate and investigate small bundles of particles and single particles.

Liuhua 11-1 oilfield is one of the assets of CNOOC, developed in 1995. In 8 years of production, the water cut has increased significantly (average water cut of 90%) with oil production rate continuing to decline, at the production declining rate, the economic life of Liu Hua 11-1 oilfield was expected to end in year 2002. Steps were taken in order to extend the economic life of the field. These include some infill sidetrack wells from the old wellbore to new target reservoir, but the result was not significant. In 2001, an infill ERD project was initiated to use the existing old wellbore to sidetrack to the East Wing structure of the oil field; the structure is about 4.5km from the existing main facilities. 6 ER wells have been drilled so far and the result was excellent. The ERD technique has created a few records in Chinese oil and gas industry. With respect to a VS/TVD ratio B3 ERW4 has created the largest in China (4.58), ranks within the top 25 worldwide extended reach wells but significantly from a floating production system this well ranks within the top 10 wells, in terms of this ratio. This infill ERD project has been proven to be very efficient and economical to Liu Hua 11-1 oilfield to develop the shallow satellite oilfields surrounding the main structure. The successful of these extended reach wells has increased the production and extended the economic life of the Liu Hua oilfield, at the same time, this has been a first experience and technical breakthrough for a Chinese oil company in extended reach well drilling. This paper highlights the drilling challenges in Liuhua 11-1 Extended Reach Well infill drilling campaign, and the application of drilling optimization, well placement process that has been successfully executed for the project.

The small size of microfabricated structures are opening new avenues in the field of biomedical engineering where structures are being developed to process [1] and analyze [2,3] nanolitre quantities of biological fluids, and cellular tissues. This paper outlines the design and manufacture principals of a passive micro-mechatronic device for the filtration and sorting of spermatogenic cells. This device is to be applied in a urological clinical environment where it can be used to semi-automate the spermatozoa selection process from non-obstructive azoospermic testis biopsies. Detailed and discussed herein are the advantages and drawbacks of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) as applied to clinical biomedical situations, and requirements for the design methodology and process of a microfluidic system based on MEMS technology with a view to manufacture by Deep Reactive Ion Etching process. The modelling of the micro device using computational fluid dynamic simulation methods is also covered in this paper.

This paper describes the design and implementation of the security and forensic lab at UTC. The lab supports teaching and research in computer networks, network security, and information forensics. The lab uses a faculty-administered server to record Internet attacks as they occur, five student-administered network servers, and 20 client machines.

A full-length inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene has been sequenced for the first time outside the mammals, and the gene organization compared with that already determined for human iNOS. While there are some differences from the human gene, overall the exons show remarkable conservation in sequence and organization. As in human, the trout iNOS gene has 27 exons, with 18 of the trout exons being identical in size with the equivalent human exons. The cofactor-binding domains are found in the same exons and in some cases are absolutely conserved. Differences include the start of the ORF in exon 3 instead of exon 2, resulting in a deletion at the 5' end of the trout iNOS protein. Exon 27 also shows a large difference in size and although the trout exon is larger this is due to the length of the 3'-UTR. Several non-mammalian features are notable, and include a conserved potential glycosylation site in chicken and fish, and an insertion at the boundary of exons 20 and 21 in fish. The intron sizes in trout were generally much smaller than in human iNOS, making the trout iNOS gene approximately half the size of the human gene. Analysis of RNA secondary structure revealed two regions with complementarity, which could interfere with reverse transcription. Using a trout fibroblast cell line (RTG-2 cells), it was shown by reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR that virus infection was a good inducer of iNOS expression. However, when using a combination of Superscripttrade mark II for reverse transcription and primers at the 5' end of the gene only very weak products were amplified, in contrast with the situation when primers at the 3' end of the gene were used, or ThermoScripttrade mark-derived cDNA was used. The impact of such results on RT-PCR analysis of iNOS expression in trout is discussed.