Progress of Microgravity Material Research During the Period of 2007-2009

Orbital experimental researches on crystal growth of Mn-doped GaSb and Bi2Se0.21Te2.79 are briefly summarized.The space experiments were completed in September of 2007 on broad the Foton-M3 satellite of Russia.Ground-based researches on the solidification behaviors of Al-Al3Ni,AlAl2Cu,Ag-Cu eutectic,Al-Pb monotectic and Cu-Co peritectic alloys in a 50-meter-high drop tube were investigated.New experimental results on the ultrasonic field and the temperature recycling induced to chiral symmetry breaking of NaClO3 crystal also were reported in the present paper.

Microgravity Material Research in China:2016

Firstly,recent research works of high undercooling and rapid solidification of metallic alloys under ground simulation conditions in Northwestern Polytechnical University are reviewed.Secondly,under normal gravity and microgravity of binary to quinary Nickel-base single crystal alloys with different contents of W,Ta,Al and Ti elements are comparatively investigated by Institute of Metal Research using drop tube.Thirdly,solidification and crystal growth of SJ10-Recoverable Scientific Experiment Satellite by Institute of Semiconductors is introduced.

Microgravity Material Research in China:2012–2014

During 2012–2014, the main research activities from microgravity material research were focused on, which include study of microgravity effects on collagen fibrillogenesis and HAP crystallization, microgravity experiments using drop tube, and research of thermoelectric materials for space.This paper summarizes all these activities.

APPLICATION OF ELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE MYOGRAPHY IN CHARACTERIZING CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME

Background:Electrical impedance myography(EIM)is a non-invasive,painless,and easy-to-perform technique for assessing neuromuscular disorders.We evaluated the potential of EIM for quantitatively characterizing carpal tunnel syndrome(CTS).Methods:Healthy subjects and patients with differing severity of CTS underwent EIM measurement of their small hand muscles.A bioelectrical impedance vector analysis(BIVA)method was first applied to display 50-kHz EIM data in a single plot.Results:Patients with more severe CTS had smaller EIM values in the affected muscle.The reactance and phase parameters differed significantly between any two groups(P<0.05).Their accuracy for differentiating between any two adjacent groups was approximately 80%and for other groups was approximately 90%.There was a strong association between EIM and electrophysiology results.Conclusion:BIVA is convenient and helpful for indicating the differences between healthy subjects and CTS patients.These results demonstrate EIM’s potential for quantitatively characterizing patients with CTS.

Development of silicon photonic devices for optical interconnects

Silicon photonic devices based on complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor(CMOS) compatible technologies have shown attractive performances on very-large-scale monolithic optoelectronic integration,high speed modulation and switching,and efficient off-chip optical coupling.This paper presents the recent progress on fast silicon optical modulation,wavelength-insensitive optical switching and efficient optical coupling techniques in our group.Several CMOS-compatible silicon optical couplers with different structures have been developed,showing the highest coupling efficiency of 65%.Broadband silicon-based optical switches with sub-nanosecond switching on-off time are experimentally realized.Silicon modulators with novel PN junctions are demonstrated with the speed up to 50 Gb s-1.

A complete genome assembly of Glaciecola mesophila sp. nov. sequenced by using BIGIS-4 sequencer system

Using a pyrosequencing-based custom-made sequencer BIGIS-4, we sequenced a Gram-negative bacterium Glaciecola mesophila sp. nov. (Gmn) isolated from marine invertebrate specimens. We generated 152043 sequencing reads with a mean high-quality length of 406 bp, and assembled them using the BIGIS-4 post-processing module. No systematic low-quality data was detected beyond expected homopolymer-derived errors. The assembled Gmn genome is 5144318 bp in length and harbors 4303 annotated genes. A large number of metabolic genes correspond to various nutrients from surface marine invertebrates. Its abundant cold-tolerant and cellular signaling and related genes reveal a fundamental adaptation to low-temperature marine environment.

Improved picoliter-sized micro-reactors for high-throughput biological analysis

High-throughput pyrosequencing,carried out in millions of picoliter-sized reactors on a fiber-optic slide,is known for its longer read length.However,both optical crosstalk(which reduces the signal-to-noise ratio of CCD images)and chemical retention adversely affect the accuracy of chemiluminescence determination,and ultimately decrease the read length and the accuracy of pyrosequencing results.In this study,both titanium and oxidized aluminum films were deposited on the side walls and upper faces of micro-reactor slides to enhance optical isolation;the films reduced the inter-well crosstalk by one order of magnitude.Subsequently,chemical retention was shown to be caused by the lower diffusion coefficient of the side walls of the picolitersized reactors because of surface roughness and random pores.Optically isolated fiber-optic slides over-coated with silicon oxide showed smoother surface morphology,resulting in little chemical retention;this was further confirmed with theoretical calculations.Picoliter-sized micro-reactors coated with titanium-silicon oxide films showed the least inter-well optical crosstalk and chemical retention;these properties are expected to greatly improve the high-throughput pyrosequencing performance.