MICROFLUIDIC ELECTROCHEMICAL DEVICE AND PROCESS FOR CHEMICAL IMAGING AND ELECTROCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AT THE ELECTRODE-LIQUID INTERFACE IN-SITU
A microfluidic electrochemical device and process are detailed that provide chemical imaging and electrochemical analysis under vacuum at the surface of the electrode-sample or electrode-liquid interface in-situ. The electrochemical device allows investigation of various surface layers including diffuse layers at selected depths populated with, e.g., adsorbed molecules in which chemical transformation in electrolyte solutions occurs.
Holographic Imaging Based on Time-Domain Data of Natural-Fiber Containing Materials
Microwave and millimeter-wave holographic imaging has been well developed at PNNL [1-12]. Near real time imaging systems using this technology have been developed using linear arrays of microwave/millimeter wave antennas that are sequentially switched electronically to allow high-speed sampling along the array axis. Mechanical scanning in a perpendicular direction to the array axis then completes the sampling of a two dimensional aperture of wideband holographic image data. This data can then be reconstructed using the wideband holographic imaging algorithm resulting in a focused image. The wideband holographic imaging technique is described in detail in [4]. A similar scanning technique can be employed in a cylindrical fashion using a linear array that is scanned over a circular path around the target to be imaged [3, 5, 7]. The invention described in this report, is concerned with a specific technique used to spatially scan, or sample, along the axis of the array that results in a reduction of the number of physical antenna elements needed by approximately one-half compared to established techniques.
Low Pressure Electrospray Ionization System and Process for Effective Transmission of Ions
Achieving high sensitivity in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is the key to effective analysis of complex biological sample. Every significant improvement in ESI-MS detection limit will enable applications otherwise impractical. Advances in ESI-MS sensitivity can also increase the dynamic range over which quantitative measurements can be performed. Currently, most sensitivity loss in ESI-MS is in the atmospheric pressure ESI interface region. The ion transmission through this interface is essentially limited by the small MS sampling inlet (typically 400 to 500 ƒÝm in diameter as required to maintain a good vacuum pressure in MS analyzer chamber) resulting in a
COLLECTION, RELEASE, AND DETECTION OF ANALYTES WITH POLYMER COMPOSITE SAMPLING MATERIALS (iEdison No. 0685901-14-0005)
A unique fiber core sampler composition, related systems, and techniques for designing, making, and using the same are described. The sampler is used to interface with existing field instrumentation, such as Ion Mobility Spectrometer (IMS) equipment. Desired sampler characteristics include its: stiffness/flexibility; thermal mass and conductivity; specific heat; trace substance collection/release dependability, sensitivity and repeatability; thickness; reusability; durability; stability for thermal cleaning; and the like. In one form the sampler has a glass fiber core with a thickness less than 0.3 millimeter that is coated with a polymer including one or more of: polymeric organofluorine, polyimide, polyamide, PolyBenzlmidazole (PBI), PolyDiMethylSiloxane (PDMS), sulfonated tetrafluoroethylene (PFSA) and Poly(2,6-diphenyl-p-phenylene Oxide) (PPPO). Multiple polymer coatings with the same or different polymer types may be included, core/substrate surface functionalization utilized, and/or the core/substrate may be at partially filled with thermally conductive particles.
SURFACE DETERMINATION SYSTEMS, THREAT DETECTION SYSTEMS AND MEDICAL TREATMENT SYSTEMS (NIH iEdison No. 0685901-20-0022, Grant No. CA227586)
This invention consists of new methods for accurately estimating the surface of the human body or objects that are scanned by active wideband microwave or millimeter-wave imaging systems. The invention improves upon the state of the art by carefully focusing the images to preserve phase information inherent in the propagation of the electromagnetic waves used to form the images, and then exploiting the fact that the phase of the reconstructed image follows the surface. This means that surfaces of constant phase in the reconstruction follow the contours of the body or target. Furthermore, if the image reconstruction is performed in an exacting manner, the surface of the body tracks the zero-phase contour precisely. The surface can therefore be estimated by forming a high-resolution image using backprojection or similar methods and then finding the surface by numerically finding the zero-phase position over a lattice of positions. High-resolution active wideband microwave and millimeter-wave imaging systems are typically formed by mechanically, or electronically scanning a transceiver over a 2D aperture. At each point in the aperture the transceiver emits a wideband signal that interacts with the target and is captured coherently by the receiver. The subsequent data are then three-dimensional consisting of two spatial axes and one frequency axis. These data can then be focused using backprojection or other similar methods. Resolution in microwave imaging is limited by diffraction in the lateral dimensions and by bandwidth in the range or depth dimension. Tracking the surface is typically done after image formation by taking the magnitude image and forming iso-surfaces, or surfaces of constant amplitude. This process causes errors in the surface estimation since it inherently assumes that brightness is related to position. A brighter zone in the image will appear closer than a dimmer zone, even if they are at the same depth. The new methods in this invention achieve high accuracy by eliminating the bias caused by the image amplitude variations and by exploiting the image phase. The image phase varies approximately 360 degrees for every half-wavelength in depth variation. The zero-phase position can be estimated to accuracies of better than a few degrees. Therefore, the surface can be estimated to small fraction of one-half wavelength. Normal methods are limited by the depth resolution, which is typically much larger than one-half wavelength.
WAVEFORMS IN AN ION MOBILITY SPECTROMETER (NIH Grant No. GM1030709; iEdison No. 0685901-23-0043)
Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is an analytical separation technique that separates ions based on their size and electrical charge. This information is helpful for determining the structure of an ion, and the technique is being increasingly employed in analytical laboratories. High resolution IMS is particularly useful since it can help differentiate between ions with extremely similar sizes and charges, such as those found in biological samples. Currently the highest resolution IMS systems were developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and are named structures for lossless ion manipulations (SLIM). SLIM have provided researchers with the ability to explore new insights into chemical composition and chemical behavior in biological systems. However, SLIM systems are constantly being improved to obtain ever higher IMS resolution. Essential to achieving high resolution in SLIM is the serpentine path that compact a long path length into a small footprint. To enable a serpentine path a U-turns are required to ensure ions change direction without losing the resolution. We observed a small loss in resolving power that gets worse as ions execute large number of U-turns. This invention disclosure discusses new geometric and operating modifications to SLIM to provide enhanced IMS resolutions over previously disclosed implementations. The specific new geometric modification includes incorporating long ion path lengths in SLIM while using a minimal number of turns. This is accomplished by making most of the SLIM path span the board lengthwise while incorporating a minimal number of turns along the width dimension. This produces SLIM path lengths identical to the SLIM path lengths obtained with previously disclosed SLIM implementations, which are different in that most of the SLIM path spans the board widthwise while incorporating a larger number of turns along the length dimension. However, this new geometric implementation uses fewer turns. Ion trajectory simulations have indicated that slight peak broadening occurs at each SLIM turn under conventional conditions, and so it is useful to minimize the number of turns in a SLIM to reduce any peak broadening that would cause reduced IMS resolution. To experimentally determine if reducing the number of turns gives higher IMS resolution, a new SLIM design was developed that employed approximately half the number of turns compared to conventional systems. Preliminary results indicate that this new system achieves approximately 1.5x higher resolution than the conventional systems, which is largely attributed to the reduced number of turns. In addition to the geometric modifications, it is possible to implement new electronic modifications to the turns to improve SLIM resolution. The new electronic modifications specifically include applying alternating current (AC) waveforms to the turns that possess different phases compared to previously disclosed implementations.
Extracting dependencies between network assets using deep learning
A network analysis tool receives network flow information and uses deep learningmachine learning that models high-level abstractions in the network flow informationto identify dependencies between network assets. Based on the identified dependencies, the network analysis tool can discover functional relationships between network assets. For example, a network analysis tool receives network flow information, identifies dependencies between multiple network assets based on evaluation of the network flow information, and outputs results of the identification of the dependencies. When evaluating the network flow information, the network analysis tool can pre-process the network flow information to produce input vectors, use deep learning to extract patterns in the input vectors, and then determine dependencies based on the extracted patterns. The network analysis tool can repeat this process so as to update an assessment of the dependencies between network assets on a near real-time basis.
SYSTEM AND METHOD OF PRECONCENTRATING ANALYTES IN A MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE
Electrokinetic injection is used almost exclusively for microchip electrophoresis. We describe a new approach, based on pneumatic valving, that overcomes the limitations of electrokinetic injection. A detailed description is in the attached file.
Ion manipulation device (iEdison NIH 0685901-13-0004.)
An ion manipulation method and device is disclosed. The device includes a pair of substantially parallel surfaces. An array of inner electrodes is contained within, and extends substantially along the length of, each parallel surface. The device includes a first outer array of electrodes and a second outer array of electrodes. Each outer array of electrodes is positioned on either side of the inner electrodes, and is contained within and extends substantially along the length of each parallel surface. A DC voltage is applied to the first and second outer array of electrodes. A RF voltage, with a superimposed electric field, is applied to the inner electrodes by applying the DC voltages to each electrode. Ions either move between the parallel surfaces within an ion confinement area or along paths in the direction of the electric field, or can be trapped in the ion confinement area.