TY - JOUR A1 - Pourshahidi, Ali Mohammad A1 - Engelmann, Ulrich M. A1 - Offenhäusser, Andreas A1 - Krause, Hans-Joachim T1 - Resolving ambiguities in core size determination of magnetic nanoparticles from magnetic frequency mixing data JF - Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials N2 - Frequency mixing magnetic detection (FMMD) has been widely utilized as a measurement technique in magnetic immunoassays. It can also be used for the characterization and distinction (also known as “colourization”) of different types of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) based on their core sizes. In a previous work, it was shown that the large particles contribute most of the FMMD signal. This leads to ambiguities in core size determination from fitting since the contribution of the small-sized particles is almost undetectable among the strong responses from the large ones. In this work, we report on how this ambiguity can be overcome by modelling the signal intensity using the Langevin model in thermodynamic equilibrium including a lognormal core size distribution fL(dc,d0,σ) fitted to experimentally measured FMMD data of immobilized MNPs. For each given median diameter d0, an ambiguous amount of best-fitting pairs of parameters distribution width σ and number of particles Np with R2 > 0.99 are extracted. By determining the samples’ total iron mass, mFe, with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), we are then able to identify the one specific best-fitting pair (σ, Np) one uniquely. With this additional externally measured parameter, we resolved the ambiguity in core size distribution and determined the parameters (d0, σ, Np) directly from FMMD measurements, allowing precise MNPs sample characterization. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2022.169969 SN - 0304-8853 VL - 563 IS - In progress, Art. No. 169969 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pourshahidi, Ali Mohammad A1 - Achtsnicht, Stefan A1 - Offenhäusser, Andreas A1 - Krause, Hans-Joachim ED - Offenhäusser, Andreas T1 - Frequency Mixing Magnetic Detection Setup Employing Permanent Ring Magnets as a Static Offset Field Source JF - Sensors N2 - Frequency mixing magnetic detection (FMMD) has been explored for its applications in fields of magnetic biosensing, multiplex detection of magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) and the determination of core size distribution of MNP samples. Such applications rely on the application of a static offset magnetic field, which is generated traditionally with an electromagnet. Such a setup requires a current source, as well as passive or active cooling strategies, which directly sets a limitation based on the portability aspect that is desired for point of care (POC) monitoring applications. In this work, a measurement head is introduced that involves the utilization of two ring-shaped permanent magnets to generate a static offset magnetic field. A steel cylinder in the ring bores homogenizes the field. By variation of the distance between the ring magnets and of the thickness of the steel cylinder, the magnitude of the magnetic field at the sample position can be adjusted. Furthermore, the measurement setup is compared to the electromagnet offset module based on measured signals and temperature behavior. KW - magnetic sensors KW - biosensors KW - frequency mixing magnetic detection KW - magnetic nanoparticles Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/s22228776 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 22 IS - 22 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Poghossian, Arshak A1 - Karschuck, Tobias A1 - Wagner, Patrick A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Field-Effect Capacitors Decorated with Ligand-Stabilized Gold Nanoparticles: Modeling and Experiments JF - Biosensors N2 - Nanoparticles are recognized as highly attractive tunable materials for designing field-effect biosensors with enhanced performance. In this work, we present a theoretical model for electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor capacitors (EISCAP) decorated with ligand-stabilized charged gold nanoparticles. The charged AuNPs are taken into account as additional, nanometer-sized local gates. The capacitance-voltage (C–V) curves and constant-capacitance (ConCap) signals of the AuNP-decorated EISCAPs have been simulated. The impact of the AuNP coverage on the shift of the C–V curves and the ConCap signals was also studied experimentally on Al–p-Si–SiO₂ EISCAPs decorated with positively charged aminooctanethiol-capped AuNPs. In addition, the surface of the EISCAPs, modified with AuNPs, was characterized by scanning electron microscopy for different immobilization times of the nanoparticles. KW - aminooctanethiol KW - nanoparticle coverage KW - capacitive model KW - gold nanoparticles KW - field-effect sensor KW - electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor capacitors Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12050334 SN - 2079-6374 N1 - This article belongs to the Special Issue "Biosensors in Nanotechnology" VL - 12 IS - 5 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Philipp, Mohr A1 - Efthimiou, Nikos A1 - Pagano, Fiammetta A1 - Kratochwil, Nicolaus A1 - Pizzichemi, Marco A1 - Tsoumpas, Charalampos A1 - Auffray, Etiennette A1 - Ziemons, Karl T1 - Image reconstruction analysis for positron emission tomography with heterostructured scintillators JF - IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences N2 - The concept of structure engineering has been proposed for exploring the next generation of radiation detectors with improved performance. A TOF-PET geometry with heterostructured scintillators with a pixel size of 3.0×3.1×15 mm3 was simulated using Monte Carlo. The heterostructures consisted of alternating layers of BGO as a dense material with high stopping power and plastic (EJ232) as a fast light emitter. The detector time resolution was calculated as a function of the deposited and shared energy in both materials on an event-by-event basis. While sensitivity was reduced to 32% for 100 μm thick plastic layers and 52% for 50 μm, the CTR distribution improved to 204±49 ps and 220±41 ps respectively, compared to 276 ps that we considered for bulk BGO. The complex distribution of timing resolutions was accounted for in the reconstruction. We divided the events into three groups based on their CTR and modeled them with different Gaussian TOF kernels. On a NEMA IQ phantom, the heterostructures had better contrast recovery in early iterations. On the other hand, BGO achieved a better contrast to noise ratio (CNR) after the 15th iteration due to the higher sensitivity. The developed simulation and reconstruction methods constitute new tools for evaluating different detector designs with complex time responses. KW - TOF PET KW - Heterostructure KW - Metascintillator KW - Multiple TOF kernels KW - Image Reconstruction Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/TRPMS.2022.3208615 SN - 2469-7311 SN - 2469-7303 VL - 7 IS - 1 SP - 41 EP - 51 PB - IEEE CY - New York, NY ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Penner, Crystal A1 - Usherovich, Samuel A1 - Niedermeier, Jana A1 - Bélanger-Champagne, Camille A1 - Trinczek, Michael A1 - Paulßen, Elisabeth A1 - Hoehr, Cornelia T1 - Organic Scintillator-Fibre Sensors for Proton Therapy Dosimetry: SCSF-3HF and EJ-260 JF - electronics N2 - In proton therapy, the dose from secondary neutrons to the patient can contribute to side effects and the creation of secondary cancer. A simple and fast detection system to distinguish between dose from protons and neutrons both in pretreatment verification as well as potentially in vivo monitoring is needed to minimize dose from secondary neutrons. Two 3 mm long, 1 mm diameter organic scintillators were tested for candidacy to be used in a proton–neutron discrimination detector. The SCSF-3HF (1500) scintillating fibre (Kuraray Co. Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan) and EJ-260 plastic scintillator (Eljen Technology, Sweetwater, TX, USA) were irradiated at the TRIUMF Neutron Facility and the Proton Therapy Research Centre. In the proton beam, we compared the raw Bragg peak and spread-out Bragg peak response to the industry standard Markus chamber detector. Both scintillator sensors exhibited quenching at high LET in the Bragg peak, presenting a peak-to-entrance ratio of 2.59 for the EJ-260 and 2.63 for the SCSF-3HF fibre, compared to 3.70 for the Markus chamber. The SCSF-3HF sensor demonstrated 1.3 times the sensitivity to protons and 3 times the sensitivity to neutrons as compared to the EJ-260 sensor. Combined with our equations relating neutron and proton contributions to dose during proton irradiations, and the application of Birks’ quenching correction, these fibres provide valid candidates for inexpensive and replicable proton-neutron discrimination detectors Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12010011 SN - 2079-9292 N1 - This article belongs to the Special Issue "Applications of Optical Fiber Sensors" VL - 12 IS - 1 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Peere, Wouter A1 - Blanke, Tobias ED - Vernon, Chris T1 - GHEtool: An open-source tool for borefield sizing in Python JF - Journal of Open Source Software N2 - GHEtool is a Python package that contains all the functionalities needed to deal with borefield design. It is developed for both researchers and practitioners. The core of this package is the automated sizing of borefield under different conditions. The sizing of a borefield is typically slow due to the high complexity of the mathematical background. Because this tool has a lot of precalculated data, GHEtool can size a borefield in the order of tenths of milliseconds. This sizing typically takes the order of minutes. Therefore, this tool is suited for being implemented in typical workflows where iterations are required. GHEtool also comes with a graphical user interface (GUI). This GUI is prebuilt as an exe-file because this provides access to all the functionalities without coding. A setup to install the GUI at the user-defined place is also implemented and available at: https://www.mech.kuleuven.be/en/tme/research/thermal_systems/tools/ghetool. KW - geothermal KW - energy KW - borefields KW - sizing Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.04406 SN - 2475-9066 VL - 7 IS - 76 SP - 1 EP - 4, 4406 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ojovan, Michael I. A1 - Steinmetz, Hans-Jürgen T1 - Approaches to Disposal of Nuclear Waste JF - Energies N2 - We present a concise mini overview on the approaches to the disposal of nuclear waste currently used or deployed. The disposal of nuclear waste is the end point of nuclear waste management (NWM) activities and is the emplacement of waste in an appropriate facility without the intention to retrieve it. The IAEA has developed an internationally accepted classification scheme based on the end points of NWM, which is used as guidance. Retention times needed for safe isolation of waste radionuclides are estimated based on the radiotoxicity of nuclear waste. Disposal facilities usually rely on a multi-barrier defence system to isolate the waste from the biosphere, which comprises the natural geological barrier and the engineered barrier system. Disposal facilities could be of a trench type, vaults, tunnels, shafts, boreholes, or mined repositories. A graded approach relates the depth of the disposal facilities’ location with the level of hazard. Disposal practices demonstrate the reliability of nuclear waste disposal with minimal expected impacts on the environment and humans. KW - borehole disposal KW - geological disposal KW - disposal facility KW - retention time KW - nuclear waste Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/en15207804 SN - 1996-1073 N1 - This article belongs to the Special Issue "Treatment of Radioactive Waste and Sustainability Energy" VL - 15 IS - 20 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mueller, Tobias A1 - Segin, Alexander A1 - Weigand, Christoph A1 - Schmitt, Robert H. T1 - Feature selection for measurement models JF - International journal of quality & reliability management N2 - Purpose In the determination of the measurement uncertainty, the GUM procedure requires the building of a measurement model that establishes a functional relationship between the measurand and all influencing quantities. Since the effort of modelling as well as quantifying the measurement uncertainties depend on the number of influencing quantities considered, the aim of this study is to determine relevant influencing quantities and to remove irrelevant ones from the dataset. Design/methodology/approach In this work, it was investigated whether the effort of modelling for the determination of measurement uncertainty can be reduced by the use of feature selection (FS) methods. For this purpose, 9 different FS methods were tested on 16 artificial test datasets, whose properties (number of data points, number of features, complexity, features with low influence and redundant features) were varied via a design of experiments. Findings Based on a success metric, the stability, universality and complexity of the method, two FS methods could be identified that reliably identify relevant and irrelevant influencing quantities for a measurement model. Originality/value For the first time, FS methods were applied to datasets with properties of classical measurement processes. The simulation-based results serve as a basis for further research in the field of FS for measurement models. The identified algorithms will be applied to real measurement processes in the future. KW - Feature selection KW - Modelling KW - Measurement models KW - Measurement uncertainty Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-07-2021-0245 SN - 0265-671X IS - Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print. PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited CY - Bingley ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Morandi, Paolo A1 - Butenweg, Christoph A1 - Breis, Khaled A1 - Beyer, Katrin A1 - Magenes, Guido ED - Ansal, Atilla T1 - Latest findings on the behaviour factor q for the seismic design of URM buildings JF - Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering N2 - Recent earthquakes as the 2012 Emilia earthquake sequence showed that recently built unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings behaved much better than expected and sustained, despite the maximum PGA values ranged between 0.20–0.30 g, either minor damage or structural damage that is deemed repairable. Especially low-rise residential and commercial masonry buildings with a code-conforming seismic design and detailing behaved in general very well without substantial damages. The low damage grades of modern masonry buildings that was observed during this earthquake series highlighted again that codified design procedures based on linear analysis can be rather conservative. Although advances in simulation tools make nonlinear calculation methods more readily accessible to designers, linear analyses will still be the standard design method for years to come. The present paper aims to improve the linear seismic design method by providing a proper definition of the q-factor of URM buildings. These q-factors are derived for low-rise URM buildings with rigid diaphragms which represent recent construction practise in low to moderate seismic areas of Italy and Germany. The behaviour factor components for deformation and energy dissipation capacity and for overstrength due to the redistribution of forces are derived by means of pushover analyses. Furthermore, considerations on the behaviour factor component due to other sources of overstrength in masonry buildings are presented. As a result of the investigations, rationally based values of the behaviour factor q to be used in linear analyses in the range of 2.0–3.0 are proposed. KW - Unreinforced masonry buildings KW - Modern constructions KW - Seismic design KW - Linear elastic analysis KW - Behaviour factor q Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-022-01419-7 SN - 1573-1456 SN - 1570-761X VL - 20 IS - 11 SP - 5797 EP - 5848 PB - Springer Nature CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Monakhova, Yulia A1 - Soboleva, Polina M. A1 - Fedotova, Elena S. A1 - Musina, Kristina T. A1 - Burmistrova, Natalia A. T1 - Quantum chemical calculations of IR spectra of heparin disaccharide subunits JF - Computational and Theoretical Chemistry N2 - Heparin is a natural polysaccharide, which plays essential role in many biological processes. Alterations in building blocks can modify biological roles of commercial heparin products, due to significant changes in the conformation of the polymer chain. The variability structure of heparin leads to difficulty in quality control using different analytical methods, including infrared (IR) spectroscopy. In this paper molecular modelling of heparin disaccharide subunits was performed using quantum chemistry. The structural and spectral parameters of these disaccharides have been calculated using RHF/6-311G. In addition, over-sulphated chondroitin sulphate disaccharide was studied as one of the most widespread contaminants of heparin. Calculated IR spectra were analyzed with respect to specific structure parameters. IR spectroscopic fingerprint was found to be sensitive to substitution pattern of disaccharide subunits. Vibrational assignments of calculated spectra were correlated with experimental IR spectral bands of native heparin. Chemometrics was used to perform multivariate analysis of simulated spectral data. KW - IR spectroscopy KW - Chemometrics KW - Quantum chemistry KW - Molecular modelling KW - Quality control Y1 - 2022 SN - 2210-271X U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comptc.2022.113891 VL - 1217 IS - Article number: 113891 PB - Elsevier CY - New York, NY ER -