Multicriteria mapping of stakeholder preferences in regulating nanotechnology

In order to facilitate stakeholder discussions on how to regulate nanotechnology, the opensource program multicriteria mapping (MCM) was used to structure 26 interviews with stakeholders in the USA. MCM offers a systematic part quantitative, part qualitative approach to clarify why some regulatory options (bans, moratoriums, voluntary measures, etc.) were deemed to be acceptable/unacceptable by various stakeholders and which criteria stakeholders used to evaluate the different regulatory options. Adopting an incremental approach and implementing a new regulatory framework was evaluated as the best options whereas a complete ban and no additional regulation of nanotechnology were found to be the least favorable. Criteria applied differed substantially among stakeholders and included social, ethical, regulatory, environmental, and health issues. Opinions on future regulation seem far less polarized than expected and it seems that stakeholders would welcome a combination of voluntary measures, an incremental approach and forming of a new regulatory framework.     

Innovative and responsible governance of nanotechnology for societal development

Governance of nanotechnology is essential for realizing economic growth and other societal benefits of the new technology, protecting public health and environment, and supporting global collaboration and progress. The article outlines governance principles and methods specific for this emerging field. Advances in the last 10 years, the current status and a vision for the next decade are presented based on an international study with input from over 35 countries.     

Monitoring nanotechnology using patent classifications: an overview and comparison of nanotechnology classification schemes

Patents are an essential information source used to monitor, track, and analyze nanotechnology. When it comes to search nanotechnology-related patents, a keyword search is often incomplete and struggles to cover such an interdisciplinary discipline. Patent classification schemes can reveal far better results since they are assigned by experts who classify the patent documents according to their technology. In this paper, we present the most important classifications to search nanotechnology patents and analyze how nanotechnology is covered in the main patent classification systems used in search systems nowadays: the International Patent Classification (IPC), the United States Patent Classification (USPC), and the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC). We conclude that nanotechnology has a significantly better patent coverage in the CPC since considerable more nanotechnology documents were retrieved than by using other classifications, and thus, recommend its use for all professionals involved in nanotechnology patent searches.     

A longitudinal analysis of nanotechnology literature: 1976–2004

Nanotechnology research and applications have experienced rapid growth in recent years. We assessed the status of nanotechnology research worldwide by applying bibliographic, content map, and citation network analysis to a data set of about 200,000 nanotechnology papers published in the Thomson Science Citation Index Expanded database (SCI) from 1976 to 2004. This longitudinal study shows a quasi-exponential growth of nanotechnology articles with an average annual growth rate of 20.7% after 1991. The United States had the largest contribution of nanotechnology research and China and Korea had the fastest growth rates. The largest institutional contributions were from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences. The high-impact papers generally described tools, theories, technologies, perspectives, and overviews of nanotechnology. From the top 20 institutions, based on the average number of paper citations in 1976–2004, 17 were in the Unites States, 2 in France and 1 in Germany. Content map analysis identified the evolution of the major topics researched from 1976 to 2004, including investigative tools, physical phenomena, and experiment environments. Both the country citation network and the institution citation network had relatively high clustering, indicating the existence of citation communities in the two networks, and specific patterns in forming citation communities. The United States, Germany, Japan, and China were major citation centers in nanotechnology research with close inter-citation relationships.     

Nano Mapper: an Internet knowledge mapping system for nanotechnology development

Nanotechnology research has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Advances in information technology enable efficient investigation of publications, their contents, and relationships for large sets of nanotechnology-related documents in order to assess the status of the field. This paper presents the development of a new knowledge mapping system, called Nano Mapper (), which integrates the analysis of nanotechnology patents and research grants into a Web-based platform. The Nano Mapper system currently contains nanotechnology-related patents for 1976–2006 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), and Japan Patent Office (JPO), as well as grant documents from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) for the same time period. The system provides complex search functionalities, and makes available a set of analysis and visualization tools (statistics, trend graphs, citation networks, and content maps) that can be applied to different levels of analytical units (countries, institutions, technical fields) and for different time intervals. The paper shows important nanotechnology patenting activities at USPTO for 2005–2006 identified through the Nano Mapper system.     

Nanoparticulate materials and regulatory policy in Europe: An analysis of stakeholder perspectives

The novel properties of nanoparticulate materials (NPM) and the rapid development of NPM based products have raised many unanswered questions and concerns by different stakeholders over its consequences for the environment and human health. These concerns have led to an increasing discussion in both the US and Europe about possible regulatory policies for NPM. In this article a comparative study of stakeholders’ perceptions on regulatory policy issues with NPM in Europe is presented. It was found that industry wants to regulate this area if the scientific evidence demonstrates that NPM are harmful, but also that the regulatory bodies do not find it necessary at this point of time to regulate until scientific evidence demonstrates that NPM are harmful. This research therefore shows that there will most likely not be any regulatory interventions until there is an established and convincing scientific knowledge base demonstrating that NPM can be hazardous. It is furthermore discussed in this article the different roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders in financing the research required to establish the necessary level of fundamental scientific evidence. It was also found that the activity of the regulatory bodies on this issue differ between the European countries.     

Exploring the intellectual structure of nanoscience and nanotechnology: journal citation network analysis

Understanding the research trends and intellectual structure of nanoscience and nanotechnology (nano) is important for governments as well as researchers. This paper investigates the intellectual structure of nano field and explores its interdisciplinary characteristics through journal citation networks. The nano journal network, where 41 journals are nodes and citation among the journals are links, is constructed and analyzed using centrality measures and brokerage analysis. The journals that have high centrality scores are identified as important journals in terms of knowledge flow. Moreover, an intermediary role of each journal in exchanging knowledge between nano subareas is identified by brokerage analysis. Further, the nano subarea network is constructed and investigated from the macro view of nano field. This paper can provide the micro and macro views of intellectual structure of nano field and therefore help researchers who seek appropriate journals to acquire knowledge and governments who develop R&D strategies for nano.     

Nano-energy research trends: bibliometrical analysis of nanotechnology research in the energy sector

Nano-energy, the part of nanotechnology dedicated to the study and improvement of the Energy Supply Sector, is a promising and perspective research field. A robust method to quantify international scientific activities in this field is the literature search. An evaluative bibliometric approach applied to the Science Citation Index has been done to retrieve a set of articles related to nano-energy and get knowledge of the direction and trends followed by this particular scientific topic. The resulting database showed an exponential increase of the number of publications issuing nano-based investigations in the energy sector in the last decade, accelerating to an annual growth rate of 1,100%. The most cited articles and the material-clustering protocol revealed that carbon-nanoelements and their application in solar energy harvesting and conversion, and energy storage devices have been principally investigated and represent the main focus in that continuously growing research field. The number of nanotechnology-related papers in the energy database increased monotonically for harvesting, conversion, and storage the last decade, being energy distribution and usage not affected. TiO₂ or SnO₂ nanoparticles or thin films, and nanocomposites occupied the following top positions in the investigated material ranking. This trend was constant along the decade, as confirmed by network analyses. Supported by discipline-clustering, we observed the fundamental character of the research developed between 2000 and 2009, relying mainly on material science and chemistry. Hence, further implementation of nanotechnology findings is needed to stimulate nano-based energy-focused technologies reaching widespread commercial applications.     

Factors influencing recognition of interrupted speech

This study examined the effect of interruption parameters (e.g., interruption rate, on-duration and proportion), linguistic factors, and other general factors, on the recognition of interrupted consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words in quiet. Sixty-two young adults with normal-hearing were randomly assigned to one of three test groups, "male65," "female65" and "male85," that differed in talker (male/female) and presentation level (65/85 dB SPL), with about 20 subjects per group. A total of 13 stimulus conditions, representing different interruption patterns within the words (i.e., various combinations of three interruption parameters), in combination with two values (easy and hard) of lexical difficulty were examined (i.e., 13×2=26 test conditions) within each group. Results showed that, overall, the proportion of speech and lexical difficulty had major effects on the integration and recognition of interrupted CVC words, while the other variables had small effects. Interactions between interruption parameters and linguistic factors were observed: to reach the same degree of word-recognition performance, less acoustic information was required for lexically easy words than hard words. Implications of the findings of the current study for models of the temporal integration of speech are discussed.     

聚酰亚胺薄膜表面粗糙度的影响因素

采用热蒸发气相沉积聚合方法（VDP）制备了聚酰亚胺(PI)薄膜,研究了设备、衬底温度、升温过程和单体配比因素对PI薄膜表面形貌的影响。利用干涉显微镜和扫描电镜对薄膜表面形貌进行了分析;利用原子力显微镜测定了薄膜表面粗糙度。结果表明：设定蒸发源-衬底距离为74 cm时可成连续膜;蒸发源采用一段升温和多段升温时,膜表面均方根粗糙度分别为291.23 nm和61.99 nm;采用细筛网可防止原料的喷溅;均苯四甲酸二酐和4,4′-二氨基二苯醚（PMDA和ODA）单体沉积速率比值为0.9∶1时,膜表面均方根粗糙度值可减小至3.30 nm;沉积衬底温度保持30 ℃左右时,膜表面均方根粗糙度为4.01 nm, 随温度的上升,膜表面质量会逐渐变差。     

聚酰亚胺薄膜表面粗糙度的影响因素

 采用热蒸发气相沉积聚合方法（VDP）制备了聚酰亚胺(PI)薄膜,研究了设备、衬底温度、升温过程和单体配比因素对PI薄膜表面形貌的影响。利用干涉显微镜和扫描电镜对薄膜表面形貌进行了分析;利用原子力显微镜测定了薄膜表面粗糙度。结果表明：设定蒸发源-衬底距离为74 cm时可成连续膜;蒸发源采用一段升温和多段升温时,膜表面均方根粗糙度分别为291.23 nm和61.99 nm;采用细筛网可防止原料的喷溅;均苯四甲酸二酐和4,4′-二氨基二苯醚（PMDA和ODA）单体沉积速率比值为0.9∶1时,膜表面均方根粗糙度值可减小至3.30 nm;沉积衬底温度保持30 ℃左右时,膜表面均方根粗糙度为4.01 nm, 随温度的上升,膜表面质量会逐渐变差。     

Factors influencing glimpsing of speech in noise

The idea that listeners are able to "glimpse" the target speech in the presence of competing noise has been supported by many studies, and is based on the assumption that listeners are able to glimpse pieces of the target speech occurring at different times and somehow patch them together to hear out the target speech. The factors influencing glimpsing in noise are not well understood and are examined in the present study. Specifically, the effects of the frequency location, spectral width, and duration of the glimpses are examined. Stimuli were constructed using an ideal time-frequency (T-F) masking technique that ensures that the target is stronger than the masker in certain T-F regions of the mixture, thereby rendering certain regions easier to glimpse than others. Sentences were synthesized using this technique with glimpse information placed in several frequency regions while varying the glimpse window duration and total duration of glimpsing. Results indicated that the frequency location and total duration of the glimpses had a significant effect on speech recognition, with the highest performance obtained when the listeners were able to glimpse information in the F1F2 frequency region (0-3 kHz) for at least 60% of the utterance.     

Factors influencing intelligibility of ideal binary-masked speech: implications for noise reduction

The application of the ideal binary mask to an auditory mixture has been shown to yield substantial improvements in intelligibility. This mask is commonly applied to the time-frequency (T-F) representation of a mixture signal and eliminates portions of a signal below a signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) threshold while allowing others to pass through intact. The factors influencing intelligibility of ideal binary-masked speech are not well understood and are examined in the present study. Specifically, the effects of the local SNR threshold, input SNR level, masker type, and errors introduced in estimating the ideal mask are examined. Consistent with previous studies, intelligibility of binary-masked stimuli is quite high even at -10 dB SNR for all maskers tested. Performance was affected the most when the masker dominated T-F units were wrongly labeled as target-dominated T-F units. Performance plateaued near 100% correct for SNR thresholds ranging from -20 to 5 dB. The existence of the plateau region suggests that it is the pattern of the ideal binary mask that matters the most rather than the local SNR of each T-F unit. This pattern directs the listener's attention to where the target is and enables them to segregate speech effectively in multitalker environments.     

Factors influencing the ultrasonic separation of oil-in-water emulsions

Ultrasound may have inherent shortcomings that preclude its ability to coagulate grease from wastewater, yet these may be overcome by the simultaneous application of electrolysis. We studied the role of pH, conductivity, temperature, ultrasound intensity and duration, and electrolysis voltage, current, and duration, in the study treatment. Conductivity was found to be the most significant factor, however interactions among the eight study variables are likely more important than individual factors. The proposed process was capable of removing up to 100% of grease from the studied wastewater.     

Numerical analysis of the spectral response of an NSOM measurement

Near-field Scanning Optical Microscopy (NSOM) is a powerful tool for investigating optical field with resolution greater than the diffraction limit. In this work, we study the spectral response that would be obtained from an aperture NSOM system using numerical calculations. The sample used in this study is a bowtie nanoaperture that has been shown to produce concentrated and enhanced field. The near- and far-field distributions from a bowtie aperture are also calculated and compared with what would be obtainable from a NSOM system. The results demonstrate that it will be very difficult to resolve the true spectral content of the near-field using aperture NSOM. On the other hand, the far-field response may be used as a guide to the near-field spectrum.     

影响杂化钙钛矿太阳能电池稳定性的因素探讨

自从2009年首次报道采用有机-无机杂化钙钛矿作为吸光材料用于太阳能电池以来, 钙钛矿太阳能电池效率的快速提升引起了人们广泛的关注, 这类电池同时具有制备工艺简单、成本低廉等优点, 引发了钙钛矿电池的研究热潮. 目前研究工作大多数集中在如何提高电池的光电转化效率, 但钙钛矿电池要真正实现产业化应用, 急需要解决材料及器件的稳定性问题. 本文探讨影响钙钛矿材料及器件的稳定性因素, 从温度及湿度等方面分析了材料的稳定性, 从传输材料及其界面问题讨论了器件的稳定性.     

Societal implications of nanoscience and nanotechnology: Maximizing human benefit

The balance between the potential benefits and risks of nanotechnology is discussed based on judgments expressed by leading industry, academe and government experts at a U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) sponsored meeting. The results are summarized in various themes related to: economic impacts and commercialization; social scenarios; technological convergence; quality of life; ethics and law; governance, public perceptions, and education.     

Factors influencing the ballistic impact resistance of elastomer-coated metal substrates

An experimental study was carried out of various factors affecting the ballistic penetration resistance of elastomer/steel bilayers. For blunt penetrators, the contribution of the coating to performance is optimized using the hardest substrates, front surface placement of the elastomer, and (when normalizing by added weight) thin, ca. 2–3?mm, coatings. These results, none of which are predicted by existing models, evince the marked coupling of coating and substrate in the impact response of the bilayer. We also show that nanoparticle fillers have a modest effect on ballistic performance of polyurea coatings, changing the penetration velocity by a few percent or less. This contrasts with the linear dynamic mechanical behavior, which shows much more significant increases in energy absorption due to nano-reinforcement.     

影响高能激光系统核心特征量的要素

阐述了对国际上正在发展的高能激光系统核心特征量的理解。分析了影响这个核心特征量的若干要素:主激光器选择变化的历史轨迹及其原因;光束质量是高能激光系统的生命线,做好光束质量是一个多环节的科学工程;分析了这一技术链条上游、中游和下游的技术难点以及与其都有关系的全系统的稳定性问题。最后,把这些要素结合起来,可将核心特征量综合表达为目标上的激光亮度。     

影响高能激光系统核心特征量的要素

阐述了对国际上正在发展的高能激光系统核心特征量的理解。分析了影响这个核心特征量的若干要素：主激光器选择变化的历史轨迹及其原因;光束质量是高能激光系统的生命线,做好光束质量是一个多环节的科学工程;分析了这一技术链条上游、中游和下游的技术难点以及与其都有关系的全系统的稳定性问题。最后,把这些要素结合起来,可将核心特征量综合表达为目标上的激光亮度。