One way to produce high order in a block copolymer thin film is by solution casting a thin film and slowly evaporating the solvent in a sealed vessel. Such a solvent-annealing process is a versatile method to produce a highly ordered thin film of a block copolymer. However, the ordered structure of the film degrades over time when stored under ambient conditions. Remarkably, this aging process ...

We present and demonstrate a novel imprint method, electrostatic force-assisted nanoimprint lithography (EFAN), where a voltage applied between a mold and a substrate generates an electrostatic force that presses the mold into a resist on the substrate. We have successfully used EFAN to pattern nanostructures in a photocurable resist spin-coated on a wafer, with high fidelity and excellent unif...

BACKGROUND A persistent atrophy of muscle fibers and an accumulation of fat, collectively referred to as fatty degeneration, commonly occur in patients with chronic rotator cuff tears. The etiology of fatty degeneration and function of the residual rotator cuff musculature have not been well characterized in humans. We hypothesized that muscles from patients with chronic rotator cuff tears have...

The development of the most recent generation of molecular mechanics force fields promises an increasingly predictive understanding of the protein dynamics-function relationship. Based on extensive validation against various types of experimental data, the AMBER force field ff99SB was benchmarked in recent years as a favorable force field for protein simulations. Recent improvements of the side...

a relationship based on the modified couple stress theory is developed to investigate the flexural sensitivity of an atomic force microscope (afm) with assembled cantilever probe (acp). this acp comprises a horizontal cantilever, two vertical extensions and two tips located at the free ends of the extensions which form a caliper. an approximate solution to the flexural vibration problem is obta...

The deformation of aeronautical monolithic components due to CNC machining is a bottle-neck issue in the aviation industry. The residual stress releases and redistributes in the process of material removal, and the distortion of the monolithic component is generated. The traditional one-side machining method will produce oversize deformation. Based on the three-stage CNC machining method, the q...

We present and analyze a class of nonsymmetric preconditioners within a normal (weighted least-squares) matrix form for use in GMRES to solve nonsymmetric matrix problems that typically arise in finite element discretizations. An example of the additive Schwarz method applied to nonsymmetric but definite matrices is presented for which the abstract assumptions are verified. A variable precondit...

This paper reviews effects of amplitude and force control during the ultrasonic welding cycle of thermoplastics. In a previously published paper, the benefits of amplitude profiling were detailed as increased strength and reduced part marking. This paper reviews the mechanisms for such observations and details additional benefits, such as decreased residual stresses and increased solvent resist...

Abstract. We consider a norm-preconditioning approach for the solution of discontinuous Galerkin finite element discretizations of second order PDE with non-negative characteristic form. In particular, we perform an analysis for the general case of discontinuous hp-finite element discretizations. Our solution method is a norm-preconditioned threeterm GMRES routine. We find that for symmetric po...