This study presents a new fabrication method for touch screen sensors using inexpensive, flexible, and transparent polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films. In the proposed method, a transparent capacitive touch sensor array is implemented with two independent axes of invisible electrodes consisting of indium tin oxide (ITO) patterns and bridge electrodes. A low‐cost implementation of the bridge electrodes is achieved by using near‐field electrospinning (NFES) method for the conductive lines with linewidth of 3–5 µm. Then, the printed bridge electrode is sintered using green laser without damaging the PET film. It is demonstrated that two transparent electrodes deposited on a single sheet of PET film can detect the touch location by scanning the driving signal while simultaneously measuring the capacitances from the sensing lines connected via bridge electrodes.
Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jet printing has drawn attention due to its capability to produce smaller dots and patterns with finer lines when compared to those obtained from using conventional inkjet printing. Previous studies have suggested that drop-on-demand EHD-patterning applications should be limited to very slow printing cases with speeds far less than 10 mm s−1 due to the small dot size and limited jetting frequency. In this study, a new EHD printing method is proposed to significantly increase the line-patterning printing speed by modifying the ink and thereby changing the relic shape. The proposed method has the additional advantage of reducing the line-pattern width. The results of the experiment show that the pattern width could be reduced from 20 µm to 4 µm by increasing the printing speed from 10 mm s−1 to 50 mm s−1, respectively.
Osteoporosis reduces bone mineral density (BMD) with aging. The incidence of cervical vertebral injuries for the elderly has increased in the last decade. Thus, the objective of the current study was to examine whether dental cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) can identify age and sex effects on volumetric BMD and morphology of human cervical vertebrae. A total of 136 clinical CBCT images were obtained from 63 male and 73 female patients (20 to 69 years of age). Three-dimensional images of cervical vertebral bodies (C2 and C3) were digitally isolated. A gray level, which is proportional to BMD, was obtained and its distribution was analyzed in each image. Morphology, including volume, heights, widths, and concavities, was also measured. Most of the gray level parameters had significantly higher values of C2 and C3 in females than in males for all age groups (p < 0.039). The female 60-age group had significant lower values of Mean and Low5 of C2 and C3 than both female 40- and 50-age groups (p < 0.03). The reduced BMD of the female 60-age group likely resulted from postmenopausal demineralization of bone. Current findings suggest that dental CBCT can detect age-dependent changes of cervical vertebral BMD, providing baseline information to develop an alternative tool to diagnose osteoporosis.
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