Name: evaluating usability aspects of a mixed reality solution for immersive analytics in industry 4.0 scenarios
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The authors have nothing to acknowledge.

All materials and methods were approved by the Ethics Committee of Ulm University, and were carried out in accordance with the approved guidelines. All participants gave their written informed consent.
1. Establish Appropriate Study Environment
NOTE: The study was conducted in a controlled environment&#160;to cope with the complex hardware setting. The used mixed reality smartglasses (see Table of Materials) and the laptop for the 2D application were&...

<ol>
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Regarding the developed mixed reality smartglasses (see Table of Materials) application, two aspects were particularly beneficial. The use of spatial sounds for the outlier&#8217;s detection task was positively perceived on one hand (see the results of RQ3). On the other, the use of voice commands was also perceived positively (see Figure 10).
Regarding the study participants, although the number of recruited participants was rather small for an e...

Virtual-reality solutions (VR solutions) are increasingly important in different fields. Often, with VR solutions (including Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, and Augmented Reality), the accomplishment of many daily tasks and procedures shall be eased. For example, in the automotive domain, the configuration procedure of a car can be supported by the use of Virtual Reality1 (VR). Researchers and practitioners have investigated and developed a multitude of approaches and solutions in this context. However, studies that investigate usability aspects are still rare. In general, the aspects should be considered in the light of two major questions. First, it must be evaluated whether a VR solution actually outperforms an approach that does not make use of VR techniques. Second, as VR solutions are mainly relying on heavy and complex hardware devices, parameters like the wearing comfort and mental effort should be investigated more in-depth. In addition, the mentioned aspects should always be investigated with respect to the application field in question. Although many extant approaches see the needs to investigate these questions2, less studies exist that have presented results.
A research topic in the field of VR, which is currently important, is denoted with immersive analytics. It is derived from the research field of visual analytics, which tries to include the human perception into analytics tasks. This process is also well-known as visual data mining4. Immersive analytics includes topics from the fields of data visualization, visual analytics, virtual reality, computer graphics, and human-computer interaction5. Recent advantages in head-mounted displays (HMD) led to improved possibilities for exploring data in an immersive way. Along these trends, new challenges and research questions emerge, like the development of new interaction systems, the need to investigate user fatigue, or the development of sophisticated 3D visualizations6. In a previous publication6, important principles of immersive analytics are discussed. In the light of big data, methods like immersive analytics are more and more needed to enable a better analysis of complex data pools. Only a few studies exist that investigate usability aspects of immersive analytics solutions. Furthermore, the domain or field in question should also be considered in such studies. In this work, an immersive analytics prototype was developed, and based on that, a protocol, which investigates the developed solution for Industry 4.0 scenarios. The protocol thereby exploits the experience method2, which is based on subjective, performance, and physiological aspects. In the protocol at hand, the subjective aspects are measured through perceived stress of the study users. Performance, in turn, is measured through the required time and errors that are made to accomplish analysis tasks. Finally, a skin conductance sensor measured physiological parameters. The first two measures will be presented in this work, while the measured skin conductance requires further efforts to be evaluated.
The presented study involves several research fields, particularly including neuroscience aspects and information systems. Interestingly, considerations on neuroscience aspects of information systems have recently garnered attention of&#160;several research groups7,8, showing the demand to explore the use of IT systems also from a cognitive viewpoint. Another field that is relevant for this work constitutes the investigation of human factors of information systems9,10,11. In the field of human-computer interaction, instruments exist to investigate the usability of a solution. Note that the System Usability Scale is mainly used in this context12. Thinking Aloud Protocols13 are another widely used study technique to learn more about the use of information systems. Although many approaches exist to measure usability aspects of information systems, and some of them have been presented&#160;long ago14, still questions emerge that require to investigate new measures or study methods. Therefore, research in this field is very active12,15,16.
In the following, the reasons will be discussed why two prevalently used methods have not been considered in the current&#160;work. First, the System Usability Scale was not used. The scale is based on ten questions17 and its use can be found in several other VR studies18 as well. As this study mainly aims at the measurement of stress19, a stress-related questionnaire was more appropriate. Second, no Thinking Aloud Protocol20 was used. Although this protocol type has shown its usefulness in general13, it was not used here as the stress level of study users might increase only due to the fact that the think aloud session must be accomplished in parallel to the use of a heavy and complex VR device. Although these two techniques have not been used, results of other recent studies have been incorporated in the study at hand. For example, in previous works21,22, the authors distinguish between novices and experts in their studies. Based on the successful outcome of these studies, the&#160;protocol at hand utilizes this presented separation of study users. The stress measurement, in turn, is based on ideas of the following works15,19,21,22.
At first, for conducting the study, a suitable Industry 4.0 scenario must be found for accomplishing analytical&#160;tasks. Inspired by another work of the authors23, two scenarios (i.e., the analysis tasks) have been identified, (1) Detection of Outliers, and (2) Recognition of Clusters. Both scenarios are challenging, and are highly relevant in the context of the maintenance of high-throughput production machines. Based on this decision, six major considerations have driven the study protocol presented in this work:
<ol>
	<li>The solution developed for the study will be technically based on mixed reality smartglasses (see Table of Materials) and will be developed as a mixed reality application.</li>
	<li>A suitable test must be developed, which is able to distinguish novices from advanced users.</li>
	<li>Performance measures should&#160;consider&#160;time and errors.</li>
	<li>A desktop application must be developed, which can be compared to the immersive analytics solution.</li>
	<li>A measure&#160;must be applied to evaluate the perceived stress level.</li>
	<li>In addition to the latter point, features shall be developed to mitigate the stress level while a user accomplishes the procedure of the two mentioned analysis tasks&#160;(i.e., (1) Detection of Outliers, and (2) Recognition of Clusters).</li>
</ol>
Based on the six mentioned points, the study protocol incorporates the following procedure. Outlier Detection and Cluster Recognition Analysis tasks have to be accomplished in an immersive way using mixed reality smartglasses (see Table of Materials). Therefore, a new application was developed. Spatial sounds shall ease the performing of&#160;analysis tasks without increasing the mental effort. A voice feature shall ease the navigation used for&#160;the developed application of&#160;the mixed reality smartglasses (see Table of Materials). A mental rotation test shall be the basis to distinguish novices from advanced users. The stress level is measured based on a questionnaire. Performance, in turn, is evaluated based on the (1) time a user requires for the analysis tasks, and based on the (2) errors that were made by a user for the analysis tasks. The performance in mixed reality smartglass is compared with the accomplishment of the same tasks in a newly developed and comparable 2D desktop application. In addition, a skin conductance device is used to measure the skin conductance level as a possible indicator for stress. Results to this measurement are subject to further analysis and will not be discussed in this work. The authors revealed in another study with the same device that additional considerations are required24.
Based on this protocol, the following five research questions (RQs) are addressed:
RQ1: Do spatial imagination abilities of the participants affect the performance of tasks significantly? 
RQ2: Is there a significant change of task performance over time? 
RQ3: Is there a significant change of task performance when using spatial sounds in the immersive analytics solution? 
RQ4: Is the developed immersive analytics perceived stressful by the users? 
RQ5: Do users perform better when using an immersive analytics solution compared to an 2D approach?
Figure 1 summarizes the presented protocol with respect to two scales. It shows the developed and used measures and their novelty with respect to the level of interaction. As the interaction level constitutes an important aspect when developing features for a VR setting, Figure 1 shall better show the novelty of the entire protocol developed in this work. Although the evaluation of the aspects within the two used scales is subjective, their overall evaluation is based on the current related work and the following major considerations: One important principle constitutes the use of abstractions of an environment for a natural interaction, in which the user has become attuned to. With respect to the protocol at hand, the visualization of point clouds seems to be intuitive for users and the recognition of patterns in such clouds has been recognized as a manageable task in general. Another important principle constitutes to overlay affordances. Hereby, the use of spatial sounds as used in the protocol at hand is an example, as they correlate with the proximity of a searched object. The authors recommend to tune the representations in a way that most information is located in the intermediate zone, which is most important for human perception. The reason why the authors did not include this principle was to encourage the user to find the best spot by themselves as well as to try to orientate themselves in a data visualization space, which is too large to be shown at once. In the presented approach, no further considerations of the characteristics of the 3D data to be shown were made. For example, if a dimension is assumed to be temporal, scatterplots could have been shown. The authors consider this kind of visualization generally interesting in the context of Industry 4.0. However, it has to been focused on a reasonably small set of visualizations. Moreover, a previous publication already focused on the collaborative analysis of data. In this work, this research question was excluded due to complexity of the other addressed issues in this study. In the presented setup here, the user is able to explore the immersive space by walking around. Other approaches offer controllers to explore the virtual space. In this study, the focus is set on the usability by using the System Usability Scale (SUS). Another previous publication has conducted a study for economic experts, but with VR headsets. In general, and most importantly, this study complains about the limited field of view for other devices like the used mixed reality smartglasses in this work (see Table of Materials). Their findings show that beginners in the field of VR were able to use the analytic tool efficiently. This matches with the experiences of this study, although in this work beginners were not classified to have VR or gaming experiences. In contrast to most VR solutions, mixed reality is not fixed to a position as it allows to track the real environment. VR approaches such as mention the use of special chairs for a 360&#176; experience to free the user from his desktop. The authors of indicate that perception issues influence the performance of immersive analytics; for example, by using shadows. For the study at hand, this is not feasible, as the used mixed reality smartglasses (see table of materials) are not able to display shadows. A workaround could be a virtual floor, but such a setup was out of the scope of this study. A survey study in the field of immersive analytics identified 3D scatterplots as one of the most common representations of multi-dimensional data. Altogether, the aspects shown in Figure 1 cannot be found currently compiled to a protocol that investigates usability aspects of immersive analytics for Industry 4.0 scenarios.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>edaMove</td>
			<td>movisens</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HoloLens</td>
			<td>Microsoft</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Matlab R2017a</td>
			<td>MathWorks</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>RPY2</td>
			<td>GNU General Public License v2 or later (GPLv2+) (GPLv2+)</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>https://pypi.org/project/rpy2/</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SPSS 25.0</td>
			<td>IBM</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

evaluating usability aspects of a mixed reality solution for immersive analytics in industry 4.0 scenarios

In medicine or industry, the analysis of high-dimensional data sets is increasingly required. However, available technical solutions are often complex to use. Therefore, new approaches like immersive analytics are welcome. Immersive analytics promise to experience high-dimensional data sets in a convenient manner for various user groups and data sets. Technically, virtual-reality devices are used to enable immersive analytics. In Industry 4.0, for example, scenarios like the identification of outliers or anomalies in high-dimensional data sets are pursued goals of immersive analytics. In this context, two important questions should be addressed for any developed technical solution on immersive analytics: First, is the technical solutions being helpful or not? Second, is the bodily experience of the technical solution positive or negative? The first question aims at the general feasibility of a technical solution, while the second one aims at the wearing comfort. Extant studies and protocols, which systematically address these questions are still rare. In this work, a study protocol is presented, which mainly investigates the usability for immersive analytics in Industry 4.0 scenarios. Specifically, the protocol is based on four pillars. First, it categorizes users based on previous experiences. Second, tasks are presented, which can be used to evaluate the feasibility of the technical solution. Third, measures are presented, which quantify the learning effect of a user. Fourth, a questionnaire&#160;evaluates the stress level when performing tasks. Based on these pillars, a technical setting was implemented that uses mixed reality smartglasses to apply the study protocol. The results of the conducted study show the applicability of the protocol on the one hand and the feasibility of immersive analytics in Industry 4.0 scenarios on the other. The presented protocol includes a discussion of discovered limitations.

Setting up Measures for the Experiment 
For the outlier detection task, the following performance measures were defined: time, path, and angle. See Figure 6 for the measurements.
Time was recorded until a red-marked point (i.e., the outlier) was found. This performance measure indicates how long a participant needed&#160;to find the red-marked point. Time is denoted as the variable &#34;time&#34; (in milliseconds) in the results.
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Evaluating Usability Aspects of a Mixed Reality Solution for Immersive Analytics in Industry 4.0 Scenarios

This protocol delineates the technical setting of a developed mixed reality application that is used for immersive analytics. Based on this, measures are presented, which were used in a study to gain insights into usability aspects of the developed technical solution.

In medicine or industry, the analysis of high-dimensional data sets is increasingly required. However, available technical solutions are often complex to ...

Performing data analytics with smart glasses has enormous potential in the context of Industry 4.0, as the data can be analyzed directly at a machine site. Using smart glasses, the operator is able to analyze data, while keeping the hands free for maintenance work. Perform the experiment in a room equipped with a desktop computer and Mixed Reality Smart Glasses.Ask the participant to put on a skin conductance measurement device and have the participant rest for five minutes to acquire a baseline stress level measurement. Then, inform the participant that the experiment will take 40 to 50 minutes and ask the participant to fill out a State-Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaire for measuring perceived stress during the experiment. To perform a mental rotation test, have the participant sit in front of the desktop computer and inform the participant that they will have to identify similar objects with different positions in a simulated 3D space.Inform the participant that only two of the five shown objects will be similar, and that they will have two minutes to complete seven tasks. To perform a spatial sound ability evaluation, explain to the participant that six sounds will also be played for 13 seconds per sound, and that the participant will have to detect the direction from which the sounds are made. To perform an outlier detection skill evaluation, have the participant put on the Mixed Reality Smart Glasses and explain that eight outliers must be found within the world created for the Mixed Reality Smart Glasses.Explain to the participant that an outlier is a red marked point within a group of white points that will turn green when they detect it by directing their gaze. Further explain that not only will visual help be provided, but that environmental sound cues will also be included to help locate the outliers. Then, inform the participant that the required time for each task, the length of walking, and their final moving position in relation to their starting position will be recorded.To perform a cluster recognition skill evaluation, explain to the participant that they will need to locate six clusters within the world created with the used Mixed Reality Smart Glasses, emphasizing that the participants will have to distinguish between overlapping clusters by navigating around the clusters using voice commands. When all six of the clusters have been located, have the participant sit at the computer without the smart glasses and explain that the same type of clusters must now be detected within the computer software. At the end of the desktop evaluation, ask the participant to fill out a new State-Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaire, a self-developed questionnaire for gathering subjective feedback, and a demographic questionnaire.Remove participants'skin conductance measurement device and thank the participant for participation. In this representative analysis, low and high performers demonstrated no differences in their baseline variables, although the low performers had a higher percentage of female participants than high performers, and high performers were younger than low performers. For the cluster recognition task, low and high performers did not differ significantly between the 2D application and 3D approach.For the outlier detection task, high performers were significantly faster than low performers and required a shorter walking distance to solve the tasks. Indeed, the BoundingBox, Pathlength, PathVariance, PathMean, AngleVariance, and AngleMean values increased significantly from task to task. Although the recorded time showed little change from task to task using the Mixed Reality Smart Glasses.Based on the spatial sounds, the participants were able to solve the tasks in the outlier detection case quicker than without using spatial sounds. Notably, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scores did not demonstrate significant differences between the pre-and post-task assessments. In addition, small but significantly faster cluster recognition times were observed when participants used the Mixed Reality Smart Glasses compared to those observed when the participants used the desktop computer.As filtering for experts in this new domain is essential, we have included many pretests. Although we tested the methods in the neutral room, it would be interesting to see real machine instructors in the factory setting analyzing their data.

evaluating-usability-aspects-mixed-reality-solution-for-immersive

Research

JoVE Journal

Engineering

Mechanical Expansion of Steel Tubing as a Solution to Leaky Wellbores

Wellbore cement, a procedural component of wellbore completion operations, primarily provides zonal isolation and mechanical support of the metal pipe (casing), and protects metal components from corrosive fluids. These are essential for uncompromised wellbore integrity. Cements can undergo multiple forms of failure, such as debonding at the cement/rock and cement/metal interfaces, fracturing, and defects within the cement matrix. Failures and defects within the cement will ultimately lead to fluid migration, resulting in inter-zonal fluid migration and premature well abandonment. Currently, there are over 1.8 million operating wells worldwide and over one third of these wells have leak related problems defined as Sustained Casing Pressure (SCP)1. 
The focus of this research was to develop an experimental setup at bench-scale to explore the effect of mechanical manipulation of wellbore casing-cement composite samples as a potential technology for the remediation of gas leaks. 
The experimental methodology utilized in this study enabled formation of an impermeable seal at the pipe/cement interface in a simulated wellbore system. Successful nitrogen gas flow-through measurements demonstrated that an existing microannulus was sealed at laboratory experimental conditions and fluid flow prevented by mechanical manipulation of the metal/cement composite sample. Furthermore, this methodology can be applied not only for the remediation of leaky wellbores, but also in plugging and abandonment procedures as well as wellbore completions technology, and potentially preventing negative impacts of wellbores on subsurface and surface environments.

This article reports on a laboratory scale investigation of an existing field procedure and its adaptation for sealing of leaky wellbores. It consists of mechanical expansion of metal pipe, which results in an improved metal/cement bond, ultimate sealing of hydraulic pathways and prevention of gas leaks caused by the presence of a microannular channel.

Wellbore cement, a procedural component of wellbore completion operations, primarily provides zonal isolation and mechanical support of the metal pipe ...

Gain-compensation Methodology for a Sinusoidal Scan of a Galvanometer Mirror in Proportional-Integral-Differential Control Using Pre-emphasis Techniques

Galvanometer mirrors are used for optical applications such as target tracking, drawing, and scanning control because of their high speed and accuracy. However, the responsiveness of a galvanometer mirror is limited by its inertia; hence, the gain of a galvanometer mirror is reduced when the control path is steep. In this research, we propose a method to extend the corresponding frequency using a pre-emphasis technique to compensate for the gain reduction of galvanometer mirrors in sine-wave path tracking using proportional-integral-differential (PID) control. The pre-emphasis technique obtains an input value for a desired output value in advance. Applying this method to control the galvanometer mirror, the raw gain of a galvanometer mirror in each frequency and amplitude for sine-wave path tracking using a PID controller was calculated. Where PID control is not effective, maintaining a gain of 0 dB to improve the trajectory tracking accuracy, it is possible to expand the speed range in which a gain of 0 dB can be obtained without tuning the PID control parameters. However, if there is only one frequency, amplification is possible with a single pre-emphasis coefficient. Therefore, a sine wave is suitable for this technique, unlike triangular and sawtooth waves. Hence, we can adopt a pre-emphasis technique to configure the parameters in advance, and we need not prepare additional active control models and hardware. The parameters are updated immediately within the next cycle because of the open loop after the pre-emphasis coefficients are set. In other words, to regard the controller as a black box, we need to know only the input-to-output ratio, and detailed modeling is not required. This simplicity allows our system to be easily embedded in applications. Our method using the pre-emphasis technique for a motion-blur compensation system and the experiment conducted to evaluate the method are explained.

We propose a method to extend the corresponding frequency by using a pre-emphasis technique. This method compensates for the gain reduction of a galvanometer mirror in sine-wave path tracking using proportional-integral-differential control.

Galvanometer mirrors are used for optical applications such as target tracking, drawing, and scanning control because of their high speed and accuracy. ...

Flow-assisted Dielectrophoresis: A Low Cost Method for the Fabrication of High Performance Solution-processable Nanowire Devices

Flow-assisted dielectrophoresis (DEP) is an efficient self-assembly method for the controllable and reproducible positioning, alignment, and selection of nanowires. DEP is used for nanowire analysis, characterization, and for solution-based fabrication of semiconducting devices. The method works by applying an alternating electric field between metallic electrodes. The nanowire formulation is then dropped onto the electrodes which are on an inclined surface to create a flow of the formulation using gravity. The nanowires then align along the gradient of the electric field and in the direction of the liquid flow. The frequency of the field can be adjusted to select nanowires with superior conductivity and lower trap density. 
In this work, flow-assisted DEP is used to create nanowire field effect transistors. Flow-assisted DEP has several advantages: it allows selection of nanowire electrical properties; control of nanowire length; placement of nanowires in specific areas; control of orientation of nanowires; and control of nanowire density in the device. 
The technique can be expanded to many other applications such as gas sensors and microwave switches. The technique is efficient, quick, reproducible, and it uses a minimal amount of dilute solution making it ideal for the testing of novel nanomaterials. Wafer scale assembly of nanowire devices can also be achieved using this technique, allowing large numbers of samples for testing and large-area electronic applications.

In this paper, flow assisted dielectrophoresis is demonstrated for the self-assembly of nanowire devices. The fabrication of a silicon nanowire field effect transistor is shown as an example.

Flow-assisted dielectrophoresis (DEP) is an efficient self-assembly method for the controllable and reproducible positioning, alignment, and selection of ...

Three-electrode Coin Cell Preparation and Electrodeposition Analytics for Lithium-ion Batteries

As lithium-ion batteries find use in high energy and power applications, such as in electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, monitoring the degradation and subsequent safety issues becomes increasingly important. In a Li-ion cell setup, the voltage measurement across the positive and negative terminals inherently includes the effect of the cathode and anode which are coupled and sum to the total cell performance. Accordingly, the ability to monitor the degradation aspects associated with a specific electrode is extremely difficult because the electrodes are fundamentally coupled. A three-electrode setup can overcome this problem. By introducing a third (reference) electrode, the influence of each electrode can be decoupled, and the electrochemical properties can be measured independently. The reference electrode (RE) must have a stable potential that can then be calibrated against a known reference, for example, lithium metal. The three-electrode cell can be used to run electrochemical tests such as cycling, cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Three-electrode cell EIS measurements can elucidate the contribution of individual electrode impedance to the full cell. In addition, monitoring the anode potential allows the detection of electrodeposition due to lithium plating, which can cause safety concerns. This is especially important for the fast charging of Li-ion batteries in electric vehicles. In order to monitor and characterize the safety and degradation aspects of an electrochemical cell, a three-electrode setup can prove invaluable. This paper aims to provide a guide to constructing a three-electrode coin cell setup using the 2032-coin cell architecture, which is easy to produce, reliable, and cost-effective.

Three-electrode cells are useful in studying the electrochemistry of lithium-ion batteries. Such an electrochemical setup allows the phenomena associated with the cathode and anode to be decoupled and examined independently. Here, we present a guide for construction and use of a three-electrode coin cell with emphasis on lithium plating analytics.

As lithium-ion batteries find use in high energy and power applications, such as in electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, monitoring the degradation and ...

Application of Design Aspects in Uniaxial Loading Machine Development

In terms of accurate and precise mechanical testing, machines run the continuum. Whereas commercial platforms offer excellent accuracy, they can be cost-prohibitive, often priced in the $100,000 - $200,000 price range. At the other extreme are stand-alone manual devices that often lack repeatability and accuracy (e.g., a manual crank device). However, if a single use is indicated, it is over-engineering to design and machine something overly elaborate. Nonetheless, there are occasions where machines are designed and built in-house to accomplish a motion not attainable with the existing machines in the laboratory. Described in detail here is one such device. It is a loading platform that enables pure uniaxial loading. Standard loading machines typically are biaxial in that linear loading occurs along the axis and rotary loading occurs about the axis. During testing with these machines, a load is applied to one end of the specimen while the other end remains fixed. These systems are not capable of conducting pure axial testing in which tension/compression is applied equally to the specimen ends. The platform developed in this paper enables the equal and opposite loading of specimens. While it can be used for compression, here the focus is on its use in pure tensile loading. The device incorporates commercial load cells and actuators (movers) and, as is the case with machines built in-house, a frame is machined to hold the commercial parts and fixtures for testing.

Here we present a protocol to develop a pure uniaxial loading machine. Critical design aspects are employed to ensure accurate and reproducible testing results.

In terms of accurate and precise mechanical testing, machines run the continuum. Whereas commercial platforms offer excellent accuracy, they can be ...

3D Printing - Evaluating Particle Emissions of a 3D Printing Pen

Three-dimensional (3D) printing as a type of additive manufacturing shows continuing increase in application and consumer popularity. The fused filament fabrication (FFF) is an inexpensive method used most frequently by consumers. Studies with 3D printers have shown that during the printing process particulate and volatile substances are released. Handheld 3D printing pens also use the FFF method but the consumer&#8217;s proximity to the 3D pens gives reason to higher exposure compared to a 3D printer. At the same time, 3D printing pens are often marketed for children who could be more sensitive to the printing emission. The aim of this study was to implement a low cost method to analyze the emissions of 3D printing pens. Polylactide (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) filaments of different colors were tested. In addition, filaments containing metal and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were analyzed. An 18.5 L chamber and sampling close to the emission source was used to characterize emissions and concentrations near the breathing zone of the user.
Particle emissions and particle size distributions were measured and the potential release of metal particles and CNTs investigated. Particle number concentrations were found in a range of 105 - 106 particles/cm3, which is comparable to previous reports from 3D printers. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis showed nanoparticles of the different thermoplastic materials as well as of metal particles and CNTs. High contents of metal were observed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).
These results call for a cautious use of 3D pens due to potential risk to the consumers.

This protocol presents a method to analyze the emission of 3D printing pens. Particle concentration and particle size distribution of the released particle is measured. Released particles are further analyzed with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Metal content in filaments is quantified by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

Three-dimensional (3D) printing as a type of additive manufacturing shows continuing increase in application and consumer popularity. The fused filament ...

Solution Blow Spinning of Polymeric Nano-Composite Fibers for Personal Protective Equipment

Light-weight, protective armor systems typically consist of high modulus (&#62;109 MPa) and high-strength polymeric fibers held in place with an elastic resin material (binder) to form a non-woven, unidirectional laminate. While significant efforts have focused on improving the mechanical properties of the high-strength fibers, little work has been undertaken to improve the properties of the binder materials. To improve the performance of these elastomeric polymer binders, a relatively new and simple fabrication process, known as solution blow spinning, was used. This technique is capable of producing sheets or webs of fibers with average diameters ranging from the nanoscale to the microscale. To achieve this, a solution blow spinning (SBS) apparatus has been designed and built in the laboratory to fabricate non-woven fiber mats from polymer elastomer solutions.
In this study, a commonly used binder material, a styrene-butadiene-styrene block-co-polymer dissolved in tetrahydrofuran, was used to produce nanocomposite fiber mats by adding metallic nanoparticles (NPs), such as iron oxide NPs, that were encapsulated with silicon oil and thus incorporated in the fibers formed via the SBS process. The protocol described in this work will discuss the effects of the various critical parameters involved in the SBS process, including the polymer molar mass, the selection of the thermodynamically appropriate solvent, the polymer concentration in solution, and the carrier gas pressure to assist others in performing similar experiments, as well as provide guidance to optimize the configuration of the experimental setup. The structural integrity and morphology of the resultant non-woven fiber mats were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and elemental X-ray analysis via energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The goal of this study is to evaluate the effects of the various experimental parameters and material selections to optimize the structure and morphology of the SBS fiber mats.

The primary goal of this study is to describe a protocol to prepare polymeric fiber mats with consistent morphology via solution blow spinning (SBS). We aim to use SBS to develop novel, tunable, flexible polymeric fiber nanocomposites for various applications, including protective materials, by incorporating nanoparticles in a polymer-elastomer matrix.

Light-weight, protective armor systems typically consist of high modulus (&#62;109 MPa) and high-strength polymeric fibers held in place with an elastic ...

Evaluating the Electrochemical Properties of Supercapacitors using the Three-Electrode System

The three-electrode system is a basic and general analytical platform for investigating the electrochemical performance and characteristics of energy storage systems at the material level. Supercapacitors are one of the most important emergent energy storage systems developed in the past decade. Here, the electrochemical performance of a supercapacitor was evaluated using a three-electrode system with a potentiostat device. The three-electrode system consisted of a working electrode (WE), reference electrode (RE), and counter electrode (CE). The WE is the electrode where the potential is controlled and the current is measured, and it is the target of research. The RE acts as a reference for measuring and controlling the potential of the system, and the CE is used to complete the closed circuit to enable electrochemical measurements. This system provides accurate analytical results for evaluating electrochemical parameters such as the specific capacitance, stability, and impedance through cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Several experimental design protocols are proposed by controlling the parameter values of the sequence when using a three-electrode system with a potentiostat device to evaluate the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors. Through these protocols, the researcher can set up a three-electrode system to obtain reasonable electrochemical results for assessing the performance of supercapacitors.

The protocol describes the evaluation of various electrochemical properties of supercapacitors using a three-electrode system with a potentiostat device.

The three-electrode system is a basic and general analytical platform for investigating the electrochemical performance and characteristics of energy ...

The Immersive Cleveland Clinic Virtual Reality Shopping Platform for the Assessment of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living

A decline in the performance of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) has been proposed as a prodromal marker of neurological disease. Existing clinical and performance-based IADL assessments are not feasible for integration into clinical medicine. Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful yet underutilized tool that could advance the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disease. An impediment to the adoption and scaling of VR in clinical neurology is VR-related sickness resulting from sensory inconsistencies between the visual and vestibular systems (i.e., locomotion problem).
The Cleveland Clinic Virtual Reality Shopping (CC-VRS) platform attempts to solve the locomotion problem by coupling an omnidirectional treadmill with high-resolution VR content, enabling the user to physically navigate a virtual grocery store to simulate shopping. The CC-VRS consists of Basic and Complex shopping experiences; both require walking 150 m and retrieving five items. The Complex experience has additional scenarios that increase the cognitive and motor demands of the task to better represent the continuum of activities associated with real-world shopping. The CC-VRS platform provides objective and quantitative biomechanical and cognitive outcomes related to the user&#39;s IADL performance. Initial data indicate that the CC-VRS results in minimal VR-sickness and is feasible and tolerable for older adults and patients with Parkinson&#39;s disease (PD). The considerations underlying the development, design, and hardware and software technology are reviewed, and initial models of integration into primary care and neurology are provided.

Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful yet underutilized approach to advance the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disease. The Cleveland Clinic Virtual Reality Shopping platform combines state-of-the-art VR content with an omnidirectional treadmill to quantify instrumental activities of daily living-a proposed prodromal marker of neurological disease.

A decline in the performance of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) has been proposed as a prodromal marker of neurological disease. Existing ...

Development of Efficient OLEDs from Solution Deposition

The use of highly efficient organic emitters based on the thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) concept is interesting due to their 100% internal quantum efficiency. Presented here is a solution deposition method for the fabrication of efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on a TADF emitter in a simple device structure. This fast, low-cost, and efficient process can be used for all OLED emissive layers that follow the host-guest concept. The fundamental steps are described along with necessary information for further reproduction. The goal to establish a general protocol that can be easily adapted for principal organic emitters currently under study and development.

Presented here is a protocol for the fabrication of efficient, simple, solution-deposited organic light-emitting diodes with low roll-off.