National Institute for Biological Standards & Control

Polymer chains twist and turn in complex and unexpected ways, now visible with a new measurement technique. The new technique, which shows 3D molecular orientation at a 400 nm resolution, will help researchers understand the structure/function relationship in polymer-based materials and design new advanced materials for the medical, aerospace, semiconductor and other industries. In some materials, the molecules line up in a regular, repeating pattern. In others, they all point in random directions. But in many advanced materials used in medicine, computer chip manufacturing and other industries, the molecules arrange themselves in complex patterns that dictate the material's properties. Scientists haven't had good ways to measure molecular orientation in three dimensions at a microscopic scale, leaving them in the dark about why some materials behave the way they do. Now, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have measured the 3D orientation of the molecular building blocks of plastics, called polymers, observing details as small as 400 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, in size. The measurements, described in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, show polymer chains twisting and undulating in complex and unexpected ways. The new measurements were made using a souped-up version of a technique called broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, or BCARS. BCARS works by shining laser beams at a material, causing its molecules to vibrate and emit their own light in response. This technique, developed about a decade ago at NIST, is used to identify what a material is made of. To measure molecular orientation, NIST research chemist Young Jong Lee has added a system for controlling the polarization of the laser light and new mathematical methods for interpreting the BCARS signal. Specifically, the new technique measures the average orientation of the polymer chains within 400-nanometer regions, along with the distribution of orientations around that average. These measurements will allow scientists to identify molecular orientation patterns that produce the mechanical, optical and electrical properties they seek. "Understanding that structure/function relationship can really speed up the discovery process," Lee said. This will help researchers to optimize the materials used in medical devices such as arterial stents and artificial knees. The orientation of the molecules on the surface of those devices helps determine how well they bond with muscle, bone and other tissues. It can also help with additive manufacturing, in which products are fabricated by 3D-printing them, layer upon layer -- a technique that is transforming the electronics, automotive, aerospace and other industries. 3D printing often uses polymers, and researchers are constantly seeking new ones with better strength, flexibility, heat resistance and other properties. The new measurement technique might also be used to optimize the polymer-based ultrathin films used in semiconductor manufacturing. As the components within computer chips get smaller and smaller -- as Moore's law predicts they will -- the molecular orientations in those films become increasingly important.

Company to upgrade its core platform to be compliant with NIST 800-53 cybersecurity framework SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Glassbeam, Inc., a pioneer in data and predictive analytics for connected medical machines, today announced it is in the final stages of releasing its cloud based platform SCALAR™ and Healthcare Application Suite Clinsights™ with NIST 800-53 controls and continuous monitoring security framework. This critical milestone will now allow Glassbeam to be FedRAMP certified, once compliance is fully audited, and be able to serve several public sector organizations in U.S. federal government market in 2023. It will also be extremely beneficial for healthcare organizations, whether large IDNs, Imaging Centers or OEMs, to get a higher level of data security in the Glassbeam cloud hosted at AWS and take advantage of the innovations available in the public cloud. NIST 800-53 is a cyber security framework that recommends security controls for federal information systems and organizations. It is published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which creates and promotes the standards used by federal agencies to implement FISMA and manage other programs designed to protect information and promote information security. The controls are comprehensive, with more than 1,000 in total, covering all aspects and considerations of an information system from various threats including cybersecurity incidents, privacy breaches, malicious attacks, mistakes and human errors. NIST 800-53 is a foundational compliance standard for government and commercial healthcare enterprises, and we are excited to support Glassbeam in this strategic initiative," said Steve Levinson, Vice President, Risk, Privacy, and Security, Online Business Systems, a cybersecurity and digital transformation consultancy that has provided advisory services to hundreds of organizations. "Incorporating these built-in checks provides yet another way for Glassbeam healthcare customers to secure their data in the cloud and have peace of mind when relying on analytics to power their day-to-day operations." "As federal, state, and local governments migrate workloads to the cloud as part of their IT modernization strategy, they will need cloud management platforms such as Glassbeam to adhere to highest standards of data security and compliance standards", said Puneet Pandit, co-founder and CEO of Glassbeam. "We already serve some of the largest OEMs, IDNs and Imaging Centers today with our cloud based predictive analytics solution on machine uptime and utilization use cases. The addition of NIST 800-53 controls should further extend this confidence". Glassbeam High-Security environments will be fully audited and available for both Government (FedRAMP) and commercial enterprises in Q1 2023. Current Glassbeam healthcare application suite Clinsights™ can be previewed at RSNA trade show in Chicago during November 27-30 in the Canon booth # 6715. Organizations can also sign up for a demo. Download a white paper on how Glassbeam secures data in the cloud. About Glassbeam Glassbeam is a pioneer in data and predictive analytics for connected medical machines that bring structure and meaning to complex data generated from a heterogeneous fleet of medical equipment. Only Glassbeam's patented cloud-based platform is designed to transform and analyze multi-structured data, delivering powerful solutions for enhancing machine uptime and utilization for organizations such as Canon Medical Systems USA, MultiCare Health System, Brown's Medical Imaging, Renovo Solutions, Agiliti Health, Harris Health and US Radiology. For more information, visit Glassbeam.com. Press Contact Dave Ysseldyke Dave.ysseldyke@glassbeam.com

In groundbreaking research, scientists have created a device that generates twisted neutrons with well-defined orbital angular momentum. For the first time in experimental history, researchers at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) have created a device that generates twisted neutrons with well-defined orbital angular momentum. Previously considered an impossibility, this groundbreaking scientific accomplishment provides a brand new avenue for researchers to study the development of next-generation quantum materials with applications ranging from quantum computing to identifying and solving new problems in fundamental physics. "Neutrons are a powerful probe for the characterization of emerging quantum materials because they have several unique features," said Dr. Dusan Sarenac, research associate with IQC and technical lead, Transformative Quantum Technologies at the University of Waterloo. "They have nanometer-sized wavelengths, electrical neutrality, and a relatively large mass. These features mean neutrons can pass through materials that X-rays and light cannot." While methods for the experimental production and analysis of orbital angular momentum in photons and electrons are well-studied, a device design using neutrons has never been demonstrated until now. Because of their distinct characteristics, the researchers had to construct new devices and create novel methods for working with neutrons. In their experiments, Dr. Dmitry Pushin, IQC and Department of Physics and Astronomy faculty member at Waterloo, and his team constructed microscopic fork-like silicon grating structures. These devices are so minuscule that in an area of only 0.5 cm by 0.5 cm, there are over six million individual fork dislocation phase-gratings. As a beam of single neutrons passes through this device, the individual neutrons begin winding in a corkscrew pattern. After travelling 19 meters, an image of the neutrons was captured using a special neutron camera. The group observed that every neutron had expanded to a 10 cm wide donut-like signature. The donut pattern of the propagated neutrons indicates that they have been put in a special helical state and that the group's grating devices have generated neutron beams with quantized orbital angular momentum, the first experimental achievement of its kind. "Neutrons have been popular in the experimental verification of fundamental physics, using the three easily accessible degrees of freedom: spin, path and energy," Pushin said. "In these experiments, our group has enabled the use of orbital angular momentum in neutron beams, which will essentially provide an additional quantized degree of freedom. In doing so, we are developing a toolbox to characterize and examine complicated materials needed for the next generation of quantum devices such as quantum simulators and quantum computers." The paper Experimental realization of neutron helical waves by Sarenac, Pushin and collaborators from the University of Waterloo, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory was recently published in the journal Science Advances. The research was funded through TQT, which is a Canada First Research Excellence Fund Initiative. Experimental devices were created in the Quantum Nano Fabrication and Characterization Facility at the University of Waterloo.