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OASIS Spectrum Monitoring & Interference Analysis Software shifts the focus from how to gather and interpret the data to a focus on solving spectrum management issues. It provides more complete and useable information than available from switch metrics. OASIS transforms the spectrum analyzer or any other RF receiver from an analytical instrument, displaying single sweeps of power vs. frequency to a comprehensive spectrum management tool. And with its unattended operation feature, OASIS captures and characterizes transient events without keeping an engineer or technician in the field.

OASIS is an affordable spectrum monitoring software application that provides a variety of tools and utilities beneficial to:

• Maintaining a high quality of service in wireless networks
• Surveying the RF environment for undesired, unauthorized transmissions or threats
• Locating the source of interfering signals
• Recording a history of the RF environment for subsequent replay and analysis
• Identifying changes in the RF environment

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued its first reference standards for nanoscale particles targeted for the biomedical research community—literally “gold standards” for labs studying the biological effects of nanoparticles. The three new materials, gold spheres nominally 10, 30 and 60 nanometers in diameter, were developed in cooperation with the National Cancer Institute’s Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL).

Nanosized particles are the subject of a great deal of biological research, in part because of concerns that in addition to having unique physical properties due to their size, they also may have unique biological properties. On the negative side, nanoparticles may have special toxicity issues. On the positive side, they also are being studied as vehicles for targeted drug delivery that have the potential to revolutionize cancer treatments. Research in the field has suffered from a lack of reliable nanoscale measurement standards, both to ensure consistency of data from one lab to the next and to verify the performance of measurement instruments and analytic techniques.

False color scanning electron micrograph (250,000 times magnification) showing the gold nanoparticles created by NIST and the National Cancer Institute’s Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory for use as reference standards in biomedical research laboratories.The new NIST reference materials are citrate-stabilized nanosized gold particles in a colloidal suspension in water. They have been extensively analyzed by NIST scientists to assess particle size and size distribution by multiple techniques for dry-deposited, aerosol and liquid-borne forms of the material. Dimensions were measured using six independent methods—including atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential mobility analysis (DMA), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). At the nanoscale in particular, different measurement techniques can and will produce different types of values for the same particles.

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