Insight into the vacancy effects on mechanical and electronic properties of Tantalum Silicide

The effects of the vacancies on the structural stability, elastic constants, elastic moduli, brittle-to-ductile transition and electronic properties of Tantalum Silicide (TaSi₂) are investigated in detail by first-principles calculations. The values of vacancy formation energy confirm that the perfect TaSi₂ and TaSi₂ with different atomic vacancies can exhibit the structural stability at ground state. It is found that Ta atom vacancies are more stable than Si atom vacancies in TaSi₂ with vacancies. The elastic constants and elastic moduli describe the mechanical behavior for TaSi₂ and TaSi₂ with vacancies. The different atomic vacancies weaken the elastic stiffness for TaSi₂. But the values of B/G confirm that the brittle-to-ductile transition occurs with different atomic vacancies for TaSi₂. Although these vacancies make the shear and volume deformation resistance of TaSi₂ weaker, they obviously improve the brittle behavior of TaSi₂. The difference charge density and electronic structures are calculated to discuss and analyze the structural stability and mechanical properties for the perfect TaSi₂ and TaSi₂ with vacancies.     

3D holoscopic image coding scheme using HEVC with Gaussian process regression

3D holoscopic image, also known as integral imaging, light field imaging and plenoptic imaging, can provide a natural and fatigue-free 3D visualization. However, a large amount of data is required to represent the 3D holoscopic content. Therefore, efficient coding schemes for such particular type of image are needed. In this paper, we propose a Gaussian process regression based prediction scheme to compress the 3D holoscopic image. In the proposed scheme, the coding block and its prediction supports are modeled as a Gaussian process (GP) and Gaussian process regression (GPR) is used to obtain a better prediction of the coding block. Limited searching windows in horizontal and vertical directions are used to obtain the prediction supports, and a filtration method is designed to judge the reliability of the obtained prediction supports. Moreover, in order to alleviate the high complexity caused by GPR, a sparsification method is also put forward. Experimental results demonstrate the advantage of the proposed scheme for 3D holoscopic image coding in terms of different quality metrics as well as the visual quality of the views rendered from decompressed 3D holoscopic content, compared to the HEVC intra-prediction method and several other prediction methods in this field.     

Eliminating bandwidth estimation from adaptive video streaming in wireless networks

Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) is the state-of-the-art technology for video streaming and has been widely deployed in both wired and wireless environments. However, mobile DASH users often suffer from video quality oscillation and even video freeze in wireless environments, which results in poor user experience. This is mainly because most quality adaptation algorithms in DASH rely highly on bandwidth estimation to adjust the video quality while wireless network bandwidth is unstable in nature and changes frequently according to wireless channel contention and condition. To provide stable performance, even during severe bandwidth fluctuation, this paper proposes the Wireless Quality Adaptation (WQUAD) algorithm, which eliminates bandwidth estimation from quality adaptation. Thanks to the Scalable Video Codec (SVC), the proposed scheme always prioritizes to lower layers over higher ones as long as the play-out buffer is not completely filled by the lower layers. As a result, the client always fills the buffer with the base layers first and then the upper enhancement layers sequentially. This horizontal adaptation is straightforward and does not require any bandwidth estimation. Through NS-2 simulations, we show that WQUAD achieves (i) stable performance, keeping the video quality level with respect to the long-term network bandwidth, (ii) effective video freeze prevention, and (iii) high video quality on average.     

Stereoscopic view synthesis based on region-wise rendering and sparse representation

Depth image-based rendering (DIBR), which is used to render virtual views with a color image and the corresponding depth map, is one of the key techniques in the 2D to 3D conversion process. One of the main problems in DIBR is how to reduce holes that occur on the generated virtual view images. In this paper, we make two main contributions to deal with the problem. Firstly, a region-wise rendering framework, which divides the original image regions into three special classes and renders each with optimal adaptive process respectively, is introduced. Then, a novel sparse representation-based inpainting method, which can yield visually satisfactory results with less computational complexity for high quality 2D to 3D conversion, is proposed. Numerical experimental results demonstrate the good performance of the proposed methods.     

Adaptive B-spline-based fuzzy sliding-mode control for an auto-warehousing crane system

In this paper, an adaptive B-splined-based fuzzy sliding mode control (ABFSM) is presented to the application of auto-warehousing crane motion control. The ABFSM comprises an adaptive fuzzy identification controller (AFIC) and a B-spline-based compensation controller (BCC). The AFIC is designed to approximate the ideal controller of a crane system. To alleviate the load of fuzzy rule base construction, only the information from the sliding surface is used as the input of AFIC such that the conciseness and translucency of the control system can be upgraded. On the other hand, the BCC aims to compensate the approximation error of the AFIC. With the introduction of the B-spline function, the boundary of the approximation error can be represented by means of polynomial mapping. Thus, the design of the compensation controller can be achieved based on the characteristics of the B-spline function. In this paper, the objective of the ABFSM is to track the distance-speed reference trajectory of the crane control system. With the tuning law of the AFIC and the BCC, the stability can also be guaranteed by means of Lyapunov function. To validate the performance of the proposed approach, the ABFSM is applied to auto-warehousing crane motion control under various conditions for x, y, and z directions, respectively. From the simulation the advantages of the proposed ABFSM are demonstrated, where the capability to handle the uncertainty with efficiency is verified.     

Theoretical study of structural,electronic and thermal properties of Zn1−xBexS ternary alloy

The structural, the electronic and the thermal properties of Zn_1?xBe_xS ternary alloy have been calculated using the full-potential linearized-augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. The exchange and correlation potential is treated by the generalized-gradient approximation (GGA) using the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE) parameterization. Moreover, the Engel–Vosko GGA formalism is also applied to optimize the corresponding potential for band structure calculations. The ground state properties such as lattice constants and bulk modulus are in good agreement with numerous experimental and theoretical data. The thermodynamic stability of this alloy was explained by calculating the phase diagram. The quasi harmonic Debye model, using a set of total energy versus volume calculations obtained with FP-LAPW method is applied to study the thermal and vibrational affects. Temperature effect on the lattice parameter, thermal expansion coefficient, heat capacity and Debye temperature is determined from the non-equilibrium Gibbs function.     

Characterization of CeO2–WO3 catalysts prepared by different methods for selective catalytic reduction of NOx with NH3

In this work, cerium–tungsten oxide catalysts were prepared by three methods: single step sol–gel (SG), impregnation (IM), and solid processing (SP). The catalysts were used for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO_x with ammonia over a wide temperature range. The results indicated that the catalysts prepared by the SP and IM methods exhibited better SCR activity than that prepared via the SG method in 175–500 °C. The excellent activity can be attributed to larger surface area, higher surface concentrations of Ce and Ce^3 +, enhanced NO oxidization ability, and greater number of surface acid sites.     

PEG-anchored rhodium polyether diphosphinite complex as an efficient homogeneous and recyclable catalyst for hydroaminomethylation of olefins

A recyclable rhodium polyether diphosphinite complex anchored in polyethylene glycol [RhPEGD] was studied for hydroaminomethylation of various olefins with primary and secondary amines. The protocol was optimized with respect to various reaction parameters and the general applicability of catalyst for hydroaminomethylation of different functionalized olefins with corresponding amines was investigated. During the course of reaction, catalyst was soluble with reactants/products while could be quantitatively separated from reaction media in biphasic form by addition of anti-solvent on completion of reaction. The catalyst exhibited remarkable activity and was subsequently recycled up to five consecutive cycles.     

Densification of transparent yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) by SPS processing

Nano-size YAG powder co-mixed with 0.25 wt.% LiF was used to fabricate transparent polycrystalline YAG specimens by means of the Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) technique. The presence of the LiF additive in the initial nano-powder allows obtaining fully dense disc shaped (up to 4 mm thick) transparent specimens at the outcome of a 2 h treatment at 1300 °C. The presence of LiF plays a key role in the mass transport related effects during the densification of YAG to full density and also in the elimination of the residual carbon contamination, allowing reaching a level of optical transmittance close to the theoretical value.     

Layered mixed-anion compounds: Epitaxial growth,active function exploration,and device application

Optoelectronic properties and device applications of layered mixed-anion compounds such as oxychalcogenide LaCuOCh (Ch = chalcogen) and oxypnictide LaT_MOPn (T_M = 3d transition metal, Pn = pnicogen) are reviewed. Several distinctive functions have been found in these materials based on our original material exploration concept. Fabrication of high-quality epitaxial films of LaCuOCh leads to clarifying the excellent electrical and optical properties such as high hole mobility of 8 cm²/(V s) and heavy hole doping at >10²¹ cm^?3 in LaCuOSe, and sharp and tunable-wavelength photoluminescence in the solid–solution systems in LaCuOCh. In addition, a room temperature operation of a light-emitting diode is demonstrated using LaCuOSe as a light-emitting layer. These results suggest that the layered oxychalcogenides have potential for light-emitting layers as well as transparent hole-injection layers in organic/inorganic light-emitting diodes. Furthermore, by extending the material system from the copper-based oxychalcogenides to isostructural compounds, transition metal-based oxypnictides LaT_MOP (T_M = Fe, Ni), we have found novel superconductors, LaFeOP and LaNiOP.