On Supersymmetric M-brane configurations with an R<Stack><Subscript>*</Subscript><Superscript>1,1</Superscript></Stack> /Z<Subscript>2</Subscript> submanifold

We obtain new examples of partly supersymmetric M-brane solutions defined on products of Ricci-flat manifolds, which contain a two-dimensional Lorentzian submanifold R _* ^1,1 /Z ₂ with one parallel spinor. The examples belong to the following configurations: M2, M5, M2 ∩M5 and M5 ∩M5. Among them, an M2 solution with N = 1/32 fractional number of preserved supersymmetries is presented.     

Electrical properties and crystallization behavior of Sb<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Se<Subscript>100−<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript> thin films

The structural transformation and transformation kinetics of Sb _x Se_100−x films (60 ≤ x ≤ 70) were studied to investigate the feasibility of applying Sb _x Se_100−x alloys in phase-change nonvolatile memories. The temperature-dependent van der Pauw measurements, Hall measurements, X-ray diffraction and a static tester were used to investigate the electrical properties and crystallization behavior of the Sb _x Se_100−x films. The sheet resistance difference between amorphous and crystalline state was higher than 10⁴ Ω per square According to Hall measurement, Sb _x Se_100−x films have p-type conduction and the Hall mobility and carrier concentration increases with the increase in Sb content. The crystalline structure of the metastable phase of Sb _x Se_100−x alloys, which plays a major roll in fast crystallization, is similar to that of Sb₂Te (rhombohedral structure). The transition temperature, sheet resistance and activation energy for transformation decrease as the amount of Sb increases in the Sb _x Se_100−x film. Applying the Kissinger method, the activation energies for crystallization were in the range from 1.90 ± 0.15 to 4.16 ± 0.28 eV. The desired crystallization speed can be obtained by a systematic change of the composition owing to the variation of the activation barrier with stoichiometry.     

Three-dimensional analysis of Marangoni flow and radial segregation in Ge<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Si<Subscript>1-<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript> melt with Czochralski configuration

In order to examine the flow field and the radial segregation of silicon (Si) in a Ge _x Si_1-x melt with an idealized Czochralski (Cz) configuration, we conducted a series of unsteady three-dimensional (3-D) numerical simulations under zero-gravity conditions. The effect of convection driven by surface tension on the free surface of the melt was included in the model, by considering thermal, as well as solutal Marangoni convection. The concentration and flow fields at several stages during crystal growth are presented for several temperature differences, driving the Marangoni convection. The simulation results indicate that the flow and concentration fields are axisymmetric for Ma _T < 625 and become oscillatory and 3-D for higher values. It was found that the maximum Si concentration difference at the growth interface decreases as thermal Marangoni number increases due to higher flow velocities in the vicinity of the interface. However, temporal fluctuations of Si concentration at the interface increase at higher thermal Marangoni numbers. The effects of aspect ratio (A _r) were also considered in the model. It was found that the aspect ratio of the melt in the crucible has a prominent influence on the flow pattern in the melt which, in turn, effects the Si concentration at the growth interface.     

On-chip CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> incubation for pocket-sized microfluidic cell culture

We have developed an on-chip CO₂ incubation system based on mass/heat transfer from aqueous solutions of bicarbonate source to cell culture media through a permeable poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) wall. Heating a carbonate-buffered bicarbonate solution successfully regulated CO₂ generation without any feedback control. Because a microfluidic cell culture chip with the incubation system does not require an external chamber or gas supply, the entire microfluidic cell culture setup becomes pocket sized. Using 5 ml of 0.8 M sodium bicarbonate with 65 mM sodium carbonate as the water jacket, the chip maintained the temperature, osmolality, and pH of 750 μl cell culture medium within physiological levels when the chip was placed on a 37°C surface. The osmolality shift and pCO₂ of the media reservoir stabilized within <5 mmol/kg and 5.0 ± 1.0% over at least 9 days. The incubation capabilities were demonstrated through microfluidic culture of COS-7 epithelial cells under an inverted microscope for 17 days.     

Pareto optimal generalized <Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript>-control and vibroprotection problems

We consider a novel multi-objective control problem where the criteria are generalized H ₂-norms of transfer matrices of individual channels from the disturbance input to various objective outputs. We obtain necessary conditions for Pareto optimality. We show that synthesis of Pareto optimal controls can be done in terms of linear matrix inequalities based on optimizing Germeier’s convolution, which also turns out to be the generalized H ₂-norm of the closed-loop system with output composed of the objective outputs multiplied by scalars. As applications we consider multi-objective problems of vibration isolation and oscillation suppression with new types of criteria.     

H<Subscript>2</Subscript>-optimal tuning algorithms for fixed structure controllers

An H₂-method of optimal tuning is proposed for a fixed order controller. The SISO plant model is considered in state space. The H₂-method of tuning parameter design is based on the minimization of a transient process closeness criterion for appropriate open-loop and closed-loop control systems and their reference models. The controller tuning algorithms use the plant parameter estimations obtained during the plant parameter identification. The analytical expressions are obtained for the square of H₂-norm of a stable dynamic system. The following theorem is proven: the minimum necessary conditions for the functionals of transfer function H₂-norm of open-loop and closed-loop systems are the same as the minimum necessary conditions for the Frobenius norm of the controller parameter tuning polynomial.     

Micromachined SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> microcantilever for high sensitive moisture sensor

Ultra-sensitive and selective moisture sensors are needed in various industries for processing control or environmental monitoring. As an outstanding sensor platform, surface-stress sensing microcantilevers have potential application in moisture detection. To enlarge the deflection of the microcantilever under surface stress induced by specific reactions, a new SiO₂ microcantilever is developed which features a much lower Young’s modulus than conventional Si or SiN_x microcantilevers. For comparing SiO₂ cantilever with Si cantilevers, a model of the cantilever sensor is given by using both analysis and simulation, resulting in good agreement with the experimental data. The results demonstrate the SiO₂ cantilever can achieve a much higher sensitivity than the Si cantilever. In order to fabricate this device, a new fabrication process using isotropic combined with anisotropic dry etching to release the SiO₂ microcantilever beam by ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) was developed and investigated. This new process not only obtains a high etch rate at 9.1 μm/min, but also provides good profile controllability, and a flexibility of device design. Attributed to the high sensitivity, a significant deflection amplitude of the surface modified SiO₂ microcantilever was observed upon exposure to 1% relative humidity. The SiO₂ cantilevers are promising for inexpensive and highly sensitive moisture detection.     

Surface polishing of quartz-based microfluidic channels using CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> laser

Recently, microgrinding using a polycrystalline diamond tool has been introduced to fabricate microchannels and structures from quartz (fused silica). Compared to wet or dry etching processes, the grinding process is very simple and time-efficient for prototyping. However, the roughness of the machined surface remains an issue, because the surface is covered with many small cracks. Poor surface roughness can affect fluid flow in the microfluidic channels. To reduce the surface roughness of microchannels generated by a grinding process, this study presents the laser polishing of quartz and investigates the effects of the translational speed and pitch of a laser spot on the surface roughness and shape accuracy of microchannels.     

<Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">H</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript>-Control and the Separation Principle for Discrete-Time Markovian Jump Linear Systems

In this paper we consider the H₂-control problem of discrete-time Markovian jump linear systems. We assume that only an output and the jump parameters are available to the controller. It is desired to design a dynamic Markovian jump controller such that the closed-loop system is mean square stable and minimizes the H₂-norm of the system. As in the case with no jumps, we show that an optimal controller can be obtained from two sets of coupled algebraic Riccati equations, one associated with the optimal control problem when the state variable is available, and the other associated with the optimal filtering problem. This is the principle of separation for discrete-time Markovian jump linear systems. When there is only one mode of operation our results coincide with the traditional separation principle for the H₂-control of discrete-time linear systems. Date received: June 1, 2001. Date revised: October 13, 2003.     

Rapid prototyping of PMMA microfluidic chips utilizing a CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> laser

A commercially available CO₂ laser scriber is used to perform the direct-writing ablation of polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) substrates for microfluidic applications. The microfluidic designs are created using commercial layout software and are converted into the command signals required to drive the laser scriber in such a way as to reproduce the desired microchannel configuration on the surface of a PMMA substrate. The aspect ratio and surface quality of the ablated microchannels are examined using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy surface measurement techniques. The results show that a smooth channel wall can be obtained without the need for a post-machining annealing operation by performing the scribing process with the CO₂ laser beam in an unfocused condition. The practicality of the proposed approach is demonstrated by fabricating two microfluidic chips, namely a cytometer, and an integrating microfluidic chip for methanol detection, respectively. The results confirm that the proposed unfocused ablation technique represents a viable solution for the rapid and economic fabrication of a wide variety of PMMA-based microfluidic chips.     

Microfluidic analysis of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> bubble dynamics using thermal lattice-Boltzmann method

By means of microfluidic analysis with a thermal lattice-Boltzmann method, we investigated the hydrophilic, thermal and geometric effects on the dynamics of CO₂ bubbles at anode microchannels (e.g., porous layers and flow channels) of a micro-direct methanol fuel cell. The simulation results show that a more hydrophilic wall provides an additional attractive force to the aqueous methanol in the flow direction and that moves the CO₂ bubble more easily. The bubble propagates quicker in the microchannel with a positive temperature gradient imposed from the inlet to the exit, mainly due to the Marangoni effect. Regarding the geometric effect of the microchannel, the bubble moves more rapidly in a divergent microchannel than in a straight or convergent channel. On the basis of the quantitative evaluation of hydrophilic, thermal and geometric effects, we are able to design the bubble-removal technique in micro fuel cells.     

Generalized fuzzy filters of <Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis><Subscript>0</Subscript>-algebras

In this paper, we introduce the notions of interval valued -fuzzy filters and interval valued -fuzzy Boolean (implicative) filters in R ₀-algebras and investigate some of their related properties. Some characterization theorems of these generalized fuzzy filters are derived. In particular, we prove that an interval valued fuzzy set F in R ₀-algebras is an interval valued -fuzzy Boolean filter if and only if it is an interval valued -fuzzy implicative filter.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript>-optimization of time-delayed sampled-data systems on the basis of the parametric transfer matrix method

A solution to the H ₂-optimization problem for multi-input-multi-output sampled-data system with delay is presented on the basis of the parametric transfer matrix concept. A procedure is developed for design of the optimal controller by means of factorization and separation of real rational matrices. Some qualitative properties of the H ₂-optimal system are established, which are useful for applications. In particular, it is proved that there is a set of fixing poles of continuous-time elements of the system, and performance of the optimal system is limited because of them. A constructive algorithm is given for determination of the set of fixing poles.     

CdF<Subscript>2</Subscript>:Ga crystal application for dynamic joint transform correlator

Dynamical holographic joint transform correlator that uses cadmium fluoride crystal with gallium bistable impurity centers to generate real-time matched filters is proposed. Optical scheme features and the correlator performance are presented. Output correlation signals of object discrimination both experimentally obtained and theoretically calculated are demonstrated. Industrial object recognition illustrates possible practical application of the correlator proposed. The article is published in the original.     

Surface modification of a-Si<Subscript>0.60</Subscript>C<Subscript>0.40</Subscript>:H films by Al-assisted photochemical etching: humidity sensing application

The paper investigates the formation of thin porous amorphous silicon carbide (PASiC) by Al-assisted photochemical etching using HF/AgNO₃ solution under UV illumination at λ = 254 nm. Different etching times varying from 2 to 10 min have been used on thin a-Si_0.60C_0.40:H films, which are elaborated by co-sputtering DC magnetron using a single crystal Si target and who deposited onto 86 of hot pressed polycrystalline 6H-SiC stripes of 12.5 mm³. Because of the high electrical resistivity of the thin a-Si_0.60C_0.40:H film higher than 2 MΩ cm, and in order to facilitate the chemical etching, a thin metallic film of high purity aluminum (Al) has been deposited under vacuum, follow-up of a thin palladium deposited under a grid to reduce attacked surface and reinforced solution etching. The etched surface was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, spectrophotometer UV, and photoluminescence. Results show that the morphology of etched a-Si_0.60C_0.40:H surface evaluates with etching time and presents a spongy and macroporous layers. Where, the diameter of pore size increases with the increasing etching time. A humidity sensors were fabricated through evaporating coplanar interdigital gold electrodes on PASiC and the humidity sensing properties were tested, it show, that the measured resistance Au-PASiC structure, depends highly on the applied bias voltage. Finally, the sensing performances are attributed to the unique surface structure, morphology of the pore and its size, that provide an effective pathway for vapor transportation and enlarged the sensing area of Au-PASiC.     

Remote measurement of chemical warfare agents by differential absorption CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> lidar

The possibilities of remote sensing of chemical warfare agents by the differential absorption method are analyzed. The CO₂ laser emission lines suitable for sensing chemical warfare agents with accounting for disturbing absorption by water vapor were chosen. The detection range of chemical warfare agents is obtained for a lidar based on CO₂ laser. Factors influencing upon the sensing range have been analyzed.     

Fabrication of polystyrene microfluidic devices using a pulsed CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> laser system

In this article, we described a simple and rapid method for fabrication of droplet microfluidic devices on polystyrene substrate using a CO₂ laser system. The effects of the laser power and the cutting speed on the depth, width and aspect ratio of the microchannels fabricated on polystyrene were investigated. The polystyrene microfluidic channels were encapsulated using a hot press bonding technique. The experimental results showed that both discrete droplets and laminar flows could be obtained in the device.     

A new extended LMI-based robust gain scheduled state feedback <Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript> controller design

This paper proposes an improved robust H ₂ state feedback control synthesis for the Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) systems by attaining the affine quadratic stability. In place of standard H ₂ computation in the literature, a new H ₂ computation based on extended Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) is improved by means of the slack variable, where it is obtained by separation Lyapunov matrix from system matrix. State feedback H ₂ synthesis is improved for the systems, and is more effective and less conservative than the common ones in the literature. Therefore, the less conservative results are obtained for gain scheduling controller design for LPV systems. The numerical examples are presented to show the superiority of the proposed controller design.     

On the application of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis><Subscript>1</Subscript><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">mod</Emphasis></Superscript> element to incompressible flow problems

We consider the application of the nonconforming P₁^mod element to the approximation of the velocity in the incompressible Stokes and Navier–Stokes equations. We prove the uniform validity of an inf–sup condition if the pressure is approximated by piecewise constant functions. Under additional assumptions, we also prove the inf–sup condition for discontinuous piecewise linear approximations of the pressure. Numerical results show that the P₁^mod element allows to obtain significantly better approximations of the velocity than the Crouzeix–Raviart element.