Extended Domain of Existence for PSCs in Superconductors

By means of nanosecond pulse techniques, we have studied the current-induced dissipation in one-dimensional superconducting bridges, namely, metallic and high-T _c films. It is well known that narrow strips dissipate through phase-slip centers (PSC) close to T _c, or hot spots (HS) at low T, rather than by flux flow. When driven by step pulses of current, PSC give stable voltages, while HS produce a voltage linearly changing with time. By using two-step pulses of current, we have studied the decay of a HS into another HS, or a PSC, or into a zero-resistance state. It was thus found possible to reach the PSC state at arbitrary low temperatures.     

FT-IR studies of polymer blends containing an oligo(isophthalate-co-fumarate of diethylene glycol) and different epoxy prepolymers

Miscibility of one unsaturated polyester (UP) with different epoxy prepolymers have been examined. Thermodynamic interaction parameters have been calculated. Calorimetric and clarity measurements indicate formation of miscible blends. This is in good agreement with the theoretical predictions excepted those with the 3-dimensional solubility parameter. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) studies are presented. The ability of acid solvent to associate with ester group have been used to determine the shift of the carbonyl stretching frequency. Similar shift has been found in UP/DGEBA blends and is attributed to specific interactions between these two types of oligomers.     

Motionless mixers for the design of multitubular polymerization reactors

Experimental investigations of thermal bulk polymerization of styrene in pilot plants of different sizes have been performed. Each pilot plant is composed of a tubular recycle reactor, connected in series with a tubular reactor, both completely filled with Sulzer motionless mixers. Kinetic, reactor and viscosity models have been verified in a wide range of styrene conversions (up to 96%) temperatures (up to 210 °C) and polystyrene molar masses (up to 360 000). Scale-up studies were carried out which confirmed that multitubular reactors of special design can be applied for industrial polymerization process.     

Seasonal variations in residential and commercial sector electricity consumption in Hong Kong

We present the energy use situation in Hong Kong from 1979 to 2006. The primary energy requirement (PER) nearly tripled during the 28-year period, rising from 195,405 to 566,685 TJ, about two-third of which was used for electricity generation. The residential and commercial sectors are the two largest electricity end-users with an average annual growth rate of 5.9% and 7.4%, respectively. The monthly consumption in these two sectors shows distinct seasonal variations mainly due to changes in the air-conditioning requirements, which are affected by the prevailing weather conditions. Principal component analysis of five major climatic variables—dry-bulb temperature, wet-bulb temperature, global solar radiation, clearness index and wind speed—was conducted. Measured sector-wide electricity consumption was correlated with the corresponding two principal components determined using multiple regression technique. The regression models could give a very good indication of the annual electricity use (largely within a few percents), but individual monthly estimation could differ by up to 24%. It was also found that the climatic indicators determined appeared to show a slight increasing trend during the 28-year period indicating a subtle, but gradual change of climatic conditions that might affect future air-conditioning requirements.     

In0.52Al0.48As/In0.53Ga0.47As MSM photodetectors and HEMT's grown by MOCVD on GaAs substrates

The authors report the first demonstration of In_0.52Al _0.48As/In_0.53Ga_0.47As metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetectors and high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) grown on GaAs substrates by organometallic chemical vapor deposition. Both photodetectors and transistors showed no degradation in performance compared to devices simultaneously grown on InP substrates. The photodetectors exhibited a responsivity of 0.45 A/W and leakage current of 10 to 50 nA. The HEMTs with a gate length of 1.0 μm showed a transconductance as high as 250 mS/mm, and f_T and f_max of 25 and 70 GHz, respectively     

A technique for analyzing elastodynamic responses of anisotropic laminated plates to line loads

A new technique is presented to modify the hybrid numerical method (HNM) proposed earlier by the authors for analyzing the responses of anisotropic laminated plates subjected to time-step and time-pulse line loads. In the modified HNM, eigenfrequencies and modal factor functions for wave modes in the plate are computed at equally spaced points on the wavenumber axis. In each interval of the points, the eigenfrequencies and modal factor functions are replaced by straight lines, and the inverse Fourier integrations are then carried out analytically. The proposed modification can significantly reduce the sampling points in the inverse integrations. The modified HNM is much more efficient than the original HNM, and can be used to compute not only near-field and short-time but also far-field and long-time responses for anisotropic laminated plates, without increasing the sampling points. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the modified HNM.     

Synaptic physiology and mitochondrial function in crayfish tonic and phasic motor neurons

Phasic and tonic motor neurons of crustaceans differ strikingly in their junctional synaptic physiology. Tonic neurons generally produce small excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) that facilitate strongly as stimulation frequency is increased, and normally show no synaptic depression. In contrast, phasic neurons produce relatively large EPSPs with weak frequency facilitation and pronounced depression. We addressed the hypothesis that mitochondrial function is an important determinant of the features of synaptic transmission in these neurons. Mitochondrial fluorescence was measured with confocal microscopy in phasic and tonic axons and terminals of abdominal and leg muscles after exposure to supravital mitochondrial fluorochromes, rhodamine-123 (Rh123) and 4-diethylaminostyryl-N-methylpyridinium iodide (4-Di-2-Asp). Mitochondria of tonic axons and neuromuscular junctions had significantly higher mean Rh123 and 4-Di-2-Asp fluorescence than in phasic neurons, indicating more accumulation of the fluorochromes. Mitochondrial membrane potential, which is responsible for Rh123 uptake and is related to mitochondrial oxidative activity (the production of ATP by oxidation of metabolic substrates), is likely higher in tonic axons. Electron microscopy showed that tonic axons contain approximately fivefold more mitochondria per microm2 cross-sectional area than phasic axons. Neuromuscular junctions of tonic axons also have a much higher mitochondrial content than those of phasic axons. We tested the hypothesis that synaptic fatigue resistance is dependent on mitochondrial function in crayfish motor axons. Impairment of mitochondrial function by uncouplers of oxidative phosphorylation, dinitrophenol or carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone, or by the electron transport inhibitor sodium azide, led to marked synaptic depression of a tonic axon and accelerated depression of a phasic axon during maintained stimulation. Iodoacetate, an inhibitor of glycolysis, and chloramphenicol, a mitochondrial protein synthesis inhibitor, had no significant effects on either mitochondrial fluorescence or synaptic depression in tonic or phasic axons. Collectively, the results provide evidence that mitochondrial oxidative metabolism is important for sustaining synaptic transmission during maintained stimulation of tonic and phasic motor neurons. Tonic neurons have a higher mitochondrial content and greater oxidative activity; these features are correlated with their greater resistance to synaptic depression. Conversely, phasic neurons have a lower mitochondrial content, less oxidative activity, and greater synaptic fatigability.     

A fixed-grid method for chemical etching

This paper presents a fixed-grid method for simulating chemical etching. This method is analogous to the enthalpy method used in the modeling of melting/solidification process. The total concentration of the etchant consists of two components: the unreacted etchant concentration and the reacted etchant concentration. The unreacted etchant concentration is solved in both the solution and the substrate (with zero unreacted etchant concentration). The reacted etchant concentration is used to capture the moving etch front of the solution-substrate interface. As the etch front is computed directly, there is no necessity to compute mesh velocity as for a moving grid approach, which changes a diffusion problem into a convective-diffusion problem. With the proposed approach, a diffusion problem remains a simple diffusion problem. In addition, by using a fixed grid, in contrast with a moving grid, Cartesian grid can be used to capture complicated etchfront in multi-dimensional problems. For illustration of the procedure, the proposed procedure is used to predict the etched front and etchant concentration in a one-dimensional diffusion-controlled etching problem.     

Carrier Co-doping Method with Size Compensation to Enhance TC of Mn-doped Nitrides

Based on ab initio electronic structure calculations of Mn-doped III–V nitrides (AlN, GaN, InN), a co-doping method with size compensation to enhance the Curie temperature (T_C) of Nitride-based DMS is proposed. Three cases are considered: (1) Single doping: cations are substituted randomly by Mn. (2) One-site co-doping: Cations or anions are substituted by co-dopants. (3) Two-site co-doping: co-dopants are introduced into both cation and anion sites. Be is chosen as co-dopant for (Al, Mn)N and (Ga, Mn)N, and Cd (or C) for (In, Mn)N. Concentrations of co-dopants are chosen as a function of Mn concentration so that the volume distortion caused by Mn doping is reduced. It is found that, by hole co-doping, the ferromagnetism is more stabilized than that in the single doping case. The anti-ferromagnetic super-exchange interaction, which remains dominant for high Mn concentrations in (Al, Mn)N and (Ga, Mn)N due to the small lattice constant, is reduced by co-doping Be into both kinds of sites, resulting in a strong enhancement of T_C in the regime of high Mn-concentrations. Furthermore, as the 3d-partial density of states at the Fermi level gains its maxima, one can expect that T_C reaches its highest value.