X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering in SbSI nanocrystals

Lattice structure and rod-like shaped SbSI nanocrystals obtained by ball milling with rod thickness down to 70 nm, as estimated from X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron microscopy, is similar to that of the bulk crystals. The dependence of the grain size on the milling duration is discussed in view of the chain-like crystalline structure of SbSI. Possible factors, responsible for the observed Raman line broadening, are discussed, scattering by surface phonons being considered the predominant one.     

Experimental characterisation of the drying effect on uniaxial mechanical behaviour of mortar

The main objective of this present study was to evaluate, for a standard mortar, the drying effect on its mechanical behaviour. Numerous uniaxial compression tests were thus performed with loading-unloading cycles. They were carried out on different samples previously preserved under various conditions of conservation: preserved from desiccation, air drying and rapid drying at 60°C. The obtained results showed significant influences of these conditions on the material behaviour (increase in strength, decrease in Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio) and the necessity of taking into account the coupling effects between mechanical—poromechanical behaviours and drying.     

Search for high-performance probe-fed stacked patches using optimization

High-performance circular probe-fed stacked patch antenna designs are explored through the use of numerical optimization. New trends are sought to aid understanding and to suggest novel solutions. We describe the optimization technique, present a new design trend relating efficiency and bandwidth to the choice of substrate dielectric, and propose and demonstrate a novel, optimized antenna achieving 33% bandwidth whilst maintaining greater than 80% surface wave efficiency.     

Object segmentation and labeling by learning from examples

We propose a system that employs low-level image segmentation followed by color and two-dimensional (2-D) shape matching to automatically group those low-level segments into objects based on their similarity to a set of example object templates presented by the user. A hierarchical content tree data structure is used for each database image to store matching combinations of low-level regions as objects. The system automatically initializes the content tree with only "elementary nodes" representing homogeneous low-level regions. The "learning" phase refers to labeling of combinations of low-level regions that have resulted in successful color and/or 2-D shape matches with the example template(s). These combinations are labeled as "object nodes" in the hierarchical content tree. Once learning is performed, the speed of second-time retrieval of learned objects in the database increases significantly. The learning step can be performed off-line provided that example objects are given in the form of user interest profiles. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system with hierarchical content tree representation and learning by color and 2-D shape matching on collections of car and face images.     

On the capacities of bipartite Hamiltonians and unitary gates

We consider interactions as bidirectional channels. We investigate the capacities for interaction Hamiltonians and nonlocal unitary gates to generate entanglement and transmit classical information. We give analytic expressions for the entanglement generating capacity and entanglement-assisted one-way classical communication capacity of interactions, and show that these quantities are additive, so that the asymptotic capacities equal the corresponding 1-shot capacities. We give general bounds on other capacities, discuss some examples, and conclude with some open questions.     

Gamma-irradiation-induced Ag/SiO2 composite films and their optical absorption properties

Small Ag particles or clusters dispersed mesoporous SiO₂ composite films were prepared by a new method: First the matrix SiO₂ films were prepared by sol-gel process combined with the dip-coating technique, then they were soaked in AgNO₃ solutions followed by irradiation of γ-ray at room temperature and in ambient pressure. The structures of these films were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), and optical absorption spectroscopy. It has been shown that the Ag particles grown within the porous SiO₂ films are very small, and they are isolated and dispersed from each other with very narrow size distributions. With increasing the soaking concentration and an additional annealing, an opposite peakshift effect of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was observed in the optical absorption measurements.     

Trajectory control of incompletely restrained parallel-wire-suspended mechanism based on inverse dynamics

This paper discusses parallel wire mechanisms where an end-effector of the mechanism is suspended by multiple wires. The mechanisms enable not only three-dimensional (3-D) positioning but also 3-D orienting of the end-effector, unlike typical wire suspension-type mechanisms such as overhead crane. To discuss the parallel-wire-suspended mechanisms generally, two forms of basic dynamic equations are presented. Then the parallel wire mechanisms are classified into two types based on the basic equations. Dynamical properties of the two types of wire-suspended positioning mechanism are discussed. In this paper, one of the wire-suspended mechanism, incompletely restrained-type parallel wire mechanism, is mainly discussed on its inverse dynamics problem and its trajectory control problem. The inverse dynamics problem for the incompletely restrained-type mechanism plays an important role on its control problem, because the mechanism has low stiffness based on incomplete constraints on the suspended object which is governed by its dynamics. The paper proposes an antisway control method for the suspended object. In the method, the inverse dynamics calculation is used for nonlinear dynamics compensation to control the suspended object of the incompletely restrained parallel wire mechanism.     

The Soft-Contact Method and Instruments for Measuring the Surface Temperature of Solids

A method and instruments based on it are proposed for the contact measurement of surface temperature when carrying out industrial experiments and when monitoring technological parameters.     

Spectral properties of diesel fuel droplets

Absorption spectra of several types of diesel fuel are studied experimentally. Index of refraction of these fuels is calculated using subtractive Kramers-Krönig analysis. The ageing process of fuels is simulated by prolonged boiling. Radiative properties of diesel fuel droplets are calculated using the Mie theory and a simplified approach, based on approximations of absorption and scattering efficiency factors. It is pointed out that the accuracy of the simplified approach is sufficient for practical applications in the visible and infrared ranges, for various types of diesel fuel, and for droplet radii in the range from 5 to 50 μm. The monodisperse approximation is shown to be applicable for the analysis of infrared radiative properties of realistic polydisperse diesel fuel sprays.