Chemoselective Hydrogenation of the Olefinic Bonds Using a Palladium/Magnesium‐Lanthanum Mixed Oxide Catalyst

A palladium/magnesium‐lanthanum mixed oxide catalyst is found to be an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the chemoselective hydrogenation of olefinic double bonds in the presence of various functional groups. The catalyst was recovered by centrifugation and reused for several cycles with consistent activity and selectivity.     

A Differential CMOS Current-Mode Variable Gain Amplifier with Digital dB-Linear Gain Control

A novel CMOS variable gain amplifier operating on current signals with a dB-linear gain control is presented. The gain control is achieved by multiplying a digitally synthesized exponentially varying control current signal by a differential input signal in the current domain. A current amplifier at the output sets the gain to the desired level. Current-mode operation allows for a reduced supply voltage by minimizing the voltage swing at the low impedance nodes of the circuit. Multiple circuit realizations for various blocks are presented allowing for designs meeting different constraints. Experimental realization of the variable gain amplifier shows the validity of the presented approach.     

Hybrid plasmonic label-free multi-analyte refractive index sensor

We propose a label-free refractive index sensor based on hybrid plasmonic resonator which consists of silver split-ring resonator and photonic waveguide. The finite difference time domain evaluation of the design exhibit strong field confinement at the center of the ring and introduces tunable and sensitive notches in the transmission spectrum. The planar tunable architecture which performs well over the range of micro fluid detection, holds the promise of developing multi-analyte label-free biosensors and compactness towards a complete on-chip integrated sensing system. The performance of the proposed refractive index sensor is evaluated by placing different analytes such as saline water and ethanol at the center of the hybrid plasmonic ring which exhibits sensitivity of 847.50 nm.RIU-1 with a figure of merit of 563.25 RIU-1.     

Flux method for the analysis of excess carrier transport in multilayer devices in the presence of electric field

The flux method of treating the one-dimensional steady-state transport problem of excess charge carriers, created by the generating sources, is analysed for multilayer devices in the presence of electric field. General analytical expressions for the forward (parallel to the electric field) and backward (antiparallel to the electric field) fluxes of excess carriers at any arbitrary boundary of the multilayer device are derived in terms of the reflection and transmission coefficients of the individual layers and boundaries. As an application of this general analysis, a simple example of a multilayer device consisting of only two layers is considered. The results are shown to reduce those obtained by other calculations in appropriate limiting cases.     

Performance evaluation of an IEEE 802.15.4 sensor network with a star topology

One class of applications envisaged for the IEEE 802.15.4 LR-WPAN (low data rate—wireless personal area network) standard is wireless sensor networks for monitoring and control applications. In this paper we provide an analytical performance model for a network in which the sensors are at the tips of a star topology, and the sensors need to transmit their measurements to the hub node so that certain objectives for packet delay and packet discard are met. We first carry out a saturation throughput analysis of the system; i.e., it is assumed that each sensor has an infinite backlog of packets and the throughput of the system is sought. After a careful analysis of the CSMA/CA MAC that is employed in the standard, and after making a certain decoupling approximation, we identify an embedded Markov renewal process, whose analysis yields a fixed point equation, from whose solution the saturation throughput can be calculated. We validate our model against ns2 simulations (using an IEEE 802.15.4 module developed by Zheng [14]). We find that with the default back-off parameters the saturation throughput decreases sharply with increasing number of nodes. We use our analytical model to study the problem and we propose alternative back-off parameters that prevent the drop in throughput. We then show how the saturation analysis can be used to obtain an analytical model for the finite arrival rate case. This finite load model captures very well the qualitative behavior of the system, and also provides a good approximation to the packet discard probability, and the throughput. For the default parameters, the finite load throughput is found to first increase and then decrease with increasing load. We find that for typical performance objectives (mean delay and packet discard) the packet discard probability would constrain the system capacity. Finally, we show how to derive a node lifetime analysis using various rates and probabilities obtained from our performance analysis model.

A CMOS RF front-end for a multistandard WLAN receiver

This letter describes the design and performance of a dual band tri-mode receiver front-end compliant with the IEEE 802.11a, b, and g standards. The receiver front-end was built in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process and achieves a noise figure of 4.7 dB/5.1 dB for the 2.4-GHz/5-GHz bands, respectively. The receiver front-end provides a dual gain mode of 5 dB/30 dB with an IIP3 of -1dBm for the low gain mode. The front-end draws 25 mA/27 mA from a 1.8-V supply for the 2.4-GHz/5-GHz bands, respectively.     

Dynamic resource allocation schemes during handoff for mobilemultimedia wireless networks

User mobility management is one of the important components of mobile multimedia systems. In a cell-based network, a mobile should be able to seamlessly obtain transmission resources after handoff to a new base station. This is essential for both service continuity and quality of service assurance. In this paper, we present strategies for accommodating continuous service to mobile users through estimating resource requirements of potential handoff connections. A diverse mix of heterogeneous traffic with diverse resource requirements is considered. The investigate static and dynamic resource allocation schemes. The dynamic scheme probabilistically estimates the potential number of connections that will be handed off from neighboring cells, for each class of traffic. The performance of these strategies in terms of connection blocking probabilities for handoff and local new connection requests are evaluated. The performance is also compared to a scheme previously proposed by Yu and Leung (see IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., vol.15, p.1208-25, 1997). The results indicate that using dynamic estimation and allocation, we can significantly reduce the dropping probability for handoff connections     

Experimental Studies on Damage Growth in Composites under Dynamic Loads

Experimental investigations have been carried out to study the dynamic damage growth in glass/polyester composites. Detonation of two PETN explosive charges on a modified single edge notch (MSEN) specimen provides the dynamic load in the form of a planar tensile wave. High speed photography is used to record the dynamic damage events. The results show that damage grows perpendicular to the loading direction, similar to the static growth; the damage zone splits analogous to the crack branching in unreinforced polyester. The damage propagation velocity in a composite is higher than the crack propagation velocity in polyester resin. The damage area grows at an average rate of 4.3 m²/sec. Static experiments show that about 4 percent of the total energy is spent on the fiber-matrix interface debonding. The damage zone under dynamic loads is much higher than under static loads.     

A 1-V 2.4 GHz Low-Power CMOS LNA Using Gain-Boosting and Derivative Superposition Techniques for WSN

Wireless Personal Communications - In the literature, for Zigbee receivers using cascode LNAs, a number of techniques such as gain-boosting, derivative superposition technique and forward body bias...     

Modeling material property heterogeneity in fiber‐reinforced injection molded plastic parts

Fiber reinforced plastic parts manufactured by injection molding have heterogeneous stiffness and strength behavior due to the molding process influence on the fiber orientations. This paper presents a methodology for determining the process‐dependent anisotropic and inhomogeneous mechanical properties of injection‐molded parts using a thickness‐wise layered homogenization technique. This technique produces an equivalent laminated meso‐scale representation at any location in the part and enables point‐wise application of the existing laminated plate and shell theories. The methodology is demonstrated by illustrating property variations in edge‐gated and center‐gated plaques. Spatial variations of elastic moduli, shear modulus, and Poisson's ratio are modeled. The model can be conveniently embedded within finite element structural analyses accounting for the process‐dependent material heterogeneities within the structure. POLYM. COMPOS., 26:98–113, 2005. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers