Inducement of Itinerant Electron Transport in Charge-Ordered Pr<Subscript>0.6</Subscript>Ca<Subscript>0.4</Subscript>MnO<Subscript>3</Subscript> by Ba Doping

The effects of Ba ²⁺ doping on the electrical and magnetic properties of charge-ordered Pr_0.6Ca_0.4MnO₃ were investigated through electrical resistivity and AC susceptibility measurements. X-ray diffraction data analysis showed an increase in unit cell volume with increasing Ba ²⁺ content indicating the possibility of substituting Ba ²⁺ for the Ca-site. Electrical resistivity measurements showed insulating behavior and a resistivity anomaly at around 220 K. This anomaly is attributed to the existence of charge ordering transition temperature, \(T^{\mathrm {R}}_{\text {CO}}\) for the x = 0 sample. The Ba-substituted samples exhibited metallic to insulator transition (MI) behavior, with transition temperature, T _MI, increasing from ～98 K (x = 0.1) to ～122 K (x = 0.3). AC susceptibility measurements showed ferromagnetic to paramagnetic (FM-PM) transition for Ba-substituted samples with FM-PM transition temperature, T _c, increasing from ～121 K (x = 0.1) to ～170 K (x = 0.3), while for x = 0, an antiferromagnetic to paramagnetic transition behavior with transition temperature, T _N, ～170 K was observed. In addition, inverse susceptibility versus T plot showed a deviation from the Curie–Weiss behavior above T _c, indicating the existence of the Griffiths phase with deviation temperature, T _G, increasing from 160 K (x = 0.1) to 206 K (x = 0.3). Magnetoresistance, MR, behavior indicates intrinsic MR mechanism for x = 0.1 which changed to extrinsic MR for x > 0.2 as a result of Ba substitution. The weakening of charge ordering and inducement of ferromagnetic metallic (FMM) state as well as increase in both T _c and T _MI are suggested to be related to the increase of tolerance factor, τ, and increase of e _g ?electron bandwidth as average ionic radius at A-site, <r _A> increased with Ba substitution. The substitution may have reduced MnO₆ octahedral distortion and changed the Mn–O–Mn angle which, in turn, promotes itinerancy of charge carrier and enhanced double exchange mechanism. On the other hand, increase in A-site disorder, which is indicated by the increase in σ ² is suggested to be responsible for the widening of the difference between T _c and T _MI.     

Additive Manufacturing of Porous Structures for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Applications

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have shown promising benefits in many applications. This has been enabled by the emergence of additive manufacturing (AM), which give the designers a large amount of geometrical freedom. In this paper, a novel design process of fused deposition modeling (FDM) combining both topology and infill optimization is introduced for AM of high performance porous structures. Tensile testing of FDM printed samples is first carried out to study the effect of the build orientation on the mechanical properties of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) samples. It is found that samples built perpendicular to the load axis are the weakest with a tensile strength of 29 MPa and Young's modulus of 1960 MPa. The materials properties are fed to the finite elements analysis (FEA) for geometrical topology optimization, aiming to maximize stiffness and reduce weight of those parts. Afterwards, an infill optimization is carried out on the topology optimized parts using different mesostructures such as honeycomb, triangular, and rectangular to achieve high structural performance. The results showed that triangular pattern with 50% infill density had the lowest developed stresses, less mass, and strain energy when compared to other structures. Optimum UAVs parts of a quadcopter are successfully manufactured, assembled, and tested.

     

Synthesis of high purity Tl1212 superconductor with ultrafine grains from coprecipitated Tl-free precursor route

In this study, high purity and fine-grained Tl1212 superconductor samples were successfully synthesized from Tl_0.8Bi_0.2Sr₂Ca_0.8Y_0.2Cu₂O₇ starting composition by a two-step solid-state reaction method using Tl-free precursor powder prepared from coprecipitation method. XRD pattern of the sample, which was sintered at 1,000 °C for 6 min essentially showed formation of high purity 1212 phase. The sample’s zero resistance critical temperature, T _{c zero} was 91 K and bulk critical current density, J _c measured at 40 K in zero magnetic field was 11.2 A/cm². SEM investigation on the sample revealed ultrafine homogeneous grains that are randomly orientated with grain sizes of approximately 0.5–1 μm. Resintering the sample did not affect its superconducting properties but induced clustering of grains as observed by SEM. It is suggested that the sample be used in specialized measurement techniques such as in ultrasonic studies where high purity and ultrafine-grained samples are required.     

A test rig for testing radial diffusers

A simple test rig for investigating the performance of vaneless diffusers with diverging walls for centrifugal compressors has been designed, fabricated and satisfactorily tested. The test rig was designed to give values of area ratio from 1·5 to 6 for an included angle of 10°. A uniform flow at the entry of the diffuser had been achieved by the use of a centre body and suction on both the walls. The swirl was zero in all the tests.A maximum Reynolds' number of 2·8 × 10⁵ can be obtained during the tests. Experimental values of the coefficients for losses, the pressure recovery and efficiency were obtained from the measurements of static and stagnation pressures.     

Influence of Ce Substitution at Sr-Site on Superconducting Fluctuation Behavior and Infrared Absorption of Tl0.9Bi0.1Sr2?x Ce x Ca0.9Y0.1Cu1.99Fe0.01O7?δ (x=0–0.20) Ceramics

Ce substituted Tl_0.9Bi_0.1Sr_2?x Ce _x Ca_0.9Y_0.1Cu_1.99Fe_0.01O_7??? (x=0?C0.20) samples were synthesized to determine the effects of the higher valence ion substitution on superconductivity and structure of the Fe-doped Tl1212 derivatives. The normal state behavior for x=0 showed semiconductor-like behavior which gradually turned to metallic behavior with increasing Ce at x=0.05?C0.15. However, further substitution of Ce for x>0.15 turned the normal state to insulating behavior. The zero critical temperature, T _{c zero} increased from 65.4?K (x=0.05) to 71.0?K (x=0.10), but slightly decreased for x>0.10 indicating the optimum value of average copper valence was achieved at x=0.10. Excess conductivity analysis using the Aslamazov Larkin, AL and Lawrence?CDoniach, LD models revealed two-dimensional, 2D to three-dimensional, 3D transition of superconducting fluctuation behavior, SFB with the highest transition temperature, $T_{\mathrm{2D}\mbox{-}\mathrm{3D}}$ at x=0.10. FTIR analysis in conjunction with XRD results showed softening of FeO₂/CuO₂ planar oxygen mode from 610.5?cm^?1(x=0) to 605?cm^?1(x=0.20) which is suggested to be related to possible increase of inter plane coupling, J and this is supported by computed results based on the LD model. The enhanced J increases superconducting coherence length along c-axis, ?? _c (0), and hence lowers anisotropy, ?? resulting in enhanced superconducting properties.     

Compact and High Speed Architectures of KASUMI Block Cipher

Wireless Personal Communications - This paper proposes highly compact and high speed hardware architectures of 64-bit KASUMI block cipher for wide range of wireless applications. A novel...     

SEPFL routing protocol based on fuzzy logic control to extend the lifetime and throughput of the wireless sensor network

In this paper a new protocol using fuzzy logic control has been proposed. The protocol is based on Stable Election Protocol (SEP). Fuzzy logic control based on three variables, distance of nodes form base station, density of nodes and the battery level of nodes along with the traditional threshold values used in SEP are used to enhance the process of cluster head election in the existing SEP protocol and improve the lifetime and throughput of the Wireless Sensor Network. The result of the simulation which has been done in MATLAB simulator indicates that Stable Election Protocol based on fuzzy logic is more energy efficient and improves the lifetime and throughput of the network by 73.2 and 68.54 % respectively comparing with the existing SEP protocol.     

Towards a classification of energy aware MAC protocols for wireless sensor networks

Power management is an important issue in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) because wireless sensor nodes are usually battery powered, and an efficient use of the available battery power becomes an important concern specially for those applications where the system is expected to operate for long durations. This necessity for energy efficient operation of a WSN has prompted the development of new protocols in all layers of the communication stack. Provided that, the radio transceiver is the most power consuming component of a typical sensor node, large gains can be achieved at the link layer where the medium access control (MAC) protocol controls the usage of the radio transceiver unit. MAC protocols for sensor networks differ greatly from typical wireless networks access protocols in many issues. MAC protocols for sensor networks must have built‐in power conservation, mobility management, and failure recovery strategies. Furthermore, sensor MAC protocols should make performance trade‐off between latency and throughput for a reduction in energy consumption to maximize the lifetime of the network. This is in general achieved through duty cycling the radio transceiver. Many MAC protocols with different objectives were proposed for wireless sensor networks in the literature. Most of these protocols take into account the energy efficiency as a main objective. There is much more innovative work should be done at the MAC layer to address the hard unsolved problems. In this paper, we first outline and discuss the specific requirements and design trade‐offs of a typical wireless sensor MAC protocol by describing the properties of WSN that affect the design of MAC layer protocols. Then, a typical collection of wireless sensor MAC protocols presented in the literature are surveyed, classified, and described emphasizing their advantages and disadvantages whenever possible. Finally, we present research directions and identify open issues for future medium access research. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The physical theory of slope diffraction

The physical theory of diffraction (PTD) has been expanded for the case of slope diffraction, when an incident wave is zero but its derivative is not zero in the direction of a perfectly conducting scattering edge. High frequency asymptotics are found both for elementary edge waves and for the total edge waves scattered by arbitrary curved edges. Great attention is given to fields created by the nonuniform (diffraction) component of edge currents. These fields are usually called ptd corrections to the Physical Optics approach. These corrections are found for diffraction fields in ray regions and in diffraction regions such as the vicinities of shadow boundaries, smooth caustics, and foci.     

Highly accurate frequency estimation of brief duration signals in noise

A highly accurate frequency estimation providing suppression of windowing effects, denoising performances and frequency resolutions in excess of Gabor–Heisenberg limit, is proposed for brief duration signals. It is shown that unbiased frequency estimation with vanishing frequency variances is achieved far below Cramer–Rao lower bound when signal-to-noise ratio reaches vicinity of threshold values. Observed performances provide novel and valuable perspectives for efficient and accurate frequency estimation for brief duration signals in noise.