Polarisation insensitive semiconductor optical amplifier withintegrated electroabsorption modulators

The authors demonstrate a 1.55 μm wavelength multiquantum well semiconductor optical amplifier, integrated with bulk layer electroabsorption modulators and passive waveguide beam expanders at the input and output ports. The device has a fibre to fibre gain of 9 dB, an extinction ratio of 15 dB per modulator, a spectral range >35 nm, and polarisation sensitivity <1 dB     

A study on the transient characteristics of a self-regulating Joule-Thomson cryocooler

An experimental and numerical study of transient characteristics for the self-regulating Joule-Thomson (J-T) cryocooler is developed in the present work. The modelling of the bellows control mechanism and the simulation of the cooler system are developed. It is proved by experiment that the most important transient behaviours can be accurately predicted by the present numerical simulation. In order to rectify the instability problem of the bellows controlled J-T cooler, this study also proposes a revised design to improve temperature stability. The revised dual-orifice J-T cooler can effectively reduce the phenomena of unstable temperature and mass flow rate, but sacrifices the expected gas consumption rise by approximately 5 percent. Through experimental evaluation, it becomes obvious that this revised type cooler would be a better design.     

Extraction of halide quaternary salts in an organic solvent/water system: Hydrodynamics and mass transfer

The hydrodynamic characteristics and mass transfers of halide quaternary salts between two immiscible phases in a stirred membrane permeation cell were investigated. The concentration of quaternary salt, temperature, solvent and the four kinds of halide quaternary salts were evaluated to achieve the extractive optimum condition. The diffusivity, overall mass‐transfer coefficients and individual mass‐transfer coefficients were determined and correlated in terms of the conventional Sh‐Re‐Sc relationship. The transfer time of quaternary salts across the membrane and the thickness of the hydrodynamic diffusion boundary layer were determined as well, so as to characterize the extractive phenomenon of quaternary salts between the two phases that is useful in phase‐transfer catalysis.     

Patient thermal comfort requirement for hospital environments in Taiwan

This study examines the comfort criteria of ASHRAE Standard 55-2004 for their applicability in hospital environments. Through an extensive field survey conducted in a university hospital in Taiwan, 927 sets of data have been collected. Above half of the measured samples failed to meet the specifications of Standard 55 comfort zone due to improper humidity control. Acceptability votes by patients exceeded the Standard's 80% criterion, regardless of whether the physical conditions were in or out of the comfort zone. Thermal neutrality, preference and comfort range are compared with other studies conducted in office environments and Standard 55 criteria. Results of chi-square tests revealed that patients’ physical strength significantly effected their thermal requirements. The net effect of health yields a marked difference in thermal neutrality and preference, and also in the comfortable temperature range.     

High performance concentrators and superconcentrators usingmultiplexing schemes

Concentrators are used to interface and combine together low speed communication channels onto higher speed transmission links to alleviate transmission costs. They are also used to construct more powerful switching fabrics such as permutation and broadcast networks. Using an adaptive binary sorting network model, this paper constructs new concentrators and superconcentrators. Unlike the previously reported concentrators and superconcentrators, these new constructions are fast, and ran easily be implemented using simple switching devices. More specifically, for n inputs, they can be constructed with O(n lg lg n) constant fanin bit-level multiplexers and demultiplexers, and can be routed in O(lg² n) bit-level time     

Low RF noise and power loss for ion-implanted Si having an improved implantation process

Very-low-transmission line noise of <0.25 dB at 18 GHz and low power loss /spl les/0.6 dB at 110 GHz have been measured on transmission lines fabricated on proton-implanted Si. In contrast, a standard Si substrate gave much higher noise of 2.5 dB and worse power loss of 5 dB. The good RF integrity of proton-implanted Si results from the high isolation impedance to ground, as analyzed by an equivalent circuit model. The proton implantation is also done after forming the transmission lines at a reduced implantation energy of /spl sim/4 MeV. This enables easier process integration into current VLSI technology.     

Characterization of in Vitro Transdermal Iontophoretic Delivery of Insulin

In-vitro studies were conducted to characterize the transdermal iontophoretic delivery of insulin, thus avoiding potential complications from various biological variations, which may be encountered during in-vivo studies. The proteolytic degradation of insulin in skin homogenates and degradation under the experimental conditions used was investigated. Appropriate adjuvants were incorporated to minimize the potential degradation problems of insulin. ¹²⁵I-Insulin was observed to penetrate into and accumulate in the skin during the iontophoresis period. It was then released gradually from this depot, as a mixture of intact and ¹²⁵-I labelled fragments, into the receptor medium. Drug desorption studies supported the theory of skin depot or reservoir formation. It was found that an electric field could be used to facilitate the desorption of drug from the depot. The post-application flux of insulin (or its fragments) from the skin depot formed during iontophoresis was monitored to study the factors affecting the iontophoretic delivery of insulin. Stripping and delipidization of the skin were noted to increase the skin permeation rate of insulin. The cumulative radioactivity permeated and accumulated in the skin was higher at pH 3.6 than at pH 7.4. The iontophoresis-facilitated transdermal delivery was observed to increase with increasing duration of current application and increasing donor concentration of insulin. Modulation of drug delivery by multiple applications was also found to be feasible.     

Effects of α‐form or β‐form nuclei on polymorphic crystalline morphology of poly(butylene adipate)

The effects of α‐form and β‐form nuclei on polymorphic morphology of poly(butylene adipate) (PBA) upon recrystallization from the molten state up to various T_max values were examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD) and polarized light microscopy (PLM). In this study, PBA with complex melting and polymorphism behaviour was used as a model for examining different types and extents of residual nuclei. As the PBA initially containing the sole α‐crystal was brought to a molten state of various T_max, the extents of trace α‐form crystal nuclei varied and were dependent on T_max. Furthermore, it did not matter whether, initially, the PBA contained α‐ or β‐form crystals (or both) because only a single type of α‐nuclei could be left upon treatment to the molten liquid state at T_max. Therefore, only the α‐crystal in PBA had ‘memory capacity’ in the molten liquid state while the β‐crystal did not. This was so because the latter had been completely transformed into the solid state prior to being heated into a liquid. PBA crystallized before α‐nuclei could be packed into α‐crystal, regardless of the crystallization temperature (T_c). For recrystallization from molten PBA without any nuclei, the crystalline polymorphism was correspondingly influenced by T_c. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Methylaluminoxane/haloalkane as initiator system for styrene polymerization

Summary Styrene polymerization was initiated by methylaluminoxane in the presence of haloalkane. The propagating species are shown by trapping experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance to be both radicals and cations.