PROBABILISTIC PREDICTION OF BURR PATTERNS OF 1045 CARBON STEEL IN FACE MILLING

Face milling burrs in ductile materials such as 1045 carbon steel exhibit three distinct burr patterns: uniform, wavy, and secondary burrs. It is found that the three burr patterns are dependent on the in-plane exit angle, undeformed chip ratio, and undeformed chip area at the exit stage of cut. Empirical equations, representing the burr transition curves from the uniform to wavy burr and wavy to secondary burr, are found. Based on the empirical relationships, a probabilistic model, in which the operational Bayesian modeling approach is adopted to include the empirical equations, is derived for burr prediction.     

A fast fully 4-D incremental gradient reconstruction algorithm for list mode PET data

We describe a fast and globally convergent fully four-dimensional incremental gradient (4DIG) algorithm to estimate the continuous-time tracer density from list mode positron emission tomography (PET) data. Detection of 511-keV photon pairs produced by positron-electron annihilation is modeled as an inhomogeneous Poisson process whose rate function is parameterized using cubic B-splines. The rate functions are estimated by minimizing the cost function formed by the sum of the negative log-likelihood of arrival times, spatial and temporal roughness penalties, and a negativity penalty. We first derive a computable bound for the norm of the optimal temporal basis function coefficients. Based on this bound we then construct and prove convergence of an incremental gradient algorithm. Fully 4-D simulations demonstrate the substantially faster convergence behavior of the 4DIG algorithm relative to preconditioned conjugate gradient. Four-dimensional reconstructions of real data are also included to illustrate the performance of this method.     

Double-pass resonant Er-Raman amplifier

A new double-pass wideband Er-Raman fibre amplifier is proposed, pumped by a Raman laser oscillating through a medium consisting of Er-doped fibre and dispersion compensating fibre in series.     

Surface-modified maghemite as the cathode material for lithium batteries

The inorganic–organic hybrid maghemite (γ-Fe₂O₃)/polypyrrole (PPy) was synthesized and evaluated as cathode-active material for room temperature lithium batteries. The nanometer-sized core–shell structure of the hybrid consisting of the maghemite core with surface modified by PPy was evidenced from the morphological examination. The cathode fabricated with the as-prepared hybrid material delivered an initial discharge capacity of 233 mAh g⁻¹ and a reversible capacity of ∼62 mAh g⁻¹ after 50 charge–discharge cycles. A much higher performance with an initial discharge capacity of 378 mAh g⁻¹ and a reversible capacity of ∼100 mAh g⁻¹ was achieved with the cathode based on the segregated active material, which was obtained by subjecting the as-prepared hybrid material to an additional ball-milling process. The study demonstrates the promising lithium insertion characteristics of the nanometer-sized core–shell maghemite/PPy particles prepared under optimized conditions for application in secondary batteries.     

Improved HBT linearity with a "post-distortion"-type collector linearizer

An HBT amplifier with a "post-distortion"-type linearizer utilizing a base-collector junction diode shows more than 8-dB improvement of adjacent channel power ratio, and the collector linearizer comprising a reverse biased base-collector junction diode requires no additional dc power consumption and has no deterioration of RF performance. The linearization technique of post-distortion compensates the nonlinearity of HBTs, which arises from the C/sub bc/ variation due to a large-signal swing.     

Mechanism of droplet generation in silver thin films for organic light-emitting diode displays

Thin silver film is widely used as the cathode in organic light-emitting diode displays and it is generally fabricated using the thermal evaporation method. But during the evaporation process, there is an inevitable outgassing problem and this creates high viscosity bubbles in melted silver. When the bubbles break, the high energy released scatters silver droplets which damage the silver surface. In this study, we were able to decrease the number of droplets from 6,171 to 278 with a degassing process of 400 °C for 6 h before proceeding with a thermal evaporation process.     

Photo-mask fabrication by low-energy microcolumn lithography

We have designed and fabricated a low-energy electron-beam lithography system based on a single column module (SCM) microcolumn. From the observed characteristics of the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) resist, the optimum conditions for the low-energy e-beam lithography have been determined. Fine line patterns on PMMA with line width less than 60 nm were obtained under optimized lithographic conditions. For the first time an aluminum photo-mask for optical lithography was created utilizing microcolumn lithography. Our results show that low-energy lithography systems have the potential to be used in high quality photo-mask fabrication processes.     

Laser diffraction particle sizing by wet dispersion method for spray-dried infant formula

A laser diffraction particle sizing method involving wet analysis could be adapted effectively to measure the accurate particle size distribution of a spray-dried infant formula. Polar, polar aprotic and non-polar solvents, such as ethanol, methanol, acetone, pentane, heptane and hexane, were tested as dispersants for wet analysis. Non-polar solvents such as pentane, heptane and hexane found to be suitable dispersant because the shape of the infant formula particles in non-polar solvents was similar before and after the measurement while the particles had dissolved in the other solvents. The particle size distributions (PSD) of the infant formula determined by laser diffraction (Malvern Master Sizer, UK) using the dry analysis method with air was unsuitable because some parts of the primary and aggregated infant formula particles had been destroyed. The PSD graph of the air dispersion was shifted toward a smaller particle size from that of hexane dispersion. Overall, it is believed that laser diffraction particle sizing involving wet analysis with non-polar solvents may provide a suitable particle sizing method for infant formula products that is better than an air dispersion method.     

Synthesis of type II CdTe/CdSe heterostructure tetrapod nanocrystals for PV applications

We report a facile one-pot synthetic method for the formation of CdTe/CdSe tetrapod nanocrystals with type II band alignment. The crystal growth kinetics can be controlled by changing the injection temperature, rate and concentration of the chalcogen precursor, allowing the structure of CdTe/CdSe tetrapod nanocrystals to be synthesized without changing the underlying chemistry. Only the multiple injection of Se precursor promotes epitaxial growth of a CdSe nanorod on the end of CdTe tetrapod arms. This synthesis shows that the mechanism of tetrapod nucleated growth may be generally applicable for creating other non-core/shell heterostructures. The heterostructure nanocrystals are composed of a CdTe tetrapod core and four CdSe nanorod tips, showing optical properties typical of type II heterostructures that are well suited for photovoltaic applications.     

Complexity Reduction Method for BSAC Decoder

This letter proposes a complexity reduction method to speed up the noiseless decoding of a bit-sliced arithmetic coding (BSAC) decoder. This scheme fully utilizes the group of consecutive arithmetic-coded symbols known as the decoding band and the significance tree structure sorted in order of significance at every decoding band. With the same audio quality, the proposed method reduces the number of calculations that are performed during the noiseless decoding in BSAC to about 22% of the amount of calculations with the conventional full-search method.