A planar triple band four element antenna system with polarization and pattern diversity for LTE/WLAN/DSRC applications

This paper presents a low profile, triple band antenna system for LTE/WLAN/DSRC applications. It consists of four coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed printed inverted F antennas (PIFAs), each loaded with folded slot antenna (FSA) and folded resonator (FR). The loading of FSA and FR is responsible for the triple band property. An independent/semi‐independent control of each band is observed. Each radiating element is aligned perpendicularly to its adjacent element to employ polarization and pattern diversity. This helps in sustaining a good isolation level in between them without using any additional decoupling networks. The antenna has been fabricated and measured to validate the simulated results. Measurement reveals three 10 dB return loss bandwidths in the ranges 2.47‐2.62 GHz, 3.39‐3.64 GHz, and 5.74‐6.25 GHz, respectively. The isolation levels between the radiators are more than 20 dB at all three operating bands. Respective peak gains are 3.8 dB, 4.5 dB, and 5.3 dB. To gratify the requirement of the diversity performance, some essential attributes like Total Active Reflection Coefficient (TARC), Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC), Diversity Gain (DG), Mean Effective Gain (MEG), and Channel Capacity Loss (CCL) are also evaluated.     

Results of Herbert-screw fixation with bone-grafting for the treatment of nonunion of the scaphoid

Most spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) patients lack the survival motor neuron gene (SMN). However, the patients retain at least one copy of the cBCD541 gene (BCD), which is highly homologous with SMN. Here, we determined the SMN/BCD copy number ratios (the S/B ratios) of 12 parents of Japanese SMA patients with a homozygous SMN deletion, using competitive oligonucleotide priming polymerase chain reaction. We identified an S/B ratio of 2 in 25% of the parents examined, whereas less than 2% of parents of SMA patients in Western populations have an S/B ratio of 2. The high incidence of an S/B ratio of 2 in Japanese parents of SMA patients may reflect the characteristic genetic background of SMA in Japan.     

An MRF model-based approach to simultaneous recovery of depth andrestoration from defocused images

In this paper, we propose a MAP-Markov random field (MRF) based scheme for recovering the depth and the focused image of a scene from two defocused images. The space-variant blur parameter and the focused image of the scene are both modeled as MRFs and their MAP estimates are obtained using simulated annealing. The scheme is amenable to the incorporation of smoothness constraints on the spatial variations of the blur parameter as well as the scene intensity. It also allows for inclusion of line fields to preserve discontinuities. The performance of the proposed scheme is tested on synthetic as well as real data and the estimates of the depth are found to be better than that of the existing window-based depth from defocus technique. The quality of the space-variant restored image of the scene is quite good even under severe space-varying blurring conditions     

Combustion characteristics of novel hybrid nanoenergetic formulations

This paper presents the combustion characteristics of various copper oxide (CuO) nanorods/aluminum (Al) nanothermite compositions and hybrid nanoenergetic mixtures formed by combining nanothermites with either ammonium nitrate (NH₄NO₃) or secondary explosives such as RDX and CL-20 in different weight proportions. The different types of nanorods prepared in this study are referred to as CuO-VD (dried under vacuum at 25 °C for 24 h), CuO-100 (at 100 °C for 16 h) and CuO-400 (short time (1 min) calcination at 400 °C). The physical and chemical characteristics of these different kinds of CuO nanorods were determined using a variety of analytical tools such as X-ray diffractometer, transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), surface area analyzer and simultaneous differential scanning calorimeter (DSC)/thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). These measured characteristics were correlated with the combustion behavior of the nanoenergetic compositions synthesized in this work. The use of different drying and calcination parameters produced the synthesis of CuO nanorods with varying amount of hydroxyl (OH) and CH_n (n = 2, 3) functional groups. The experimental observations confirm that the presence of these functional groups on the surface of CuO nanorods enabled the formation of assembled nanoenergetic composite, upon mixed with Al nanoparticles. A facile one-step synthesis of assembled composite through surface functionalization is reported and it can be extended to large-scale preparation of assembled nanoenergetic mixtures. The combustion behavior was studied by measuring both combustion wave speed and pressure–time characteristics. Pressurization rate was determined by monitoring the pressure–time characteristics during the combustion reaction initiated by a hot wire in a fully-confined geometry. Different amounts of nanothermite powder were packed in the same volume of combustion chamber by applying different packing pressures and the pressure–time characteristics were measured as a function of varying percent theoretical maximum density (% TMD). The experimental setup used in this work enabled us to study the functional behavior of initiating explosives such as NH₄NO₃ nanoparticles, RDX and CL-20 using nanothermites under fully-confined test geometry. The dent tests performed on lead witness plates support the experimental observations obtained from pressure–time and combustion wave speed measurements of hybrid mixtures.     

Some comments on Malakooti et al. ‘Integrated group technology,cell formation,process planning,and production planning with application to the emergency room’

In this technical note, we suggest an alternative to the cellular layout for the emergency room problem discussed in Malakooti et al. (Malakooti, B., Malakooti, N.R. and Yang, Z., Integrated group technology, cell formation, process planning, and production planning with application to the emergency room. Int. J. Prod. Res., 2004, 42(9), 1769–1786). The alternative layout—hybrid flowshop layout—belongs to a class of hybrid cellular layouts that can be designed using the integrated suite of algorithms available in the production flow analysis and simplification toolkit (PFAST) software (Irani, S.A., Zhang, H., Zhou, J., Huang, H., Tennati, K.U. and Subramanian, S., Production flow analysis and simplification toolkit (PFAST). Int. J. Prod. Res., 2000, 38(8), 1855–1874). These layouts are intermediate between the traditional layout extremes—process layout and cellular layout—for a high-variety low-volume (HVLV) manufacturing facility. Our results indicate that the hybrid flowshop layout is superior to the cellular layout since it eliminates/reduces the duplication of procedures1 ¹?A ‘procedure’ and a ‘patient’ in the emergency room layout problem are analogous to ‘machines (or work centres)’ and ‘parts (or products)’, respectively, in a typical manufacturing facility layout problem. , backtrack flows between non-adjacent procedures and by-pass flows between procedures.     

Structural and Electronic Properties of SrS,SrSe, and SrTe Under Pressure

The electronic band structure and the total energy of SrX (X=S, Se, Te) in NaCl-type and CsCl-type structures were studied using the tight binding linear muffin-tin orbital method. The calculated ground state properties such as lattice constant and bulk modulus are in agreement with the experimental values. The transition pressures and volumes also agree well with the experimental results. The energy gap at ambient conditions were calculated. The metallization pressures and volumes have also been estimated.     

Artificial intelligence methodologies for agile refining: an overview

Agile manufacturing is the capability to prosper in a competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable changes by reacting quickly and effectively to the changing markets and other exogenous factors. Agility of petroleum refineries is determined by two factors – ability to control the process and ability to efficiently manage the supply chain. In this paper, we outline some challenges faced by refineries that seek to be lean, nimble, and proactive. These problems, which arise in supply chain management and operations management are seldom amenable to traditional, monolithic solutions. As discussed here using several examples, methodologies drawn from artificial intelligence – software agents, pattern recognition, expert systems – have a role to play in this path toward agility. Rajagopalan Srinivasan received the B.Tech. degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, in 1993 and the Ph.D. from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, in 1998. He worked as a Research Associate at Honeywell Technology Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA, before moving to the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NUS and concurrently a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences. His research interests include process supervision, supply chain management, and applied artificial intelligence.     

Enhancement-Mode GaAs MOSFETs With an In0.3 Ga0.7As Channel, a Mobility of Over 5000 cm2/V ·s, and Transconductance of Over 475 μS/μm

We present metal-gate high-k-dielectric enhancement-mode (e-mode) III-V MOSFETs with the highest reported effective mobility and transconductance to date. The devices employ a GaGdO high-k (k = 20) gate stack, a Pt gate, and a delta-doped InGaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs hetero-structure. Typical 1-mum gate length device figures of merit are given as follows: saturation drive current, I_d,sat = 407 muA/mum; threshold voltage, V_t = +0.26 V; maximum extrinsic transconductance, g_m = 477 muS/mum (the highest reported to date for a III-V MOSFET); gate leakage current, I_g = 30 pA; subthreshold swing, S = 102 mV/dec; on resistance, R_on = 1920 Omega-mum; I_on/I_off ratio = 6.3 x 10⁴; and output conductance, g_d = 11 mS/mm. A peak electron mobility of 5230 cm²/V. s was extracted from low-drain-bias measurements of 20 mum long-channel devices, which, to the authors' best knowledge, is the highest mobility extracted from any e-mode MOSFET. These transport and device data are highly encouraging for future high-performance n-channel complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor solutions based on III-V MOSFETs.