Semiconduction properties of some polyene-iodine charge-transfer complexes and their application in solid-state batteries

The conjugated polyenes -carotene, lutein, retinoic acid and -apo-8-carotenal are shown to form charge-transfer (CT) complexes with the electron acceptor iodine. The conductivity increases by several orders of magnitude and the activation energy decreases on CT complex formation. Using these complexes as cathodic material, batteries with the configuration Mg/(polyene-iodine CT complex) /graphite are developed. Different battery parameters are evaluated. The effects of ambient temperature and humidity on battery performance are also studied. Results show that a -apo-8-carotenal-l₂ based battery has the maximum power density and longest self-life and is suitable for use as a micro-electronic gadget energizer.     

Fuzzy medial axis transformation (fmat): Image representation,skeleton extraction and uncertainty management in computer vision

The problem of extraction of medial axis transformation of a gray image with reference to skeletonization, image representation and uncertainty management in a vision system has been addressed. The Fuzzy Medial Axis Transformation (fmat) of a fuzzy setf is a set of fuzzy disks whose sup isf. Unfortunately, specifying thefmat sometimes requires more storage space than specifyingf itself. The present paper describes some techniques to improve the compact representation offmat; thereby making it practically useful to an image for its skeleton extraction and compact representation, for shape analysis and template matching, for representation and retrieval, for uncertainty management in recognition and for creating new images of various poses. The algorithms involve reduction of redundancy infmat, its approximation, and reduction of the searching spaces for its computation. Computational aspects for the convenience of writing an efficient program have been described. Some applications of thefmat have also been mentioned. This work was done while SKP held annrc-nasa Senior Research Associateship at the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas.     

Wave propagation in a thinly two layered laminated medium with stress couples under initial stresses

Summary The present paper is an attempt to provide an approximate treatment based on Biots theory of incremental deformation to study the wave propagation in two thinly layered laminated medium under initial stresses. The cross-sectional distortion which plays an important role in the coupling of adherent layers is taken into account. The theory is derived in the context of plane strain deformation and the frequency equation for phase velocity of waves propagated has been obtained. It has been shown that under certain conditions when wave length becomes small compared to thickness of each layer, the wave approaches to Rayleigh waves at the two outer surfaces with the possibility of Stoneley waves at the interface.

Notation and Nomenclature

For Medium—I M _i, L_i elastic coefficients - C _i bending moment - h _i thickness - P _i initial stress - _i fraction of the total thickness occupied by theith layer - b _i couple-stress coefficient For the equivalent anisotropic continuum H total thickness - M, L elastic coefficients - P average initial stress - s ₁₁ ⁽¹⁾ ,s ₂₂,s ₁₂ ⁽¹⁾ incremental stress components - u ₁,v ₁ displacement components alongx, y directions respectively - ₁ density - e _xx,e _yy,e _xy ⁽¹⁾ strain components with respect to rotated axes - w ₁ rotational component aboutz-axis - f ₁ x, f ₁ y components of incremental boundary forces per unit initial area For Medium-II N _j,Q _j elastic coefficients - D _j bending moment - K _j thickness - R _j initial stress - _j fraction of the total thickness occupied by thejth layer - g _j couple-stress coefficients For the equivalent anisotropic continuum K total thickness - N, Q elastic coefficients - R average initial stress - s ₁₁ ⁽²⁾ ,s ₂₂,s ₁₂ ⁽²⁾ incremental stress components - u ₂,v ₂ displacement components alongx, y directions respectively - ₂ density - e _xx, e_yy,e _xy ⁽²⁾ strain components with respect to rotated axes - w ₂ rotational component aboutz-axis - f ₂ x, f ₂ y components of incremental boundary forces per unit initial area With 5 Figures     

Coinage Metals in the Nanometer Length Scale

Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC)-stabilized gold organosol in toluene has been prepared by using a two-phase (water-toluene) extraction of AuCl₄^- followed by its reduction with sodium borohydride in the presence of the surfactant, CPC. The surfactant-stabilized gold nanoparticles were exploited to examine their optical properties when exposed to various solvent systems by measuring the changes in the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) spectrum.     

Synthesis of B-Sb by rapid thermal annealing of B/Sb multilayer films

Group III-V compound B-Sb films were synthesized from B/Sb/…/B multilayer films deposited by electron gun evaporation onto silicon substrate and subjecting the above multilayer to rapid thermal annealing at 773 K for 3 min. The films were characterized by XRD, TEM, XPS and optical studies. XPS studies indicated the ratio of B: Sb ∼ 1. XRD and electron diffraction patterns indicated the reflections from (100), (111), (102) and (112) planes of zinc blende BSb. Band gap evaluated from optical studies was ∼ 0·51 eV. Refractive index of the films varied between 1·65 and 2·18 with increasing energy of incident photon and plasma frequency (ω_p) was estimated to be ∼2·378×10⁻¹⁴ s⁻¹. The effective mass was computed to be ∼ 0·0845 m_e.     

Correlation between ionic conductivity and fluidity of polymer gel electrolytes containing NH4CF3SO3

Nonaqueous polymer gel electrolytes containing ammonium triflate (NH₄CF₃SO₃) and dimethylacetamide (DMA) with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as the gelling polymer have been synthesized which show high value of conductivity (~ 10^-2 S/cm) at 25°C. The conductivity of polymer gel electrolytes containing different concentrations of NH₄CF₃SO₃ shows a small decrease with the addition of PMMA and this has been correlated with the variation of fluidity of these gel electrolytes. The small decrease in conductivity with PMMA addition shows that polymer plays the role of stiffener and this is supported by FTIR results which also indicates the absence of any active interaction between polymer and NH₄CF₃SO₃ in these gel electrolytes.     

Incorporating Ancestors' Influence in Genetic Algorithms

A new criterion of fitness evaluation for Genetic Algorithms is introduced where the fitness value of an individual is determined by considering its own fitness as well as those of its ancestors. Some guidelines for selecting the weighting coefficients for quantifying the importance to be given to the fitness of the individual and its ancestors are provided. This is done both heuristically and automatically under fixed and adaptive frameworks. The Schema Theorem corresponding to the proposed concept is derived. The effectiveness of this new methodology is demonstrated extensively on the problems of optimizing complex functions including a noisy one and selecting optimal neural network parameters.     

Some new indexes of cluster validity

We review two clustering algorithms (hard c-means and single linkage) and three indexes of crisp cluster validity (Hubert's statistics, the Davies-Bouldin index, and Dunn's index). We illustrate two deficiencies of Dunn's index which make it overly sensitive to noisy clusters and propose several generalizations of it that are not as brittle to outliers in the clusters. Our numerical examples show that the standard measure of interset distance (the minimum distance between points in a pair of sets) is the worst (least reliable) measure upon which to base cluster validation indexes when the clusters are expected to form volumetric clouds. Experimental results also suggest that intercluster separation plays a more important role in cluster validation than cluster diameter. Our simulations show that while Dunn's original index has operational flaws, the concept it embodies provides a rich paradigm for validation of partitions that have cloud-like clusters. Five of our generalized Dunn's indexes provide the best validation results for the simulations presented.     

57Fe-ion implantation in pulse laser deposited La0.75Ca0.25MnO3 films: Conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction studies

Oriented La_0.75Ca_0.25MnO₃ (LCMO) films have been deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method on (100) LaAlO₃ substrates. Ion-beam technique is used to introduce a very low concentration of⁵⁷Fe in LCMO film. The deposited films were subjected to 100 keV⁵⁷Fe⁺ implantation with different fluences at room temperature. The main motivation of this work was to study the influence of implantation on the transport mechanism in materials exhibiting colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) property. It is observed that Fe implantation drastically affects the structural and magneto-transport properties. The samples were characterized using the X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique, conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) and resistance temperature (R-T) measurements.     

Two‐echelon manufacturer–retailer supply chain strategies with price,quality, and promotional effort sensitive demand

This study deals with the two‐layer supply chain model of one manufacturer and one retailer for a single commodity where market demand is assumed to be dependent on selling price, quality of the products, and promotional effort of the retailer. We investigate the behavior of the supply chain under centralized, manufacturer Stackelberg, conditional manufacturer Stackelberg, retailer Stackelberg, conditional retailer Stackelberg, and vertical Nash model structure. The nature of the above models provides great insights to a firm's manager for achieving optimal strategy in a competitive marketing system. Quite often, not all items produced in a firm are of perfect quality; some are perfect (conforming) quality and others are imperfect (nonconforming) quality. The nonconforming products are sold in a secondary shop or by other retailers. The procurement cost of finished products depends on the quality of the products due to more investment in advanced technology, better raw materials, and skilled labor, etc. The warranty policy for the products is also imposed to attract the customers to buy more. Here, both members (manufacturer and retailer) jointly share the cost of the warranty policy. The objective of this paper is to determine the optimal selling price and promotional effort of the retailer, while the optimal wholesale price and quality of the products are determined by the manufacturer so that the above strategies are maximized. Finally, numerical examples with sensitivity analysis of the key parameters are illustrated to investigate the proposed model.