Sphere Lower Bound for Rotated Lattice Constellations in Fading Channels

We study the error probability performance of rotated lattice constellations in frequency-flat Nakagami-m block-fading channels. In particular, we use the sphere lower bound on the underlying infinite lattice as a performance benchmark. We show that the sphere lower bound has full diversity. We observe that optimally rotated lattices with largest known minimum product distance perform very close to the lower bound, while the ensemble of random rotations is shown to lack diversity and perform far from it.     

Interfacial polycondensation of diphenolic acid and isophthaloyl chloride

Interfacial polycondensation of diphenolic acid (DPA) and isophthaloyl chloride (IPC) in various solvent/water systems was investigated with tetrabutyl ammonium chloride as a phase transfer catalyst. It was found that a large mass of capsules were formed at the beginning of the reaction for all solvents examined but the capsule morphology and reaction results depended on the solvents. It is believed that the capsule shells make up of the reaction zone and a mechanism of the interfacial polycondensation is proposed accordingly. The effect of the solvents on the reaction was interpreted from the interaction between the polymer and the solvent according to the mechanism. The reaction conditions were optimized, and poly(DPA-IPC) with high intrinsic viscosity was prepared in high yield under the optimal condition. It is an amorphous polymer with glass transition temperature of about 160°C. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Influence of deposition parameters on hole mobility in polymorphous silicon

Time-of-flight transient photoconductivity measurements reveal a monotonic increase with the deposition pressure in the hole mobility in polymorphous silicon for samples deposited under hydrogen dilution. With helium dilution, a maximum mobility that matches the highest value from H-dilution samples is measured at the intermediate pressure of 1.4 Torr. The deposition rate of those samples is twice the rate for the H-dilution ones. For the samples with the best hole mobilities, the valence-band tail is comparable to the one of standard hydrogenated amorphous silicon.     

Phase method for monitoring the permittivity of different media

A nondestructive method was developed for rapidly monitoring the permittivities of solid, liquid, and gaseous materials, based on measuring the phase difference of signals passing along two transmission lines and comparing the parameters of the “standard” and “investigated” media. The design of a volume-integral microwave transducer is considered together with its operating principle and its range of application. Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 4, pp. 53–55, April, 1996.     

Effect of Microstructure on the Accelerated Creep of 20CrMoV12‐1 and P 91 Steels

In the initial part the change of microstructure for steel X20 CrMoV 121 is discussed in terms of the distribution of carbide precipitates and its effects on accelerated creep resistance and hardness are presented. In the following, experimental results of microstructure and accelerated creep resistance are presented for the steels X20CrMoV 121 and P91 annealed for up to 8760 hours at 650°C and 750°C before the testing. A similar evolution of the distribution of carbide particles of a size above 102 nm is found for both steels, while the accelerated creep resistance is diminished much stronger for the steel X20CrMoV 121. This difference is due to a greater stability of NbC than that of VC precipitates, both related to the evolution of the chemical composition of complex chromium, molybdenum and iron carbide particles.     

Josephson junction with an amorphous silicon barrier

A Josephson junction Nb/Si/Nb with a 10 nm thick amorphous silicon barrier is studied. The upper electrode contains a 2 nm thick sublayer of amorphous phase adjacent to the barrier, as revealed by cross-sectional TEM. Thus, the junction can be considered as a S-I-N-S system with the N layer represented by amorphous niobium. Peculiarities in the I–V and Δ(T) dependencies are observed and explained as a consequence of a proximity effect present in the upper electrode.     

Computer program for the construction of the level scheme on the basis of energy balance of gamma transitions

A computerised method is presented for the construction of the level scheme on the basis of measured energies of the gamma transitions without any previous knowledge of the observed isotope. The method and the steps of the algorithm are discussed. The calculated results are compared with the published schemes for the given isotopes.