Comparison of the GFFF and LALLS Methods for the Measurement of Starch Granule Size Distribution in Spring Barley Caryopses

A newly developed method GFFF (Gravitational Field‐Flow Fractionation) and the well known method LALLS (Low Angle Laser Light Scattering) were used to assess starch granule size distribution of ten varieties of spring barley. As a distribution criterion, the ratio of starch granule content larger than 8 μm (type A) and smaller than 8 μm (type B) was chosen. Both methods divided the observed set in a similar way. Varieties Akcent, Forum and Atribut formed a variety set with the highest ratio of large and small starch granules. Varieties Scarlet and Kompakt had intermediate ratios. The remaining five varieties Amulet, Novum, Olbram, Tolar and Krona had the lowest ratios of large and small starch granules. Statistical analysis showed that there was a highly significant correlation between the GFFF and LALLS methods.     

1-GHz-spaced 16-channel arrayed-waveguide grating for a wavelength reference standard in DWDM network systems

We fabricated a 1-GHz-spaced 16-channel arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) by using a new AWG configuration where the path of each arrayed waveguide winds backward and forward across a 4-in diameter wafer without crossing any other waveguides. The ultra-narrow (< 1 GHz) and stable transmission bands of this AWG can be used to construct a wavelength reference standard covering the S, C, and L bands in the dense wavelength-division-multiplexing network systems whose frequency deviation is /spl plusmn/160 MHz.     

Performance and modeling of advanced Ti:LiNbO3 digitaloptical switches

High-performance Y-branch digital optical switches realized in Ti:LiNbO₃ are presented. Their switching response functions have been optimized in terms of switch voltage and crosstalk ratio. The optimization is based on analyzing different types of waveguide shaping and switching arrangements using coupled mode theory and computer simulations. Excellent switching characteristics are achieved with devices exploiting a specially shaped waveguide branch in a dilated switch arrangement. Demonstrated performances include switching voltage as low as 9 V with crosstalk suppression better than 45 dB and fiber-to-fiber losses as low as 4 dB. Polarization independence with crosstalk suppression better than 40 dB over a 1520- to 1570-nm wavelength range is achieved for any applied switch voltage greater than 18 V. These optimized digital optical switches have further demonstrated the capability to reshape electrical input signals at switching rates of several hundred megahertz     

Asymptotic optimality of the GMD and Chase decoding algorithms

The generalized minimum distance (GMD) and Chase (1972) decoding algorithms are some of the most important suboptimum bounded distance decoding algorithms for binary linear block codes over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. We compute the limitation of the ratio between the probability of decoding error for the GMD or any one of the Chase decoding algorithms and that of the maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) approaches infinity. If the minimum Hamming distance of the code is greater than 2, the limitation is shown to be equal to 1 and thus the GMD and Chase decoding algorithms are asymptotically optimum.     

Vestigial sideband filtering at 10 Gbit/s using 12.5 GHzchannel-spacing demux

A 32-channel 12.5 GHz-spaced free-space demux with low crosstalk and low polarisation dependent loss has been constructed. Using this demux, vestigial sideband filtering at 10 Gbit/s has been studied. It is shown that this demux can achieve very high spectral efficiency without polarisation division multiplexing     

Floating-island TFT leakage caused by process step reduction

The leakage mechanism for a top-gate thin-film transistor (TFT) produced using the fewest process steps in the industry is analyzed in order to achieve a high-contrast liquid crystal display (LCD). Using a T-shaped TFT structure, the OFF and ON channel lengths are defined independently, so that the leakage can be reduced with no ON current decrease     

Intermetallic compounds formed at the interface between liquid indium and copper substrates

The interfacial reactions between liquid In and Cu substrates at temperatures ranging from 175°C to 400°C are investigated for the applications in bonding recycled sputtering targets to their backing plates. Experimental results show that a scallop-shaped Cu₁₆In₉ intermetallic compound is found at the Cu/In interface after solder reactions at temperatures above 300°C. A double-layer structure of intermetallic compounds containing scallop-shaped Cu₁₁In₉ and continuous CuIn is observed after the Cu/In interfacial reaction at temperatures below 300°C. The growth of all these intermetallic compounds follows the parabolic law, which implies that the growth is diffusion-controlled. The activation energies for the growth of Cu₁₆In₉, Cu₁₁In₉, and CuIn intermetallic compounds calculated from the Arrhenius plot of growth reaction constants are 59.5, 16.9, and 23.5 kJ/mole, respectively.     

The influence of viewing distance on subjective impairment assessment

In this paper, the influence of viewing distance on subjective assessment of the impairment in video sequences is investigated. Subjective tests using the double-stimulus impairment scale variant II (DSIS II) method have been conducted at viewing distances of 5H (where H stands for the screen height) and 3H, respectively. Several statistical measures have been used to analyze the influence, including correlations and ANOVA (analysis of variance) tests. The results reveal that there is a very high correlation between the subjective scores, the variances are similar under the two viewing distances, the means of subjective data at these two viewing distances are the same, and there is no interaction between the viewing distance and the other two factors, i.e., the codec system and the source sequence. Throughout the tests, there is no evidence that a closer viewing distance such as 3H will vary the subjective test result statistically significantly.     

Nondestructive evaluation of the characteristics of degraded materials using backward radiated ultrasound

The frequency dependency of Rayleigh surface wave is investigated indirectly by measuring the angular dependency of the backward radiation of the incident ultrasonic wave in two kinds of degraded specimens by scuffing or corrosion. Then, the frequency dependency is compared with the residual stress distribution or the corrosion-fatigue characteristics for the scuffed or corroded specimens, respectively. The width of the backward radiation profile increases with the increase of the variation in residual stress distribution for the scuffed specimens. In the corroded specimens, the profile width decreases with the increase of the effective aging layer thickness and is inversely proportional to the exponent, m, in the Paris’ law that can predict the crack size increase due to fatigue. The result observed in this study demonstrates high potential of backward radiated ultrasound as a tool for nondestructive evaluation of subsurface gradient of material degradation generated by scuffing or corrosion.