Tilted bi‐sense circularly‐polarized antenna and its application for radio frequency identification system

A tilted bi‐sense circularly polarized (CP) antenna and its application for UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) system is proposed. A planar concial monopole working as the electric dipole is designed at first. When a shorting pin is added, a loop radiator would be generated, and thus a pair of orthogonally oriented complementary dipoles is realized. In this way, both right‐handed circularly polarized (RHCP) and left‐handed circularly polarized waves (LHCP) are generated simultaneously in tilted directions within one hemisphere. Then, closed‐form formulas are derived to reveal the tunability mechanism of bi‐sense property and provide a design guideline for system application. It is demonstrated that flare angle of conical monopole has a linear relationship and sine function to CP beam direction and 3‐dB axial ratio (AR) beamwidth, respectively. Finally, antenna prototypes are fabricated and tested for validation. It is also demonstrated that at the tilted direction of θ = ± 45°, a 3‐dB AR bandwidth of 4.9%, and gain up to 5 dB are realized. Comparing with conventional microstrip patch antenna, an enhanced reading range over 5 m can be obtained in the tilted range from 40° to 75° and ? 75° to ?40° in UHF RFID sytem application.     

Deposition and photoluminescence of sol–gel derived Tb:Zn2SiO4 films on SiO2/Si

Tb³⁺ doped Zn₂SiO₄ films have been deposited on SiO₂ buffered Si wafers by sol–gel method. The structures of these films have been investigated with X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results revealed that these films were composed of nanometer-size grains with a Willemite structure and had smooth surfaces. Photoluminescence measurements of the films showed a strong emission from ⁵D₄ to ⁷F₅ at 544 nm. The blue emission from ⁵D₃–⁷F_j was depressed because of cross-relaxation effect. The decay kinetics of the ⁵D₄–⁷F₅ green emission was studied and a best fitting was obtained by a double exponential function. The lifetime of the excited ⁵D₄ state is estimated to be 5.2 ms.     

An analytical study on optimizing the lookup performance of distributed hash table systems under churn

The phenomenon of system churn degrades the lookup performance of distributed hash table (DHT) systems greatly. To handle the churn, a number of approaches have been proposed to date. However, there is a lack of theoretical analysis to direct how to make design choices under different churn rates and how to configure their parameters optimally. In this paper, we analytically study three important aspects on optimizing DHT lookup performance under churn, i.e. lookup strategy, lookup parallelism and lookup key replication. Our objective is to build a theoretical basis for designers to make better design choices in the future. We first compare the performance of two representative lookup strategies—recursive routing and iterative routing—and explore the existence of better alternatives. Then we study the effectiveness of lookup parallelism in systems with different churn rates and show how to select the optimal degree of parallelism. Owing to the importance of key replication on lookup performance, we also analyze the reliability of the replicated key under two different replication policies, and show how to perform proper configuration. Besides the analytical study, our results are also validated by simulation, and Kad is taken as a case to show the meaningfulness of our analysis. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hierarchical enrichment for bridging scales and mesh‐free boundary conditions

The finite‐element method, when used with a basis made up of piecewise polynomials, often requires the generation of a very fine computational mesh in order to capture localized solution phenomena such as boundary layers or near‐singularities. Enrichment of the basis with additional functions, obtained through analytical or experimental means, can allow for a coarser mesh and more accurate solution. We introduce an enrichment scheme in which an interaction or ‘bridging’ scale term is used to separate the basis formed by the enrichment functions from the original set of basis functions, in effect making the enrichment hierarchical. This separation of scales allows the simple application of essential boundary conditions. It also allows a quantification of the effects of the enrichment, leading to strategies for error estimation and control of the stiffness matrix condition number. We also find that this formulation allows for the simple application of essential boundary conditions for mesh‐free shape functions, which are notoriously problematic. We find that for multiple dimensions, care must be taken to derive a weak form which is truly consistent with the strong form on the essential boundary. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Study of segmented ethylene terephthalate–caprolactone copolymer by differential refractometry and light scattering

A segmented ethylene terephthalate (ET)–caprolactone (CL) copolymer was characterized by light scattering in chloroform tetrahydrofuran and butanone. The flexibility of the copolymer chain is comparable with that of typical flexible chains, such as polystyrene. In the process of applying the Bushuk–Benoit light scattering theory to the segmented PET–PCL copolymer, we encountered not only the problem of finding three solvents with different refractive index but also the problem of determining the specific refractive index increments for the PET and PCL segments in the copolymer, i.e., ν_PET and ν_PCL . In principle, the approximate values of ν_PET and ν_PCL can be obtained from the PET and PCL homopolymers, respectively. In reality, it involves many practical problems, e.g., to find three solvents not only for copolymer but also for the PET and PCL homopolymers. In this study, a different method was used to find both ν_PET and ν_PCL , wherein the ν values of at least two segmented PET–PCL copolymers with different PET compositions were used. With ν_PET , ν_PCL , and ν, we characterized the absolute molecular weight. Further, we show that the composition of an unknown segmented PET–PCL copolymer can be estimated from ν_PET , ν_PCL , and ν. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Effects of Language Brokering Frequency and Feelings on Mexican‐Heritage Youth's Mental Health and Risky Behaviors

Language brokering is the communication process where individuals with no formal training (often children of immigrant families) linguistically mediate for 2 or more parties (usually adult family members and individuals from mainstream culture). This study examined the direct and indirect effects of language brokering on mental health and risky behaviors. Mexican‐heritage youth (N = 684) from schools in Phoenix, AZ, completed surveys at 3 waves from 7th through 8th grades. Language brokering frequency and negative brokering feelings were positively associated with family‐based acculturation stress, which was positively associated with alcohol use and other risky behaviors. Yet, brokering frequency was negatively associated with other risky behaviors, and positive brokering feeling was negatively associated with cigarette use. Implications for these findings are discussed.     

Computational uncertainty analysis in multiresolution materials via stochastic constitutive theory

A stochastic constitutive theory is proposed in this work to propagate microstructure uncertainties in computational multiscale continuum models to bulk multiresolution material behavior. Ubiquitous fine resolution uncertainty sources influencing prediction of material properties based on their structures are categorized in detail, and this research transmits these uncertainties to coarser material resolutions by introducing a stochastic constitutive theory deduced from volume element simulations. To implement the stochastic upscaling process, two advanced uncertainty quantification methods are examined: statistical copula functions and random process polynomial chaos expansion. Both methods confront the mathematical difficulty in randomizing constitutive laws by capturing the marked correlation among constitutive parameters seen in complex materials, thus the results proffer a more accurate probabilistic estimation of constitutive material behavior. The contribution of this work is twofold: uncertainty is propagated from heterogeneous material “structure” to material “property” via the stochastic constitutive theory, and rigorous, data-driven mathematics are formalized to represent complicated dependence structures in multivariate statistical distributions. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work in multiresolution mechanics that presents an approach to computationally derive correlation functions from numerical experiments, as opposed, for instance, to assuming one a priori. The method put forth in this research, though quite general, is applied to a mathematical example and plastic, high strength steel alloy for demonstration. Results include stochastic constitutive curve confidence intervals for the material stress–strain response and qualitative comparisons of the two stochastic methods detailed herein.     

The oxidation of bituminous coal—I Development of a mathematical model

A general rate expression based on a proposed dual-path reaction model is developed for the oxidation of coal under mild conditions such as are useful in pretreatment for gasification. The effects on the oxidation rate of mass transfer, particle surface, oxygen partial pressure, and temperature have been considered and incorporated into the derived rate expression.     

The efficient maintenance of offshore structural integrity using reliability analysis

Efficient maintenance of offshore structures is one of the priority development areas of the offshore industry world-wide. The maintenance of the installations in a hostile environment such as the North Sea poses a particular problem. Owing to the large number of wave-induced stress cycles experienced by the structures, the integrity is subject to progressive degradation under fatigue crack growth. If cracks are discovered in service, the operators of the structures will need to decide on the appropriate course of action. The priorities for actions will also need to be determined for cracks of various sizes found in different locations of the structures. In the past, the above decisions have depended very much on engineering judgement. However, the latest developments in reliability fracture mechanics (RFM) analysis have for the first time provided an objective criterion for this type of decision making. Moreover, this criterion is consistent with the established structural design criteria based on reliability analysis of strength—load interaction. Therefore, it has become a real possibility to incorporate structural integrity considerations by design. The reliability-fracture-mechanics-based fatigue analysis includes studies on the uncertainties of load history, materials crack growth behaviour, fracture mechanics modelling, non-destructive inspection and other environmental factors. This paper will review the development in this methodology. In order to integrate the above analysis into the overall design process, it is useful to carry out reliability analysis for the complete structural system. The current state of the art of structural system reliability analysis is therefore briefly reviewed. The necessary development in order to accommodate fatigue reliability degradation is then discussed.