Influence of ethyl methacrylate content on the volume‐phase transition of temperature‐sensitive poly[(N‐isopropylacrylamide)‐co‐(ethyl methacrylate)] microgels

A novel series of temperature‐sensitive poly[(N‐isopropylacrylamide)‐co‐(ethyl methacrylate)] (p(NIPAM‐co‐EMA)) microgels was prepared by the surfactant‐free radical polymerization of N‐isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) with ethyl methacrylate (EMA). The shape, size dispersity and volume‐phase transition behavior of the microgels were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The transmission electron micrographs and DLS results showed that microgels with narrow distributions were prepared. It was shown from UV–Vis, DLS and DSC measurements that the volume‐phase transition temperature (VPTT) of the p(NIPAM‐co‐EMA) microgels decreased with increasing incorporation of EMA, but the temperature‐sensitivity was impaired when more EMA was incorporated, causing the volume‐phase transition of the microgels to become more continuous. It is noteworthy that incorporation of moderate amounts of EMA could not only lower the VPTT but also enhance the temperature‐sensitivity of the microgels. The reason for this phenomenon could be attributed to changes in the complicated interactions between the various molecules. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Study of a BGO calorimeter using electron and hadron beams from 1 to 50 GeV

A calorimeter of 25 bismuth germanate (BGO) crystals equipped with silicon photodiode readout has been tested at the CERN SPS in the energy range 1–50 GeV. The response for electrons has been shown to be linear in this energy range and the rms resolution obtained ( ) is approximately 1%, for E > 4 GeV. The electron/pion separation was found to be better than 1:500 in the energy range 1–20 GeV. Data on lateral and longitudinal shower development were compared with the results of a Monte Carlo simulation using the SLAC-EGS program and found to be in good agreement.     

On exploring inter-iteration parallelism within rate-balanced multirate multidimensional DSP algorithms

Although the notion of the parallelism in multidimensional applications has existed for a long time, it is so far unknown what the bound (if any) of inter-iteration parallelism in multirate multidimensional digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms is, and whether the maximum inter-iteration parallelism can be achieved for arbitrary multirate data flow algorithms. This paper explores the bound of inter-iteration parallelism within rate-balanced multirate multidimensional DSP algorithms and proves that this parallelism can always be achieved in hardware system given the availability of a large number of processors and the interconnections between them.     

A single-chip storage LSI for home networks

Network direct attached storage (NDAS) is a network storage architecture that allows direct attachment of existing ATA/ATAPI devices to Ethernet without a separate server. Unlike other architectures such as NAS, SAN, and USB mass storage, no server computer intervenes between the storage and the client hosts. We describe an NDAS disk controller (NDC) amenable to low-cost single-chip implementation that processes a simplified L3/L4 protocol and converts commands between ATA/ATAPI and Ethernet, while the remaining complex tasks are performed by remote hosts. Unlike NAS architectures that use TCP/IP, NDAS uses a TCP-like lean protocol that lends itself well to high-performance hardware realization. Thanks to the simple NDAS architecture and protocol, an NDC implemented on a single 4 mm /spl times/ 4 mm chip in 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS technology achieves a maximum throughput of 55 Mbytes/s on gigabit Ethernet, which is comparable to that of a high-performance disk locally attached to a host computer.     

Theoretical analysis of RAIM in the occurrence of simultaneous two-satellite faults

Most algorithms on receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) are under the assumption of a single-satellite fault, because there is an extremely small probability that significant simultaneous multiple-satellite faults may occur. However, after the implementation of the Galileo system in a few years, there will be more satellites in view for the user to utilise together with GPS satellites, and a combination of them will bring better performance for RAIM. On the other hand, with the help of wide area augmentation system and the use of dual-frequency operation, pseudo-range errors will be reduced greatly. Thus, tighter alert limits are required for RAIM, and formerly `small' errors should not be neglected. All of those factors make it necessary to consider simultaneous multiple-satellite faults. A detailed theoretical analysis of RAIM under the condition of two-satellite faults for both vertical and horizontal directions is presented. The characteristic/max slopes for every pair of satellites are then deduced in order to calculate the tighter vertical/horizontal protection level for RAIM     

Preparation, sintering, and microstructures of strontium barium bismuth tantalate layered perovskite ceramics

The solid solutions of Ba-doped SrBi₂Ta₂O₉ layered perovskite ceramic powders have been successfully prepared via a two-step process using BiTaO₄ as a precursor. The lattice constants of the solid solutions monotonically increase with increasing barium-ion content. The sinterability of (Sr_1–xBa_x)Bi₂Ta₂O₉ powders is significantly improved by increasing the barium-ion content. When the specimens with high barium-ion contents are sintered at 1100°C, they thermally decompose to form rod-like grains and the matrix expands, leading to a lower density. The addition of barium ions to SrBi₂Ta₂O₉ also results in significant variation in the morphology of the sintered specimens and the occurrence of c-axis preferred orientation which is ascribed to the anisotropic growth of plate-like grains. The precise control of the barium-ion content as well as the sintering conditions is critical for obtaining densified barium-ion doped SrBi₂Ta₂O₉ ceramics with a pure, layered perovskite structure.