First-Principles Investigation of Electronic Properties of GaAsxSb1 –x Ternary Alloys

Semiconductors - Compositional variations in GaAs based ternary alloys have exhibited wide range alterations in electronic properties. In the present paper, first-principles study of...     

Analysis of Test Application Time for Test Data Compression Methods Based on Compression Codes

We present an analysis of test application time for test data compression techniques that are used for reducing test data volume and testing time in system-on-a-chip (SOC) designs. These techniques are based on data compression codes and on-chip decompression. The compression/decompression scheme decreases test data volume and the amount of data that has to be transported from the tester to the SOC. We show via analysis as well as through experiments that the proposed scheme reduces testing time and allows the use of a slower tester. Results on test application time for the ISCAS'89 circuits are obtained using an ATE testbench developed in VHDL to emulate ATE functionality.     

Prelaunch calibrations of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant EnergySystem (CERES) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and Earth ObservingSystem morning (EOS-AM1) spacecraft thermistor bolometer sensors

The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) spacecraft scanning thermistor bolometer sensors measure Earth radiances in the broadband shortwave solar (0.3-5.0 μm) and total (0.3->100 μm) spectral bands as well as in the 8-12-μm water vapor window spectral band. On November 27, 1997, the launch of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft placed the first set of CERES sensors into orbit, and 30 days later, the sensors initiated operational measurements of the Earth radiance fields. In 1998, the Earth Observing System morning (EOS-AM1) spacecraft will place the second and third sensor sets into orbit. The prelaunch CERES sensors' count conversion coefficients (gains and zero-radiance offsets) were determined in vacuum ground facilities. The gains were tied radiometrically to the International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90). The gain determinations included the spectral properties (reflectance, transmittance, emittance, etc.) of both the sources and sensors as well as the in-field-of-view (FOV) and out-of-FOV sensor responses. The resulting prelaunch coefficients for the TRMM and EOS-AM1 sensors are presented. Inflight calibration systems and on-orbit calibration approaches are described, which are being used to determine the temporal stabilities of the sensors' gains and offsets from prelaunch calibrations through on-orbit measurements. Analyses of the TRMM prelaunch and on-orbit calibration results indicate that the sensors have retained their ties to ITS-90 at accuracy levels better than ±0.3% between the 1995 prelaunch and 1997 on-orbit calibrations     

Solar drying vs. open sun drying: A framework for financial evaluation

Initiatives towards large-scale dissemination of solar dryers for drying of agri-produce face severe competition from the largely prevalent practice of open sun drying in most of the developing countries. Therefore, solar drying systems must offer exceptionally attractive financial gains to enhance their acceptance among the potential users. A modest attempt to develop a simple framework to facilitate a comparison of the financial feasibility of solar drying as against open sun drying has been made in the present work. Results of some exemplifying calculations are presented and briefly discussed.     

Freezing-induced splashing during impact of molten metal droplets with high Weber numbers

The impact of molten tin droplets (0.6 mm diameter) on solid surfaces was observed for a range of impact velocities (10–30 m/s), substrate temperatures (25–200 °C) and substrate materials (stainless steel, aluminum and glass). The substrate was mounted on the rim of a rotating flywheel and the collision of single droplets with the moving substrate was photographed. Droplet impact Reynolds number ranged from 2.2 × 10⁴ to 6.5 × 10⁴ and Weber number from 8.0 × 10² to 7.2 × 10³. On a hot surface there was no splashing and droplets spread to form disk-like splats with smooth edges. Solidification around the edges of droplets spreading on cold surfaces created a solid rim that obstructed flow and triggered splashing. An analytical model was developed to predict the transition temperature at which splashing disappeared by assuming that the thickness of the solid layer had to equal that of the splat in the time the droplet spread to its maximum extent in order to obstruct liquid flow. The model predicted the transition temperature for aluminum and stainless steel surfaces, assuming that thermal contact resistance between the droplet and substrate varied between 10⁻⁶ and 10⁻⁷ m² K/W. The model also predicted that tin droplets would not splash on glass surfaces maintained at or above room temperature, and this was confirmed by experiments.     

4D Printing of Shape Memory Materials for Textiles: Mechanism,Mathematical Modeling,and Challenges

Shape memory materials (SMMs) in 3D printing (3DP) technology garnered much attention due to their ability to respond to external stimuli, which direct this technology toward an emerging area of research, “4D printing (4DP) technology.” In contrast to classical 3D printed objects, the fourth dimension, time, allows printed objects to undergo significant changes in shape, size, or color when subjected to external stimuli. Highly precise and calibrated 4D materials, which can perform together to achieve robust 4D objects, are in great demand in various fields such as military applications, space suits, robotic systems, apparel, healthcare, sports, etc. This review, for the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, focuses on recent advances in SMMs (e.g., polymers, metals, etc.) based wearable smart textiles and fashion goods. This review integrates the basic overview of 3DP technology, fabrication methods, the transition of 3DP to 4DP, the chemistry behind the fundamental working principles of 4D printed objects, materials selection for smart textiles and fashion goods. The central part summarizes the effect of major external stimuli on 4D textile materials followed by the major applications. Lastly, prospects and challenges are discussed, so that future researchers can continue the progress of this technology.     

Pad effects on material-removal rate in chemical-mechanical planarization

The role of a porous pad in controlling material-removal rate (MRR) during the chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) process has been studied numerically. The numerical results are used to develop a phenomenological model that correlates the forces on each individual abrasive particle to the applied nominal pressure. The model provides a physical explanation for the experimentally observed domains of pressure-dependent MRR, where the pad deformation controls the load sharing between active-abrasive particles and direct pad-wafer contact. The predicted correlations between MRR and slurry characteristics, i.e., particle size and concentration, are in agreement with experimentally measured trends reported by Ouma¹ and Izumitani.²     

A novel image fusion framework for night-vision navigation and surveillance

The night-vision image fusion plays a critical role in detecting targets and obstructions in low light or total darkness, which has great importance for pedestrian recognition, vehicle navigation, surveillance and monitoring applications. The central idea is to fuse low-light visible and infrared imagery into a single output. In this paper, we describe a new fusion framework for spatially registered visual and infrared images. The proposed framework utilizes the properties of fractal dimension and phase congruency in the non-subsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) domain. The proposed framework applies multiscale NSCT on visual and IR images to get low- and high-frequency bands. The varied frequency bands of the transformed images are then fused while exploiting their characteristics. Finally, the inverse NSCT is performed to get the fused image. The performance of the proposed framework is validated by extensive experiments on different scene imaginary, where the definite advantages are demonstrated subjectively and objectively.     

Misinformed About the Affordable Care Act? Leveraging Certainty to Assess the Prevalence of Misperceptions

According to some recent research, Americans hold a great deal of misinformation about important political issues. However, such investigations treat incorrect answers to quiz questions measuring knowledge as evidence of misinformation. This study instead defines misperceptions as incorrect answers that respondents are confident are correct. Two surveys of representative samples of American adults on the Affordable Care Act reveal that most people were uncertain about the provisions in the law. Confidently held incorrect beliefs were far less common than incorrect answers. Misperceptions were most prevalent on aspects of the law on which elites prominently and persistently made incorrect claims. Furthermore, although Americans appear to have learned about the law between 2010 and 2012, misperceptions on many provisions of the law persisted.