Photoluminescent Arrays of Nanopatterned Monolayer MoS2

Monolayer 2D MoS₂ grown by chemical vapor deposition is nanopatterned into nanodots, nanorods, and hexagonal nanomesh using block copolymer (BCP) lithography. The detailed atomic structure and nanoscale geometry of the nanopatterned MoS₂ show features down to 4 nm with nonfaceted etching profiles defined by the BCP mask. Atomic resolution annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals the nanopatterned MoS₂ has minimal large‐scale crystalline defects and enables the edge density to be measured for each nanoscale pattern geometry. Photoluminescence spectroscopy of nanodots, nanorods, and nanomesh areas shows strain‐dependent spectral shifts up to 15 nm, as well as reduction in the PL efficiency as the edge density increases. Raman spectroscopy shows mode stiffening, confirming the release of strain when it is nanopatterned by BCP lithography. These results show that small nanodots (≈19 nm) of MoS₂ 2D monolayers still exhibit strong direct band gap photoluminescence (PL), but have PL quenching compared to pristine material from the edge states. This information provides important insights into the structure–PL property correlations of sub‐20 nm MoS₂ structures that have potential in future applications of 2D electronics, optoelectronics, and photonics.     

Task allocation and scheduling in wireless distributed computing networks

Wireless distributed computing (WDC) is an enabling technology that allows radio nodes to cooperate in processing complex computational tasks of an application in a distributed manner. WDC research is being driven by the fact that mobile portable computing devices have limitations in executing complex mobile applications, mainly attributed to their limited resource and functionality. This article focuses on resource allocation in WDC networks, specifically on scheduling and task allocation. In WDC, it is important to schedule communications between the nodes in addition to the allocation of computational tasks to nodes. Communication scheduling and heterogeneity in the operating environment make the WDC resource allocation problem challenging to address. This article presents a task allocation and scheduling algorithm that optimizes both energy consumption and makespan in a heuristic manner. The proposed algorithm uses a comprehensive model of the energy consumption for the execution of tasks and communication between tasks assigned to different radio nodes. The algorithm is tested for three objectives, namely, minimization of makespan, minimization of energy consumption, and minimization of both makespan and energy consumption.     

Energy-Efficient Routing for Frequency-Hop Wireless Networks

The use of adaptive-transmission protocols in wireless, store-and-forward, packet communication networks may result in large differences in the energy requirements of the alternative paths that are available to the routing protocol. Routing metrics can provide quantitative measures of the quality and energy efficiency of the paths from the source to the destination. Such measures are required if the routing protocol is to take advantage of the potential energy savings that are made possible by an adaptive-transmission protocol. An energy-efficient protocol suite for routing and adaptive transmission in frequency-hop wireless networks is described and evaluated, several routing metrics are compared, and tradeoffs among energy efficiency, delay, and packet success probability are investigated.     

Intensity-based image registration using robust correlation coefficients

The ordinary sample correlation coefficient is a popular similarity measure for aligning images from the same or similar modalities. However, this measure can be sensitive to the presence of "outlier" objects that appear in one image but not the other, such as surgical instruments, the patient table, etc., which can lead to biased registrations. This paper describes an intensity-based image registration technique that uses a robust correlation coefficient as a similarity measure. Relative to the ordinary sample correlation coefficient, the proposed similarity measure reduces the influence of outliers. We also compared the performance of the proposed method with the mutual information-based method. The robust correlation-based method should be useful for image registration in radiotherapy (KeV to MeV X-ray images) and image-guided surgery applications. We have investigated the properties of the proposed method by theoretical analysis, computer simulations, a phantom experiment, and with functional magnetic resonance imaging data.     

Data-delay evaluation in integrated wireless networks based on local product-form solutions for voice occupancy

In this paper we consider the evaluation of data-packet delay in wireless integrated voice/data networks. In networks that support voice in the classical circuit-switched fashion, the voice occupancy process satisfies a product-form solution under reasonable modeling assumptions. Although this product-form solution provides an accurate characterization of equilibrium voicetraffic behavior, it does not directly provide a method to evaluate data-packet delay. However, examination of each link separately in a manner that incorporates interaction with the rest of the network permits us to take advantage of the wireless nature of the network and obtain a three-flow characterization of each link, which also satisfies a product-form solution and is hence termed a mini-product-form solution. By matching the values of these flows to the average values obtained from the product-form solution of the entire network, we obtain a three-dimensional Markov chain characterization of the voice occupancy state on the link, which permits a simpler evaluation of data-packet delay. A further reduction is possible by converting the three-dimensional chain to a single-dimensional one. Performance results demonstrate that these models provide satisfactory delay estimates that also appear to be upper bounds on delay.C.M. Barnhart was at the Naval Research Laboratory when this paper was written.     

Photolytic deposition of aluminum nitride and oxy-nitride films at temperatures ≤ 350k

Aluminum nitride and oxy-nitride thin films have been deposited on Si(100) substrates at temperatures of 300-350K by gas-phase excimer laser photolysis at 193 nm. The precursors used for this deposition process are trimethylamine alane and ammonia. The properties of these laser-deposited films were studied using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray analysis, and x-ray diffraction. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been extensively used to provide information regarding the chemical compositions on the surface and in the bulk of these laser deposited films, as well as on the chemical states of the components of the films. Well-adhering, smooth, amorphous films of AlN are obtained at a substrate temperature of 350K using this technique.     

Hydrogeochemistry and groundwater circulation in the Xi’an geothermal field, China

Geothermal waters from the Tertiary aquifers located at 1000–3000 m beneath Xi’an city, Shaanxi Province, China, show unique isotopic composition as compared to local groundwaters from shallower Quaternary aquifers. Positive oxygen shifts of as much as 8‰ VSMOW are observed, while the corresponding δ²H values remain essentially constant at about −80‰ VSMOW, which is significantly different from those of waters in the Quaternary aquifers with a mean δ²H value of −60‰ VSMOW. The strong ¹⁸O shift is a result of isotope exchange between geothermal water and carbonate minerals such as calcite over a residence time of several thousand years up to 30,000 years, based on ¹⁴C dating. A comparison of the isotopic composition of geothermal waters with neighbouring groundwater units on both sides of the Guanzhong Basin indicates that the geothermal reservoirs are recharged by rain that falls on the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains, south of the Xi’an geothermal field, but not from the North Mountains to the north of the field. Based on chemical geothermometers the highest temperature estimated for the Tertiary aquifers of the Xi’an area is around 130 °C.     

Fast predictions of variance images for fan-beam transmission tomography with quadratic regularization

Accurate predictions of image variances can be useful for reconstruction algorithm analysis and for the design of regularization methods. Computing the predicted variance at every pixel using matrix-based approximations [1] is impractical. Even most recently adopted methods that are based on local discrete Fourier approximations are impractical since they would require a forward and backprojection and two fast Fourier transform (FFT) calculations for every pixel, particularly for shift-variant systems like fan-beam tomography. This paper describes new "analytical" approaches to predicting the approximate variance maps of 2-D images that are reconstructed by penalized-likelihood estimation with quadratic regularization in fan-beam geometries. The simplest of the proposed analytical approaches requires computation equivalent to one backprojection and some summations, so it is computationally practical even for the data sizes in X-ray computed tomography (CT). Simulation results show that it gives accurate predictions of the variance maps. The parallel-beam geometry is a simple special case of the fan-beam analysis. The analysis is also applicable to 2-D positron emission tomography (PET).     

A steerable complex wavelet construction and its application to image denoising.

This work addresses the design of a novel complex steerable wavelet construction, the generation of transform-space feature measurements associated with corner and edge presence and orientation properties, and the application of these measurements directly to image denoising. The decomposition uses pairs of bandpass filters that display symmetry and antisymmetry about a steerable axis of orientation. While the angular characterization of the bandpass filters is similar to those previously described, the radial characteristic is new, as is the manner of constructing the interpolation functions for steering. The complex filters have been engineered into a multirate system, providing a synthesis and analysis subband filtering system with good reconstruction properties. Although the performance of our proposed denoising strategy is currently below that of recently reported state-of-the-art techniques in denoising, it does compare favorably with wavelet coring approaches employing global thresholds and with an "Oracle" shrinkage technique, and presents a very promising avenue for exploring structure-based denoising in the wavelet domain.     

Performance Analysis of the Spectral Correlation Discriminator Array

Mobile communications suffer from cochannel interference, adjacent channel interference and fading. The cell capacity or the number of users per cell is limited by the interference. In this paper we analyze a new blind adaptive array structure called the spectral correlation discriminator array (SCDA), designed to reject cochannel interference for advanced mobile phone service (AMPS) signals. The blind adaptive array exploits the spectral redundancy in the AMPS signals which arises due to the presence of the supervisory audio tone (SAT). SCDA is shown to provide an improvement of 25–30 dB in signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) in static multipath channels and 10–15 dB improvement of SINR in Rayleigh fading channels. The SCDA is compared to the least squares constant modulus array (LSCMA) and is shown to have better signal selectivity properties. The reduction in interference power can significantly reduce the frequency reuse factor.