Chalcogenide Phase Change Material for Active Terahertz Photonics

The strikingly contrasting optical properties of various phases of chalcogenide phase change materials (PCM) has recently led to the development of novel photonic devices such as all‐optical non‐von Neumann memory, nanopixel displays, color rendering, and reconfigurable nanoplasmonics. However, the exploration of chalcogenide photonics is currently limited to optical and infrared frequencies. Here, a phase change material integrated terahertz metamaterial for multilevel nonvolatile resonance switching with spatial and temporal selectivity is demonstrated. By controlling the crystalline proportion of the PCM film, multilevel, non‐volatile, terahertz resonance switching states with long retention time at zero hold power are realized. Spatially selective reconfiguration at sub‐metamaterial scale is shown by delivering electrical stimulus locally through designer interconnect architecture. The PCM metamaterial also features ultrafast optical modulation of terahertz resonances with tunable switching speed based on the crystalline order of the PCM film. The multilevel nonvolatile, spatially selective, and temporally tunable PCM metamaterial will provide a pathway toward development of novel and disruptive terahertz technologies including spatio‐temporal terahertz modulators for high speed wireless communication, neuromorphic photonics, and machine‐learning metamaterials.     

Mechanism of high selectivity in ceria based shallow trench isolation chemical mechanical polishing slurries

dl-aspartic acid as a removal rate selectivity enhancer for shallow trench isolation chemical mechanical polishing slurries was investigated over a pH range. The effects of downward pressure, rotational speed of the turntable as well as the ceria abrasive loading were also examined. The selectivity is very sensitive to changes in the pressure but not to changes in the rotational speed. Select experiments were also conducted with other types of abrasives with and without the additive. A comparison of the pK_a values of the amino acid with the variation of the selectivity with pH indicates that the form of amino acid plays a vital role in determining the polishing behavior and the selectivity. Further, the results corroborate the hypothesis that chemically active sites on the abrasive may be blocked by certain forms of the amino acids, leading to changes in the selectivity.     

Distance measures for medical image retrieval

Imaging has occupied a huge role in the management of patients, whether hospitalized or not. Depending on the patient's clinical problem, a variety of imaging modalities were available for use. Radiology is the branch of medical science dealing with medical imaging. It may use X‐ray machines or other such radiation devices. It also uses techniques that do not involve radiation, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound (US). Commonly used imaging modalities include plain radiography, computed tomography (CT), MRI, US, and nuclear imaging techniques. Each of these modalities has strengths and limitations which dictates its use in diagnosis. The usage of modality for a particular problem must be reviewed with emphasis on method of generating an image with costs, strengths and weaknesses, and associated risks. The reason for image retrieval is due to increase in acquisition of images. Physicians and radiologists feel better while using retrieval techniques for faster remedy in surgery and medicine due to the following reasons: giving details to the patients, searching the present and past records from the larger databases, and giving solutions to them in a faster and more accurate way. Similarity measures are one of the techniques that help us in retrieval of medical images. Similarity measures also termed as distance metrics, which plays an important role in CBIR and CBMIR. They calculate the visual similarities between the query image and images in the database which were ranked by their similarities with the query image. Different similarity measures have different effects in an image retrieval system significantly. So, it is important to find the best distance metrics for CBIR system. In this article, various distance methods were used and then they are compared for effective medical image retrieval. A double‐step approach is followed for effective retrieval. This article describes some easily computable distance measures for medical image retrieval using measures such as probability, mean, standard deviation, skew, energy, and entropy. The distance measures used are Euclidean, Manhattan, Mahalanobis, Canberra, Bray‐Curtis, squared chord, and Squared chi‐squared. Two kind of decision rules precision and accuracy were used for measuring retrieval. A dataset is created using various imaging modalities like CT, MRI, and US images. From the final results, it is very clear that each distance metric with each measures shows different results in retrieval of medical images. It is found that the distance metrics with all the measures shows different precision and recall value calculated from their retrieved medical images. The best retrieval results for Euclidean distance metric is only with probability measure showing 75% of precision and 30% of recall when comparing with other measures. The best retrieval results for Manhattan distance metric is only with mean as a measure giving 50% of precision and 20% of recall when compared its performance with other measures in the retrieval of medical images. The best retrieval results for Mahalanobis distance metric is only with probability as a measure giving 75% of precision and 30% of recall when compared its performance with other measures in the retrieval of medical images. The best retrieval results for Canberra distance metric is only with mean as a measure giving 50% of precision and 20% of recall when compared its performance with other measures in the retrieval of medical images. The best retrieval results for Bray‐Curtis distance metric is only with mean as a measure giving 50% of precision and 20% of recall when compared its performance with other measures in the retrieval of medical images. The best retrieval results for squared‐chord distance metric is only with mean as a measure giving 50% of precision and 20% of recall when compared its performance with other measures in the retrieval of medical images. The best retrieval results for squared chi‐chord distance metric is only with mean as a measure showing 50% of precision and 20% of recall when compared its performance with other measures in the retrieval of medical images. These results indicate that these easily computable similarity distance measures have a wide variety of medical image retrieval applications. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 23, 9–21, 2013     

A review on front end conversion in ocean wave energy converters

Harvesting the energy from ocean waves is one of the greatest attractions for energy engineers and scientists. Till date, plenty of methods have been adopted to harvest the energy from the ocean waves. However, due to technological and economical complexity, it is intricate to involve the majority of these energy harvesters in the real ocean environment. Effective utilization and sustainability of any wave energy harvester depend upon its adaptability in the irregular seasonal waves, situation capability in maximum energy extraction and finally fulfilling the economic barriers. In this paper, the front end energy conversions are reviewed in detail which is positioned in the first stage of the wave energy converter among other stages such as power take off (PTO) and electrical energy conversion. If the recent development of these front end energy conversion is well known then developing wave energy converter with economic and commercial viability is possible. The aim of this review is to provide information on front end energy conversion of a point absorber and emphasize the strategies and calamity to be considered in designing such kinds of devices to improve the energy harvesting competence. This will be useful to the engineers for speeding up the development of a matured point absorbing type wave energy converter.     

Improved algorithms for resource allocation under varying capacity

We consider the problem of scheduling a set of jobs on a system that offers certain resource, wherein the amount of resource offered varies over time. For each job, the input specifies a set of possible scheduling instances, where each instance is given by starting time, ending time, profit and resource requirement. A feasible solution selects a subset of job instances such that at any timeslot, the total requirement by the chosen instances does not exceed the resource available at that timeslot, and at most one instance is chosen for each job. The above problem falls under the well-studied framework of unsplittable flow problem on line. The generalized notion of scheduling possibilities captures the standard setting concerned with release times and deadlines. We present improved algorithms based on the primal–dual paradigm, where the improvements are in terms of approximation ratio, running time and simplicity.     

Multi-response optimization of Micro-EDM process parameters on AISI304 steel using TOPSIS

The Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method of optimization is used to analyze the process parameters of the micro-Electrical discharge machining (micro-EDM) of an AISI 304 steel with multi-performance characteristics. The Taguchi method of experimental design L27 is performed to obtain the optimal parameters for inputs, including feed rate, current, pulse on time, and gap voltage. Several output responses, such as the material removal rate, electrode wear rate, overcut, taper angle, and circularity at entry and exit points, are analyzed for the optimal conditions. Among all the investigated parameters, feed rate exerts a greater influence on the hole quality. ANOVA is employed to identify the contribution of each experiment. The optimal level of parameter setting is maintained at a feed rate of 4 μm/s, a current of 10 A, a pulse on time of 10 μs, and a gap voltage of 10 V. Scanning electron microscope analysis is conducted to examine the hole quality. The experimental results indicate that the optimal level of the process parameter setting over the overall performance of the micro-EDM is improved through TOPSIS.     

Dynamics of ion beam modification of polymer films

Thin polymer films were irradiated in a high vacuum environment with energetic (～2 MeV) ions. The emitted molecular species were studied with a quadrupole mass spectrometer during bombardment. The emitted species are predominantly small molecules. The efficiency of emission depends strongly upon the electronic energy loss of the incident ions in the film and, hence, upon the velocity and atomic number of the incident ion. The emission efficiency of all species decreases with increasing damage in the film. By pulsing the ion beam, the time dependence of irradiation induced emission of molecular species from the films has been studied. Emission delays of hundreds of milliseconds are observed in some cases. These delays are found to depend upon the emitted species as well as the host film and seem to be associated with diffusion of the species in the films.     

The role of environmental factors and medium composition on bacteriocin production by an aquaculture probiotic Enterococcus faecium MC13 isolated from fish intestine

The aim of this study was to optimize medium composition for higher yield of total viable cells and bacteriocin by Enterococcus faecium MC13. The factors such as peptone, meat extract, yeast extract, lactose, glycerol, tween 80, triammonium citrate and K₂HPO₄ were selected based on the Lactobacillus MRS medium composition. Two level factorial designs (FD) and steepest ascent path were performed to identify vital factors among the variables. Through the 2^?8 FD, peptone, yeast extract and lactose were found to be significant factors involved in the enhanced production of viable cells and bacteriocin. Therefore, these three foremost factors were further optimized by central composite design to achieve efficient yield. The optimum MRS composition was found to be peptone (40.0 g/L), meat extract (30.0 g/L), yeast extract (40.0 g/L), lactose (24.0 g/L), glycerol (5.8 g/L), Tween 80 (3.0 g/L), triammonium citrate (1.0 g/L), K₂HPO₄ (2.5 g/L), MgSO₄·7H₂O (0.10 g/L), MnSO₄·7H₂O (0.05 g/L) and dipotassium PO₄ (2.0 g/L). The optimized growth medium allowed higher amount of bacteriocin activity (36,100 AUml^?1) and total viable cells (14.22 LogCFUml^?1) production which were two-times higher than the commercial MRS medium.     

Nafion/lead oxide–manganese oxide combined catalyst for use as a highly efficient alkaline air electrode in zinc–air battery

In this study, we report the application of an inexpensive and easily prepared lead oxide–manganese oxide catalyst combined with Nafion (designated as Nf/PbMnO_x) as a highly efficient air-cathode for a zinc–air battery. We verify the mechanistic study of the reduction of O₂ for Nf/PbMnO_x in alkaline aqueous solution using rotating ring/disk electrode voltammetry, and also an electrochemical approach using a wall-jet screen-printed ring disk electrode. The presence of Nf/PbMnO_x shows great catalytic activity for the disproportionation reaction of HO₂⁻ to O₂ and OH⁻ with an overall 4e⁻ reduction of O₂ in the first reduction reaction. The 4e⁻ reduction of O₂ was eventually achieved at the Nf/PbMnO_x through evidence from the slope of Koutecky–Levich plots. With these inherent features, we then fabricated the zinc–air battery with the Nf/PbMnO_x catalyst and examine the performance for a practical application with air cathodes.     

The propagation of pressure in a gelled waxy oil pipeline as studied by particle imaging velocimetry

Paraffinic crude oils in pipelines may form waxy gels during flow shutdowns. These gels can be dislodged by applying pressure if the wall shear stress, proportional to the local pressure gradient, exceeds the gel yield stress. The simplest models assume that the axial pressure profile becomes linear immediately after a jump in upstream pressure, but this fails to account for gel time‐dependent rheology or the effect of gel voids on pressure wave propagation. To investigate the former factor, pressure profile and particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) measurements were performed on a model oil gelled under pressure to reduce void formation. After a jump in upstream pressure to a value insufficient to restart flow, the axial pressure profile becomes linear in a two‐step process, with an immediate small rise in downstream pressure followed by a time‐delayed jump. The local downstream gel deformation measured by PIV exhibits similar two‐step time dependence. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2012