The roles of nitrogen,phosphorus and Potassium in the production of sugarcane in South Africa

The amounts of N and K fertilizers used in the South African sugar industry have increased dramatically in the past four decades, due partly to an increase in the area under sugarcane but also to large increases in the amounts of N and K fertilizers applied per hectare. There has also been an increase in the amount of P fertilizer used but this has been more gradual. The main fertilizer carriers for cane and their relative efficiency are discussed. During this period there has been considerable research into the nutrient requirements of sugarcane. Correlations established between soil and leaf analysis and crop responses to N, P and K fertilizers, and their effects on cane quality, are reviewed. While fertilizer recommendations based on soil and leaf analysis have provided a useful guide for determining the nutrient requirements of cane, they are continually being modified in the light of current research.     

The properties of annealed AlN films deposited by pulsed laser deposition

AlN films deposited on SiC or sapphire substrates by pulsed laser deposition were annealed at 1200°C, 1400°C, and 1600°C for 30 min in an inert atmosphere to examine how their structure, surface morphology, and substrate-film interface are altered during high temperature thermal processing. Shifts in the x-ray rocking curve peaks suggest that annealing increases the film density or relaxes the films and reduces the c-axis Poisson compression. Scanning electron micrographs show that the AlN begins to noticeably evaporate at 1600°C, and the evaporation rate is higher for the films grown on sapphire because the as-deposited film contained more pinholes. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy shows that the interface between the film and substrate improves with annealing temperature for SiC substrates, but the interface quality for the 1600°C anneal is poorer than it is for the 1400°C anneal when the substrate is sapphire. Transmission electron micrographs show that the as-deposited films on SiC contain many stacking faults, while those annealed at 1600°C have a columnar structure with slightly misoriented grains. The as-deposited films on sapphire have an incoherent interface, and voids are formed at the interface when the samples are annealed at 1600°C. Auger electron spectroscopy shows that virtually no intermixing occurs across the interface, and that the annealed films contain less oxygen than the as-grown films.     

Design and fabrication of monolithically integrated DFB laser-wavelength duplexer transceivers for TPON/BPON access links

The fabrication and characterisation of monolithically integrated OEIC transceivers for use in optical subscriber access links are reported. A design incorporating DFB lasers, wavelength duplexers and a monitor photodiode, specific to the TPON/BPON passive optical network configuration is presented.<>     

Modeling of spiking analog neural circuits using organic semiconductor thin film transistors with silicon oxide nitride semiconductor gates

This paper uses the results of the characterization of amorphous semiconductor thin film transistors (TFTs) with the quasi-permanent memory structure referred to as silicon oxide nitride semiconductor (SONOS) gates, to model spiking neural circuits. SONOS gates were fabricated and characterized. In addition, MOSFETs using organic copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) were fabricated with these SONOS gates to demonstrate proof of concept performance. Analog spiking circuits were then modeled using these low performance TFTs to demonstrate the general suitability of organic TFTs in neural circuits. The basic circuit utilizes a standard comparator with charge and discharge circuits. A simple Hebbian learning circuit was added to charge and discharge the SONOS device. The use of these elements allows for the design and fabrication of high-density 3-dimensional circuits that can achieve the interconnect density of biological neural systems.     

Performance and Modeling of the MWIR HgCdTe Electron Avalanche Photodiode

The operation of the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) HgCdTe cylindrical electron injection avalanche photodiode (e-APD) is described. The measured gain and excess noise factor are related to the collection region fill factor. A two-dimensional diffusion model calculates the time-dependent response and steady-state pixel point spread function for cylindrical diodes, and predicts bandwidths near 1 GHz for small geometries. A 2 μm diameter spot scan system was developed for point spread function and crosstalk measurements at 80 K. An electron diffusion length of 13.4 μm was extracted from spot scan data. Bandwidth data are shown that indicate bandwidths in excess of 300 MHz for small unit cells geometries. Dark current data, at high gain levels, indicate an effective gain normalized dark density count as low as 1000 counts/μs/cm² at an APD gain of 444. A junction doping profile was determined from capacitance–voltage data. Spectral response data shows a gain-independent characteristic.     

3D Knitting for Pneumatic Soft Robotics

Soft robots adapt passively to complex environments due to their inherent compliance, allowing them to interact safely with fragile or irregular objects and traverse uneven terrain. The vast tunability and ubiquity of textiles has enabled new soft robotic capabilities, especially in the field of wearable robots, but existing textile processing techniques (e.g., cut-and-sew, thermal bonding) are limited in terms of rapid, additive, accessible, and waste-free manufacturing. While 3D knitting has the potential to address these limitations, an incomplete understanding of the impact of structure and material on knit-scale mechanical properties and macro-scale device performance has precluded the widespread adoption of knitted robots. In this work, the roles of knit structure and yarn material properties on textile mechanics spanning three regimes–unfolding, geometric rearrangement, and yarn stretching–are elucidated and shown to be tailorable across unique knit architectures and yarn materials. Based on this understanding, 3D knit soft actuators for extension, contraction, and bending are constructed. Combining these actuation primitives enables the monolithic fabrication of entire soft grippers and robots in a single-step additive manufacturing procedure suitable for a variety of applications. This approach represents a first step in seamlessly “printing” conformal, low-cost, customizable textile-based soft robots on-demand.     

Carbohydrates of rapeseed: A review

Graded extraction of oil-free, dehulled, rapeseed cotyledon meal with boiling aqueous ethanol, hot water, hot ammonium oxalate and finally sodium hydroxide yielded a series of fractions. The composition, identification and structural evaluation of the various products is presented and the results compared with those obtained from other seeds.     

Mechanically Programmable Dip Molding of High Aspect Ratio Soft Actuator Arrays

This work presents multiple methods of creating high aspect ratio fluidic soft actuators that can be formed individually or in large arrays via dip coating. Within this methodology, four strategies are provided to mechanically program the motion of these actuators, including the use of fiber inclusions, gravity, surface tension, and electric fields. The modular nature of this dip coating fabrication technique is inexpensive, easy to modify, and scalable. These techniques are used to demonstrate the fabrication of soft actuators with aspect ratios up to 200:1 and integrated arrays of up to 256 actuators. Furthermore, these methods have the potential to achieve higher aspect ratios and larger array sizes. Operating pressure, curvature, and curling strength tests reveal the design space in which fabrication parameters can be selected to tune the input and output parameters of soft bending actuators. An individual bending actuator made with these methods weighs between 0.15 and 0.5 g, can hold up to 2 N, and can be designed to work in groups to increase curling strength with distributed contact forces. Arrays of these actuators may be useful in atypical grasping and manipulation tasks, fluid manipulation, and locomotion.     

On the variability of manual spike sorting

The analysis of action potentials, or "spikes," is central to systems neuroscience research. Spikes are typically identified from raw waveforms manually for off-line analysis or automatically by human-configured algorithms for on-line applications. The variability of manual spike "sorting" is studied and its implications for neural prostheses discussed. Waveforms were recorded using a micro-electrode array and were used to construct a statistically similar synthetic dataset. Results showed wide variability in the number of neurons and spikes detected in real data. Additionally, average error rates of 23% false positive and 30% false negative were found for synthetic data.     

Poles and Zeros – Examples of the Behavioral Approach Applied to Discrete Linear Repetitive Processes

In this paper the behavorial approach is applied to discrete linear repetitive processes, which are class of 2D systems of both systems theoretic and applications interest. The main results are on poles and zeros for these processes, which have exponential trajectory interpretations. Published online: April 2006