Fabrication and amplification of Rhodamine B‐doped step‐index polymer optical fiber

A step‐index polymer optical fiber (SI POF) containing Rhodamine B in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) has been fabricated by a preform technique. Fluorescence of different fiber lengths were observed and discussed. A high gain (23 dB) for a SI POF with 60‐cm length, 400‐μm diameter was obtained. The Rhodamine B content of the doped SI POF is 5 ppm‐wt. The signal wavelength providing the highest gain for a 60 cm SI POF is around 630 nm, and the optimum fiber length is about 60 cm at 10 kW launched pump power. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 681–685, 2004     

A kinetic model for polystyrene (PS) pyrolysis reaction

A mathematical model for the pyrolysis reaction of polystyrene (PS) in a semi-batch reactor has been presented. The thermal degradation of PS was flexibly modeled by a combination of random and specific chain-end scissions. Numerical simulation was used to investigate the effect of operating conditions on the PS products spectrum, the results of which were validated by the experimental data. It was found that as the reaction temperature increased (decreased), the monomer fraction in the products became lower (higher) while the trimer higher (lower). No significant variation in the product composition was, however, observed while constant temperature was maintained. These results indicate the reaction temperature is an effective manipulated variable for the control of products composition of PS pyrolysis. The calculation of the optimum temperature trajectories through the optimization study can thus be of interest for achieving productivity enhancement in plastics pyrolysis processes. This paper is dedicated to Professor Dong Sup Doh on the occasion of his retirement from Korea University.     

An alignment-free fingerprint bio-cryptosystem based on modified Voronoi neighbor structures

Bio-cryptography is an emerging security technology which combines cryptography with biometrics. A good bio-cryptosystem is required to protect the privacy of the relevant biometric data as well as achieving high recognition accuracy. Fingerprints have been widely used in bio-cryptosystem design. However, fingerprint uncertainty caused by distortion and rotation during the image capturing process makes it difficult to achieve a high recognition rate in most bio-cryptographic systems. Moreover, most existing bio-cryptosystems rely on the accurate detection of singular points for fingerprint image pre-alignment, which is very hard to achieve, and the image rotation transformation during the alignment process can cause significant singular point deviation and minutiae changes. In this paper, by taking full advantage of local Voronoi neighbor structures (VNSs), e.g. local structural stability and distortion insensitivity, we propose an alignment-free bio-cryptosystem based on fixed-length bit-string representations extracted from modified VNSs, which are rotation- and translation-invariant and distortion robust. The proposed alignment-free bio-cryptosystem is able to provide strong security while achieving good recognition performance. Experimental results in comparison with most existing alignment-free bio-cryptosystems using the publicly-available databases show the validity of the proposed scheme.     

A survey of traffic-based routing metrics in family of expected transmission count for self-organizing networks

Self-Organizing Networks (SONs) are attractive for applications where flexibility, resilience, and a large network service area are required. In order to meet the requirements of those applications, the principal issue is to guarantee efficient routing in SONs. Hence, the design and selection of appropriate routing metrics is important. A mass of metrics have been proposed in the past several decades. Among all the metrics, Expected Transmission Count (ETX) has drawn the most attention. Since the proposal of ETX, many ETX-based or extended metrics have been proposed. ETX and its descendants compose the ETX family. This paper is an attempt to analyze, compare and summarize traffic-based routing metrics in the ETX family. Details of each routing metric are presented and analyzed. Some of our viewpoints on the principal for designing metrics in SONs are presented.     

Seasonal evolution of the interannual variability of chlorophyll-a concentration and its forcing factors in the northwestern Pacific from 1998 to 2010

The northwestern Pacific Ocean is a complex region with significant biological spatial variations on a seasonal timescale. To investigate the joint variation patterns on both seasonal and interannual timescales, a season-reliant empirical orthogonal function (S-EOF) analysis was applied to seasonal mean chlorophyll-a concentration (chl-a) anomalies in the northwestern Pacific Ocean during the period 1998–2010. The first two dominant modes accounted for nearly 31% of the total interannual variance, with the second S-EOF mode (S-EOF2) lagging behind the first S-EOF mode (S-EOF1) by one year. S-EOF1 featured a strong variation pattern to the north of 30° N, with maximum chl-a in winter and minimum chl-a in summer. However, S-EOF2 indicated an opposite seasonally evolving pattern compared with S-EOF1, with chl-a increasing along the Kuroshio and extension current from boreal winter to autumn. Both these modes revealed significant relationships with climate-related indices. The two modes corresponded to the central Pacific (CP) La Niña developing episodes and the turnaround from eastern Pacific (EP) La Niña to CP El Niño, respectively. Both modes were associated with the cold phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which played an important role in prolonging the impact of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation on chl-a seasonal evolution from 1998 to 2010. In addition, we discuss the possible factors dominating chl-a seasonal variation, in terms of the subregions of the northwestern Pacific Ocean. In the subtropical northwestern Pacific Ocean (15° N – 30° N), the chl-a growth was primarily nutrient-limited, whereas in the mid-latitude northwestern Pacific Ocean (35° N – 50° N), the chl-a growth was mainly light-limited.     

Dynamic response of Ti3SiC2 under shock compression up to 112 GPa

Ti₃SiC₂ is of interest due to its unique dual nature reminiscent of both brittle ceramics and ductile metals at ambient conditions. In this work, plate-impact experiments have been performed to study the dynamic behavior of Ti₃SiC₂ under shock compression up to 112 GPa by using laser velocity interferometer and electric pin techniques. Hugoniot elastic limits (HEL), spall strength, and Hugoniot equations of state have been obtained based on measured particle velocity profiles and shock wave velocities. The ratio of spall strength to HEL for Ti₃SiC₂ is larger than brittle ceramics but smaller than metals. This result indicates that the dual nature of Ti₃SiC₂ remains at least up to 10 GPa. On the other hand, the linearity of the Hugoniot equation of state, $D=6.9\text{0}1(22)+1.153(53)u_{\text{p}}$, suggests that the initial structure of Ti₃SiC₂ should be stable up to 112 GPa, in contrast to the result reported by Jordan et al. [J. Appl. Phys., 93 (2003) 9639].     

复合泡沫塑料的性能改进研究

为改善复合泡沫塑料的介电性能,采用金属氧化物粒子填充改性双马来酰亚胺空芯玻璃微球复合泡沫塑料得到了高介电常数、低介质损耗因数、低密度、力学性能良好的电介质材料。     

合成气中氨含量测定方法的改进

用快速测定仪测定气体中的氨含量，采气量为50ml，可准确测出高含量氨体积百分比含量为80%-100%和低含量氨体积百分比含量为1%-20%的样气，该仪器结构简单，易于制造，测定过程简单，结果准确，一目了然。     

Effects of the reinforcement and toughening of acrylate resin/CaCO3 nanoparticles on rigid poly(vinyl chloride)

Novel composite particles based on nanoscale calcium carbonate (nano‐CaCO₃) as the core and polyacrylates as the shell were first synthesized by in situ encapsulating emulsion polymerization in the presence of the fresh slush pulp of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) nanoparticles. Subsequently, these modified nanoparticles were compounded with rigid poly(vinyl chloride) (RPVC) to prepare RPVC/CaCO₃ nanocomposites. At the same time, the effects of the reinforcement and toughening of these modified nanoparticles on RPVC were investigated, and the synergistic effect of modified nanoparticles with chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) was also studied. The results showed that in the presence of nano‐CaCO₃ particles, the in situ emulsion polymerization of acrylates was carried out smoothly, and polyacrylates successfully encapsulated on the surface of nano‐CaCO₃ to prepare the modified nanoparticles, breaking down nano‐CaCO₃ particle agglomerates, improving their dispersion in the matrix, and also increasing the particle–matrix interfacial adhesion. Thus, the effects of the reinforcement and toughening of these modified nanoparticles on RPVC were very significant, and the cooperative effect of the nanoparticles with CPE occurred in the united modification system. Scanning electron microscopy analyses indicated that large‐fiber drawing and network morphologies coexisted in the system of joint modification of nanoparticles with CPE. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 3940–3949, 2007     

Comments on the characterisation of oxidation catalysts using TPR/TPO

Temperature programmed reduction (TPR) and oxidation (TPO) are used extensively in catalyst characterisation. In this paper, we examine the use of TPR/TPO cycles for the characterisation of a range of molybdates and single oxides. In particular we observe that the first cycle differs from that of subsequent analyses, even when the maximum temperature is limited to that used in the catalytic reaction. The effect is independent of heating rates and cooling atmospheres and has been demonstrated using different bed configurations. This observation has significance when these oxides are used in periodic flow reactors that involve many cyclical reduction/oxidation.