High-reliability GaAs-AlGaAs HBTs by MBE with Be base doping andInGaAs emitter contacts

The authors have developed a modified MBE growth process to produce high-gain n-p-n GaAs-AlGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) with a mean time to failure (MTTF) of 1.5×10⁸ h at 125°C. Beryllium incorporation and diffusion are controlled through a combination of reduced substrate temperature and increased As/Ga flux ratio during MBE growth, resulting in extremely stable HBT profiles. The authors also demonstrate graded InGaAs surface layers with nonalloyed refractory metal contacts that significantly improve ohmic reliability compared to alloyed AuGe contacts. The ability to produce robust HBTs by MBE is critically important to this technology     

Continuous hydrogen evolution from cyclohexanes over platinum catalysts supported on activated carbon fibers

The continuous production of hydrogen from cyclohexanes is achieved effectively using Pt/ACF (ACF = activated carbon fiber) catalysts in a fixed-bed flow reactor. The Pt catalysts are more effective than a Pd/ACF catalyst for the reaction. Besides cyclohexane, methylcyclohexane, 1,4-dimethylcyclohexane, and p-menthane can also be employed as hydrogen source in the reaction system.     

Coupling techniques in boundary-combined methods for solving elliptic problems with singularities

Three coupling strategies in matching the Ritz-Galerkin method and the finite element method are introduced for general elliptic equations, and useful numerical techniques are provided. Numerical experiments have been carried out for solving the typical, singular Motz problem, which shows that optimal convergence rates of numerical solutions can be achieved by using the combined methods and techniques provided in this paper.     

N_2/Fe(100)相互作用的动力学研究

用准经典轨迹法对N2－Fe（100）系统进行了研究，分析了氮分子在Fe（100）面上的直接散射和离解性吸附等过程中的能量传递和重新分配，阐明了表面催化的机理。作为准经典轨迹法更为深入的应用，研究了主要LEPS势参数和势特性对初始离解吸附几率（S0）的影响，得出了S0随势特性变化的规律。     

Gd-DPTA enhanced MRI in Bell's palsy and herpes zoster oticus: an overview and implications for future studies

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a new and important tool for use in diagnosing and investigating diseases affecting the facial nerve. In recent gadolinium-DTPA enhanced MRI (Gd-MRI) studies it has unequivocally been demonstrated that ipsilateral facial nerve contrast enhancement, predominantly in the meatal portion, is present in both Bell's palsy and herpes zoster oticus. In this overview, the results of MRI studies performed on patients with acute peripheral facial palsy, especially Bell's palsy and herpes zoster oticus, are discussed. The Gd-MRI pattern in Bell's palsy is very similar to that seen in herpes zoster oticus, and the findings reported so far support the theory that an inflammation may be the cause of the nerve injury in both cases. So far, however, Gd-MRI has not been helpful in evaluating the severity and/or prognosis of the facial palsy. Further studies employing improved techniques, including three-dimensional fast (or turbo) spin echo (3DFSE) MRI with heavily T2-weighted sections and high resolution three-dimensional Fourier transform (3DFT) MRI, need to be conducted in order to determine whether it is possible to follow the course of the disease and whether MRI and/or Gd-MRI are useful prognostic tools in the early stages of palsy.     

Energy efficiency in cloud computing based on mixture power spectral density prediction

Due to the budget and environmental issues, adaptive energy efficiency receives a lot of attention these days, especially for cloud computing. In the previous research, we developed a combined methodology based on nonparametric prediction and convex optimization to produce proactive energy efficiency-oriented solution. In this work, the predictive analysis was further enhanced by deriving the mixture power spectral density to model the complex cloud monitoring statistics. By engaging the improved technique to the predictive analysis, the prediction process was more adaptive to handle the fluctuation in system utilization. As a consequence, the optimization process could subsequently produce more appropriate setting for energy savings. After the infrastructure setting has been made available, the instruction of virtual machine migration was created and implemented by the cloud orchestrator. This instruction condensed the services into the pool of active facilities, satisfying the objective of power efficiency. Eventually, any physical machine out of the power configuration would be gradually terminated. Compared to our former method, the effectiveness of the proposed technique has been proven by cutting down 4.92% of energy consumption, while still maintaining a similar quality of services.

     

Evaluating a color-based active basis model for object recognition

Wu and coworkers introduced an active basis model (ABM) for object recognition in 2010, in which the learning algorithm tends to sketch edges in textures. A grey-value local power spectrum was used to find a common template and deformable templates from a set of training images and to detect an object in new images by template matching. In this paper, we propose a color-based active basis model (color-based ABM for short), which incorporates color information. We adopt the framework of Wu et al. in the learning, detection, and classification of the color-based ABM. However, in order to improve the performance in object recognition, we modify the framework of Wu et al. by using different color-based features in both the learning and template matching algorithms. In this color-based ABM approach, two types of learning (i.e., supervised learning and unsupervised learning) are also explored. Moreover, the usefulness of the color-based ABM for practical object recognition in computer vision applications is demonstrated and its significant improvement in recognizing objects is reported.     

A technique for extracting behavioral sequence patterns from GPS recorded data

The mobile wireless market has been attracting many customers. Technically, the paradigm of anytime-anywhere connectivity raises previously unthinkable challenges, including the management of million of mobile customers, their profiles, the profiles-based selective information dissemination, and server-side computing infrastructure design issues to support such a large pool of users automatically and intelligently. In this paper, we propose a data mining technique for discovering frequent behavioral patterns from a collection of trajectories gathered by Global Positioning System. Although the search space for spatiotemporal knowledge is extremely challenging, imposing spatial and temporal constraints on spatiotemporal sequences makes the computation feasible. Specifically, the mined patterns are incorporated with synthetic constraints, namely spatiotemporal sequence length restriction, minimum and maximum timing gap between events, time window of occurrence of the whole pattern, inclusion or exclusion event constraints, and frequent movement patterns predictive of one ore more classes. The algorithm for mining all frequent constrained patterns is named cAllMOP. Moreover, to control the density of pattern regions a clustering algorithm is exploited. The proposed method is efficient and scalable. Its efficiency is better than that of the previous algorithms AllMOP and GSP with respect to the compactness of discovered knowledge, execution time, and memory requirement.     

Subsolidus Phase Relationships in Si3N4–AlN–Rare-Earth Oxide Systems

The subsolidus phase relationships in Si₃N₄–AlN–rare-earth oxide (Me₂O₃ where Me=Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy, Er, and Yb) systems were studied. Solid-solution regions with the α-Si₃N₄ structure were delineated along the Si₃N₄–"Me₂O₃:9AIN" joins for all of the rare-earth oxide systems studied. The solubility limits of these solid solutions increased with decreasing size of the rare-earth ions.     

Experimental analysis of particle deposition on single collectors

Experimental studies of particle deposition from liquid suspensions of monodispersed particles flowing past single spherical collectors were carried out and compared with theoretical results based on trajectory calculations. The experimental observations indicate the significant effect of particle flocculation and thus suggest the importance of sedimentation as a collection mechanism. The agreement between the theoretical results and the experimental data is good when the surface force interactions are favorable for collection. However, when the electrokinetic repulsion dominates in the neighborhood of the collector, the rate of collection drops rapidly, although not to zero as predicted by theory.