Characterization of magnetic materials using a scanning microwave microprobe

We investigated the electromagnetic properties of metals of iron, nickel, cobalt, aluminum, gold, copper, silver, and permalloy thin films on SiO(2) substrates using a near-field microwave microprobe. The electromagnetic properties of metal sheets were estimated by measuring the microwave reflection coefficient S(11) and compared with the theoretical values. We observed the hysteresis behavior of permalloy thin films on SiO(2) substrates using a near-field scanning microwave microprobes (NSMM) system. Experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical model of transmission theory. In order to better characterize the electromagnetic properties of metals and magnetic metals instead of the usual method, we take advantage of the noncontact microprobing evaluation capabilities using a near-field microwave.     

Megawatt low-temperature DC plasma generator with divergent channels of gas-discharge tract

We have developed and studied a new effective megawatt double-unit generator of low-temperature argon plasma, which belongs to the class of dc plasmatrons and comprises the cathode and anode units with divergent gas-discharge channels. The generator has an efficiency of about 80–85% and ensures a long working life at operating currents up to 4000 A.     

Enabling Interoperability among Grid Meta-Schedulers

The goal of Grid computing is to integrate the usage of computer resources from cooperating partners in the form of Virtual Organizations (VO). One of its key functions is to match jobs to execution resources efficiently. For interoperability between VOs, this matching operation occurs in resource brokering middleware, commonly referred to as the meta-scheduler or meta-broker. In this paper, we present an approach to a meta-scheduler architecture, combining hierarchical and peer-to-peer models for flexibility and extensibility. Interoperability is further promoted through the introduction of a set of protocols, allowing meta-schedulers to maintain sessions and exchange job and resource state using Web Services. Our architecture also incorporates a resource model that enables an efficient resource matching across multiple Virtual Organizations, especially where the compute resources and state are dynamic. Experiments demonstrate these new functional features across three distributed organizations (BSC, FIU, and IBM), that internally use different job scheduling technologies, computing infrastructure and security mechanisms. Performance evaluations through actual system measurements and simulations provide the insights on the architecture’s effectiveness and scalability.     

Sustainable energy planning decision using the intuitionistic fuzzy analytic hierarchy process: choosing energy technology in Malaysia

Energy consumption for developing countries is sharply increasing due to the higher economic growth due to industrialisation along with population growth and urbanisation. The increasing demand of energy leads to global energy crisis. Selecting the best energy technology and conservation requires both quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria. The fuzzy set-based approach is one of the well-known theories to handle fuzziness, uncertainty in decision-making and vagueness of information. This paper proposes a new method of intuitionistic fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IF-AHP) to deal with the uncertainty in decision-making. The new IF-AHP is applied to establish a preference in the sustainable energy planning decision-making problem. Three decision-makers attached with Malaysian government agencies were interviewed to provide linguistic judgement prior to analysing with the new IF-AHP. Nuclear energy has been decided as the best alternative in energy planning which provides the highest weight among all the seven alternatives.     

Analysis of polyolefin compositions through near infrared spectroscopy

In this work, NIRS is employed to provide compositions of α‐olefin copolymers, allowing for evaluation of the effects of certain key process variables on the final NIR spectral responses of obtained polymer materials. This work also introduces a new temperature programmed analytical technique, which combines NIRS measurements with partial fractionation of α‐olefin copolymers. The new proposed technique can be used for evaluation of polyolefin compositions, as presented here for poly(propene/1‐butene) copolymers. Besides, preliminary results obtained from thermal fractionation experiments indicate that this new proposed experimental technique can be employed for characterization of comonomer sequence distributions of α‐olefin copolymers. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40127.     

Speckle-contrast monitoring of tissue thermal modification

Measurements of the contrast value of time-averaged speckle-modulated images of cartilage tissue are used to study tissue thermal modification in the case of laser-light treatment. This modification is related to thermally induced internal stress relaxation in the matrix of the treated tissue. The specific feature of the evolution of time-averaged speckle contrast with a change in the current temperature of modified collagen tissue is the typical looplike form of the contrast-temperature dependencies associated with irreversible changes in tissue structure and correlated with changes in the tissue diffuse transmittance and the tissue internal stress mentioned by other researchers.     

Action planning in the presence of distracting stimuli: An investigation into the time course of distractor effects.

Humans have a remarkable capability to respond efficiently to a stimulus of interest despite other stimuli competing for neural resources. The current study investigated how the human system copes with distracting stimuli. During each trial, participants viewed 2 sequential stimuli that were each associated with a specific action based on an arbitrary mapping. The 1st stimulus served as a distractor, and the 2nd stimulus required a response (target). When the distractor preceded the target by more than a few hundred milliseconds, response latencies were slower when the 2 stimuli were associated with the same response. The authors propose that this negative compatibility effect stemmed from an inhibitory mechanism that the human system utilizes to prevent the distractor from eliciting an unwanted response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)