Multi-Wavelength Optical Packet Routing Technologies Based on Superstructured Fiber Bragg Gratings

A WDM compatible Edge-to-Edge Self-Routed optical packet switched network that simplifies the optical processing is proposed. The system employs all-optical packet label generation and recognition using coded superstructured Fiber Bragg gratings.     

An experiment to discover mathematical talent in a primary school in Kampong Air

It is often said that many pupils have hidden talent in mathematics. This hidden ability is rarely seen in a normal classroom teaching and learning situation if the focus of the teacher is on drilling with routine exercises. To allow pupils to display their mathematical talent and to break from mental set and fixation in mathematics, they must be given opportunity to think by themselves with mininum cue or guidance. The pupils could be left entirely on their own to show their mathematical creativity even on mathematical topics which have not been exposed to them. With this approach, five non-routine questions were administered one at a time to a standard 5 class. One out of the 25 pupils in the class consistently exhibited mathematical creativity and talent is answering the questions. Her responses were shown and discussed in this paper.     

Studies on the thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer. XII. Synthesis and properties of crosslinkable thermotropic liquid crystalline homo- and copoly(ether-ester)s

A series of crosslinkable thermotropic liquid crystalline poly(ether-ester)s and copoly(ether-ester)s was prepared. All of the polymers were crosslinked by thermal treatment or photo-irradiation upon heating. The thermal stability and thermal crosslinking reaction of these polymers were investigated. These polymers also could be crosslinked by copolymerization with vinyl monomers, such as styrene or methyl methacrylate. The crosslinked polymers exhibited thermotropic liquid crystalline behavior after softening by heating. The phase behavior of linear polymers and crosslinked polymers was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and an optical polarizing microscope equipped with a heating stage. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

X-Ray Structure and Proton NMR Study of a Hexacoordinated Lithium Complex

The structure of the lithium complex with1,3,5-tris[oxymethylene(N,N-dicyclohexyl)carboxyamido]cyclohexanehas been determined by the X-ray method.The compound is triclinic, space group P¯1,a = 15.623(3), b = 19.279(4),c = 19.295(4)Å = 102.32(3), = 92.45(3), = 105.67(3)0, V = 5436(2)Å3, Z = 4. Itscomposition is represented by the formulaC48H82N3O6LiI 0.5H2O. The lithium cationis encapsulated in a polar pseudo-cavity of six oxygen atoms of the ligandmolecule and displays a distorted trigonal prism coordination. The conformationof the ligand in the solid state complex has been compared with the conformationof the complex in solution determined by 1H-NMR measurements.Supplementary data relevant to this publication have been deposited with the British Library, No. SUP 82224 (21 pages).     

High‐efficiency polymer solar cells based on phenylenevinylene copolymer with BF2‐azopyrrole complex and CN‐PC70BM with solvent additive

Power conversion efficiency (PCE) of phenylenevinylene‐based copolymer with BF₂ azopyrrole complex (PB)/modified PC₇₀BM, that is, CN‐PC₇₀BM bulk heterojunction solar cells improves from 2.16 to 4.90% using a processing additive and drying condition. The results demonstrate that a processing additive and drying condition provides an effective means to control both the surface roughness and finer interpenetrating networks to enhance the exciton dissociation into free charge carriers, charge transportation, and collection. Taking into the account of simple device fabrication process without thermal annealing, the PCE of the polymer solar cell can further improved by chloronapthalene (CN) additive under the fast drying condition. The average carrier lifetimes extracted from the impedance spectra and found to correlate with measured PCEs. At short circuit conditions and illumination, the average charge carrier lifetime was found vary from 16.8 to 32 μs with power conversion efficiencies ranging from 3.0 to 4.9%. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2012     

Electrospun Porous NiCo2O4 Nanotubes as Advanced Electrodes for Electrochemical Capacitors

Novel, porous NiCo₂O₄ nanotubes (NCO‐NTs) are prepared by a single‐spinneret electrospinning technique followed by calcination in air. The obtained NCO‐NTs display a one‐dimensional architecture with a porous structure and hollow interiors. The effect of precursor concentration on the morphologies of the products is investigated. Due to their unique structure, the prepared NCO‐NT electrode exhibits a high specific capacitance (1647 F g^?1 at 1 A g^?1), excellent rate capability (77.3 % capacity retention at 25 A g^?1), and outstanding cycling stability (6.4 % loss after 3000 cycles), which indicates it has great potential for high‐performance electrochemical capacitors. The desirable enhanced capacitive performance of NCO‐NTs can be attributed to the relatively large specific surface area of these porous and hollow one‐dimensional nanostructures.     

H-extension of graphs

We consider the problem of constructing a graphG* from a collection of isomorphic copies of a graphG in such a way that for every two copies ofG, either no vertices or a section graph isomorphic to a graphH is identified. It is shown that ifG can be partitioned into vertex-disjoint copies ofH, thenG* can be made to have at most |H| orbits. A condition onG so thatG* can be vertextransitive is also included.     

Interaction between salinity intrusion and vegetation succession: A modeling approach

Predicting potential changes in groundwater salinity in low-lying coastal regions due to climate change is important, where coastal vegetation is abundant, succession competition between halophytes and glycophytes plays a significant role in the salinity budget. Sea level rise enhances salinity intrusion, contributing an additional dimension to vegetation competition. A new simulation model known as mangrove-hardwood hammock model coupled with saturated-unsaturated transport (MANTRA) has recently been developed by the authors to simulate groundwater salinity regimes in the presence of vegetation competition, subject to climate change. MANTRA is based upon linking two existing Unites States geological survey (USGS) simulation models known as mangrove-hardwood hammock model (MANHAM) and saturated-unsaturated transport (SUTRA). MANHAM simulates the evolution of vegetation succession subject to changing groundwater salinity. SUTRA simulates saturated and unsaturated transport of solutes and salinity in groundwater given sea salinity. MANTRA improves the simulation robustness to simultaneously simulate groundwater hydrology, salinity and coastal vegetation succession subject to sea level rise. Some simulation results will be presented to demonstrate the impact of sea level rise on coastal vegetation succession and groundwater salinity.