System Identification Models of the Equivalent Permittivity for Rain Medium

The dielectric constant for rain medium is investigated by utilizing the system identification method. The rain rate model and frequency model of permittivity in millimeter waves band for rain medium are presented. The results obtained with models are in very good agreement with references in calculating the attenuation of electromagnetic waves induced by rain, which Shows that the obtained models are valid and practicable. The cross-polar discrimination gotten with rain rate model is in agreement with references.     

Förster energy transfer from poly(arylene–ethynylene)s to an erbium–porphyrin complex

We study the infrared emission at 1.54 μm of an organolanthanide complex, Er(III)-tetraphenylporphyrin [Er(TPP)acac], both as a result of direct optical excitation and via energy transfer from host π-conjugate polymers of type poly(arylene–ethynylene) [PAE]. In the first case, the emission of the neat complex is characterized in inert transparent materials and a value of the quantum yield at 1.54 μm φ_IR=4×10⁻⁴ is measured. Then, fluorescence resonance transfer is investigated in blends of Er(TPP)acac with PAEs by monitoring the quenching of the polymer fluorescence along with the enhancement of both the visible emission of the ligand and the near-infrared band of Er³⁺. These different procedures allow a detailed analysis of the transfer efficiency within a specific implementation of the Förster model for polymeric donors. The experimental values of the critical radius R₀, ranging from 1.3 to 2.5 nm for the different blends, are in good agreement with theory for a wide interval of the physical and spectroscopic parameters. This suggests that other mechanisms for excitation transfer do not play a significant role in these materials.     

A fast method to measure the thickness of removed layer from etching of SSNTD based on EDXRF

Solid state nuclear track detectors are commonly used for measurements of concentrations of radon gas and/or radon progeny. All these measurements depend critically on the thickness of the removed layer during etching. However, the thickness of removed layer calculated using the etching period does not necessarily provide a sufficiently accurate measure of the thickness. For example, the bulk etch rate depends on the strength of stirring during etching for the LR 115 detector. We propose here to measure the thickness of the removed layer by using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. In the present work, a reference silver nitrate pellet is placed beneath the LR 115 detector, and the fluorescence X-ray intensity for silver is then measured. We have found a linear relationship between the X-ray intensity and the thickness of the removed layer for LR 115 detector. This provides a fast method to measure the thickness of removed layer from etching of LR 115 detector. However, this method was found to be inapplicable for the CR-39 detector. Therefore, alternative methods have yet to be explored for the CR-39 detector.     

Volumetric and infrared measurements on amorphous ice structure

We have simultaneously used adsorption isotherm volumetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in order to take the investigations on amorphous ice structure a step further, especially concerning porosity and annealing-induced modifications. We have studied surface reorganization during annealing and found that the number of surface sites decreases before crystallization, their relative ratios being different for amorphous and crystalline ice. We also present results confirming that ice can have a large specific surface area and nevertheless be non-microporous.     

An analysis of migration paths of Li+ cations in ternary oxygen-containing compounds Li p X q O r

A new method was developed for studying voids and channels in crystal structures based on the Voronoi-Dirichlet partition of crystal space, and 822 structurally characterized ternary compounds Li ^p X ^q O ^r were analyzed for the first time. For these compounds, the dimensionality was determined and the migration patterns of channel systems capable of providing lithium-ion transport were constructed. The calculated coordinates of lithium atoms in the centers of the voids are consistent (within 0.4 ?) with the known structural data. Among these compounds, 113 compounds have infinite channel systems, 60 compounds (18 structural types, STs) have been described earlier in the literature as solid electrolytes, and 53 compounds (23 STs) can be considered as potential one-, two-, or three-dimensional ionic conductors (13, 3, and 7 STs, respectively). Original Russian Text ? N.A. Anurova, V.A. Blatov, G.D. Ilyushin, O.A. Blatova, A.K. Ivanov-Shitz, L.N. Dem’yanets, 2008, published in Kristallografiya, 2008, Vol. 53, No. 6, pp. 987–993.     

Polarized Lidar Reflectance Measurements of Vegetation at Near-Infrared and Green Wavelengths

There is growing interest in the use of lidar for remote sensing of vegetation owing to the emergence of reliable and rugged lasers and highly sensitive detectors. Lidar remote sensing has a distinct advantage over conventional techniques in vegetation remote sensing due to its capability for three-dimensional characterization of vegetative targets. The Multiwavelength Airborne Polarimetric Lidar (MAPL) system was developed primarily for vegetation remote sensing applications from an airborne platform of up to 1,000 -m altitude. The lidar system has full waveform capture and polarimetric measurement capability at two wavelengths in the near-infrared (1064 nm) and the green (532 nm) spectral regions. This study presents preliminary ground-based lidar reflectance measurements on a variety of deciduous and coniferous trees under fully foliated conditions with a view towards tree species discrimination. Variations in the reflectance characteristics of selected deciduous trees under unfoliated and fully foliated conditions were also investigated. Our study reveals distinct differences in the reflectance characteristics of various trees.     

Combined supercritical-fluid chromatography/mass spectrometry in the analysis of diuron in plasma using on-line phase-system switching

On-line sample pretreatment by means of the phase-system switching approach is an interesting technique for the analysis of aqueous samples, e.g., plasma, by means of supercritical-fluid chromatography. In order to analyse plasma samples the following analytical procedure is used. The plasma sample is injected on to a short precolumn, which is washed with water and subsequently dried with nitrogen. Next, the solutes are desorbed with the supercritical mobile phase, analysed with packed-column supercritical-fluid chromatography and detected with either a UV detector or a mass spectrometer, equipped with a moving-belt interface. The herbicide diuron is selected as a test compound to study the feasibility of this approach. Using a selective detector the procedure is sufficiently sensitive to detect diuron in plasma, but not appropriate to detect the diuron metabolites in a post-mortem plasma sample. These have been identified with liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. The detection limit of diuron in plasma using the procedure described is about 30 ng/mL.     

GaAs traveling-wave optical modulator using a modulated coplanar strip electrode with periodic cross-tie overlay

This paper proposes and analyzes a GaAs traveling-wave optical modulator which uses a modulated coplanar strip electrode with periodic cross-tie overlay. This slow-wave structure can be designed to satisfy phase velocity and impedance matching conditions simultaneously. The dominant conductor loss in the slow-wave structure is reduced using the modulated coplanar strip electrode. The calculated 3-dB modulation bandwidth (100 GHz) is much wider than the bandwidth limit (30 GHz) of conventional electrode structures that are limited by phase velocity mismatch.This work was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office under contract DAAL-03-88-K-0005 and the Texas Advanced Technology Program.     

Temperature dependence of the exafs spectrum in YBa2Cu3O7−δ compounds

The temperature dependence of the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) is studied in the high T_c superconductors, YBa₂Cu₃O_7−δ. The measurements were done at the Cu K-edge for samples of two orthorhombic phases (T_c≈90 K and ≈58 K, respectively) and a nonsuperconducting tetragonal phase. Interatomic distances and mean square relative displacements σ² for Cu-O bonds are determined by the least squares refinement. The results indicate that values of σ² increase near T_c for both the orthorhombic samples. It is concluded that this anomalous behavior related to T_c is caused by an anomalous vibration of oxygen atoms in the Ba-O layer. Changes in the Cu-O distances from 300 to 20 K are not found.