Particle-Swarm Optimization in Antenna Design: Optimization of Log-Periodic Dipole Arrays

This paper presents a short tutorial and overview of optimization algorithms based on particle-swarm schemes, and their application to solving electromagnetic problems. As a practical example, a particle-swarm optimization (PSO) tool has been applied in conjunction with the Numerical Electromagnetics Code (NEC) to get the design curves of optimized log-periodic dipole arrays (LPDAs). The graphs show the performance of several radiation parameters (directive gain, front-to-back ratio, bandwidth, SWR, and half-power beamwidth in the E and H planes) as a function of typical design parameters of log-periodic dipole arrays (geometrical parameters and characteristics of the feed). Examples of optimized antennas are given, and their performance is compared to that of standard log-periodic dipole arrays.     

Optical investigation of the red band emission of CdS nanoparticles

Cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanoparticles, with different Cd/S molar ratios, were chemically produced and characterized in this study. High quality CdS nanoparticles were grown in the hexagonal phase, as indicated by X-ray diffraction data and Raman spectroscopy. Photoluminescence was used to investigate the surface effects caused by submitting the nanoparticle-based samples at different laser treatments and vacuum pressure.     

Study of molecular surface coating on the stability of maghemite nanoparticles

In this study γ-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticle, surface-coated with increasing amount of oleic acid, have been prepared while the stability against particle degradation under laser excitation intensity was investigated. Maghemite nanoparticle was obtained via oxidation of magnetite nanoparticle, the latter synthesized by co-precipitation of Fe (II) and Fe (III) ions in alkaline medium. By varying the experimental conditions of surface-coating maghemite nanoparticles with oleic acid, samples with different grafting coefficient were obtained and investigated using X-ray diffraction and different spectroscopic techniques, namely Raman, Mössbauer, and infrared. The amount of oleic acid adsorbed on the maghemite surface was estimated via the carbon content obtained from elemental analysis.     

The Le numbers of the square of a function and their applications

Lê numbers were introduced by Massey with the purposeof numerically controlling the topological properties of familiesof non-isolated hypersurface singularities and describing thetopology associated with a function with non-isolated singularities.They are a generalization of the Milnor number for isolatedhypersurface singularities. In this note the authors investigatethe composite of an arbitrary square-free f and z². They geta formula for the Lê numbers of the composite, and considertwo applications of these numbers. The first application isconcerned with the extent to which the Lê numbers areinvariant in a family of functions which satisfy some equisingularitycondition, the second is a quick proof of a new formula forthe Euler obstruction of a hypersurface singularity. Severalexamples are computed using this formula including any X definedby a function which only has transverse D(q, p) singularitiesoff the origin.     

Lower bounds for resonance widths in potential and obstacle scattering

Explicit lower bounds are given for the size of the imaginary parts of resonances for Schrödinger operators with non-trapping or trapping potentials, and for the Dirichlet Laplacian in the exterior of a star-shaped obstacle, both acting in three dimensions.Work partially supported by DiUC/FONDECYT (Chile)Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant DMS 8705610     

1D to 3D NMR study of microporous alumino‐phosphate AlPO4‐40

From one‐ to two‐ and three‐dimensional MAS NMR solid‐state experiments involving ³¹P and ²⁷Al, we show that the structure of microporous alumino‐phosphate AlPO₄‐40 contains at least four times more sites than expected, and we attribute two types of Al_IV sites. The newly described ²⁷Al‐³¹P MQ‐HMQC opens new possibilities of describing details of three‐dimensional bounded networks. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An ON-resistance closed form for VDMOS devices

An analytical ON-resistance expression for different designs of VDMOS (vertically diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor) devices which takes into consideration the two-dimensional (2-D) nature of the current flow is obtained. This expression differs from other models that overestimate this resistance for large cell spacings. This formulation is in close agreement with experimental points obtained from the interdigitated fabricated structures and with 2-D simulations. Moreover, the effect of a two-level oxide thickness on the ON resistance has been investigated for the interdigitated case     

Dark matter results from 100 live days of XENON100 data

We present results from the direct search for dark matter with the XENON100 detector, installed underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, Italy. XENON100 is a two-phase time-projection chamber with a 62 kg liquid xenon target. Interaction vertex reconstruction in three dimensions with millimeter precision allows the selection of only the innermost 48 kg as the ultralow background fiducial target. In 100.9 live days of data, acquired between January and June 2010, no evidence for dark matter is found. Three candidate events were observed in the signal region with an expected background of (1.8 ± 0.6) events. This leads to the most stringent limit on dark matter interactions today, excluding spin-independent elastic weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) nucleon scattering cross sections above 7.0 × 10(-45) cm(2) for a WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c(2) at 90% confidence level.