Phase state stabilization of ammonium nitrate for creating an oxidizing agent for smokeless gas-generating formulations yielding no toxic combustion products

Methods for phase stabilization of ammonium nitrate were sought for in order to considerably expand the application area of this oxidizing agent in various-purpose self-combustible formulations, including that in a new generation of gas-generating formulations for automobile air bags. New methods for stabilization of ammonium nitrate were studied and, in particular, a search was made for organic compounds that can stabilize ammonium nitrate even at their low content. The mechanism of phase state stabilization of ammonium nitrate by compounds of this kind was examined.     

Handover and Uplink Power Control Performance in the 3.84 Mcps TDD mode of UTRA Network

In this article we consider the performance of the 3.84 Mcpstime-division duplex (TDD) mode of UTRA (Universal TerrestrialRadio Access) network. We emphasize two of the radio resourcemanagement algorithms, handover and uplink power control, whoserole in the overall system performance is studied extensively.First, a handover algorithm used in WCDMA (Wideband Code DivisionMultiple Access) standard is considered in a TDD-mode operation.This gives rise to a careful setting of different handoverparameters, and the evaluation of the effects to the systemperformance. Secondly, the specified uplink power controlalgorithm is considered. Since it is based on several user-mademeasurements which may involve both random and systematic errors acareful study about the suitability of the power control scheme iscarried out.     

Dispersion-tolerant 10-gb/s duobinary system employing heterodyne detection and MLSE

We experimentally demonstrate a 10.7-Gb/s duobinary transmission system operating over a chromatic-dispersion range of /spl sim/12 000 ps/nm. Heterodyne detection and maximum-likelihood sequence estimation are employed to achieve this result.     

A New Hand-Held Microsystem Architecture for Biological Analysis

This paper presents a hand-held microsystem based on new fully integrated magnetoresistive biochips for biomolecular recognition (DNA hybridization, antibody antigen interaction, etc.). Magnetoresistive chip surfaces are chemically treated, enabling the immobilization of probe biomolecules such as DNA or antibodies. Fluid handling is also integrated in the biochip. The proposed microsystem not only integrates the biochip, which is an array of 16times16 magnetoresistive sensors, but it also provides all the electronic circuitry for addressing and reading out each transducer. The proposed architecture and circuits were specifically designed for achieving a compact, programmable and portable microsystem. The microsystem also integrates a hand-held analyzer connected through a wireless channel. A prototype of the system was already developed and detection of magnetic nanoparticles was obtained. This indicates that the system may be used for magnetic label based bioassays     

An optically clocked transistor array with dual serial-to-parallel and parallel-to-serial conversion capability for optical label swapping

We propose an optically clocked transistor array optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) for both serial-to-parallel and parallel-to-serial conversion (demux/mux), enabling an interface between high-speed asynchronous burst optical labels and CMOS circuitry for optical label swapping. Dual functionality of the OEIC reduces size, power, and cost of the optical label swapper. The capability for greater than 20-Gb/s conversion operation is demonstrated.     

Automatic image hanging protocol for chest radiographs in PACS.

Chest radiography is one of the most widely used techniques in diagnostic imaging. It comprises at least one-third of all diagnostic radiographic procedures in hospitals. However, in the picture archive and communication system, images are often stored with the projection and orientation unknown or mislabeled, which causes inefficiency for radiologists' interpretation. To address this problem, an automatic hanging protocol for chest radiographs is presented. The method targets the most effective region in a chest radiograph, and extracts a set of size-, rotation-, and translation-invariant features from it. Then, a well-trained classifier is used to recognize the projection. The orientation of the radiograph is later identified by locating the neck, heart, and abdomen positions in the radiographs. Initial experiments are performed on the radiographs collected from daily routine chest exams in hospitals and show promising results. Using the presented protocol, 98.2% of all cases could be hung correctly on projection view (without protocol, 62%), and 96.1% had correct orientation (without protocol, 75%). A workflow study on the protocol also demonstrates a significant improvement in efficiency for image display.     

On the Feasibility of Growing Pb[(Zn1/3Nb2/3)0.91Ti0.09]O3 Single Crystals

Pb[(Zn_1/3Nb_2/3)_0.91Ti_0.09]O₃ (PZNT91/9) single crystals were grown by two methods: from solution using PbO as a self‐fluxing agent (SC method) and directly from the melt without fluxing (MC method). In both growth methods, an allomeric Pb[(Mg_1/3‐Nb_2/3)_0.69Ti_0.31]O₃ (PMNT69/31) single crystal was used as a seed. X‐ray diffraction patterns of ground crystals showed that phase‐pure perovskite PZNT91/9 single crystals were successfully fabricated by the above two methods. The composition of the crystals obtained by both the SC and MC methods was analyzed using X‐ray fluorescence, which confirmed that the crystal composition is close to the nominal value, although volatilization of PbO and segregation during crystal growth are inevitable. The MC PZNT91/9 crystals exhibit excellent piezoelectric properties, with the piezoelectric constant, d₃₃, in the range of 1800–2200 pC N^–1. This value is comparable to that of the SC crystals. However, the MC crystals show an abnormal dielectric behavior. In contrast with the SC crystals, in the MC crystals a much broader dielectric peak appears in the dielectric response curves, accompanied by a much lower peak temperature of around 105 °C. Furthermore, frequency dispersion is apparent over a much wider temperature range (even more apparent than in pure relaxors), where a large, i.e., about 70 °C, full width at half maximum (FWHM) for the dielectric peaks is observed in the dielectric response. It is speculated that such an unusual phenomenon correlates with defects, microinhomogeneities, and polar regions in the as‐grown MC crystals. The origins of this abnormality have not been interpreted in detail until now. However, optical observation of the domain structure confirms that both the SC and MC crystals possess complex structural states.     

New design of hybrid-type self-bearing motor for small, high-speed spindle

A new structure of hybrid (HB)-type self-bearing motor is proposed for miniature spindle motors. The proposed design combines the HB-type self-bearing motor and HB active magnetic bearing in the common stator and rotor pair to generate large radial forces. First, the principle and theoretical background are introduced. Then, the air gap flux is analyzed by the finite element method, and radial forces for the proposed and standard-type HB self-bearing motors are compared. Finally, experiments are conducted to confirm the performance of the proposed motor. The motor can run at relatively high rotating speed with relatively high torque compared with its small size. The levitation is very stable and the motor indicates good performance for practical application.     

Fabrication of Schottky barrier MOSFETs using self-assembly CoSi2 nanopatterning and spacer gate technologies

A self-assembly patterning method for generation of epitaxial CoSi₂ nanostructures was used to fabricate 50 nm channel-length MOSFETs. The transistors have either a symmetric structure with Schottky source and drain or an asymmetric structure with n⁺-source and Schottky drain. The patterning technique is based on anisotropic diffusion of Co/Si atoms in a strain field during rapid thermal oxidation. The strain field is generated along the edges of a mask consisting of 20 nm SiO₂ and 300 nm Si₃N₄. During rapid thermal oxinitridation (RTON) of the masked silicide structure, a well-defined separation of the silicide layer forms along the edge of the mask. These highly uniform gaps define the channel region of the fabricated device. The separated silicide layers act as metal source and drain. A poly-Si spacer was used as the gate contact. The asymmetric transistor was fabricated by ion implantation into the unprotected CoSi₂ layer and a subsequent out-diffusion process to form the n⁺-source. I–V characteristics of both the symmetric and asymmetric transistor structures have been investigated.     

Wireless video streaming with TCP and simultaneous MAC packet transmission (SMPT)

Video streaming is expected to account for a large portion of the traffic in future networks, including wireless networks. It is widely accepted that the user datagram protocol (UDP) is the preferred transport protocol for video streaming and that the transmission control protocol (TCP) is unsuitable for streaming. The widespread use of UDP, however, has a number of drawbacks, such as unfairness and possible congestion collapse, which are avoided by TCP. In this paper we investigate the use of TCP as the transport layer protocol for streaming video in a multi‐code CDMA cellular wireless system. Our approach is to stabilize the TCP throughput over the wireless links by employing a recently developed simultaneous MAC packet transmission (SMPT) approach at the link layer. We study the capacity, i.e. the number of customers per cell, and the quality of service for streaming video in the uplink direction. Our extensive simulations indicate that streaming over TCP in conjunction with SMPT gives good performance for video encoded in a closed loop, i.e. with rate control. We have also found that TCP is unsuitable (even in conjunction with SMPT) for streaming the more variable open‐loop encoded video. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.