Z → E Photoisomerization of Homoactivated Carbon Carbon Double Bonds

Z-configured 1,4-diene or β, γ-unsaturated carbonyl systems are readily available by the Wittig reaction. Isomerization required for access into the E-series can easily be accomplished by irradiation using an ordinary tungsten lamp and diphenyl disulphide sensitizer. There is very little formatation of conjugated isomers (less than 1%).     

Optical energy storage properties of Sr<Subscript>2</Subscript>MgSi<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>7</Subscript>:Eu<Superscript>2+</Superscript>,R<Superscript>3+</Superscript> persistent luminescence materials

The details of the mechanism of persistent luminescence were probed by investigating the trap level structure of Sr₂MgSi₂O₇:Eu²⁺,R³⁺ materials (R: Y, La-Lu, excluding Pm and Eu) with thermoluminescence (TL) measurements and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. The TL results indicated that the shallowest traps for each Sr₂MgSi₂O₇:Eu²⁺,R³⁺ material above room temperature were always ca. 0.7 eV corresponding to a strong TL maximum at ca. 90 °C. This main trap energy was only slightly modified by the different co-dopants, which, in contrast, had a significant effect on the depths of the deeper traps. The combined results of the trap level energies obtained from the experimental data and DFT calculations suggest that the main trap responsible for the persistent luminescence of the Sr₂MgSi₂O₇:Eu²⁺,R³⁺ materials is created by charge compensation lattice defects, identified tentatively as oxygen vacancies, induced by the R³⁺ co-dopants.     

Fountain-inspired erasure coding for real-time traffic

An erasure correction strategy based on fountain coding is proposed for traffic with real-time requirements. A sliding window marks the range of non-expired data. Each new block entering the window is once sent as such, followed by probabilistically sending a repair packet. The repair packets are formed as a random combination of the blocks in the current window using a degree distribution as in LT coding. The performance of the method with a given channel loss probability is analyzed using a Markov chain model. The state space, however, has to be truncated for computational tractability. The truncation error is verified to be small enough by simulations. By using the analytical model the optimal degree distribution is found to be of single-degree type. The performance of the proposed scheme is compared with deterministic settings, in which repair packets are sent after fixed number of systematic packets. Further comparison is made against Raptor coding, and we note that using the presented strategy can result in better performance in some situations.     

Simulation of Two-Dimensional Fractional Gaussian Noise

Fractional Brownian surfaces have frequently been used to model various physical processes and to generate artificial landscapes. We study a closely related process, called two-dimensional fractional Gaussian noise. We devise a method for generating realizations of this process using an approximate conditioning approach, motivated by results from the corresponding one-dimensional process applied in teletraffic modeling.     

Evaluation of electrolessly deposited NiP integral resistors on flexible polyimide substrate

Integral nickel–phosphorus (NiP) resistors were fabricated on flexible polyimide (PI) substrates by electroless NiP deposition. The deposition process was first set up for standard rigid epoxy substrates and then modified for the flexible substrates. The effects of the PI surface modifications on the interfacial adhesion (NiP/PI) were measured experimentally by the pull-off method. The process parameters were optimised to give good adhesion. The mechanical durability of the electrolessly deposited thin film NiP resistors was tested by measuring the electrical resistance during cyclic loading. The results showed the resistors to be mechanically stable. The electrical resistance was also monitored continuously during exposure to corrosive gas environment. The corrosive environment had no significant effect on the resistance of either the electrolessly deposited resistors or the commercial integral resistors used as a reference. The results show that resistors can be fabricated on flexible PI substrate by the described method.     

Vector quantization with hierarchical classification of sub-blocks

A hierarchical classified vector quantization (HCVQ) method is described. In this method, the image is coded in several steps, starting with a relatively large block size, and successively dividing the block into smaller sub-blocks in a quad-tree fashion. The initial block is first vector quantized in the normal way. Classified vector quantization is then performed for its sub-blocks using the vector index of the initial block, i.e. rough information of the image, and the location of the sub-block within the initial block as classifiers. The coding proceeds in a similar way, adding more information of the fine details at each level. The method is found to be effective and to give a good subjective quality. It is also simple to implement, leading to coding speeds typical to a tree search VQ.     

Identification of hydrolysis products of AlCl(3)*6H(2)O in the presence of sulfate by electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and computational methods

ElectroSpray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry (ESI-MS) and computational methods (DFT, MP2, and COSMO) were used to investigate the hydrolysis products of aluminium chloride as a function of sulfate concentration at pH 3.7. With the aid of computational chemistry, structural information was deduced from the chemical compositions observed with ESI-MS. Many novel types of hydrolysis products were noted, revealing that our present understanding of aluminium speciation is too simple. The role of counterions was found to be critical: the speciation of aluminium changed markedly as a function of sulfate concentration. Ab initio calculations were used to reveal the energetically most favoured structures of aluminium sulfate anions and cations selected from the ESI-MS results. Several interesting observations were made. Most importantly, the bonding behaviour of the sulfate group changed as the number of aqua ligands increased. The accompanying structural rearrangement of the clusters revealed the highly active role of sulfate as a ligand. The gas phase calculations were expanded to the aquatic environment using a conductor-like screening model. As expected, the bonding behaviour of the sulfate group in the minimum energy structures was distinctly different in the aquatic environment compared to the gas phase. Together, these methods open a new window for research in the solution chemistry of aluminium species.     

Fast parameterized matching with q-grams

Two strings parameterize match if there is a bijection defined on the alphabet that transforms the first string character by character into the second string. The problem of finding all parameterized matches of a pattern in a text has been studied in both one and two dimensions but the research has been centered on developing algorithms with good worst-case performance. We present algorithms that solve this problem in sublinear time on average for moderately repetitive patterns.     

Identification and fragmentation of hydrolyzed aluminum species by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

Earlier characterization of some hydrolysis products of AlCl₃·6H₂O was confirmed by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry with increasing collision energy of projectile ions. At lower collision energies, the aqua ligands were stripped off. At higher energies, two hydroxo groups formed a bridging oxo group with loss of one water molecule. Aluminum complexes could also capture aqua ligands in the collision chamber so long as the parent ion did not fragment, and the fragment ion spectra broadened toward higher m/z values. The chloro ligands were eliminated as hydrochloric acid. The aluminum cores remained highly intact. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.