Effects of grating heights on highly efficient unibond SOIwaveguide grating couplers

We report the first successful experimental evaluation of the effect of grating height upon the output efficiency of grating couplers as predicted using perturbation theory. In addition, we have also produced a grating with an output efficiency of 70%, which is the highest efficiency yet reported for a silicon-on-insulator waveguide grating coupler     

Multi‐Channel Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Sensor Based on Artificial Back Propagation Neural (BPN) Network and Multivariate Linear Regression Analysis (MLR) for Organic Vapors

A six‐channel surface acoustic wave (SAW) detection system with a 315 MHz one‐port quartz resonator and a homemade computer interface for signal acquisition and data processing was developed to detect various organic vapors. The oscillating frequency of the SAW quartz crystal decreased due to the adsorption of organic molecules on the coating materials. Polyethylene glycol, 18 crown 6 (18C6), Cr³⁺/cryptand‐22, stearic acid, polyvinylpyrrolidene and triphenyl phosphine coated quartz crystals were used as sensors. An artificial back propagation neural (BPN) network was used to recognize various organic gases such as hexane, 1‐hexene, 1‐hexyne, 1‐propanol, propionaldehyde, propionic acid and 1‐propylamine. It showed not only the distinction of unity of organic vapors but also mixtures of gases. The learning rate and the hidden unit of a neural network system for BPN analysis were investigated. Furthermore, the concentrations of these organic vapors were computed with about 10% error by multivariate linear regression analysis (MLR). MLR analysis with a multichannel SAW sensor was applied to determine the concentration of each component in a mixture of 1‐hexene, 1‐hexyne and propionaldehyde.     

A note on parallel-machine scheduling with deteriorating jobs

We consider a parallel-machine scheduling problem of minimizing the total completion time. The processing time of a job is a linear function of its starting time and deterioration rate. This problem is known to be NP-hard, even for the case with two machines. In this note, we generalize an existing lower bound for the two-machine case to the general case with an arbitrary number of machines. Despite the generalization concerning machine number, our bound has one extra term that makes our bound tighter than the existing one.     

Active cancellation system of acoustic noise in MR imaging

Introduces a new neural-network architecture for reducing the acoustic noise level in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging processes. The proposed neural network (NN) consists of two cascaded time-delay NNs (TDNNs). This NN is used as the predictor of a feedback active noise control (ANC) system for reducing acoustic noises. Experimental results with real MR noises show that the proposed system achieved an average noise power attenuation of 18.75 dB, which compares favorably with previous studies. Preliminary results also show that with the proposed ANC system installed, acoustic MR noises are greatly attenuated while verbal communication during MRI sessions Is not affected     

Synthesis of 3‐Halogenated Flavonoids via Electrophile‐Promoted Cyclization of 2‐(3‐Aryl‐2‐propynoyl)anisoles

Treatment of 2‐(1‐aryl‐3‐propynoyl) anisoles 1 with N‐chlorosuccinimide (NCS) or N‐bromosuccinimide (NBS) gave the 3‐halogenated flavones and their related molecules in moderate yields.     

Iterative multiuser detection for CDMA with FEC: near-single-userperformance

This paper introduces an iterative multiuser receiver for direct sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) with forward error control (FEC) coding. The receiver is derived from the maximum a posteriori (MAP) criterion for the joint received signal, but uses only single-user decoders. Iterations of the system are used to improve performance, with dramatic effects. Single-user turbo code decoders are utilized as the FEC system and a complexity study is presented. Simulation results show that the performance approaches single-user performance even for moderate signal-to-noise ratios     

Synthesis and properties of a cyanate ester containing dicyclopentadiene(II)

A 2,6‐dimethyl phenol‐dicyclopentadiene novolac (DCPDNO) was synthesized from dicyclopentadiene and 2,6‐dimethyl phenol, and the resultant DCPDNO was reacted with cyanogen bromide into 2,6‐dimethyl phenol‐dicyclopentadiene cyanate ester (DCPDCY). The structures of the novolac and cyanate ester were confirmed with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, mass spectrometry (MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance. For the purpose of increasing the mobility of residual DCPDCY during the final stage of curing and achieving a complete reaction of cyanate groups, a small quantity of a monofunctional cyanate ester, 4‐tert‐butylphenol cyanate ester (4TPCY), was added to DCPDCY to form the cyanate ester copolymer. The synthesized DCPDCY was then cured with 4TPCY at various molar ratios. The thermal properties of the cured cyanate ester resins were studied with dynamic mechanical analysis, dielectric analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis. These data were compared with those of the commercial bisphenol A cyanate ester system. Compared with the bisphenol A cyanate ester system, the cured DCPDCY resins exhibited lower dielectric constants (2.52–2.67 at 1 GHz), dissipation factors (0.0054–0.0087 at 1 GHz), glass‐transition temperatures (261–273 °C), thermal stability (5% degradation temperature at 406–450 °C), thermal expansion coefficients (4.8–5.78 × 10^?5/°C before the glass‐transition temperature), and moisture absorption (0.8–1.1%). © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 671–681, 2005