The Crystal Structure of Sr2TiSi2O8

Sr₂TiSi₂O₈ single crystals were grown by Czochralski pulling and from a high-temperature solution. X-ray diffractometry revealed the modulated crystal structure of Sr₂TiSi₂O₈ to belong to the 5D superspace group P4bm (−α, α, 1/2; α, α, 1/2) with α=0.3. Atomic positions, anisotropic displacement factors and positional modulation parameters for Sr₂TiSi₂O₈ are determined and discussed. The positional modulation is further investigated by electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. In the latter experiments, the 2D modulation appears to be superimposed by some 1D modulation waves. This effect is discussed in terms of growth conditions.     

The Development of Gas-flow Modulation for High-frequency MTDSC measurements

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of modulating the temperature programme of a conventional DSC by use of an alternating gas-flow system. Modulated temperature differential scanning calorimetry (MTDSC) is an important thermal analysis technique but suffers from a limited applicable frequency range due to the mass of the sample and DSC cell leading to the impingement of thermal conductivity effects. We suggest that the frequency limit can be increased by replacing the cell as the source of temperature modulation with an external gaseous source, directed towards the sample and reference pans. In this evaluation, an alternating gas-flow was passed through a line to a forced gas-flow accessory (FGFA). The FGFA consisted of two matched cylinders containing chambers that allowed pre-temperature-equilibration of the stream of gas before it was passed over the sample and reference pans. The development of this device revealed the essential practical requirements of gas-flow modulation for high-frequency temperature modulation. These include the following: an appropriately sealed tunable gas supply to both sample and reference pans, an effective method for high-frequency cycling of the gas-flow rate, a small aperture to deliver the flowing gas directly over the pan and a temperature equilibration chamber. The results from samples of quenched PET and amorphous Saquinavir indicate that gas-flow modulation is indeed feasible, with the FGFA able to raise the attainable temperature modulation frequency by an order of magnitude compared to conventional MTDSC. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Enhancement of signal-to-noise level by synchronized dual wavelength modulation for light emitting diode fluorimetry in a liquid-core-waveguide microfluidic capillary electrophoresis system

The signal-to-noise level of light emitting diode (LED) fluorimetry using a liquid-core-waveguide (LCW)-based microfluidic capillary electrophoresis system was significantly enhanced using a synchronized dual wavelength modulation (SDWM) approach. A blue LED was used as excitation source and a red LED as reference source for background-noise compensation in a microfluidic capillary electrophoresis (CE) system. A Teflon AF-coated silica capillary served as both the separation channel and LCW for light transfer, and blue and red LEDs were used as excitation and reference sources, respectively, both radially illuminating the detection point of the separation channel. The two LEDs were synchronously modulated at the same frequency, but with 180°-phase shift, alternatingly driven by a same constant current source. The LCW transferred the fluorescence emission, as well as the excitation and reference lights that strayed through the optical system to a photomultiplier tube; a lock-in amplifier demodulated the combined signal, significantly reducing its noise level. To test the system, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled amino acids were separated by capillary electrophoresis and detected by SDWM and single wavelength modulation, respectively. Five-fold improvement in S/N ratio was achieved by dual wavelength modulation, compared with single wavelength modulation; and over 100-fold improvement in S/N ratio was achieved compared with a similar LCW-CE system reported previously using non-modulated LED excitation. A detection limit (S/N = 3) of 10 nM FITC-labeled arginine was obtained in this work. The effects of modulation frequency on S/N level and on the rejection of noise caused by LED-driver current and detector were also studied.     

大口径光学元件波前调制PSD模拟分析

 使用PSD作为大口径光学元件表面加工质量的评价参数，针对不同的波前调制进行了初步的模拟计算，得到了不同调制频率和不同调制深度情况下的PSD曲线变化情况。当调制频率不同时，PSD曲线的突变部分会发生相应的频移，调制频率高则突变发生在空间频率较高的频段，同时PSD峰值不变。相对应调制深度不同时，PSD曲线的突变部份峰值发生变化，调制深度大则峰值大，与此同时峰值出现的位置不会发生变化。计算和分析结果表明PSD分析结果能够在频率域反应出元件表面受到的不同程度的调制信息。     

Thinking machines

We propose that a sufficiently advanced civilisation may employ Cepheid variable stars as beacons to transmit all-call information throughout the galaxy and beyond. They might employ a pulsed neutrino beam to trigger the expansion of a Cepheid at an earlier than normal time, generating a binary signature of normal period or artificially shortened period. One can construct many scenarios wherein it would be desirable for such a civilisation of star ticklers to transmit data to anyone else within viewing range. The beauty of employing Cepheids is that these stars can be seen from afar (we monitor them out through the Virgo cluster), and any developing technological society would seem to be likely to closely observe them as distance markers. Records exist of Cepheids for well over 100 years. We propose that these (and other regularly variable types of stars) be searched for signs of phase modulation (in the regime of short pulse duration) and patterns, which could be indicative of intentional signalling.     

Nonbinary convolutional codes derived from group character codes

New families of unit memory as well as multi-memory nonbinary convolutional codes are constructed algebraically in this paper. These convolutional codes are derived from the class of group character codes. The proposed codes have basic generator matrices, consequently, they are noncatastrophic. Additionally, the new code parameters are better than the ones available in the literature.     

Important unanswered questions—1970

This paper was given as the opening address at the 1970 Albany International Conference on Radiation Effects in Semiconductors, and it attempts to establish a general overview of the field by concentrating on recent research developments and important unanswered questions. The continuing importance of impurity-defect interactions, of microscopic defect identification, and of the necessity for more theoretical calculations are emphasized. The rapid development of the field of ion implantation and its close relationship with radiation effects studies are pointed out. It is predicted that research in compound semiconductors will increase rapidly with close beneficial interaction with ion implantation studies.     

Projective Reed–Muller type codes on rational normal scrolls

In this paper we study an instance of projective Reed–Muller type codes, i.e., codes obtained by the evaluation of homogeneous polynomials of a fixed degree in the points of a projective variety. In our case the variety is an important example of a determinantal variety, namely the projective surface known as rational normal scroll, defined over a finite field, which is the basic underlining algebraic structure of this work. We determine the dimension and a lower bound for the minimum distance of the codes, and in many cases we also find the exact value of the minimum distance. To obtain the results we use some methods from Gröbner bases theory.     

A new coding scheme of QC-LDPC codes for optical transmission systems

Based on Galois Field (GF(q)) multiplicative group, a new coding scheme for Quasi-Cyclic Low-Density Parity-Check (QC-LDPC) codes is proposed, and the new coding scheme has some advantages such as the simpler construction, the easier implementation encoding, the lower complexity of the encoding and decoding, the more flexible adjustment of the code length as well as the code rate and so forth. Under the condition of considering the characteristics of optical transmission systems, an irregular QC-LDPC (3843,3603) code to be suitable for optical transmission systems is constructed by applying the proposed new coding scheme. The simulation result shows that the net coding gain (NCG) of the irregular QC-LDPC (3843,3603) code is respectively improved 2.14 dB, 1.19 dB, 0.24 dB and 0.14 dB more than those of the classic RS (255,239) code in ITU-T G.975, the LDPC (32640,30592) code in ITU-T G.975.1, the regular SCG-LDPC (3969,3720) code constructed by the Systematically Constructed Gallager (SCG) coding scheme and the regular QC-LDPC (4221,3956) code at the bit error rate (BER) of 10-8. Furthermore, all the five codes have the same code rate of 93.7%. Therefore, the irregular QC-LDPC (3843,3603) code constructed by the proposed new coding scheme has the more excellent error-correction performance and can be better suitable for optical transmission systems.