Strong flexoelectric behavior in bimesogenic liquid crystals

In this paper, we demonstrate strong flexoelectric coupling in bimesogenic liquid crystals. This strong coupling is determined via the flexoelectro-optic effect in chiral nematic liquid crystals based on bimesogenic mixtures that are doped with low concentrations of high twisting power chiral additive. Two mixtures were examined: one had a pitch length of p∼300nm, the other had a pitch length of p∼600nm. These mixtures exhibit enantiotropic chiral nematic phases close to room temperature. We found that full-intensity modulation, that is, a rotation of the optic axis of 45° between crossed polarizers, could be achieved at significantly lower applied electric fields (E<5Vμm -1) than previously reported. In fact, for the condition of full-intensity modulation, the lowest electric-field strength recorded was E=2Vμm-1. As a result of a combination of the strong flexoelectric coupling and a divergence in the pitch, tilt angles of the optic axis up to 87°, i.e., a rotation of the optic axis through 174°, were observed. Furthermore, the flexoelastic ratios, which may be considered as a figure-of-merit parameter, were calculated from the results and found to be large, ranging from 1.3to2C/Nm for a temperature range of up to 40°C. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Comparison of relative flexoelectric coefficients measured by different techniques

While it is well known that it is possible to determine the effective flexoelectric coefficient of nematic liquid crystals using hybrid cells [1], this technique can be difficult due to the necessity of using a D.C. field. We have used a second method[2], requiring an A.C. field, to determine this parameter and here we compare the two techniques. The A.C. method employs the linear flexoelectrically induced linear electro-optic switching mechanism observed in chiral nematics. In order to use this second technique a chiral nematic phase is induced in an achiral nematic by the addition of a small amount of chiral additive (∼3% concentration w/w) to give helix pitch lengths of typically 0.5-1.0 μm. We note that the two methods can be used interchangeably, since they produce similar results, and we conclude with a discussion of their relative merits.

Effect of Pb Volatilization on Dielectric Properties of 0.77PbMg1/3(Nb0.9Ta0.1)2/3O3-0.23PbTiO3

Lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT) is an intriguing candidate for applications in many electronic devices such as multi-layer capacitors, electro-mechanical transducers etc. because of its high dielectric constant, low dielectric loss and high strain near the Curie temperature. As an extension of our previous work on Ta-doped PMNT-PT aimed at optimizing the performance and reducing the cost, this paper focuses on the effect of Pb volatilization on the dielectric properties of 0.77Pb(Mg1/3(Nb0.9Ta0.1)2/3)O3-0.23PbTiO3. The dielectric constant and loss of the samples are measured at different frequencies and different temperatures. The phase purity of this compound is determined by X-ray diffraction pattern. It is found that the volatilization during sintering does influence the phase formation and dielectric properties. The best condition is sintering with 0.5 g extra PbO around a 4 g PMNT-PT sample.

A Bayesian Approach to the Restoration of Degraded Audio Signals

In this paper we derive the a posteriori probability for the location of bursts of noise additively superimposed on a Gaussian AR process. The theory is developed to give a sequentially based restoration algorithm suitable for real-time applications. The algorithm is particularly appropriate for digital audio restoration, where clicks and scratches may be modelled as additive bursts of noise. Experiments are carried out on both real audio data and synthetic AR processes and Significant improvements are demonstrated over existing restoration techniques. © 1995 IEEE

Measurements of thermal radiation in ultralight metal foams with open cells

Highly porous ultralightweight cellular metal foams with open cells have attractive mechanical, thermal, acoustic and other properties and are currently being exploited for high-temperature applications (e.g. acoustic liners for combustion chambers). In such circumstances, thermal radiation in the metal foam becomes a significant mechanism of heat transfer. This paper presents results from experimental measurements on radiative transfer in Fe-Cr-Al-Y (a steel-based high-temperature alloy) foams having high porosity (95 per cent) and different cell sizes, manufactured at low cost from the sintering route. The spectral transmittance and reflectance are measured at different infrared wavelengths ranging from 2.5 to 50 μm, which are subsequently used to determine the extinction coefficient and foam emissivity. The results show that the spectral quantities are strongly dependent on the wavelength, particularly in the short-wavelength regime (less than 25 μm). While the extinction coefficient decreases with increasing cell size, the effect of cell size on foam reflectance is not significant. When the temperature is increased, the total extinction coefficient increases but the total reflectance decreases. The effective radiative conductivity of the metal foam is obtained by using the guarded hot-plate apparatus. With the porosity fixed, the effective radiative conductivity increases with increasing cell size and increasing temperature. © IMechE 2004.

Addition of ferromagnetic CoFe2O4 to YBCO thin films for enhanced flux pinning

An attempt has been made to prepare a YBa2Cu3O 7-δ (YBCO) thin film doped with ferromagnetic CoFe 2O4. Transmission electron microscopy of the resultant samples shows, however, that Y(Fe, Co)O3 forms as a nanoparticulate dispersion throughout the film in preference to CoFe2O4, leaving the YBCO yttrium deficient. As a consequence, the superconducting properties of the sample are poor, with a self-field critical current density of just 0.25 MA cm-2. Magnetic measurements indicate however that the Y(Fe, Co)O3 content, together with any other residual phases, is also ferromagnetic, and some interesting features are present in the in-field critical current behaviour, including a reduced dependence on applied field and a strong c-axis peak in the angular dependence. The work points the way towards future attempts utilising YFeO3 as an effective ferromagnetic pinning additive for YBCO. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thermal radiation in ultralight metal foams with open cells

This paper presents results from experimental measurements on radiative transfer in FeCrAlY (a steel based high temperature alloy) foams having high porosity (95%) and different cell sizes, manufactured at low cost from the sintering route. The spectral transmittance and reflectance are measured at different infrared wavelengths ranging from 2.5 to 50 μm, which are subsequently used to determine the extinction coefficient and foam emissivity. The results show that the spectral quantities are strongly dependent on the wavelength, particularly in the short wavelength regime (<25 μm). Whilst the extinction coefficient decreases with increasing cell size, the effect of cell size on foam reflectance is not significant. When the temperature is increased, the total extinction coefficient increases but the total reflectance decreases. An analytical model based on geometric optics laws, diffraction theory and metal foam morphology is developed to predict the radiative transfer, with cell size (or cell ligament diameter) and porosity identified as the two key parameters that dictate the foam radiative properties. Close agreement between the predicted effective foam conductivity due to radiation alone and that measured is observed. At fixed porosity, the radiative conductivity of the metal foam increases with increasing cell size and temperature. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved.

Robust modelling of noisy ARMA signals

In this paper methods are developed for enhancement and analysis of autoregressive moving average (ARMA) signals observed in additive noise which can be represented as mixtures of heavy-tailed non-Gaussian sources and a Gaussian background component. Such models find application in systems such as atmospheric communications channels or early sound recordings which are prone to intermittent impulse noise. Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation techniques are applied to the joint problem of signal extraction, model parameter estimation and detection of impulses within a fully Bayesian framework. The algorithms require only simple linear iterations for all of the unknowns, including the MA parameters, which is in contrast with existing MCMC methods for analysis of noise-free ARMA models. The methods are illustrated using synthetic data and noise-degraded sound recordings.

Towards a perceptually optimal spectral amplitude estimator for audio signal enhancement

We present a statistical model-based approach to signal enhancement in the case of additive broadband noise. Because broadband noise is localised in neither time nor frequency, its removal is one of the most pervasive and difficult signal enhancement tasks. In order to improve perceived signal quality, we take advantage of human perception and define a best estimate of the original signal in terms of a cost function incorporating perceptual optimality criteria. We derive the resultant signal estimator and implement it in a short-time spectral attenuation framework. Audio examples, references, and further information may be found at http://www-sigproc.eng.cam.ac.uk/~pjw47.

Estabilidad y rendimiento de seis materiales genéticos de frijol común (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) en distintas zonas de Nicaragua

El presente trabajo se realizo con el objetivo de evaluar la estabilidad y capacidad derendimiento de seis poblaciones de frijol común (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) (dos variedades mejoradas) DOR-364 e INTA-Masatepe, (cuatro variedades locales) V16, V29, V6 y V9 en seis localidades del país (Dulce Nombre de Jesús, Darío; Matagalpa; Tomatoya, Jinotega; Las Cámaras, Santa Cruz, Estelí; La Poma, Masaya; La Pita, Santo Tomas, Chontales y La Compañía, San Marcos, Carazo) El experimento consistió en un bifactorial en un diseño de Bloques Completamente al Azar (BCA). El rendimiento de los materiales genéticos se sometió al análisis de estabilidad mediante estadísticas univariadas de estabilidad y el análisis AMMI (Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interactions) que permitió una mejor interpretación de la interacción material genético-localidad. Los resultados significativos de dicha interacción demostraron que los materiales genéticos se comportaron de manera diferente en las distintas localidades. La variedad INTA-Masatepe según el análisis combinado de estabilidad y rendimiento, resultó superior al resto. El análisis AMMI permitió detectar interacciones positivas y negativas entre los diferentes materiales genéticos y localidades resaltando el comportamiento de DOR-364 y V9 en San Marcos (ambiente de alta productividad) y las variedades locales V29 y V16 en las localidades de Dulce Nombre, Masaya y Estelí (ambiente de baja productividad). La variedad local V6 resultó tan estable como INTA-Masatepe pero deficiente en cuanto a rendimiento. El estudio no permitió detectar una interacción específica de INTA-Masatepe con una localidad en particular.

Growth Mechanism And Corrosion Behavior Of Ceramic Coatings On Aluminum Produced By Autocontrol Ac Pulse Peo

Ceramic coatings are produced on aluminum alloy by autocontrol AC pulse Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO) with stabilized average current. Transient signal gathering system is used to study the current, voltage, and the transient wave during the PEO process. SEM, OM, XRD and EDS are used to study the coatings evolution of morphologies, composition and structure. TEM is used to study the micro profile of the outer looser layer and inner compact layer. Polarization test is used to study the corrosion property of PEO coatings in NaCl solution. According to the test results, AC pulse PEO process can be divided into four stages with different aspects of discharge phenomena, voltage and current. The growth mechanism of AC PEO coating is characterized as anodic reaction and discharge sintering effect. PEO coating can increase the corrosion resistance of aluminum alloy by one order or two; however, too long process time is not necessarily needed to increase the corrosion resistance. In condition of this paper, PEO coating at 60 min is the most protective coating for aluminum alloy substrate. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All fights reserved.

Films de polietileno oxo-degradados mediante envejecimiento acelerado por radiación UV y calor

Resumen: Los materiales plásticos utilizados en la industria del embalaje y transporte de mercaderías familiares e industriales, presentan numerosas ventajas que los han puesto en su lugar durante los últimos 50 años. En la actualidad, son miles de millones de toneladas anuales de bolsas o embalajes de polietileno, las que diariamente se producen, se usan, se recuperan (en muy pequeña parte) y son finalmente dispuestas, quemadas o literalmente arrojadas al medio ambiente. La alta estabilidad química o la muy baja tasa de degradación, hace que estos residuos perduren en el medio - en la mayoría de los casos por más de 100 años- dependiendo las condiciones ambientales locales. Hace pocos años, se adaptaron conocimientos científicos a esta problemática, y de ello nacieron dos formas de atacar la eliminación del plástico como desecho (más allá del reciclado y uso racional): por un lado, la utilización de bioplásticos con propiedades biodegradables; y por otro, el agregado de aditivos pro-degradantes a plásticos convencionales. El presente trabajo, tiene por objeto tomar a esta última herramienta, sobre la cual se han comenzado a estudiar los mecanismos químicos por los cuales cumplen su función, evaluándolos en distintas condiciones aceleradas de laboratorio. De esta manera, se caracterizaron velocidades de degradación abiótica mediante envejecimientos acelerados con radiación ultravioleta y térmica, para films de polietileno aditivados con un compuesto oxodegradante comercial. Se estudiaron distintas concentraciones de aditivo en el polímero, en función del tiempo de envejecimiento. Las caracterizaciones incluyeron análisis mecánico, análisis térmico diferencial, espectroscopía de absorción infrarroja y de Absorción Atómica.

Forward Smoothing Using Sequential Monte Carlo

Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods are a widely used set of computational tools for inference in non-linear non-Gaussian state-space models. We propose a new SMC algorithm to compute the expectation of additive functionals recursively. Essentially, it is an on-line or "forward only" implementation of a forward filtering backward smoothing SMC algorithm proposed by Doucet, Godsill and Andrieu (2000). Compared to the standard \emph{path space} SMC estimator whose asymptotic variance increases quadratically with time even under favorable mixing assumptions, the non asymptotic variance of the proposed SMC estimator only increases linearly with time. We show how this allows us to perform recursive parameter estimation using an SMC implementation of an on-line version of the Expectation-Maximization algorithm which does not suffer from the particle path degeneracy problem.

A backward particle interpretation of Feynman-Kac formulae

We design a particle interpretation of Feynman-Kac measures on path spaces based on a backward Markovian representation combined with a traditional mean field particle interpretation of the flow of their final time marginals. In contrast to traditional genealogical tree based models, these new particle algorithms can be used to compute normalized additive functionals "on-the-fly" as well as their limiting occupation measures with a given precision degree that does not depend on the final time horizon. We provide uniform convergence results with respect to the time horizon parameter as well as functional central limit theorems and exponential concentration estimates. Our results have important consequences for online parameter estimation for non-linear non-Gaussian state-space models. We show how the forward filtering backward smoothing estimates of additive functionals can be computed using a forward only recursion.

La evolución de la intensidad energética de la industria vasca entre 1982-2001: Un análisis de descomposición

In this article an index decomposition methodology is used to estimate the effect of intersectorial and intrasectorial changes in explaining the 38% reduction in industrial energy intensity in the Basque Autonomous Community from 1982 to 2001. Period-wise additive decomposition results show that (1) the decline is fully explained by intrasectorial changes and that (2) intersectorial changes have not contributed to reduce but to increase the energy intensity of the Basque industrial sector. However, timeseries decomposition analysis shows that (1) four different phases can be distinguished in the evolution of energy intensity of the Basque industry from 1982 to 2001 and (2) that the evolution of the “Iron and Steel” sector is determinant when explaining those phases. Moreover, the analysis stresses the necessity to disaggregate the “Iron and Steel” sector in order to be able to distinguish purely technological effects from the rest of intrasectorial changes.