Structural determination of ethylene‐propylene‐diene rubber (EPDM) containing high degree of controlled long‐chain branching

This work highlights an attempt to characterize the degree and nature of long‐chain branching (LCB) in an unknown sample of ethylene‐propylene‐diene rubber (EPDM). Two EPDM rubbers selected for this study were comparable in comonomer compositions but significantly different with respect to molar mass and the presence of LCB. Both rubbers contained 5‐ethylidene‐2‐norbornene (ENB) as diene. Solution cast films of pure EPDM samples were used for different characterization techniques. ¹H‐NMR, and ¹³C‐NMR were used for assessing the comonomer ratios and LCB. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) equipped with triple detector system was used to determine the molar mass (both absolute and relative) and polydispersity index (PDI). Presence of branching was also detected using sec‐viscometry. Rheological analysis has also been used for characterizing LCB. Finally, on the basis of the experimental findings and the available theories, an attempt was made to identify the chemical nature and degree of LCB. This study reveals the possibility of detailed characterization of molecular architecture of EPDM containing LCB by comparing with an essentially linear EPDM in light of an existing theory. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

Space-time duality in multiple antenna channels

The concept of information transmission in a multiple antenna channel with scattering objects is studied from first physical principles. The amount of information that can be transported by electromagnetic radiation is related to the space-wavenumber and the time-frequency spectra of the system composed by the transmitting antennas and the scattering objects, and to the spatial extension of the receiving domain. The spatial information content of the field is related to the number of relevant communication modes of the channel. It is shown that for narrow-band frequency transmission space and time can be decoupled, leading to a space-time information duality principle in the computation of the capacity of the radiating system. In contrast, in the case of wide-band frequency transmission, it is shown that time and space cannot be decoupled and they jointly characterize the wave's information content.     

HCH: A New Tweakable Enciphering Scheme Using the Hash-Counter-Hash Approach

The notion of tweakable block ciphers was formally introduced by Liskov-Rivest-Wagner at Crypto 2002 (the 2002 Annual International Cryptology Conference). The extension and the first construction, called CMC, of this notion to tweakable enciphering schemes which can handle variable length messages was given by Halevi-Rogaway at Crypto 2003. In this paper, we present HCH, which is a new construction of such a scheme. The construction uses two universal hash computations with a counter mode of encryption in-between. This approach was first proposed by McGrew-Viega to build a scheme called XCB and later used by Wang-Feng-Wu, to obtain a scheme called HCTR. A unique feature of HCH compared to all known tweakable enciphering schemes is that HCH uses a single key, can handle arbitrary length messages, and has a quadratic security bound. An important application of a tweakable enciphering scheme is disk encryption. HCH is well suited for this application. We also describe a variant, which can utilize precomputation and makes one less block cipher call. This compares favorably to other hash-encrypt-hash-type constructions, supports better key agility and requires less key material.     

Linearity improvement of gain enhanced op-amp using cross-coupled architecture

Microsystem Technologies - A novel design structure for high gain linearized operational amplifier using cross coupled differential pair is presented in the current article. This proposed circuit...     

Imaging of Small Animal Peripheral Artery Disease Models: Recent Advancements and Translational Potential

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a broad disorder encompassing multiple forms of arterial disease outside of the heart. As such, PAD development is a multifactorial process with a variety of manifestations. For example, aneurysms are pathological expansions of an artery that can lead to rupture, while ischemic atherosclerosis reduces blood flow, increasing the risk of claudication, poor wound healing, limb amputation, and stroke. Current PAD treatment is often ineffective or associated with serious risks, largely because these disorders are commonly undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Active areas of research are focused on detecting and characterizing deleterious arterial changes at early stages using non-invasive imaging strategies, such as ultrasound, as well as emerging technologies like photoacoustic imaging. Earlier disease detection and characterization could improve interventional strategies, leading to better prognosis in PAD patients. While rodents are being used to investigate PAD pathophysiology, imaging of these animal models has been underutilized. This review focuses on structural and molecular information and disease progression revealed by recent imaging efforts of aortic, cerebral, and peripheral vascular disease models in mice, rats, and rabbits. Effective translation to humans involves better understanding of underlying PAD pathophysiology to develop novel therapeutics and apply non-invasive imaging techniques in the clinic.     

Large third-order optical nonlinearity of silver colloids in silica glasses synthesized by ion implantation

Silver ion implantations in fused silica glasses have been made to synthesize silver nanocluster-glass composites and a combination of ‘Anti-Resonant Interferometric Nonlinear Spectroscopy (ARINS)’ and ‘Z-scan’ techniques has been employed for the measurement of the third-order optical susceptibility of these nanocomposites. The ARINS technique utilizes the dressing of two unequal-intensity counter-propagating pulsed optical beams with differential nonlinear phases, which occurs upon traversing the sample. This difference in phase manifests itself in the intensity-dependent transmission, measurement of which enables us to extract the values of nonlinear refractive index (η₂) and nonlinear absorption coefficient (β), finally yielding the real and imaginary parts of the third-order dielectric susceptibility (χ⁽³⁾). The real and imaginary parts of χ⁽³⁾ are obtained in the orders of 10⁻¹⁰ e.s.u for silver nanocluster-glass composites. The present value of χ⁽³⁾, to our knowledge, is extremely accurate and much more reliable compared to the values previously obtained by other workers for similar silver-glass nanocomposites using only Z-scan technique. Optical nonlinearity has been explained to be due to two-photon absorption in the present nanocomposite glasses and is essentially of electronic origin.     

Evolution of Specific Surface Area with Solid Volume Fraction During Coalescence with Parabolic Shape Assumption for Dendrite

Coalescence of secondary dendrite arms in terms of the evolution of specific surface area for a dendritic envelope with respect to the fraction solid during directional solidification is studied analytically in 2-D and 3-D frame of reference. For 2D case study, the dendritic growth has been captured by gradual penetration of a parabola with fixed tip radius (??) inside a square domain, while for 3D case study, we replace the parabola and square domain for 2-D case with a paraboloid of revolution and cubic domain, respectively. The dimensions of the enclosing volumes are characterized by the secondary dendrite arm-spacing. Coalescence obtained by the analytical solution is compared with existing dendrite growth simulation results obtained by phase-field method.     

Stochastic receding horizon control with output feedback and bounded controls

We study the problem of receding horizon control for stochastic discrete-time systems with bounded control inputs and incomplete state information. Given a suitable choice of causal control policies, we first present a slight extension of the Kalman filter to estimate the state optimally in mean-square sense. We then show how to augment the underlying optimization problem with a negative drift-like constraint, yielding a second-order cone program to be solved periodically online. We prove that the receding horizon implementation of the resulting control policies renders the state of the overall system mean-square bounded under mild assumptions. We also discuss how some quantities required by the finite-horizon optimization problem can be computed off-line, thus reducing the on-line computation.     

Estimation of waste heat and its recovery potential from energy-intensive industries

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - The recovery and reuse of waste heat offers a significant opportunity for any country to reduce its overall primary energy usage. Reuse of waste heat...