Enhanced characteristics of Ba5SmTi3Nb7O30 ferroelectric nanocrystalline ceramic prepared by mechanical activation process: A comparative study

In the present work, structural, dielectric, ferroelectric, piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties of tungsten-bronze structured Ba₅SmTi₃Nb₇O₃₀ ceramics, synthesized by mechanical activation and conventional solid-state reaction processes, have been studied with an objective of comparing the properties of the specimens synthesized by the two processes. X-ray diffraction analysis shows the formation of the compound in an orthorhombic structure by both the processes. Scanning electron microscopy reveals the formation of a fine granular microstructure in the specimen synthesized by mechanical activation process compared to the specimen synthesized by conventional solid-state method. The specimen prepared using mechanical activation process exhibits improved electrical properties with higher dielectric constant, lower dielectric loss and higher resistivity. The effective remanent polarization () value, d₃₃ value and pyroelectric coefficients are also observed to be higher in the sample synthesized by the mechanical activation process.     

Cognitive radio CDMA networking with spectrum sensing

In this paper, the performance of cognitive radio (CR) code division multiple access (CDMA) systems is analyzed. More precisely, CR users belong to a cognitive radio network (CRN), which coexists with a primary radio network (PRN). Both CRN and PRN are CDMA‐based, with colocated base stations. Soft hand off and power control are considered in both the CRN and the PRN. Upon the development of an accurate simulator for a representative three‐cell cellular scenario, we evaluate the performance of the proposed CR system in terms of outage probability, blocking probability and average data rate of secondary users. Three different spectrum sensing techniques are. Two new schemes, based on interference limit, are proposed and compared with an existing adaptive spectrum sensing scheme. Spectrum activity measurements and spectrum sharing decisions have been considered for evaluating the performance of the three schemes. The paper proposes a new CR‐CDMA networking model and a simulation testbed for evaluating performances of secondary users and primary users in terms of outage, blocking, BER and average data rate in the presence of soft hand‐off and power control. For comparison purposes, the analysis in the absence of spectrum sensing is also investigated.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tea plant root extract (TRE) as an antineoplastic agent

The antitumour effect of tea plant root extract (TRE) has been evaluated against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) in Balb-C mice. Significant increases of survival times of the TRE-treated, tumour-bearing mice have been confirmed repeatedly with respect to the control group. TRE inhibited the tumour cell growth and reversed the changes of haematological parameters consequent to tumour inoculation.     

Phase variation in free-electron laser amplifiers

The evolution of the phase of the output radiation of free-electron laser amplifiers is investigated by means of a three-dimensional simulation code. The configuration employed consists of the propagation of a relativistic electron beam through a loss-free cylindrical waveguide in the presence of a helically symmetric wiggler and a uniform axial guide magnetic field. The analysis is fully three dimensional, and a set of model equations is discussed which describes the coupling between an ensemble of electrons and the radiation field of either the TE or TM modes. The model equations are solved numerically, and the output phase is studied with respect to variations in either frequency or electron beam energy. The output phase is found to depend sensitively on the wave frequency within the unstable bandwidth. In addition, the phase stability of the output radiation is discussed as a function of beam energy. Finally, the evolution of the phase for tapered wiggler free-electron lasers is studied.     

Mapping Datalog program execution to networks of processors

The problem of mapping the parallel bottom up execution of Datalog programs to an interconnected network of processors is studied. The parallelization is achieved by using hash functions that partition the set of instantiations for the rules. We first examine this problem in an environment where the number of processors and the interconnection topology is known, and communication between program segments residing at non-adjacent processors is not permitted. An algorithm is presented that decides whether a given Datalog program can be mapped onto such an architecture. We then relax the constraint on the architecture by allowing program segments residing at non-adjacent processors to communicate, A theory of approximate mappings is developed, and an algorithm to obtain the closest approximate mapping of a given Datalog program onto a given architecture is presented     

Role of zirconium addition on stability of UAl3 phase in Al---U system

The microstructural changes of Al-22 wt%U and Al-46 wt%U alloys containing 3 wt% Zr were investigated after heat treatment at 620°C for 1 to 45 days. Though it is reported that addition of 3 wt% Zr stabilizes the (U,Zr)Al₃ phase at room temperature, the present investigation shows that the (U,Zr)Al₃ phase is not stable but slowly transforms to the U_0.9Al₄ phase. The high temperature creep curves generated for these ternary alloys showed a wavy pattern which also suggests that the (U,Zr)Al₃ phase is not stable.