Enhancing urban infrastructure investment planning practices for a changing climate.

Climate change raises many concerns for urban water management because of the effects on all aspects of the hydrological cycle. Urban water infrastructure has traditionally been designed using historical observations and assuming stationary climatic conditions. The capability of this infrastructure, whether for storm-water drainage, or water supply, may be over- or under-designed for future climatic conditions. In particular, changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events will have the most acute effect on storm-water drainage systems. Therefore, it is necessary to take future climatic conditions into consideration in engineering designs in order to enhance water infrastructure investment planning practices in a long time horizon. This paper provides the initial results of a study that is examining ways to enhance urban infrastructure investment planning practices against changes in hydrologic regimes for a changing climate. Design storms and intensity-duration-frequency curves that are used in the engineering design of storm-water drainage systems are developed under future climatic conditions by empirically adjusting the general circulation model output, and using the Gumbel distribution and the Chicago method. Simulations are then performed on an existing storm-water drainage system from NE Calgary to investigate the resiliency of the system under climate change.     

Kinetics of two-step anionic polymerization

This article deals with the kinetics of two-step anionic polymerization by way of a non-steady state method. Several molecular parameters can be evaluated using the formulae developed. A bimodal molecular weight distribution function for the resulting polymer is derived from the set of kinetic differential equations, which is in agreement with the experimental data reported.     

Cost Effective VLSI Architectures for Full-Search Block-Matching Motion Estimation Algorithm

In this paper, we present efficient VLSI architectures for full-search block-matching motion estimation (BMME) algorithm. Given a search range, we partition it into sub-search arrays called tiles. By fully exploiting data dependency within a tile, efficient VLSI architectures can be obtained. Using the proposed VLSI architectures, all the block-matchings in a tile can be processed in parallel. All the tiles within a search range can be processed serially or concurrently depending on various requirements. With the consideration of processing speed, hardware cost, and I/O bandwidth, the optimal tile size for a specific video application is analyzed. By partitioning a search range into tiles with appropriate size, flexible VLSI designs with different throughput can be obtained. In this way, cost effective VLSI designs for a wide range of video applications, from H.261 to HDTV, can be achieved.     

Integrated magnetic full wave converter with flexible output inductor

A new integrated magnetic full wave DC/DC power converter that provides flexible transformer design by incorporating an independent output inductor winding is introduced. The transformer is implemented on a traditional three-leg magnetic core. The inductor winding can be separately designed to control the output current ripple. The cross-sectional area of the inductor core leg can be reduced dramatically. The operation and performance of the proposed circuit are verified on a 100 W prototype converter.     

Programmable group-delay module using binary polarization switching

We demonstrate the first programmable group-delay module based on polarization switching. With a unique binary tuning mechanism, the device can generate any differential group delay value from -45 to +45 ps with a resolution of 1.40 ps, or any true-time-delay value from 0 to 45 ps with a resolution of 0.7 ps. The delay varying speeds for both applications are under 1 ms and can be as fast as 0.1 ms. We evaluate both the dynamic and static performances of the device while paying special attention to its dynamic figures of merit for polarization-mode dispersion emulation and compensation applications. Our experiment shows that the device exhibits a negligible transient-effect induced power penalty (<0.2 dB) in a 10-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero system.     

89-GHz fT room-temperature silicon MOSFETs

The authors report the implementation of deep-submicrometer Si MOSFETs that at room temperature have a unity-current-gain cutoff frequency (f_T) of 89 GHz, for a drain-to-source bias of 1.5 V, a gate-to-source bias of 1 V, a gate oxide thickness of 40 Å, and a channel length of 0.15 μm. The fabrication procedure is mostly conventional, except for the e-beam defined gates. The speed performance is achieved through an intrinsic transit time of only 1.8 ps across the active device region     

Non-steady-state model for kinetics of free radical polymerization, 4. Direct thermal initiation

This paper deals with the non-steady-state kinetics of direct thermal initiated polymerization. The initiation is assumed to be a bimolecular reaction of the monomer. The relationship between the radical concentration and the monomer conversion is rigorously derived. In further treatment a few very close approximations are introduced based on the fact that the number of monomer molecules reacting in the initiation step is much less than that consumed in the propagation step for a process producing high polymer, and the value of the rate constant for propagation or chain transfer is much lower than that for chain termination. Expressions for various molecular parameters, such as molecular weight distribution, number-average and weight-average degrees of polymerization, and dispersity, are given. Several numerical examples are provided.     

A light intensity function suitable for multimode fiber-opticsensors

Intensity distribution functions on the image plane are derived under the assumption that a multimode optic fiber is illuminated by a light source which can be approximated by infinite uniangular beams carrying equal power. The application of the theory to a Lambertian source is discussed. Experimental results, based on the observation of the light intensity distribution imaged on an opaque screen and collected by a digital camera, are presented. The theoretical and experimental data are compared to verify that the intensity function is an accurate model for describing the realistic approach to sensor design. The limitations of the uniangular and uniform intensity distribution models are discussed on the basis of theoretical and experimental results