Efficient Excitation of Hybrid Modes in a THz Clinotron

Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves - Various regimes of hybrid, bulk-surface, modes being excited in the clinotron oscillator with a sheet electron beam and nonuniform grating...     

Influence of n-alkanes on wettability and zeta potential of quartz

Contact angles were measured in the following systems: quartz/water droplet/saturated vapor of water + n-alkane and quartz/water droplet/saturated vapor of n-alkane. The alkanes tested were from hexane to pentadecane. In both systems non-smooth changes of contact angle as a function of the chain length were observed. These changes are similar to the zeta-potential changes measured previously for two different samples of quartz in the quartz/n-alkana/water system. On the basis of the results and calculations it is suggested that the observed non-smooth changes of contact angle are due to similar changes in film pressures of the water and n-alkanes.     

Predicting Acute Renal Failure after Cardiac Surgery: Validation and Re‐definition of a Risk‐Stratification Algorithm

Background:  Acute renal failure (ARF) after cardiac surgery is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, irrespective of the need for dialysis. Previous studies have attempted to identify predictors of ARF and develop risk stratification algorithms. This study aims to validate the algorithm in an independent cohort of patients that includes a significant proportion of female and black patients and compares two different definitions of renal outcome.
Methods:  A large single center cardiac surgery database was examined (n, 24,660; 1993–2000) which included 29.9% females and 3.7% black patients. Post‐operative ARF was defined as: a) ARF requiring dialysis, b) > 50% reduction in creatinine clearance relative to baseline or requiring dialysis. Clinical variables related to baseline renal function and cardiovascular disease were used in recursive partitioning analysis for both outcome definitions. Chi‐square goodness of fit analysis was performed to validate the algorithm.
Results:  The frequency of post‐operative ARF requiring dialysis ranged between 0.5 and 15.5% based on the risk categories with the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.78. Using the more inclusive definition of ARF, the frequency was significantly higher ranging from 2.6 to 25%(P < 0.001) with an area under ROC curve of 0.65.
Conclusions:  The renal risk stratification algorithm is valid in predicting post‐operative ARF in an independent cohort of patients, well represented by differences in gender and race. Since the need for dialysis remains subjective, a more objective and inclusive definition of ARF may help in identifying a larger number of patients 'at‐risk'.     

Inhibiting and deactivating effects of water on the selective catalytic reduction of nitric oxide with ammonia over MnOx/Al2O3

The effect of water on the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of nitric oxide with ammonia over alumina supported with 2–15 wt.-% manganese oxide was investigated in the temperature range 385–600 K, with the emphasis on the low side of this temperature window. Studies on the effect of 1–5 vol.-% water vapour on the SCR reaction rate and selectivity were combined with TPD experiments to reveal the influence of water on the adsorption of the single SCR reactants. It turned out that the activity decrease due to water addition can be divided into a reversible inhibition and an irreversible deactivation. Inhibition is caused by molecular adsorption of water. TPD studies showed that water can adsorb competitively with both ammonia and nitric oxide. Additional kinetic experiments revealed that adsorbed ammonia is present in excess on the catalyst surface, even in the presence of water. Reduced nitric oxide adsorption is responsible for the observed reversible decrease in the reaction rate; the fractional reaction order changes from 0.79 in the absence of water to 1.07 in its presence. Deactivation is probably due to the dissociative adsorption of water, resulting in the formation of additional surface hydroxyls. As the amount of surface hydroxyls formed is limited to a saturation level, the deactivating effect on the catalyst is limited too. The additional hydroxyls condense and desorb in the temperature range 525–775 K, resulting in a lower degree of deactivation at higher temperature. A high temperature treatment at 775 K results in a complete regeneration. The amount of surface hydroxyls formed per unit surface area decreases at increasing MnO_x-loading. The selectivity to the production of nitrogen is enhanced significantly by the presence of gas phase water.     

Silicon power MOSFET at low temperatures: A two-dimensional computer simulation study

Understanding how the structure of the unit-cell affects the cryogenic performance of a Si power Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) is an important step toward optimizing of the device for cryogenic operations. In this paper, numerical simulations of the Si power Double Diffused MOSFET’ (DMOS) are performed at room temperature and cryogenic temperatures. Physically based models for temperature dependent silicon properties are employed in the simulations. The performances of power DMOS’ with various unit-cell structures are compared at both room temperature and low temperatures. The effect of the cell structure on the on-resistance and breakdown voltage of the device are analyzed. The simulation results suggest that the device optimized for room temperature operation can be further optimized at cryogenic temperatures.     

OLAP and bibliographic databases

The application of online analytical processing (OLAP) technology to bibliographic databases is addressed. We show that OLAP tools can be used by librarians for periodic and ad hoc reporting, quality assurance, and data integrity checking, as well as by research policy makers for monitoring the development of science and evaluating or comparing disciplines, fields or research groups. It is argued that traditional relational database management systems, used mainly for day-to-day data storage and transactional processing, are not appropriate for performing such tasks on a regular basis. For the purpose, a fully functional OLAP solution has been implemented on Biomedicina Slovenica, a Slovenian national bibliographic database. We demonstrate the system's usefulness by extracting data for studying a selection of scientometric issues: changes in the number of published papers, citations and pure citations over time, their dependence on the number of co-operating authors and on the number of organisations the authors are affiliated to, and time-patterns of citations. Hardware, software and feasibility considerations are discussed and the phases of the process of developing bibliographic OLAP applications are outlined. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Efficient reconstruction from non-uniform point sets

We propose a method for non-uniform reconstruction of 3D scalar data. Typically, radial basis functions, trigonometric polynomials or shift-invariant functions are used in the functional approximation of 3D data. We adopt a variational approach for the reconstruction and rendering of 3D data. The principle idea is based on data fitting via thin-plate splines. An approximation by B-splines offers more compact support for fast reconstruction. We adopt this method for large datasets by introducing a block-based reconstruction approach. This makes the method practical for large datasets. Our reconstruction will be smooth across blocks. We give reconstruction measurements as error estimations based on different parameter settings and also an insight on the computational effort. We show that the block size used in reconstruction has a negligible effect on the reconstruction error. Finally we show rendering results to emphasize the quality of this 3D reconstruction technique.     

Uplink throughput maximization with combined sum and individual power constraints

Optimal power allocation in cellular uplink systems is used to maximize the average throughput under individual and sum power constraints. In the uplink, the transmit power of the mobiles is limited leading to individual power constraints. Additionally, in order to reduce the inter-cell interference, the sum power is constraint. First, we approximate the individual and sum power constraints by a combined constraint on a suitable l-norm of the power allocation vector. Then, we derive the optimal power allocation for individual and sum power constraints as well as for the combined constraint for the three CSI scenarios with uninformed transmitter, long-term feedback, and perfect CSI. The results and illustrations show that under combined sum and individual power constraints completely different power allocation strategies are optimal than with pure sum or pure individual power constraints