Investigation of Induced Distortions in a-Si∶H/a-SiN_x∶H Multilayers by Raman Scattering Technique

The a Si∶H/SiN x ∶H sample series are investigated by means of Raman scattering technique(RST). The result shows that due to the structural mismatch between a Si∶H and a SiN x ∶H, severe induced distortions are produced in the interface of the heterojunction, and these induced distortions tend towards a certain energy state. The ordering of the interface structure depends on the periodic number of multilayer thin films.

Price distortions and municipal bonds premiums:evidence from Switzerland

This study examines the pricing of municipal bonds before and after a currency shock in Switzerland.Two approaches are used to decompose the municipal to treasuries bond spreads into liquidity,maturity,and default risk premiums.The first approach is the model of the cross-sectional instrumental variables,and the second approach is the model of the instrumental variables with panel data.This study examines the composition of spreads for both approaches,in three scenarios:before,throughout,and after the currency shock.The study performed Durbin-Wu-Hausman tests for each decisive model to verify endogeneity issues,including the Lagrangian Multiplier test,the Cragg-Donald Wald F statistic to confirm the relationship of instrumental and endogenous variables,and the structural break test(Bai-Perron test)to determine the existence of structural breaks in bond distortions.This study finds that the currency price distortions of the Swiss franc in January 2015 made long-run changes in the composition of the municipal bond spreads.This research contributes to the understanding of municipal bond pricing by showing that default risk accounts for a large portion of the municipal bond spread,while maturity risk plays a lesser role.According to our empirical findings,unexpected large currency price shocks may have long-term implications on the municipal bond spreads.

Distortions and Deformations of Metaled Meso-Substituted and Unsubstituted Porphyrins and Derivatives in Crystal Structures

Experimental crystallographic structural parameters of a range of metaled meso-substituted and unsubstituted porphyrins were reviewed to show how far the meso-substitution by any functional group and the insertion of metal in the porphyrins core macrocycle may affect the geometry. The analysis of twists and angles has shown two kinds of distortions: external [T(Cβ-Cα-Cmeso-Xn) and T(Cβ-Cα-Cmeso-Cα)] and internal [T(Nm-Cα-Cmeso-Xn) and T(Nn-Cα-Cmeso-Cα)] with averages of [+6°and –6°] and [–5°and +5°], respectively. In the meso-substituted case, the external and internal twists Cβ-Cα-Cmeso-X and N-Cα-Cmeso-X, respectively are oppositely orientated. Similar effect is observed in meso-unsubstituted of Cβ-Cα- Cmeso-H and N-Cα-Cmeso-H. However, the external distortions are more significant than internal. Considering the same order, the limit of distortions is [97°and 132°(–48°)] for external and [91°(–89°) and 52°] for internal. In the two cases, the substituents have opposite directions of distortions. The meso-substituted porphyrins have a high limit of twisting than usubstituted one, depending of the weight of substituents. The average of the bond angular deformations is 168°, almost planar. However, the limit of angular deformation is 94°.

Distortions, Growth Catch-up, and Sustainable Growth

A distortion is a departure from the allocation of economic resources from the state in which each agent maximizes his/her own welfare. Distortions can be divided into endogenous distortion(i.e. market imperfections) and policy-imposed distortion. The relationship between distortion and development is complex, thus favorable distortion would only be possible under certain conditions, where, as argued in this paper, four crucial mechanisms may play roles — advantage of backwardness, second-best principle, coordination failure and political economy perspective. Empirically, both international experience and evidence from China suggest that distortions have a positive effect on total factor productivity(TFP) in the early stages of development, but with increasing income levels this role gradually diminishes. Especially in the phases of middle and high income, the negative effects of distortions are significant and become an important factor leading to the middle-income trap. Therefore, reducing and correcting distortions is the key to achieving sustainable growth. Regarding China, it is necessary to eliminate the distortions in a clear way and let the market play the decisive role in resource allocation. Otherwise, in the name of "growth catch-up," the policy-imposed distortion will occur frequently, and the direction of market-oriented reform will become blurred and swing. Mitigating unfavorable distortions is largely a process of exploring the favorable borderline of government and market, which constitutes a major challenge for all economies.

Active Anomalous Transmission and Its Application in Compensating Waveform Distortions

In theoty, engineered anomalous transmission in passive materials and waveguide devices can be used to compensate for wavetorm distortions. However, they suffer from inherent dissipation. Recently, active non-Foster elements with imaginary immittance monotonically decreasing with frequency have shown important potentials in broadening bandwidths of electromagnetic devices. So far, they are implemented besed on negative impedance convertors （NICs） loaded with Foster devices. This makes them intrinsically one-port elements and thus cannot be used to compensate for distortions of signals. We construct a two-port network with a non-Foster transmission coefticient based on an unconventional use of NICs. Simulation and experiments show that it can compensate for extremely distorted signals. The proposed method can be used to broaden existing applications in different areas such as antennas, circuits and systems, and physical-layer signal processing.

Three-Dimensional Thermo-Elastic-Plastic Finite Element Method Modeling for Predicting Weld-Induced Residual Stresses and Distortions in Steel Stiffened-Plate Structures

The objective of the present paper is to develop nonlinear finite element method models for predicting the weld-induced initial deflection and residual stress of plating in steel stiffened-plate structures. For this purpose, three-dimensional thermo-elastic-plastic finite element method computations are performed with varying plate thickness and weld bead length (leg length) in welded plate panels, the latter being associated with weld heat input. The finite element models are verified by a comparison with experimental database which was obtained by the authors in separate studies with full scale measurements. It is concluded that the nonlinear finite element method models developed in the present paper are very accurate in terms of predicting the weld-induced initial imperfections of steel stiffened plate structures. Details of the numerical computations together with test database are documented.

Structural distortions and magnetisms in Fe-doped LaMn_(1-x) Fe_x O_3(0

X-ray absorption spectra （XAS） at Mn K-edge and Fe K-edge in LaMnl-xFexO3 show that with the increase of Fe substitution the chemical valence of Mn4＋ decreases, while the chemical valence of Fe3＋ remains unchanged. Structural distortions, such as the rotating and tilting for oxygen octahedron in the unit cell vary with iron content. A phase transition occurs at the Fe content values of 0.2~0.3. The evolutions of rotation and tilting angle of FeO6/MnO6 octahedral may be the vital factors to the structure and magnetism. We believe that the spin configuration of Fe3＋ may vary from the intermediate spin t2g4eg1 （S = 3/2） to the higher spin t2g3eg2 （S = 5/2） near the phase transition.

Influence of Electrical Field Distortions Induced by Water Droplets on the Contamination Characteristics of an Insulator

When separated water droplets condense on the surface of a composite insulator,the electrical field on the insulator surface is distorted.In turn,such distortions change the trajectories of pollution particles.In this study,the COMSOL software is used to simulate such a process for the FXBW4-10/100 composite insulator with or without water droplets condensation under a 10 kV DC voltage.The influence of the wind speed and particles concentration on the contamination characteristics of the considered 110 kV insulator is analyzed.The results show that:1)in the presence of water droplets on the insulator surface,the ratio of electrical field force and gravity acting on the particles is large;2)the contamination on the insulator surface increases with the wind speed;3)when the wind speed is small,the relationship between the contamination amount and the pollution concentration is essentially linear.

Computerized Scheme for Histological Classification of Masses with Architectural Distortions in Ultrasonographic Images

Architectural distortion is an important ultrasonographic indicator of breast cancer. However, it is difficult for clinicians to determine whether a given lesion is malignant because such distortions can be subtle in ultrasonographic images. In this paper, we report on a study to develop a computerized scheme for the histological classification of masses with architectural distortions as a differential diagnosis aid. Our database consisted of 72 ultrasonographic images obtained from 47 patients whose masses had architectural distortions. This included 51 malignant (35 invasive and 16 non-invasive carcinomas) and 21 benign masses. In the proposed method, the location of the masses and the area occupied by them were first determined by an experienced clinician. Fourteen objective features concerning masses with architectural distortions were then extracted automatically by taking into account subjective features commonly used by experienced clinicians to describe such masses. The k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) rule was finally used to distinguish three histological classifications. The proposed method yielded classification accuracy values of 91.4% (32/35) for invasive carcinoma, 75.0% (12/16) for noninvasive carcinoma, and 85.7% (18/21) for benign mass, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity values were 92.2% (47/51) and 85.7% (18/21), respectively. The positive predictive values (PPV) were 88.9% (32/36) for invasive carcinoma and 85.7% (12/14) for noninvasive carcinoma whereas the negative predictive values (NPV) were 81.8% (18/22) for benign mass. Thus, the proposed method can help the differential diagnosis of masses with architectural distortions in ultrasonographic images.

船舶进气畸变模拟板结构设计与参数分析

Significant aerodynamic engine instability can occur during the operation of marine gas turbines as airflow enters the compressor through a 90°turning and causes inlet distortion.This study adopts the method of simulating board equivalence to provide the target distortion flow field for ship compressors.The characteristics of the flow field behind the simulated board are obtained through experiments and numerical simulations,through which the relationship between the height of the simulated board and the total pressure distortion is elucidated.Subsequently,the study summarizes the prediction formula to achieve a distortion prediction of 0.8%–7.8%.In addition,this work analyzes the effects of drilling methods and diameters on flow nonuniformity by drilling holes into the simulation board.The results indicate that drilling holes on the board can weaken the nonuniformity of the flow field within a certain range and change the distribution pattern of total pressure in the cross-section.Furthermore,the total pressure distortion no longer changes significantly when the number of holes is too large.The proposed double simulation board structure is capable of obtaining the following two types of distorted flow fields:symmetrical dual lowpressure zones and low-pressure zones with high distortion intensity at the compressor inlet.The distortion equivalent simulation method proposed in this work can obtain various types of distortion spectra,thereby meeting the distortion parameter requirements for the antidistortion testing of marine engines.

Predicting impact strength of perforated targets using artificial neural networks trained on FEM-generated datasets

The paper considers application of artificial neural networks(ANNs)for fast numerical evaluation of a residual impactor velocity for a family of perforated PMMA(Polymethylmethacrylate)targets.The ANN models were trained using sets of numerical results on impact of PMMA plates obtained via dynamic FEM coupled with incubation time fracture criterion.The developed approach makes it possible to evaluate the impact strength of a particular target configuration without complicated FEM calculations which require considerable computational resources.Moreover,it is shown that the ANN models are able to predict results for the configurations which cannot be processed using the developed FEM routine due to numerical instabilities and errors:the trained neural network uses information from successful computations to obtain results for the problematic cases.A simple static problem of a perforated plate deformation is discussed prior to the impact problem and preferable ANN architectures are presented for both problems.Some insight into the perforation pattern optimization using a genetic algorithm coupled with the ANN is also made and optimized perforation patterns which theoretically enhance the target impact strength are constructed.

Linear magnetoresistance and structural distortion in layered SrCu_(4-x)P_(2) single crystals

We report a systematic study on layered metal SrCu_(4-x)P_(2) single crystals via transport, magnetization, thermodynamic measurements and structural characterization. We find that the crystals show large linear magnetoresistance without any sign of saturation with a magnetic field up to 30T. We also observe a phase transition with significant anomalies in resistivity and heat capacity at T_(p)~140 K. Thermal expansion measurement reveals a subtle lattice parameter variation near Tp, i.e.,?L_(c)/L_(c)~0.062%. The structural characterization confines that there is no structure transition below and above T_(p). All these results suggest that the nonmagnetic transition of SrCu_(4-x)P_(2) could be associated with structural distortion.

Ultra‑Efficient and Cost‑Effective Platinum Nanomembrane Electrocatalyst for Sustainable Hydrogen Production

Hydrogen production through hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)offers a promising solution to combat climate change by replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sources.However,the widespread adoption of efficient electrocatalysts,such as platinum(Pt),has been hindered by their high cost.In this study,we developed an easy-to-implement method to create ultrathin Pt nanomembranes,which catalyze HER at a cost significantly lower than commercial Pt/C and comparable to non-noble metal electrocatalysts.These Pt nanomembranes consist of highly distorted Pt nanocrystals and exhibit a heterogeneous elastic strain field,a characteristic rarely seen in conventional crystals.This unique feature results in significantly higher electrocatalytic efficiency than various forms of Pt electrocatalysts,including Pt/C,Pt foils,and numerous Pt singleatom or single-cluster catalysts.Our research offers a promising approach to develop highly efficient and cost-effective low-dimensional electrocatalysts for sustainable hydrogen production,potentially addressing the challenges posed by the climate crisis.

Cascaded ELM-Based Joint Frame Synchronization and Channel Estimation over Rician Fading Channel with Hardware Imperfections

Due to the interdependency of frame synchronization(FS)and channel estimation(CE),joint FS and CE(JFSCE)schemes are proposed to enhance their functionalities and therefore boost the overall performance of wireless communication systems.Although traditional JFSCE schemes alleviate the influence between FS and CE,they show deficiencies in dealing with hardware imperfection(HI)and deterministic line-of-sight(LOS)path.To tackle this challenge,we proposed a cascaded ELM-based JFSCE to alleviate the influence of HI in the scenario of the Rician fading channel.Specifically,the conventional JFSCE method is first employed to extract the initial features,and thus forms the non-Neural Network(NN)solutions for FS and CE,respectively.Then,the ELMbased networks,named FS-NET and CE-NET,are cascaded to capture the NN solutions of FS and CE.Simulation and analysis results show that,compared with the conventional JFSCE methods,the proposed cascaded ELM-based JFSCE significantly reduces the error probability of FS and the normalized mean square error(NMSE)of CE,even against the impacts of parameter variations.

Valley transport in Kekulé structures of graphene

Valleytronics is an emergent discipline in condensed matter physics and offers a new way to encode and manipulate information based on the valley degree of freedom in materials. Among the various materials being studied, Kekulé distorted graphene has emerged as a promising material for valleytronics applications. Graphene can be artificially distorted to form the Kekulé structures rendering the valley-related interaction. In this work, we review the recent progress of research on Kekulé structures of graphene and focus on the modified electronic bands due to different Kekulé distortions as well as their effects on the transport properties of electrons. We systematically discuss how the valley-related interaction in the Kekulé structures was used to control and affect the valley transport including the valley generation, manipulation, and detection. This article summarizes the current challenges and prospects for further research on Kekulé distorted graphene and its potential applications in valleytronics.

Performance Assessment of a Real PV System Connected to a Low-Voltage Grid

The generation of photovoltaic(PV)solar energy is increasing continuously because it is renewable,unlimited,and clean energy.In the past,generation systems depended on non-renewable sources such as oil,coal,and gas.Therefore,this paper assesses the performance of a 51 kW PV solar power plant connected to a low-voltage grid to feed an administrative building in the 6th of October City,Egypt.The performance analysis of the considered grid-connected PV system is carried out using power system simulator for Engineering(PSS/E)software.Where the PSS/E program,monitors and uses the power analyzer that displays the parameters and measures some parameters such as current,voltage,total power,power factor,frequency,and current and voltage harmonics,the used inverter from the type of grid inverter for the considered system.The results conclude that when the maximum solar radiation is reached,the maximum current can be obtained from the solar panels,thus obtaining the maximum power and power factor.Decreasing total voltage harmonic distortion,a current harmonic distortion within permissible limits using active harmonic distortion because this type is fast in processing up to 300 microseconds.The connection between solar stations and the national grid makes the system more efficient.

Computational Quantification of Map Projection Distortion by Fractal Dimension of Coastlines

Maps, essential tools for portraying the Earth’s surface, inherently introduce distortions to geographical features. While various quantification methods exist for assessing these distortions, they often fall short when evaluating actual geographic features. In our study, we took a novel approach by analyzing map projection distortion from a geometric perspective. We computed the fractal dimensions of different stretches of coastline before and after projection using the divide-and-conquer algorithm and image processing. Our findings revealed that map projections, even when preserving basic shapes, inevitably stretch and compress coastlines in diverse directions. This analysis method provides a more realistic and practical way to measure map-induced distortions, with significant implications for cartography, geographic information systems (GIS), and geomorphology. By bridging the gap between theoretical analysis and real-world features, this method greatly enhances accuracy and practicality when evaluating map projections.

Quantization Based Watermarking Methods Against Valumetric Distortions

Most of the quantization based watermarking algorithms are very sensitive to valumetric distortions, while these distortions are regarded as common processing in audio/video analysis. In recent years, watermarking methods which can resist this kind of distortions have attracted a lot of interests. But still many proposed methods can only deal with one certain kind of valumetric distortion such as amplitude scaling attack, and fail in other kinds of valumetric distortions like constant change attack, gamma correction or contrast stretching. In this paper, we propose a simple but effective method to tackle all the three kinds of valumetric distortions. This algorithm constructs an invariant domain first by spread transform which satisfies certain constraints. Then an amplitude scale invariant watermarking scheme is applied on the constructed domain. The validity of the approach has been confirmed by applying the watermarking scheme to Gaussian host data and real images. Experimental results confirm its intrinsic invariance against amplitude scaling, constant change attack and robustness improvement against nonlinear valumetric distortions.

Cost Distortions and Structural Imbalances in China

This paper attempts to explain the fundamental cause of China＇s growing imbalanee problems. Economic data confirm that the key structural imbalance problems, such as overinvestment, large current account surpluses, low consumption share of GDP and income inequality, have all deteriorated over the past few years, despite continuous policy efforts to correct these problems. We argue that the key determining factor is repressed factor cost, which is associated with heavily distorted markets for labor, capital, land, resources and the environment. These are like implicit subsidies for producers, investors and exporters. They boost growth and, at the same time, lift investment and exports. Previous policy efforts have focused more on administrative measures, which have not been sustainable. Therefore, a more fundamental solution to the imbalance problem lies in completing market-oriented re forms for production factors and allowing free markets to determine prices of labor, capital, land and resources.

Numerical simulations of the impact of wavefront phase distortions of pump on the beam quality of OPA

A numerical model of optical parametric amplification （OPA） is introduced to investigate the impact of wavefront phase distortion of pump on the beam quality of signal. Numerical results show that the unidentical walk-off directions of the pump and the idler waves are the main factors leading to the transfer of wavefront phase distortions of the pump to the signal, and by reducing the angle between the two directions, the beam quality factor （M2） can be greatly decreased and hence the good beam quality of the signal can be maintained.