LASER PROCESSING OF METAL NANOPARTICLE / POLYMER COMPOSITES

A method of forming articles having closed microchannels includes the steps of providing a substrae including a composite material, the composite having metal nanoparticles dispersed in a polymer matrix. The substrate is irradiated with a laser beam at an intensity and time sufficient to selectively remove the polymer below a surface of said substrate to form at least one microchannel, wherein the intensity and time is low enough to avoid removing the polymer above the microchannel, wherein an article having at least one closed microchannel is formed. A metal nanoparticle/polyer composite composition can have functionality that can undergo addition reactions to seal or join pieces of polymers or composites upon irradiation of the composition placed on one or more pieces

BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ATTACK TECHNIQUE IN TAI CHI PUSH HANDS

Tai Chi (TC) is a form of exercise developed from the martial art folk traditions of China. The force used in TC includes different principles of mechanical advantage. Push Hands are more advanced movements of TC exercise. No studies on the biomechanics analysis of TC push hands have been published. To analyze the kinematics, kinetic and electromyographic characteristics of TC Push Hands, an experienced TC master was asked to exhibit TC and normal pushing against another person for three trials. The movements were videotaped and digitised using a motion analysis system combine electromyographic and two force plates. The results indicated that the TC master cannot push the opponent over in normal pushing. The COG trajectories, kinetics, and EMG patterns are very different in normal and TC pushing. It is concluded that TC pushing is more strategic than normal pushing because its technique requires much less effort to cause the opponent’s imbalance

Vertical Field Switching Blue Phase Liquid Crystals For Field Sequential Color Displays

Low power consumption is a critical requirement for all liquid crystal display (LCD) devices. A field sequential color (FSC) LCD was proposed by using red (R), green (G) and blue (B) LEDs and removing the lossy component of color filters which only transmits ~30% of the incoming white light. Without color filters, FSC LCDs exhibit a ~3X higher optical efficiency and 3X higher resolution density as compared to the conventional color filters-based LCDs. However, color breakup (CBU) is a most disturbing defect that degrades the image quality in FSC displays. CBU can be observed in stationary or moving images. It manifests in FSC LCDs when there is a relative speed between the images and observers’ eyes, and the observer will see the color splitting patterns or rainbow effect at the boundary between two different colors. In Chapter 2, we introduce a five-primary display by adding additional yellow(Y) and cyan(C) colors. From the analysis and simulations, five primaries can provide wide color gamut and meanwhile the white brightness is increased, as compared to the three-primary. Based on the five-primary theorem, we propose a method to reduce CBU of FSC LCDs by using RGBYC LEDs instead of RGB LEDs in the second section. Without increasing the sub-frame rate as three-primary LCDs, we can reduce the CBU by utilizing proper color sequence and weighting ratios. In addition, the color gamut achieves 140% NTSC and the white brightness increases by more than 13%, as compared to the three-primary FSC LCDs. Another strategy to suppress CBU is using higher field frequency, such as 540 Hz or even up to 1000 Hz. However, this approach needs liquid crystals with a very fast response time

LASER IRRADIATION OF METAL NANOPARTICLE/POLYMER COMPOSITE MATERIALS FOR CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATIONS

A metal nanoparticle supported on or dispersed in a polymer is irradiated with photons from a laser source to address the nanoparticles. The polymer is transmissive to the photons and addressed nanoparticles transform the energy of the photon to heat which is transferred to a material in the vicinity of the nanoparticle. The locally heated material undergoes a physical or chemical transformation upon heating. The transformed material can be a material in the proximity of the metal nanoparticle supported polymer or metal nanoparticle/polymer composite. In this manner thermally induced physical or chemical transformations can be carried out in very small volumes of material without significant heating to the bulk of the materia

Markowitz portfolio theory and capital asset pricing model for Kuala Lumpur stock exchange: a case revisited

Capital Asset Pricing Model is widely used by investors to estimate the return or the moving behavior of the stock and Markowitz Model is employed to achieve portfolio diversification. This study examine whether CAPM is valid to forecast the behaviour of the each individual stock and its return as well as its validity in the portfolio with stocks listed in Malaysia. Second, it evaluates the suitability of Markowitz Model to evaluate the performance of the Malaysia investment portfolio. This is done within the framework of 2010 to 2014 using weekly data of 60 companies. OLS unbiased estimator, autocorrelation and heterodasticity problems are to be conducted to test the validity of the model. It is concluded that CAPM is reasonable to be the indicator of stock prices in Malaysia as well as in portfolio basket. It proves that there is linearity in CAPM but unique risk and systematic do not need to be captured. Managers can use CAPM as a proxy to estimate their stock return and diversify the portfolio to reduce the unsystematic risk to enable them to execute the right policy in their management in order to maximise profit at the same time increase shareholder wealth maximisation. Furthermore, it is suggested to apply Markowitz portfolio diversification to reduce the unsystematic risk. Overall, portfolio diversification could build up the investors’ confidence towards the investment decision and to develop a sound investment financial market in assisting Malaysia to achieve its mission to be a developed country in 2020

La adquisición del tiempo-aspecto en español en L3 para los aprendices taiwaneses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the inter-language development of the Spanish past tense by Taiwanese learners who learned Spanish as a second foreign language. The analysis of this study was based on the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis, which focuses on the inherent lexical aspect of verbs. We came to the following conclusions. (1) Taiwanese learners, whose first language was Mandarin Chinese, demonstrated more accurate uses of the Spanish preterite than the imperfect in written texts at their early stages of development. The acquisition of the lexical aspects of verbs in the preterite in terms of lexical aspect demonstrated the following order: achievement + accomplishment, activity and finally stative, whereas the acquisition of the imperfect showed the opposite sequence. (2) In the majority of the cases, the Taiwanese learners of Spanish demonstrated a similar pattern of acquisition of the Spanish past tense in terms of lexical aspect as that of English-speaking learner of Spanish. This paper will end with discussions on pedagogical implications of the findings and we hope this study will shed light on the current research on the second language acquisition of the Spanish tense/aspect.Este trabajo tiene como fin investigar el desarrollo de los tiempos pasados en la interlengua de los aprendices taiwaneses que aprenden español como segunda lengua extranjera. El análisis se basa en la Hipótesis de Aspecto Léxico que se centra en la importancia del aspecto léxico de los verbos. Llegamos a las siguientes conclusiones: (1) los aprendices taiwaneses de español cuya lengua materna es chino-mandarín manejan el pretérito mejor que el imperfecto en la producción escrita de los niveles iniciales de aprendizaje, el desarrollo de adquisición del pretérito indefinido es de acuerdo al siguiente orden: estado, actividad y realización+logro, mientras que para la adquisición del imperfecto los estudiantes siguen un orden contrario. (2) En la mayoría de los casos los aprendices taiwaneses de español siguen el mismo patrón de aprendizaje que los aprendices cuya lengua materna es el inglés en la adquisición del aspecto temporal. Por último, hacemos sugerencias pedagógicas correspondientes a las conclusiones deducidas para mejorar el resultado de aprendizaje. Con esto, esperamos que esta investigación represente una contribución al estudio relacionado con la adquisición del tiempo-aspecto en español

BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EVADING WITH PUSHING TECHNIQUE IN TAI CHI PUSH HANDS

The traditional Chinese martial arts, Tai Chi (TC), include different forms and advanced interactive movements called Push Hands. Very few studies on the biomechanics analysis of TC push hands have been published. To investigate the characteristics of Tai Chi Push Hands, an experienced master was asked to perform the ‘evading with pushing technique’ when he was pushed by another person for three trials. The master’s movements were videotaped and digitized using a motion analysis system combining electromyography and force plate data. The results indicated that the master lowered his COG, shifted his body weight to rear foot, twisted his waist to evade the push, and pushed back with the strength from the lower limbs. It is concluded that the evading with pushing technique is a efficient and effective way to strike back

A Learner Corpus-Based Study of Copular Verbs

El presente trabajo se concentra en el estudio de los verbos copulativos SER/ ESTAR desde la perspectiva de la lengua aprendida por los estudiantes taiwaneses cuya lengua materna es chino. Llegamos a las siguientes conclusiones: (1) La incorrecta omisión decrece durante el proceso de desarrollo. (2) El uso de SER de los estudiantes de niveles más avanzados es más correcto que los iniciales. (3) SER se aprende más temprano y mejor que ESTAR. (4) El uso correcto de ESTAR en la estructura ESTAR+Adjetivo es relativamente difícil. Los taiwaneses se asemejan a los nativos ingleses como se propuso en los estudios anteriores.This study investigated the acquisition order of the Spanish copular verbs, SER/ESTAR, by students in Taiwan, whose first language is Mandarin Chinese. The findings suggested (1) the incorrect use of copular omission gradually decreased as learners’ proficiency levels increased; (2) The usage of SER by more advanced learners is more accurate than that of beginning-level learners; (3) SER is acquired before ESTAR; (4) the structure of ESTAR with adjective is more difficult to be acquired than other uses of copulas. The findings corroborate with previous studies on the acquisition order of the Spanish SER/ESTAR.El presente trabajo se basa en el proyecto de investigación apoyado por el National Science Council de Taiwán (NSC96-2411-H-006-028-MY2)