National Cheng Kung University

About: National Cheng Kung University is a education organization based out in Tainan City, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Thin film. The organization has 49723 authors who have published 69799 publications receiving 1437420 citations. The organization is also known as: NCKU.

Strain and grain size of TiO2 nanoparticles from TEM, Raman spectroscopy and XRD: The revisiting of the Williamson-Hall plot method

Abstract: The Williamson-Hall (W-H) equation, which has been used to obtain relative crystallite sizes and strains between samples since 1962, is revisited. A modified W-H equation is derived which takes into account the Scherrer equation, first published in 1918, (which traditionally gives more absolute crystallite size prediction) and strain prediction from Raman spectra. It is found that W-H crystallite sizes are on average 2.11 ± 0.01 times smaller than the sizes from Scherrer equation. Furthermore the strain from the W-H plots when compared to strain obtained from Raman spectral red-shifts yield factors whose values depend on the phases in the materials – whether anatase, rutile or brookite. Two main phases are identified in the annealing temperatures (350 °C–700 °C) chosen herein – anatase and brookite. A transition temperature of 550 °C has been found for nano-TiO2 to irreversibly transform from brookite to anatase by plotting the Raman peak shifts against the annealing temperatures. The W-H underestimation on the strain in the brookite phase gives W-H/Raman factor of 3.10 ± 0.05 whereas for the anatase phase, one gets 2.46 ± 0.03. The new βtot2cos2θ-sinθ plot and when fitted with a polynomial yield less strain but much better matching with experimental TEM crystallite sizes and the agglomerates than both the traditional Williamson-Hall and the Scherrer methods. There is greater improvement in the model when linearized – that is the βtotcos2θ-sinθ plot rather than the βtot2cos2θ-sinθ plot.

Intracluster Device-to-Device Relay Algorithm With Optimal Resource Utilization

Abstract: Device-to-device (D2D) communications help improve the performance of wireless multicast services in cellular networks via cooperative retransmissions among multicast recipients within a cluster. Resource utilization efficiency should be taken into account in the design of D2D communication systems. To maximize resource efficiency of D2D retransmissions, there is a tradeoff between multichannel diversity and multicast gain. In this paper, by analyzing the relationship between the number of relays and minimal time-frequency resource cost on retransmissions, we derive a closed-form probability density function (pdf) for an optimal number of D2D relays. Motivated by the analysis, we then propose an intracluster D2D retransmission scheme with optimized resource utilization, which can adaptively select the number of cooperative relays performing multicast retransmissions and give an iterative subcluster partition algorithm to enhance retransmission throughput. Exploiting both multichannel diversity and multicast gain, the proposed scheme achieves a significant gain in terms of resource utilization if compared with its counterparts with a fixed number of relays.

GIS for the assessment of the groundwater recharge potential zone

Abstract: Water resources in Taiwan are unevenly distributed in spatial and temporal domains. Effectively utilizing the water resources is an imperative task due to climate change. At present, groundwater contributes 34% of the total annual water supply and is an important fresh water resource. However, over-exploitation has decreased groundwater availability and has led to land subsidence. Assessing the potential zone of groundwater recharge is extremely important for the protection of water quality and the management of groundwater systems. The Chih-Pen Creek basin in eastern Taiwan is examined in this study to assess its groundwater resources potential. Remote sensing and the geographical information system (GIS) are used to integrate five contributing factors: lithology, land cover/land use, lineaments, drainage, and slope. The weights of factors contributing to the groundwater recharge are derived using aerial photos, geology maps, a land use database, and field verification. The resultant map of the groundwater potential zone demonstrates that the highest recharge potential area is located towards the downstream regions in the basin because of the high infiltration rates caused by gravelly sand and agricultural land use in these regions. In contrast, the least effective recharge potential area is in upstream regions due to the low infiltration of limestone.