Colon cancer screening, The easy way - [update]

A new software program promises to make one of medicine?s more grimace-inducing checkups significantly simpler. By devising a way to digitally clean up three-dimensional X-ray images of the colon, a group of researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook hope to encourage more patients to receive their recommended colon cancer screenings.     

Visualization with OpenGL: 3D made easy

This article addresses a freely available application programming interface (API) for three-dimensional graphics, known as OpenGL. This API bridges the gap between piles of raw data and extremely complicated three-dimensional animation in a way that requires only a few hours to learn. It is can be used for EM field visualization. In this article, we try to take most of the “leg-work” out of learning OpenGL, by presenting a tutorial that will get you started in the right direction. Some other interesting OpenGL-related technologies are also mentioned     

The convergence of mean field procedures for MRFs [imageprocessing]

Convergence of the mean field equations is analyzed for the Ising model with a nonhomogeneous external field. When beta is small, the equations are a contraction mapping and thereby convergent. When beta is large, however, they can be noncontracting and in this case, contraction is restored by a slight modification of the equations.     

Dependability [reliability]

Dependability can be defined by maintenance costs and how long the maintenance takes. It also can be defined in terms of continuous operation. Finally, it can be defined by how well it endures abuse or failure. The following terms help define and quantify dependability: reliability, fault tolerance or performability, maintainability, testability, availability and safety.     

Telecommunications [Brazil]

Although information technology is a burgeoning industry in Brazil, the closely related telecommunications sector has not kept pace. A huge, unsatisfied demand must wait for private investment to upgrade and expand services and offer new ones. With the government committed to selling to private interests much of the telecommunications sector, US long distance and regional telephone companies, and many value-added resellers and equipment vendors are mapping out business strategies for the country. Today, the telecom market is worth US $8 billion, and could grow to $11 billion by the end of 1998. Between 1996 and 1999, an estimated US $32 billion must be invested in Brazil's communications infrastructure to raise the basic wire-line connections to a desired 33 million, up from 14.2 million in April 1994. Telebras, the government communications company, could perhaps come up with half of the amount needed. The remainder will have to come from private investors, domestic and foreign, hence the Ministry of Communication's desire to sell-off government-owned telecommunications firms     

Global standards [telecommunications]

The economic interests of the telecommunications industry are increasingly dependent on global markets. This globalization is in great measure due to the past successes of the industry's efforts to provide global information movement and management (GIM and M) services through facilitating compatible national and international standards. The provision of ever-improving GIM and M services based on widely implemented global standards is essential to both the telecommunication service industry and the vast array of businesses using these services. Increasingly, "taking care of business"' will involve global standards that facilitate use of the best technology to achieve responsive, flexible (user-friendly), manageable, information movement between and among points distributed around the globe as determined by the needs of customers of these services     

Homemade [fabrication technology]

This paper describes the efforts of several universities to investigate technologies and materials that could lead to general-use, compact fabbers machines that rapidly create useful items on demand from computer-generated design specifications. Compact and yet capable fabbers point the way toward a future where the term "online shopping" takes on a whole new meaning. Although many technical hurdles must be cleared before home fabbing can become a reality, it's already possible to see its huge implications for engineers, designers and distributors.     

Handover [editor's note]

After more than two years serving as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Network I am stepping down, as new duties at my University have caught up with whatever free time (under whatever definition of free time) I was able to devote to IEEE Network. We are extremely fortunate to have as our new Editor-in- Chief, Dr. Thomas M. Chen. Dr. Chen is a Professor in Networking at the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications (IAT) of Swansea University, UK. Tom has, among other things, the valuable experience of having been Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Communications Magazine between 2006 and 2007. I would like to extend a warm welcome and wish Tom the best of luck!     

Doctor volts [electrotherapy]

The author reviews the history of electrotherapy. Electricity can cure- or at least ameliorate some maladies-as well as kill if overdosed. It has long been used to treat the agonies of gout, with the biological batteries of electric eels and rays providing the electrical stimulus. Early electrostatic generators were quickly put to use treating patients. By the end of the 19th century electrical engineers had invented a host of ways of generating electricity of various kinds: electrostatic, DC, low-frequency AC, high-frequency AC. Each had its advocates, and to each was ascribed marvellous medical attributes     

Flash [computer memory]

Ever falling chip geometries are beginning to raise serious doubts as to the long-term viability of flash. Quantum tunnelling is integral to the operation of flash memory, and as chips are getting smaller the ultra-thin tunnelling barrier is becoming increasingly prone to breaking down. A second problem is with the lifetime of flash-based devices, which can be limited to around 100000 cycles. This is fine for some applications, but inadequate where data storage requirements extend over decades. Flash is also quite slow and difficult to program, two problems that are getting more significant as chip areas increase and supply voltages fall. There are three technologies looking to replace flash: magnetic RAM (MRAM), ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) and ovonic RAM. All of these use new materials to create truly nonvolatile memories with long lifetimes. Getting any one of them to replace flash in the marketplace will depend on producing a sufficiently small memory cell, while at the same time minimising the number of additional processing steps required.     

Math Kisser [Books]

Actress-mathematician-author Danica McKellar has a new book out called Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who?s Boss, encouraging math interest in middle school girls.     

Supertubes [carbon nanotubes]

This paper discusses the different characteristics of carbon nanotubes which make them ideal for a number of potential applications ranging from ultrathin, breathable, waterproof fabrics to bright, rugged flat-panel displays for televisions and computer monitors. Carbon nanotubes can be far stronger than steel, lighter than aluminum and more conductive than copper. The electrical properties of carbon nanotubes are so attractive that researchers are already eyeing them as replacements for silicon circuits and are being considered as a most promising technology that may someday pick up where conventional CMOS devices lead off. As the dimensions of silicon CMOS transistors continue to shrink well into the next decade, problems resulting from increasing power dissipation, leakage currents, and variations in device parameters will continue to rise. If all goes well, carbon nanotube electronics will be poised to take over before the problems encountered by the continual downscaling of silicon CMOS dimensions become insurmountable.     

Star-crossed [space-based weapons]

This paper discusses the arguments for and against the development of space-based weapons in the US. It has been suggested that the military advantages that might be gained from space-based weapons are outweighed by the political and economic price that the US would have to pay. Deploying such weapons would also create new, asymmetric vulnerabilities to the US armed forces and would be a significant political and strategic departure from 50 years of international law and diplomatic relations. An attractive alternative to using space weapons to protect valuable communications, imaging and other satellites, however, is to reduce the dependence on space assets, thereby avoiding the political, economic and technical difficulties of space weapons. Even without space weapons, the US could respond to an attack on its satellite with its unmatched terrestrial military capabilities. Adversaries would expect a heavy toll to be exacted as a result of any attack on US satellites. That expectation alone would almost certainly suffice to deter any such attack.