Surface Morphology of Heat-Treated Ceramic Thin Films

The morphology of surfaces of several ceramic materials has been examined using transmission electron microscopy. The approach used was to prepare a sample for examination in the microscope, carefully clean it, and then heat-treat it. In the case of the oxides studied (alumina and spinel) the samples were heated in air; the non-oxides (α-SiC and β -SiC) were annealed under vacuum. The morphology in all but one case was such that the surface faceted parallel to the nearest low-index plane to give well-defined terraces; these were separated by ledges which also tended to facet parallel to the traces of low-index planes. The exception was the {1100} alumina surface, which appears to be unstable in air at temperatures close to 1400°C. A computer program using a multislice approach was used to estimate the height of the steps on the (0001) surface; the step heights appear to be multiples of the c lattice parameter. A reconstruction of this surface as a result of this heat treatment is also proposed.     

Nonnegative integral subset representations of integer sets

We consider an integer-subset representation problem motivated by a medical application in radiation therapy. We prove NP-completeness, derive nontrivial bounds, and report on the performance of a greedy heuristic.     

The Best Deal in Town [Supercomputers]

At one time, supercomputing, a term that was synonymous with the Cray-1, was considered to be the best deal in town. However, by the 1990s, manufacturers began to question the need to continue the development of high-speed computers, turning their attention instead to the potential for developing a "high-capacity and high-speed national research and education computer network."     

你是家庭和朋友的IT人吗？

当今,支持的费用是IT部门最大的开支。我们都在想方设法计量和减少这种开销。但是有一种IT支持的费用没有列在预算或收支平衡表上,那就是我们花费在支持朋友和家庭成员解决IT问题上的时间。我们将它称之为＂个人IT＂。     

无线基站设计中FPGA一展身手

随着整个行业从高速增长阶段进入更为成熟的状态,包括无线基站在内的基础设计所有方面都面临更大的成本压力,下一代基站部署时必须克服的挑战是如何在继续降低成本(以单位通道成本计算)的同时增加更多功能,来支持新的业务、协议以及不断变化的用户使用方式.