The organisational learning effects of management accounting information under advanced manufacturing technology

This study empirically examined the organisational learning effects of the nonfinancial performance information provided by management accounting information systems (MAISs) under advanced manufacturing technology (AMT). In this study, a target costing system and the frequent and quick reporting of information were considered the facilitators of learning. First, we examined the relationships between AMT level and the amount of nonfinancial performance information produced by MAISs. The empirical results showed that there are significant positive relationships between the level of AMT and nonfinancial performance information. With a systems approach, we also proved the impact of the relationships among AMT levels, nonfinancial performance information and learning facilitators on the organisational performance of a firm. The results of our research suggest that under a high level of AMT, for the provision of information to result in an increase of performance through organisational learning, a target costing system must be introduced and a large amount of information should be provided frequently and quickly. The results of this study also showed that although AMT level may be low, fairly well-arranged facilitators and a moderately large amount of information may be necessary for the improvement of performance. In conclusion, effective organisational learning depends on the provision of relevant information as well as efficient learning support mechanisms.     

Effect of surface coating on the screw loosening of dental abutment screws

Regardless of the type of performed restoration, in most cases, a screw connection is employed between the abutment and implant. For this reason, implant screw loosening has remained a problem in restorative practices. The purpose of this study was to compare the surface of coated/plated screws with titanium and gold alloy screws and to evaluate the physical properties of coated/plated material after scratch tests via FE-SEM (field emission scanning electron microscopy) investigation. GoldTite, titanium screws provided by 3i (Implant Innovation, USA) and TorqTite, titanium screws by Steri-Oss (Nobel Biocare, USA) and gold screws and titanium screws by AVANA (Osstem Implant, Korea) were selected for this study. The surface, crest, and root of the abutment screws were observed by FE-SEM. A micro-diamond needle was also prepared for the scratch test. Each abutment screw was fixed, and a scratch on the surface of the head region was made at constant load and thereafter the fine trace was observed with FE-SEM. The surface of GoldTite was smoother than that of other screws and it also had abundant ductility and malleability compared with titanium and gold screws. The scratch tests also revealed that teflon particles were exfoliated easily in the screw coated with teflon. The titanium screw had rough surface and low ductility. The clinical use of gold-plated screws is recommended as a means of preventing screw loosening.     

Robust autoregressive predictive power control method for mobile CDMA systems

A closed-loop power control (CLPC) scheme with a multistep (indicating multiple prediction steps) linear autoregressive predictor is presented. The proposed CLPC relies on low-rate sample vector based autoregressive prediction. Compared to currently available predictive CLCP schemes, it demonstrates particularly robust performance in the presence of large loop delays and channel estimation errors.     

Fabrication of laser-annealed poly-TFT by forming aSi1-xGex thermal barrier

Germanium is ion-implanted deeply into the bottom of a Si film before excimer laser annealing begins. During the solidification step, the implanted Ges form a high thermal resistive Si_1-xGe_x alloy, which reduces the thermal extraction rate of laser energy and the grain growth rate. Laterally larger but double-stacked grains were achieved with a higher Ge implant dose and a slower grain growth. The performance of fabricated poly-TFTs has been enhanced with a Ge 5×10¹⁵/cm² at 80 keV implant but deteriorated at a higher dose. We attribute this enhancement to a laterally enlarged grain and show that the performance of TFT is deteriorated more dominantly by other Ge-related factors than by surface roughening and Ge-induced defect creation     

On the performance of a novel quasi-synchronous trellis-coded CDMA system

We introduce a novel signal set defined over a signal space that consists of L (L/spl ges/2) orthogonal planes, and a quasi-synchronous trellis-coded code-division multiple-access (TC-CDMA) system based on it. The proposed scheme makes efficient use of the available processing gain to improve power and/or bandwidth efficiency for practical multiuser interference environments. Having a multiplanar signal constellation structure, the proposed scheme provides several options for a given required data rate, which makes it better adapted to dynamic channel conditions. Analytical bounds and simulation results indicate that at practical error rates and 2 b/s/Hz the proposed scheme is approximately 1.2 dB better than a TC-CDMA system based on 8-PSK, and 3 dB better at 3 b/s/Hz compared to TC-CDMA using 16-QAM. Additionally, the proposed system is approximately 1 dB better than a multicoded system using two signature sequences per user.     

Solution‐Processable,High‐Performance Flexible Electroluminescent Devices Based on High‐k Nanodielectrics

Flexible alternating‐current electroluminescent (ACEL) devices have attracted considerable attention for their ability to produce uniform light emission under bent conditions and have enormous potential for applications in back lighting panels, decorative lighting in automobiles, and panel displays. Nevertheless, flexible ACEL devices generally require a high operating bias, which precludes their implementation in low power devices. Herein, solution‐processed La‐doped barium titanate (BTO:La) nanocuboids (≈150 nm) are presented as high dielectric constant (high‐k) nanodielectrics, which can enhance the dielectric constant of an ACEL device from 2.6 to 21 (at 1 kHz), enabling the fabrication of high‐performance flexible ACEL devices with a lower operating voltage as well as higher brightness (≈57.54 cd m^?2 at 240 V, 1 kHz) than devices using undoped BTO nanodielectrics (≈14.3 cd m^?2 at 240 V, 1 kHz). Furthermore, a uniform brightness across the whole panel surface of the flexible ACEL devices and excellent device reliability are achieved via the use of uniform networks of crossaligned silver nanowires as highly conductive and flexible electrodes. The results offer experimental validation of high‐brightness flexible ACELs using solution‐processed BTO:La nanodielectrics, which constitutes an important milestone toward the implementation of high‐k nanodielectrics in flexible displays.     

An Analytical Framework for Imperfect DS‐CDMA Closed‐Loop Power Control over Flat Fading

This letter presents an analytical framework for a performance analysis of the imperfect direct‐sequence code division multiple access (DS‐CDMA) closed‐loop power control (CLPC) loop with loop delay, channel estimation error, and power control command bit error as the parameters under a Rayleigh flat fading environment. The proposed model is verified through a comparison between analytical results and simulation ones.     

A higher order FDTD method in Integral formulation

We present a fourth-order (4, 4) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD)-like algorithm based on the integral form of Maxwell's equations. The algorithm, which is called the integro-difference time-domain (IDTD) method, achieves its fourth-order accuracy in space and time by taking into account the spatial and temporal variations of electromagnetic fields within each computational cell. In the algorithm, the electromagnetic fields within each cell are represented by space and time integrals (or integral averages) of the fields, i.e., the electric and magnetic fluxes (D,B) are represented by the surface-integral average, and the electric and magnetic fields (E,H) by the line and time integral average. In order to relate the integral average fields in the staggered update equations, we have obtained constitutive relations for these fields. It is shown that the IDTD update equations combined with the constitutive relations are fourth-order accurate both in space and time. The fourth-order correction terms are represented by the modified coefficients in the update equations; the numerical structure remains the same as the conventional second-order update equations and more importantly does not require the storage of field variables at the previous time steps to obtain the fourth-order accuracy in time. Furthermore, the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) stability criteria of this fourth-order algorithm turns out to be identical to the stability limits of conventional second-order FDTD scheme based on differential formulation.