Reduced forward operator for electromagnetic wave scattering problems

The paper describes a reduced forward operator for solving electromagnetic scattering problems using a volume integral equation in conjunction with a conjugate gradient fast Fourier transform scheme. The reduction is obtained by decoupling of the interaction between the locations in the spatial computational domain at which there is non-zero contrast and those positions at which there is zero contrast. The decoupling is achieved by multiplication of the kernel by a diagonal matrix whose entries reflect the presence or absence of contrast at the associated point. Analysis supported by numerical experiments shows that the conjugate gradient algorithm applied to the reduced system converges more rapidly than when it is applied to the original system     

ON SCIENCE, ECONOMICS AND EDUCATION

In their public statements, politicians and leaders of mostdeveloped countries espouse the doctrine that the growth oftheir respective economies is highly dependent on innovationsresulting from scientific research and development. Many countriessupport science directly or indirectly using a variety of subsidies,grants, contracts, or other financial mechanisms. But, the lion'sshare of support for research and development is usually providedby industry. The statistic often quoted is the percentage ofgross domestic product     

An analysis of lighting energy savings and switching frequency for a daylit corridor under various indoor design illuminance levels

Visual comfort and electric lighting energy issues are essential criteria to justify daylighting schemes. The evaluation of energy efficiency due to daylight linked lighting control systems is best demonstrated by case studies. This paper presents field measurements on daylighting for a fully air-conditioned daylit corridor. Artificial lighting load, brightness of the fluorescent luminaires, daylight availability for various switching illuminance levels were systematically recorded and analyzed. The general features and characteristics of the findings including the number of switching operations and electric-lighting energy savings are presented and discussed. Daylighting theories, using cumulative frequency distribution of outdoor illuminance and regression models based on brightness of light output, outdoor illuminance and electric light power to estimate daylight-linked lighting control savings, have been developed and assessed. It has been found that data from both approaches show reasonably good agreements with measured results. The findings from this study provide some operational and energy information, which would be useful and applicable to other interior spaces with similar architectural designs.     

Microarchitectures for Managing Chip Revenues under Process Variations

As transistor feature sizes continue to shrink intothe sub-90nm range and beyond, the effects of process variationson critical path delay and chip yields have amplified. A commonconcept to remedy the effects of variation is speed-binning, bywhich chips from a single batch are rated by a discrete range offrequencies and sold at different prices. In this paper, we discussstrategies to modify the number of chips in different bins andhence enhance the profits obtained from them. Particularly, wepropose a scheme that introduces a small Substitute Cacheassociated with each cache way to replicate the data elementsthat will be stored in the high latency lines. Assuming a fixedpricing model, this method increases the revenue by as much as13.8% without any impact on the performance of the chips.     

Male honor and female fidelity: Implicit cultural scripts that perpetuate domestic violence.

Two studies explored how domestic violence may be implicitly or explicitly sanctioned and reinforced in cultures where honor is a salient organizing theme. Three general predictions were supported: (a) female infidelity damages a man's reputation, particularly in honor cultures; (b) this reputation can be partially restored through the use of violence; and (c) women in honor cultures are expected to remain loyal in the face of jealousy-related violence. Study 1 involved participants from Brazil (an honor culture) and the United States responding to written vignettes involving infidelity and violence in response to infidelity. Study 2 involved southern Anglo, Latino, and northern Anglo participants witnessing a "live" incident of aggression against a woman (actually a confederate) and subsequently interacting with her. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of the effects on dynamic response due to distributed structural modification with additional degrees of freedom

The aim of this study is to investigate means of efficiently assessing the effects of distributed structural modification on the dynamic properties of a complex structure. The dynamic properties of the modified structure can be determined by experimental testing or numerical simulation, both of which are complex, expensive and time-consuming. Assuming that the original dynamic characteristics are already established and that the modification is a relatively simple attachment, the modified dynamic properties may be determined numerically without solving the equations of motion of the full-modified structure. The frequency response functions (FRFs) of the modified structure can be computed by coupling the original FRFs and a delta dynamic stiffness matrix for the modification introduced. The validity of this approach is investigated by applying it to a cantilever beam to which a smaller beam is attached as modification. The original FRFs were obtained experimentally as well as numerically. The delta dynamic stiffness matrix was determined numerically by modeling the attachment and part of the original structure including the attachment points. The FRFs of the modified beam were then computed. Good agreement is obtained by comparing the results to the FRFs of the modified beam determined experimentally as well as by numerical modeling of the complete modified structure.     

Neutron Reflectometry Characterization of Interface Width between Sol-Gel Titanium Dioxide and Silicon Dioxide Thin Films

Neutron reflectometry (NR) was used to directly measure the interface width between a titanium dioxide and a silicon dioxide film deposited by sol-gel processing. In a bilayer heated to 450°C, NR measurements showed that the interface width is 0.8 nm. This width is the same as the roughness of a sol-gel silicon dioxide surface after the same heat treatment, suggesting no interdiffusion or mixing at the bilayer interface.     

Disappearing left atrial vegetation in an intravenous drug abuser

Isolated left atrial mural endocarditis is rare. We report a case where the diagnosis was made clinically and supported by blood cultures and transoesophageal echocardiography. Appropriate intravenous antibiotics were administered and serial transoesophageal echocardiograms helped in monitoring the decrease in size and final disappearance of the vegetation, thus avoiding the need for surgical intervention.     

Post-traumatic stress disorder and smoking: a systematic review.

We conducted a systematic review of what is known about the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and smoking to guide research on underlying mechanisms and to facilitate the development of evidence-based tobacco treatments for this population of smokers. We searched Medline, PsychINFO, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and identified 45 studies for review that presented primary data on PTSD and smoking. Smoking rates were high among clinical samples with PTSD (40%-86%) as well as nonclinical populations with PTSD (34%-61%). Most studies showed a positive relationship between PTSD and smoking and nicotine dependence, with odds ratios ranging between 2.04 and 4.52. Findings also suggest that PTSD, rather than trauma exposure itself, is more influential for increasing risk of smoking. A small but growing literature has examined psychological factors related to smoking initiation and maintenance and the overlapping neurobiology of PTSD and nicotine dependence. Observational studies indicate that smokers with PTSD have lower quit rates than do smokers without PTSD. Yet a few tobacco cessation treatment trials in smokers with PTSD have achieved quit rates comparable with controlled trials of smokers without mental disorders. In conclusion, the evidence points to a causal relationship between PTSD and smoking that may be bidirectional. Specific PTSD symptoms may contribute to smoking and disrupt cessation attempts. Intervention studies that test behavioral and pharmacological interventions designed specifically for use in patients with PTSD are needed to reduce morbidity and mortality in this population.     

Adding Support for Persistence to CLOS via Its Metaobject Protocol

Language-level support for object persistence frees programmers from having to confront a broad class of database issues from within their applications. By virtue of its metaobject protocol, CLOS is a language whose semantics can be tailored by individual programmers. We used the metaobject protocol to extend CLOS with support for object persistence. Our goal was to obtain a version of CLOS with persistence to which we could easily port a commercial geometric CAD modeling system. We describe the design and implementation of our persistence extension and highlight the strengths and weaknesses exhibited by the CLOS metaobject protocol during our experiment. For many aspects of the implementation we found that the metaobject protocol was ideal. In other cases we had to choose among paying a large performance penalty, extending the protocol, and bypassing the protocol by modifying the language implementation directly.