External constraints and national resources: Reflections on the Europeanisation of communications policy

The article takes a starting point in theories on the distinctiveness of “small states” and discusses the relevance of this approach in the analysis of the current changes in communication policies in Europe. In order to assess the applicability of these perspectives, external constraints on national policy-making are identified. These constraints, convergence of technologies and markets and the Europeanisation of communications polices work as levelling forces on differences across countries, and should, accordingly, contribute to the removal of national characteristics. In the second part of the article this hypothesis is challenged although not refuted. Drawing on instiutional perspectives on political and social change and data from an on-going research comparative policy analysis-project, the author argues that historical legacies and national characteristics may have a lasting and distinctive effects on the formulation of communication policies also in the future.     

Retinyl substituted-benzyl ethers. Inhibition of mammary carcinogenesis by retinyl 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl ether (RTMBE)

Recently, we reported that retinyl 2-propynyl ether (RPE) inhibits MNU-induced mammary cancer in rats and is less toxic than RME and retinyl acetate. The preparation and biological investigations of retinyl ethers have now been extended to retinyl substituted-benzyl ethers, some of which bind to cellular retinol-binding protein. In long-term (160-180 days) experiments, retinyl 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl ether (RTMBE) has been shown to be active against MNU-induced mammary cancer in Sprague-Dawley rats. In effectiveness, RTMBE is comparable, at least, to retinyl acetate; but, unlike retinyl acetate, RTMBE is comparatively non-toxic to rats and mice, is not converted enzymatically to retinol, and does not cause significant increases in retinyl palmitate concentrations in the liver. RTMBE reaches high concentrations in mammary tissue. Two of the four RTMBE congeners that were evaluated in 90 day studies were moderately effective in inhibiting mammary carcinogenesis.     

A 50-ns 256 K CMOS split-gate EPROM

A high-speed 32 K×8 CMOS EPROM has been designed and implemented in a polycide 1.2-μm n-well epi CMOS technology. A high-read-current split-gate EPROM cell combined with address transition detection-based SRAM-like precharge, equalization, and clocked differential sensing schemes has resulted in a typical address access time of less than 50 ns. The typical power dissipation at 18.2 MHz is 60 mW. Row redundancy is used to enhance the yield and the part has been designed to be compatible with plastic packaging     

Fatigue of hybrid composites by a cohesive micromechanic model

A cohesive micromechanic fatigue model (CMFM) which identifies a nonconservative bonding reaction between a broken molecular chain and its neighbor as the main microscale source of fatigue damage accumulation has been recently developed for a unidirectional material constructed from a parallel set of chain-like elements. The successive breakages in each cycle are controlled by the statistical strength distribution of the elements and the probability and amount of interference which a broken element causes to its neighbors. The model gave a physically sound explanation to the fatigue power law S—N curve and the endurance limit phenomena by direct interpretations of microstructure parameters.

In this study the model is expanded by considering a material which have two components with different mechanical and statistical properties and are mixed to give a hybrid composite. The main target is to find the best combination for fatigue resistance, or more specifically, to explore the possibility of making a composite which is more fatigue resistant than each of its two components. It is found that mixing a brittle component (high modulus and low failure strain) with a soft one (low modulus and high failure strain) having a specific microstructure gives the desired effect if some requirements on the structural and mechanical properties are met.

The two materials are mixed in a form of bundles, so that the composite microstructure and fatigue resistance are controlled by their relative volume faction (a macro property) as well as the number of elements in each bundle (a micro property).     

Sorting in constant number of row and column phases on a mesh

An algorithm for sorting on a mesh by alternately transforming the rows and columns is presented. The algorithm runs in a constant number of row- and column-transformation phases (sixteen phases), an improvement over the previous best upper bound ofO(log logm) phases,m being the number of rows in the mesh. A corresponding lower bound of five phases is also shown.This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant DCR-84-51396, and by IBM Corporation under Grant D8400622.     

Partition between volitional and induced forces in electrically augmented dynamic isometric muscle contractions.

Augmentation of force in partially deficient muscles can be achieved by combining electrical stimulation (ES) with their volitional activation (hybrid activation). However, while the overall torque results from the combination of the volitional and the electrically-induced torque components, the exact share between these components is not known. In a previous work, we described a method to resolve the share between the torque components under isometric static contractions. In this work, we extend our analysis to the case of isometric dynamic contractions. Five healthy subjects were instructed to contract their Tibialis Anterior (TA) muscles according to a typical gait-like dynamic torque pattern, that was visually displayed to them, while monitoring their actual ankle torque and TA electromyography (EMG). These experiments were done with and without augmented activation by means of ES. A computational algorithm was developed to dissociate the volitional from the overall torque, based on EMG signal processing and on precalibration of the dynamic system of the volitional torque versus EMG. The results indicated the quantitative relations between decrease in the volitional torque and the required increase in ES enhancement. The developed method also demonstrated what ES intensity profile is necessary to produce a desired overall torque output. This provides the means for designing an adaptive rehabilitation device for the hybrid activation of deficient muscles.     

The statistical properties of a stepwise procedure for testing the purity of fruit juice

Summary In many cases no fixed standards are available and a sample from a target population is used to provide the necessary quality-control norms. Furthermore, many products posses several correlated attributes that are relevant to the authenticity question. This article addresses some issues related to statistical tests used in such cases, focussing in particular on a procedure that has been lately proposed for differentiating between pure and adulterated fruit juice.The quality control of fruit juice is usually performed by comparing the values of several characteristics in the tested sample against some prespecified standards. In many cases those standards are based on the values found in a sample of a presumably pure juice, which is used as a reference sample or a base sample.Several detection methods were recently proposed that use universal base samples and are supposed to be valid when applied to juices from different sources or different varieties. We compare the results yielded by the use of various base samples and show that the application of such a method to Israeli citrus juice leads to too many rejections of pure juices. We suggest that the main drawbacks of the method is the use of improper base sample that is not specific to the sample being tested.

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Über die statistischen Merkmale eines stufenweisen Vorgehens zum Testen der Reinheit von Fruchtsaft

Zusammenfassung In vielen Fällen gibt es keine festen Standards und eine Probe aus einem Bestand wird angewandt, um die notwendige Qualitätsnorm zu beschaffen. Weiterhin besitzen viele Produkte mehrere korrelierende Eigenschaften, welche für die aufgeworfene Frage von Bedeutung wird. Dieser Beitrag stellt sich Fragen, die mit den in solchen Fällen üblichen statistischen Tests angewandt werden und die sich zuspitzen auf ein Vorgehen, das zur Differenzierung von reinen und verfälschten Fruchtsäften vorgeschlagen worden ist.Die Qualitätskontrolle von Fruchtsaft wird gewöhnlich durchgeführt durch Vergleichen mehrerer charakteristischer Werte in der Probe gegen einige typische Standards. In vielen Fällen gehen derartige Standards auf eine Probe mit aller Voraussicht auf reinem Fruchtsaft zurück, der als Referenzprobe oder als Basisprobe verwendet wird.Mehrere Nachweismethoden wurden kürzlich vorgeschlagen, welche universell als Basisproben gebraucht werden und die als gültig angenommen worden sind bei Fruchtsaft aus verschiedenen Quellen oder bei verschiedenen Varietäten. Wir vergleichen die Ergebnisse durch den Gebrauch verschiedener Basisproben und zeigen, daß die Anwendung einer solchen Methode auf israelische Citrussäfte zu allzu vielen Ablehnungen reiner Säfte führt. Wir vermuten, daß der hauptsächliche Nachteil der Methode der Gebrauch von unreinen Basisproben ist, die nicht typisch für die zu testende Proben sind.

     

Disk Paxos

We present an algorithm, called Disk Paxos, for implementing a reliable distributed system with a network of processors and disks. Like the original Paxos algorithm, Disk Paxos maintains consistency in the presence of arbitrary non-Byzantine faults. Progress can be guaranteed as long as a majority of the disks are available, even if all processors but one have failed. Received: January 2001 / Accepted: March 2002     

Actions as space-time shapes

Human action in video sequences can be seen as silhouettes of a moving torso and protruding limbs undergoing articulated motion. We regard human actions as three-dimensional shapes induced by the silhouettes in the space-time volume. We adopt a recent approach for analyzing 2D shapes and generalize it to deal with volumetric space-time action shapes. Our method utilizes properties of the solution to the Poisson equation to extract space-time features such as local space-time saliency, action dynamics, shape structure and orientation. We show that these features are useful for action recognition, detection and clustering. The method is fast, does not require video alignment and is applicable in (but not limited to) many scenarios where the background is known. Moreover, we demonstrate the robustness of our method to partial occlusions, non-rigid deformations, significant changes in scale and viewpoint, high irregularities in the performance of an action, and low quality video.