Hierarchical NTSC compatible HDTV system architecture — A North American perspective

High definition television (HDTV) has become a major world-wide event in the television arena. Since the early 1980s, when HDTV was first demonstrated by Japan, a number of alternative systems have emerged. These systems clearly reflect the business and political objectives of the particular countries or organizations. In North America, which is the largest single consumer market in the world, technical, business and political considerations are shaping the evolution of HDTV. This paper describes a possible advanced television (ATV) architecture for North America and defines its functional modules and corresponding interfaces. The developed model is recommended as a design tool for standardizing ATV in North America and analysing interrelationships of the functional modules on the economic basis. The paper proposes an ‘hierarchical’ ATV emission system with full NTSC compatibility and HDTV quality. Solutions are recommended for terrestrial broadcast, CATV and satellite. This work describes a total systems approach to HDTV called HDS-NA (high definition system for North America). The two emission signals of HDS-NA: HDMAC-60 and HDNTSC are characterized. RF alternatives for the terrestrial broadcast of HDTV are also discussed.     

Automated method for identifying and prioritizing project risk factors

This paper describes an approach for automatically determining project risk factors based on answers to an interactive questionnaire. Stored knowledge of complex interrelationships is used to transform qualitative inputs into quantitative factors used to rank and compare identified risks. A tool called the Software Technology Risk Advisor is described which implements these techniques and provides a testbed for further refinement.     

Color indicator of cuprate superconductivity observed by polarized light microscopy

A common mineralogical technique for identifying individual crystals in a heterogeneous, polycrystalline sample involves the observation at room temperature of their colors in reflected polarized light (colors of polarization). Here we present the observation that a brownish yellow (golden) color of polarization is not only characteristic of the YBa₂Cu₃O₇ superconductor, but of the cuprate superconductors in general and is correlated with the occurrence of superconductivity.     

Novel technique for crystal growth of superconducting ErBa2Cu3O7

Millimeter-sized crystals of ErBa₂Cu₃O₇ were fortuitously grown while sintering a flat disk. It was possible to separate individual crystals from the sintered mass and measure their properties. The resistive transition and onset of magnetic transition of a single crystal was 93 K and the resistive transition width was < 1 K. Flux expulsion was observed and individual crystals could be levitated by a magnetic field. Crystals showed unusual growth features. They were heavily corrugated along the part of the crystal that grew parallel to the top surface of the disk and that coincided with thec axis of the unit cell. Crystals were characterized by X-rays, electron microscopy, and optical microscopy.     

Diabetic retinopathy should not be a contraindication to thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction: review of ocular hemorrhage incidence and location in the GUSTO-I trial. Global Utilization of Streptokinase and t-PA for Occluded Coronary Arteries

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to evaluate the incidence of ocular hemorrhage in patients with and without diabetes after thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction. BACKGROUND: Ocular hemorrhage after thrombolysis has been reported rarely. However, there is concern that the risk is increased in patients with diabetes. In fact, diabetic hemorrhagic retinopathy has been identified as a contraindication to thrombolytic therapy without clear evidence that these patients have an increased risk for ocular hemorrhage. METHODS: We identified all suspected ocular hemorrhages from bleeding complications reported in patients enrolled in the Global Utilization of Streptokinase and t-PA for Occluded Coronary Arteries (GUSTO)-I trial. Additional information was collected on a one-page data form. We compared the incidence and location of ocular hemorrhages in patients with and without diabetes. RESULTS: There were 40,899 patients (99.7%) with information about diabetic history and ocular bleeding. Twelve patients (0.03%) had an ocular hemorrhage. Intraocular hemorrhage was confirmed in only one patient. There were 6,011 patients (15%) with diabetes, of whom only 1 had an ocular hemorrhage (eyelid hematoma after a documented fall). The upper 95% confidence intervals for the incidence of intraocular hemorrhage in patients with and without diabetes were 0.05% and 0.006%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Ocular hemorrhage and, more important, intraocular hemorrhage after thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction is extremely uncommon. The calculated upper 95% confidence interval for the incidence of intraocular hemorrhage in patients with diabetes was only 0.05%. We conclude that diabetic retinopathy should not be considered a contraindication to thrombolysis in patients with an acute myocardial infarction.     

Perfect recovery and sensitivity analysis of time encoded bandlimited signals

A time encoding machine is a real-time asynchronous mechanism for encoding amplitude information into a time sequence. We investigate the operating characteristics of a machine consisting of a feedback loop containing an adder, a linear filter, and a noninverting Schmitt trigger. We show that the amplitude information of a bandlimited signal can be perfectly recovered if the difference between any two consecutive values of the time sequence is bounded by the inverse of the Nyquist rate. We also show how to build a nonlinear inverse time decoding machine (TDM) that perfectly recovers the amplitude information from the time sequence. We demonstrate the close relationship between the recovery algorithms for time encoding and irregular sampling. We also show the close relationship between time encoding and a number of nonlinear modulation schemes including FM and asynchronous sigma-delta modulation. We analyze the sensitivity of the time encoding recovery algorithm and demonstrate how to construct a TDM that perfectly recovers the amplitude information from the time sequence and is trigger parameter insensitive. We derive bounds on the error in signal recovery introduced by the quantization of the time sequence. We compare these with the recovery error introduced by the quantization of the amplitude of the bandlimited signal when irregular sampling is employed. Under Nyquist-type rate conditions, quantization of a bandlimited signal in the time and amplitude domains are shown to be largely equivalent methods of information representation.