Distributed Symbolic Bounded Property Checking

In this paper we describe an algorithm for distributed, BDD-based bounded property checking and its implementation in the verification tool SymC. The distributed algorithm verifies larger models and returns results faster than the sequential version.The core algorithm distributes partitions of the state set to computation nodes after reaching a threshold size. The nodes proceed with image computation on the nodes asynchronously. The main scalability problem of this scheme is the overlap of state set partitions. We present static and dynamic overlap reduction techniques.     

Absorption and metabolism of lanatoside C. II. Fate after oral administration

The absorption, metabolism, and excretion of lanatoside C were studied in hospitalized subjects following oral administration of the tritiated drug. Previous reports of an unusual double peak in plasma levels of radioactivity were confirmed. Fifty plasma samples taken from 31 patients showed that an average of 74% of the radioactive material was digoxin and its metabolites. There was little or no lanatoside C in 36 of the 50 samples of plasma. Similar results were obtained for urine radioactivity. The results confirm that lanatoside C is converted to "digoxin" in the gut prior to absorption as previously proposed by us. "Digoxin" refers to digoxin and its breakdown products, namely, digoxigenin and its mono- and didigitoxosides. According to these proposals, the conversion to "digoxin" takes place partly as a result of acid hydrolysis in the gut and partly by the action of bacteria in the intestine. The effects of concurrent administration of antacid therapy, anticholinergic therapy, and food on the fate of oral lanatoside C were separately studied. There were no significant differences between groups with respect to the amount of radioactive material absorbed or excreted, but there were marked qualitative differences in the plasma profiles. There was a statistically significant increase in the time to the first peak in plasma radioactivity in patients concurrently receiving either food or anticholinergic therapy and there was a significant decrease in the relative height of the first peak in patients treated concurrently with antacid.     

Load relaxation in aluminum: I. Theory of plastic deformation. II. Plastic equation of state

According to the theory of thermally-activated deformation, the plastic strain rate equality will hold in a load relaxation experiment, wheret = 0 is de-fined as the time at which the crosshead stops. In this theory, plastic flow is intrinsically time dependent and its rate is controlled by interaction of glide dislocations with thermal obstacles(e.g. forest dislocations). The strain rate equation is of the form and att = 0 none of these variables changes instantaneously. Measurements reported here for [111] aluminum single crystals indicate that this prediction is wrong. The ratio is near zero at low stress and approaches unity only at high stress. This result is predicted if plastic strain itself is time-independent (athermal), as in the author’s recent theory. Time-dependent strain is then the result of thermal changes in structure, namely loss (recovery) and rearrangement of obstacle dislocations. Experi-ments were also done to test further the essential hypothesis of Hart’s recent formula-tion of an equation of state for plastic deformation-namely that each distinct σ-@#@ curve derived from load relaxation data corresponds to a unique “hardness” state and that re-covery does not occur. Significant differences were observed in the 77 K strsss-strain curves for 295 K relaxed and unrelaxed samples which indicate that substantial loss and some rearrangement of dislocations has occurred during the relaxation. It is concluded from both experiments that load relaxation in aluminum is a manifestation of recovery creep and cannot be taken as evidence for a plastic equation of state.     

A helium-3 cooled bolometer system for one millimeter continuum observations

A new, 1-mm-continuum, bolometer detector system has been constructed employing internal adsorption pumping of He-3 to reach an operating temperature close to 0.4 K. The system spectral bandwidth is 800 to 1200 μm. Although the system was originally designed to be used on the 5-m Hale telescope, it has also been successfully used on the 4-m Anglo-Australian telescope and on the 10-m dish at Owens Valley, California. At the 5-m Hale telescope, the system has a full width-half maximum (FWHM) beam size of 55t" and an instantaneous noise-equivalent flux density of 6 \({{Jy} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{Jy} {\sqrt {Hz} }}} \right. \kern-0em} {\sqrt {Hz} }}\) in good weather.     

Spherical sample holders to improve the susceptibility measurement of superparamagnetic materials

The design of two custom sample holders with a spherical cavity for commercial vibrating sample magnetometer systems is described. For such cavities, the magnetization M[over ->] and the internal magnetic field H(i)[over ->] of a sample are both homogeneous. Consequently, the material parameter M(H(i)) of a sample can be determined even for liquids and powders with a high magnetic susceptibility.     

Relevance feature mapping for content-based multimedia information retrieval

This paper presents a novel ranking framework for content-based multimedia information retrieval (CBMIR). The framework introduces relevance features and a new ranking scheme. Each relevance feature measures the relevance of an instance with respect to a profile of the targeted multimedia database. We show that the task of CBMIR can be done more effectively using the relevance features than the original features. Furthermore, additional performance gain is achieved by incorporating our new ranking scheme which modifies instance rankings based on the weighted average of relevance feature values. Experiments on image and music databases validate the efficacy and efficiency of the proposed framework.