St. Francis Hospice: Medicare and health care reform

The St. Francis Hospice Program is symbolic of more than 100 years of Franciscan dedication to the people of Hawaii. Since Mother Marianne's arrival in November of 1883, the Sisters of the Third Franciscan Order Syracuse, New York have responded to the calling; "the charity of Christ impels us." It is through this calling that care and comfort for the terminally ill is a part of the mission of St. Francis Healthcare System. The magnificent spirit through which Hospice services have been made possible, is a reflection of God's great generosity to us throughout the years.     

Robust tracking control of an array of nanoparticles moving on a substrate

Control of nanosystems with frictional dynamics using feedback control methods is important to a wide range of applications of nanotribology. This paper studies the tracking control problem of an array of nanoparticles moving on a substrate with friction between the substrate and the particles. The focus of this study is on control design and stability analysis. The major challenges in this problem include nonlinearities and uncertainties in the frictional dynamics and limited availability of measurable states in nanosystems. The particle–substrate interaction is considered to be unknown, and the unknown effect of unmodeled particle dynamics on the dynamics of the center of mass of the array is also considered. A nonlinear identifier is first developed to identify these unmodeled dynamics. A feedback controller is then developed based on the identifier to control the center of mass of the particles to track a desired trajectory. Boundedness of the closed-loop states and semiglobal asymptotic stability of the tracking error are proven using Lyapunov theory for the case of linear inter-particle interactions. An example with more general Morse-type inter-particle interactions is included to provide some level of confidence that the results are general but not assuredness that they are. Numerical simulation results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the developed identification and control law.     

Improved ant colony optimization algorithms for determining project critical paths

In project management, a project can be represented as a network in two ways; namely, activity-on-arc (AoA) and activity-on-node (AoN). Two recent papers have shown that ant colony optimization (ACO) could find critical path(s) in projects represented as AoA networks. This paper points out that the number and placement of logical dummy activities associated with AoA-based networks can pose serious problems. To get around the problems, an ACO technique based on AoN networks is then proposed. For comparison, the two existing AoA-based ACO algorithms were reproduced and modified into AoN-based algorithms. Moreover, the proposed ACO algorithm was applied to AoA networks as well. All six algorithms were tested with several benchmark problems. The test results strongly indicate that AoN-based ACO algorithms are more effective and efficient in finding critical paths than AoA-based algorithms.     

Clockless Stochastic Decoding of Low-Density Parity-Check Codes: Architecture and Simulation Model

This paper introduces clockless stochastic decoding for high-throughput low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoders. Stochastic computation provides ultra-low-complexity hardware using simple logic gates. Clockless decoding eliminates global clocking, which eases the worst-case timing restrictions of synchronous stochastic decoders. The lack of synchronization might use outdated bits to update outputs in computation nodes; however, it does not significantly affect output probabilities. A timing model of clockless-computation behaviours under a 90 nm CMOS technology is used to simulate the BER performance of the proposed decoding scheme. Based on our models, the proposed decoding scheme significantly reduces error floors due to the “lock-up” problem and achieves superior BER performance compared with conventional synchronous stochastic decoders. The timing model includes metastability to verify the affect on BER performance.     

Self‐Compensation in Transparent Conducting F‐Doped SnO2

The factors limiting the conductivity of fluorine‐doped tin dioxide (FTO) produced via atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition are investigated. Modeling of the transport properties indicates that the measured Hall effect mobilities are far below the theoretical ionized impurity scattering limit. Significant compensation of donors by acceptors is present with a compensation ratio of 0.5, indicating that for every two donors there is approximately one acceptor. Hybrid density functional theory calculations of defect and impurity formation energies indicate the most probable acceptor‐type defects. The fluorine interstitial defect has the lowest formation energy in the degenerate regime of FTO. Fluorine interstitials act as singly charged acceptors at the high Fermi levels corresponding to degenerately n‐type films. X‐ray photoemission spectroscopy of the fluorine impurities is consistent with the presence of substitutional F_O donors and interstitial F_i in a roughly 2:1 ratio in agreement with the compensation ratio indicated by the transport modeling. Quantitative analysis through Hall effect, X‐ray photoemission spectroscopy, and calibrated secondary ion mass spectrometry further supports the presence of compensating fluorine‐related defects.     

Amino and organic acids of the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia ficus indica L.)

The amino acids of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica L.) proteins, free amino acids and nonvolatile organic acids were determined on fresh and lyophilised young pads. The calculated biological value of prickly pear protein was 72.6, relative to egg protein. Trace amounts of malonic, malic and citric acids in material collected at 1800 hours; traces 0.95 and 0.31 mg g^?1, respectively. In similar material analysed at 0600 hours, the concentrations of those acids were 0.36, 9.85, and 1.78 mg g^?1, respectively. Since there was a significant accumulation of the acids during the evening, crassulacean-type metabolism is suggested.     

防黑客设计技术

随着嵌入设备渗透进社会,并承担起更加重要的角色,安全失效会带来潜在的灾难性的后果。嵌入设备以无人干预方式运行在很多领域的数千种关键任务或安全相关系统中,如制造、健康保健、运输、金融和军事等。虽然我们不假思索地依赖于这些嵌入系统,但任何一种嵌入系统都可能成为临时黑客、犯罪团伙、恐怖分子,甚至敌对政府分子的潜在目标。阻止这些攻击的重任就落在了系统设计者的肩上,他不仅要保证通过或保存在嵌入设备中的数据的安全,而且还要保护产品本身的知识产权。     

Antenna design strategy and demonstration for software-defined radio (SDR)

Antennas are a key enabling technology for software-defined radio (SDR). Although software is extremely flexible, SDR??s potential is limited by antenna size and performance. In this paper, we review typical antenna miniaturization techniques and fundamental theories that limit antenna size and performance including operational bandwidth, gain (or range), and radiation pattern. Possible antenna design strategies are discussed to meet the desired specifications in SDR based on observations from the limit theories. The application of strategies to enable multiband (resonant), continuous multiband (frequency independent), and instantaneous, ultra-wideband antennas are discussed qualitatively. Advantages, disadvantages, and design trade-off strategies for different types of antennas are compared from a system-level perspective. A design example for a compact ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna is presented for a software-defined platform. The example involves a direct-conversion radio developed in Wireless@VT that uses a Motorola RFIC having a 100 MHz?C6 GHz operational frequency range with a 9 kHz?C20 MHz channel bandwidth. The example antenna covers frequencies from 450 MHz to 6 GHz instantaneously with approximately 5-dBi realized gain over a finite-size ground plane, including return loss and omni-directional coverage.     

Guest Editorial: Design and Implementation of DSP Systems

Convolution has been extensively used in image processing and computer vision, including image enhancement, smoothing, and structure extraction. However, convolution operation typically requires a significant amount of computing resources. A novel one-dimensional (1D) convolution processor with reconfigurable architecture is implemented in this study. This processor is a combination of a line buffer, controller units, as well as a reconfigurable and separable convolution module. The use of a reconfigurable architecture and separable convolution approach improves the flexibility and performance of the convolution processor. The reconfigurable and separable convolution array, which is the main component of the processor, can simultaneously execute convolution operation with different kernels, with a maximum kernel size of up to 24 × 24. Experimental results show that the maximum frames rate of the processor is approximately 194 frames per second (fps), which exceeds the real-time requirement. Synthesis results show that the processor occupies 13.39 mm ² at a 204 MHz system clock and consumes a power of 419 mW at maximum kernel size at a 120 MHz system clock in SMIC 0.18 μm CMOS technology. Verification experiments on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) demonstrate that the processor is suitable for real-time image processing applications even for high-resolution images.