Cross-specialty linkage and extrapolation of resource-based relative value scales

We used the fluorescent labelled dopamine D1-receptor antagonist Bodipy-SCH 23390 for the cellular localization of D1-ligand binding sites in the retinae of different vertebrates (teleosts, Xenopus, turtle, rat and rabbit). Competition experiments with unfixed cryosections of fish retina were performed to characterize the binding conditions of Bodipy-labelled SCH 23390. Tissue bound [3H]SCH 23390 was displaceable with increased amounts of bodipy-SCH 23390. The pharmacological specificity of the D1 fluorescent antagonist was determined by competition experiments with an excess of unlabelled SCH 23390. This treatment significantly reduced the level of fluorescence of the retina confirming the specificity of the binding. We observed a homogeneously distributed fluorescence signal in both plexiform layers in unfixed cryosections of fish, frog, turtle, rat and rabbit. Similar staining intensities of both plexiform layers were found in frog, turtle, rat and rabbit retina. In teleosts, the label of the outer plexiform layer was markedly more intense. Non-specific label was associated with photoreceptor outer and inner segments. The specific labelling of both plexiform layers indicates a mismatch of dopamine releasing and D1-binding sites, and suggests a possible extrasynaptic localization of the D1-receptor. The physiological significance of the observed distribution of D1-ligand binding sites is discussed with respect to the role of dopamine in controlling adaptational processes in the retina.     

CMOS scaling into the nanometer regime

Starting with a brief review on 0.1-μm (100 nm) CMOS status, this paper addresses the key challenges in further scaling of CMOS technology into the nanometer (sub-100 nm) regime in light of fundamental physical effects and practical considerations. Among the issues discussed are: lithography, power supply and threshold voltage, short-channel effect, gate oxide, high-field effects, dopant number fluctuations and interconnect delays. The last part of the paper discusses several alternative or unconventional device structures, including silicon-on-insulator (SOI), SiGe MOSFET's, low-temperature CMOS, and double-gate MOSFET's, which may lead to the outermost limits of silicon scaling     

AC hot-carrier effects in MOSFETs with furnaceN2O-nitrided gate oxides

AC hot-carrier effects in n-MOSFETs with thin (~85 Å) N₂O-nitrided gate oxides have been studied and compared with control devices with gate oxides grown in O₂. Results show that furnace N₂O-nitrided oxide devices exhibit significantly reduced AC-stress-induced degradation. In addition, they show weaker dependences of device degradation on applied gate pulse frequency and pulse width. Results suggest that the improved AC-hot-carrier immunity of the N₂O-nitrided oxide device may be due to the significantly suppressed interface state generation and neutral electron trap generation during stressing     

Sleep in relation to age, sex, and chronotype in Japanese workers

The Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire and Life Habits Inventory were administered to 622 Japanese workers matched for sex and age. We investigated the distributions of the scores on the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire and sleep-wake habits by age and sex. Subjects were classified into five age groups and three chronotypes. The distributions and mean scores on the questionnaire advanced slightly toward the Morning type from the young to the aged group. The habitual bedtimes and waking times were significantly earlier in all the chronotypes from the young to the aged group, and the preferred bedtimes and waking times were also clearly earlier from the young to the aged group. The length of sleep was shorter for the Evening than the Morning types, especially in the group below 24 yr. The differences in habitual and preferred sleep length were greater than 1 hour for all age groups, especially the two groups under 34 yr. The number of awakenings during night sleep increased from the young to the aged group for all chronotypes. The older Evening type tended more toward frequent napping and longer naptime. The variabilities of bedtime and sleep length were larger for the young and Evening type than for the old group and Morning types. Further, the mood upon waking and satisfaction with sleep length were better in the aged Evening type than the young Morning type. The women under 44 yr. woke up earlier than the men of the same age, and the women of the 35-54 yr. groups had a shorter length of sleep than others. These may be related to childcare and housework. These results indicated that the phase of circadian rhythms had moved forward from the young to the aged group, and the individual's rhythm, of those that were aged Morning types, showed better agreement with sleep-wake rhythms than did others.     

Multi-criteria Decision-making Approach for Environmental Impact Assessment to Reduce the Adverse Effects Of Dams

Water Resources Management - Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) of development projects are necessary to minimize negative impacts and maximize benefits. The objective of this paper is to...     

Development of an Adaptive EC Website With Online Identified Cognitive Styles of Anonymous Customers

This study developed an adaptive electronic commerce (EC) website based on users' cognitive styles without asking users to complete any evaluation forms. In this system, a multilayer feed forward neural network (MLFF) was designed to identify the cognitive styles of anonymous users by observing their browsing behavior. Then the system presented the adaptive interfaces, designed by investigating the relationships between users' cognitive styles and browsing behavior, to users based on the identified cognitive styles. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the system. The experimental results verified the potential benefits of MLFF in identifying anonymous users' cognitive styles during browsing of EC applications and provided evidence that an adaptive EC website that presents product data consistent with the users' cognitive styles can be beneficial to one-to-one Internet marketing not only for users whose cognitive styles are known before browsing but also for anonymous users whose cognitive styles are identified during browsing.     

Mobile Underwater Sensor Networks for Protection and Security: Field Experience at the UAN11 Experiment

The EU‐funded project UAN (Underwater Acoustic Network) was aimed at conceiving, developing, and testing at sea an innovative and operational concept for integrating underwater and above‐water sensors in a unique communication system to protect offshore and coastline critical infrastructures. This work gives details on the underwater part of the project. It introduces a set of original security features and gives details on the integration of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) as mobile nodes of the network and as surveillance assets, acoustically controlled by the command and control center to respond against intrusions. Field results are given of the final UAN project sea trial, UAN11, held in May 2011 in Norway. During the experimental activities, a UAN composed of four fixed nodes, two AUVs, and one mobile node mounted on the supporting research vessel was operated continuously and integrated into a global protection system. In this article, the communication performance of the network is reported in terms of round‐trip time, packet loss, and average delivery ratio. The major results of the experiment can be thus summarized: the implemented network structure was successful in continuously operating over five days with nodes seamlessly entering and exiting the network; the performance of the network varied greatly with fluctuations in the acoustic channel; the addition of security features induced a minor degradation in network performance with respect to channel variation; the AUVs were successfully controlled from a remote station through acoustic signals routed by the network. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

On measuring network robustness for weighted networks

Knowledge and Information Systems - Network robustness measures how well network structure is strong and healthy when it is under attack, such as vertices joining and leaving. It has been widely...