Separate assessment of porosity and uncombined carbon in cemented carbides

Porosity and uncombined carbon in cemented carbides are traditionally assessed by comparison to standardized microstructure charts, such as those in ISO 4505-1978. To improve the accuracy in the characterization a fully automatic image analysis procedure has been developed. The analysis is performed using light optical microscopy on unetched polished specimens. The implemented algorithm separates uncombined carbon, C-defects, from pores, A- and B-defects. Pores are approximately distributed in a random way in the structure. Uncombined carbon is on the other hand precipitated into clusters of carbon particles. This difference is together with defect size used as a base for the separation. Small defects situated close together are classified as C-defects, small isolated defects as A-pores and large defects as B-pores. Pores are found to be more round than the somewhat elongated C-defects. The difference in shape is significant and can also be used as a separation criterion.

Image analysis is used to quantitatively characterise the ISO 4505-1978 standard charts with respect to volume fraction, number density and size distribution of defects. The results are compared to measured distributions for true microstructures.     

Betweenness parameterized above tight lower bound

We study ordinal embedding relaxations in the realm of parameterized complexity. We prove the existence of a quadratic kernel for the Betweenness problem parameterized above its tight lower bound, which is stated as follows. For a set V of variables and set C of constraints “vi is between vj and vk”, decide whether there is a bijection from V to the set {1,…,|V|} satisfying at least |C|/3+κ of the constraints in C. Our result solves an open problem attributed to Benny Chor in Niedermeier's monograph “Invitation to Fixed-Parameter Algorithms”. The betweenness problem is of interest in molecular biology. An approach developed in this paper can be used to determine parameterized complexity of a number of other optimization problems on permutations parameterized above or below tight bounds.     

5-GHz 32-bit integer execution core in 130-nm dual-V/sub T/ CMOS

A 32-bit integer execution core containing a Han-Carlson arithmetic-logic unit (ALU), an 8-entry /spl times/ 2 ALU instruction scheduler loop and a 32-entry /spl times/ 32-bit register file is described. In a 130 nm six-metal, dual-V/sub T/ CMOS technology, the 2.3 mm/sup 2/ prototype contains 160 K transistors. Measurements demonstrate capability for 5-GHz single-cycle integer execution at 25/spl deg/C. The single-ended, leakage-tolerant dynamic scheme used in the ALU and scheduler enables up to 9-wide ORs with 23% critical path speed improvement and 40% active leakage power reduction when compared to a conventional Kogge-Stone implementation. On-chip body-bias circuits provide additional performance improvement or leakage tolerance. Stack node preconditioning improves ALU performance by 10%. At 5 GHz, ALU power is 95 mW at 0.95 V and the register file consumes 172 mW at 1.37 V. The ALU performance is scalable to 6.5 GHz at 1.1 V and to 10 GHz at 1.7 V, 25/spl deg/C.     

Deployment of Mobile Switching Centers in a Telecommunications Network: A Stochastic Programming Approach

We consider a network design problem arising in mobile communications. At the core of the network is a number of mobile switching centers (MSCs), each serving a number of base station controllers (BSCs). The network design problem involves three major groups of decisions – deployment of a number of new MSCs, allocation of BSCs to new and existing MSCs, and capacity expansion of transmission links interconnecting the MSCs. These decisions must be made so as to minimize the incurred costs while meeting customer demand and observing the capacity restrictions. We formulate the problem as a two-stage stochastic program with mixed-integer recourse. To solve the problem we apply a dual decomposition procedure, solving scenario subproblems by means of branch and cut. The solution procedure has been tested on a real life problem instance provided by SONOFON, a Danish mobile communication network operator, and we report results of our computational experiments.     

Quality of Service Schemes for IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs – An Evaluation

This paper evaluates four mechanisms for providing service differentiation in IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs. The evaluated schemes are the Point Coordinator Function (PCF) of IEEE 802.11, the Enhanced Distributed Coordinator Function (EDCF) of the proposed IEEE 802.11e extension to IEEE 802.11, Distributed Fair Scheduling (DFS), and Blackburst. The evaluation was done using the ns-2 simulator. Furthermore, the impact of some parameter settings on performance has also been investigated. The metrics used in the evaluation are throughput, medium utilization, collision rate, average access delay, and delay distribution for a variable load of real time and background traffic. The simulations show that the best performance is achieved by Blackburst. PCF and EDCF are also able to provide pretty good service differentiation. DFS can give a relative differentiation and consequently avoids starvation of low priority traffic.     

Electrochemical Deposition and Characterization of Thermoelectric Ternary (Bi x Sb1?x )2Te3 and Bi2(Te1?y Se y )3 Thin Films

Thermoelectric thin films of the ternary compounds (Bi _x Sb_1?x )₂Te₃ and Bi₂(Te_1?y Se _y )₃ were synthesized using potentiostatic electrochemical deposition on gold-coated silicon substrates from aqueous acidic solutions at room temperature. The surface morphology, elemental composition, and crystal structure of the deposited films were studied and correlated with preparation conditions. The thermoelectric properties of (Bi _x Sb_1?x )₂Te₃ and Bi₂(Te_1?y Se _y )₃ films, i.e., Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity, were measured after transferring the films to a nonconductive epoxy support. (Bi _x Sb_1?x )₂Te₃ thin films showed p-type semiconductivity, and the highest power factor was obtained for film deposited at a relatively large negative potential with composition close to Bi_0.5Sb_1.5Te₃. In addition, Bi₂(Te_1?y Se _y )₃ thin films showed n-type semiconductivity, and the highest power factor was obtained for film deposited at a relatively small negative potential, having composition close to Bi₂Te_2.7Se_0.3. In contrast to Bi₂Te_2.7Se_0.3 thin films, an annealing treatment was required for Bi_0.5Sb_1.5Te₃ thin films to achieve the same magnitude of power factor as Bi₂Te_2.7Se_0.3. Therefore, Bi₂Te_2.7Se_0.3 thin films appear to be good candidates for multilayer preparation using electrochemical deposition, but the morphology of the films must be further improved.     

Robust load balancing under traffic uncertainty��tractable models and efficient algorithms

Routing configurations that have been optimized for a nominal traffic scenario often display significant performance degradation when they are subjected to real network traffic. These degradations are due to the inherent sensitivity of classical optimization techniques to changes in model parameters combined with the significant traffic variations caused by demand fluctuations, component failures and network reconfigurations. In this paper, we review important sources for traffic variations in data networks and describe tractable models for capturing the associated traffic uncertainty. We demonstrate how robust routing settings with guaranteed performance for all foreseen traffic variations can be effectively computed via memory efficient iterative techniques and polynomial-time algorithms. The techniques are illustrated on real data from operational IP networks.