Bond-quality characterization of silicon-glass anodic bonding

A simple testing method is presented that allows the comparison of the bond quality for anodically bonded wafers. An array of parallel metal lines of predetermined thickness is formed on a glass wafer. The estimation of the bond quality can be performed by visual inspection after the bonding. This method enables comparison of the anodic-bonding process performance for different glasses, for intermediate layers and various bonding conditions. The optimization of silicon-glass anodic bonding with an intermediate phosphosilicate glass (PSG) layer is shown using this technique.     

Creating Better Governance of Offshore Services

Abstract

Given the extensive history that companies now have with offshore outsourcing and the critical role that it continues to play, it is vital that we synthesize the many lessons learned and formalize them into a workable and flexible governance model. A review of the leading academic and practitioner literature on offshore outsourcing provided the basis for development of nine attributes of best practices/maturity. These attributes were used further to propose a framework for mature offshore outsourcing governance. We conducted a case study of a leading U.S.-headquartered multinational company and its major offshore vendors, some of whom the company had been involved in offshoring with for many years. By juxtaposing the case study experiences with the disparate literature on offshore outsourcing and IT governance, a proposed model for mature offshore outsourcing governance emerged.     

Information geometry of target tracking sensor networks

In this paper, the connections between information geometry and performance of sensor networks for target tracking are explored to pursue a better understanding of placement, planning and scheduling issues. Firstly, the integrated Fisher information distance (IFID) between the states of two targets is analyzed by solving the geodesic equations and is adopted as a measure of target resolvability by the sensor. The differences between the IFID and the well known Kullback–Leibler divergence (KLD) are highlighted. We also explain how the energy functional, which is the “integrated, differential” KLD, relates to the other distance measures. Secondly, the structures of statistical manifolds are elucidated by computing the canonical Levi–Civita affine connection as well as Riemannian and scalar curvatures. We show the relationship between the Ricci curvature tensor field and the amount of information that can be obtained by the network sensors. Finally, an analytical presentation of statistical manifolds as an immersion in the Euclidean space for distributions of exponential type is given. The significance and potential to address system definition and planning issues using information geometry, such as the sensing capability to distinguish closely spaced targets, calculation of the amount of information collected by sensors and the problem of optimal scheduling of network sensor and resources, etc., are demonstrated. The proposed analysis techniques are presented via three basic sensor network scenarios: a simple range-bearing radar, two bearings-only passive sonars, and three ranges-only detectors, respectively.     

Lazy buffer semantics for partial order scenarios

There exists a unique minimal generalisation of a UML sequence diagram (SD) that is race free, known as the inherent causal scenario. However, practitioners sometimes regard this solution as invalid since it is a purely mathematical construct that apparently does not describe a concrete software engineering solution for resolving race conditions. Practitioners often implement SDs with random access input buffers. Messages are then consumed correctly regardless of the order or time at which they arrive, which appears to avoid race conditions altogether. However, this approach changes the observable system behaviour from that specified. We refer to this approach as the lazy buffer realization of a SD. We introduce an operational semantics for the lazy buffer realization. We prove the inherent causal scenario global behaviour is bisimulation equivalent to the global behaviour of lazy buffer semantics. Hence, in this sense, the practitioners solution is theoretically the best possible. Also this proves that the inherent causal scenario does represent a ‘real-world’ software solution.     

Bloggers and Readers Blogging Together: Collaborative Co-creation of Political Blogs

A significant amount of research has focused on blogs, bloggers, and blogging. However, relatively little work has examined blog readers, their interactions with bloggers, or their impact on blogging. This paper presents a qualitative study focusing specifically on readers of political blogs to develop a better understanding of readers?? interactions with blogs and bloggers. This is the first such study to examine the same blogging activity from both readers?? and bloggers?? perspectives. Readers?? significance and contributions to blogs are examined through a number of themes, including: community membership and participation; the relationship between political ideology, reading habits, and political participation; and differences and similarities between mainstream media (MSM) and blogs. Based on these analyses, this paper argues that blogging is not only a social activity, but is a collaborative process of co-creation in which both bloggers and readers engage. Implications of this finding contribute to the study and understanding of reader participation, to the design of technologies for bloggers and blog readers, and to the development of theoretical understandings of social media.     

Skills inventory for network management

How often have you considered the problems of system management? Backups, restores, maintenance, program management, user management, reconfigurations, scheduling, control systems, etc. are always a challenge to balance for optimal usage and user access. Learning system management is not terribly difficult — it's just very time consuming and system specific. Sure, the concepts of systems management are generic, but the implementation is definitely system specific.     

A sputtered zirconia primer for improved thermal shock resistance of plasma-sprayed ceramic turbine seals

Considerable success has been achieved in the development of plasma-sprayed Y₂O₃-stabilized ZrO₂ (YSZ) ceramic turbine blade tip seal components. The YSZ layers are quite thick (0.040–0.090 in) in comparison with typical thermal barrier coating layers applied to airfoils, which are more effectively cooled than the seal. The service potential of seal components with such thick ceramic layers are cyclic thermal shock limited. The most usual failure mode is ceramic layer delamination at or very near the interface between the plasma-sprayed YSZ layer and the Ni-Cr-Al- Y bondcoat. Deposition of a thin r.f.-sputtered YSZ primer to the bondcoat before deposition of the thick plasma-sprayed YSZ layer has been found to reduce laminar cracking in cyclic thermal shock testing. The cyclic thermal shock life of one ceramic seal design was increased by a factor of 5–6 when the sputtered YSZ primer was incorporated. A model based on thermal response of plasma-sprayed YSZ particles impinging on the bondcoat surface with and without the sputtered YSZ primer provides a basis for understanding the function of the primer.     

Rigid Components in Molecular Graphs

We consider three-dimensional generic bar-and-joint realizations of squares of graphs. These graphs are also called molecular graphs due to their importance in the study of flexibility in molecules. The Molecular Conjecture, posed in 1984 by T.-S. Tay and W. Whiteley, indicates that determining rigidity (or, more generally, computing the number of degrees of freedom) of molecular graphs may be tractable by combinatorial methods. We show that the truth of the Molecular Conjecture would imply an efficient algorithm to identify the maximal rigid subgraphs of a molecular graph. In addition, we prove that the truth of two other conjectures in combinatorial rigidity (due to A. Dress and D. Jacobs, respectively) would imply the truth of the Molecular Conjecture.     

Crime specialization, seriousness progression, and Markov chains.

Sequences of violent and nonviolent offenses by 300 male offenders (mean age 26.47 yrs) were subjected to log-linear analyses of the stabilities and magnitudes of their transition probabilities (TPs). Results show that all patterns resembled a Markov process wherein the TPs were stable. The relative magnitude of these TPs indicated that there was specialization in nonviolent offenses and little tendency toward consistently violent behavior. Seriousness progression from nonviolent to violent misconduct was infrequent; however, there was substantial retrogression from violent to nonviolent offenses. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lateral symmetry in the tactual perception of roughness.

Investigated whether tactual roughness perception is differentially lateralized in the cerebral hemispheres in 3 experiments with 76 18–31 yr old university students. Left- vs right-hand performance in the perception of roughness was assessed using 4 paradigms: unimanual 3-alternative forced choice (3-AFC), dichhaptic 3-AFC, comparative same–different judgment, and magnitude estimation. Results show that Ss consistently performed tactual roughness-perception tasks to an approximately equal degree with the left and right hands in all 4 experimental paradigms. Based on the assumption that equal perceptual performance by the left vs right hand indicates relative equality of the cerebral hemispheres, it is concluded that the tactual perception of roughness is laterally symmetrical in the left and right hemispheres. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of texture in Braille reading and of implications for theoretical and methodological issues in tactual roughness perception. (French abstract) (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)