Housing quality and childrenȁ9s socioemotional health

This study examined whether the socioemotional health of children 9–12 years old is related to the physical quality of their residence and neighborhood. The study included 95 children from households with a wide range of incomes in a medium-sized anglophone and a medium-sized francophone Canadian city. Each childȁ9s socioemotional health was assessed and the quality of each childȁ9s housing was assessed on up to 309 aspects of the residence and immediate neighborhood, based on walk-throughs and interviews with the parents in the residences. The childrenȁ9s socioemotional health, as assessed by their parents, was worse when the physical condition of their residenceȁ9s interior, exterior, and immediate neighborhood was worse. This relation remained significant after controlling for household income, parental education and mental health status, the childȁ9s gender, and time lived in the residence. Furthermore, none of these five factors moderated the relation, evidence for its robustness.     

一种新型的双极功率器件—BST

针对常规双极功率晶体管（ＢＰＴ）中存在的高频、高电流增益和高ＣＥ击穿电压间的固有矛盾，基于一新工艺提出了一种新型的双极功率器件──ＢＳＴ（ＢａｓｅＳｈｉｅｌｄｉｎｇＴｒａｎｓｉｓｔｏｒ）结构。分析了ＢＳＴ夹断后的两维电场解析解，可知深Ｐ＋多晶硅基区的引入对有源Ｐ基区产生明显的电场屏蔽效应，该基区屏蔽效应随Ｐ＋基区深入Ｎ－区中的深度Ｌ的增加以及相邻Ｐ＋基区间距２Ｄ的减小而增强。正是这种基区屏蔽效应，使得ＢＳＴ的特征频率ｆＴ、电流增益ｈｆｅ和ＣＥ击穿电压ＢＶｃｅ０都较常规ＢＰＴ大为提高，较好地解决了常规ＢＰＴ中存在的主要矛盾。实验验证了理论分析的结果。     

Adaptive wormhole routing in k-ary n-cubes

Distributed memory multiprocessor (DMMP) systems have gained much attention because their performance can be easily scaled up by increasing the number of processor-memory modules. The k-ary n-cube is the most popular interconnection network topology currently used in DMMPs. Wormhole routing is one of the most promising switching technology and has been used in many new generation multicomputers. Wormhole routing makes the communication latency insensitive to the network diameter and reduces the size of the channel buffer of each router. The concept of virtual channels and virtual networks are widely invented for deadlock-free design. A fully adaptive wormhole routing method for k-ary n-cubes has been proposed by Linder in 1991 [10]. Unfortunately, the need of 2^{n − 1} virtual networks makes it unreasonable. In this paper, we propose a virtual network system to support an adaptive, minimal and deadlock free routing in k-ary n-cubes. It uses only four virtual networks but can get a higher degree of adaptability and higher traffic capacity. Simulation results are presented to verify the performance.     

Relaxation of extrinsic and intrinsic stresses in germanium substrates with silicon films

Si films were deposited on Ge substrates at 400°C by two different Physical Vapor Deposition techniques: (A) ion beam sputtering and (B) magnetron sputtering. The intrinsic stresses in the as-deposited films were measured to be compressive and much greater in samples (A), about −1500 to −2000 MPa than in samples (B), about −300 to −500 MPa. The substrates were subsequently exposed to thermal treatments for varying times at 800°C. In the lower stressed (B) samples, the films had relaxed and reduced the overall curvature of the structure whereas in the high stresses (A) samples, an irreversible large increase in the substrate curvature was found to occur. This indicated that plastic deformation in the Ge substrates itself had occurred.     

Optimal Routing Designs in Self-healing Communications Networks

Self-healing communication networks that allow re-routing of demands through switching processes at designated nodes are studied. It is shown how network utilization, demand throughput and reliability of such networks can be studied simultaneously to achieve an optimal design for all three. This is done through a max–min–max multi-commodity network flow formulation of the routing problem in which it is ensured that maximum network throughput is achieved with minimum loss of demands that are blocked due to single switching node failures. It is shown that a node-path linear programming approximation to the multi-commodity network flow formulation solves the problem for medium and large network sizes in moderate computational times.     

Model for oxygen transfer in rotating biological contactor

Rotating biological contactor is being widely used for wastewater treatment but there is an apparent lack of knowledge about the rate at which oxygen transfer occurs, in physical and biological system. In this study the transfer of oxygen from air to water by a rotating disc air-liquid contactor in physical system is investigated. The oxygen transfer model suggested by Kim and Molof, Water Sci. Technol. 14 (1982) 569, was modified and the developed model is termed as modified Kim and Molof model. The model was calibrated by using available data in literature and validated by experiments conducted in this study. The effect of significant physical parameters was integrated into a single term and is termed as volume renewal number. The modified Kim and Molof model was compared with the other available models. The coefficient of determination (R(2)) for the modified Kim and Molof model obtained is 0.95 which is much higher than in the other available models. Thereby the model is expected to estimate oxygen transfer more accurately. Further, a simplified linear model between K(L)a and the volume renewal number is proposed. Both modified Kim and Molof and linear model estimate the overall oxygen transfer coefficient (K(L)a) accurately.     

Design and Analysis of an Efficient Communication Strategy for Hierarchical and Highly Changing Ad-hoc Mobile Networks

In this work we introduce two practical and interesting models of ad-hoc mobile networks: (a) hierarchical ad-hoc networks, comprised of dense subnetworks of mobile users interconnected by a very fast yet limited backbone infrastructure, (b) highly changing ad-hoc networks, where the deployment area changes in a highly dynamic way and is unknown to the protocol. In such networks, we study the problem of basic communication, i.e., sending messages from a sender node to a receiver node. For highly changing networks, we investigate an efficient communication protocol exploiting the coordinated motion of a small part of an ad-hoc mobile network (the runners support) to achieve fast communication. This protocol instead of using a fixed sized support for the whole duration of the protocol, employs a support of some initial (small) size which adapts (given some time which can be made fast enough) to the actual levels of traffic and the (unknown and possibly rapidly changing) network area, by changing its size in order to converge to an optimal size, thus satisfying certain Quality of Service criteria. Using random walks theory, we show that such an adaptive approach is, for this class of ad-hoc mobile networks, significantly more efficient than a simple non-adaptive implementation of the basic runners support idea, introduced in [9,10]. For hierarchical ad-hoc networks, we establish communication by using a runners support in each lower level of the hierarchy (i.e., in each dense subnetwork), while the fast backbone provides interconnections at the upper level (i.e., between the various subnetworks). We analyze the time efficiency of this hierarchical approach. This analysis indicates that the hierarchical implementation of the support approach significantly outperforms a simple implementation of it in hierarchical ad-hoc networks. Finally, we discuss a possible combination of the two approaches above (the hierarchical and the adaptive ones) that can be useful in ad-hoc networks that are both hierarchical and highly changing. Indeed, in such cases the hierarchical nature of these networks further supports the possibility of adaptation.     

Understanding spaces as places: extending interaction design paradigms

This short paper focuses on some issues involved in the design of ubiquitous technologies and their integration within physical spaces. Current design methodologies and techniques do not explicitly consider the importance of gaining a full understanding of the human experience of space when designing technologies that will pervade and become an integral part of our physical environment. This paper is specifically focused on the importance of considering spaces as places, and of analysing those features of a place that are going to shape users interactions with technologically enhanced environments. It also examines the future implications that this approach may have on theoretical and methodological aspects of interaction design.

Validating and Scaling the MicroGrid: A Scientific Instrument for Grid Dynamics

Large-scale Grids that aggregate and share resources over wide-area networks present major challenges in understanding dynamic application and resource behavior for performance, stability, and reliability. Accurate study of the dynamic behavior of applications, middleware, resources, and networks depends on coordinated and accurate modeling of all four of these elements simultaneously. We have designed and implemented a tool called the MicroGrid which enables accurate and comprehensive study of the dynamic interaction of applications, middleware, resource, and networks. The MicroGrid creates a virtual Grid environment – accurately modeling networks, resources, the information services (resource and network metadata) transparently. Thus, the MicroGrid enables users, Grid researchers, or Grid operators to study arbitrary collections of resources and networks. The MicroGrid includes the MaSSF online network simulator which provides packet-level accurate, but scalable network modeling. We present experimental results with applications which validate the implementation of the MicroGrid, showing that it not only runs real Grid applications and middleware, but that it accurately models both their and underlying resource and network behavior. We also study a range of techniques for scaling a critical part of the online network simulator to the simulation of large networks. These techniques employ a sophisticated graph partitioner, and a range of edge and node weighting schemes exploiting a range of static network and dynamic application information. The best of these, profile-driven placement, scales well to online simulation of large networks of 6,000 nodes using 24 simulation engine nodes.     

SSTT: Efficient local search for GSI global routing

In this paper, a novel global routing algorithm is presented for congestion opti-mization based on efficient local search, named SSTT (search space traversing technology). This method manages to traverse the whole search space. A hybrid optimization strategy is adopted,consisting of three optimization sub-strategies: stochastic optimization, deterministic optimiza-tion and local enumeration optimization, to dynamically reconstruct the problem structure. Thus,“transition” can be made from a local minimum point to reach other parts of the search space,traverse the whole search space, and obtain the global (approximate) optimal routing solution.Since any arbitrary initial routing solution can be used as the start point of the search, the initial-ization in SSTT algorithm is greatly simplified. SSTT algorithm has been tested on both MCNC benchmark circuits and industrial circuits, and the experimental results were compared with those of typical existing algorithms. The experimental results show that SSTT algorithm can obtain the global (approximate) optimal routing solution easily and quickly. Moreover, it can meet the needs of practical applications. The SSTT global routing algorithm gives a general-purpose routing solution.