Interactive digital filtering of gated cardiac studies during cine display

The use of a novel class of image processing hardware, the image computer, is illustrated by application to gated cardiac studies. Digital filtering of a nine-view study consisting of 144 frames, each 64x64 pixels in size, is performed using the Wiener filter. During image display the operator can change the filter parameters. Refiltering is then performed essentially instantaneously, permitting truly interactive filter selection. Comparable digital filtering using a fast conventional computer and display hardware is shown to be too slow to permit interactive filter modification. Image computers incorporate very large image memories with very tightly coupled, fast arithmetic processors and video display devices and allow very computation-intensive calculations to be performed interactively.     

Sharing requirements engineering experience using patterns

Many practitioners - especially those in small and medium enterprises -work in organizations that don't yet implement dedicated requirements engineering methods. Furthermore, these organizations often lack the appropriate knowledge and tools for implementing RE. For this target group of practitioners, we propose patterns as a format for RE knowledge transfer, which can provide guidance by offering easy access to proven methods and tools. As an example, we provide four patterns for basic RE activities.     

A low-jitter 125-1250-MHz process-independent and ripple-poleless0.18-μm CMOS PLL based on a sample-reset loop filter

This paper describes a low-jitter phase-locked loop (PLL) implemented in a 0.18-μm CMOS process. A sample-reset loop filter architecture is used that averages the oscillator proportional control current which provides the feedforward zero over an entire update period and hence leads to a ripple-free control signal. The ripple-free control current eliminates the need for an additional filtering pole, leading to a nearly 90° phase margin which minimizes input jitter peaking and transient locking overshoot. The PLL damping factor is made insensitive to process variations by making it dependent only upon a bandgap voltage and ratios of circuit elements. This ensures tracking between the natural frequency and the stabilizing zero. The PLL has a frequency range of 125-1250 MHz, frequency resolution better than 500 kHz, and rms jitter less than 0.9% of the oscillator period     

Leveraging social media to gain insights into service delivery: a study on Airbnb

Consumers increasingly rely on reviews and social media posts provided by others to get information about a service. Especially in the Sharing Economy, the quality of service delivery varies widely; no common quality standard can be expected. Because of the rapidly increasing number of reviews and tweets regarding a particular service, the available information becomes unmanageable for a single individual. However, this data contains valuable insights for platform operators to improve the service and educate individual providers. Therefore, an automated tool to summarize this flood of information is needed. Various approaches to aggregating and analyzing unstructured texts like reviews and tweets have already been proposed. In this research, we present a software toolkit that supports the sentiment analysis workflow informed by the current state-of-the-art. Our holistic toolkit embraces the entire process, from data collection and filtering to automated analysis to an interactive visualization of the results to guide researchers and practitioners in interpreting the results. We give an example of how the tool works by identifying positive and negative sentiments from reviews and tweets regarding Airbnb and delivering insights into the features of service delivery its users most value and most dislike. In doing so, we lay the foundation for learning why people participate in the Sharing Economy and for showing how to use the data. Beyond its application on the Sharing Economy, the proposed toolkit is a step toward providing the research community with an instrument for a holistic sentiment analysis of individual domains of interest.     

High-yield assembly of multichip modules through known-good IC'sand effective test strategies

Multichip module technology has been shown to offer significant improvements for electronics equipment in the areas of miniaturized size, reduced weight, capability for higher frequency operation, improved thermal performance, and improved reliability. Production applications for multichip modules (MCMs) have grown from high-end computer and aerospace modules to include such diverse products as telecommunications, automotive, and consumer electronics modules. One of the keys to economic success in all applications is the achievement of high manufacturing yields. Yield losses must be kept very low compared with module costs in order to remain economically competitive. Two parameters with a very strong impact on manufacturing yield, known-good components entering assembly and test strategies at various levels of assembly, are discussed. Current industry practice is surveyed and recent progress on MCM infrastructure development is summarized     

Modeling the combined impact of moisture and char shrinkage on the pyrolysis of a biomass particle

A detailed computational model of pyrolysis of a moist, shrinking biomass particle is presented. This model is used to examine the effect of varying the moisture content for a single shrinking biomass particle subjected to a constant external temperature. Particle half-thicknesses ranging from 5 μm to 2 cm, temperatures from 800 to 2000 K, moisture contents from 0 to 30% (dry basis), and shrinkage factors from 1.0 to 0.4 are examined. The impact of moisture content and shrinkage was found to be a function of pyrolysis regime. In general, coupling between moisture content and shrinkage was found to result in longer pyrolysis times than if they were considered separately. Additionally, coupling between moisture content and shrinkage increased tar yield and decreased light hydrocarbon yield compared to considering moisture and shrinkage separately.     

Preparation of Papers in a Two-Column Format for IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery IEEE Transactions on Power Systems

Instructions providing basic guidelines for preparing camera-ready (CR) Transactions-styled papers for IEEE Power Engineering Society (PES) Transactions are presented. This document is itself an example of the desired layout for CR papers (inclusive of this abstract). The document contains information regarding desktop publishing format, type sizes, and type faces. Style rules are provided that explain how to handle equations, units, figures, tables, references, abbreviations, and acronyms. Sections are also devoted to the preparation of acknowledgments, references, and authors' biographies. Abstracts are limited to 150 words and can not contain equations, figures, or tables.     

A new function block modeling language based on Petri nets for automatic code generation

A component based modeling language with the component interfaces derived from the elements of the Petri net theory called CNet is presented in this paper. In contrast to IEC 61499 function blocks that define the flow of events and data separately, CNet models them combined as colored tokens. The event-discrete behavior of CNet components is described by a special class of colored Petri nets with timed arcs and sharpened semantics in order to allow automatic generation of possibly concurrent Java code. In this paper, the state space of CNet components is analyzed and a novel event-discrete "handler-based" execution model that implicitly models an automaton is introduced.     

Hermetic-equivalent packaging of GPS MCM-L modules for highreliability avionics applications

Results are presented of comparative reliability testing of multichip modules (MCM's) fabricated with laminate substrates, and protected with various bare-die coatings. The demonstration MCM's included two design versions (flip-chip and wire-bond) of the digital portion of global positioning system (GPS) receiver multichip modules. This paper summarizes the results for the wire-bonded constructions. Standard encapsulants and new inorganic coatings (Dow Coming's ChipSeal(R) hermetic coating materials') were evaluated in environmental stress exposures corresponding to high reliability avionics applications. Full wafer probe testing was performed both before and after the supplemental ChipSeal processing and dip-chip wafer bump processing steps. ChipSeal and flip-chip wafer processing steps were shown to cause no yield degradation on wafer lots of five different IC types used in the overall program. The environmental test results demonstrate that MCM-L units with bare die packaging can be designed for very robust reliability applications such as military and other high reliability avionics