Breaking the frame-buffer bottleneck with logic-enhanced memories

Logic-enhanced memory chips that can remove the rasterizer/frame buffer bottleneck which limits the performance of current image-generation architectures are discussed. Putting pixel memory on-chip with rasterizing processors provides the two to three orders of magnitude improvement in access rates needed to support realistic shading models and aliasing in interactive systems. Current high-performance graphics systems and logic-enhanced memory architectural issues are reviewed. The design of the PixelFlow Enhanced Memory Chip (EMC), which exploits advances in semiconductor technology and circuit techniques to build compact, high-performance rasterizers, is described     

Delivering the goods? Access to family physician services in Canada: a comparison of 1985 and 1991

In recent years considerable attention has been given to the effects of universal, first-dollar coverage for health care services as provided under Canada's health care system. However, no consideration has been given to the stability of these effects through periods of changing economic climate. In this paper we consider the extent to which the achievements of the Canadian approach to health care funding have been maintained in the presence of increasing attention to cost containment. Multivariate analyses are used to (a) explain variations in utilization of family physician services among the population and (b) explore the relationship between utilization and need for periods of differing economic circumstances. We observe that the relative importance of differences in need in explaining variations in use among the population was less in the period when cost containment was of greater concern. These findings indicate that policymakers cannot assume that removing financial barriers to access to service, although important in achieving a more equitable distribution of service utilization, may be sufficient to sustain such distributions during time of constraint.     

Estimating Respiratory Mechanical Parameters in Parallel Compartment Models

Four iterative parameter estimation algorithms were used to obtain estimates in three parallel compartment models of the respiratory system. The stability of the parameter estimates and the agreement between the forced random noise impedance data and the model's response were evaluated for each algorithm-model combination. The combination of a two-stage simplex algorithm with a five element model provided the most stable parameter estimates and the second best fit to the data.     

Meanings in policy: a textual analysis of Canada's "Achieving Health For All" document

This paper presents a textual analysis of a key Canadian health policy document--Achieving Health for All (AHFA). It begins by establishing the importance of policy language and an interpretive approach to reveal dominant meanings and assumptions. This approach points out the significance of language and its contexts (text and intertext) and of developing a formal analytic strategy, based on semiotics. The paper concludes with a detailed, illustrated analysis of AHFA, suggesting that the document's discourse, through appealing to all, with emphases on the nation, community and all Canadians, establishes a frame of individual responsibility and rights, health promotion and broad health determinants--a frame that resonates with the cost-constrained nature of health care delivery-as found in provincial reform documents in the 1980s and 1990s.     

A 14-mW 6.25-Gb/s Transceiver in 90-nm CMOS

This paper describes a 6.25-Gb/s 14-mW transceiver in 90-nm CMOS for chip-to-chip applications. The transceiver employs a number of features for reducing power consumption, including a shared LC-PLL clock multiplier, an inductor-loaded resonant clock distribution network, a low- and programmable-swing voltage-mode transmitter, software-controlled clock and data recovery (CDR) and adaptive equalization within the receiver, and a novel PLL-based phase rotator for the CDR. The design can operate with channel attenuation of -15 dB or greater at a bit-error rate of 10^-15 or less, while consuming less than 2.25 mW/Gb/s per transceiver.     

The response of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli in the Sydney rock oyster (Crassostrea commercialis), during depuration and storage

Sydney Rock Oysters, when allowed to feed in waters containing approximately 10(4) cfu of Campylobacter cells per ml, concentrated between 10(2) and 10(3) cfu of the organism per g of oyster tissue, within 1 h. When these contaminated oysters were subjected to depuration, they were effectively cleaned in 48 h. The survival of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli was also investigated. Oysters contaminated by feeding and injection were processed as half shells and bottled oysters and were held at 3 and 10 degrees C. Half shells were also stored at -20 to -24 degrees C. At all these temperatures the organism survived for periods varying between 8 to 14 days and in oysters contaminated by feeding, the survival was substantially greater. Survival was better at 3 than at 10 degrees C in half-shelled oysters. Campylobacter survived better in bottled oysters than in half shells stored at the same temperature. In frozen half shelled oysters previously contaminated by feeding, the organisms were viable for months. In contaminated unopened oysters stored at 20 and 30 degrees C, C. jejuni and C. coli failed to multiply as expected. They survived for periods varying from 2 to 9 days.