Motion patterns of Nabesna Glacier (Alaska) revealed by interferometric SAR techniques

Nabesna Glacier is one of the longest land-terminus mountain glaciers in North America. However, its flow has never been studied. We derived detailed motion patterns of Nabesna Glacier in winter and spring 1994–1996 from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images acquired by the European Remote Sensing satellites (ERS-1 and ERS-2) using interferometric SAR (InSAR) techniques. Special effort was made to assess the accuracy of the motion estimates, and remove data points with high uncertainty from the motion profiles, enabling us to obtain reliable glacier flow patterns along the highly curved main course of Nabesna Glacier. The results, covering 80 km of the 87 km main course of the glacier, were used to delineate four distinctive sections in terms of spatial and temporal variability of the glacier speed: (1) the upper section where glacier flow was apparently random both temporally and spatially presumably due to development of crevasses; (2) the upper-middle section with relatively steady flow around 0.27 to 0.4 m/day; (3) the middle section with a stable pattern of acceleration from 0.27–0.3 m/day to the maximum about 0.67–0.73 m/day, followed by a general deceleration to 0.17–0.33 m/day before reaching (4) the lower section where the glacier motion was generally slow yet highly variable although uncertainty in the estimation is high. Occurrence of the flow maximum, as well as many local maxima and minima at consistent locations over different periods suggests that the valley geometry affect the overall flow pattern. On top of this general trend, many small-scale temporal/spatial variations in the glacier flow patterns were observed along the glacier, especially in the lower sections. On average, the flow speeds were in the range of 0.3 to 0.7 m/day; however this lacks any measurements of summer flow speeds which are expected to be significantly higher.     

Implementation of multipoint connections in an ATM switching network

This paper presents the problems in the implementation of multipoint connections at switching level using the example of an ATM switching network. By choosing the proper routeing mechanism and the appropriate architecture of the switching element, a switching network can gradually be adapted to an increasing share of multipoint traffic. The first section describes the problems with the handling of multipoint connections within a multiple stage connection oriented switching network. In particular this refers to the routeing of the cells through the switching network. Several alternatives on this issue are discussed. Both, the selected approach based on a differentiated self-routeing mechanism and the corresponding cell format are introduced. In the second part of this article several switch architectures are compared in respect of their multipoint capability. It is demonstrated that at present the most promising solution are switching elements based on the principle of central buffering. A single chip solution using this concept is employed in the presented switching network.     

Eight cases of pyelo-ureteral junction syndrome treated by laparoscopic surgery

From may 1994 to may 1995, eight consecutive patients with symptomatic congenital ureteropelvic junction syndrome (UPJS) were treated by pyeloplasty as described by Anderson, Hynes and Küss by laparoscopic surgery. Three patients had a lower pole artery crossing the anterior surface of the junction and two had a giant renal pelvis. The mean operating time was 120 minutes (min: 90 min; max: 147 min) and the mean hospital stay in the absence of complications (one case) was 3.5 days (min: 1.5 day; max: 8 days). This one complication was due to a postoperative fistula resulting from a technical error requiring an additional fortnight in hospital. All the patients are evaluable at three months. All are asymptomatic and the radiological results showed frank improvement in seven out of eight cases, while the dynamic appearance was improved in the other case. UPJS can be treated by laparoscopic surgery according to proven surgical principles, provided it is performed in a perfectly equipped operating room, by a surgeon and operating team experienced in this type of surgery.     

Toward two-dimensional self-organization of nanostructures using wafer bonding and nanopatterned silicon surfaces

The structure of ultrathin silicon layers obtained by molecular hydrophobic bonding is investigated. The twist and tilt angles between the two crystals are accurately controlled. The buried Si|Si interface is observed by transmission electron microscopy and by grazing incidence X-ray techniques. For low twist angle values (/spl psi/<5/spl deg/) plane view observations reveal well-defined dislocation networks. Cross-section observations give evidence that the dislocation networks are localized at the bonding interfacial plane with no threading dislocation. Grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering measurements confirm the good quality of the bonding interface as well as the quality of the dislocation networks. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction is also used and shows the long-range order of the periodic strain field in the silicon layer. It shows, especially, the interaction between the dislocations. X-ray reflectivity was employed and estimated that the interfacial thickness (i.e., thickness of the bonding) lower than 1 nm decreases when the twist angle increases. The nanopatterned surface is then investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy and X-ray methods. To validate these substrates for long-range order self-organization, the growth of Si and Ge quantum dots is finally achieved.     

异构无线网络资源管理与切换控制技术

随着通信技术的发展,新型业务逐渐增多,传统的通信网络无法满足各种业务之间巨大的性能需求差异,未来的通信网络逐渐向异构网络进行发展。针对异构网络中资源调配与垂直切换的问题,利用虚拟网络技术与资源虚拟化技术设计了异构网络中的无线资源管理方法,并设计了子网间垂直切换算法。该算法利用层次分析法与熵权法得到各网络参数的综合权值,加权得到各网络的效用值并依此选择最优网络。通过搭建系统平台验证了设计的异构无线网络的有效性,为后续异构无线网络的研究提供了参考。     

Coinductive big-step operational semantics

Using a call-by-value functional language as an example, this article illustrates the use of coinductive definitions and proofs in big-step operational semantics, enabling it to describe diverging evaluations in addition to terminating evaluations. We formalize the connections between the coinductive big-step semantics and the standard small-step semantics, proving that both semantics are equivalent. We then study the use of coinductive big-step semantics in proofs of type soundness and proofs of semantic preservation for compilers. A methodological originality of this paper is that all results have been proved using the Coq proof assistant. We explain the proof-theoretic presentation of coinductive definitions and proofs offered by Coq, and show that it facilitates the discovery and the presentation of the results.