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The large amount of secondary effects in complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology limits its application in the ultra‐nanoscale region. Circuit designers explore a new technology for the ultra‐nanoscale region, which is the quantum‐dot cellular automata (QCA). Low‐energy dissipation, high speed, and area efficiency are the key features of the QCA technology. This research proposes a novel, low‐complexity, QCA‐based one‐bit digital comparator circuit for the ultra‐nanoscale region. The performance of the proposed comparator circuit is presented in detail in this paper and compared with that of existing designs. The proposed QCA structure for the comparator circuit only consists of 19 QCA cells with two clock phases. QCA Designer‐E and QCA Pro tools are applied to estimate the total energy dissipation. The proposed comparator saves 24.00% QCA cells, 25.00% cell area, 37.50% layout cost, and 78.11% energy dissipation compared with the best reported similar design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oceanic island floras often exhibit remarkable concentrations of endemic diversity, provide spectacular examples of rapid evolutionary radiations and harbour floras under significant threat due to anthropogenic pressures. They have attracted the interest of biologists for centuries, but their floras continue to yield new taxa and, at a global scale, the extent of their plant diversity remains imperfectly known. Both natural characteristics and historical factors have shaped the development of knowledge of island floras. In this paper, we investigate the approach of Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874), to documenting the flora of Madeira island in the North Atlantic. Lowe collected abundantly in Madeira between 1826 and 1873, resulting in several works on Madeira's flora, published from the 1830s. At a time when taxonomic research on island floras was often based on limited collections made during brief expeditions, Lowe's research on the flora, spanning almost half a century, was exceptional. In this study, 2579 herbarium specimens collected by Lowe were georeferenced and used to investigate temporal, spatial and taxonomic patterns in Lowe's collecting activities. We also examine the distribution of specimens by Lowe to other botanists. Some biases are evident in Lowe's collecting efforts, with steep slopes under‐sampled and coastal sites over‐sampled. These reflect constraints imposed by topography and transport links. These limitations aside, Lowe's work on the Madeiran flora was conducted in a systematic manner, resulting in a comprehensive study of the entire flora. His approach was distinctly modern: he gathered and studied all available information in herbaria and in the published and unpublished writings from earlier visitors; his initial fieldwork was conducted widely to gain knowledge of all habitats and their floras; later fieldwork focussed on less‐explored and most promising areas; duplicates were sent to other botanists, facilitating taxonomic exchanges on critical taxa; and his later fieldwork focussed on plant groups where taxonomic problems had been detected. As a result of Lowe's sustained and systematic approach, he is the single most prolific contributor to the study of Madeira's endemic flora. His approach is a model to documenting island floras still relevant today. Areas poorly sampled by Lowe were areas that were difficult to access, which also protected them from anthropic destructive activities and allowed them to serve as refuges for endemic flora. Those areas deserve particular attention in efforts to complete the survey of Madeira's plant diversity, using technological advancements such as drones to prospect areas that are otherwise still largely inaccessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a parallelization method for a High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) deblocking filter with transform unit (TU) split information. HEVC employs a deblocking filter to boost perceptual quality and coding efficiency. The deblocking filter was designed for data-level parallelism. In this paper, we demonstrate a method of distributing equal workloads to all cores or threads by anticipating the deblocking filter complexity based on the coding unit depth and TU split information. We determined that the average time saving of our proposed deblocking filter parallelization method has a speed-up factor that is 2% better than that of the uniformly distributed parallel deblocking filter, and 6% better than that of coding tree unit row distribution parallelism. In addition, we determined that the speed-up factor of our proposed deblocking filter parallelization method, in terms of percentage run-time, is up to 3.1 compared to the run-time of the HEVC test model 12.0 deblocking filter with a sequential implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging technologies and practices allow wastewater treatment facilities to recover valuable resources such as nutrients, energy, and recycled water during the wastewater treatment process. The ability to recover resources from wastewater introduces new tradeoffs in both water quality and quantity management. In particular, the fact that communities can obtain revenue from the sale of resources that are recovered from wastewater may help internalize the externalities of insufficient wastewater treatment. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model to characterize these tradeoffs within a hydroeconomic framework of optimal wastewater treatment with resource recovery, which is particularly well suited for applications in nutrient management. We use this model to derive analytical results that describe the economically optimal level of deployment, accounting for the fact that the technology or practice is costly and it generates benefits in the form of revenue from the recovered resource, as well as other societal benefits, such as improvements in human and ecosystem health. In addition, we present two examples using specific functional forms for treatment costs to demonstrate how the model can be applied to obtain general principles regarding societally optimal deployment. Our hydroeconomic framework can be used to explore the socioeconomic implications of strategies that target deployment of wastewater treatment with resource recovery, especially nutrients, at multiple scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software process improvement implementation based on software process reference models and standards is a complex and long-term endeavor that requires investment of large sums of money. These obstacles usually hinder organizations from implementing software process improvement successfully, especially for small and medium-size enterprises that operate under strict financial resources. This paper describes the MPS.BR, a nationwide program for software process improvement in Brazilian organizations. The main goal of this initiative is to develop and disseminate a Brazilian software process model (named MPS Model) aiming to establish a feasible pathway for organizations to achieve benefits from implementing software process improvement at reasonable costs, especially small and medium-size enterprises. This paper presents the main components of the MPS Model and discusses the strategy executed to establish and maintain a community of MPS Model practitioners. The results of MPS Model adoption and dissemination in Brazilian software industry are also presented in this paper. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper serves to create a model of creativity and innovation at different organizational levels. It draws on John Holland's Theory of Vocational Choice (1973) as the basis for its structure by incorporating the six different personality types from his theory: conventional, enterprising, realistic, social, investigative, and artistic, as working together with each other within and between teams in organizations. The model begins with opposite personalities working together in two-person groups to generate creative ideas and then expands to all six personalities working together as one team to implement innovative products and services. It is the underlying contrast of personalities in Holland's (1973) theory, where each personality contributes diverse ideas and skills, that when combined, produce new products and services that are financially beneficial, useful, and enhancing of well-being for organizations and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major factor that has limited the application of robots in industrial and human service applications has been the lack of robust sensing and control algorithms for detection and prevention of collision conditions. This paper discusses an approach to the collision avoidance control of robots using a fuzzy logic methodology for the integration of sensory input data from the robot's environment. The paper presents a formulation of the collision avoidance problem using the occupancy grid formulation, and discusses the use of a combination of Dempster-Shafer inference and fuzzy logic in fusing the sensory information and making robot movement decisions. This hybrid approach utilizes the strengths of both systems to provide an effective and computationally tractable result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An autonomous valet parking (AVP) system is designed to locate a vacant parking space and park the vehicle in which it resides on behalf of the driver, once the driver has left the vehicle. In addition, the AVP is able to direct the vehicle to a location desired by the driver when requested. In this paper, for an AVP system, we introduce technology to recognize a parking space using image sensors. The proposed technology is mainly divided into three parts. First, spatial analysis is carried out using a height map that is based on dense motion stereo. Second, modelling of road markings is conducted using a probability map with a new salient-line feature extractor. Finally, parking space recognition is based on a Bayesian classifier. The experimental results show an execution time of up to 10 ms and a recognition rate of over 99%. Also, the performance and properties of the proposed technology were evaluated with a variety of data. Our algorithms, which are part of the proposed technology, are expected to apply to various research areas regarding autonomous vehicles, such as map generation, road marking recognition, localization, and environment recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building upon previously developed and more general dual-process models, this paper provides empirical support for a multidimensional thinking style construct comprised of linear thinking and multiple dimensions of nonlinear thinking. A self-report assessment instrument (Linear/Nonlinear Thinking Style Profile; LNTSP) is presented and preliminarily tested across three studies with an overall sample of 778 respondents comprised of business students and managers. The results indicate that nonlinear thinking style consists of seven distinct, yet interrelated dimensions: intuition, creativity, values, imagination, flexibility, insights, and emotions. Convergent and discriminant validity estimates vis-à-vis a multidimensional creative thinking index and an emotional intelligence measure provide support for further development of the instrument. The implications of these results for future managerial cognition research are discussed, as well as potential practical applications of the LNTSP for management education and business practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-tech markets are unpredictable owing to rapid technology innovation, diverse customer needs, high competition, and other elements. Many scholars have attempted to explain the uncertainty in high-tech markets using their own various approaches. However, sufficiently clear ways to predict diverse changes and trends in hightech markets have yet to be presented. Thus, this paper proposes a new approach model, that is, systematic market segmentation, to give more accurate information. Using an empirical dataset from the mobile handset market in the Republic of Korea, we conduct our research model consisting of three steps. First, we categorize nine basic segments. Second, we test the stability of these segments. Finally, we profile the characteristics of the customers and products. We conclude that the approach is able to offer more diagnostic information to both practitioners and scholars. It is expected to provide rich information for an appropriate marketing mix in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent innovation trends, one notable feature is the merging and overlapping of technologies: in other words, technological convergence. A key technological convergence is the fusion of biotechnology (BT) and information technology (IT). Major IT advances have led to innovative devices that allow us to advance BT. However, the lack of data on IT-BT convergence is a major impediment: relatively little research has analyzed the inter-disciplinary relationship of different industries. We propose a systematic approach to analyzing the technological convergence of BT and IT. Patent analysis, including citation and co-classification analyses, was adopted as a main method to measure the convergence intensity and coverage, and two portfolio matrices were developed to manage the technological convergence. The contribution of this paper is that it provides practical evidences for IT-BT convergence, based on quantitative data and systematic processes. This has managerial implications for each sector of IT and BT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting an encryption function in voice over Wi-Fi service incurs problems such as additional power consumption and degradation of communication quality. To overcome these problems, a partial encryption (PE) algorithm for compressed speech was recently introduced. However, from the security point of view, the partial encryption sets (PESs) of the conventional PE algorithm still have much room for improvement. This paper proposes a new selection method for finding a smaller PES while maintaining the security level of encrypted speech. The proposed PES selection method employs the perceptual evaluation of the speech quality (PESQ) algorithm to objectively measure the distortion of speech. The proposed method is applied to the ITU-T G.729 speech codec, and content protection capability is verified by a range of tests and a reconstruction attack. The experimental results show that encrypting only 20% of the compressed bitstream is sufficient to effectively hide the entire content of speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel parallel shift operator finite-difference time-domain (SO-FDTD) method for plasma in the dispersive media. We calculate the interaction between the electromagnetic wave of various frequencies and non-magnetized plasma by using the parallel SO-FDTD method. Then, we compare the results,which are calculated with serial and parallel SOFDTD executions to obtain the speedup ratio and validate the parallel execution. We conclude that the parallel SO method has almost the same precision as the serial SO method, while the parallel approach expands the scope of memory and reduces the CPU time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embedded processors are increasingly being used in digital consumer appliances such as cellular phones, digital still/video cameras, and car navigation systems. They must therefore deliver high performance within a reasonable area and power consumption level, and be flexible to meet a wide range of requirements for various applications. In this paper, we introduce our latest processor core SH-X developed under the above background. The low-power version of the SH-X core achieves 360 MIPS with a power of 80 mW resulting in the high power-performance ratio of 4500 MIPS/W. The standard version achieves 720 MIPS with a power of 250 mW, 2.8 GFLOPS, and 36M polygons/s graphics performance. The leak currents in the resume standby and U-standby modes are 100 and 10µA, respectively. The resume standby mode can return the status before the standby in only 3 ms, while the U-standby mode requires reset sequence to restart. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 37(3): 10–19, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.20450 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturers that use concurrent engineering perform the design of the product and process in parallel and may utilize teams as the primary work group. In order to implement concurrent engineering, manufacturers have relied on a variety of new technologies. In this paper, it is proposed that models developed for the effective management of technological and organizational change could be effectively used to predict the levels of success of the organization attributed to concurrent engineering. An integrated model was developed that considers the human and organizational variables that are thought to be important when implementing a new technology. A questionnaire was developed and administered at 25 manufacturing companies. Results provide a reliable and valid model whereby time spent by management in determining task, work structure, and technology implementation accounts for 46.7% of the variance attributed to the effectiveness of organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A unified coding method of image and text data is proposed in this paper. This scheme enables us to embed a text into an image by using some redundant region in the frequency space. Our results show that a text of about 4 k to 8 kbytes can be embedded into the image of 256 × 256 pixels and it retains an S/N ratio of about 30 to 40 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1993 the International Standards group for Software Engineering initiated a project, named SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability of determination), to develop a standard for software process assessment. A unique feature of the project is the use of trials to validate the assessment framework. This paper describes the objectives of the trials and discusses the challenges faced by such an exercise. It then outlines the overall approach to the trials, which are currently planned in three phases, and details the approach for the conduct and analysis of trials using phase 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the development of HydroPack paper-thin pouch designed to obtain clean and safe drinking water in the event of natural disasters and drought by Oregon-based Hydration Technology Innovations LLC (HTI). It states that the innovation could transform dirty water into a nutritious drink using cellulose acetate from Eastman Chemical Co. (ECC).Moreover, the solution will work with the use of forward osmosis (FO) filtration technology through HTI's proprietary membrane.