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In 1969, Professor Wickham Skinner, whom many consider as "the father of manufacturing strategy," published a seminal paper entitled "Manufacturing—Missing Link in Corporate Strategy." Among the many interesting insights outlined in that article, Skinner is particularly careful to explain the importance of acknowledging the existence of specific trade-offs in the design of production systems. For example, he warns that a failure on the part of executives to recognize the limitations and compromises that are inherent to all technology and human based systems will inevitably result in a diminished ability of firms to compete successfully in the marketplace. Fifty years after the publication of that influential paper, we reassess some of Professor Skinner's contributions to the theory and practice of strategic operations management. In particular, we put forth the argument that strategic trade-offs in the operations of firms is a concept that is still—and will continue to be—important and relevant to practitioners worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor Ernest S. Kuh passed away on June 27, 2015, with his family by his side after a short illness. This special issue is dedicated to Prof. Kuh and his numerous contributions to circuit theory and computer-aided design, to education, and to the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. This is the second issue of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine that is dedicated to Prof. Kuh. The December 2015 issue of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine included a memorial article by students and colleagues of Prof. Kuh in his memory and his contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a detection scheme for DC side short-circuit faults of photovoltaic (PV) arrays that consist of multiple PV panels connected in a series/parallel configuration. Such faults are nearly undetectable under low irradiance conditions, particularly, when a maximum power point tracking algorithm is in-service. If remain undetected, these faults can considerably lower the output energy of solar systems, damage the panels, and potentially cause fire hazards. The proposed fault detection scheme is based on a pattern recognition approach that employs a multiresolution signal decomposition technique to extract the necessary features, based on which a fuzzy inference system determines if a fault has occurred. The presented case studies (both simulation and experimental) demonstrate the effective and reliable performance of the proposed method in detecting PV array faults. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We aim to investigate the counting response variations of positron emission tomography (PET) scanners with different detector configurations in the presence of solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN). Using experimentally validated Monte Carlo simulations, the counting performance of four different scanner models with varying tumor activity, location, and patient obesity is represented using a noise equivalent count rate (NECR). NECR is a well-established quantitative metric which has positive correlation with clinically perceived image quality. The combined effect of tumor displacement and increased activity shows a linear ascending trend for NECR with slope ranges of (12.5–18.2)*10−3 (kBq/cm3)−1 for three-ring (3R) scanners and (15.3–21.5)*10−3 (kBq/cm3)−1 for four-ring (4R). The trend for the combined effect of tumor displacement and patient obesity is exponential decay with 3R configurations weakly dependent on the patient obesity if the tumor is located at the center of the field of view with exponent’s range of (6.6–33.8)*10−2cm−1. The dependence is stronger for 4R scanners (9.6–38.5)*10−2cm−1. The analysis indicates that quantitative PET data from the same SPN patient possibly examined in different time points (e.g., during staging or for the evaluation of treatment response) are affected by the different detector configurations and need to be normalized with patient weight, activity, and tumor location to reduce unwanted bias of the diagnosis. This paper provides also with a proof of concept for the ability of properly tuned simulations to provide additional insights into the counting response variability especially in tumor types where often borderline decisions have to be made regarding their characterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the achievements of Charles P. Steinmetz, the pioneering mathematical physicist who made the complexities of alternating current machinery and circuits understandable to the world. One of his many diverse interests was the development of a practical, inexpensive electric motor vehicle that could successfully compete with vehicles fueled by gasoline. The operations, advantages and disadvantages of the electric car over a gasoline-fuelled car is given in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although computer scientist Robert W. Floyd, was born in New York City on June 8, 1936, his parents moved more than a dozen times before he went to college. A child prodigy he read every book he could get his hands on. His first grade teacher used him to teach fractions to the older children, in the small Southern schoolhouse where his education began. He received a scholarship to enter the University of Chicago at age 15, in an experimental program for gifted children, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1953. In essence, Floyd had introduced the notion of productions as an organizing principle for programming, anticipating to a certain extent the future development of so-called expert systems. That was his first major paper. This paper is a significant step forward in the field of automatic programming. Floyd has developed a new notation which lets the trees be distinguished from the forest, and which admirably points out what is really going on in a translation process. An algebraic compiler can be described very precisely and compactly in this notation, and one can design such a compiler in Floyd's form in a few hours. In 1962, he became a Senior Project Scientist at Computer Associates Inc., in Wakefield, Massachusetts, an early software firm that specialized in creating compilers.

Profiles German physicist Gustav Robert Kirchhoff. In the 19th century, new electrical, magnetic, and thermal phenomena were observed, eventually leading to the development of electromagnetic theory and thermodynamics as new theories of physics. These theories were mainly developed by physicists in France, Great Britain, and Germany. Kirchhoff was one of the German physicists involved in this process and thus became one of the founders of mathematical physics, at least in Germany. Together with Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, he developed optical spectroscopy and examined the spectrum of the sun, becoming one of the founders of astrophysics. Kirchhoff introduced the black body and discovered the law of thermal radiation. However, electrical engineers know Kirchhoff because of his fundamental contributions to electrical circuits and the well-known Kirchhoff's laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author briefly outlines the work of Kunihiko Iwadare who worked for Thomas Edison in the Schenectady Works. He left of his own volition and returned to Japan where he joined Osaka Electric Light Company, overseeing their first installation of 500 lamp alternators. Later he started his own business of selling lighting and power machines and supplies. In 1898, with a friend, he founded the Nippon Electric Company. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Summary form only given, as follows. This TRANSACTIONS has been successful in reviewing approximately 100 papers per month and reducing the average submission to online posting of accepted papers time to 27 weeks. This would not be possible without the help of the reviewers and the Associate Editors. The Associate Editors obtain reviews of the papers and provide me with their guidance on the acceptance or rejection of papers. This often requires them to review the paper themselves, and considering that the Associate Editor handles approximately ten papers per month, you can imagine the heavy work load that they carry for the good of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (IEEE MTT-S) and the microwave engineering profession. With this editorial, I am sad to announce the retirement of two Associate Editors. Prof. Wendy Van Moer, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium, has provided excellent service to the IEEE MTT-S for the past two years, but she must retire to spend more time with her university position. Prof. John Papapolymerou must also retire as an Associate Editor, but John is retiring because he has accepted the position of Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS. I have valued his work as an Associate Editor for me for six years, and I wish him success in his new role and service that he will be providing to the IEEE MTT-S. Of course, I cannot continue without Associate Editors, and I am pleased to announce the appointment of two Associate Editors. Dr. Tzyy-Sheng Horng, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and Dr. Roberto G??mez-Garc??a, University of Alcala, Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain. They have already been hard at work for four months and I already am very thankful that they accepted my invitation to serve the IEEE MTT-S. Their biographies are included in this editorial so you can learn more about them. Finally, if you see Wendy, John, Tzyy-Sheng, Roberto, or any of the other Associate Editors of this TRANSACTIONS, please thank them for their service. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article announces the new associate editors of the "IEEE Transactions Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence." Frank Dellaert will handle papers related on tracking, motion structure, and image registration. Nalini K. Ratha will oversee papers related to biometrics, fusion and multibiometrics, and fusion architectures. Information on the biographies of the editors is also presented.

This month?s article takes a look at how Robert A. Millikan?s oil-drop experiment led to the measurement of the charge of an electron. A hundred years ago physicist Robert A. Millikan published his paper on the value of Planck?s constant ?h?, which he used to prove Albert Einstein?s photoelectric equation. Seven years later, in 1923, Millikan received the Nobel Prize for this work. Perhaps more than any other number, h symbolizes the rise of modern physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the above paper [1], one co-author was mistakenly left out of the byline. The correct byline and Junhua Shen’s biography and photograph are as follows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay first presents biographical details about Georg Simon Ohm. His most important contributions to the theory of electrical circuits are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses the success of the periodical among various other publications in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer and IEEE Communications Societies. She acknowledges all of the editors and reviewers for their hard work and support for the journal. Also included are biographies of several editorial board members of the periodical including Jaime Lloret, Dakshnamoorthy Manivannan and Rodrigo Fernandes de Mello.

The article presents the position statements and biographies of candidates for officials of the IEEE Communications Society including Luigi Frata, Hikmet Sari and Stefano Bregni.

Prolific, yet neglected inventor Andrew Vasily Haeff (1905-1990) made numerous contributions to vacuum tube art, including the traveling wave tube, the inductive-output tube, the electron-wave tube (or "double-stream" amplifier), the resistive wall tube, and many others. Haeff's contributions to computing history include his pioneering computer monitor technology, his high-speed electrostatic computer memory tube, and his early work in the display and storage of text and graphics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In , the biography for Maryam Eilchi should have read as follows: Maryam Eilchi received the Ph.D. degree in laser physics from the Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. In 2015, she joined the Nuclear Science And Technology Research Institute, as an Assistant Professor. She has been working on fiber lasers and amplifiers, laser fusion, and laser accelerators. She has authored and co-authored several papers in refereed journals and international conferences, and holds two chapters in the book FiberLaser (InTechOpen). Her current research focuses on quantum optics and quantum information. She is currently a Juror of Elsevier journals and the Journal of Optoelectronical Nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the above paper , the affiliation biographs for I. Alnujaim, H. Aali, and F. Khan should have read as following: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the English version of the virtual computer museum has been released by the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ) in June 2006. There are two main components of the virtual museum including biographies of 68 computer pioneers in Japan and a chronological chart of 323 historical computers. The latter is classified into several computers like mainframes, supercomputers, small business computers, minicomputers, workstations, and personal computers. The first computer in Japan was developed by Ryoichi Yazu and it was a mechanical desktop calculating machine.

The article presents the platforms and biographies of the candidates for vice president and member-of-large of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Communications Society (ComSoc). It presents various approaches of Khaled B. Letaief, candidate for vice-president for Conferences, to response to the challenges faced by ComSoc. It reveals the aim of Ian F. Akyildiz, candidate for member-at-large, to raise the value of the society. Candidate for vice-president for publications Len Cimini details her strategy to maintain the standard and to continue the influential role of the society's publications. It also presents the statements and biographies of the other vice-presidential candidates and member-of-large including Sergio Benedetto, Alexander Gelman, and Ricardo Veiga.

It is a measure of the importance and profundity of Marvin Kenneth Simon's contributions to communication theory that a tribute to his life and work is of current research relevance in spite of the continually accelerating rate of evolution in this area. Marv, as the entire community affectionately knew him, was one of the most prolific and influential communications researchers of his generation. Moreover, he laid the foundation for many of the techniques used in communication systems today. Marv's tragic death on September 23, 2007 continues to engender pangs not only of sadness at the passing of a great friend to many in our community, but also of regret that he is no longer with us to help resolve the many challenges facing communication systems today. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On 29 September 2003, "La Sapienza" University of Rome bestowed the "laurea" degree "honoris causa" in electronic engineering on Prof. Arthur A. Oliner for "outstanding pioneering contributions to the theory of guidance and radiation of electromagnetic waves." Prof. Oliner has been an outstanding personality in the electromagnetics world for more than 50 years. He has been one of the principal leaders of the great development of the theory and the applications of microwaves that occurred during the years soon after WWII. Prof. Oliner has carried out his scientific and teaching activity at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, now Polytechnic University, where he is currently Emeritus Professor. At the same time, however, he has visited many universities all over the world, including many visits to "La Sapienza" University of Rome. He obtained many memorable results in the various fields of electromagnetic theory and applications: it is enough to recall his innovative research on guided propagation, radiation phenomena, and methods of circuit representation. For such studies, and for his brilliant teaching, he has received numerous awards and international recognition. Also of particular relevance are his reflections and his contributions as a witness to the history of scientific events in the field of electromagnetics over the last half century. For the many of us who know and admire Prof. Oliner, this was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate him and his work. What follows is the lecture he presented on this occasion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

According to this book's subtitle, Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925) is now considered a maverick of electrical science, but he could also be considered the founder of that very subject. During Heaviside's early years, mathematics for AC circuits did not exist. Practitioners ruled and theory was discarded. This started to change with William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), who applied an equation for heat flow to current flow on transmission lines in 1855. But then nothing was done to further the science until Heaviside took up the problem of high-speed signaling on undersea cables, which he published in 1878. This book describes in a very readable style the contributions that Heaviside made to the creation of electrical engineering as a science, his life story, and how he was the cause of many of his own problems. Heaviside believed that his work should be judged on its own merit, not discounted because of personal issues, and indeed he was correct. The author intends to provide the reader with insights into Oliver Heaviside without including a lot of mathematics, and at this he succeeds. He does so by referencing other fine books that can be consulted if the reader wishes to understand more about Heaviside and his mathematics. This book describes Heaviside's difficult childhood, which shaped his interactions with the world. It goes on to explore his only formal employment, as an undersea cable telegraph operator. He held that position at a time (1868-1874) when operating an undersea cable for consistent performance was still an area of mystery and operators had laboratories where they performed experiments to better understand such things as fault locations and techniques to maximize transmission speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the second part of a two-part article on the remarkable engineering achievements of Fred Stark Pearson (1861-1915) on three continents. The first part appeared in November/December 2003, touching on Pearson's early work in the United States and Canada but focusing primarily on his electric power, lighting, railway and traction project in Brazil and Mexico. This second part of the article covers Pearson's work in northern Spain and his legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the New Year's Eve party thrown by William Hammer for the "Society of Seventy Seven" (fellow workers with electricity) in his home at 23 Rowland St., Newark, NJ, USA, on the last day of 1881. The whole house was fitted throughout with electric bells, burglar alarms, fire alarms, telephones, electric cigar lighters, medical coils, phonographs, electric fans, thermostats, heat regulating devices and some seven musical instruments operated by electricity. The life and career of William Joseph Hammer (1858-1934) is also outlined in this historical overview. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fernando Corbató is best known for his work developing time-sharing operating systems. Early in his career, Corbató had a key role in the development of both the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) and Multics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s. In 1990, Corbató received the Turing Award "for his pioneering work in organizing the concepts and leading the development of the general-purpose, large-scale, time-sharing and resource-sharing computer systems," and he was made a fellow of the Computer History Museum (CHM) in 2012. This interview is the first in a two-part Annals series based on an oral history conducted by Steven Webber for the CHM in February 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presents a biographical profiel of Dave Walden, a key figure in the engineering history of the ARPAnet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an historical paper on the research and work conducted by Jan A. Rajchman (1911?1989), a pioneer of electronic and electromagnetic computer memory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reports on the early beginnings and development of biomedical engineering focusing on Dov Jaron?s work on the balloon pump and his efforts to increase the visibility of biomedical engineering as a professional field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presents a biorgrahical and scientific discussion on the life and work of Bernard Widrow. Widrow is renowned for his work in adaptive filters and adaptive controls, adaptive beamforming, pattern recognition, adaptive neural networks, bioengineering, and adaptive geophysical imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]