Improved multimedia server I/O subsystems

This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.---- Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.The main function of a continuous media server is to concurrently stream data from storage to multiple clients over a network. The resulting streams will congest the host CPU bus, reducing access to the system's main memory, which degrades CPU performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate ways of improving I/O subsystems of continuous media sewers. Several improved I/O subsystem architectures are presented and their performances evaluated. The proposed architectures use an existing device, namely the Intel i960RP processor. The objective of using an I/O processor is to move the stream and its control from the host processor and the main memory. The ultimate aim is to identify the requirements for an integrated I/O subsystem for a high performance scalable media-on-demand server

Molecular oxygen densities from rocket measurements of Lyman-alpha absorption profiles

Molecular oxygen density measurements in upper atmosphere by absorption spectroscopy using solar Lyman alpha radiatio

What influences the Changes in REIT CEO Compensation?: Evidence from Panel Data

This study examines what influences the changes in REIT CEO compensation using the following performance measures: average three-year total returns to shareholders, market value added, Tobin's q, and change in funds from operations. In addition, we examine the impact of managerial power on the change in compensation. Unbalanced panel data is employed to capture both the time-series and cross-sectional effects. The empirical evidence indicates that firm performance and size do not influence the change in CEO salary, while risk, tenure, title, ownership, and age have significant impacts. Contrary to previous findings and a priori expectations, bonuses are not influenced by risk, size, or CEO power; however, they are influenced by performance. Option awards are affected by performance and CEO power.

The Unsettling Effect of Maine Law on Settlement in Cases Involving Multiple Tortfeasors

When more than one person or entity causes injury to another, the multiple tortfeasors are jointly and severally liable to the injured party under Maine law. Maine has also provided since 1965 for comparison of the negligence of plaintiffs and defendants so that a plaintiff may not recover if his causative negligence is found to have equaled or exceeded that of the defendant. In addition, title 14, section 156 of the Maine Revised Statutes gives to each defendant the right to request that the jury allocate percentages of fault “contributed by each defendant.” Finally, title 14, section 163 of the Maine Revised Statutes has provided, since 1969, that the amount paid in settlement before conclusion of trial by “one or more persons causing the injury” shall be deducted from the jury\u27s damage award. Two dissenting members of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, referred to this provision as a statutory embodiment of the “one recovery rule” in Thurston v. 3K Kamper Ko., Inc. In 1982, a Comment published in the Maine Law Review pointed out potential conflicts between sections 156 and 163 of title 14 of the Maine Revised Statutes and proposed statutory reform. No such reform has been forthcoming, and with its decision in Hewitt v. Bahmueller the Law Court has exacerbated the problem. The policy favoring settlement has received strong support in Maine common law. The considerations supporting this policy are apparently so basic that the Law Court has not felt the need to express them. The considerations include bringing an end to litigation, with a saving of time and expense for the parties and the courts; avoiding uncertainty; fostering peaceful relationships between parties; and improving judicial administration. Indeed, the Law Court has recently implemented a trial program of mandatory alternative dispute resolution for civil actions in four Maine counties to encourage resolution of disputes short of trial. However, Maine law as it now stands discourages settlement and places undue power in the hands of tort defendants who refuse to settle. This situation arises primarily from the Law Court\u27s interpretation of the statutory language. The Law Court has allowed a non-settling defendant to choose which settling defendants, if any, will be presented to the jury for allocation of fault at trial. The non-settling defendant has been guaranteed a credit against the jury verdict for the amount paid by any settling defendant whom he chooses not to present to the jury. The Law Court has required plaintiffs to accept a settlement payment lower than a subsequent jury award against the settling defendant but has refused to balance the burden by allowing the plaintiff to retain the benefit of a settlement that is higher than a subsequent jury award. In addition, non-settling defendants in these circumstances are allowed to pay less than their allocated share of liability. The Law Court also allows a non-settling defendant to seek contribution from a settling defendant. All of these factors encourage a defendant not to settle. In addition, the statutes conflict in allowing both proportional allocation of fault and dollar-for-dollar verdict reduction for settlement payments, a situation which also creates confusion and undue complexity for the trial court. Neither result could have been intended by the Maine Legislatures that enacted sections 156 and 163, nor is it likely that these results were intended by the Law Court. Revision of case law, the statutes, or both, is necessary

The Congo Medicine-Man and his Black and White Magic

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Dynamics and structure of an aging binary colloidal glass

We study aging in a colloidal suspension consisting of micron-sized particles in a liquid. This system is made glassy by increasing the particle concentration. We observe samples composed of particles of two sizes, with a size ratio of 1:2.1 and a volume fraction ratio 1:6, using fast laser scanning confocal microscopy. This technique yields real-time, three-dimensional movies deep inside the colloidal glass. Specifically, we look at how the size, motion and structural organization of the particles relate to the overall aging of the glass. Particles move in spatially heterogeneous cooperative groups. These mobile regions tend to be richer in small particles, and these small particles facilitate the motion of nearby particles of both sizes.Comment: 7 pages; submitted to Phys. Rev. E. Revised with 1 new figure, improved tex

Structure of rabbit liver fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase at 2.3 Å resolution

The three-dimensional structure of the R form of rabbit liver fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase (Fru-1,6-Pase; E.C. 3.1.3.11) has been determined by a combination of heavy-atom and molecular-replacement methods. A model, which includes 2394 protein atoms and 86 water molecules, has been refined at 2.3 Å resolution to a crystallographic R factor of 0.177. The root-mean-square deviations of bond distances and angles from standard geometry are 0.012 Å and 1.7°, respectively. This structural result, in conjunction with recently redetermined amino-acid sequence data, unequivocally establishes that the rabbit liver enzyme is not an aberrant bisphosphatase as once believed, but is indeed homologous to other Fru-1,6-Pases. The root-mean-square deviation of the C atoms in the rabbit liver structure from the homologous atoms in the pig kidney structure complexed with the product, fructose 6-phosphate, is 0.7 Å. Fru-1,6-Pases are homotetramers, and the rabbit liver protein crystallizes in space group I222 with one monomer in the asymmetric unit. The structure contains a single endogenous Mg<sup>2+</sup> ion coordinated by Glu97, Asp118, Asp121 and Glu280 at the site designated metal site 1 in pig kidney Fru-1,6-Pase R-form complexes. In addition, two sulfate ions, which are found at the positions normally occupied by the 6-phosphate group of the substrate, as well as the phosphate of the allosteric inhibitor AMP appear to provide stability. Met177, which has hydrophobic contacts with the adenine moiety of AMP in pig kidney T-form complexes, is replaced by glycine. Binding of a non-hydrolyzable substrate analog,<sup> β</sup>-methyl-fructose 1,6-bisphosphate, at the catalytic site is also examined

THE SPECIAL SAFEGUARD MECHANISM IN THE DOHA DEVELOPMENT AGENDA: A CASE STUDY OF SOYBEANS

The Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) proposed for developing countries has become a thorny issue in the Doha Development Agenda’s (DDA) agricultural negotiations. Proponents of the mechanism argue that it is a necessary compromise to counter sharp price declines or rapid import surges in staple commodity markets of developing nations. Opponents of the SSM, which include many developed exporters, contend that the policy flexibility contained in current SSM proposals would severely limit market access if the mechanism is triggered. The impact of the SSM depends on a number of parameters: the number of times the SSM is triggered, whether the price or volume SSM is triggered, the size of current tariffs, the magnitude with which tariffs are reduced in the DDA, and the number of times a developing country will actually make use of the SSM. This study introduces a static, synthetic, global, partial equilibrium model of the world soybean complex to assess the preliminary aspects of the DDA’s proposed tariff cuts. Future work on this project will extend the model to a stochastic framework from which to simulate the effects of an SSM combined with the DDA tariff cutting formulas for developing nations.Agribusiness,

Investigation of the D and E region during the IQSY Final report, 1964 - 1965

Nike-Apache rocket measurements of lower ionosphere during International Quiet Sun Yea

Reconstructing the global topology of the universe from the cosmic microwave background

If the universe is multiply-connected and sufficiently small, then the last scattering surface wraps around the universe and intersects itself. Each circle of intersection appears as two distinct circles on the microwave sky. The present article shows how to use the matched circles to explicitly reconstruct the global topology of space.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, IOP format. To be published in the proceedings of the Cleveland Cosmology and Topology Workshop 17-19 Oct 1997. Submitted to Class. Quant. Gra