Automated optical inspection of solder paste based on 2.5D visual images

In this paper, a special technique for the inspection of solder paste using directional LED lighting is presented. Conventional optical inspection method would depend on an image acquired from a camera mounted from the top. This 2D inspection of solder paste based on images is fast but is limited to defect such as bridge or no solder. Defects related to the volume of the printed solder paste or unevenness of the paste cannot be treated from a top image. The developed technique of this paper would involve the use of special directional side lighting to acquire two-and-a-half dimensional (2.5D) images from above the solder paste block. A sequence of three images is acquired and image processing is carried out for defect detection of the printed solder paste. The acquired images would highlight the geometrical features of the solder paste block. Solder paste inspection is then carried out based on the highlighted features. The proposed method can handle other types of defects that cannot be treated by conventional top light images. ©2009 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Route selection for vehicle navigation and control

This paper presents an application of neural-fuzzy methodology for the problem of route selection in a typical vehicle navigation and control system. The idea of the primary attributes of a route is discussed, and a neural-fuzzy system is developed to help a user to select a route out of the many possible routes from an origin to the destination. The user may not adopt the recommendation provided by the system and choose an alternate route. One novel feature of the system is that the neural-fuzzy system can adapt itself by changing the weights of the defined fuzzy rules through a training procedure. Two examples are given in this paper to illustrate how the route selection/ranking system can be made adaptive to the past choice or preference of the user. ©2007 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Spanning "Bleeding" Boundaries: Humanitarianism, NGOs, and the Civilian-Military Nexus in the Post-Cold War Era

How do nongovernmental (NGO), international (IO), and military organizations cope with their dependencies and address their perceptual and real diff erences in order to coordinate their fi eld operations? Th is question is addressed through the creation of a matrix grouping civilian (NGOs and IOs) and military operations into four general types: peacekeeping; disaster relief; complex humanitarian emergencies/warfare; and stabilization and reconstruction. Second, using Galbraith’s information processing approach to organizational design, a range of formal coordination mechanisms that organizations use at the strategic and operational levels to help them cope with their dependencies in diff erent fi eld operations is identifi ed. Th ird, the author underscores how communities of practice are emerging as informal mechanisms of coordination among civilian and military organizations. And fi nally, a framework of organizational forms that views communities of practice as an alternative to hierarchy and markets is off ered. Believing communities of practice hold the most promise for coordination in the human security domain when hierarchies are politically untenable and markets lack accountability, the author concludes with implications for interorganization coordination research and practice

A γA-Crystallin Mouse Mutant Secc with Small Eye, Cataract and Closed Eyelid

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Thermodynamics of Dyonic Lifshitz Black Holes

Black holes with asymptotic anisotropic scaling are conjectured to be gravity duals of condensed matter system close to quantum critical points with non-trivial dynamical exponent z at finite temperature. A holographic renormalization procedure is presented that allows thermodynamic potentials to be defined for objects with both electric and magnetic charge in such a way that standard thermodynamic relations hold. Black holes in asymptotic Lifshitz spacetimes can exhibit paramagnetic behavior at low temperature limit for certain values of the critical exponent z, whereas the behavior of AdS black holes is always diamagnetic.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure

Gauss-Bonnet Black Holes and Heavy Fermion Metals

We consider charged black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity with Lifshitz boundary conditions. We find that this class of models can reproduce the anomalous specific heat of condensed matter systems exhibiting non-Fermi-liquid behaviour at low temperatures. We find that the temperature dependence of the Sommerfeld ratio is sensitive to the choice of Gauss-Bonnet coupling parameter for a given value of the Lifshitz scaling parameter. We propose that this class of models is dual to a class of models of non-Fermi-liquid systems proposed by Castro-Neto et.al.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, pdfLatex; small corrections to figure 10 in this versio

Black holes and black branes in Lifshitz spacetimes

We construct analytic solutions describing black holes and black branes in asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes with arbitrary dynamical exponent z and for arbitrary number of dimensions. The model considered consists of Einstein gravity with negative cosmological constant, a scalar, and N U(1) gauge fields with dilatonic-like couplings. We study the phase diagrams and thermodynamic instabilities of the solution, and find qualitative differences between the cases with 12.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures; v2 references added, minor comments adde

Lovelock-Lifshitz Black Holes

In this paper, we investigate the existence of Lifshitz solutions in Lovelock gravity, both in vacuum and in the presence of a massive vector field. We show that the Lovelock terms can support the Lifshitz solution provided the constants of the theory are suitably chosen. We obtain an exact black hole solution with Lifshitz asymptotics of any scaling parameter $z$ in both Gauss-Bonnet and in pure 3rd order Lovelock gravity. If matter is added in the form of a massive vector field, we also show that Lifshitz solutions in Lovelock gravity exist; these can be regarded as corrections to Einstein gravity coupled to this form of matter. For this form of matter we numerically obtain a broad range of charged black hole solutions with Lifshitz asymptotics, for either sign of the cosmological constant. We find that these asymptotic Lifshitz solutions are more sensitive to corrections induced by Lovelock gravity than are their asymptotic AdS counterparts. We also consider the thermodynamics of the black hole solutions and show that the temperature of large black holes with curved horizons is proportional to $r_0^z$ where $z$ is the critical exponent; this relationship holds for black branes of any size. As is the case for asymptotic AdS black holes, we find that an extreme black hole exists only for the case of horizons with negative curvature. We also find that these Lovelock-Lifshitz black holes have no unstable phase, in contrast to the Lovelock-AdS case. We also present a class of rotating Lovelock-Lifshitz black holes with Ricci-flat horizons.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, a few references added, typo fixed and some comments have been adde

Promoter hypermethylation and histone hypoacetylation contribute to pancreatic-duodenal homeobox 1 silencing in gastric cancer

Background and Aims: The expression of pancreatic-duodenal homeobox 1 (PDX1) in gastric cancer is aberrantly reduced. The aim of this study was to elucidate the regulation of DNA methylation and histone acetylation at the promoter for PDX1 silencing in gastric cancer. Methods: PDX1 expression in response to demethylation and acetylation was detected in human gastric cancer cell lines by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and western blot. Four CpG islands within the 5#-flanking region of PDX1 gene were analyzed with their transcription activities being detected by dual luciferase assay. Promoter hypermethylation was identified in gastric cancer cell lines and cancer tissues by methylation-specific PCR or bisulfite DNA sequencing PCR analysis. Histone acetylation was determined by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay. Results: Demethylation by 5′-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (5′-aza-dC) and/or acetylation by trichostatin A (TSA) restored PDX1 expression in gastric cancer cells. Hypermethylation was found in four CpG islands in six of seven cancer cell lines. However, only the distal CpG island located in the promoter fragment of PDX1, F383 (c.22063 to 21681 nt upstream of the ATG start codon) displayed significant transcriptional activity that could be suppressed by SssI methylase and increased by 5′-aza-dC and TSA. More than 70% of the single CpG sites in F383 were methylated with hypermethylation of F383 fragment more common in gastric cancerous tissues compared with the paired normal tissues (P < 0.05). ChIP assay showed F383 was also associated with low hypoacetylation level of the histones. Conclusion: Promoter hypermethylation and histone hypoacetylation contribute to PDX1 silencing in gastric cancer. © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.postprin

Lifshitz black holes in string theory

We provide the first black hole solutions with Lifshitz asymptotics found in string theory. These are expected to be dual to models enjoying anisotropic scale invariance with dynamical exponent z=2 at finite temperature. We employ a consistent truncation of type IIB supergravity to four dimensions with an arbitrary 5-dimensional Einstein manifold times a circle as internal geometry. New interesting features are found that significantly differ from previous results in phenomenological models. In particular, small black holes are shown to be thermodynamically unstable, analogously to the usual AdS-Schwarzschild black holes, and extremality is never reached. This signals a possible Hawking-Page like phase transition at low temperatures.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures. v2 references adde