Article comprising compression bonded parts

An article according to the invention comprises two bodies that are joined together by means of a compression bond, such as to form an enclosure. One of the bodies comprises a (exemplarily Au-covered) textured surface region, and the other body comprises a (exemplarily Au) "O-ring" positioned such as to mate with the textured region, substantially surrounding the enclosure. The textured region comprises at least one (typically two or more) "ridge" that substantially surrounds the enclosure and that, after joining of the two bodies by compression bonding, provides a leakage barrier. Optional ridges between said two or more enclosure-surrounding ridges can further reduce the probability of leakage. The bodies exemplarily are Si bodies, with the enclosure serving to provide a controlled environment for a semiconductor laser. In another exemplary embodiment, the article is a flat panel field emission display.Published versio

Towards Adaptable and Adaptive Policy-Free Middleware

We believe that to fully support adaptive distributed applications, middleware must itself be adaptable, adaptive and policy-free. In this paper we present a new language-independent adaptable and adaptive policy framework suitable for integration in a wide variety of middleware systems. This framework facilitates the construction of adaptive distributed applications. The framework addresses adaptability through its ability to represent a wide range of specific middleware policies. Adaptiveness is supported by a rich contextual model, through which an application programmer may control precisely how policies should be selected for any particular interaction with the middleware. A contextual pattern mechanism facilitates the succinct expression of both coarse- and fine-grain policy contexts. Policies may be specified and altered dynamically, and may themselves take account of dynamic conditions. The framework contains no hard-wired policies; instead, all policies can be configured.Comment: Submitted to Dependable and Adaptive Distributed Systems Track, ACM SAC 200

Article that comprises a laser coupled to an optical fiber

Disclosed is a laser/fiber mount that can advantageously be used in laser transmitter packages for a variety of purposes, including pump laser packages for optically amplified optical fiber transmission systems and fiber-to-the-home systems. Both laser and fiber are attached to the same unitary body, preferably a Si body. An integral heater serves to melt a quantity of solder that serves to bond the fiber to the body after alignment of the fiber to the laser. A relatively thick dielectric layer underneath the heater provides a large thermal impedance, insuring that the temperature of the unitary body is at least 50° C. (preferably 150° C.) less than that of the solder.Published versio

Photonics module apparatus

A laser (15) is mounted on a planar surface of a monocrystalline silicon mounting member (12). A spherical lens (20) is mounted in a monocrystalline silicon cover member (13) which, when abutted and registered to the mounting member (12), aligns the spherical lens with the laser so that the output light can be projected along a precise predetermined path. The spherical lens (20) is mounted in a first V-shaped groove (31) which is made in the cover member by masking and etching. A second V-shaped groove intersects the first groove and defines a V-shaped edge in one side of the first groove. The spherical lens is then seated in the first V-shaped groove such that it bears against two points of the V-shaped edge and against one side wall (35) of the first V-shaped groove. A second lens (19) is mounted in the cover member in the same manner as the first lens and directs laser light from a rear facet of the laser to a mirror 30 and hence to a photodetector (21) mounted in the cover member.Published versio

Photonics module and alignment method

A laser (24) is mounted in predetermined alignment with a monocrystalline mounting member (11) by defining in the mounting member a reference surface (18) that is displaced from a second surface (19). Solder (29) is placed on a second surface such that in its solid form its length and width each significantly exceeds its height. The laser is bonded to the reference surface such that part of the laser overlies the solder and is separated from the solder by a small gap (30). Next, the solder is melted to cause it to gather on the second surface sufficiently to contact an under surface (31) of the laser. The solder is then cooled such that the solder bonds the laser to the silicon mounting member.Published versio

Method of fabricating a photonics module comprising a spherical lens

A laser (15) is mounted on a planar surface of a monocrystalline silicon mounting member (12). A spherical lens (20) is mounted in a monocrystalline silicon cover member (13) which, when abutted and registered to the mounting member (12), aligns the spherical lens with the laser so that the output light can be projected along a precise predetermined path. The spherical lens (20) is mounted in a first V-shaped groove (31) which is made in the cover member by masking and etching. A second V-shaped groove intersects the first groove and defines a V-shaped edge in one side of the first groove. The spherical lens is then seated in the first V-shaped groove such that it bears against two points of the V-shaped edge and against one side wall (35) of the first V-shaped groove. A second lens (19) is mounted in the cover member in the same manner as the first lens and directs laser light from a rear facet of the laser to a mirror 30 and hence to a photodetector (21) mounted in the cover member.Published versio

Reconceptualising Rural Cancer Inequalities : Time for a New Research Agenda

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Barriers to Early Presentation amongst Rural Residents Experiencing Symptoms of Colorectal Cancer : A Qualitative Interview Study

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Relationship between product based loyalty and clustering based on supermarket visit and spending patterns

Loyalty of customers to a supermarket can be measured in a variety of ways. If a customer tends to buy from certain categories of products, it is likely that the customer is loyal to the supermarket. Another indication of loyalty is based on the tendency of customers to visit the supermarket over a number of weeks. Regular visitors and spenders are more likely to be loyal to the supermarket. Neither one of these two criteria can provide a complete picture of customers’ loyalty. The decision regarding the loyalty of a customer will have to take into account the visiting pattern as well as the categories of products purchased. This paper describes results of experiments that attempted to identify customer loyalty using thes e two sets of criteria separately. The experiments were based on transactional data obtained from a supermarket data collection program. Comparisons of results from these parallel sets of experiments were useful in fine tuning both the schemes of estimating the degree of loyalty of a customer. The project also provides useful insights for the development of more sophisticated measures for studying customer loyalty. It is hoped that the understanding of loyal customers will be helpful in identifying better marketing strategies