HTS pulse-stretcher and second order modulator: design and first results

One of the remaining challenges in the application of superconducting electronics is the interfacing between superconducting and semiconducting environments. The voltage and speed mismatch between RSFQ pulses and semiconducting read-out electronics makes it necessary to amplify as well as stretch the RSFQ pulses. Moreover, circuits based on HTS (High Temperature Superconductor) technology are very attractive since they can operate under considerably relaxed cooling effort, which is one of the main problems with LTS (Low Temperature Superconductor) circuits. Within the European project SuperADC, a HTS second order sigma delta modulator and a pulse stretcher, used as an interface between the modulator and the first semi-conducting amplifier stage, have been designed at Twente University and will be presented here

First Steps Towards a Procedure for Annotating Non-Manual Markers in Sign Languages

We report on the development, application, and evaluation of a procedure for annotating non-manual markers (NMM) in experimentally obtained sign language data. We also share resources to enable other researchers investigating NMM in sign languages or multimodal communication to utilize the annotation protocol we developed in their own research

Frequency-Domain Data-Driven Controller Synthesis for Unstable LPV Systems

Synthesizing controllers directly from frequency-domain measurement data is a powerful tool in the linear time-invariant framework. Ever-increasing performance requirements necessitate extending these approaches to account for plant variations. The aim of this paper is to develop frequency-domain analysis and synthesis conditions for local internal stability and $\mathcal{H}_\infty$-performance of single-input single-output linear parameter-varying systems. The developed synthesis procedure only requires frequency-domain measurement data of the system and does not need a parametric model of the plant. The capabilities of the synthesis procedure are demonstrated on an unstable nonlinear system.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, submitted in Proceedings of the 4th IFAC workshop on Linear Parameter-Varying Systems, 202

Symbiosis between the TRECVid benchmark and video libraries at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision

Audiovisual archives are investing in large-scale digitisation efforts of their analogue holdings and, in parallel, ingesting an ever-increasing amount of born- digital files in their digital storage facilities. Digitisation opens up new access paradigms and boosted re-use of audiovisual content. Query-log analyses show the shortcomings of manual annotation, therefore archives are complementing these annotations by developing novel search engines that automatically extract information from both audio and the visual tracks. Over the past few years, the TRECVid benchmark has developed a novel relationship with the Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision (NISV) which goes beyond the NISV just providing data and use cases to TRECVid. Prototype and demonstrator systems developed as part of TRECVid are set to become a key driver in improving the quality of search engines at the NISV and will ultimately help other audiovisual archives to offer more efficient and more fine-grained access to their collections. This paper reports the experiences of NISV in leveraging the activities of the TRECVid benchmark

Q-koorts in Nederland: 2008 en verwachting voor 2009

In 2007 en 2008 deed zich in Nederland een epidemie van Q-koorts voor met resp. 196 en 906 bevestigde ziektegevallen. In dit artikel beschrijven de auteurs het verloop van de epidemie, het onderzoek, de maatregelen en de verwachting van het beloop in 2009. Q-koorts is, met name in het zuidoosten van Nederland, een nieuwe aandoening met belangrijke consequenties voor diagnostiek en therapi