Planning for the semiconductor manufacturer of the future

Texas Instruments (TI) is currently contracted by the Air Force Wright Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the next generation flexible semiconductor wafer fabrication system called Microelectronics Manufacturing Science & Technology (MMST). Several revolutionary concepts are being pioneered on MMST, including the following: new single-wafer rapid thermal processes, in-situ sensors, cluster equipment, and advanced Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) software. The objective of the project is to develop a manufacturing system capable of achieving an order of magnitude improvement in almost all aspects of wafer fabrication. TI was awarded the contract in Oct., 1988, and will complete development with a fabrication facility demonstration in April, 1993. An important part of MMST is development of the CIM environment responsible for coordinating all parts of the system. The CIM architecture being developed is based on a distributed object oriented framework made of several cooperating subsystems. The software subsystems include the following: process control for dynamic control of factory processes; modular processing system for controlling the processing equipment; generic equipment model which provides an interface between processing equipment and the rest of the factory; specification system which maintains factory documents and product specifications; simulator for modelling the factory for analysis purposes; scheduler for scheduling work on the factory floor; and the planner for planning and monitoring of orders within the factory. This paper first outlines the division of responsibility between the planner, scheduler, and simulator subsystems. It then describes the approach to incremental planning and the way in which uncertainty is modelled within the plan representation. Finally, current status and initial results are described

Evolution, Mutation and Hybridity in Bio-Performance Practice: Wet Biology and Hybrid Arts in the Performance/Installation 'BioHome—The Chromosome Knitting Project'

In this paper I explore the influence of ‘Wet Biology’ practices on the development of my durational performance work 'BioHome: the Chromosome Knitting Project' at research, rehearsal, performance and documentation stages. This work is being developed as part of my Doctorate of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong where a performance of the full work took place in August 2006. This will be an annotation of methodology and grounded theory, as a result of my experience working with contemporary bio-ethics, Wet Biology and bio-art practices, and the emergence of a new form, ‘bio-performance’. Especially in the stages of research and rehearsal, the influence of the scientific practice has radically hybridized and mutated my performance form and content. This paper documents my experience working with contemporary Wet Biology techniques including DNA extraction, cell culturing and genetic modification of organisms during the research and development stages of the performance and how the influence of the scientific practices and notions of hybridity, evolution and mutation have influenced the form, content and processes of my work. The key topics I investigate for the purposes of this paper include: •That the message does respond to the medium – new biotechnologies can inform creative processes. •That the biological metaphors of evolution, hybridity and mutation are relevant to the development of hybrid performance works.The conference was sponsored by A.D.S.A., the Department of Performance Studies, the School of Letters, Arts and Media, and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Sydney

Money demand stability: A case study of Nigeria

This paper presents an empirical investigation into the level and stability of money demand (M1) in Nigeria between 1960 and 2008. In addition to estimating the canonical specification, alternative specifications are presented that include additional variables to proxy for the cost of holding money. Results suggest that the canonical specification is well-determined, the money demand relationship went through a regime shift in 1986 which slightly improved the scale economies of money demand, and money demand is stable. These findings imply that Nigeria could effectively use the supply of money as an instrument of monetary policy.Money demand; Structural breaks; Cointegration; Monetary policy

Money demand stability: A case study of Nigeria

This paper presents an empirical investigation into the level and stability of money demand (M1) in Nigeria between 1960 and 2008. In addition to estimating the canonical specification, alternative specifications are presented that include additional variables to proxy for the cost of holding money. Results suggest that the canonical specification is well-determined, the money demand relationship went through a regime shift in 1986 which slightly improved the scale economies of money demand, and money demand is stable. These findings imply that Nigeria could effectively use the supply of money as an instrument of monetary policy.Money demand; Structural breaks; Cointegration; Monetary policy

Testing the validity of the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle for Australia

This paper presents an investigation into the relationship between investment and savings in Australia over the period 1960-2007. Using four time series techniques our results reveal that the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle exists in a weak form with a lower saving retention coefficient. Granger Causality tests illustrate that savings Granger cause investment both in the short and long runs. Our results suggest Australia could effectively adopt policies that focus on increasing investment through increasing domestic savingsSavings; investment; capital mobility

Wagner’s Law Revisited: Cointegration and Causality tests for New Zealand

Wagner’s Law states that the share of government expenditure in GNP will increase with economic development; many associated empirical studies substitute GNP with GDP. This paper presents an empirical investigation into the validity of Wagner’s Law for New Zealand over the period 1960-2007 and compares the results obtained using these two measures of output. Application of the autoregressive distributed lag bounds test suggests a cointegrating relationship between either output measure and the share of government spending, and further application of General to Specific, Engle and Granger, Phillip Hansen’s Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares and Johansen’s time series techniques illustrate statistical robustness and an income elasticity between 0.56 and 0.84. The results suggest that output measures Granger-cause the share of government expenditure in the long run, thereby providing support for Wagner’s Law, and these results are stable irrespective of the chosen output measure.Government spending; GNP; GDP; Cointegration; Granger causality

SLIDES: Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons Learnt from the Australian Water Experience

Presenter: Will Fargher, National Water Commission, Australian Government 18 slides [4 have titles only and are missing images

Grasping the global with digital earth

This study examined the extent to which adopting a more subject-led approach to teaching with the interactive geospatial tool, the Climate HotMap, can enhance geographical knowledge and understanding of climate change. Findings showed the significance of teachers paying more attention to geography’s central concepts of place, space, interconnection and environment in understanding the impact of climate change on local places but also on the relations between places in the bigger global climate change picture