Use of cermet thin film resistors with nitride passivated metal insulator field effect transistor

Film deposition of cermet resistors on same chip with metal nitride oxide silicon field effect transistors permits protection of contamination sensitive active devices from contaminants produced in cermet deposition and definition processes. Additional advantages include lower cost, greater reliability, and space savings

Difference of Normals as a Multi-Scale Operator in Unorganized Point Clouds

A novel multi-scale operator for unorganized 3D point clouds is introduced. The Difference of Normals (DoN) provides a computationally efficient, multi-scale approach to processing large unorganized 3D point clouds. The application of DoN in the multi-scale filtering of two different real-world outdoor urban LIDAR scene datasets is quantitatively and qualitatively demonstrated. In both datasets the DoN operator is shown to segment large 3D point clouds into scale-salient clusters, such as cars, people, and lamp posts towards applications in semi-automatic annotation, and as a pre-processing step in automatic object recognition. The application of the operator to segmentation is evaluated on a large public dataset of outdoor LIDAR scenes with ground truth annotations.Comment: To be published in proceedings of 3DIMPVT 201

The Effect of Inflorescence Architecture on Pollinator Behaviour and Plant Mating

The three-dimensional arrangement of flowers and sexual function within plant inflorescences is known as inflorescence architecture. Some plants possess an arrangement of male and female flowers on vertical inflorescences, such as racemes, where female(-phase) flowers are arranged below male(-phase) flowers. As pollinators often move upwards while foraging in racemes, Darwin’s syndrome has been suggested to reduce inter-flower self-pollen transport. Reducing inter-flower pollen transport can improve plant fitness by reducing inbreeding and increasing pollen export. Despite these observations, the influences of the inflorescence and directional movement of pollinators have been, until recently, overlooked. In this thesis I investigate the effects of inflorescence architecture on directional foraging and pollen transfer. Pollen transfer simulation models are used to assess the impacts of differing pollinator movement within plants. Plants where all flowers function bisexually and when flowers function as either males or females are investigated. These simulations reveal that consistent movement should increase outcrossing and pollen export for both inflorescence types, not just those where sexual function is separated over the inflorescence. These advantages were dependent on the consistency of pollinator foraging behaviour. Therefore, selection should favour traits that encourage directional foraging in both inflorescence types. However these pollen transfer advantages were much greater in plants showing Darwin’s syndrome, suggesting selection for arrangements which encourage male flowers to be visited after female flowers. Observation of wild pollinators revealed five bee species foraged differently on C. angustifolium, in manners that simulations suggested should alter geitonogamy and therefore plant fitness. Furthermore, upwards flight in the two most common visitors to C. angustifolium was observed to be less time consuming then downward movements, providing an energetic explanation for the largely unanswered question of why many pollinators show upward movement in vertical inflorescences. Together, these findings demonstrate the significant role of inflorescence architecture in modulating plant-pollinator interactions

Entry letter from a publisher 1969: Part 11

Entry letters for the Booker Prize from publisher

A note on weighted badly approximable linear forms

We prove a result in the area of twisted Diophantine approximation related to the theory of Schmidt games. In particular, under certain restrictions we give an affirmative answer to the analogue in this setting of a famous conjecture of Schmidt from Diophantine approximation

Spiritual Care and the Artes Moriendi

Modern palliative care is holistic in its approach, aiming to assuage both the physical and emotional pain of the dying. Drawing on Dame Cicely Saunders’s concept of “total pain,” the NHS identifies four modalities of care: physical, social, psychological and spiritual. Of these, spiritual care poses a particular challenge. The bounds of spirituality are difficult to define in the modern world and it is well documented that healthcare workers are often reluctant to engage with patients on this level. This article draws on both medical and historical perspectives to see whether the historical literature of the Ars Moriendi (the Art of Dying) can furnish useful tools or frameworks for modern palliative medicine. Drawing on a selection of English examples from this tradition (mostly from the fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries), it is suggested here that texts in this tradition often divided spiritual care into two, starting with a more palliative component, in which the fear of death itself was addressed, before moving on to a second, more positively religious stage, in which rituals and professions of faith were used to prepare the dying for their end. This, we suggest, may prove a useful distinction for modern medicine, helping to overcome reticence and clarifying the roles of different members of the care team in administering spiritual care

Addressing the innovation gap: Lessons from the Stairway to Excellence (S2E) project

There is a considerable territorial disparity in terms of research and innovation (R&I) performance within Europe between EU15 and EU13 Member States (MSs) . The two biggest European funds, European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) and Horizon 2020 (H2020), aim at supporting the development of European competitiveness, growth, knowledge generation and as well as closing the innovation gap and promoting research excellence across Europe. Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) play a key role in fostering an efficient and inclusive Research and Innovation (R&I) ecosystem by creating the right framework for focused investments based on selected high value added priorities and a shared vision of territorial development. Also, the European Commission's project Stairway to Excellence (S2E) is focussed on the provision of assistance to EU MSs and Regions with emphasis on promoting R&I excellence and maximising the specific value added of S3 investments such as the capacity building to support for R&I activities and exploitation of research results for raising the overall social/economic impact. This report summarises the main outcomes of the activities undertaken by the S2E team during the initial phase of the project from June 2014 to January 2017). It focuses on the S2E Country Reports – produced by the national independent experts and provided analysis on the optimal use of key European R&I funds – and the Joint Statements of S2E National Events – an outcome of national events covering the issues and main conclusions - as well as the other analytical work of the project. By picking those issues and actions common to more than one country and frequently mentioned, the main bottlenecks and possible policy actions to address these issues are summarised within three dimensions; namely, quality of R&I governance, capacity building, and innovation and commercialisation. This analysis and particularly the policy recommendations offer solutions for these issues that can also contribute to closing the innovation gap in Europe, which is demonstrated by the annual European Innovation Scoreboard comparing the performance of the EU MSs.JRC.B.3-Territorial Developmen