The redwood project: An overview

Redwood is a new generation tape subsystem now under development at StorageTek using helical scan technology. This library based storage subsystem is designed for the high performance, deep archival market. The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include the following: subsystem overview, media standards, Redwood developed tape, D3 helical recording format, Redwood cartridge, host software for Redwood libraries, and market opportunities

The standards process: Technical committee X3B5 digital magnetic tape

The definition of X3B5, where it fits in the national and international standards development process, and how it interfaces and influences the world community of standards developers are provided. Details concerning the focus of the committee, how it operates, and what the group sees as the future trends in the area of interchange standards utilizing the multifaceted, ubiquitous magnetic tape are presented

On the basis for ELF - An Extensible Language Facility

Computer language for data processing and information retrieva

Concentrations and potential health risks of metals in lip products.

BackgroundMetal content in lip products has been an issue of concern.ObjectivesWe measured lead and eight other metals in a convenience sample of 32 lip products used by young Asian women in Oakland, California, and assessed potential health risks related to estimated intakes of these metals.MethodsWe analyzed lip products by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and used previous estimates of lip product usage rates to determine daily oral intakes. We derived acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) based on information used to determine public health goals for exposure, and compared ADIs with estimated intakes to assess potential risks.ResultsMost of the tested lip products contained high concentrations of titanium and aluminum. All examined products had detectable manganese. Lead was detected in 24 products (75%), with an average concentration of 0.36 ± 0.39 ppm, including one sample with 1.32 ppm. When used at the estimated average daily rate, estimated intakes were > 20% of ADIs derived for aluminum, cadmium, chromium, and manganese. In addition, average daily use of 10 products tested would result in chromium intake exceeding our estimated ADI for chromium. For high rates of product use (above the 95th percentile), the percentages of samples with estimated metal intakes exceeding ADIs were 3% for aluminum, 68% for chromium, and 22% for manganese. Estimated intakes of lead were < 20% of ADIs for average and high use.ConclusionsCosmetics safety should be assessed not only by the presence of hazardous contents, but also by comparing estimated exposures with health-based standards. In addition to lead, metals such as aluminum, cadmium, chromium, and manganese require further investigation

A Practical Approach to Determining When to expand and When to Stabilize

A  successful  young  firm  experiencing  rapid  sales  growth   can  suddenly   encounter   declining profits  due  to  decreasing  contribution  margins   because   of   production   capacity   limitations. Expansion  is  not  an  automatic  solution  because  it  increases  fixed  costs  and  raises  the  first breakeven point . This paper is designed to provide strategies for  planning for  the combined  effects fixed costs, variable costs, revenues and sales will have on profits if additional  sales  growth  is attempted .   Rapidly   increasing   variable  production    costs  signal   the  need  to  consider  expansion, but product demand strength and life cycle stage affect the decision. Either of these can be respon­ sible for  declining contribution margins resulting  in  lower than anticipated  profits  at higher sales levels . Because of  higher fixed  costs  caused  by  expansion ,  the  business  cannot  return  to  sales levels  that  were  profitable   before  the  expansion. Why is it possible for a prosperous small business experiencing rapid sales growth to begin encountering declining profits even  though  sales  continue  to  increase?  Traditional  breakeven analysis illustrated in Exhibit I implies a path of "smooth sailing" once a firm is able to generate sufficient volume to reach the  critical "breakeven" hurdle. In fact, this  concept  has  been  a major source of deception because it implies that the only requirement for an increase in  profits  is  an increase  in  sales. Unfortunately, the inexperienced entrepreneur tends to view the sales volume/profit relationship in this simplistic manner, forgetting about two key limitations of linear breakeven analysis. Total revenue is depicted as a straight line based on the assumption that prices of products sold do not change regardless of volume, while total cost is shown as a straight line based on the assumption that variable cost per unit sold is constant and is not affected by the level of sales (11 )

Summary report: A preliminary investigation into the use of fuzzy logic for the control of redundant manipulators

The Rice University Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Sciences' Robotics Group designed and built an eight degree of freedom redundant manipulator. Fuzzy logic was proposed as a control scheme for tasks not directly controlled by a human operator. In preliminary work, fuzzy logic control was implemented for a camera tracking system and a six degree of freedom manipulator. Both preliminary systems use real time vision data as input to fuzzy controllers. Related projects include integration of tactile sensing and fuzzy control of a redundant snake-like arm that is under construction

Co-authoring Speech Genres: A Bakhtinian Approach to Mutually Recognitive Dialogue

In his theory of communicative action, Habermas posits that language is a fundamentally intersubjective tool used for the activity of reaching mutual understanding. Interlocutors assume the freedom to question claims made in discourse and use reason to achieve communicative power together. Thus language in itself forms the drive mechanism of successful discourse—that is, only by presupposing the ability of other subjects to take language as an alterable, reason-based, and empowering tool is mutually recognitive dialogue possible. However, beyond these basic presuppositions, speakers maintain, I argue, an acute appreciation for the particular ways of speaking—what Bakhtin termed “speech genres”—at work in conversation. It is my position that sensitivity to the influence that speech genre choices have on the subjectivities in dialogue poses the subject as ethically responsible for the co-creation of ways of speaking that are more or less enabling for interlocutors in context. While speakers use the norms of communication in different social and institutional spheres to inform their choice of utterance, these norms depend as well on changing, contextualized patterns of speech. Thus the subject takes an active stance in dialogue: communicative freedom allows the subject a bearing in the utterance act as a re-articulator of speech genre, as one who can therefore influence generic norms