Dynamics of perpendicular recording heads

3D modeling and inductance measurements were used to design an ultra-high frequency perpendicular system. Kerr microscopy and spin-stand experiments with focused ion beam (FI-B) trimmed perpendicular heads and perpendicular media directly verified the high frequency concepts

Are Drug Companies Living Up to Their Human Rights Responsibilities? The Merck Perspective

As one viewpoint of three in the PLoS Medicine Debate on whether drug companies are living up to their human rights responsibilities, Geralyn Ritter, Vice President of Global Health Policy and Corporate Social Responsibility at Merck & Co., argues that that multiple stakeholders could do more to help States deliver the right to health

Breast density classification with deep convolutional neural networks

Breast density classification is an essential part of breast cancer screening. Although a lot of prior work considered this problem as a task for learning algorithms, to our knowledge, all of them used small and not clinically realistic data both for training and evaluation of their models. In this work, we explore the limits of this task with a data set coming from over 200,000 breast cancer screening exams. We use this data to train and evaluate a strong convolutional neural network classifier. In a reader study, we find that our model can perform this task comparably to a human expert

Slicing of Silicon into Sheet Material. Silicon Sheet Growth Development for the Large Area Silicon Sheet Task of the Low Cost Solar Array Project

The use of multiblade slurry sawing to produce silicon wafers from ingots was investigated. The commercially available state of the art process was improved by 20% in terms of area of silicon wafers produced from an ingot. The process was improved 34% on an experimental basis. Economic analyses presented show that further improvements are necessary to approach the desired wafer costs, mostly reduction in expendable materials costs. Tests which indicate that such reduction is possible are included, although demonstration of such reduction was not completed. A new, large capacity saw was designed and tested. Performance comparable with current equipment (in terms of number of wafers/cm) was demonstrated

Misunderstandings concerning income distribution policies

In this essay in honour of Professor P. Hennipman the latter's clarity and precision of expression are chosen as an example of how to avoid misunderstanding of his publications. As counterexamples some twenty-odd misunderstandings are set out by the essay's author in the field of income distribution policies, ranging from that specific subject to the theory of economic policy, to economic science and to science as a whole. Several of these misunderstandings are due to the essay's author, while others seem to prevail either among the general public or among scientists

Sequences of Willmore surfaces

In this paper we develop the theory of Willmore sequences for Willmore surfaces in the 4-sphere. We show that under appropriate conditions this sequence has to terminate. In this case the Willmore surface either is the twistor projection of a holomorphic curve into complex projective space or the inversion of a minimal surface with planar ends in 4-space. These results give a unified explanation of previous work on the characterization of Willmore spheres and Willmore tori with non-trivial normal bundles by various authors.Comment: 10 page

Incremental Evaluation of Rules and its Relationship to Parallelism

Rule interpreters usually start with an initial database and perform the inference procedure in cycles, ending with a final database. In a real time environment it is possible to receive updates to the initial database after the inference procedure has started or even after it has ended. We present an algorithm for incremental maintenance of the deductive database in the presence of such updates. Interestingly, the same algorithm is useful for parallel and distributed rule processing in the following sense. \\'hen the processors evaluating a program operate asynchronously. then they may have different views of the database. The incremental maintenance procedure we present can be used to synchronize these views

Transversality of Electromagnetic Waves in the Calculus-Based Introductory Physics Course

Introductory calculus-based physics textbooks state that electromagnetic waves are transverse and list many of their properties, but most such textbooks do not bring forth arguments why this is so. Both physical and theoretical arguments are at a level appropriate for students of courses based on such books, and could be readily used by instructors of such courses. Here, we discuss two physical arguments (based on polarization experiments and on lack of monopole electromagnetic radiation), and the full argument for the transversality of (plane) electromagnetic waves based on the integral Maxwell equations. We also show, at a level appropriate for the introductory course, why the electric and magnetic fields in a wave are in phase and the relation of their magnitudes.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Accounting for heterogeneous invasion rates reveals management impacts on the spatial expansion of an invasive species

Success of large-scale control programs for established invasive species is challenging to evaluate because of spatial variability in expansion rates, management techniques, and the strength of management intensity. For a well-established invasive species in the spreading phase of invasion, a useful metric of impact is the magnitude by which control slows the rate of spatial spread. The prevention of spatial spreading likely results in substantial benefits in terms of ecosystem or economic damage that is prevented by an expanding invasive species. To understand how local management actions could impact the spatial spread of an established invasive species, we analyzed distribution and management data for feral swine across contiguous United States using occupancy analysis. We quantified changes in the rate of spatial expansion of feral swine and its relationship to local management actions. We found that after 4 yr of enhanced control, invasion probability decreased by 8% on average relative to pre-program rates. This decrease was as high as 15% on average in states with low-density populations of feral swine. The amount of decrease in invasion rate was attributed to removal intensity in neighboring counties and depended on the extent of neighboring counties with feral swine (spatial heterogeneity in local invasion pressure). Although we did not find a significant overall increase in the probability of elimination, increased elimination probability tended to occur in regions with low invasion pressure. Accounting for spatial heterogeneity in invasion pressure was important for quantifying management impacts (i.e., the relationship between management intensity and spatial spreading processes) because management impacts changed depending on the strength of invasion pressure from neighboring counties. Predicting reduction in spatial spread of an invasive species is an important first step in valuation of overall damage reduction for invasive species control programs by providing estimates of where a species may be, and thus which natural and agricultural resources would be affected, if the control program had not been operating. For minimizing losses from spatial expansion of an invasive species, our framework can be used for adaptive resource prioritization to areas where spatial expansion and underlying damage potential are concurrently highest