- Research Article
- 10.22067/econg.v6i2.44778
بررسی منشأ و شرایط شکل گیری آگات های خور و بیابانک (استان اصفهان)
- May 01, 2015
- فروغ ملک محمودی + 1 more +1
بررسی منشأ و شرایط شکل گیری آگات های خور و بیابانک (استان اصفهان)
To fill the vacancy of domestic short focal range digital movie zoom projection lens and to meet the requirement of the market,a digital movie zoom projection lens for 0.65 inch DLP 1.3 K digital movie projector was designed by the mechanical compensation method.It includes the former fixed group,the zoom group,the compensation group and the last fixed group.It is composed of ten glass sphere lenses,and the zoom group is composed of one negative lens,the compensation group is composed of two doublet lenses.The total length of the digital movie zoom projection lens is 170 mm,the full aperture is 70 mm.Its focal length range is 14.5~18.2 mm,F-number is 2,projection ratio range is 0.99∶1~1.23∶1,and the BFL is 32.6 mm.The cam curves were designed with the method of equal interval zoom.The image quality in each focal length is excellent with advantages of simple structure,small size,and low cost,and its cam curves are smooth without cam inflexions and processed easily.
بررسی منشأ و شرایط شکل گیری آگات های خور و بیابانک (استان اصفهان)
بررسی منشأ و شرایط شکل گیری آگات های خور و بیابانک (استان اصفهان)
Egg Hull Morphology in Two Chitons (Polyplacophora) from the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean
Fil: Ituarte, Cristian Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”; Argentina
Read moreThe Moving Images in the Fashion Exhibitions: The Fendi Studios Case
This essay investigates the role moving images play in fashion shows, analyzing the case of Fendi Studios , an exhibition organized at the Palazzo della Civilta Italiana in Rome between October 2017 and July 2018. The essay reflects on the different presentations of moving images in the show. Firstly, it discusses the short circuits created by the sequences in the original film, which are visible on small screens, and the concreteness of the clothes, which seem to break out from the projected images. Secondly, the focus turns to consider the relationship between the cinematographic devices and the audience members as participants. The visitors are called upon to interact with the devices, which make them an integral part of the moving image. The conclusion of the show is marked by a traditional cinematographic projection. At the end of the essay, some considerations are formulated on how, thanks to social networks, the amateur moving image has managed to overcome the spatial boundaries of the exhibition.
Read moreEl Movimiento Reformista en una revista estudiantil de largo aliento
Se aborda aquí una revista estudiantil argentina de larga data como Verbum y que perteneciera al Centro de Estudiantes de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (CEFYL). Con ello se intenta dar cuenta de la imagen de esa casa de estudios y de su movimiento reformista entre 1912 y 1942. Dicha facultad de humanidades se nos presenta como un templo olímpico del saber pero que padece de diferentes limitaciones: magro presupuesto operativo, invalidez de sus títulos, docentes descalificados, falta de salida ocupacional y de proyecciones en la cultura nacional. Sin embargo, no dejaba de reconocerse la existencia de grandes figuras de intramuros como las de José Ingenieros o Ricardo Rojas. Por otra parte también hicieron allí sus primeras armas relevantes líderes reformistas como Gregorio Bermann, ese futuro estudioso de los movimientos estudiantiles y autor del libro La juventud de América de la UNAM. Emanaron de Verbum y sobre el horizonte facultativo interno una gama de posturas acordes o disímiles que reducen la plataforma reformista a demandas puramente didácticas y/o gremiales o la extienden al terreno civil, comunitario e internacional. De ahí la posibilidad de hablar de reformistas avant la lettre como el mismo Bermann, parareformistas, como Coriolano Alberini o antirreformistas como Leopoldo Lugones. Son citadas diversas expresiones, de corte político-académico dentro de Filosofía y Letras que apelaron al emblema nominal reformista, más allá de sus compromisos con todas las banderas enarboladas por la Reforma. Entre tales expresiones se encuentra el Partido Reforma Universitaria. En definitiva, la identidad reformista ha supuesto un amplio espectro ideológico, aplicable a todos aquellos que comulgan con postulaciones progresistas desde distintos grados de radicalización y distanciadas tanto del tradicionalismo ultramontano como del conservadorismo liberal. La metodología en cuestión procura adaptarse a las pautas enunciadas por Noemí Girbal para la entrada “Revistas” del Diccionario del Pensamiento Alternativo, Adenda.[1] [1] Noemí Girbal-Blacha, “Revistas”, en Diccionario del pensamiento alternativo, Adenda, eds. Hugo Biagini (Buenos Aires: Biblos, 2015),201-203.
Read moreAdvances in Information Extraction of Surface Parameters Using Tomographic SAR
Traditional Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging is the projection of a real three-dimensional scene onto a two-dimensional domain of azimuth and slant range, which results in the loss of the high-dimensional information. With the advancement of SAR system and its processing technology, tomographic SAR systems obtain multiple data along the height direction to construct the high-dimensional synthetic aperture, and use array signal processing methods to achieve high-resolution three-dimensional images. It can reconstruct the observation scene and extract vertical structure information of the ground target, which is very important for vegetation monitoring, snow and ice detecting, and urban modeling. This paper analyzed the key steps of three-dimensional imaging, such as image registration, flat-earth phase removal, phase compensation, and the three-dimensional focusing, as well as the current research status of each step based on the observation mechanism of tomographic SAR system. This paper particularly focuses on using tomographic SAR on the application of vegetation, glacier, snow, and urban information. The most relevant experimental results in the past two decades were introduced. Further, the application potential and existing problems related to the vegetation height with canopy structure, glacier thickness with internal structure, snow thickness with stratification, and urban three-dimensional reconstruction with deformation monitoring under different platforms are discussed. Finally, the prospects of TomoSAR in the primary applications field are presented.
Read moreActive tracking with accelerated image processing in hardware
This thesis work presents the implementation and validation of image processing problems in hardware to estimate the performance and precision gain. It compares the implementation for the addressed problem on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with a software implementation for a General Purpose Processor (GPP) architecture. For both solutions the implementation costs for their development is an important aspect in the validation. The analysis of the flexibility and extendability that can be achieved by a modular implementation for the FPGA design was another major aspect. This work is based upon approaches from previous work, which included the detection of Binary Large OBjects (BLOBs) in static images and continuous video streams [13, 15]. One addressed problem of this work is the tracking of the detected BLOBs in continuous image material. This has been implemented for the FPGA platform and the GPP architecture. Both approaches have been compared with respect to performance and precision. This research project is motivated by the MI6 project of the Computer Vision research group, which is located at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. The intent of the MI6 project is the tracking of a user in an immersive environment. The proposed solution is to attach a light emitting device to the user for tracking the created light dots on the projection surface of the immersive environment. Having the center points of those light dots would allow the estimation of the user’s position and orientation. One major issue that makes Computer Vision problems computationally expensive is the high amount of data that has to be processed in real-time. Therefore, one major target for the implementation was to get a processing speed of more than 30 frames per second. This would allow the system to realize feedback to the user in a response time which is faster than the human visual perception. One problem that comes with the idea of using a light emitting device to represent the user, is the precision error. Dependent on the resolution of the tracked projection surface of the immersive environment, a pixel might have a size in cm2. Having a precision error of only a few pixels, might lead to an offset in the estimated user’s position of several cm. In this research work the development and validation of a detection and tracking system for BLOBs on a Cyclone II FPGA from Altera has been realized. The system supports different input devices for the image acquisition and can perform detection and tracking for five to eight BLOBs. A further extension of the design has been evaluated and is possible with some constraints. Additional modules for compressing the image data based on run-length encoding and sub-pixel precision for the computed BLOB center-points have been designed. For the comparison of the FPGA approach for BLOB tracking a similar implementation in software using a multi-threaded approach has been realized. The system can transmit the detection or tracking results on two available communication interfaces, USB and RS232. The analysis of the hardware solution showed a similar precision for the BLOB detection and tracking as the software approach. One problem is the strong increase of the allocated resources when extending the system to process more BLOBs. With one of the applied target platforms, the DE2-70 board from Altera, the BLOB detection could be extended to process up to thirty BLOBs. The implementation of the tracking approach in hardware required much more effort than the software solution. The design of high level problems in hardware for this case are more expensive than the software implementation. The search and match steps in the tracking approach could be realized more efficiently and reliably in software. The additional pre-processing modules for sub-pixel precision and run-length-encoding helped to increase the system’s performance and precision.
Read more6-MIG Project: Multi-User InteractionSystem for CAVE-type VR Environments
The objective of this research project is to develop a user-friendly and cost-effective interactive input device that allows intuitive and efficient manipulation of 3D objects (6 DoF) in virtual reality (VR) visualization environments with flat projections walls. During this project, it was planned to develop an extended version of a laser pointer with multiple laser beams arranged in specific patterns. Using stationary cameras observing projections of these patterns from behind the screens, it is planned to develop an algorithm for reconstruction of the emitter’s absolute position and orientation in space. Laser pointer concept is an intuitive way of interaction that would provide user with a familiar, mobile and efficient navigation though a 3D environment. In order to navigate in a 3D world, it is required to know the absolute position (x, y and z position) and orientation (roll, pitch and yaw angles) of the device, a total of 6 degrees of freedom (DoF). Ordinary laser-based pointers when captured on a flat surface with a video camera system and then processed, will only provide x and y coordinates effectively reducing available input to 2 DoF only. In order to overcome this problem, an additional set of multiple (invisible) laser pointers should be used in the pointing device. These laser pointers should be arranged in a way that the projection of their rays will form one fixed dot pattern when intersected with the flat surface of projection screens. Images of such a pattern will be captured via a real-time camera-based system and then processed using mathematical re-projection algorithms. This would allow the reconstruction of the full absolute 3D pose (6 DoF) of the input device. Additionally, multi-user or collaborative work should be supported by the system, would allow several users to interact with a virtual environment at the same time. Possibilities to port processing algorithms into embedded processors or FPGAs will be investigated during this project as well.
Read moreAminolevulinate dehydrogenase polymorphisms did not modified lead serum and memory relationship
BACKGROUND Lead accumulation in the blood widely known affecting the formation of heme and oxygen transport processes in vital organs, Leading to organ failure including the brain synapses. Lead affinity has been recognized influenced by constitutional genotype of aminolevulinate dehydrogenase (ALAD), which encodes for heme synthesis. This research aimed to determine the relationship between plumbum (Pb) and short term memory on each ALAD gene genotyping (ALAD 1-1, ALAD 1-2 or ALAD 2-2) in gas station workers. METHODS Seventy six probands from gas station workers were recruited to participate in this research. Each probands was carried out ALAD genotyping using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCRRFLP) method, lead serum level using atomic absorbent spectrophotometer (AAS), and short term memory was measurement by intelligence structure test (IST). RESULTS Proportion of δ ALAD 1-1, 1-2, and 2-2 were 91.8%, 8.2% and 0% respectively. Lead serum showed 15.84 ppb in homozygous 1-1, and 20.79 ppb in heterozygous. Short term memory in the probands varied from 85 until 117, with average in 99.71. There was significant negative relationship between lead serum and short term memory (r=-0.24; p=0.038). However, we could not find any significant correlation in each δ ALAD genotypes. CONCLUSION The δ ALAD genotypes did not modified the relationship between serum lead level and short term memory in gas station workers.
Read moreApplication of markerless sign interpretation for Malaysian sign language
This doctoral thesis presents a framework for machine based interpretation of Malaysian Sign Language (MSL). The goal is to explore and develop necessary core algorithms that are capable of recognizing hand signs, based on the monocular/2D visual input of a low-cost hardware (Digital Webcam), without the assistance of visual-markers on hands. Successful hand sign interpretation with the aforementioned constrained visual system is challenging. Economical hardware devices often provide noisy/cluttered raw data with limited useful information. Non-involvement of visual markers imposes the requirement of additional strategies to disambiguate occlusions and background complexities. Natural variations in hand posture/gesture performances further convolute the recognition task. Addressing these challenges require computationally heavy algorithms in image processing, machine learning and pattern recognition. Thus vision-based sign language translator frameworks have to be multifaceted and versatile, in order to address innumerable practical concerns. In this research, hand postures interpretation is achieved by statistical projection methods. Analysis of high dimensional hand shape data is a complex task. Thus reducing dimensions via known projection methods aids in alleviating some of these complexities. Locality Preserving Projection (LPP) has been employed to accomplish this goal, while Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been used as the benchmark method. Both methods were extensively tested against a hand posture database of 24 alphabet signs from MSL. As for the hand gesture interpretation, parameter-less Gaussian process based machine learning methods are proposed, as an alternative to current status quo. A variation of the Gaussian latent variable model – Gaussian Process Dynamic Model (GPDM) – has been employed for hand gesture interpretation. This has been comparatively studied against the established Hidden Markov Model (HMM). These machine learning methods were thoroughly tested against a hand gesture database of 64 signs from MSL. Grammatical sentence construction offers both intelligible sentences, and a mean of identifying erroneous sign classifications. In this thesis, a proof-of-concept on: use of Context Free Grammar (CFG) in successful parsing of meaningful sentences based on recognised gesture words, and how it can be extended in identifying (and correcting) erroneous sign classifications, is demonstrated with 92 sentences and the output of GPDM gesture classification. The novelty and contribution of this research: this is the first undertaking of markerless vision-based translation for MSL. Both LPP and GPDM are introduced to the sign language research field as an outcome of this investigation. The preliminary study and demonstration of grammatical sentence construction for translated gesture signs, is the first of its kind to the best of author's knowledge.
Read moreIdentifying appropriate Project Required Return
Most of the models for identifying required returns are based on the past performance of profitability, company share prices and market returns. The future expectations seldom get incorporated therein. Govt. expectations are based on different considerations altogether. Lenders also view this aspect differently. Infrastructure projects carried out with or without forming special purpose company pose another set of issues. Practitioners follow different methods & considerations for identifying project required return. These are WACC, CAPM, Risk Adjusted Discount rate, Gordon model, Asset Beta, industry averages, opportunity costs, strategic considerations etc. For a given cost and future projections of project a small upward or downward change in the project required return can make the project financially unattractive or attractive. This is a very grey area of project appraisal. The purpose of this article is to examine the spectrum of issues involved around deciding the hurdle ‘project required return’ and bring out comprehensive view on the same
Read moreOn the contribution of temporal and spatial cues to the perceptual organization of concurrent sounds
In environments with many concurrent sound sources, it is often possible to hear out individual sounds and identify their sources. To accomplish this perceptual organization of the sound sources, listeners analyze the mixture of sounds to estimate the constituent components that correspond to one acoustic sound source. Signal components that are likely to come from the same source are grouped into an auditory object, that is segregated from the acoustic complex. The grouping of signal components into sources is based on identifying shared features of the components, like common spectral cues (the same fundamental frequency or frequency modulation), temporal cues (the same temporal envelope), or spatial cues (the same interaural differences). When signal components’ onsets fall within such a time window that they are perceived as being synchronous, the components are combined to form a new auditory object, that is monitored across time on cues that sustain their grouping. Given that spatial cues are inherent to every sound and already present at the onset, and that they enhance detection of a sound by a spatial release from masking, it is unclear whether and how much temporal perception depends on the presence of spatial cues. The research presented here addressed the contribution of the binaural hearing system, which processes a sound’s spatial cues, to the processing of its temporal cues, and the contribution of the sounds’ temporal cues to the processing of their spatial cues. In order to assess the contribution of spatial cues to temporal perception, experiments were conducted in which the temporal position of a target sound’s onset was controlled by the subjects to find its desired position relative to a regular series of reference sound onsets. Manipulation of the target’s interaural differences, its sensation level, and the target and reference sounds’ durations allowed comparison of their effects on temporal perception of the target’s onset. The main finding was that temporal perception precision degraded below a critical level, depending on the absolute target and masker levels and the difference in spatial configuration between target and masker that facilitated perception at much lower signal-to-noise ratios. The implication of a sound’s signal-to-noise ratio getting below this critical level is that, when the temporal window for grouping signal components’ onsets is enlarged due to the degraded precision, there is an increased probability for signal components to be grouped incorrectly into an auditory object, or to be prevented from grouping into a new auditory object and remain part of the acoustic complex until other evidence is gathered for the existence of their source. This may be a contributing factor to the decrease of speech intelligibility in noisy environments, where precise temporal perception of transients is required for the processing of speech signals. In order to assess the contribution of temporal cues to binaural processing, thresholds were measured for discrimination between the spatial configurations of two sounds that had identical spectral range and onset and offset times, but differed in their temporal envelope structure and had equally-sized directional information to opposite sides of the medial plane. The measured minimum interaural differences in time or level at which the sounds’ spatial configurations could successfully be discriminated represented the ability to process binaural cues, and allowed comparison between the effects of the various manipulations of bandwidths, center frequencies, and temporal envelopes to the sounds. The main findings were that discrimination based on interaural level differences was good for all tested conditions (although absolute thresholds depended on the specific conditions), and that discrimination based on interaural time differences was only possible when the temporal envelopes of the sounds were sufficiently different. The binaural system must, therefore, have been capable of processing the interaural differences within short periods of time when one of the sounds was dominant in the monaural temporal envelopes of the combined signals at each ear. Analysis of the monaural temporal envelopes influences the ability to use the binaural information to separate individual signal components, and allow tracking across time of the signals components with identical spatial cues to form a perceptual unity, the auditory object. In conditions where discrimination was not possible, the temporal envelopes of the individual sounds were too similar and such periods did not occur systematically in the temporal envelopes of the combined sounds. This finding suggests that a monaural analysis of a composite signal’s temporal envelope is a prerequisite for the binaural processing of the constituent signal components’ interaural time differences. The implication is that, if the signals’ temporal envelopes are too similar, their signal components may not be correctly grouped into separate and individually lateralized auditory objects, but remain fused as a single object with an averaged spatial image.
Read moreShelter Assessment Matrix video
Millions of people are forcibly displaced around the world and are encamped in temporary shelters, often for more than a decade. Unfortunately, many of these shelters provide poor conditions in which to live and raise a family. Some of the problems are physical, for example temperatures above 40 degrees centigrade in shelters in summer and below freezing in winter, or dangerous air quality from cooking on open fires with no chimney, or insects attacking the structure. Some are cultural, such as the use of low-level windows allowing men to see into female areas, or the lack of separate male and female entrances. Others security based, for example the use of materials that are not knife resistant. The Healthy Housing for the Displaced project led by University of Bath has studied the conditions provided by shelters around world, and asked the displaced how their accommodation might be improved. The results have been enlightening. The constraints of cost, time and materials make creating ideal living conditions challenging, but we have found that by applying some basic building science and attending to the local culture, lives can be transformed. By discussing the problem with our aid agency and architectural partners it became clear that much of the issue was due to there being no structured processes for developing shelter designs that considered these physical and societal concerns. The guidance that existed was scattered, and lessons learnt were often lost before the next project. However, we also discovered that agency staff and architects would welcome a process if it were supported by the tools needed to analyze the situation and any proposed design. In response, we designed the Shelter Assessment Matrix (or SAM). SAM is a simple spreadsheet supported by a series of computer tools that predict the performance of a shelter, for example the likely temperature within the shelter in winter and summer in a specific location. SAM also contains a set of short information sheets that discuss the various issues for those new to shelter design, on topics such as ventilation, cost and security. SAM can be used by aid workers, designers or architects to: (i) inform design, (ii) upskill staff, (iii) help write tender documents, (iv) score tender responses, (v) identify issues, & (vi) improve designs. SAM operates using 34 key issues that our research has shown to be critical. A central discovery by the team is just how important location and climate is, and just how much of a difference it makes to speak to the occupants, or those from a similar setting or group before designing. This might seem obvious; however, our work has shown that architects can have a tendency to think that it is possible to design a shelter that will work in the majority of settings, without fully considering the impact of climate, or that different displacement settings have very different budgets, or that the displaced are not an homogeneous group, or that certain materials might not be allowed in some settings. In addition, aid workers can sometimes overly rely on knowledge from previous projects in very different settings, or are simply too rushed or too poorly funded to bring those with other skills into the project. Key to SAM is that it first asks the user to think about the requirements, i.e. the setting, the occupants, the costs and the thoughts of the host government, etc. then to input the details of the shelter. The shelter is then scored against the requirements. So, it is the match between the setting or context and the shelter that is analyzed. As each of the 34 issues is considered separately, the user can quickly identify weaknesses or potential improvements. SAM can be downloaded from our website (www.hhftd.net) and is free, we hope you find it useful.
Read moreAn adaptive stochastic Galerkin method
We derive an adaptive solver for random elliptic boundary value problems, using techniques from adaptive wavelet methods. Substituting wavelets by polynomials of the random parameters leads to a modular solver for the parameter dependence, which combines with any discretization on the spatial domain. We show optimality properties of this solver, and present numerical computations. Introduction Stochastic Galerkin methods have emerged in the past decade as an efficient solution procedure for boundary value problems depending on random data, see [DBO01, XK02, BTZ04, WK05, MK05, FST05, WK06, TS07, BS09, BAS10]. These methods approximate the random solution by a Galerkin projection onto a finite dimensional space of random fields. This requires the solution of a single coupled system of deterministic equations for the coefficients of the Galerkin projection with respect to a predefined set of basis functions on the parameter domain. A major remaining obstacle is the construction of suitable spaces in which to compute approximate solutions. These should be adapted to the stochastic structure of the equation. Simple tensor product constructions are infeasible due to the high dimensionality of the parameter domain in case of input random fields with low regularity. Parallel to but independently from the development of stochastic Galerkin methods, a new class of adaptive methods has emerged, which are set not in the continuous framework of a boundary value problem, but rather on the level of coefficients with respect to a hierarchic Riesz basis, such as a wavelet basis. Due to the norm equivalences constitutive of Riesz bases, errors and residuals in appropriate sequence spaces are equivalent to those in physically meaningful function spaces. This permits adaptive wavelet methods to be applied directly to a large class of equations, provided that a suitable Riesz basis is available. For symmetric elliptic problems, the error of the Galerkin projection onto the span of a set of coefficients can be estimated using a sufficiently accurate approximation of the ∗Research supported in part by the Swiss National Science Foundation grant No. 200021-120290/1.
Read moreThe North West Redwater Sturgeon Refinery: What are the Numbers for Alberta’s Investment?
Since 2006, the government of Alberta has tried to increase the volume of raw bitumen upgraded and refined in the province. More specifically, the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission (APMC) and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) have entered into agreements with a facility northeast of Edmonton called the North West Redwater (NWR) Sturgeon Refinery. The NWR Sturgeon Refinery is designed to process 79,000 barrels per day (bpd) of feedstock, consisting of 50,000 bpd of bitumen and 29,000 bpd of diluent (referred to as dilbit). The refinery will produce petroleum products consisting of approximately 40,000 bpd of low sulphur diesel, 28,000 bpd of diluent and 13,000 bpd of other lighter petroleum products. It will also be able to capture 1.2 million tonnes per year of carbon dioxide emitted from the refinery’s operations. This captured carbon dioxide will be compressed, put into a pipeline and then injected into an existing oil field in order to achieve increased production of crude oil (referred to as enhanced oil recovery or EOR). It is the first refinery built in Canada since 1984, and the first one in Canada to refine bitumen into petroleum products such as diesel fuel. It differs from the upgrader built in Lloydminster which only upgrades bitumen into synthetic crude oil that requires further refining at a conventional refinery in order to produce petroleum products. This paper gives a description of the structure of this support by APMC and CNRL using a mechanism whereby those two parties agree to enter into tolling agreements to process the diluted bitumen feedstock into refined petroleum products for sale. Under the tolling agreement, APMC and CNRL retain ownership of the diluted bitumen as it is refined into petroleum products. APMC and CNRL then sell such petroleum products, and pay a tolling fee to the NWR Sturgeon Refinery for the refining service provided. The paper also uses an economic model in Excel to give a projection of the economics of this facility for the first full year of operation. The objective is to put numbers to a project that has been the subject of much qualitative discussion. The Excel economic model contains base case assumptions for a number of variables such as the capital cost of the refinery, the financing costs associated with such capital costs, the operating costs of the refinery, the cost of the diluted bitumen feedstock and the price of the petroleum products produced by and sold from the refinery. Based on these base case assumptions, the Excel economic model shows that in the first full year of operation of the NWR Sturgeon Refinery in 2019, the two toll-paying entities, APMC and CNRL, are projected to lose a cash amount of about $24 million (about $1 per barrel of diluted bitumen supplied). This loss is based on a comparison to the toll payers’ alternative of just selling the diluted bitumen feedstock at market prices. The paper then uses the economic model to do a sensitivity analysis to show the effect of a lower or higher price of diluted bitumen feedstock, as well as the effect of a lower or higher price of the produced petroleum products. If the cost of the diluted bitumen feedstock were lower, or the price of the petroleum products were higher, then APMC and CNRL would earn a profit. If the converse occurred (feedstock costs higher or petroleum product price lower), then the loss to APMC and CNRL would be greater than $24 million. Finally, the paper attempts to create a template for governments to use when they consider whether or not to provide financial assistance to various projects.
Read moreDelta-IDDQ Testing of Resistive Short Defects
This paper addresses the efficiency of IDDQ and more specifically Delta- IDDQ testing when using a realistic short defect model that properly considers the relation between the resistance of the short and its detectability. The results clearly show that the Delta-IDDQ approach covers a large number of resistive shorts missed by conventional logic testing, requiring only a relatively small vector set. In addition a significant number of defects which are proven to be undetectable by logic testing but may deteriorate and result in reliability failures are detected. The Delta- IDDQ threshold and thus the equipment sensitivity is shown to be critical for the test quality. Furthermore, the validity of the traditional IDDQ fault models when considering resistive short defects is found to be limited. For instance, the use of the fault-free next-state function for sequential IDDQ fault simulation is shown to result in a wrong classification of some resistive short defects. This is the first systematic study of IDDQ testing of resistive short defects. The impact of the threshold on the defect coverage is quantified for the first time. Although the simulation results are based upon a 0.35mum technology, the results and methodology can be transferred to state-of-the-art and NanoTechnologies
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