The calculation of local texture characteristics of wood boards is considered. An automated process which chooses the boards making up a wood panel based on criteria of aesthetic compatability of texture between the boards needs to have access to this information. Algorithms producing reduced-size summary images of wood boards describing the distribution of the vein orientation and inter-vein s...

In this study, a new technical process for hardening wood fiber insulation boards is introduced. During the dry-process, the fibers are usually glued with polymeric-diphenylmethane-diisocyanate (pMDI) and hardened to wood fiber insulation boards using a steam-air mixture. However, the maximum temperature reached in the steam-air process was 100 °C, and it was impossible to use an alternative bi...

recovery of gold and other valuable metals from electronic scrap involves a complex metallurgical flow sheet and requires state-of-the-art recovery technologies that are available in large-scale, integrated smelter and refinery operations. at the end of their use, electronic and other electrical product scrap offer an important recycling potential for the secondary supply of gold and silver int...

The game of Domineering is a combinatorial game that has been solved for several boards, including the standard 8 × 8 board. We create new partizan – and some impartial – combinatorial games by using trominos instead of and along with dominoes. We analyze these Tromping games for some small boards providing a dictionary of values. Further, we prove properties that permit expressing some connect...

Internet stock message boards provide individual investors with a new information medium that could have several effects on stock activity. Message boards may provide investors with a new information source on small cap stocks. Message boards may affect the trading and volatility of certain stocks by influencing investors. The impact of message board information may vary according to characteri...

The paper provides mathematical modelling for prefabricated timber-framed walls composed of a timber frame and two different types of sheathing boards. Since by wood-based boards (WBB) the tensile strength is similar to the compressive one, there are practically no cracks appearing in the boards. On the other hand, in case of fibre-plaster sheathing boards (FPB) the tensile strength is approxim...

OBJECTIVE To describe the views of the chairs of Scottish health boards on the engagement of their boards with healthcare quality and to compare them with the views of the chairs of boards of English acute trusts. The focus of the Scottish Health Boards is on providing and commissioning care, while in England the acute trusts only provide care. METHODS We mailed a questionnaire, based on one ...

State medical boards are increasingly responsible for regulating medical and osteopathic licensure and professional conduct in the United States. Yet, there is great variation in the extent to which such boards take disciplinary action against physicians, indicating that some boards are more zealous regulators than others. We look to the political roots of such variation and seek to answer a si...

When minority shareholder laws are strong, then minority shareholders should have more power to affect board composition and structure. Therefore, countries with strong minority shareholder laws should have ‘good’ corporate boards of directors (i.e., one that looks out for minority shareholders’ bests interests). Assuming that boards with independent directors and fewer directors are indicative...

This paper describes a simulation-based analysis of a printed circuit board (PCB) testing process. The PCBs are used in a defense application and the testing process is fairly complex. Boards are mounted on a test unit in batches and go through three thermal test cycles. As boards fail testing during the thermal cycling, operators can either replace the failed boards at fixed points during the ...