Recent advances in microelectronic packaging promise unprecedented levels of performance for embedded computing. High performance machines that have been traditionally confined to a computer room environment can now be packaged for airborne, shipborne, or mobile applications. Multichip module (MCM) packaging has emerged as the first step in achieving this level of integration. However, new tech...

11.1 INTRODUCTION Near-surface wetness conditions change rapidly with the weather, which limits their usefulness as drought indicators. Deeper stores of water, including root-zone soil wetness and groundwater, portend longer-term weather trends and climate variations ; thus, they are well suited for quantifying droughts. However, the existing in situ networks for monitoring these variables suff...

A model for the estimation of water uptake in polymeric coatings is presented, based upon a linear combination of the individual capacitances of the polymeric phase, the water and the air contained in the coating. Experimental comparison of the model with the Brasher-Kingsbury equation has revealed an improvement in the agreement with respect to the gravimetry.

An extensive review of past work on relativistic gravimetry, gradiometry and chronometric geodesy is given. Then, general theoretical tools are presented and applied for the case of a stationary parameterized post-Newtonian metric. The special case of a stationary clock on the surface of the Earth is studied.

The half-life of 87Rb was measured by a liquid scintillation method according to the efficiency tracing method. The measuring sample of rubidium chloride was dissolved in a scintillation cocktail of Insta-gel, and the rubidium was determined by gravimetry as tetraphenylborate. The result was (5.56 +/- 0.025) x 10(10) years.

Modern portable gravimeters can routinely achieve a 5 ugal uncertainty with careful measurement procedures involving multiple station occupations in the same day, and stacking of readings over at least 15 minutes during each occupation. Although further improvements in gravimeter accuracy are feasible, other practical factors relating to repeat surveys of geothermal fields make such improvement...