Many studies and reports support the significant impact of the application of group technology on various aspects of product design and manufacturing. The fact that group tech­nology is the common solution to similar problems is the main source of such impact. In this paper, one of the less frequent­ly utilized features of GNG technology known as parametric part programming is used to implement...

In this paper a novel decomposition of spatial channels is developed to provide insight into spatial aspects of multiple antenna communication systems. The underlying physics of the free space propagation is used to model the channel in scatterer free regions around the transmitter and the receiver, and the rest of the complex scattering media is represented by a parametric model. The channel m...

Economic theory suggests that an extension of the maximum length of entitlement for unemployment benefits increases the duration of unemployment. Empirical results for the reform of the unemployment compensation system in Germany during the 1980s are less clear. The analysis in this paper is motivated by the controversial empirical findings and by recent developments in econometrics for partial...

Accurate phase-locked 3:1 division of an optical frequency was achieved, by using a continuous-wave (cw) doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator. A fractional frequency stability of 2×10-17 of the division process has been achieved for 100 s integration time. The technique developed in this work can be generalized to the accurate phase and frequency control of any cw optical parametric os...

This special issue of the European Journal of Combinatorics collects articles of the participants of the conference “Arithmétique et Combinatoire”, held in Luminy, France, September 23 to 27, 2002. The organizers were Christine Bachoc, from Bordeaux and one of us (PS). The scientific themes comprised coding theory, modular forms, invariant theory, geometry of numbers, association schemes to nam...

In these lectures 1 we dwell upon the cosmological cornerstones of the Very Early Universe (VEU) theory: Parametric Amplification Effect (PAE) responsible for the generation of Pri

The aim of this study was to evaluate the transitory stress levels and the anxiety state in children submitted to conventional and computerized dental anesthesia. Twenty children (7 to 12 years) were randomly assigned to receive conventional and computerized dental anesthesia. To investigate the hypothesis that transitory stress could be lower after using computerized anesthesia compared to con...

We show that the pump–to–signal power conversion efficiency of parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers made with periodically poled materials operating with multicolor spatial solitons can be significantly enhanced by employing engineered quasi-phase-matching gratings. Applications include compact sources of high-energy ultrashort pulses in diffraction-limited high-quality beams. © 2002 Optical Soc...

The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Arab Monetary Fund. Abstract While it is well documented that privatization leads to an improvement in the performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) following divestiture, it is argued that many of these studies do not consider the performance of control firms of similar pre-privatizati...

BACKGROUND The costing method used can change the results of economic evaluations. Choosing the appropriate method to assess the cost of organ recovery is an issue of considerable interest to health economists, hospitals, financial managers and policy makers in most developed countries. OBJECTIVES The main objective of this study was to compare a mixed method, combining top-down microcosting ...