Complications of chronic otitis media

In summary, recent literature indicates that the complications of chronic otitis media have been decreasing. However, even with the advent of modern and more powerful antimicrobials and aggressive surgical eradication of disease, the morbidity and mortality are still high. Some complications may initially be quite obvious and some complications may be quite subtle. Therefore, the most important tools in making early diagnosis are careful history and physical examination, and a high index of suspicion for impending complications.     

Influence of the preparation conditions on the size and morphology of nanocrystalline lanthanum orthoferrite

Nanocrystalline LaFeO₃ is prepared by the dehydration of coprecipitated lanthanum and iron(III) hydroxides. It is shown that the behavior of the samples during heating and the size distribution of LaFeO₃ nanocrystals can be considerably different depending on the scheme used for coprecipitation of lanthanum and iron hydroxides; independently of the method employed for coprecipitation of the initial compounds, sintering of the samples at 950°C leads to the formation of lanthanum orthoferrite crystals up to 100 nm in size.     

Unique ESD failure mechanisms during negative to Vcc HBM tests

HBM ESD tests on two types of 0.6 μm DRAM devices showed that internal circuit or output driver failures would occur after the input or I/O pins were ESD stressed negative with respect to Vcc at ground. These failures occurred at lower than expected ESD stress voltages due to power-up circuit interactions that either turned-on unique internal parasitic ESD current paths or disrupted the normal operation of the output pin’s ESD protection circuit. ESD analysis found there exists a set of power-up sensitive circuits and if placed near a Vcc bond pad can result in low voltage ESD failures.     

High-temperature electrical conductivity of aluminium nitride

The electrical conductivity of hot-pressed polycrystalline aluminium nitride doped with oxygen and beryllium was measured as a function of temperature from 800 to 1200° C and over a range of nitrogen partial pressure from 10² to 10⁵ Pa. The effect of beryllium dopant, the independence of conductivity from nitrogen partial pressure, and the observed activation energy suggested extrinsic electronic species or aluminium vacancies as charge carriers. Polarization measurements made with one electrode blocking to ionic species indicated that the aluminium nitride with oxygen impurity was an extrinsic electronic conductor.     

Comments on `Hash-based and index-based join algorithms for cubeand ring connected multicomputers' by E.R. Omiecinski and E.T. Lin

The cost distributions of both the parallel hybrid-hash join and the parallel join-index join algorithms proposed in the above-named work (ibid., vol.1, p.329-43, Sept. 1989) are presented in more detail. The result shows that almost the entire relation may need to be retrieved from disk, though the join selectivity is low. A table of semi-join selectives and cube sizes is given to show the condition that the join-index method performs better than the hybrid-hash method, i.e., the really low selectivity for the join-index method. An error in one of the cost formulas is corrected, and a more efficient method on the final join in the join-index method is proposed     

High-reliability GaAs-AlGaAs HBTs by MBE with Be base doping andInGaAs emitter contacts

The authors have developed a modified MBE growth process to produce high-gain n-p-n GaAs-AlGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) with a mean time to failure (MTTF) of 1.5×10⁸ h at 125°C. Beryllium incorporation and diffusion are controlled through a combination of reduced substrate temperature and increased As/Ga flux ratio during MBE growth, resulting in extremely stable HBT profiles. The authors also demonstrate graded InGaAs surface layers with nonalloyed refractory metal contacts that significantly improve ohmic reliability compared to alloyed AuGe contacts. The ability to produce robust HBTs by MBE is critically important to this technology     

Continuous hydrogen evolution from cyclohexanes over platinum catalysts supported on activated carbon fibers

The continuous production of hydrogen from cyclohexanes is achieved effectively using Pt/ACF (ACF = activated carbon fiber) catalysts in a fixed-bed flow reactor. The Pt catalysts are more effective than a Pd/ACF catalyst for the reaction. Besides cyclohexane, methylcyclohexane, 1,4-dimethylcyclohexane, and p-menthane can also be employed as hydrogen source in the reaction system.     

Coupling techniques in boundary-combined methods for solving elliptic problems with singularities

Three coupling strategies in matching the Ritz-Galerkin method and the finite element method are introduced for general elliptic equations, and useful numerical techniques are provided. Numerical experiments have been carried out for solving the typical, singular Motz problem, which shows that optimal convergence rates of numerical solutions can be achieved by using the combined methods and techniques provided in this paper.