This paper presents a method to calculate photon-measurement density functions (PMDF's), which were introduced in Part 1 [Appl. Opt. 34, 7395-7409 (1995), for near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy in complex and inhomogeneous objects through the use of a finite-element model. PMDF's map the sensitivity of a measurement on the surface of an object to the perturbations of the optical parameters ...

Publisher's Note added on 4 June 2009: There is a pagination error in Sensors 2009, 9(6) with page 4271 missing. Thus, page 4271 is taken as a blank page.

Becky Blank’s paper is a sweeping, comprehensive, and balanced review and assessment of what social scientists and policy analysts have learned about the effects of the landmark U. S. national welfare reform legislation of 1996. The policy shift embodied in this legislation (and the responses of each of 50 states to it) is the largest policy change affecting the potential welfare population sin...

Vibrations of circular cylindrical shells made of layered composite materials are considered. The shells are weakened by circumferential cracks. The influence of circumferential cracks with constant depth on the vibration of the shell is prescribed with the aid of a matrix of local flexibility coupled with the coefficient of the stress intensity known in the linear elastic fracture mechanics. N...

Es wird ein Feldversuch vorgestellt, bei dem vier unterschiedliche Stickstoffdüngesysteme miteinander verglichen wurden. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf der Vorstellung einer Methode, zu der mit Hilfe von neuronalen Netzen aus Datenbankinformationen Entscheidungsregeln abgeleitet werden. Unter ökonomischen Gesichtspunkten erreicht diese Düngemethode das beste Ergebnis.