The paper reports a study of a videoconference-based environment in decentralized university education and factors determining the success of teaching and learning in the environment. The focus of the paper is on the role of a person having the formal responsibilities of a technician. An ethnographic study conducted over the course of a year revealed that the contribution of this person far exc...

When acquiring the surface data of the sample part, it is not easy to get the full data on one scan due to the configuration or topology of the part. In addition, some special parts have special assembly request, for example the joint surface smooth and the boundary share. The process usually requires multiple scans for an assembly model. Some identical points have different coordinate data bec...

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for computing the farthest-segment Voronoi diagram for the edges of a convex polygon and apply this to obtain an O(n logn) algorithm for the following proximity problem: Given a set P of n (>2) points in the plane, we have O(n2) implicitly defined segments on pairs of points. For each point p ∈ P , find a segment from this set of implicitly defined segment...

In most developing countries children provide some form of insurance against risks when parents are old, which, in turn, justifies parental preference to have more children. In this paper, we examine the causal effect of number of children on several measures of health status of elderly parents using newly available China Health and Retirement Survey data. Because number of children in a family...

In general I agree with Stefan Ingves’ proposition that cross-border banking generates negative externalities and makes transnational confl icts of interest more likely. Small host countries such as New Zealand are particularly vulnerable to such confl icts and externalities, particularly in times of crisis. There are a number of different ways to approach this issue, one of which is Stefan’s s...

Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed that two distinct brain networks are recruited in the perception of sub-second and supra-second durations. The aim of this study is to examine how intermediate duration between sub- and supra-second, that is, around one second duration, is processed in our brain. We hypothesized that durations around one second can be processed either by the sub-second ...

Depth, proximity, and tactile sensors are often used in robotic object manipulation. The three types of combined to address each sensor limitation: Depth use is limited by blind spots measurable range, proximity millimetric distances, the requires direct contact with object. Here we present a novel that can simultaneously measure distance surface tilt, as well force. We demonstrated advantage t...

The paper reports a study of a videoconference-based environment in decentralized university education and factors contributing to the success of teaching and learning in the environment. The focus of the paper is on the role of a person having the formal responsibilities of a technician. An ethnographic study conducted over the course of a year revealed that the contribution of this person far...

This paper explores the possibilities of using a computing methodology—hardware and software—that employs technology other than binary. I refer to this as “supra-binary” computing. Software constructs that use more than binary techniques are discussed. The gains in supra-binary software are demonstrated, which includes supra-binary code being RISC. Possible hardware implementations of a compute...

209 Yet, disease staging is not without its disadvantages. Certain diseases cannot be staged.210 No actual statistical measures of resource consumption are utilized in categorizing patients.21 ' Disease staging also ignores concurrent conditions and patient-related variables which affect resource consumption.21 2 Disease staging may prove very useful in the refinement needed within the diagnost...