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Additional file 1. The Supplementary Information contains a summary of the key specifications of SPECT-CT image acquisition and reconstruction used in this study, and a summary of the per-cycle renal and tumor dose rates (Gy/GBq).

This thesis presents a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodology for the development of a Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Digital Twin (DT) with the ability to demonstrate route selection capability with a Mission Engineering (ME) focus. It reviews the concept of ME and integrates it with an MBSE framework for the development of the DT. The methodology is demonstrated through a case study where the UAS is deployed for a Last Mile Delivery (LMD) mission and a route optimization module recommends an optimal route to the user. The optimization module is based on Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT), which analyzes predefined criteria that the user assessed would enable the successful conduct of the UAS mission. The thesis demonstrates that the methodology can execute an ME analysis for route selection to support a user's decision-making process. The discussion section highlights the key MBSE artifacts and also highlights the benefits of the methodology, which standardizes the decision-making process, thereby reducing the negative impact of human-factors that may deviate from the predefined criteria. Military Expert 5, Republic of Singapore Air Force Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

This report explores the extension of the conventional “kill chain” in a counterintuitive manner. Utilizing lessons learned from the SEA29 work in “Logistics in a Contested Environment,” the “kill chain” is re-defined backward from warhead detonation to “metal bending and metal delivery.” This process provides a more well-rounded examination of Department of Defense (DOD) efforts to maintain supply lines in a major conflict, specifically, those supply lines that provide key rare earth elements (REE) to DOD weapons contractors. Using linear programming and optimization, this report documents a design of three alternatives for the mining, refinement, and production of REEs. By defining a production equation around our Measures of Effectiveness and Performance (MOE/MOP), we maximized the weighted MOPs while minimizing damage to convoys. From the analysis of results, we found REE components produced remotely (OCONUS) and near CONUS had the best results while using medium and large convoys. Finally, the diverse background of the team, professionally and academically, allowed for a combination of perspectives during the research and modeling process, which ultimately led to the creation of this final report. Director, Warfare Integration (OPNAV N9I) Captain, United States Marine Corps Seren, Israel Defence Forces Civilian, Singapore Technologies Electronics, Singapore Military Expert 5, Republic of Singapore Air Force Lieutenant, United States Navy Lieutenant, United States Navy Lieutenant, United States Navy Military Expert 5, Republic of Singapore Air Force Military Expert 5, Singapore Army Military Expert 5, Republic of Singapore Air Force Major, United States Army Captain, United States Marine Corps Captain, Singapore Army Military Expert 5, Republic of Singapore Air Force Civilian, Singapore Technologies - Engineering Land Systems, Singapore Military Expert 5, Republic of Singapore Air Force Captain, Singapore Army Civilian, Singapore Technologies Engineering Land Systems, Singapore Major, Singapore Army Civilian, DSO National Labs, Singapore Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Introduction Radiosynovectomy (also known as radiosynoviorthesis) is a local form of radiotherapy that is used in chronic hemophilic synovitis in the absence of radiological evidence of extensive joint damage and in patients that have failed conservative therapy with clotting factor replacement and physiotherapy. Objectives To evaluate the effectiveness of the Yttrium-90 (Y-90) colloid and Rhenium-186 (Re-186) sulphur colloid radiosynovectomy in hemophilic arthropathy in terms of bleeding frequency, pain score, range of motion and performance score. Methodology This was a prospective cohort trial. A total of 68 hemophilic arthropathy patients who had been treated with radiosynovectomy for knee, ankle, elbow and hip joint were included in this study. Patients were followed up to assess their bleeding frequency, pain score, range of motion of the affected joint and Karnofsky or Lansky performance scale at pre and 6 months post therapy. Result A marked decrease (80–100%) in bleeding frequency was seen in 66.2% of patients, 14.7% of patients had moderate decrease (51–79%) and mild decrease (30–50%) was seen in 14.7% of patients. The frequency of intraarticular bleeding and pain score were significantly reduced at 6 months follow up ( p0.005). Conclusion Radiosynovectomy is a safe and effective procedure in limiting bleeding frequency, reducing pain and increasing performance scale.

A new detector array, Solenogam, has been developed at the Australian National University Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility. Coupled initially to the SOLITAIRE 6.5 T, gas-filled, solenoidal separator, and later to an 8 T solenoid, the system enables the study of long-lived nuclear states through $��$-ray and conversion-electron spectroscopy in a low-background environment. The detector system is described and results from the commissioning experiments are presented.

Recently, there has been an interest in potential of antioxidant film incorporated with natural extract. The film was produced by using chitosan in the presence of pomelo (Citrus grandis) peel extract. In this study, there were 3 different effects of parameter that had been screened by using 2-Level Factorial which were concentrations of chitosan, pomelo peel extract and glycerol. Meanwhile, the response that had been investigated which was Total Phenolic Content (TPC). The data were analyzed by using ANOVA to screen the parameters affecting the antioxidant activity of films. Factor B (concentration of pomelo peel extract) and AC (interaction between the concentration of chiotosan and glycerol) were significant parameters in this studied. Meanwhile, FTIR spectra of antioxidant film revealed that there were interaction between functional groups of chitosan with pomelo peel extract with presence of aromatic ring C=C stretch at wavelength of 1555.3 cm-1 and 1410.7 cm-1. These results suggested that chitosan films containing pomelo peel extract have potential as the antioxidant thin film, which can be used for development of antioxidant food packaging materials.

After the successful delivery of two mammoth deep water projects in Sabah, Shell Malaysia turned its attention to develop cost competitive solutions to further develop and generate growth for small/marginal field development. The initial focus was to develop a low cost, minimal facility platform, which meets all the HSSE and operational requirements for a marginal gas field in Sarawak. To do things differently, new but proven technology had to be utilised and for this initial low-cost development wellhead platform, solar panels were employed to generate power for the platform facilities. Electricity generated by this technology is currently limited to 1200 Watts and due to this, the design of the controls of automation systems had to morph along with this limitation. Equipment such as pumps, control and safeguarding systems had to run on 24VDC supply. A low powered integrated control and safeguarding systems, limited to a power consumption of no more than 250 watts, suitable for installation and operation in outdoor hazardous environment, with temperatures reaching 50°C, had to be employed. Due to the power supply limitation, pressurised control rooms to house controls and safeguarding systems now are a thing of the past. And the design of the wellhead control panel was optimised by minimising the number of 24VDC pumps and utilizing pressure boosting regulators to achieve the different required pressures.

In this paper, we present a smart wearable hand-gesture recognition system based on the movement of the hand and fingers. The proposed smart wearable system is built using the fewest sensors necessary for gesture recognition. Thus, motion sensors are placed on the thumb and index finger to detect finger motions. Another sensor is placed on the back of the hand to measure hand movement. A total of six gestures are analyzed via hand and finger movement using a dynamic time-warping method. Gestures include "swipe right," "swipe left," "zoom in," "zoom out," "rotate left," and "rotate right." An Android-based mobile device application simulator measures gesture recognition effectiveness. Gestures are analyzed using a trained recognition model. Once a gesture is detected, it is transmitted to the mobile application via Bluetooth low energy communication. Received gestures then trigger corresponding commands, as specified in the mobile application. The proposed smart wearable system can detect gestures at mean accuracy of 93.19 %.

One of the most frequently encountered operational problems with Imhoff tanks is filter media clogging. Traditionally, the restoration procedure is to remove the clogged rock media and replace them with clean material. This is costly and may require the facility to close for a time. Recently, an innovative approach has been tested at lab- and full-scale. It consisted of aggressive oxidation and segregation of the clogged solids, using catalyzed hydrogen peroxide. The results indicate that, after treatment, clogging was substantially reduced. The outcomes of the lab- and full-scale studies are discussed in this paper.

Recent advances in nanotechnology offer new possibilities in a wide range of applications. Despite the seemingly unlimited potential of nanotechnology, there is growing concern about the potential health and environmental impacts of the production and use of nanomaterials produced using the conventional methods. Recently, plants have been successfully used for the synthesis of nanoparticles in a nontoxic and environmentally benign manner. However, the potential applications of these biosynthesised nanoparticles are yet to be fully explored. The main objective of the present study was to develop and optimise a biological method for the synthesis of gold and silver nanoparticles, utilising tomato fruit extract as a reducing and stabilising agent. The nanoparticles obtained were characterised and compared to those produced using a chemical method. Scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed the identity of the biosynthesised nanoparticles. The effects of pH, extract concentration, and temperature on the size, size distribution, and shape of nanoparticles were investigated. High temperatures and high pH were found to increase the production rate of nanoparticles, favouring the formation of monodisperse and smaller-sized nanoparticles. The biosynthesised gold and silver nanoparticles exhibited the characteristic plasmon absorption peaks, which centred at approximately 530 nm and 410 nm, respectively. In addition, the nanoparticles were observed to have a net negative charge and were crystallised in a face-centred cubic structure. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis indicated that the nanoparticles were capped with biomolecules derived from the tomato extract. Biosynthesised gold nanoparticles were shown to bind efficiently to a synthetic metal-binding polypeptide, implying their potential in therapeutic delivery applications. In a follow-up experiment, the ESAT-6 antigen from Mycobacterium tuberculosis was fused with the metal-binding polypeptide and successfully expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves, with recombinant protein yields ranging from 0.01% to 0.23% of total soluble protein. The recombinant proteins were purified and their identities were confirmed by western blot showing the expected molecular weights. The purified proteins were conjugated to three different samples of biosynthesised gold nanoparticles covering different size ranges. The resultant AuNP-GBP:ESAT-6 conjugates were then used to immunise C57BL/6 mice. The results showed that GBP:ESAT-6 formulated with AuNPs with an average size of 10.3 nm induced elevated antigen-specific immune responses. In addition, no toxic effects were observed in mice treated with the biosynthesised AuNPs. Taken together, this study provides an additional evidence with respect to the use of plant-derived materials as an eco-friendly, nontoxic and viable approach for the synthesis of nanoparticles.

Fire detection systems are designed to discover fires and allow the safe evacuation of occupants as well as protecting the safety of emergency response personnel. This paper describes the design and development of a fire detection and alert system. Temperature and flame sensors are used to indicate the occurrence of fire. This work consists of two parts, which are transmitter and receiver, both using ZigBee wireless technology. Arduino Uno is used as the microcontroller at the transmitter part to control the sensor nodes and give alert when over temperature and flame are detected. At the transmitter, the collected data from the sensors are transmitted by an XBee module operated as router node. At the receiver side, an XBee coordinator module which is attached to a computer using USB to serial communication captured the data for further processing. In addition, an interactive and user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) is developed. LabVIEW software is used to design the GUI which displays and analyze the possibility of fire happening. The system can display the fire location and provides early warning to allow occupants to escape the building safely.

Driver fatigue had been a major reason that leads to road accidents. This paper focuses on investigating the usage of electromyography and galvanic skin response to detect the driver fatigue symptoms. The study reveals that the variation of EMG signal patterns can be mapped to simulate the driving behavior. In the study, five attachment positions of EMG sensors are observed to indicate the best position of the mapping for wheel steering control behavior. Hereby, the study also reveals that the changing variations of EMGs in frequency-domain are excellent and significant fatigue indicator than the usual time-domain features. On the other hand, existing systems only focused on analyzing the signal pattern of GSR, but not the variation of GSR in accordance to frequency analysis, which is one of our main objectives study. The sensed EMGs and GSRs are transmitted to the mobile device via Bluetooth Low Energy. The analysis takes part in mobile device with implemented fatigue monitoring application. If the developed classifier indicates the driver vigilance level dropped to dangerous predefined threshold, a vibration warning will be triggered to alert the driver. In fact, the experiment results revealed that the significant differences in EMG and GSR features are managed to determine the driver fatigue in five seconds interval. The developed SVM classifier of mobile application shows average of 92% fatigue detection accuracy rate.

Driver drowsiness detection system had been developed as mobile device application such as Percentage of Eye Closure (PERCLOS) measured by using mobile device camera. Nevertheless, the mobile device has the potential risk of distracting the driver's attention, causing accidents. Thus, a wearable-type drowsiness detection system is proposed to overcome such issue. The proposed system used self-designed wristband consisted of photoplethysmogram sensor and galvanic skin response sensor. The sensors data are sent to the mobile device which served as a main analyzing processing unit. Those data are analyzed along with the motion sensors, which are the mobile device built-in accelerometer and gyroscope sensors. Five features are extracted accordingly based on the received raw sensors data, including heart rate, pulse rate variability, respiratory rate, stress level, and adjustment counter. Those features are further served as computation parameters to a support vector machine to derive the driver drowsiness state. The testing results indicated that the accuracy of the system with SVM model reached up to 98.3%. In addition, driver will be alerted using graphical and vibration alarm generated by the mobile device. In fact, the integration of driver physical behavior and physiological signals is proven to be an outstanding solution to detect driver drowsiness in a safer, more flexible and portable used.

Acute query (Q) fever caused by Coxiella burnetii infection can present with various signs and symptoms such as flulike illness, pneumonia, or hepatitis, creating a diagnostic challenge. Patients with previous valve surgery are at a higher risk of developing chronic Q fever endocarditis, several months or years following initial infection despite treatment. Q fever was primarily seen in patients who have contact with farm animals. It is being seen in military or contracted personnel returning from Middle East deployment or in close proximity to a farm. The incidence has increased nearly seven times because it became a nationally reported disease in 1999. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists C. burnetii as a potential bioterrorism agent caused by its inhalation transmission and bacterial resistance to heat and chemicals. Currently, vaccination is not available in the United States. In Australia, vaccination has resulted in a decrease in prevalence.

This paper discusses the trends of technology in education and comparison between three types of technology: Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and Mobile Learning (ML). This paper aims to encourage educators and learners to incorporate the technologies in the teaching and learning process. The integration of these technologies in the teaching and learning process is able to provide new learning environment and improve the teaching and learning quality. The learning process becomes enjoyable and interesting with technologies. Although technology has a lot of benefit to the education field, educators must be creative and innovative to implement technology in the teaching and learning process. Therefore, educators and learners need to select the appropriate technology according to the lesson taught.

Background Mediastinitis, a serious complication after cardiac surgery, increases morbidity, mortality, and cost of care. Accumulating evidence implicates blood transfusions in the development of mediastinitis. Objectives We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the association between allogeneic blood transfusion and mediastinitis in adult cardiac surgery patients. Results After a search of Medline, PubMed, Cochrane Library, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and the Institute for Scientific Information's Web of Knowledge (1990-2010) for relevant studies, 7 (3 prospective cohort and 4 retrospective reviews) met our inclusion/exclusion criteria. Between 20% and 80.2% of patients received blood transfusions, with an incidence of mediastinitis ranging from 0.1% to 2.3%. Five studies demonstrated an independent association between red blood cell transfusion and mediastinitis. Two studies identified a dose-response relationship. Conclusion The findings of this systematic review suggest that allogeneic red blood cell transfusions are associated with an increased risk of mediastinitis in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Individual risks and benefits should be assessed in each patient before a red blood cell transfusion.

The antibacterial activity of geraniol and its effect in combination with ampicillin, amoxicillin and clarithromycin against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Helicobacter pylori was tested. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and combinatory effects of geraniol against the bacteria were assessed by using the modified broth microdilution and checkerboard assay, respectively. The combinatory effect is expressed as fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI). The MIC of geraniol against S. aureus, E. coli and H. pylori was found to be 11200, 5600, and 7325 μg/mL, respectively. A significant synergistic effect was observed with geraniol and ampicillin against S. aureus with FICI in the range 0.19 to 0.32. Geraniol and ampicillin exhibited a partial synergistic effect against E. coli. A similar effect was observed with geraniol and clarithromycin against S. aureus. A partial synergistic effect was observed with clarithromycin and geraniol against H. pylori with the FICI value in the range 0.86 to 0.89. An additive effect was observed with geraniol and amoxicillin combination against H. pylori. However, the amoxicillin and clarithromycin dose was reduced by thirty-two fold when combined with geraniol against H. pylori. The anti- H. pylori effect of geraniol with clarithromycin and amoxicillin could be of potential interest in the treatment of H. pylori infection and associated ulcers in humans. Further, geraniol, in combination with other antibiotics, has substantial therapeutic potential against S. aureus and E.coli infection.

This study discusses the issues and future trends of teaching physical education subject. The data is elicited from an interview conducted with four expert teachers. Four issues were identified after conducting an analysis of the interview transcript. The issues are time, teaching method, perception toward physical education and future trends in teaching and learning physical education. Physical education is important for a child's development from the cognitive, social and physical health aspect. Physical education is not emphasized in school. Based on the data obtained, a new teaching method must be devised to prevent the lack of interest in learning physical education in the classroom.

This paper shows the study of the effect of etch by product towards photoresist residue defect found in Polysilicon-Insulator-Polysilicon (PIP) processes. Initial finding show the correlation with the big size poly PIP capacitor structure. Therefore, the challenge was to focus on big size PIP structure. But during partition check, we found the weakness of the photoresist stripping during O2 plasma ashing. The weakness show not only big size pattern but also small size area. Through EDX analysis, we found Si byproduct block oxygen reaction with photoresist. As a consequence, following sulfuric clean has no margin to remove all photoresist which cause photoresist residue on big size of pattern. Several approaches were carried out to identify the optimal solution for defect removal. And, it was found that the additional sulfuric clean without HF is best solution. The photoresist residue defect was then eliminated completely with the new cleaning condition.

Many studies reveal that adaptors are more ready to accept the status quo, whereas innovators are less likely to do so. This raises the question: Do adaptors and innovators subscribe to opposing values? A study is conducted with the following hypotheses. H1 predicts that adaptors are more likely to subscribe to CONSERVATION values like security, conformity, and tradition. H2 predicts that innovators are more likely to subscribe to OPENNESS TO CHANGE values like self-direction and stimulation. The respondents consisted of 243 students from Singapore with an average age of 17.9 years and 195 students from Australia with an average age of 19.1 years. These respondents answered a survey that contained the Kirton Adaption-Innovation (KAI) inventory and the Schwartz value survey. For the Singapore sample, KAI was negatively correlated with CONSERVATION: r = –.39, p < .0001; but it was positively correlated with OPENNESS TO CHANGE: r = .14, p < .05. For the Australian sample, KAI was negatively correlated with C...

Commercial television has emerged today as the premier advertising medium, and it has the vast potential to reach the most private realms of the human psyche. Advertisement commercials have been extensively analyzed across the US, as well as in countries such as Australia, Britain, and Mexico. Researchers have focused on the way men and women were depicted in the media. However, little research has been conducted on the gender-role portrayals in television commercials in Asia. The research objectives of this study seek to examine the portrayal of male and female characters in Malaysian and Singaporean commercials, as well as to discover stereotypes, changed/emerging roles, and their meanings within the sociocultural context of these societies. This research has its main aim, the investigation of how the sociocultural context influences the gender-role portrayals in these two countries. It also highlights possible marketing implications for advertising professionals.

Nowadays, increasing of gold price and decreasing of dielectric let copper and low-k dielectric materials become a new technology and are increasingly chosen as preferred interconnect insulated material in semiconductor applications. In this paper, a C45 ultra low k wafer technology with bond-over-active bond pads, on a thermally enhanced BGA package with 31×31mm large body size is selected to study. Aluminum wire type, bonding capillary, and wire bonding parameters, were selected as critical factors in this study. Both were used for bonding parameters optimization. Critical responses such as ball size, ball height / bonded ball diameter ratio, wire pull strength, ball shear strength, and wire peel strength were studied to understand the wire bonding effect of C45 ultra low k and 40μm pad pitch. Analysis between copper and gold wire were performed for comparison purpose at different thermal aging read point. The thermal aging read point were studied at 175°C for 168, 504 and 1008 hours while at temperature of 225°C for 4.5, 13.5, 26, 52 and 97 hours respectively. This is used to study the IMC thickness of Cu-Al. To investigate the effects of IMC formation on the copper wire on Al pad, wire pull, wire peel and ball shear test has to be construct.

Myeloid sarcoma (MS) is a rare extramedullary myeloid tumour. It has been reported in various sites, including lymph node, bone, skin, soft tissue, various organs and the CNS. It may precede or occur concurrently with acute myeloid leukemia. Urinary bladder involvement is extremely uncommon. We report a 70-year-old female who had MS of the urinary bladder, presented with frank and persistent hematuria associated with lower abdominal pain. She subsequently had tumour seeding in the abdominal skin via percutaneous suprapubic catheter. Tumours from both the urinary bladder and skin showed immature cells that were immunoreactive toward LCA (focal), MPO (strong), CD99 (weak) and CD117 (weak). Summary of cases in the literature is presented. The potential of its misdiagnosis and the useful markers for the diagnosis of MS are discussed.

Analysis of epidemiological as well as survival differences among the multiethnic population of Malaysia with prostate cancer is important.Patients confirmed by transrectal-ultrasonographic-guided-biopsy performed from 2002 to 2008 were enrolled and analysed according to ethnicity, age, PSA level, Gleason score, stage of disease and survival.Among 83 patients, there were 38 Malay, 40 Chinese, 3 Indians and 2 others. Median age at diagnosis was 69.9 (range: 59-93), 43 patients (51.8%) being diagnosed before the age of 70. The median PSA level upon diagnosis was 574 ng/ml (range: 1-8632) and the median Gleason score was 7 (range: 2-10). Over half were already in Stage 4 when diagnosed. The most common site of metastasis was the bone. As a result the commonest prescribed treatment was hormonal manipulation. Five patients underwent radical prostatectomy and a further thirteen patients had radical radiotherapy (stage I: 1 patient, stage II: 7 patients and stage III: 5 patients). Ten patients defaulted follow-up. The median disease-specific survival was 21.9 months (range: 1-53).Prostatic carcinoma is a disease of the elderly and it is frequently diagnosed late in Malaysia. Greater efforts should be made to educate Malaysians regarding prostate cancer.

As gold price continues to move in an overall rising trend, conversion to Cu wire has been given great focus as the main effort for cost reduction. Cu is a good alternative due to 26% lower electrical resistivity than Au, hence much higher electrical conductivity. However, Cu free-air-ball and bonded ball hardness are 34% and 60% higher than that of Au, hence increases the stress on bond pad and chip. Although Cu wire price is generally only 5 to 10% of Au wire cost depending on wire diameter, but bonding with a much harder material like Cu requires great characterization effort due to the a much higher level of unknowns and complexities, especially when dealing with ultra fine pitch and ultra low k wafer technology.

As gold price continues to move in an overall rising trend, conversion to Cu wire has been given great focus as the main effort for cost reduction. Cu is a good alternative due to 26% lower electrical resistivity than Au, hence much higher electrical conductivity. However, Cu free-air-ball and bonded ball hardness are 34% and 60% higher than that of Au, hence increases the stress on bond pad and chip. Although Cu wire price is generally only 5 to 10% of Au wire cost depending on wire diameter, but bonding with a much harder material like Cu requires great characterization effort due to the a much higher level of unknowns and complexities, especially when dealing with ultra fine pitch and ultra low k wafer technology.

Renal cancer is rare and its incidence is 1.9 per 100,000 in the Malaysian population, which consists of three major ethnic groups (Malay, Chinese and Indians). A retrospective study was her conducted to identify clinical characteristics and ethnic background influences on presentation. The study included all renal cancer patients from a single medical institution over ten years, with a total of 75 cases. Seventy-three patients underwent surgery while 2 received only radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The male to female ratio was 2.75:1. Incidence was equal among the Malay (49.3%) and Chinese ethnic groups (45.3%). Mean age of patients were 57.1 (18-93) years old. There were 26 (37.4%) patients with Stage I disease, 14 (18.7%) at Stage II, 23 (30.7%) at Stage III and 12 (16%) at Stage IV. The Chinese race presented at mean older age (p= 0.02) and later stage of disease (p= 0.046). Patients above 40 years old had more advanced stage disease (p= 0.023). Tumour histology were clear cell (72%), urothelial cell (13.3%), sarcomatoid cell and nephroblastoma each contributed 2.7%. The mean tumour size was 8.1 (2-20) cm. There was substantial agreement between the pre and post operative staging (kappa 0.691). In conclusion we observed significant influences of age and race in the clinical presentation of renal cancer in our institution based population. There was larger male to female ratio and mean tumour size as compared to previous epidemiology studies.

To determine the clinicopathological features of bladder tumours encountered over a five year period in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre.Medical records of bladder tumour cases from 2005 till 2009 were retrospectively reviewed and tabulated.A total of 83 cases were recorded. The incidence was highest among the Chinese (56.6%), followed by Malays (34.9%), Indians (6%) and other races (2.4%). The male-to-female ratio was 9.4:1. The median age was 65 years (range 30-91 years) and median duration of follow up was 17.2 months (range 2-60 months). The main histopathology was transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) (90.4%), followed by adenocarcinoma (6%), squamous cell carcinoma (1.2%), leiomyoma (1.2%) and myeloid sarcoma (1.2%). For the TCCs, 58.6% were superficial while 41.4% were muscle invasive, and 13.3% had nodal metastasis with distant metastasis in 8%. Of the total, 5.3% were papillary urothelial tumours of low malignant potential, 33.3% pTa, 20% pT1, 10.7% pT2, 12.0% pT3 and 18.7% pT4. Of the superficial tumours, 32.5% were high grade tumours. There were ten radical cystectomies performed for transitional cell carcinomas; two had neobladder reconstruction whereas the other eight had ileal conduits. All the adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas were treated by radiotherapy due to the advanced stage of the disease while the myeloid sarcoma received chemotherapy. Mean survival of patients with muscle invasive cancer was 33+/-5 months. By the end of the study, 18.1% of patients had died of their cancer.The incidence of bladder tumours is highest among the Chinese. When compared to other studies, the incidence of muscle invasive and high-grade superficial tumours was greater.

In this study, ultra fine pitch wire bonding on a BGA device with Al bond pad was performed to compare 2N wire with conventional 3N and 4N wires for reliability performance after thermal aging. Strip level thermal aging at 175 degree C was carried out. Wire pull test was performed after different thermal aging read point of 100hrs, 250hrs, 500hrs, 750hrs, 1000hrs, 1250hrs, 1500hrs, 1750hrs and 2000hrs to check for pull strength and lifted ball failure mode. The result had proven that 2N wire demonstrated more superior thermal aging reliability performance as compared to 3N and 4N wire. In the 2nd portion of this study, 2N wire was successfully implemented in mass production. However, several challenges were encountered due to the fact that 2N wire is much harder than conventional 3N and 4N wire which resulted in narrower process window and poorer manufacturability. This study is also aimed to share the major problems encountered and the methods to overcome those challenges during high volume manufacturing. First major challenge was lower 2nd bond peel strength due to higher sensitivity towards 2nd bond surface condition. It was found that substrate bond finger surface roughness variation is a critical factor to 2N wire bonding process. This can be improved through substrate manufacturing process optimization to reduce bond fingers surface roughness. At the same time, less optimized bonding input parameters was found to induce low wire peel strength while certain bonding input parameters was found to cause higher missing ball and short tail problem. Hence bonding parameters optimization has to be done carefully through thorough DOE and RSM studies in order to achieve higher peel strength and improve process robustness against 2nd bond surface variation. The 2nd major challenge was off-bond-pad due to harder wire that resulted in higher aluminum squeeze-out upon bonding on aluminum bond pad. It was found that proper process characterization to determine the optimum length of time needed for device expansion on heater block plus further improvement on the wire bonder and bonding parameters could help resolve this issue. The 3rd problem was higher wire stickiness due to higher sensitivity towards moisture from the environment. The main impact of wire stickiness issue was found to be higher machine stoppages due to inconsistent tail, hence resulted in off-center-ball defect. 2nd impact was higher capillary clogging which caused wire sagging and wire loop collapsing. Such wire stickiness problem could be overcome by using different wire quenching solution. In summary, 2N wire is able to improve thermal aging performance of ultra fine pitch wire bonding to meet reliability requirement as stringent as for automotive application. However, to improve mass production friendliness, careful characterization and process optimization need to be done on several areas, namely bonding surface condition, wire bonding process, as well as wire manufacturing process.

SummarySpontaneous bladder perforation secondary to tuberculosis (TB) is very rare. Only three cases have been reported so far in the literature. Due to its rarity, the diagnosis of spontaneous bladder perforation is often missed. Confirmation of TB via culture takes a long time and starting empirical treatment for TB is necessary. We relate our experience with a young woman who presented with clinical features of a perforated appendix and was only diagnosed with bladder perforation during laparotomy. She also had distal right ureteral stricture and left infundibular stenosis. The provisional diagnosis of TB was attained via typical histopathological features and a positive Mantoux test. She was started empirically on anti-TB treatment and recovered without any complications. Urine culture after 6 weeks confirmed the diagnosis of TB.

The paper is to present report regarding the pad dual profile issues encountered in the production line. The pad dual profile is observed for thick passivation layer at the wafer edge. The defect caused the pad open area to be distorted. The location is at the wafer edge. Engineering simulation was performed to simulate the pad dual profile and understand the root cause. There were many factors contributing to the pad dual profile. The most significant is the thermal factor. The other factors were photoresist thickness, processing time, radio frequency (r. f.) power, gas ratio, passivation layer thickness and the wafer cooling efficiency. The split run was performed by varying the backside helium flow and varying the photoresist thickness. It is perceived that the backside helium cooling is the main contributor to cause the pad dual profile. The backside helium flow split has the highest severity impact on the result. The processing chamber which has dual backside helium cooling is used to perform the simulation. The wafer map for the edge zone which is flowing with low flow matches the defect area location.

We review the policy arguments in favour of assisting SMEs in various areas of their operations. Our review suggests that many of the arguments put forward for subsidising SME activities (as distinct from some activities of firms regardless of size) are not economically justified. Nonetheless, it is widely acknowledged that SMEs suffer from disadvantage relative to large firms, principally in the areas of access to information and technology. We then study the possibilities offered by networks in helping SMEs deal with the disadvantages they experience. Our examination indicates that there are benefits that firms can derive from participating in networks. Further, because networks can assist firms overcome some of their inherent disadvantages, they can become less reliant on public assistance and more able to compete on an equal footing with larger firms once the initial impetus is provided for the formation of cooperative networks that can enable firms to compete more effectively.

This paper examines the output and productivity performance of the Transport and Communication sector in South Korea and Australia, from 1990 to 1999. The aim of the paper is two -fold. First, the paper is the first in a series which compares the performance of various industries within the service sector. Second, it introduces a method for derivation of appropriate currency converters or purchasing power parities (PPPs) to enable quantification of output and productivity at various disaggregated levels. This method is based on the industry -of-origin approach as refined by the International Co mparisons of Output and Productivity (ICOP) project based at the University of Groningen.

In this work, the influences of various environmental scenarios on the bottom interface and volume reverberation in shallow water were numerically analyzed. Based on similar modeling reverberation geometry defined in previous works, the numerical analyses were conducted for broadband pulse signals to generate complex reverberation structures in the timedomain. The reverberation model used is based on the well-documented Parabolic Equation (PE) approximation. The environmental scenarios are divided into three main categories. They include different sound speed profiles, different levels of bottom interface roughness and different bottom volume fluctuations. While one category is being analyzed, the other two are held constant. The various analyses include broadband two-way reverberation levels comparisons, vertical correlation analysis and power spectral analysis. http://archive.org/details/environmentalinf109455988 Major, Republic of Singapore Navy Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

The fundamental theorem of welfare economics asserts that under conditions of perfect competition Pareto efficiency will obtain. This has provided the conceptual basis for the market failure approach to regulation, which focuses on failure to satisfy the conditions for perfect competition as potentially justifying government intervention in markets. The approach is evaluated in the context of a number of key characteristics of the industries of the New Economy. Three areas of regulatory focus are examined: policy approaches relating to competition, intellectual property, and information privacy. It is apparent that the applicability of the market failure approach is open to question, particularly in regard to competition policy. The exploitation by dominant market players of what may be termed "natural" barriers to entry resulting from some of the characteristic features of the New Economy (scale and scope economies, network effects and consumer lock-in) should be judged in the light of Schumpeterian competition rather than that of neoclassical perfect competition. The difficulty facing regulatory authorities is how to differentiate between situations requiring intervention and those that do not. The discussion of intellectual property highlights the fact that, in general, government intervention is not necessarily the only or even the best solution to instances of market failure. Finally, the case of information privacy illustrates how the spillover effects of regulatory actions in one jurisdiction can impact on other jurisdictions and necessitate coordination in a globalised economy. The need for countries to cooperate and coordinate their policies is perhaps the key conclusion of the analysis.

The year 1977 saw a number of important developments in Singapore which mav be analysed within the framework of two dominant themes influencing much of Singapore life. The themes are the People's Action Party (PAP) Government's political ideology of survival and the concept of achievement. This essay discusses, first, the nature of these two dominant themes and demonstrates how these often contradictory themes have been fused within the Singapore context to produce a unique style of politics and economic life. Utilising this framework of analysis, discussion will then focus on developments in Singapore from three perspec tives?politics, the economy and foreign relations.

Many factors account for why families or households move from one residence to another in an urban area and it is an enormous and difficult task to attempt to isolate or rank the factors in ordered importance. This is because many of them do not operate singly but often in company with others. Nevertheless, studies in Western cities by Rossi (1955),' Maisel (1966),' and Simmons (1968),' for examples, have shown that one important group of variables that consistently affect intra- urban residential mobility is that associated with the family life cycle. In fact, Simmons (1968) concluded that over half of intra-urban mobility within a moderately growing city in the United States "results from the changing housing needs generated by the life cycle."

SINGAPORE' S ECONOMIC SUCCESS is well known but has not occurred without some short-term disadvantages. In August 1977 Singapore lodged a formal protest with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the treatment of its share in the IMF gold auctions, one of several steps taken by the Singapore government to protest the July 1977 IMF decision to classify Singapore as a developed country. Singapore's share of the gold sales, estimated at approximately US$3 million, would be put into a trust fund to provide confessional financing for developing countries. The Singapore government's protest was not so much against the action taken as against the method of arriving at the allocation. The IMF relies on two criteria to classify a member as developed or developing: Gross National Product (GNP) per capita or reserves as a percentage of imports. Singapore qualified as a developed country on the basis of the first criterion but not the second. There are also other implications associated with the government's protest to the IMF. If the developed countries of the West and Japan view Singapore as a "developed" country, concessions Singapore currently enjoys as a developing country under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) on exports would be closed off, and Singapore's ability to borrow from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank at confessional rates would be affected.' The government responded that the GNP per capita criterion could not be applied to Singapore, an island economy of over two million people, because the development of Singapore's economy relies heavily on foreign capital, technology, and workers, and a "large share of the compensation of employees and of the operating surplus as well as the consumption of fixed capital of establishments as recorded in national

1984 in Singapore promised to be an interesting and upbeat year from the political viewpoint. It was to be the year that the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) would celebrate two important anniversaries. They were the 30th anniversary of the founding of the PAP on 21 November 1954 and the 25th anniversary of the PAP accession to power on 30 May 1959. Moreover, in January 1984, plans were announced by the government to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Singapore's internal self-government. Also, the anticipation of a general election in the latter part of the year meant that PAP candidates would have to be announced during the course of the year, and the likelihood of a short but intense electoral campaign. The PAP also continued its self-renewal exercise in search of a new set of political leaders to eventually replace the older ?lite. However, within the context of these predictable events, the elusive and unpredictable nature of politics once again manifested itself with some unexpected events. These events caused the year to end in a sober and more reflective mood in Singapore and generated pressures for changes in both policies and style within the political realm.

The methanation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide was studied over Raney nickel. The catalyst was characterized by chemisorption techniques. A differential plug-fIow reactor was used to obtain kinetic data. The reaction rates were investigated as a function of temperature, reactants and products concentrations. The power rate law was found inadequate in representing the kinetic data of carbon dioxide methanation. The orders of reaction for hydrogen and carbon monoxide were obtained. Carbonaceous species were found on the catalyst surface after methanation reaction, which could react with hydrogen give methane. Multilayers of carbon species were deposited on the catalyst surface during CO methanation; less than a monolayer was found when carbon dioxide was used as feed. The effects of reaction conditions on the amount of residual carbon was also investigated. The data in general agrees with a mechanism involving the hydrogenation of carbonaceous species as the rate determining step. The differences between CO and CO₂ methanations were also discussed. The carbon chain growth process in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis was simulated using available data in the literature. The simulation was done by representing the hydrocarbon chains by numbers stored in vectors. Various chain growth schemes were tested. The results suggested that the carbon chain growth process could involve the stepwise additions of both one-carbon and two-carbon units. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)