University of Waterloo

About: University of Waterloo is a education organization based out in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 36093 authors who have published 93906 publications receiving 2948139 citations. The organization is also known as: UW & uwaterloo.

Carbon nanotube-based sensors.

Abstract: Sensors continue to make significant impact in everyday life. There has been a strong demand for producing highly selective, sensitive, responsive, and cost effective sensors. As a result, research emphasis is on developing new sensing materials and technologies. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have many distinct properties that may be exploited to develop next generation of sensors. This manuscript reviews the distinct physical, electronic, and mechanical properties of CNTs. The main thrust of this review is to highlight the present and future research and development work in the area of carbon nanotube sensors for real-world applications. The technical challenges associated with CNT-based sensors, which remain to be fully addressed, have also been outlined at the end of the manuscript. This review aims to act as a reference source for researchers to help them in developing new applications of CNT-based sensors.

Matrix Triangularization By Systolic Arrays

Abstract: Given an n x p matrix X with p < n, matrix triangularization, or triangularization in short, is to determine an n x n nonsingular matrix Al such that MX = [ R 0 where R is p x p upper triangular, and furthermore to compute the entries in R. By triangularization, many matrix problems are reduced to the simpler problem of solving triangular- linear systems (see for example, Stewart). When X is a square matrix, triangularization is the major step in almost all direct methods for solving general linear systems. When M is restricted to be an orthogonal matrix Q, triangularization is also the key step in computing least squares solutions by the QR decomposition, and in computing eigenvalues by the QR algorithm. Triangularization is computationally expensive, however. Algorithms for performing it typically require n3 operations on general n x n matrices. As a result, triangularization has become a bottleneck in some real-time applications.11 This paper sketches unified concepts of using systolic arrays to perform real-time triangularization for both general and band matrices. (Examples and general discussions of systolic architectures can be found in other papers.6.7) Under the same framework systolic triangularization arrays arc derived for the solution of linear systems with pivoting and for least squares computations. More detailed descriptions of the suggested systolic arrays will appear in the final version of the paper.© (1982) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Staged configuration through specialization and multilevel configuration of feature models

Abstract: Feature modeling is a key technique for capturing commonalities and variabilities in system families and product lines. In this article, we propose a cardinality-based notation for feature modeling, which integrates a number of existing extensions of previous approaches. We then introduce and motivate the novel concept of staged configuration. Staged configuration can be achieved by the stepwise specialization of feature models or by multilevel configuration, where the configuration choices available in each stage are defined by separate feature models. Staged configuration is important because, in a realistic development process, different groups and different people make product configuration choices in different stages. Finally, we also discuss how multilevel configuration avoids a breakdown between the different abstraction levels of individual features. This problem, sometimes referred to as 'analysis paralysis', easily occurs in feature modeling because features can denote entities at arbitrary levels of abstraction within a system family. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sustainability assessment: basic components of a practical approach

Abstract: The last few years have brought many experiments with forms of sustainability assessment, applied at the strategic and project levels by governments, private-sector firms, civil society organizatio...