Abstract
A new CMOS VLSI implementation of an asymmetric programmable sigmoid neural activation function, as well as of its derivative, is presented. It consists of two coupled PMOS and NMOS differential pairs with different programmable bias currents that set the upper and lower limits of the sigmoid. The circuit works in the weak inversion region, for low power consumption and exponential envelope, or in strong inversion to achieve higher speeds. The results obtained from the theoretical transfer function, and from the simulations of the circuit implemented in AMI's 0.35 mu m technology, show a very good match.

Abstract
Hazard analysis for safety-critical systems require sufficient coverage and rigour to instill confidence that the majority of hazardous consequences have been identified. These requirements are commonly met through the use of exhaustive hazard analysis techniques. However, such techniques are time consuming and error-prone. As an attempt at exhaustive coverage, hazard analysts typically employ reuse mechanisms such as copy-and-paste. Unfortunately, if reuse is applied inappropriately there is a risk that the reuse is at the cost of rigour in the analysis. This potential risk to the validity of the analysis is dependent on the nature and amount of reuse applied. This paper investigates hazard analysis reuse over two case studies. Initially reuse in an existing safety argument is described. Argument structures within the hazard analysis are identified and the amount of verbatim reuse examined. A second study is concerned with how reuse changes as a result of tool support. In contrast to the first case, the defined arguments are more diverse - reuse has occurred but is less verbatim in nature. Although tool support has aided the customisation of the reused arguments, many are only trivially customised. An edit distance algorithm is utilised to identify and enumerate verbatim and trivial reuse in the arguments.

Abstract
The ADACOR holonic architecture for manufacturing control addresses the agile reaction to unexpected disturbances at the shop floor level, by introducing supervisor entities in decentralised systems characterised by the self-organisation capabilities associated to each ADACOR holon. The result is an adaptive control architecture that balances dynamically between a more centralised structure and a more decentralised one, allowing the combination of global production optimisation with agile reaction to unexpected disturbances. The validation of the proposed architecture is required to verify the correctness and the applicability of its concepts. This paper describes the implementation of ADACOR concepts using multi-agent systems, especially through the use of the JADE agent development platform.

Abstract
Make-to-order companies, such as job shops, have been extensively studied. Some of those studies emphasise the importance of the workload control in order to improve manufacturing operations. In this paper a multiple decision-making scheme, with the purpose of planning and controlling operations and getting better delivery and workload related performance measures, as well as one order release decision rule are proposed. The decision-making scheme includes four main decisions: (i) accept or reject an in-coming order; (ii) define the order's due date; (iii) release the accepted jobs; and (iv) dispatch the jobs at the station level. Extensive simulation experiments were performed to compare the proposed rule with the benchmark mechanisms, as well as with rules presented in previous studies. They led to the conclusion that considering the four decisions simultaneously can improve the job shop measures of performance, and that the proposed release rule is the best in almost all instances.

Abstract
Typical chestnut thylakoid extracts isolated by mechanical disruption of leaf tissues had an equivalent of 0.28 g m(-3) chlorophyll (Chl) which is six times less than in thylakoids obtained from spinach, although Chl content in leaves was only half as small. According to optical microscopy, the vesicles showed a good integrity, exhibiting at 21 degrees C a high capacity of photon-induced potential membrane generation, which was demonstrated by the almost full 9-amino-6-chloro-2-methoxyacridine fluorescence quenching in a hyper-saline medium containing 150 mM KCl and having osmotic potential of -1.5 MPa. The half-time of the thylakoid potential generation was 11.7 s with the time of dissipation around 8.9 s. In such conditions, spinach thylakoids showed an increased swelling and also differences in the half-time generation which was almost four times faster than was observed in chestnut. However, when spinach thylakoids were incubated in a typical hypo-saline medium without KCl with osmotic potential -0.8 MPa, no additional swelling was observed. Consequently the half-time of potential dissipation was 35 s. Studies with nigericin suggested a chestnut thylakoid Delta pH significantly smaller than that observed in spinach, which was confirmed by the measurements of the ATP driven pumping activity.

Abstract
Given a hyperbolic invariant set of a diffeomorphism on a surface, it is proved that, if the holonomies are sufficiently smooth, then the diffeomorphism on the hyperbolic invariant set is rigid in the sense that it is C1+ conjugate to a hyperbolic affine model.