Open-ended microwave oven for flip-chip assembly

A novel open-ended waveguide cavity resonator for the microwave curing of bumps, underfills and encapsulants is described. The open oven has the potential to provide fast alignment of devices during flip-chip assembly, direct chip attach, surface mount assembly or wafer-scale level packaging. The prototype microwave oven was designed to operate at X-band for ease of testing, although a higher frequency version is planned. The device described in the paper takes the form of a waveguide cavity resonator. It is approximately square in cross-section and is filled with a low-loss dielectric with a relative permittivity of 6. It is excited by end-fed probes in order to couple power preferentially into the TM3,3,k mode with the object of forming nine 'hot-spots' in the open end. Low power tests using heat sensitive film demonstrate clearly that selective heating in multiple locations in the open end of the oven is achievable.

The Open Method of Coordination on Health Care After the Lisbon Strategy II: Towards a Neoliberal Framing?

This paper undertakes a content analysis of the discourse on the Open Method of Coordination on Health Care (OMC/HC) in order to show how equity and solidarity are increasingly linked to optimisation and, as such, how neoliberalism increasingly frames health care. Some of the side-effects of this reframing for politics are highlighted: legitimating and extending EU governance, reducing the space for oppositional formations and limited citizenship. The analysis begins by interrogating the broader context of the Lisbon Strategy II, after which the techniques of the OMC/HC and its substantive outputs are analysed.

The main-sequence rotation-colour relation in the Coma Berenices open cluster

We present the results of a photometric survey of rotation rates in the Coma Berenices (Melotte 111) open cluster, using data obtained as part of the SuperWASP exoplanetary transit-search programme. The goal of the Coma survey was to measure precise rotation periods for main-sequence F, G and K dwarfs in this intermediate-age (~600 Myr) cluster, and to determine the extent to which magnetic braking has caused the stellar spin periods to converge. We find a tight, almost linear relationship between rotation period and J - K colour with an rms scatter of only 2 per cent. The relation is similar to that seen among F, G and K stars in the Hyades. Such strong convergence can only be explained if angular momentum is not at present being transferred from a reservoir in the deep stellar interiors to the surface layers. We conclude that the coupling time-scale for angular momentum transport from a rapidly spinning radiative core to the outer convective zone must be substantially shorter than the cluster age, and that from the age of Coma onwards stars rotate effectively as solid bodies. The existence of a tight relationship between stellar mass and rotation period at a given age supports the use of stellar rotation period as an age indicator in F, G and K stars of Hyades age and older. We demonstrate that individual stellar ages can be determined within the Coma population with an internal precision of the order of 9 per cent (rms), using a standard magnetic braking law in which rotation period increases with the square root of stellar age. We find that a slight modification to the magnetic-braking power law, P ~ t0.56, yields rotational and asteroseismological ages in good agreement for the Sun and other stars of solar age for which p-mode studies and photometric rotation periods have been published.

The circle in the relationship between space and body. Photo-essay based on Isidro Blasco and the BAPNE method

This article demonstrates a visual study on the educational space in which the teaching of body percussion is carried out in universities. The methodological framework is chosen by the Visual Arts Based Educational Research, using the work of an artist as a conceptual and methodological model. The research remains notable (1) due to the theoretical reference to the BAPNE method, (2) due to the visual reference to the work of Isidro Blasco – especially with the piece “Shanghai Planet 2009” - ;(3) due to the parallelisms established between the object of study in this investigation -the spatial analysis- and the focuses of interest revealed by the art critics in relation to the work of this artist. By means of a visual speech formed with 7 photo-collages the relationship between body and educational space is visualized in the basic disposition of circular learning. The visual constructions by way of photo-collage and their aesthetic charge brings us closer to the intimacy of the educational space, in the style in which it is distributed to the students in the music classroom, the materialization of interpersonal relationships, the occupied and empty volumes.

The use of ICT in the course “Photography” in university education. First results of a teaching innovation project at the University of Murcia

The new pedagogical framework arisen since the Bologna Declaration,the Prague Communiquéand the introduction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), encourages, significantly, the use of new Communication and Information Technology to evolve teaching methodologies. The different ways teachers relate to learners have undergone a staggering change from which educational initiatives have emerged. Many of them are based on contents’ democratization through the use of ICT. The current article is intended to show the results obtained until the 2012/2013 academic course, since the implementation of the teaching innovation project entitled “The use of ICT for the students’ autonomous learning in the university education of the course Photography. Elaboration of a virtual classroom and results’ analysis related to the acquisition of skills and competencies” that has been developed in the course called Draw with light: Photography, belonging to the Fine Arts Degree at the University of Murcia.

Preliminary Results of a Prospective Randomized Trial of Restrictive Versus Standard Fluid Regime in Elective Open Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

Background: Open abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair is associated with a significant morbidity (primarily respiratory and cardiac complications) and an overall mortality rate of 4% to 10%. We tested the hypothesis that perioperative fluid restriction would reduce complications and improve outcome after elective open AAA repair.

Prising open the black box: Critical realism, action research and social work

There is a growing interest in critical realism and its application to social work. This article makes a case for adopting this philosophical position in qualitative social work research. More specifically, it suggests that there is a concordance between critical realist premises and action research with its cyclical inquiry and advancement of social change. This combination of philosophy and method, it is argued, promotes anti-oppressive social work research and illuminates the processes shaping outcomes in programme evaluations. Overall, the article underscores the importance of 'depth' in qualitative inquiry by conceiving the social world in terms of five interlacing, social domains.