Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system for measuring surface flatness, deformation and/or coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of a specimen comprising an image capture and analysis processing calibration means for performing image capture and analysis processing calibration of said system, a measuring means for measuring surface flatness of a specimen in a specimen holder, a heating means for heating said sample holder with a predetermined profile, and a control means for providing the predetermined heating profile onto the surface of said specimen and controlling operations of said image capture and analysis processing calibration means, said measuring means, and said heating means.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system for measuring surface flatness, deformation and/or coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of a specimen comprising an image capture and analysis processing calibration means for performing image capture and analysis processing calibration of said system, a measuring means for measuring surface flatness of a specimen in a specimen holder, a heating means for heating said sample holder with a predetermined profile, and a control means for providing the predetermined heating profile onto the surface of said specimen and controlling operations of said image capture and analysis processing calibration means, said measuring means, and said heating means.

Abstract: A method of for construction a database to support calculation of capital market indexes. The method includes treatment of all securities in the financial markets and utilizes criteria for selecting subsets of types of securities and weighting the market value of said securities to provide said selected and weighted securities to market index calculations. Data from identified vendors is collected, standardized as to terminology, corrected for omissions and other errors, formatted in standard digital form and stored compactly in digital storage media. Several of the indexes require updates on a frequency as great as once every fifteen seconds as utilized in the preferred embodiment. Others of the indexes require data updated on a daily or less frequent basis. Historical data is included to provide a long baseline for index calculation.