Effect of a Third Invariant on the Effective Reaction of Ductile Porous Bodies. Part 2. Loading Surface of Porous Bodies Whose Properties Are Sensitive to a Triaxial Stressed State

The lower and upper boundary approximation for describing the yield condition of porous bodies whose behavior is sensitive to a third strain rate invariant is obtained. Together with porosity the constitutive equations contain a material parameter that is responsible for the change in pore shape. This approach makes it possible to present the macroscopic yield condition in a compact form convenient for analysis and various applications. In particular, generalization of well-known plasticity conditions of Gurson and Green-Shima is presented. The lower estimate generalizes the Gurson model and the upper estimate corresponds to the Green-Shima model. Octahedral contours of the loading surface are constructed that agree with experimental data for loose materials and porous powder bodies.     

The Matroid of Supports of A Linear Code

 A relation between the Hamming weight enumerator of a linear code and the Tutte polynomial of the corresponding matroid has been known since long ago. It provides a simple proof of the MacWilliams equation (see D. Welsh, Matroid Theory (1976)). In this paper we prove analogous results for the support weight distributions of a code. Received March 5, 1996; revised version October 28, 1996     

Effects of the 65 mph speed limit on injury morbidity and mortality

Effective December 1987 and January 1988, the maximum speed limit on rural limited access highways in Michigan was raised from 55 mph to 65 mph. This study examined the effects of the raised limit on injury morbidity and mortality. A multiple time-series design was used, comparing roads where the speed limit was raised with roads where the limit remained unchanged. Data were collected on numbers and rates of automobile crashes, injuries, and deaths from January 1978 through December 1988. Time-series intervention analyses were conducted to estimate effects associated with the speed limit change while controlling for long-term trends, seasonal cycles, and other patterns. Statistical controls were also included for major factors known to influence crash and injury rates. Results revealed significant increases in casualties on roads where the speed limit was raised, including a 19.2% increase in fatalities, a 39.8% increase in serious injuries, and a 25.4% increase in moderate injuries. Fatalities also increased on 55 mph limited access freeways, suggesting that the 65 mph limit may have spillover effects on segments of freeways where the limit was not changed. No significant changes in fatalities or injuries were found on other types of roads. The increased convenience of reduced travel time with the higher speed limit is obtained at a significant cost in terms of injury morbidity and mortality.     

Strategy, structure, and performance issues of precompetitive R&D consortia: insights and lessons learned from SEMATECH

This paper examines the evolution of the role, structure, and orientation of SEMATECH in supporting the competitiveness of U.S. semiconductor industry between the late 1980s and the late 1990s. SEMATECH overcame its early challenges and succeeded by shifting its emphasis from horizontal (competitive) to vertical (precompetitive) collaboration, and then to a combined horizontal/vertical form (competitive). This evolutionary path in structure and strategy has broad implications for future relations between SEMATECH and the semiconductor industry as a whole, as well as industry R&D consortia in general. These implications are explored by detailing recent strategic developments at SEMATECH and their relationship to the market environment and structure in the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. This analysis is then extended to explore the implications for strategic research partnerships in other industries, which share particular salient characteristics with the semiconductor industry.     

Influence of the molecular weight of ionenes on the cobaltphthalocyanine-catalysed autoxidation of mercaptoethanol

In order to study the promoting effect of polycations on the cobalt(II)phthalocyanine-tetrasodiumsulphonate (CoPc(NaSO₃)₄)-catalysed autoxidation of thiols, it is imperative to know the molecular weight dependence of the polymer. Monodisperse oligomers can often supply a lot of information. To elecidate the mechanism of the promoting effect of 2,4-ionene, a poly(quaternary ammonium)salt, on the CoPc(NaSO₃)₄-catalysed autoxidation of 2-mercaptoethanol, a series of monodisperse 2,4-ionene oligomers were prepared. Trimeric 2,4-ionenes, containing two quaternary ammonium groups separated by four methylene groups, showed a high co-catalytic activity, and active Co-aggregates were detected with visible light spectroscopy. The spectroscopic behaviour was in close agreement with that of high molecular 2,4-ionene/CoPc(NaSO₃)₄ complexes. In order to achieve this aggregation several oligomeric ionenes have to act concertedly. If the distance between the ionic sites is short the trimer acts as a simple salt in stablizing the aggregates. With respect to the catalytic activity the optimum polycation/catalyst ratio, expressed as the N⁺/Co ratio, decreased with increasing chain lenght and reached a constant level of 50 at a 2,4-ionene nonamer. For the trimers and pentamers this ratio is affected by the type of end-group. All synthesized 2,4-ionene oligomers exhibited excellent co-catalytic properties at the optimum N⁺/Co ratio, with maximum turnover frequencies of 4600 mol thiol/(mol Co s), i.e. 50 times higher than those obtained for the polymer-free system. In the case of monodisperse 2,4-ionene pentamer with bromo end-groups, double Michaelis–Menten kinetics were observed, as also was exhibited by high molecular weight ionene.     

A Comparison of the Microwave Photoconductivity Decay and Open-Circuit Voltage Decay Lifetime Measurement Techniques for Lifetime-Enhanced 4H-SiC Epilayers

This work compares the optical microwave photoconductivity decay (μPCD) and electrical open-circuit voltage decay (OCVD) techniques for measuring the ambipolar carrier lifetime in 4H-silicon carbide (4H-SiC) epitaxial layers. Lifetime measurements were carried out by fabricating P⁺/intrinsic/N⁺ (PiN) diodes on 100-μm-thick, 1 × 10¹⁴ cm^?3 to 4.5 × 10¹⁴ cm^?3 doped N-type 4 H-SiC epilayers, and measuring the lifetime optically using μPCD prior to metallization, then electrically using OCVD after contact deposition. Both as-grown epilayers as well as epilayers with improved lifetime (via thermal oxidation) were measured using both techniques. The observed ambipolar lifetime was improved from 1.4 μs on an unenhanced wafer to 4 μs on a wafer enhanced through the oxidation process as measured by μPCD. Little difference was observed between the μPCD and OCVD measurements on the unenhanced wafer; the ambipolar lifetime on the enhanced wafer measured by OCVD was approximately 5.5 μs, or 1.5 μs higher than the μPCD measurement. Continuous evaluation of the OCVD transient waveform was necessary due to the high lifetime in the enhanced wafer; shunt resistances included to discharge the P⁺/N junction capacitance were found to damp the OCVD response and yield low values for the measured lifetime. Simulation of the μPCD measurement including various surface recombination conditions yielded a good match to experimentally observed μPCD measurements for high values of the surface recombination velocity. The OCVD lifetime measurement technique is expected to yield measured lifetime values closer to the physical value due to its independence from surface conditions, provided that the experimental conditions are appropriately chosen.     

A One-Time Stegosystem and Applications to Efficient Covert Communication

We present the first information-theoretic steganographic protocol with an asymptotically optimal ratio of key length to message length that operates on arbitrary covertext distributions with constant min-entropy. Our results are also applicable to the computational setting: our stegosystem can be composed over a pseudorandom generator to send longer messages in a computationally secure fashion. In this respect our scheme offers a significant improvement in terms of the number of pseudorandom bits generated by the two parties in comparison to previous results known in the computational setting. Central to our approach for improving the overhead for general distributions is the use of combinatorial constructions that have been found to be useful in other contexts for derandomization: almost t-wise independent function families.     

Security Models and Proof Strategies for Plaintext-Aware Encryption

Plaintext-aware encryption is a simple concept: a public-key encryption scheme is plaintext aware if no polynomial-time algorithm can create a ciphertext without “knowing” the underlying message. However, the formal definitions of plaintext awareness are complex. This paper analyses these formal security definitions and presents the only known viable strategy for proving a scheme is PA2 plaintext aware. At the heart of this strategy is a new notion called PA1+ plaintext awareness. This security notion conceptually sits between PA1 and PA2 plaintext awareness (although it is formally distinct from either of these notions). We show exactly how this new security notion relates to the existing notions and how it can be used to prove PA2 plaintext awareness.