Robust super-hydrophobic ceramic coating on alumina with water and dirt repelling properties

Artificial super-hydrophobic surfaces are required for various applications. The super-hydrophobic surfaces are usually made by applying a low surface-energy organic coating on a highly textured substrate. A major problem with the as-created surfaces is their poor durability. This problem is even severer for the surfaces created by applying the organic coating on inorganic substrates. The present study reports for the first time the all-inorganic super-hydrophobic surface created by modifying the inorganic substrates with polymer-derived inorganic coating. A polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film was applied to an alumina substrate having flower-like hierarchal micro-nano surface texture, and then subjected to pyrolysis at 400°C in a nonoxidizing atmosphere. As a result, a Si_xC_yO_z ceramic coating with low-surface energy methyl groups was formed on the alumina substrate. The as-modified alumina exhibited super-hydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 170° and a sliding angle of 5°. The super-hydrophobicity was well retained after abrasion with sandpaper and exposure to boiling water and acidic solution. The super-hydrophobic alumina demonstrated desired water repelling and self-cleaning function. The method explored in this study could also be used for super-hydrophobic surface modification of other inorganic materials such as glass and metals.     

Unconditionally Secure Oblivious Polynomial Evaluation: A Survey and New Results

Oblivious polynomial evaluation (OPE) is a two-party protocol that allows a receiver, R to learn an evaluation f(α), of a sender, S's polynomial f(x), whilst keeping both α and f(x) private. This protocol has attracted a lot of attention recently, as it has wide ranging applications in the field of cryptography. In this article we review some of these applications and, additionally, take an in-depth look at the special case of information theoretic OPE. Specifically, we provide a current and critical review of the existing information theoretic OPE protocols in the literature. We divide these protocols into two distinct cases (three-party and distributed OPE) allowing for the easy distinction and classification of future information theoretic OPE protocols. In addition to this work, we also develop several modifications and extensions to existing schemes, resulting in increased security, flexibility and efficiency. Lastly, we also identify a security flaw in a previously published OPE scheme.     

The use of pervasive sensing for behaviour profiling — a survey

With the maturity of sensing and pervasive computing techniques, extensive research is being carried out in using different sensing techniques for understanding human behaviour. An introduction to key modalities of pervasive sensing is presented. Behaviour modelling is then highlighted with a focus on probabilistic models. The survey discusses discriminative approaches as well as relevant work on behaviour pattern clustering and variability. The influence of interacting with people and objects in the environment is also discussed. Finally, challenges and new research opportunities are highlighted.     

The rescheduling arc routing problem

In this paper, the rescheduling arc routing problem is introduced. This is a dynamic routing and scheduling problem that considers adjustments to an initial routing itinerary when one or more vehicle failures occur during the execution stage and the original plan must be modified. We minimize the operational and schedule disruption costs. Formulations based on mixed‐integer programming are presented to compare different policies in the rerouting phase. A solution strategy is developed when both costs are evaluated and it is necessary to find a solution quickly. Computational tests on a large set of instances compare the different decision‐maker policies.     

Scalable digital hardware for a trapped ion quantum computer

Quantum Information Processing - Many of the challenges of scaling quantum computer hardware lie at the interface between the qubits and the classical control signals used to manipulate them....     

Validation of GOES and MODIS active fire detection products using ASTER and ETM+ data

In this study we implemented a comprehensive analysis to validate the MODIS and GOES satellite active fire detection products (MOD14 and WFABBA, respectively) and characterize their major sources of omission and commission errors which have important implications for a large community of fire data users. Our analyses were primarily based on the use of 30 m resolution ASTER and ETM+ imagery as our validation data. We found that at the 50% true positive detection probability mark, WFABBA requires four times more active fire area than is necessary for MOD14 to achieve the same probability of detection, despite the 16× factor separating the nominal spatial resolutions of the two products. Approximately 75% and 95% of all fires sampled were omitted by the MOD14 and WFABBA instantaneous products, respectively; whereas an omission error of 38% was obtained for WFABBA when considering the 30-minute interval of the GOES data. Commission errors for MOD14 and WFABBA were found to be similar and highly dependent on the vegetation conditions of the areas imaged, with the larger commission errors (approximately 35%) estimated over regions of active deforestation. Nonetheless, the vast majority (> 80%) of the commission errors were indeed associated with recent burning activity where scars could be visually confirmed in the higher resolution data. Differences in thermal dynamics of vegetated and non-vegetated areas were found to produce a reduction of approximately 50% in the commission errors estimated towards the hours of maximum fire activity (i.e., early-afternoon hours) which coincided with the MODIS/Aqua overpass. Lastly, we demonstrate the potential use of temporal metrics applied to the mid-infrared bands of MODIS and GOES data to reduce the commission errors found with the validation analyses.     

Designing and equipping a usability laboratory

The goal of usability lab design is to create a space where high quality data capture occurs in an environment that looks and feels like the workplace of the product that is being tested. The lab must be part recording studio and part flexible work environment. Since most work environments are not recording studios, achieving a balance between simulation of the work environment and high quality data capture presents a challenge to usability lab designers. Steps can be taken with a user-centred design process to insure that a usability lab design meets this goal. This paper describes such a user-centred design process and how it. in combination with practical architectural and equipment guidelines derived from the authors' past experience, can be used in the design and redesign of future labs. The authors also discuss what changed in the present lab at NCR as a result of these guidelines.     

Yang–Baxterizations,Universal Quantum Gates and Hamiltonians

The unitary braiding operators describing topological entanglements can be viewed as universal quantum gates for quantum computation. With the help of the Brylinski’s theorem, the unitary solutions of the quantum Yang–Baxter equation can be also related to universal quantum gates. This paper derives the unitary solutions of the quantum Yang–Baxter equation via Yang–Baxterization from the solutions of the braid relation. We study Yang–Baxterizations of the non-standard and standard representations of the six-vertex model and the complete solutions of the non-vanishing eight-vertex model. We construct Hamiltonians responsible for the time-evolution of the unitary braiding operators which lead to the Schrödinger equations.     

A new,flexible and widely applicable software package for the simulation of one-dimensional moisture flow: SoWaM

Most one-dimensional soil moisture flow simulation models have restricted applicability due to (amongst other things): i) insufficient user flexibility; ii) a lack of user friendliness; iii) dependency on scale, temporal and/or spatial, and iv) fixed boundary conditions. Therefore, we developed a simple and highly flexible software package to simulate, visualize and analyze 1-D moisture flow in soils: SoWaM (Soil Water Model). The package has a modular setup and consists of a range of tools to visualize, analyze and compare input data and results. Soil hydraulic properties for each specified soil layer can be defined by either Van Genuchten parameters or cubical splines. Since the model does not impose limits on element size or time interval, it is possible to perform simulations in very high detail, both spatially and temporally. Furthermore, four different criteria for irrigation scheduling have been implemented. The SoWaM package provides an accurate, simple and highly flexible tool to simulate soil moisture flow and to evaluate the effects of various factors on soil water movement, such as timing and amount of irrigation, soil hydraulic properties and soil layering. Results of a case study are presented to illustrate model performance.