High-Performance Multilayer Capacitor Dielectrics from Chemically Prepared Powders

Advantages of chemically prepared powders for electronic ceramics have been demonstrated for a number of multilayer capacitor (MLC) dielectrics. A cost-efficient precipitation process was developed to produce undoped or doped crystalline barium titanate powder with a narrow particle size distribution close to 0.5 μm. More complex compositions, e.g., barium-neodymium titanate, were amorphous as precipitated but could be crystallized by calcination below 1000°C. Additional compositional modifications, to adjust electrical properties or to lower sintering temperature, were accomplished by doping the surface of the powder particles using a solution coating process. Exceptional fired densities and electrical performance were obtained.     

Analysis of grain boundary movement analogous to dislocation movement – both with a matrix having precipitates

In the present investigation it has been shown exemplarily for an austenite microstructure containing carbonitrides that the specific restraining force of a grain boundary due to the distribution of precipitates can be described by a modified Orowan's law, so that the grain boundary movement is considered to be analogous to the dislocation movement. This is achieved by using a modified restraining force F_r (corresponding to the cubic geometry of the particles), a detailed thermodynamic analysis of the precipitates (in this case, carbonitrides) and selected relation for the interparticle spacing L_a. The specific restraining force and the interparticle spacing depend on temperature within the austenite range. Each temperature is attached to a couple (F_r/L_a). The plot F_r against shows straight lines for each steel and from their average slope, a shear module G' of grain boundaries, which is about 64300 N·cm^?2, is obtained. Hence, it is possible to describe the specific restraining force of a grain boundary with the help of Orowan's law or as it is conventionally done by using Zener's modell. At a critical temperature T*, which is different for each steel, the specific restraining force is equal to the driving force of the grain boundary. The corresponding values of L_a are also different for each steel and the steel which is the most resistant to grain coarsening is allowed to have the greatest value of L_a which still retains the capacity of impeding grain coarsening.     

Trends beim Einsatz von Realzeitrechnern für Forschung und Entwicklung in der Technischen Chemie

Trends in the use of real-time computers for research and development in industrial chemistry. Computers are integral parts of the complex equipment of chemical production plants. They are tools for computer aided process control. In production plants as well as in research and development laboratories, dedicated computer systems are used more and more. E. g., nearly all measuring devices will be controlled by their own microprocessors in the near future. In chemical engineering, however, the most significant developments are taking place in the software domain. The main trend in applications-software developments is the enhanced importance of the support of the plant operators by means of improved user interfaces. Within the research and development field, the software must be more flexibly adaptable to changes in the process equipment and due to changing control algorithms than in production plants. Moreover, efforts are being made to improve control by exploiting as much as possible a priori knowledge on the system in question. A current development in this direction, which will become stronger with time, is known under the heading ?expert systems”?, in which heuristic know-how of operators is made available and usable in process computers to improve control.     

Tailoring of Surfaces with Ultrathin Layers for Controlled Binding of Biopolymers and Adhesion and Guidance of Cells

Various strategies are described for the bio-functionalization of solid substrates by design of interfacial architectures. The first approach is based on the self-assembly process of long-chain thiol molecules from solution to a (noble) metal surface. If some of these building blocks carry a binding site (ligand) for proteins (receptors, antibodies, etc.) the metal surface can be tailored for maximum specific binding while simultaneously minimizing nonspecific adsorption. The second concept is based on polymers that are covalently attached to (oxide) surfaces. The preparation of these (end-) grafted functional polymers involves either the binding of preformed macromolecules to corresponding sites at the surface of the support or the recently introduced “grafting-from” method, by which an initiator molecule is first covalently bound to the surface and then activated — either by heat or light — in the presence of suitable monomer units such that a polymer chain grows from the solid/solution interface. Finally, the functionalization of patterned surfaces by peptide chains that mimic the binding domains of cell adhesion proteins is summarized. It is demonstrated that not only the selective adhesion of neuronal cells can then be controlled, but also their development with the outgrowth of dendrites and axons.     

Toward a secure Kerberos key exchange with smart cards

Public key Kerberos (PKINIT) is a standard authentication and key establishment protocol. Unfortunately, it suffers from a security flaw when combined with smart cards. In particular, temporary access to a user’s card enables an adversary to impersonate that user for an indefinite period of time, even after the adversary’s access to the card is revoked. In this paper, we extend Shoup’s key exchange security model to the smart card setting and examine PKINIT in this model. Using this formalization, we show that PKINIT is indeed flawed, propose a fix, and provide a proof that this fix leads to a secure protocol.     

Automatisches Sicherheitstesten

Moderne Testgeneratoren finden Schwachstellen in Eingabeschnittstellen von Programmen, indem sie in Sekunden tausende Eingaben zufällig erzeugen. Die Werkzeuge lassen sich leicht von jedermann einsetzen–zum Angriff oder zur Verteidigung.     

Seasonal factors influencing the failure of buried water reticulation pipes

While the use of environmental factors in the analysis and prediction of failures of buried reticulation pipes in cold environments has been the focus of extensive work, the same cannot be said for failures occurring on pipes in other (non-freezing) environments. A novel analysis of pipe failures in such an environment is the subject of this paper. An exploratory statistical analysis was undertaken, identifying a peak in failure rates during mid to late summer. This peak was found to correspond to a peak in the rate of circumferential failures, whilst the rate of longitudinal failures remained constant. Investigation into the effect of climate on failure rates revealed that the peak in failure rates occurs due to differential soil movement as the result of shrinkage in expansive soils.     

Facets of the Fully Mixed Nash Equilibrium Conjecture

In this work, we continue the study of the many facets of the Fully Mixed Nash Equilibrium Conjecture, henceforth abbreviated as the FMNE\mathsf{FMNE} Conjecture, in selfish routing for the special case of n identical users over two (identical) parallel links. We introduce a new measure of Social Cost, defined as the expectation of the square of the maximum congestion on a link; we call it Quadratic Maximum Social Cost. A Nash equilibrium is a stable state where no user can improve her (expected) latency by switching her mixed strategy; a worst-case Nash equilibrium is one that maximizes Quadratic Maximum Social Cost. In the fully mixed Nash equilibrium, all mixed strategies achieve full support.