Interdisciplinary research: roles for self-organization

No generally accepted principles and guidelines currently exist to help engineers design local interaction mechanisms that result in a desired global behavior. However, several communities have developed ways of approaching this problem in the context of niched application areas. Because the ideas underlying these approaches are often obscured or underemphasized in technical papers, the authors review the role of self-organization in their work. They provide a better picture of the status of the emerging field of self-organizing systems or autonomic computing.     

OTDM transmitter using WDM-TDM conversion with an electroabsorptionwavelength converter

An all-optical multiplexing technique using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)-time division multiplexing (TDM) conversion with an electroabsorption wavelength converter has been proposed and demonstrated. The effectiveness of this WDM-TDM conversion technique for various pulsewidth settings was experimentally investigated. The fluctuation of the signal performance, which was inevitably caused by the coherent crosstalk between adjacent pulses in the conventional optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) technique, were successfully suppressed, even in the case of wide pulse duration. High Q-factor performance has been maintained for a wide range of duty ration from 36% to 74%. By introducing this technique to the optical time division multiplexer, a highly stable and high-quality 40-Gb/s optical signal can be effectively produced without generating the short pulse or setting two tributaries at orthogonal polarization states, and without introducing high-speed electronics for signal multiplexing. The WDM-TDM conversion with an electroabsorption wavelength converter was extended to 60-Gb/s operation by using three 20-Gb/s tributaries. A clear eye opening was confirmed for a waveform after the WDM-TDM conversion of the 60-Gb/s signal     

A systematic techno-economic assessment of a WEC system installation for low-cost electrification of a habitable dwelling

This paper deals with the technical feasibility and economic viability of a grid connected wind-energy conversion system (WECS) used to cover the energy demand of an average habitable dwelling. The various parts of the wind-energy system are described and the useful electrical energy production is determined using a simulation program based on the Monte Carlo method. An economic analysis of the WEC system is performed using a computerized assessment tool. Important financial indices are calculated and financial scenarios investigated.     

Molecular correlations in sheared thermotropic copolyesters showing banded textures

Banded textures produced in a thermotropic liquid crystal polymer by shearing between glass slides are examined by using both transmission electron and polarized light microscopy. The periodic variation in director orientation about the shear axis, as measured by light microscopy, is shown to be distinctly different from that indicated by electron diffraction. Measurements of birefringence and observation of Zernicke phase contrast indicate periodic variations in optical properties of the polymer, in step with the bands. Such effects are accounted for in terms of a synchronous rotation of the planar aromatic groups about the molecular chain axes. Evidence for an out-of-plane component of molecular orientation is also presented.     

A concise process technology for 3-D suspended radio frequency micro-inductors on silicon substrate

In this letter, a concise process technology is proposed for the first time to enable the fabrication of good quality three-dimensional (3-D) suspended radio frequency (RF) micro-inductors on bulk silicon, without utilizing the lithography process on sidewall and trench-bottom patterning. Samples were fabricated to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed process technology.     

Security issues for downloaded code in mobile phones

'Software defined radio' (SDR) is a technology that will appear in future generations of mobile phones, i.e. following the third-generation mobile phone technology that is currently being defined and developed. Early versions of 'pragmatic' SDR will allow the terminal to be reconfigured at any level of its protocol stack. Ultimately, the 'pure' SDR technology will allow a mobile phone or terminal to have its air interface software configured or reconfigured by other software (or software parameters) that have been downloaded to the terminal, e.g. over the air, or from a remote server via the Internet and one's personal computer (PC). A number of security issues arise with downloaded code that implements the air interface functions, and these may not be obvious simply from looking at the way PC software is updated on-line today. This paper starts with an outline of the code that allows a mobile phone to operate over a particular air interface. This sets the baseline for a discussion of the security issues surrounding the change of this code from one that is fixed and downloaded once only, to code that is reconfigurable during the life of a product.