Entities,identities, identifiers and credentials — what does it all mean?

This paper looks at the concepts of entities, identities, identifiers and credentials, their definitions, and how they combine to authenticate an identity to an account, or function, within a service. Credentials can be divided into several different types on the basis of their use, origin and characteristics. In particular, types such as composite, dynamic and derived credentials will be considered, and their applicability within an identity management system. Each credential must be managed through its entire life cycle from initial registration, general use and suspension, to deletion. The notion of public (i.e. freely distributable) and private (i.e. known only to you) aspects of a credential is explored. The bindings, by trusted third parties, of identifiers and public credentials into permits and instruments of proof is explained along with the convenience, but greater exposure, of local information. Several scenarios are analysed in terms of how different types of credentials are employed during the authentication process.     

Arc root mobility on piezoelectrically actuated contacts in miniature circuit breakers

A novel contact opening mechanism has been developed using a piezoelectric actuator to open the contacts in a low contact opening velocity circuit breaker. The arc control on the contacts is critical for successful current interruption (10/sup 3/-10/sup 4/ A) in low voltage (<250V) devices. Previous work has shown how arc root commutation from the contact region into the arc chamber is affected by arc chamber materials, contact materials and the gap behind the moving contact for contact velocities between 1ms/sup -1/ and 10ms/sup -1/. This work is extended using a commercially available piezoelectric actuator to open the contacts. Contact opening speeds are assessed and the arc root mobility is characterized under this operating regime. A flexible test apparatus and solid-state high-speed arc imaging system are used to gather data on the arc root during the opening of the contacts. New experimental results are presented on the anode and cathode root velocity and arc root motion in an arc chamber with piezoelectrically actuated contact opening. These results can be used to improve the design of high current low voltage circuit breakers suitable for piezoelectric actuation.     

Human interface: a case study

Complex instruments, even those used only by "gurus" still need reasonable human interfaces. There are elements that need to be considered in any interface: consistency, intuitiveness, obviousness, utility, and ease of use. Even "gurus" shouldn't have to learn the ins and outs of strange operations; most of them probably don't want to learn it, either. Their focus is to use the instrument, not to become an expert on it. This article discusses a case study on human interfaces in instruments.     

An integrated system to remote monitor and control anaerobic wastewater treatment plants through the internet.

The TELEMAC project brings new methodologies from the Information and Science Technologies field to the world of water treatment. TELEMAC offers an advanced remote management system which adapts to most of the anaerobic wastewater treatment plants that do not benefit from a local expert in wastewater treatment. The TELEMAC system takes advantage of new sensors to better monitor the process dynamics and to run automatic controllers that stabilise the treatment plant, meet the depollution requirements and provide a biogas quality suitable for cogeneration. If the automatic system detects a failure which cannot be solved automatically or locally by a technician, then an expert from the TELEMAC Control Centre is contacted via the internet and manages the problem.     

An on-chip active decoupling circuit to suppress crosstalk in deep-submicron CMOS mixed-signal SoCs

A decoupling circuit using an operational amplifier is proposed to suppress substrate crosstalk in mixed-signal system-on-chip (SoC) devices. It overcomes the parasitic inductance problem of on-chip capacitor decoupling. The effect of the proposed decoupling circuit is not limited by parasitic fine impedance. A 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS test chip showed that substrate noise at frequencies from 40 MHz to 1 GHz was incrementally suppressed by sequentially activating three of the proposed circuits in parallel. The power dissipation of each circuit was 3.3 mW at a 1.0-V power supply. The test chip measurement showed that the proposed decoupling reduced crosstalk by 31% at 200 MHz, whereas it was reduced by 4.4% with capacitor decoupling. This 7:1 ratio, or 17 dB, corresponds to the gain of the opamp. Design of the opamp and its feedback loop for active decoupling is simple, making the opamp useful for SoC applications.     

Effect of ionic content,solid content,degree of neutralization,and chain extension on aqueous polyurethane dispersions prepared by prepolymer method

There are many variables in the preparation of aqueous polyurethane (PU) dispersions. Carboxylic acid content, solid content, degree of pre/postneutralization of the carboxylic acids, and chain extension all impact dispersion particle size, viscosity, pH, molecular weights, and glass transition temperature. This study evaluated the impact of these variables on a given PU dispersion formulation prepared from isophorone diisocyanate, an aliphatic polyester polyol, dimethylol propionic acid, and hexamethylene diamine with triethyl amine as the neutralizing base and N‐methyl pyrrolidone as the cosolvent. Changes in carboxylic acid content, degree of preneutralization, and chain extension were found to have the expected impacts on dispersions properties. Increased ionic content in the dispersion step led to lower particle size and higher viscosity, increased chain extension with its concurrent increase in molecular improved subsequent film properties. Surprising results were obtained by varying the amount of postneutralization and from increased solids content at the time of dispersion. Unexpectedly, both of these variations led to much higher dispersion viscosities and particle size in solution. To have these changes take place, it is theorized that there is a major change in solution morphology caused by these modifications. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 2514–2520, 2005     

Sphere packing with a geometric based compression algorithm

An efficient algorithm for the random packing of spheres can significantly save the cost of the preparation of an initial configuration often required in discrete element simulations. It is not trivial to generate such random packing at a large scale, particularly when spheres of various sizes and geometric domains of different shapes are present. Motivated by the idea of compression complemented by an efficient physical process to increase packing density, shaking, a new approach, termed compression algorithm, is proposed in this work to randomly fill any arbitrary polyhedral or cylindrical domains with spheres of various sizes. The algorithm features both simplicity and high efficiency. Tests show that it takes 181 s on a 1.4-GHz PC to complete the filling of a cylindrical domain with a total number of 26,787 spheres, achieving a packing density of 52.89%.     

Travelling salesman problem tools for microcomputers

The problem of determining minimum total distance to be travelled by a salesman, who is to visit given cities each only once (i.e. the travelling salesman problem) is one of the most studied problems in computational mathematics. Finding an exact solution is not only intractably difficult, but also exceedingly costly. However, we implemented efficient optimal algorithms for both symmetric and asymmetric distance problems. The programs implemented can solve problems up to 180 cities in reasonable computer time.     

Solution of Helmholtz equation by Trefftz method

The application of the Trefftz method for calculating wave forces on offshore structures is presented. Indirect and direct formulations using complete and non-singular systems of Trefftz functions for the Helmholtz equation are posed in this paper. An effective technique using different interpolation functions for the velocity potential and wave force are suggested to improve the computational accuracy of the wave force. The numerical examples show that the present method is highly efficient and accurate.     

Microcomputer Control of a Residential Photovoltaic Power Conditioning System

Microcomputer-based control of a residential photovoltaic power conditioning system is described. The microcomputer is responsible for array current feedback control, maximum power tracking control, array safe zone steering control, phase-locked reference wave synthesis, sequencing control, and some diagnostics. The control functions are implemented using Intel 8751 single-chip microcomputer-based hardware and software. The controller has been tested in the laboratory with the prototype power conditioner and shows excellent performance.