Finite element analysis of the ring rolling process with integrated closed-loop control

In FEA of ring rolling processes the tools’ motions usually are defined prior to simulation. This procedure neglects the closed-loop control, which is used in industrial processes to control up to eight degrees of freedom (rotations, feed rates, guide rolls) in real time, taking into account the machine's performance limits as well as the process evolution. In order to close this gap in the new simulation approach all motions of the tools are controlled according to sensor values which are calculated within the FE simulation. This procedure leads to more realistic simulation results in comparison to the machine behaviour.     

Player Simulation and General Adversary Structures in Perfect Multiparty Computation

The goal of secure multiparty computation is to transform a given protocol involving a trusted party into a protocol without need for the trusted party, by simulating the party among the players. Indeed, by the same means, one can simulate an arbitrary player in any given protocol. We formally define what it means to simulate a player by a multiparty protocol among a set of (new) players, and we derive the resilience of the new protocol as a function of the resiliences of the original protocol and the protocol used for the simulation. In contrast to all previous protocols that specify the tolerable adversaries by the number of corruptible players (a threshold), we consider general adversaries characterized by an adversary structure, a set of subsets of the player set, where the adversary may corrupt the players of one set in the structure. Recursively applying the simulation technique to standard threshold multiparty protocols results in protocols secure against general adversaries. The classical results in unconditional multiparty computation among a set of n players state that, in the passive model, any adversary that corrupts less than n/2 players can be tolerated, and in the active model, any adversary that corrupts less than n/3 players can be tolerated. Strictly generalizing these results we prove that, in the passive model, every function (more generally, every cooperation specified by involving a trusted party) can be computed securely with respect to a given adversary structure if and only if no two sets in the adversary structure cover the full set of players, and, in the active model, if and only if no three sets cover the full set of players. The complexities of the protocols are polynomial in the number of maximal adverse player sets in the adversary structure. Received 31 December 1997 and revised 26 February 1999     

Use of Modern High Strength Steels in Load Adapted Hydroformed B‐Pillars

The increase of legal and insurance demands on B‐pillars calls for high strength steels and new process chains. Therefore, the hydroforming of high strength close‐to‐contour tailored tubes to load adapted B‐pillars was investigated. Modern high strength steels were identified for the use in B‐pillars. Their forming and crash behaviour was predicted with the aid of validated numerical models. The accuracy of the numerical models was increased significantly by taking the forming history into account. The design of the hydroformed B‐pillar considered a product concept catalogue (i.e. package, functional areas, crash performance) close to a reference B‐pillar. As a reference the deep drawn B‐pillar of the Mercedes‐Benz W203 was chosen. Using high strength materials in the close‐to‐contour tailored tubes led to a significant reduction of the number of parts and the weight of the B‐pillar compared to the reference.     

Improving the thickness accuracy of cold rolled narrow strip by piezoelectric roll gap control at high rolling speed

Particularly in fast rolling mills, conventional actuators reach their dynamic limits, when longitudinal thickness variations of the incoming strip shall be reduced with high accuracy by model-predictive roll gap control. Accordingly, the applicability of highly dynamic piezoelectric actuators in combination with electromechanical spindles and a high frequency precision measurement of the thickness in front of the roll gap was examined. Rolling tests in a cold rolling mill for narrow slit strips show that this novel concept is suitable to provide the required dynamic actuation especially at high rolling speed.     

Control of low fe content in the preparation of semi-insulating InP by wafer annealing

A reproducible technique for preparing semi-insulating (SI) InP by high temperature annealing can only be achieved by controlled doping with Fe in a sufficient concentration for compensation. However, a successful and reproducible method to adjust the low Fe content has not been developed up to now. In this paper, we report two different experimental approaches to control the Fe content by using either precompensated starting material or an Fe source for doping via the vapor phase. InP wafers (2′ diam) which were lightly predoped with Fe ([Fe] < 5 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻³) during liquid encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) growth were converted from the semiconducting to the SI state and were subsequently analyzed by laterally resolved resistivity measurements. These wafers show high resistivity uniformity (p ≈1 × 10⁸ Ω-cm) which has never previously been achieved with LEC material at such a low Fe concentration. Furthermore, we present the first results of annealing nominally undoped InP with a defined Fe source.     

Ultra-wideband radio technology: potential and challenges ahead

An unprecedented transformation in the design, deployment, and application of short-range wireless devices and services is in progress today. This trend is in line with the imminent transition from third- to fourth-generation radio systems, where heterogeneous environments are expected to prevail eventually. A key driver in this transition is the steep growth in both demand and deployment of WLANs/WPANs based on the wireless standards within the IEEE 802 suite. Today, these short-range devices and networks operate mainly standalone in indoor home and office environments or large enclosed public areas, while their integration into the wireless wide-area infrastructure is still nearly nonexistent and far from trivial. This status quo in the short-range wireless application space is about to be disrupted by novel devices and systems based on the emerging UWB radio technology with the potential to provide solutions for many of today's problems in the areas of spectrum management and radio system engineering. The approach employed by UWB radio devices is based on sharing already occupied spectrum resources by means of the overlay principle, rather than looking for still available but possibly unsuitable new bands. This novel radio technology has received legal adoption by the regulatory authorities in the United States, and efforts to achieve this status in Europe and Asia are underway. This article discusses both the application potential and technical challenges presented by UWB radio as an unconventional but promising new wireless technology.     

Self-statement modification in the treatment of child behavior disorders: A meta-analysis.

Reviews 48 outcome studies that applied self-statement modification (SSM) to childhood behavior disorders. Selection criteria restricted the review to controlled experimental studies and to children with disorders of clinically relevant severity. Meta-analysis was used to provide summary information about the observed effects of SSM. Collectively, SSM outcomes surpassed no treatment and placebo treatment by roughly a half of a standard deviation, on the average. Efficacy varied considerably with length of follow-up, experience level of therapists, age of children, outcome content area, and a number of other clinical and methodological differences among the studies. These qualifiers of observed efficacy are summarized and discussed in terms of implications for further research and application of SSM in child psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Probability and category redefinition in the fault tree paradigm.

Fault trees have been advocated as aids for problem solvers. However, research has suggested limitations in their usefulness. Fischhoff, Slovic, and Lichtenstein (1978) found that subjects given incomplete (pruned) trees were insensitive to omissions; these authors hypothesized that Tversky and Kahneman's (1974) availability heuristic was the mediating factor. Using a within-subjects design, subjects in Experiment 1 received both full and pruned trees and estimated probabilities and various reasons why a car would fail to start. To increase the availability of omissions, some Experiment 1 subjects first generated possible causes of starting failure. The basic Fischhoff et al. findings were replicated, but several aspects of the results argued against the availability hypothesis as the mechanism for judgment. Instead, subjects appeared to idiosyncratically redefine category membership when making judgments based upon pruned trees. By employing a sorting task in Experiment 2 we corroborated the results of Experiment 1: Subjects do redefine the actual contents of the categories when faced with an omission from the fault tree. The implications of these results for the use of fault trees as a problem solving aid are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)