A warning to industry - fix it or lose it

As part of its security analysis and the Industry Trends series, Morgan Stanley has identified the endpoint as critical for winning the security war rather than just fighting hapless battles. For the Internet to be a truly reliable and trusted commerce mechanism, protecting a transaction's source is imperative. Other than protecting the data itself, endpoint integrity is at this point the most critical element in getting back on track.     

Layer-by-layer growth of solid4He on graphite

Recent experiments by Maynard et al on fourth sound in a Grafoil-filled⁴He cell show a periodic dependence of the resonant frequency on the average number of solid layers. We interpret their sharp minima as resulting from the inherent smoothness of complete layers, which inhibits the propagation of waves of melting and freezing, and reduces their damping and their coupling to fourth sound. Using a lattice-gas model, we study the roughness of incomplete surface layers, and suggest how this can lead to the observed broad maxima. We predict that the maxima of damping and of resonant frequency coincide.     

Laser initiation of crystallized mixtures of furazanotetrazine dioxide and dinitrodiazapentane

Experiments were performed to determine the threshold laser pulse energy density resulting in explosive transformation of the mixtures studied. The experiments showed the possibility of using the laser initiation technique for rapid testing of mixtures of variable composition and structure.     

The effect of silicide on ESD performance of transistors

In this paper a new model for localized breakdown in NMOSTs under ESD stress is developed, which accounts for the reduced ESD strength in silicided devices. The model explains the impact of a stabilizing drain resistance on second breakdown current for both silicided and unsilicided protections.     

Effects of pancreatic polypeptide amylin on ulceration and acid gastric secretion

The effects of the pancreatic polypeptide amyline on ulceration and acid gastric secretion were studied in rat experiments. Pyloric ligation was used as a model of ulceration. Amyline administration caused significantly less gastric mucosal damage in response to pyloric ligation. The severity of gastric mucosal damage averaged 47 +/- 13 mm2 in the control group and 25 +/- 11 mm2 (p < 0.005). The rate of acid gastric secretion in the animals whose pylorus had been ligated as judged by the pH of gastric content was significantly higher than that in the controls (2.87 +/- 0.22 and 2.34 +/- 0.17 (p = 0.05). It is concluded that amyline has a noticeable effect on the gastric mucosa. It is suggested that suppressed acid gastric secretion, i.e. reduced influence of aggressive agents on the gastric mucosa, is a mechanism of antiulcerative action of the peptide.     

Analysis of HBM ESD testers and specifications using a fourth-order lumped element model

This paper presents the general and analytical solution of a fourth-order lumped element model (LEM) to describe human body model (HBM) electrostatic discharge (ESD) testers including the main tester parasitic elements. The analytical fitting to the LEM of experimentally obtained HBM pulse data is a new scientifically justified tool to determine HBM tester parasitic elements. The impact of the test board capacitance on HBM testing is demonstrated and explained. Furthermore, the MIL 883C/3015.7¹ and EOS/ESD S5.1-1991² Standards on HBM testers are evaluated upon their selectivity to the test board capacitance. Finally, recommendations to improve HBM tester specifications regarding their selectivity to the parasitic test board capacitance are formulated     

Salinity and Sodicity in Pakistan's Punjab: A Threat to Sustainability of Irrigated Agriculture?

The development of groundwater for irrigation in Pakistan's Punjab has lowered water tables and markedly reduced the extent of waterlogged lands. However, the incidence of salinity has not been reduced at the same rate. This paper review s IIM I's research studies in Pakistan, in which over the last five years soil and tubewell water samples have been collected at several research sites. Electrical con ductivity of the saturated soil extract (ECe) and sodium adsorption ratio (SA R) w ere foun d to be significantly higher in irrigated areas that have limited access to canal w ater of good quality. There are indications that farmers use irrigation water from tubew ells to minimize the effects of salinity, e.g. by increasing the frequency of application w hen crops show signs of salt-induced water stress. Evidence is presented that farm ers are n ot succeeding in the same way with respect to sodicity.     

UniTi: Unified Composition and Time for Multi-domain Model-based Design

To apply model-based design to embedded systems that interface with the physical world, including simulation and verification, current tools fall short. They must provide mathematical (model) definitions that stay close to the specification of the system. They must allow multiple domains, such as the continuous-time, discrete-time and dataflow domain, in a single model including well-defined interaction. They must support model transformations for refining a model during development. And most importantly, they must accurately include and simulate different notions of time in the model. UniTi is a model-based design flow and modelling and simulation environment that delivers on all these aspects. It is based on components that are signal transformations, and therefore mathematical functions. However, in each domain the representation of a signal differs. As components have the same structure in each domain, we can use unified composition operators to represent multiple domains in a single model. Furthermore, this composition provides a unified perspective on time in the domains, even though we differentiate between different notions of time. Time becomes a local property of the model, allowing us to represent and simulate time transformations such as time delays exactly without losing efficiency. Finally, model transformations are defined for such components, which are used for refining and developing the model and which are guided by the design steps in the design flow. We will formally define the domains, composition operators and transformations of UniTi and verify the approach with a case study on a phased array beamforming system.     

Destruction of the Josephson effect by fluctuations

The Josephson effect occurs when the phases of the complex order parameter of two superconducting bodies separated by an insulating barrier become correlated.Prima facie, this is energetically favorable, since there is a finite coupling energy. However, when fluctuations of charge and phase are taken into account, one has to include the cost of these fluctuations in the energy balance. This becomes especially important in very small systems. We use the fluctuation-dissipation theorem to calculate the fluctuation energy and the associated free energy both when the junction is phase-correlated and when it is uncorrelated. In these calculations, we use the resistively-shunted-junction model to describe the junction. By comparing the excess free energy in the correlated state (over the uncorrelated one) with the Josephson coupling energy, we find a thermodynamic criterion for destruction of the Josephson characteristic of the junction. In the limiting case where the shunt resistance has a finite zero-temperature limit, we find a nearly universal resistance threshold. In another limit, where the resistance is taken to be the frequency-independent tunneling resistance of the Bogoliubov quasiparticles (in a semiconductor picture), our criterion reduces to that of Anderson when the temperatureT=0. We predict that for some junction parameters, the system can be reentrant, while for some other values, the transition temperature may be lowered.Sabbatical address: Physics Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.Sabbatical address: Physics Department, University of California, Irvine, California.