Hope or hype? Blockchain and accounting

Gartner’s hype cycle of technology famously progresses from the "peak of inflated expectations" to the “plateau of productivity” via the “trough of disillusionment”. Accounting researchers and practitioners -like researchers and practitioners in many other fields- have jumped onto the blockchain bandwagon for fear of missing out on what has been hailed as a world changing technology. Unfortunately, there is a pervasive lack of understanding of what blockchain is, and misconceptions about what it can do. A fundamental problem is that blockchain was derived from bitcoin and there is a great deal of difficulty in defining what blockchain is, and how suitable the methodology for a trustless, public cybercurrency application is to a public blockchain between trusted partners. It is time, we believe, to look at blockchain in accounting with more objectivity. We undertake a detailed exploration of blockchain and identify several key factors that will defines the uses of this technology, namely, the distinction between public and private blockchains and the importance of processing costs as a validating mechanism

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND ASSURANCE MODELING (SEAM): A WEB-BASED SOLUTION FOR INTEGRATED MISSION ASSURANCE

We present an overview of the Systems Engineering and Assurance Modeling (SEAM) platform, a web-browser-based tool which is designed to help engineers evaluate the radiation vulnerabilities and develop an assurance approach for electronic parts in space systems. The SEAM framework consists of three interconnected modeling tools, a SysML compatible system description tool, a Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) visual argument tool, and Bayesian Net and Fault Tree extraction and export tools. The SysML and GSN sections also have a coverage check application that ensures that every radiation fault identified on the SysML side is also addressed in the assurance case in GSN. The SEAM platform works on space systems of any degree of radiation hardness but is especially helpful for assessing radiation performance in systems with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic components

Heavy Ion Current Transients in SiGe HBTs

Time-resolved ion beam induced charge reveals heavy ion response of IBM 5AM SiGe HBT: a) Position correlation[ b) Unique response for different bias schemes; c) Similarities to TPA pulsed-laser data. Heavy ion broad-beam transients provide more realistic device response: a) Feedback using microbeam data; b) Overcome issues of LET and ion range with microbeam. Both micro- and broad-beam data sets yield valuable input for TCAD simulations. Uncover detailed mechanisms for SiGe HBTs and other devices fabricated on lightly-doped substrates

The neutron and its role in cosmology and particle physics

Experiments with cold and ultracold neutrons have reached a level of precision such that problems far beyond the scale of the present Standard Model of particle physics become accessible to experimental investigation. Due to the close links between particle physics and cosmology, these studies also permit a deep look into the very first instances of our universe. First addressed in this article, both in theory and experiment, is the problem of baryogenesis ... The question how baryogenesis could have happened is open to experimental tests, and it turns out that this problem can be curbed by the very stringent limits on an electric dipole moment of the neutron, a quantity that also has deep implications for particle physics. Then we discuss the recent spectacular observation of neutron quantization in the earth's gravitational field and of resonance transitions between such gravitational energy states. These measurements, together with new evaluations of neutron scattering data, set new constraints on deviations from Newton's gravitational law at the picometer scale. Such deviations are predicted in modern theories with extra-dimensions that propose unification of the Planck scale with the scale of the Standard Model ... Another main topic is the weak-interaction parameters in various fields of physics and astrophysics that must all be derived from measured neutron decay data. Up to now, about 10 different neutron decay observables have been measured, much more than needed in the electroweak Standard Model. This allows various precise tests for new physics beyond the Standard Model, competing with or surpassing similar tests at high-energy. The review ends with a discussion of neutron and nuclear data required in the synthesis of the elements during the "first three minutes" and later on in stellar nucleosynthesis.Comment: 91 pages, 30 figures, accepted by Reviews of Modern Physic

In-situ Cryogenic Single-Event Effects Testing of High-Speed SiGe BiCMOS Devices

This presentation was part of the session : Extreme EnvironmentsSixth International Planetary Probe WorkshopWe present details of a first-of-a-kind system that has been custom-designed to enable in-situ single-event (SE) testing at cryogenic temperatures. The system is capable of using either liquid nitrogen (LN2, 77K) or liquid helium (LHe, 4K) as cryogens, and also includes a heating plate for fine adjustment of temperatures. This enables emulation of combined temperature and radiation environments such as those on the surfaces of the Earth's moon and those of other planets like Jupiter (Europa) and Saturn (Enceladus), where surface temperatures fluctuate from 50K at night to 400K during daytime. As part of the NASA Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP), this project aims to aid future NASA missions to the above planets and/or moons by providing both qualitative and quantitative insights into the SE response of high-speed SiGe BiCMOS devices at cryogenic temperatures. This work also establishes excellent synergy with other NASA efforts such as the Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE) and NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) programs.NAS

Temperature Dependence of Digital Single-Event Transients in Bulk and Fully-Depleted SOI Technologies

Factors that affect single-event transient pulse widths, such as drift, diffusion, and parasitic bipolar transistor parameters, are also strong functions of operating temperature. In this paper, SET pulse-width measurements are performed over a wide temperature range in both bulk and fully-depleted SOI (silicon on insulator) technologies. The average pulse-width increases with temperature for the bulk process, but not for the FDSOI process.NAVSEC (Organization : U.S.). Crane DivisionUnited States. National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationUnited States. Defense Threat Reduction Agenc