Coarse-grained simulations of flow-induced nucleation in semi-crystalline polymers

We perform kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of flow-induced nucleation in polymer melts with an algorithm that is tractable even at low undercooling. The configuration of the non-crystallized chains under flow is computed with a recent non-linear tube model. Our simulations predict both enhanced nucleation and the growth of shish-like elongated nuclei for sufficiently fast flows. The simulations predict several experimental phenomena and theoretically justify a previously empirical result for the flow-enhanced nucleation rate. The simulations are highly pertinent to both the fundamental understanding and process modeling of flow-induced crystallization in polymer melts.Comment: 17 pages, 6 eps figure

Release-etch modeling for complex surface micromachined structures

A release etch model for etching sacrificial oxides in aqueous HF solutions is presented. This model is an extension of work done by Monk et al. and Liu et al. The model is inherently one dimensional, but can be used to model the etching of complex three dimensional parts. Solutions and boundary conditions are presented for a number of geometries. Knowledge of release-etch kinetics is essential for designing manufacturing processes for large surface micromachined structures such as sealed diaphragms and cavities and flow channels

Prediction of release-etch times for surface-micromachined structures

A one-dimensional model is presented which describes the release-etch behavior of sacrificial oxides in aqueous HF. Starting from first principles and an empirical rate law, release etch kinetics are derived for primitive geometries. The behavior of complex three-dimensional structures is described by joining the solutions of constituent primitives and applying appropriate boundary conditions.The two fitting parameters, k{sub 1} and k{sub 2}, are determined from the simplest structure and describe the more complex structures well. Experimental validation of the model is presented with data for all of the geometries and four types of sacrificial oxides

Surface Dependent Electron and Negative Ion Density in Inductively Coupled Discharges

Electron and negative ion density have been measured in a modfied Applied Materials DPS metal etch chamber using gas mixtures of BCl{sub 3}, Cl{sub 2} and Ar. Measurements were performed for four dflerent substrate types to examine the influence of surface material on the bulk plasma properties; aluminurq alumina, photoresist and 50 percent patterned aluminum / photoresist. Electron densities in the Cl{sub 2} / BCl{sub 3} mixtures varied from 0.25 to 4 x 10{sup 11} cm{sup -3}. Photodetachment measurements of the negative ion density indicate that the negative ion density was smaller than the electron density and that the electron to negative ion density ratio varied between 1 and 6. The presence of photoresist had a dominant intluence on the electron and negative ion density compared to alumina and aluminum surfaces. In most cases, the electron density above wafers covered with photoresist was a factor of two lower while the negative ion density was a factor of two higher than the aluminum or alumina surfaces

Heating rate and electrode charging measurements in a scalable, microfabricated, surface-electrode ion trap

We characterise the performance of a surface-electrode ion "chip" trap fabricated using established semiconductor integrated circuit and micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) microfabrication processes which are in principle scalable to much larger ion trap arrays, as proposed for implementing ion trap quantum information processing. We measure rf ion micromotion parallel and perpendicular to the plane of the trap electrodes, and find that on-package capacitors reduce this to <~ 10 nm in amplitude. We also measure ion trapping lifetime, charging effects due to laser light incident on the trap electrodes, and the heating rate for a single trapped ion. The performance of this trap is found to be comparable with others of the same size scale.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figure

Surface dependent electron and negative ion density in inductively coupled discharges

Electron and negative ion density have been measured in a modfied Applied Materials DPS metal etch chamber using gas mixtures of BCl{sub 3}, Cl{sub 2} and Ar. Measurements were performed for four dflerent substrate types to examine the influence of surface material on the bulk plasma properties; aluminurq alumina, photoresist and 50 percent patterned aluminum / photoresist. Electron densities in the Cl{sub 2} / BCl{sub 3} mixtures varied from 0.25 to 4 x 10{sup 11} cm{sup -3}. Photodetachment measurements of the negative ion density indicate that the negative ion density was smaller than the electron density and that the electron to negative ion density ratio varied between 1 and 6. The presence of photoresist had a dominant intluence on the electron and negative ion density compared to alumina and aluminum surfaces. In most cases, the electron density above wafers covered with photoresist was a factor of two lower while the negative ion density was a factor of two higher than the aluminum or alumina surfaces

OPAQUE: An Asymmetric PAKE Protocol Secure Against Pre-Computation Attacks

Password-Authenticated Key Exchange (PAKE) protocols allow two parties that only share a password to establish a shared key in a way that is immune to offline attacks. Asymmetric PAKE (aPAKE) strengthens this notion for the more common client-server setting where the server stores a mapping of the password and security is required even upon server compromise, that is, the only allowed attack in this case is an (inevitable) offline exhaustive dictionary attack against individual user passwords. Unfortunately, current aPAKE protocols (that dispense with the use of servers\u27 public keys) allow for pre-computation attacks that lead to the instantaneous compromise of user passwords upon server compromise, thus forgoing much of the intended aPAKE security. Indeed, these protocols use - in essential ways - deterministic password mappings or use random salt transmitted in the clear from servers to users, and thus are vulnerable to pre-computation attacks. We initiate the study of Strong aPAKE protocols that are secure as aPAKE\u27s but are also secure against pre-computation attacks. We formalize this notion in the Universally Composable (UC) settings and present two modular constructions using an Oblivious PRF as a main tool. The first builds a Strong aPAKE from any aPAKE (which in turn can be constructed from any PAKE [GMR\u2706]) while the second builds a Strong aPAKE from any authenticated key-exchange protocol secure against reverse impersonation (a.k.a. KCI). Using the latter transformation, we show a practical instantiation of a UC-secure Strong aPAKE in the Random Oracle model. The protocol ( OPAQUE ) consists of 2 messages (3 with mutual authentication), requires 3 and 4 exponentiations for server and client, respectively (2 to 4 of which can be fixed-base depending on optimizations), provides forward secrecy, is PKI-free, supports user-side hash iterations, has a built-in facility for password-based storage and retrieval of secrets and credentials, and accommodates a user-transparent server-side threshold implementation

Geomorphic and stratigraphic evidence for an unusual tsunami or storm a few centuries ago at Anegada, British Virgin Islands

© The Author(s), 2010. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Natural Hazards 63 (2012): 51-84, doi:10.1007/s11069-010-9622-6.Waters from the Atlantic Ocean washed southward across parts of Anegada, east-northeast of Puerto Rico, during a singular event a few centuries ago. The overwash, after crossing a fringing coral reef and 1.5 km of shallow subtidal flats, cut dozens of breaches through sandy beach ridges, deposited a sheet of sand and shell capped with lime mud, and created inland fields of cobbles and boulders. Most of the breaches extend tens to hundreds of meters perpendicular to a 2-km stretch of Anegada’s windward shore. Remnants of the breached ridges stand 3 m above modern sea level, and ridges seaward of the breaches rise 2.2–3.0 m high. The overwash probably exceeded those heights when cutting the breaches by overtopping and incision of the beach ridges. Much of the sand-and-shell sheet contains pink bioclastic sand that resembles, in grain size and composition, the sand of the breached ridges. This sand extends as much as 1.5 km to the south of the breached ridges. It tapers southward from a maximum thickness of 40 cm, decreases in estimated mean grain size from medium sand to very fine sand, and contains mud laminae in the south. The sand-and-shell sheet also contains mollusks—cerithid gastropods and the bivalve Anomalocardia—and angular limestone granules and pebbles. The mollusk shells and the lime-mud cap were probably derived from a marine pond that occupied much of Anegada’s interior at the time of overwash. The boulders and cobbles, nearly all composed of limestone, form fields that extend many tens of meters generally southward from limestone outcrops as much as 0.8 km from the nearest shore. Soon after the inferred overwash, the marine pond was replaced by hypersaline ponds that produce microbial mats and evaporite crusts. This environmental change, which has yet to be reversed, required restriction of a former inlet or inlets, the location of which was probably on the island’s south (lee) side. The inferred overwash may have caused restriction directly by washing sand into former inlets, or indirectly by reducing the tidal prism or supplying sand to post-overwash currents and waves. The overwash happened after A.D. 1650 if coeval with radiocarbon-dated leaves in the mud cap, and it probably happened before human settlement in the last decades of the 1700s. A prior overwash event is implied by an inland set of breaches. Hypothetically, the overwash in 1650–1800 resulted from the Antilles tsunami of 1690, the transatlantic Lisbon tsunami of 1755, a local tsunami not previously documented, or a storm whose effects exceeded those of Hurricane Donna, which was probably at category 3 as its eye passed 15 km to Anegada’s south in 1960.The work was supported in part by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under its project N6480, a tsunami-hazard assessment for the eastern United States

A Systematic Screen for Tube Morphogenesis and Branching Genes in the Drosophila Tracheal System

Many signaling proteins and transcription factors that induce and pattern organs have been identified, but relatively few of the downstream effectors that execute morphogenesis programs. Because such morphogenesis genes may function in many organs and developmental processes, mutations in them are expected to be pleiotropic and hence ignored or discarded in most standard genetic screens. Here we describe a systematic screen designed to identify all Drosophila third chromosome genes (∼40% of the genome) that function in development of the tracheal system, a tubular respiratory organ that provides a paradigm for branching morphogenesis. To identify potentially pleiotropic morphogenesis genes, the screen included analysis of marked clones of homozygous mutant tracheal cells in heterozygous animals, plus a secondary screen to exclude mutations in general “house-keeping” genes. From a collection including more than 5,000 lethal mutations, we identified 133 mutations representing ∼70 or more genes that subdivide the tracheal terminal branching program into six genetically separable steps, a previously established cell specification step plus five major morphogenesis and maturation steps: branching, growth, tubulogenesis, gas-filling, and maintenance. Molecular identification of 14 of the 70 genes demonstrates that they include six previously known tracheal genes, each with a novel function revealed by clonal analysis, and two well-known growth suppressors that establish an integral role for cell growth control in branching morphogenesis. The rest are new tracheal genes that function in morphogenesis and maturation, many through cytoskeletal and secretory pathways. The results suggest systematic genetic screens that include clonal analysis can elucidate the full organogenesis program and that over 200 patterning and morphogenesis genes are required to build even a relatively simple organ such as the Drosophila tracheal system