A New Biometric Template Protection using Random Orthonormal Projection and Fuzzy Commitment

Biometric template protection is one of most essential parts in putting a biometric-based authentication system into practice. There have been many researches proposing different solutions to secure biometric templates of users. They can be categorized into two approaches: feature transformation and biometric cryptosystem. However, no one single template protection approach can satisfy all the requirements of a secure biometric-based authentication system. In this work, we will propose a novel hybrid biometric template protection which takes benefits of both approaches while preventing their limitations. The experiments demonstrate that the performance of the system can be maintained with the support of a new random orthonormal project technique, which reduces the computational complexity while preserving the accuracy. Meanwhile, the security of biometric templates is guaranteed by employing fuzzy commitment protocol.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for IMCOM 201

Failure mode and effect analysis generation for conceptual design

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a widely used concurrent engineering tool for quality improvement and risk assessment. However, many shortcomings have hindered its effectiveness. The research described here aims to contribute to the implementation of FMEA in conceptual design by eliminating some of these shortcomings. The focus of the work is on the information modelling of FMEA knowledge, and the emphasis is on the avoidance of additional workload for the designer and the encouragement of knowledge reuse. A relational data model has been created to support the automatic generation of the FMEA. This automatic generation replaces the traditional brainstorming process for FMEA report creation. Inputs of failure reports from the factory floor are used for FMEA generation. As an alternative approach, designers can provide the characteristics of the components of their design to generate the FMEA. The user has the final decision on whether the FMEA generated are to be recorded as the final FMEA report. Prototype software has been created to demonstrate the above capabilities. The data model is also intended to support the viewpoints of multiple users, namely, the product designer, the field engineer, the process engineer and the maintenance engineer. Further research is in progress

An evaluation of failure modes and effects analysis generation method for conceptual design

Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is used in the manufacturing industry to improve product quality and productivity. However, the traditional approach has many shortcomings that affect its effectiveness and limit its usefulness, especially in the early stages of design. Automating the FMEA report generation process seems to answer some of these problems, and there has been much past and on-going research in this area. However, most of the work is limited to specific applications. This paper proposes a method for FMEA generation for a generic application using minimum information during the conceptual design stage. Prototype software has been created for the proposed method. It has been evaluated using case studies from the design and manufacture of two-way radios. The evaluation revealed the feasibility of the proposal, as well as some weaknesses that need further improvement. Generally, the capability of the method to generate FMEA report with minimum information is demonstrated

Failure modes and effects analysis through knowledge modelling

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a widely used quality improvement and risk assessment tool in manufacturing. Design and process failures recorded through FMEA provides valuable knowledge for future product and process design. However, the way the knowledge is captured poses considerable difficulties for reuse. This research aims to contribute to the reuse of FMEA knowledge through a knowledge modelling approach. FMEA activities are shifted to the conceptual design stage to avoid costly and difficult design changes at later stages of the design process. An object-oriented approach has been used to create an FMEA model. Functional diagrams have been used for the conceptual model. The FMEA model uses functional reasoning techniques to enable automatic FMEA generation from historical data. The reasoning technique also provides a means for the creation of new knowledge. The automatic generation replaces the traditional brainstorming process for FMEA report creation. The sources of the historical data can be from the previous FMEA, failure reports or from the individual designers

A diagnostic service tool using FMEA

The use of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) as the basis for a Diagnostic Service Tool (DST) is discussed in the context of Design for Service. Designers are assisted in developing diagnostic service tools early in the design process rather than this being a post-production activity. A system for computerised interactive FMEA generation from FMEA elements has been created by enhancing an existing object-oriented FMEA model to generate the FMEA elements and Diagnostic FMEA. The use of an object-oriented FMEA environment and FMEA object libraries promotes the reuse of information and increases data availability for diagnostic tool development. The Diagnostic Service Tool (DST) uses existing failure mode data to determine further characteristics of the failure of parts. The prototype software has been evaluated in a field service application using four automatic transmission problem cases. There was significant difference in repair times between the use of conventional repair manuals and DST. The research has demonstrated that the prototype software is successful in providing effective field service tools and suggests a method of providing feedback to the designer. In this way knowledge sharing between engineering and field service can be continuous and provide a significant improvement in product development. The approach has validity across many domains but has so far only been evaluated in the context of automotive systems and in particular automatic transmissions. Application in other areas would require substantial efforts in knowledge acquisition but the same general methods would be used

An inter-enterprise semantic web system to support information autonomy and conflict moderation

This paper discusses a semantic web architecture for formation of an extended project team manufacturing system engineering moderator (EEMSEM) which includes four major modules: ontology acquisition, ontology mapping, knowledge acquisition, and design moderation. This collaborative system architecture focuses on how to support information autonomy that allows individual enterprises to keep their own preferred terminology or languages rather than requiring them to adopt a single standardized vocabulary. Different engineering information terminologies are interpreted and automatically connected to the corresponding terminologies through mapping into the mediated ontology model. A case study is provided to demonstrate how the EEMSEM applies its ontology during the moderation of an extended enterprise, supply chain focused project

Shigella Species Isolated in Hongkong with Special Reference to Drug-Resistance of Strains

One hundred and seventy-one Shigella strain isolated in Hongkong during a period from 1959 July, to June, 1964 were classified serologically. All of the strains, 105 belonged to Sh. flexneri, 2 to Sh. boydii and 64 to Sh. sonnei. These strains were mainly originated from patients who had clinically been diagnosed as bacillary dysentery and from patients having some or other gastro-intestinal complaints, but it worth special mention that there were 3 cases of extra-intestinal shigellosis. Sensitivity tests to 8 kinds of antibiotics or chemotherapeutic drugs were carried out every year. Sensitive strains to sulfafurazole could hardly be found, and emergence of resistant strains to streptomycin showed a yearly increase. Since 1962 the multiple resistant strains of CTS pattern have increased particularly

Affine arithmetic-based methodology for energy hub operation-scheduling in the presence of data uncertainty

In this study, the role of self-validated computing for solving the energy hub-scheduling problem in the presence of multiple and heterogeneous sources of data uncertainties is explored and a new solution paradigm based on affine arithmetic is conceptualised. The benefits deriving from the application of this methodology are analysed in details, and several numerical results are presented and discussed

Dynamics of many-body quantum synchronisation

© 2018 The Author(s). The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. We analyse the properties of the synchronisation transition in a many-body system consisting of quantum van der Pol oscillators with all-to-all coupling using a self-consistent mean-field method. We find that the synchronised state, which the system can access for oscillator couplings above a critical value, is characterised not just by a lower phase uncertainty than the corresponding unsynchronised state, but also a higher number uncertainty. Just below the critical coupling the system can evolve to the unsynchronised steady state via a long-lived transient synchronised state. We investigate the way in which this transient state eventually decays and show that the critical scaling of its lifetime is consistent with a simple classical model