Zinc iron phosphate glasses for enameling applications

New compositions of low temperature black glasses were developed that are suitable as frits for enameling soda-lime silicate (S-L-S) glass substrates. Zinc iron phosphate glasses are of interest for this application because they possess dilatometric low softening points (under 600ºC) and have coefficients of thermal expansion that are compatible with S-L-S glass (in the range 90-110x10⁻⁷/ºC). The development of compositions with excellent chemical durability, particularly in acidic conditions, is also desired. Compositional modification were made to the (Na₂O+K₂O)·ZnO·MnO·Fe₂O₃·P₂O₅ glass system using design of experiments. The compositional boundaries used in the design were based on earlier work at Missouri S&T. The Na₂O:K₂O molar ratio was fixed at 1:1 and the total alkali content was treated as a single compositional variable. Twenty glasses with compositions of ZnO ( up to 20 mol%), MnO ( up to 20 mol%), combined Na₂O and K₂O ( up to 20 mol%), Fe₂O₃ ( 10-30 mol%) and P₂O₅ ( 40-60 mol%) were prepared and characterized. From this initial study, several additional compositions were prepared that had the desired properties for enameling soda-lime silicate glasses. These glass compositions were used for screen printing and firing onto soda lime silicate glasses. The screen printed films were fired at 680ºC for 8 minutes. Glasses of the system (50-x)ZnO.xMnO.50P₂O₅ were prepared with x=0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and glasses of the system (50-x)ZnO.xMn₂O₃.50P₂O₅ were made with x=0,10,20. The thermal properties and chemical durability were determined and UV-Vis spectroscopy was used to characterize these glasses --Abstract, page iii

Automated Attribute Extraction from Legal Proceedings

The escalating number of pending cases is a growing concern world-wide. Recent advancements in digitization have opened up possibilities for leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the processing of legal documents. Adopting a structured representation for legal documents, as opposed to a mere bag-of-words flat text representation, can significantly enhance processing capabilities. With the aim of achieving this objective, we put forward a set of diverse attributes for criminal case proceedings. We use a state-of-the-art sequence labeling framework to automatically extract attributes from the legal documents. Moreover, we demonstrate the efficacy of the extracted attributes in a downstream task, namely legal judgment prediction.Comment: Presented in Mining and Learning in the Legal Domain (MLLD) workshop 202

Neutrinos from the Sun can discover dark matter-electron scattering

We probe dark matter-electron scattering using high-energy neutrino observations from the Sun. Dark matter (DM) interacting with electrons can get captured inside the Sun. These captured DM may annihilate to produce different Standard Model (SM) particles. Neutrinos produced from these SM states can be observed in IceCube and DeepCore. Although there is no excess of neutrinos from the Solar direction, we find that the current data-sets of IceCube and DeepCore set the strongest constraint on DM-electron scattering cross section in the DM mass range $10\,$GeV to $10^5\,$GeV. Our work implies that future observations of the Sun by neutrino telescopes have the potential to discover DM-electron interaction.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Comments are welcom

The Planted kk-SUM Problem: Algorithms, Lower Bounds, Hardness Amplification, and Cryptography

In the average-case $k$-SUM problem, given $r$ integers chosen uniformly at random from $\{0,\ldots,M-1\}$, the objective is to find a set of $k$ numbers that sum to 0 modulo $M$ (this set is called a solution ). In the related $k$-XOR problem, given $k$ uniformly random Boolean vectors of length log $M$, the objective is to find a set of $k$ of them whose bitwise-XOR is the all-zero vector. Both of these problems have widespread applications in the study of fine-grained complexity and cryptanalysis. The feasibility and complexity of these problems depends on the relative values of $k$, $r$, and $M$. The dense regime of $M \leq r^k$, where solutions exist with high probability, is quite well-understood and we have several non-trivial algorithms and hardness conjectures here. Much less is known about the sparse regime of $M\gg r^k$, where solutions are unlikely to exist. The best answers we have for many fundamental questions here are limited to whatever carries over from the dense or worst-case settings. We study the planted $k$-SUM and $k$-XOR problems in the sparse regime. In these problems, a random solution is planted in a randomly generated instance and has to be recovered. As $M$ increases past $r^k$, these planted solutions tend to be the only solutions with increasing probability, potentially becoming easier to find. We show several results about the complexity and applications of these problems. Conditional Lower Bounds. Assuming established conjectures about the hardness of average-case (non-planted) $k$-SUM when $M = r^k$, we show non-trivial lower bounds on the running time of algorithms for planted $k$-SUM when $r^k\leq M\leq r^{2k}$. We show the same for $k$-XOR as well. Search-to-Decision Reduction. For any $M>r^k$, suppose there is an algorithm running in time $T$ that can distinguish between a random $k$-SUM instance and a random instance with a planted solution, with success probability $(1-o(1))$. Then, for the same $M$, there is an algorithm running in time $\tilde{O}(T)$ that solves planted $k$-SUM with constant probability. The same holds for $k$-XOR as well. Hardness Amplification. For any $M \geq r^k$, if an algorithm running in time $T$ solves planted $k$-XOR with success probability $\Omega(1/\text{polylog}(r))$, then there is an algorithm running in time $\tilde O(T)$ that solves it with probability $(1-o(1))$. We show this by constructing a rapidly mixing random walk over $k$-XOR instances that preserves the planted solution. Cryptography. For some $M \leq 2^{\text{polylog}(r)}$, the hardness of the $k$-XOR problem can be used to construct Public-Key Encryption (PKE) assuming that the Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) problem with constant noise rate is hard for $2^{n^{0.01}}$-time algorithms. Previous constructions of PKE from LPN needed either a noise rate of $O(1/\sqrt{n})$, or hardness for $2^{n^{0.5}}$-time algorithms. Algorithms. For any $M \geq 2^{r^2}$, there is a constant $c$ (independent of $k$) and an algorithm running in time $r^c$ that, for any $k$, solves planted $k$-SUM with success probability $\Omega(1/8^k)$. We get this by showing an average-case reduction from planted $k$-SUM to the Subset Sum problem. For $r^k \leq M \ll 2^{r^2}$, the best known algorithms are still the worst-case $k$-SUM algorithms running in time $r^{\lceil{k/2}\rceil-o(1)}$

Effect of Porosity on the Response of Alumina Thick Films towards Moisture

In this work, porous thick films of α-Al2O3 and γ-Al2O3 ceramic materials have been investigated as moisture sensitive materials. The thick film of synthesized α-Al2O3 was sensitive to a wide range of relative humidity (10%-95%), while γ-Al2O3 thick film with controlled micro and nano porosity was found to be effective in the detection of low concentration moisture, viz.1-100 ppm. The tape casting of α-Al2O3 and gel casting of γ-Al2O3 were carried out using organic additives and pore former additives, respectively. Characterization of the synthesized materials was executed using X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscope and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis. The important parameters like humidity sensitivity, response and recovery time which determine the efficiency of the thick film sensors were found to be influenced by the microstructure of the final films. Pore size distribution and surface area of the films were examined by Hg intrusion porosimetry and BET techniques as both of these properties play an important role in moisture sensing. The developed sensors exhibit significant sensitivity to moisture (humidity) and long time stability which are essential for device application. These sensors are applicable in various industrial and medical fields

Development of Fullerene Modified Metal Oxide Thick Films for Moisture Sensing Application

Trace moisture sensing capability of fullerene (C-60) modified nanoporous gamma-alumina (Al2O3) thick films has been presented here. Fullerene was added to create nano pore in aluminum secondary butoxide for preparation of gel tape cast thick films. One of the major advantages of using fullerene is to develop oriented nano pores (2-12 nm) throughout the ceramic thick films. The green thick films were crack free which was cast by gel tape casting process. The porosity and surface area were studied using field effect scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller. Gamma phase of alumina was also examined by X-ray diffraction analysis. The green thick films were sintered at 900 degrees C to obtain nanopore distribution through the surface of the thick films. Electrical characterization such as sensitivity, response, recovery and hysteresis were performed. There is no literature report on the detection of trace moisture sensor by fullerene assisted alumina sol gel tape cast process. This article explains the development of moisture sensor which can detect low range moisture (1-25 ppm) in different industrial application like gas industry, dielectric oil and drying of different food processing industry etc. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference on Functional Nano-Materials, 2016

Alternative Keyboard Based on Infrared Technology

A keyboard is a commonly used input device that facilitates human computer interaction by allowing the user to enter commands by physically pressing units called keys. The keys can be physically embedded on the system or can be a logical concept (such as on touchscreens [x]). In this paper we discuss the aspects of a novel keyboard, its circuit, its working model and efficiency. This keyboard uses the principle of infra red emission and reception which generates an active low signal on placing an obstruction between the emitter and receiver

Adding Support for Modified Condition/Decision Coverage instrumentation in the Green Hills C/C++ compiler

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2019Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 49-50).This thesis presents the design and implementation of Modified Condition / Decision Coverage (MC/DC) instrumentation in the Green Hills C/C++ compiler. When a specfic option is enabled, the compiler now identied each boolean expression and annotates the generated binary with special instructions. When a test suite is run, these extra instructions emit logging information. A separate program then uses that information to determine and display the degree of coverage achieved. Taken together, my tools allow a user to run any program and determine the extent of MC/DC coverage achieved by their tests.by Sagnik Saha.M. Eng.M.Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Scienc