Ultra-lightweight true random number generators

A series of ultra-lightweight digital true random number generators (TRNGs) are presented. These TRNGs are based on the observation that, when a circuit switches from a metastable state to a bi-stable state, the resulting state may be random. Four such circuits with low hardware cost are presented: one uses an XOR gate; one uses a lookup table; one uses a multiplexer and an inverter; and one uses four transistors. The three TRNGs based on the first three circuits are implemented on a field programmable gate array and successfully pass the DIEHARD RNG tests and the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) RNG tests. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the proposed TRNG designs are the most lightweight among existing TRNGs.

Project Omnivore: A Variable Compression Ratio ATAC 2-Stroke Engine for Ultra-Wide-Range HCCI Operation on a Variety of Fuels

The paper describes the principal features of Omnivore, a spark-ignition-based research engine designed to investigate the possibility of true wide-range HCCI operation on a variety of fossil and renewable liquid fuels. The engine project is part-funded jointly by the United Kingdom's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department of the Environment of Northern Ireland (DoENI). The engineering team includes Lotus Engineering, Jaguar Cars, Orbital Corporation and Queen's University Belfast.

Reflexivity, Scientificity and the Sociology of Religion: Pierre Bourdieu in Debate

This paper explores the relevance of Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘epistemic reflexivity’ for the sociology of religion, in particular by examining his neglected address to the French Association for the Sociology of Religion in 1982. Whilst sociologists of religion have addressed some issues of reflexivity in their practice, less attention has been paid to the crucial scientific requirement, highlighted by Bourdieu, to break from the ‘illusio’ of that field and thus avoid alignments with positions taken by religious actors themselves. As a result, many sociologists inevitably participate in religious contestations and stakes, whether or not they affirm or deny their own religious identification with those they study. Although Bourdieu’s address was a response to a particular national and historical form of the sociology of religion, we argue that it retains much significance today and may lead to fruitful debate within the discipline.

Studies on the persistence of estradiol benzoate and nortestosterone decanoate in hair of cattle following treatment with growth promoters, determined by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Measurement of steroid esters in bovine hair samples, using sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), provides a powerful tool for identifying animals treated illicitly with growth promoters. The successful application of such testing requires appropriate sampling of hair from treated animals. This paper describes the results of hair analysis by LC-MS/MS for two animal studies in which animals were treated with estradiol-3-benzoate and nortestosterone decanoate. The results from the first animal study indicate that animals treated with these anabolic steroids may not always be identified from analysis of hair samples; positive test results occur sporadically and only for some of the treated animals. The results from the second animal study identify conditions attaching to positive hair samples, such as, that concentrations of steroid esters in hair are related to distance of sampling from point of injection and to time post-treatment, that concentrations of steroid esters in hair are related to dose given to the animal but that this relationship may vary over time post-treatment, and that steroid esters may be measured in regrowth hair taken some weeks after treatment. Steroid esters are determined along the length of the hair, confirming that accumulation of steroid esters into hair occurs from various sources, including blood, sweat and sebum. The reported research provides some useful insights into the mechanisms governing the persistence of steroid esters in bovine hair following illicit treatment with growth promoters. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Secularism and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Germany: The Rise of the Fourth Confession

Negotiating the boundaries of the secular and of the religious is a core aspect of modern experience. In mid-nineteenth-century Germany, secularism emerged to oppose church establishment, conservative orthodoxy, and national division between Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Yet, as historian Todd H. Weir argues in this provocative book, early secularism was not the opposite of religion. It developed in the rationalist dissent of Free Religion and, even as secularism took more atheistic forms in Freethought and Monism, it was subject to the forces of the confessional system it sought to dismantle. Similar to its religious competitors, it elaborated a clear worldview, sustained social milieus, and was integrated into the political system. Secularism was, in many ways, Germany's fourth confession. While challenging assumptions about the causes and course of the Kulturkampf and modern antisemitism, this study casts new light on the history of popular science, radical politics, and social reform.

Ultra-bright Optical Transients are Linked with Type Ic Supernovae

Recent searches by unbiased, wide-field surveys have uncovered a group of extremely luminous optical transients. The initial discoveries of SN 2005ap by the Texas Supernova Search and SCP-06F6 in a deep Hubble pencil beam survey were followed by the Palomar Transient Factory confirmation of host redshifts for other similar transients. The transients share the common properties of high optical luminosities (peak magnitudes similar to -21 to -23), blue colors, and a lack of H or He spectral features. The physical mechanism that produces the luminosity is uncertain, with suggestions ranging from jet-driven explosion to pulsational pair instability. Here, we report the most detailed photometric and spectral coverage of an ultra-bright transient (SN 2010gx) detected in the Pan-STARRS 1 sky survey. In common with other transients in this family, early-time spectra show a blue continuum and prominent broad absorption lines of O II. However, about 25 days after discovery, the spectra developed type Ic supernova features, showing the characteristic broad Fe II and Si II absorption lines. Detailed, post-maximum follow-up may show that all SN 2005ap and SCP-06F6 type transients are linked to supernovae Ic. This poses problems in understanding the physics of the explosions: there is no indication from late-time photometry that the luminosity is powered by Ni-56, the broad light curves suggest very large ejected masses, and the slow spectral evolution is quite different from typical Ic timescales. The nature of the progenitor stars and the origin of the luminosity are intriguing and open questions.

Ultra-fast processing of gigapixel Tissue MicroArray images using high performance computing.

BACKGROUND:
tissue MicroArrays (TMAs) are a valuable platform for tissue based translational research and the discovery of tissue biomarkers. The digitised TMA slides or TMA Virtual Slides, are ultra-large digital images, and can contain several hundred samples. The processing of such slides is time-consuming, bottlenecking a potentially high throughput platform.
METHODS:
a High Performance Computing (HPC) platform for the rapid analysis of TMA virtual slides is presented in this study. Using an HP high performance cluster and a centralised dynamic load balancing approach, the simultaneous analysis of multiple tissue-cores were established. This was evaluated on Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer TMAs for complex analysis of tissue pattern and immunohistochemical positivity.
RESULTS:
the automated processing of a single TMA virtual slide containing 230 patient samples can be significantly speeded up by a factor of circa 22, bringing the analysis time to one minute. Over 90 TMAs could also be analysed simultaneously, speeding up multiplex biomarker experiments enormously.
CONCLUSIONS:
the methodologies developed in this paper provide for the first time a genuine high throughput analysis platform for TMA biomarker discovery that will significantly enhance the reliability and speed for biomarker research. This will have widespread implications in translational tissue based research.