The BCD transient recorder revisited: firmware for the ISA-to-USB bridging card and software for the graphical user interface

This report describes recent updates to the custom-built data-acquisition hardware operated by the Center for Hypersonics. In 2006, an ISA-to-USB bridging card was developed as part of Luke Hillyard's final-year thesis. This card allows the hardware to be connected to any recent personal computers via a (USB or RS232) serial port and it provides a number of simple text-based commands for control of the hardware. A graphical user interface program was also updated to help the experimenter manage the data acquisition functions. Sampled data is stored in text files that have been compressed with the gzip for mat. To simplify the later archiving or transport of the data, all files specific to a shot are stored in a single directory. This includes a text file for the run description, the signal configuration file and the individual sampled-data files, one for each signal that was recorded.

XSophe-Sophe-XeprView (R). A computer simulation software suite (v. 1.1.3) for the analysis of continuous wave EPR spectra

The XSophe-Sophe-XeprView((R)) computer simulation software suite enables scientists to easily determine spin Hamiltonian parameters from isotropic, randomly oriented and single crystal continuous wave electron paramagnetic resonance (CW EPR) spectra from radicals and isolated paramagnetic metal ion centers or clusters found in metalloproteins, chemical systems and materials science. XSophe provides an X-windows graphical user interface to the Sophe programme and allows: creation of multiple input files, local and remote execution of Sophe, the display of sophelog (output from Sophe) and input parameters/files. Sophe is a sophisticated computer simulation software programme employing a number of innovative technologies including; the Sydney OPera HousE (SOPHE) partition and interpolation schemes, a field segmentation algorithm, the mosaic misorientation linewidth model, parallelization and spectral optimisation. In conjunction with the SOPHE partition scheme and the field segmentation algorithm, the SOPHE interpolation scheme and the mosaic misorientation linewidth model greatly increase the speed of simulations for most spin systems. Employing brute force matrix diagonalization in the simulation of an EPR spectrum from a high spin Cr(III) complex with the spin Hamiltonian parameters g(e) = 2.00, D = 0.10 cm(-1), E/D = 0.25, A(x) = 120.0, A(y) = 120.0, A(z) = 240.0 x 10(-4) cm(-1) requires a SOPHE grid size of N = 400 (to produce a good signal to noise ratio) and takes 229.47 s. In contrast the use of either the SOPHE interpolation scheme or the mosaic misorientation linewidth model requires a SOPHE grid size of only N = 18 and takes 44.08 and 0.79 s, respectively. Results from Sophe are transferred via the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) to XSophe and subsequently to XeprView((R)) where the simulated CW EPR spectra (1D and 2D) can be compared to the experimental spectra. Energy level diagrams, transition roadmaps and transition surfaces aid the interpretation of complicated randomly oriented CW EPR spectra and can be viewed with a web browser and an OpenInventor scene graph viewer.

A power system control scheme based on security visualisation in parameter space

Power system real time security assessment is one of the fundamental modules of the electricity markets. Typically, when a contingency occurs, it is required that security assessment and enhancement module shall be ready for action within about 20 minutes’ time to meet the real time requirement. The recent California black out again highlighted the importance of system security. This paper proposed an approach for power system security assessment and enhancement based on the information provided from the pre-defined system parameter space. The proposed scheme opens up an efficient way for real time security assessment and enhancement in a competitive electricity market for single contingency case

Using FCD Mapper Software and Landsat Images to Assess Forest Canopy Density in Landscapes in Australia and the Philippines

Using Landsat imagery, forest canopy density (FCD) estimated with the FCD Mapper®, was correlated with predominant height (PDH, measured as the average height of the tallest 50 trees per hectare) for 20 field plots measured in native forest at Noosa Heads, south-east Queensland, Australia. A corresponding image was used to calculate FCD in Leyte Island, the Philippines and was validated on the ground for accuracy. The FCD Mapper was produced for the International Tropical Timber Organisation and estimates FCD as an index of canopy density using reflectance characteristics of Landsat Enhanced Thematic (ETM) Mapper images. The FCD Mapper is a ‘semi-expert’ computer program which uses interactive screens to allow the operator to make decisions concerning the classification of land into bare soil, grass and forest. At Noosa, a positive strong nonlinear relationship (r2 = 0.86) was found between FCD and PDH for 15 field plots with variable PDH but complete canopy closure. An additional five field plots were measured in forest with a broken canopy and the software assessed these plots as having a much lower FCD than forest with canopy closure. FCD estimates for forest and agricultural land in the island of Leyte and subsequent field validation showed that at appropriate settings, the FCD Mapper differentiated between tropical rainforest and banana or coconut plantation. These findings suggest that in forests with a closed canopy this remote sensing technique has promise for forest inventory and productivity assessment. The findings also suggest that the software has promise for discriminating between native forest with a complete canopy and forest which has a broken canopy, such as coconut or banana plantation.

The Future of the Australian-U.S. Security Relationship

Australia is an increasingly important ally for the United States. It is willing to be part of challenging global missions, and its strong economy and growing self-confi dence suggest a more prominent role in both global and regional affairs. Moreover, its government has worked hard to strengthen the link between Canberra and Washington. Political and strategic affi nities between the two countries have been refl ected in--and complemented by--practiced military interoperability, as the two allies have sustained a pattern of security cooperation in relation to East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq in the last 4 years. This growing collaboration between the two countries suggests that a reinvention of the traditional bilateral security relationship is taking place. At the core of this process lies an agreement about the need for engaging in more proactive strategic behavior in the changing global security environment, and a mutual acceptance of looming military and technological interdependence. But this new alliance relationship is already testing the boundaries of bipartisan support for security policy within Australia. Issues of strategic doctrine, defense planning, and procurement are becoming topics of fi erce policy debate. Such discussion is likely to be sharpened in the years ahead as Australia’s security relationship with the United States settles into a new framework.

Expokit: A software package for computing matrix exponentials

Expokit provides a set of routines aimed at computing matrix exponentials. More precisely, it computes either a small matrix exponential in full, the action of a large sparse matrix exponential on an operand vector, or the solution of a system of linear ODEs with constant inhomogeneity. The backbone of the sparse routines consists of matrix-free Krylov subspace projection methods (Arnoldi and Lanczos processes), and that is why the toolkit is capable of coping with sparse matrices of large dimension. The software handles real and complex matrices and provides specific routines for symmetric and Hermitian matrices. The computation of matrix exponentials is a numerical issue of critical importance in the area of Markov chains and furthermore, the computed solution is subject to probabilistic constraints. In addition to addressing general matrix exponentials, a distinct attention is assigned to the computation of transient states of Markov chains.

Computational chemistry on Fujitsu vector-parallel processors: Development and performance of applications software

In this and a preceding paper, we provide an introduction to the Fujitsu VPP range of vector-parallel supercomputers and to some of the computational chemistry software available for the VPP. Here, we consider the implementation and performance of seven popular chemistry application packages. The codes discussed range from classical molecular dynamics to semiempirical and ab initio quantum chemistry. All have evolved from sequential codes, and have typically been parallelised using a replicated data approach. As such they are well suited to the large-memory/fast-processor architecture of the VPP. For one code, CASTEP, a distributed-memory data-driven parallelisation scheme is presented. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

L-studio/cpfg: A software system for modeling plants

L-studio/cpfg is a plant modeling software system designed for Windows 95/98/NT platforms. Its key components are the L-system-based plant simulator cpfg and the modeling environment called L-studio. We overview version 1.0 of this system from the user's perspective.

Privacy and security enhanced offline oblivious transfer for massive data distribution

Unauthorized accesses to digital contents are serious threats to international security and informatics. We propose an offline oblivious data distribution framework that preserves the sender's security and the receiver's privacy using tamper-proof smart cards. This framework provides persistent content protections from digital piracy and promises private content consumption.