The International Standard ISO/IEC 24787:2010 [1] developed by WG 11, Application of biometrics to cards and personal identification of ISO/IEC SC 17, Cards and personal identification [2], defines several architectures to integrate biometrics with smartcards, including the storage-oncard alternative (i.e., the biometric reference is stored securely in the smartcard memory and read by the external world when the verification is needed) and the on-card biometric comparison (i.e., the biometric feature vector is sent to the smartcard for performing an internal comparison with the stored biometric reference). The biometric system-on-card (BSoC) is a functional extension to the on-card biometric comparison where the whole biometric process is executed inside the card, including the capture of the biometric sample. This architecture is being standardized by ISO/IEC JTC1/SC17 WG11 in the ISO/IEC 17839 multipart international standard [3–5]. As it can be seen in Fig. 1, a BSoC includes the sensor (biometric capture device) in the smartcard, together with the signal processing and feature extraction algorithms, plus the same services as offered by an on-card biometric comparison smartcard. While the decision takes place in the BSoC, it can provide information to the outer world to allow recording the process in the application. This information shall be minimal, as to not allow hill-climbing attacks. It is important to note that the main difference of a BSoC with other kind of biometric dongles is that a BSoC is actually a smartcard. Therefore, it provides all the security mechanisms traditionally available in a smartcard, including a tamperproof security controller and operating system.

Gravure-printed dielectric films are presented, which are 100-nm thick, have about 1-nm root mean-square surface roughness and show high electric field strength (>300 MV/m). This dielectric is combined with an ultra-thin—less than 10 nm—layer of poly(α-methylstyrene) on top which gives state-of-the-art field-effect mobility in transistors with thermally-evaporated pentacene (0.6 cm2/Vs) and zone-cast TIPS-pentacene (0.3 cm2/Vs).

In this work, we realize complementary circuits with organic p-type and n-type transistor integrated on polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) foil. We employ evaporated p-type and n-type organic semiconductors spaced side by side in bottom-contact bottom-gate coplanar structures with channel lengths of 5μm. The area density is 0.08mm2 per complementary logic gate. Both p-type and n-type transistors show mobilities >0.1cm2/Vs with Von close to zero volt. Small circuits like inverters and 19-stage ring oscillators (RO) are fabricated to study the static and the dynamic performance of the logic inverter gate. The circuits operate at Vdd as low as 2.5V and the inverter stage delay at Vdd=10V is as low as 2μs. Finally, an 8bit organic complementary transponder chip with data rate up to 2.7kbits/s is fabricated on foil by successfully integrating 358 transistors.

Abstract Currently emphasis on accurate and timely collection of fisheries data generates a need for investigation into advanced techniques in bathymetry, including recent refinements in Geographical Information Science (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). The study area for this project was the east basin of Lake Winona, a small Mississippi River floodplain lake in Winona, Minnesota USA. Lake Winona was the site of recent dredging operations aimed at decreasing littoral zone areas toreduce plant growth and stunted fish populations. To assess potential effectiveness of dredging operations, bathymetric data were collected with a Garmin depthfinder and GPS unit, and interpolationtechniques toproduce lake morphometric characteristics (splining, kriging, and inverse distance weighting) were compared within ESRI’s ArcMap 9.0. All interpolation methods produced similar outputs for cross validation statistical comparisons, although kriging produced the bestpredictive output of actual bathymetric contouring for Lake Winona. Calculation of morphometric,characteristics from derived bathymetric information showed,significant changes in Lake Winona compared,to historic accounts. Lake dredging was successful in reducing littoral zone areas by 30 percent and increasing lake volume by 28 percent, while increasing the mean depth by 60 percent (from 2.6 feet to 4.3 feet). Habitat for stunted fishpopulations was substantially reduced. Today, information from this project is being used to assess the feasibilityof further bathymetric studies and to refine management,approaches to improve the Lake Winona fishery.

Short channel organic thin film transistors in bottom-gate, bottom contact configuration use typically gold metallization for the source and drain contacts because this metal can easily be cleaned from photoresist residuals by oxygen plasma or ultraviolet-ozone and allows also surface modification by self-assembled monolayers (e.g. thiols). Alternative low-cost bottom contact metallization for high performance short-channel organic thin film transistors are scarce because of the incompatibility of the bottom contact material with the cleaning step. In this work a new process flow, involving a temporary thin aluminum protection layer, is presented. Short channel (3.4 μm) pentacene transistors with lithographical defined and thiol modified silver source/drain bottom contacts (25 nm thick, on a 2 nm titanium adhesion layer) prepared according to this process achieved a saturation mobility of 0.316 cm2/(V.s), and this at a metal cost below 1% of the standard 30 nm thick gold metallization.

We report a technique to tune the excess charge concentration in single-layer graphene from p- to n-type up to densities of |n| similar to 1.2 x 10(13) cm(-2), corresponding to a displacement electric field of similar to 2.5 V/nm. The tuning is achieved by engineering the interaction between graphene and the underlying Si/SiO2 substrate with an amino group-terminated self-assembled monolayer, and subsequent rinsing in aqueous solutions at controlled pH. Raman spectroscopy and electrical measurements on treated graphene devices confirm the occurrence of doping. Interestingly, we found the field-effect mobility not to be significantly affected by the procedure. (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

In this paper, we elucidate the role of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) in the degradation of polymer:PCBM ((6,6)-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester) solar cells. The study is done on unencapsulated cells exposed to ambient conditions in dark. The cell degradation results from reduced carrier extraction, and an investigation of the various interfaces within the cell allows us to correlate this to oxidation of the low work function metal cathode. We further show that this oxidation is caused by water vapor diffusion from the edges through the hygroscopic PEDOT:PSS layer. We demonstrate that only the hygroscopic nature of PEDOT:PSS, and not its acidity, has a detrimental impact. The oxidation of the cathode progresses in synchrony with the water ingress into the PEDOT:PSS layer from the edges of the device towards the central part, and results in a progressive constriction of the active area. When the PEDOT:PSS layer is replaced by an evaporated layer of MoO3, the device lifetime is improved considerably even with highly reactive metal cathodes. Finally, we provide a quantitative relationship between device lifetime and the level of humidity in the ambient, thus establishing a suitable accelerated shelf-life test for organic solar cells and their encapsulation.

We collected fishes at 28 sites of the middle Wabash River, Indiana, using a boat electrofisher and at ten additional sites using a 10-m beach seine. We used Canonical Correspondence Analysis to test for fish assemblage variation that was explained by variation in water depth and substrate frequency. The multivariate analyses resulted in a longitudinal gradient in water depth and frequency of occurrence of substrate size categories that explained a large component of variation among fish assemblages for both sampling regimes. Our results illustrate that substrate composition and water depth variation are significant environmental predictors of fish assemblage composition for a large river such as the Wabash River.

Wirft man einen Blick auf die Selbstdarstellungen und Fallstudien von PR- und Werbeagenturen, so ist die Führung von Marken ein Prozess, bei dem, sofern man die richtigen Experten damit beauftragt, eigentlich nichts mehr schief gehen kann. Es mag zunächst nicht verwundern, dass besonders jene mit vorrangig geschäftlichen Interessen das Expertenwissen zur Führung von Marken für sich beanspruchen. Doch auch im wissenschaftlichen Diskurs stößt man – überraschenderweise? – immer wieder auf Modelle, die mehr einer Anleitung zur erfolgreichen Markenführung gleichen als die komplexen Zusammenhänge tatsächlich durchdringen.

We used artificial streams to quantify substrate choice for spotfin shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera) and sand shiner (Notropis stramineus). In Wabash River field surveys, spotfin shiner abundance did not vary with substrate variation, but sand shiner occurred in higher abundance at sites with increased sand substrate. Single and mixed species groups in artificial streams were presented with substrate (sand or hardpan) and flow choices (high flow/no flow). Neither species had substrate preferences in single species experiments. In single species experiments, sand shiner preferred no flow, and spotfin shiner selected high flow. In mixed species groups, sand shiner preferred high flow and sand substrate. However, spotfin shiner preferences for flow and substrate did not change when in mixed species groups. These results demonstrate that species-specific habitat selection behaviors are influenced by interactions within a fish assemblage.

Digital identities are becoming increasingly popular. Professional implementation relies upon a secure embedded system and two-factor authentication for managing the important credentials. Although biometric user authentication is sometimes employed, it is still costly and difficult for the average user. The hardware currently available does not always use embedded processing or include a certified controller. We designed a system that allows digital identity management using two-factor authentication. This system considers typically existing IT infrastructure, relies upon on-card-biometric-comparison and operates from a portable device transparent to the host system.

Memory cells based on Cu+ and Ag+ metal-organic charge-transfer complexes, as for example CuTCNQ (where TCNQ denotes 7,7',8,8'-tetracyanoquinodimethane), are well known for their bistable resistive electrical switching since 1979. The switching mechanism however remained unclear for very long time. In this contribution we describe the different views (bulk vs. interfacial switching), give evidence for interfacial switching in the case of CuTCNQ, and present a model allowing explaining the bipolar resistive electrical switching by an interfacial effect, even for experiments considered until now as proof for bulk switching. The proposed switching mechanism is based on bridging of an ion-permeable layer (or gap) by conductive Cu channels, which are formed and dissolved by an electrochemical reaction implying monovalent Cu+ cations, originating from a solid ionic conductor (as for example CuTCNQ). The model was furthermore generalized to other memory systems consisting of a permeable layer and a solid ionic conductor, including also inorganic solid ionic conductors as for example Ag2S.

In this letter, we report on the growth of thin films of N,N-'-ditridecylperylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-C13H27) by organic vapor phase deposition (OVPD). Uniform films are deposited with a material utilization efficiency of 59 +/- 4% and deposition rates up to 15 angstrom/s. Top-contact transistors based on OVPD-grown PTCDI-C13H27 show high n-type mobilities (up to 0.3 cm(2)/V s) and reproducible characteristics. The influence of deposition parameters on electrical properties is discussed. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Biometrics is a new technology that provides a secure identification, which is being used more and more these days. However, sensors and biometric systems are usually only tested by their own suppliers, and rarely an independent evaluation of these products is carried out. Also, when evaluating a biometric system/device, many factors that can affect its performance, are not even considered. This is the case of the environmental conditions, i.e. humidity, temperature, etc. In this paper, authors propose an evaluation methodology for measuring environmental factors influence in biometric products and their applications. This methodology describes factors, tools, requirements and procedures, needed to perform this kind of performance evaluations.