Trust for Ubiquitous,Transparent Collaboration

In this paper, trust-based recommendations control the exchange of personal information between handheld computers. Combined with explicit risk analysis, this enables unobtrusive information exchange, while limiting access to confidential information. The same model can be applied to a wide range of mobile computing tasks, such as managing personal address books and electronic diaries, to automatically provide an appropriate level of security. Recommendations add structure to the information, by associating categories with data and with each other, with degrees of trust belief and disbelief. Since categories also in turn confer privileges and restrict actions, they are analogous to rôles in a Rôle-Based Access Control system, while principals represent their trust policies in recommendations. Participants first compute their trust in information, by combining their own trust assumptions with others' policies. Recommendations are thus linked together to compute a considered, local trust assessment. Actions are then moderated by a risk assessment, which weighs up costs and benefits, including the cost of the user's time, before deciding whether to allow or forbid the information exchange, or ask for help. By unifying trust assessments and access control, participants can take calculated risks to automatically yet safely share their personal information.     

Determination of nitric acid in ambient air using diffusion denuder tubes

A method has been developed for the determination of gaseous nitric acid in air based on its separation from particulate nitrate aerosol using diffusion denuder tubes. An integrated value of nitric acid concentration in air is obtained. The experimentally derived absorption efficiencies of the diffusion denuder tubes ranged from 87.6 to 96.9%. The standard deviation of the method was calculated as 0.10 mug/m(3) for nitric acid concentrations in the range 0.54-1.72 mug/m(3). A correction procedure, using two diffusion denuders in series, should be applied if measurements are made in the presence of high levels of nitrogen oxides.     

The determination of free ammonia in ambient air with diffusion/denuder tubes

Ammonia is important in atmospheric chemistry because it neutralises acidic species and increases the pH of cloud droplets. Data on the concentration of free ammonia in the atmosphere are sparse because it is difficult to separate free ammonia from particulate ammonium salt aerosol. A manual method for the determination of free ammonia in air is described based on diffusion/denuder tube separation of ammonia from ammonium salt aerosol. When air is drawn through a tube coated with a selective absorbent (here oxalic acid) separation is achieved because the gaseous species diffuses much more rapidly to the tube wall than the particles. After the sampling period (usually 1–4 h, depending on the free ammonia concentration expected), the sorbed ammonia is washed from the tube and measured potentiometrically with an ammonia probe. The method is tested theoretically and experimentally. The absorption efficiency of the coated tubes is ca. 90%. In samples of room air containing 12–28 μg m^?3, the standard deviation is estimated as 1.0 μg m^?3. In field use, ammonia contents were in the range 0.53–5.0 μg m^?3.     

Performance of the Orion 97-70 total residual chlorine electrode at low concentrations and its application to the analysis of cooling waters

The performance characteristics of the Orion 97-70 total residual chlorine electrode have been determined and the electrode has been found to give a near-theoretical response down to chlorine concentrations in the range 1-5 mug/1. Within-batch relative standard deviations are about 6-8% at concentrations above 50 mug/1. and 10-15% at lower levels. The method is virtually free from interferences (only strong oxidizing agents such as permanganate interfere) but large variations in salinity affect the calibration by changing the conditional standard potential. The best performance at low concentrations (<50 mug/1.) is achieved only if the manufacturer's recommended procedure is changed, namely by using a more dilute iodide reagent, stirring constantly, adding the iodide reagent before the buffer solution and using chloramine-T as a standard.     

The determination of hydrogen chloride in ambient air with diffusion/denuder tubes

A manual method for the determination of hydrogen chloride in air, based on diffusion/denuder tube separation from particulate chloride aerosol is described. When air is drawn through a tube coated with a selective absorbent (sodium fluoride), separation is achieved because gaseous hydrogen chloride diffuses much more rapidly to the tube walls than particulate chloride aerosol, which passes through virtually unabsorbed. After the sampling period (the length of which depends on the concentration of gaseous hydrogen chloride expected), the sorbed hydrogen chloride is washed from the tube and measured with a highly sensitive chloride ion-selective electrode with a mercury (I) chloride membrane. The method is examined theoretically and experimentally. The experimentally derived absorption efficiencies of the diffusion/denuder tubes were > 90% and the standard deviation of the method was 0.023 μg m^?3 for hydrogen chloride concentrations of 0.16–0.55 μg m^?3. Interference from particulate chloride salts was negligible; this was confirmed by tests with artificially generated aerosol particles from an aerosol generator. The diffusion/denuder tubes have high capacity; level as high as 330 μg m^?3 hydrogen chloride can be sampled for 60 min without affecting performance. A detection limit of (50/t) μg m^?3 can be achieved, where t is the sampling rime (min); e.g., 1μg m^?3 hydrogen chloride can be detected with a sampling period of 50 min.