From 04.01.04 to 09.01.04, the Dagstuhl Seminar 04021 ``Content-Based Retrieval'' was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available.
The study described here is concerned with possible temperature limitations in Ni-Fe and Ni-Zn aqueous alkaline battery systems in the temperature range -20°C to 120°C. Thermodynamic studies involved the calculation of potential/concentration relationships for concentrated solutions. Kinetic studies have employed potential step and sweep, rotating ring disk and ac impedance methods. The principal temperature limitation of Ni appears to be reduced coulombic efficiency at high temperature as a result of the coevolution of oxygen at a high state of charge. The irreversible component of charging also increases immediately following prolonged discharge of Ni. The temperature limitation of the negative electrode materials, Fe and Zn, are more serious and more complex than those for Ni. In addition to the effects of increased hydrogen evolution, oxidative and reductive dissolution processes may substantially reduce the coulombic efficiency of Fe electrodes at 7>80°C. At r^O°C, charge/discharge kinetics of Fe become limited by the resistance of a residual surface oxide film. Discharge of Zn electrodes also is severely curtailed at reduced temperatures by reduced dissolution current and the premature onset of passivation. Under potentiostatic or high load conditions, zinc electrodes undergo an oscillatory activation/passivation process within a defined region of potential. This potential region increases with increasing temperature.
ZACKAY et al.1 have discussed the increase in fracture toughness of untempered ultra-high strength steels resulting from the use of high austenizing temperatures for solution treatment. Their results indicate that the toughness is increased suddenly and dramatically, by a factor of more than two, when the steels are austenized at temperatures greater than 1,100° C (Fig. 1). The effect is promoted by fast quenching rates. They show further that a two-step quenching procedure from high austenizing temperatures (for example, 1,200° C→870° C→quench) can eliminate any danger of quench cracking, whilst causing only a small (7%) reduction in fracture toughness. This improvement in toughness, obtained by using high austenizing temperatures, was attributed to the retardation of grain boundary nucleation of a second phase when high energy grain boundaries, associated with small grains, are eliminated by grain growth.
The Global Credit Crisis of 2008-09 has underscored the urgency of reforming the international financial architecture. While a number of short-term reforms are already in train, this paper contemplates more ambitious reforms of the international financial architecture that might be implemented over the next ten years. It proposes routinizing the expansion of IMF quotas and the conduct of exchange rate surveillance. It contemplates an expanded role for the SDR in international transactions, which would require someone-like the IMF-to act as market maker. It considers proposals for reimposing Glass-Steagall-like restrictions on commercial and investment banking, something that will have to be coordinated internationally to be feasible. Other proposals would require banks to purchase capital insurance; here the question is who would be on the other side of the market. Again there is likely to be a role for the IMF. Then there are arguments for a new agency or institution to deal with cross-border bank insolvencies. Any such entity will require staff support, which might plausibly come from the Fund. Finally, some insist that international colleges of regulators are not enough-that it is desirable to create a World Financial Organization (WFO) with the power to sanction members whose national regulatory policies are not up to international standards. A WFO will similarly need staff support, of which the IMF would be one possible source. All this of course presupposes meaningful IMF governance reform so that the institution has the legitimacy and efficiency to assume these additional responsibilities. The paper therefore concludes with some conventional and unconventional proposals for IMF governance reform.