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As demand rises for flexible electronics, traditionally prepared sintered ceramic sensors must be transformed into fully new sensor materials that can bend and flex in use and integration. Negative temperature coefficient of resistance (NTC) ceramic thermistors are preferred temperature sensors for their high accuracy and excellent stability, yet their high stiffness and high temperature fabrication process limits their use in flexible electronics. Here, a low stiffness thermistor based on NTC ceramic particles of micron size embedded in an epoxy polymer matrix is reported. The effect of particle-to-particle contact on electrical performance is studied by arranging the NTC particles in the composite films in one of three ways: 1) Low particle contact, 2) Improved particle contact perpendicular to the electrodes and 3) dispersing high particle contact agglomerated clumps throughout the polymer. At 50 vol.\% of agglomerated NTC particles, the composite films exhibit a $\beta$-value of 2069 K and a resistivity, $\rho$, of 3.3$\cdot 10^5$ $\Omega$m, 4 orders of magnitude lower than a randomly dispersed composite at identical volume. A quantitative analysis shows that attaining a predominantly parallel connectivity of the NTC particles and polymer is a key parameter in determining the electrical performance of the composite film., Comment: Pim Groen aka W.A. Groen, 3 figures, 15 pages double spaced

Earlier work on program and thread algebra detailed the functional, observable behavior of programs under execution. In this article we add the modeling of unobservable, mechanistic processing, in particular processing due to jump instructions. We model mechanistic processing preceding some further behavior as a delay of that behavior; we borrow a unary delay operator from discrete time process algebra. We define a mechanistic improvement ordering on threads and observe that some threads do not have an optimal implementation., Comment: 12 pages

We study the application of Tuplix Calculus in modular financial budget design. We formalize organizational structure using financial transfer networks. We consider the notion of flux of money over a network, and a way to enforce the matching of influx and outflux for parts of a network. We exploit so-called signed attribute notation to make internal streams visible through encapsulations. Finally, we propose a Tuplix Calculus construct for the definition of data functions.

We go into the need for, and the requirements on, a formal theory of budgets. We present a simple algebraic theory of rational budgets, i.e., budgets in which amounts of money are specified by functions on the rational numbers. This theory is based on the tuplix calculus. We go into the importance of using totalized models for the rational numbers. We present a case study on the educational budget of a university department offering master programs.

We introduce a calculus for tuplices, which are expressions that generalize matrices and vectors. Tuplices have an underlying data type for quantities that are taken from a zero-totalized field. We start with the core tuplix calculus CTC for entries and tests, which are combined using conjunctive composition. We define a standard model and prove that CTC is relatively complete with respect to it. The core calculus is extended with operators for choice, information hiding, scalar multiplication, clearing and encapsulation. We provide two examples of applications; one on incremental financial budgeting, and one on modular financial budget design., Comment: 22 pages