DEVELOPMENTS AT NIST Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are working on the following technologies. For further information, contact: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Office of Technology Partnerships, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 2200, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-2200; Telecopy: 301-869-2751. This is not an announcement of a contract action or a grant. NIST DOCKET NUMBER: 00-006PA2, Title: Method For Creating Self-Signing Electronic Document Objects, Description: Confidentiality is vital to many electronic transactions. During storage and transmission, it is often desirable to protect the contents of electronic documents so that only the document's originator and intended recipients can view its contents. Cryptographic techniques are often used to ensure the confidentiality of electronic data. The creator of an electronic document can encrypt the plaintext content of the document, Transforming it into illegible ciphertext. Only parties who possess the correct cryptographic key can decrypt the document, transforming the ciphertext back into plain text. Traditional methods for encrypting and decrypting electronic documents rely on cryptographic programs that are external to the electronic document objects. These methods require a high degree of coordination between the applications that process the electronic documents, because each application needs to know exactly how to encrypt and decrypt documents. This paper describes a method for creating Self-Encrypting/decrypting electronic Document Objects (SEDOs) that contain an embedded Cipher Management Program. The encryption and decryption processes are encapsulated within SEDOs, and use only the standard capabilities of document representation languages that support dynamic content. This method is a vast improvement over traditional document encryption systems, because SEDOs can be processed by any application that understands the standard document representation language of an SEDO. NIST DOCKET NUMBER: 00-007PA, Title: Converging Wavefront Plane Window Interferometer, Description: this invention relates to the non-contact, interferometric measurement of the thickness and thickness variations in nominally plane, parallel plates of optically transparent materials. It is particularly applicable to the measurement of thickness variations in silicon wafers and flat panel display substrates. A moderate quality, converging beam of light is used to illuminate the full surface of the plate. The two surfaces of the plate divide the light beam into two optical wavefronts that converge to two axially separated positions. These two wavefronts interfere and produce nominally concentric interference fringes roughly centered on the plate under test. The details of the interference pattern, as either viewed directly or by phase shifting the pattern by changing the wavelength of the light source, yield precise information on the thickness and thickness variations of the plate. NIST DOCKET NUMBER: 00-008PA, Title: Cryosalts: Suppression Of Ice Formation In Macromolecular Crystallography, Description: Quality data collection for macromolecular cryocrystallography requires suppressing the formation of crystalline or microcrystalline ice that may result from flash-freezing crystals. Described here is the use of lithium formate, lithium chloride, and other highly soluble salts for forming ice-ring-free aqueous glasses upon cooling from ambient temperature to 100 K. These cryosalts are a new class of cryoprotectants that are shown to be effective with a variety of commonly used crystallization solutions and with proteins crystallized under different conditions. The influence of cryosalts on crystal mosaicity and diffraction resolution is comparable or superior to traditional organic cryoprotectants. WEB: NIST Contracts Homepage, http://www.nist.gov/admin/od/contract/contract.htm. E-MAIL: NIST Contracts Office, kemiswler@nist.gov. Posted 04/27/00 (W-SN449333).

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0420 20000501\SP-0016.MSC)