Formation and precise geometry control of SNAP microresonators by external electrostatic fields

In SNAP (Surface nanoscale axial photonics) resonators propagation of a slow whispering gallery mode along an optical fiber is controlled by nanoscale variation of the effective radius of the fiber [1]. Similar behavior can be realized in so - called nanobump microresonators in which the introduced variation of the effective radius is asymmetric, i.e. depends on the axial coordinate [2]. The possibilities of realization of such structures “on the fly” in an optical fiber by applying external electrostatic fields to it is discussed in this work. It is shown that local variations in effective radius of the fiber and in its refractive index caused by external electric fields can be large enough to observe SNAP structure - like behavior in an originally flat optical fiber. Theoretical estimations of the introduced refractive index and effective radius changes and results of finite element calculations are presented. Various effects are taken into account: electromechanical (piezoelectricity and electrostriction), electro-optical (Pockels and Kerr effects) and elasto-optical effect. Different initial fibre cross-sections are studied. The aspects of use of linear isotropic (such as silica) and non-linear anisotropic (such as lithium niobate) materials of the fiber are discussed. REFERENCES [1] M. Sumetsky, J. M. Fini, Opt. Exp. 19, 26470 (2011). [2] L. A. Kochkurov, M. Sumetsky, Opt. Lett. 40, 1430 (2015).

Uncertainty and the influence of group norms in the attitude-behaviour relationship

Two studies were conducted to examine the impact of subjective uncertainty on conformity to group norms in the attitude-behaviour context. In both studies, subjective uncertainty was manipulated using a deliberative mindset manipulation (McGregor, Zanna, Holmes, & Spencer, 2001). In Study 1 (N = 106), participants were exposed to either an attitude-congruent or an attitude-incongruent in-group norm. In Study 2(N = 83), participants were exposed to either a congruent, incongruent, or an ambiguous in-group norm. Ranges of attitude-behaviour outcomes, including attitude-intention consistency and change in attitude-certainty, were assessed. In both studies, levels of group-normative behaviour varied as a function of uncertainty condition. In Study 1, conformity to group norms, as evidenced by variations in the level of attitude-intention consistency, was observed only in the high uncertainty condition. In Study 2, exposure to an ambiguous norm had different effects for those in the low and die high uncertainty conditions. In the low uncertainty condition, greatest conformity was observed in the attitude-congruent norm condition compared with an attitude-congruent or ambiguous norm. In contrast, individuals in the high uncertainty condition displayed greatest conformity when exposed to either an attitude-congruent or an ambiguous in-group norm. The implications of these results for the role of subjective uncertainty in social influence processes are discussed. © 2007 The British Psychological Society.

Distribution of A4 protein and neurofibrillary change in the hippocampus in Alzheimer's disease

The principal components of classical senile plaques (SP) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) appear to be A4/beta protein and paired helical filaments (PHF). A4 deposits may evolve into classical SP in brain regions vulnerable to the formation of PHF. We have investigated the diatribution of A4 deposits using an immunostain and the neurofibrillary change using the Gallyas stain in various regions of the hippocampus. This region is particularly affected in AD and also has relatively restricted inputs and outputs. In 6 patients we found a significant preponderance of A4 deposits in the adjacent parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) compared with all regions of the hippocampus. However, plaque-like clusters of PHF (Gallyas plaques) were more abundant in the subiculum while neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) were more abundant in the subiculum and region CA1 compared with the PHG and other hippocampal regions. Hence, A4 deposits appear to be concentrated in the region providing a major input into the hippocampus while the neurofibrillary changes are characteristic of the major output areas (subiculum and CA1). Hence, the data suggest that A4 formation and the neurofibrillary changes may occur in regions of the hippocampus that are connected anatomically.

Trade union policy and new technology: the Civil and Public Services Association

The introduction of a micro-electronic based technology to the workplace has had a far reaching and widespread effect on the numbers and content of jobs. The importance of the implications of new technology were recognised by the trade unions, leading to a plethora of advice and literature in the late 70s and early 80s, notably the TUC 'Technology and Employment ' report. However, studies into the union response have consistently found an overall lack of influence by unions in the introduction of technology. Whilst the advent of new technology has coincided with an industrial relations climate of unprecedented hostility to union activity in the post-war period, there are structural weaknesses in unions in coming to terms with the process of technological change. In particular was the identification of a lack of suitable technological expertise. Addressing itself to this perceived weakness of the union response, this thesis is the outcome of a collaborative project between a national union and an academic institution. The thesis is based on detailed case studies concerning technology bargaining in the Civil Service and the response of the Civil and Public Services Associations (CPSA), the union that represents lower grade white collar civil servants. It is demonstrated that the application of expertise to union negotiators is insufficient on its own to extend union influence and that for unions to effectively come to terms with technology and influence its development requires a re-assessment across all spheres of union activity. It is suggested that this has repercussions for not only the internal organisation and quality of union policy formation and the extent, form and nature of collective bargaining with employer representatives, but also in the relationship with consumer and interest groups outside the traditional collective bargaining forum. Three policy options are developed in the thesis with the 'adversarial' and 'co~operative' options representing the more traditional reactive and passive forms of involvement. These are contrasted with an 'independent participative' form of involvement which was a 'pro-active' policy option and utilised the expertise of the Author in the CPSA's response to technological change.

Building cliques and alliances as practices to 'make things happen' in complex networks

The Roma population has become a policy issue highly debated in the European Union (EU). The EU acknowledges that this ethnic minority faces extreme poverty and complex social and economic problems. 52% of the Roma population live in extreme poverty, 75% in poverty (Soros Foundation, 2007, p. 8), with a life expectancy at birth of about ten years less than the majority population. As a result, Romania has received a great deal of policy attention and EU funding, being eligible for 19.7 billion Euros from the EU for 2007-2013. Yet progress is slow; it is debated whether Romania's government and companies were capable to use these funds (EurActiv.ro, 2012). Analysing three case studies, this research looks at policy implementation in relation to the role of Roma networks in different geographical regions of Romania. It gives insights about how to get things done in complex settings and it explains responses to the Roma problem as a „wicked‟ policy issue. This longitudinal research was conducted between 2008 and 2011, comprising 86 semi-structured interviews, 15 observations, and documentary sources and using a purposive sample focused on institutions responsible for implementing social policies for Roma: Public Health Departments, School Inspectorates, City Halls, Prefectures, and NGOs. Respondents included: governmental workers, academics, Roma school mediators, Roma health mediators, Roma experts, Roma Councillors, NGOs workers, and Roma service users. By triangulating the data collected with various methods and applied to various categories of respondents, a comprehensive and precise representation of Roma network practices was created. The provisions of the 2001 „Governmental Strategy to Improve the Situation of the Roma Population‟ facilitated forming a Roma network by introducing special jobs in local and central administration. In different counties, resources, people, their skills, and practices varied. As opposed to the communist period, a new Roma elite emerged: social entrepreneurs set the pace of change by creating either closed cliques or open alliances and by using more or less transparent practices. This research deploys the concept of social/institutional entrepreneurs to analyse how key actors influence clique and alliance formation and functioning. Significantly, by contrasting three case studies, it shows that both closed cliques and open alliances help to achieve public policy network objectives, but that closed cliques can also lead to failure to improve the health and education of Roma people in a certain region.

Organizational change and development in India:a case of strategic organizational change and transformation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine developments in the field of organizational change (OC) with reference to the context of India. It highlights the need to analyze this topic in the present Indian economic environment and discusses the main developments reported in the Indian literature on the same. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical evidence based on a qualitative analysis of a case study undertaken at a public-private partnership transformation at North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) in India is presented. Findings – The findings focus on trust building and belongingness for the employees, establishing a high-performance orientation, quality improvements, and the resultant transformations at NDPL. The analysis indicates a number of ways by which NDPL sought to improve its efficiency in order to better adapt to the rapidly changing Indian business environment. Practical implications – Based on the findings, the paper identifies key messages for policy makers and change agents regarding how to transform companies in the rapidly changing business contexts of emerging markets such as India. Originality/value – The paper offers an in-depth analysis of OC practices in a large organization in India.

Organisational receptivity for change:combining context and capability to explain competitive advantage

This thesis explores efforts to conjoin organisational contexts and capabilities in explaining sustainable competitive advantage. Oliver (1997) argued organisations need to balance the need to conform to industry’s requirements to attain legitimization (e.g. DiMaggio & Powell, 1983), and the need for resource optimization (e.g. Barney, 1991). The author hypothesized that such balance can be viewed as movements along the homogeneity-heterogeneity continuum. An organisation in a homogenous industry possesses similar characteristics as its competitors, as opposed to a heterogeneous industry in which organisations within are differentiated and competitively positioned (Oliver, 1997). The movement is influenced by the dynamic environmental conditions that an organisation is experiencing. The author extended Oliver’s (1997) propositions of combining RBV’s focus on capabilities with institutional theory’s focus on organisational context, as well as redefining organisational receptivity towards change (ORC) factors from Butler and Allen’s (2008) findings. The authors contributed to the theoretical development of ORC theory to explain the attainment of sustainable competitive advantage. ORC adopts the assumptions from both institutional and RBV theories, where the receptivity factors include both organisational contexts and capabilities. The thesis employed a mixed method approach in which sequential qualitative quantitative studies were deployed to establish a robust, reliable, and valid ORC scale. The adoption of Hinkin’s (1995) three-phase scale development process was updated, thus items generated from interviews and literature reviews went through numerous exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to achieve convergent, discriminant, and nomological validities. Samples in the first phase (semi structured interviews) were hotel owners and managers. In the second phase, samples were MBA students, and employees of private and public sectors. In the third phase, samples were hotel managers. The final ORC scale is a parsimonious second higher-order latent construct. The first-order constructs comprises four latent receptivity factors which are ideological vision (4 items), leading change (4 items), implementation capacity (4 items), and change orientation (7 items). Hypotheses testing revealed that high levels of perceived environmental uncertainty leads to high levels of receptivity factor. Furthermore, the study found a strong positive correlation between receptivity factors and competitive advantage, and between receptivity factors and organisation performance. Mediation analyses revealed that receptivity factors partially mediate the relationship between perceived environmental uncertainty, competitive advantage and organisational performance.

High rate growth of nanocrystalline diamond films using high microwave power and pure nitrogen/methane/hydrogen plasma

In this work, we investigate the impact of minute amounts of pure nitrogen addition into conventional methane/hydrogen mixtures on the growth characteristics of nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films by microwave plasma assisted chemical vapour deposition (MPCVD), under high power conditions. The NCD films were produced from a gas mixture of 4% CH4/H2 with two different concentrations of N2 additive and microwave power ranging from 3.0 kW to 4.0 kW, while keeping all the other operating parameters constant. The morphology, grain size, microstructure and texture of the resulting NCD films were characterized by using scanning electron microscope (SEM), micro-Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. N2 addition was found to be the main parameter responsible for the formation and for the key change in the growth characteristics of NCD films under the employed conditions. Growth rates ranging from 5.4 μm/h up to 9.6 μm/h were achieved for the NCD films, much higher than those usually reported in the literature. The enhancing factor of nitrogen addition on NCD growth rate was obtained by comparing with the growth rate of large-grained microcrystalline diamond films grown without nitrogen and discussed by comparing with that of single crystal diamond through theoretical work in the literature. This achievement on NCD growth rate makes the technology interesting for industrial applications where fast coating of large substrates is highly desirable.

Exploring the relationships between network change and network learning

This paper relates the concept of network learning - learning by a group of organizations as a group - to change and notions of change management. Derived initially from a review of literature on organizational learning (OL) and interorganizational networks, and secondary cases of network learning, the concept was evaluated and developed through empirical investigation of five network learning episodes in the group of organizations that comprises the English prosthetics service. We argue that the notion of network learning enables a richer understanding of developments in networks over extended periods of time than can be afforded through more established concepts of change and change management alone.

H-induced platelet and crack formation in hydrogenated epitaxial Si/Si0.98 B0.02 /Si structures

An approach to transfer a high-quality Si layer for the fabrication of silicon-on-insulator wafers has been proposed based on the investigation of platelet and crack formation in hydrogenated epitaxialSi/Si0.98B0.02/Si structures grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. H-related defect formation during hydrogenation was found to be very sensitive to the thickness of the buried Si0.98B0.02 layer. For hydrogenated Si containing a 130nm thick Si0.98B0.02 layer, no platelets or cracking were observed in the B-doped region. Upon reducing the thickness of the buried Si0.98B0.02 layer to 3nm, localized continuous cracking was observed along the interface between the Si and the B-doped layers. In the latter case, the strains at the interface are believed to facilitate the (100)-oriented platelet formation and (100)-oriented crack propagation.

A preliminary evaluation of a novel method to monitor a triple antioxidant combination (vitamins E, C and alpha-lipoic acid) in diabetic volunteers using in vitro methaemoglobin formation

Eight otherwise healthy diabetic volunteers took a daily antioxidant supplement consisting of vitamin E (200 IU), vitamin C (250 mg) and α-lipoic acid (90 mg) for a period of 6 weeks. Diabetic dapsone hydroxylamine-mediated methaemoglobin formation and resistance to erythrocytic thiol depletion was compared with age and sex-matched non-diabetic subjects. At time zero, methaemoglobin formation in the non-diabetic subjects was greater at all four time points compared with that of the diabetic subjects. Resistance to glutathione depletion was initially greater in non-diabetic compared with diabetic samples. Half-way through the study (3 weeks), there were no differences between the two groups in methaemoglobin formation and thiol depletion in the diabetic samples was now lower than the non-diabetic samples at 10 and 20 min. At 6 weeks, diabetic erythrocytic thiol levels remained greater than those of non-diabetics. HbA1c values were significantly reduced in the diabetic subjects at 6 weeks compared with time zero values. At 10 weeks, 4 weeks after the end of supplementation, the diabetic HbA1c values significantly increased to the point where they were not significantly different from the time zero values. Total antioxidant status measurement (TAS) indicated that diabetic plasma antioxidant capacity was significantly improved during antioxidant supplementation. Conversion of α-lipoic acid to dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA) in vivo led to potent interference in a standard fructosamine assay kit, negating its use in this study. This report suggests that triple antioxidant therapy in diabetic volunteers attenuates the in vitro experimental oxidative stress of methaemoglobin formation and reduces haemoglobin glycation in vivo. © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

A smart micro-drill for cochleostomy formation:a comparison of cochlear disturbances with manual drilling and a human trial

Background: Cochleostomy formation is a key stage of the cochlear implantation procedure. Minimizing the trauma sustained by the cochlea during this step is thought to be a critical feature in hearing preservation cochlear implantation. The aim of this paper is firstly, to assess the cochlea disturbances during manual and robotic cochleostomy formation. Secondly, to determine whether the use of a smart micro-drill is feasible during human cochlear implantation. Materials and methods: The disturbances within the cochlea during cochleostomy formation were analysed in a porcine specimen by creating a third window cochleostomy, preserving the underlying endosteal membrane, on the anterior aspect of the basal turn of the cochlea. A laser vibrometer was aimed at this third window, to assess its movement while a traditional cochleostomy was performed. Six cochleostomies were performed in total, three manually and three with a smart micro-drill. The mean and peak membrane movement was calculated for both manual and smart micro-drill arms, to represent the disturbances sustained within cochlea during cochleostomy formation. The smart micro-drill was further used to perform live human robotic cochleostomies on three adult patients who met the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence criteria for undergoing cochlear implantation. Results: In the porcine trial, the smart micro-drill preserved the endosteal membrane in all three cases. The velocity of movement of the endosteal membrane during manual cochleostomy is approximately 20 times higher on average and 100 times greater in peak velocity, than for robotic cochleostomy. The robot was safely utilized in theatre in all three cases and successfully created a bony cochleostomy while preserving the underlying endosteal membrane. Conclusions: Our experiments have revealed that controlling the force of drilling during cochleostomy formation and opening the endosteal membrane with a pick will minimize the trauma sustained by the cochlea by a factor of 20. Additionally, the smart micro-drill can safely perform a bony cochleostomy in humans under operative conditions and preserve the integrity of the underlying endosteal membrane. © W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2013.

Transforming the relationship between staff and students to effect change

This opinion piece argues for the necessity of student-staff partnerships that go beyond the common rhetoric of ‘student engagement’, achieving a richer student and staff dialogue which results in more meaningful change in policy and practice. In particular, attention is drawn to the need for such partnerships when determining technology applications that are often missed out from, or treated in isolation from, the curriculum design process. This piece cites, as an example, a student-led taught day on the Post Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching at Aston University in July 2015. There was clear evidence that the staff participants designed their assessments with student partners in mind. It is therefore proposed that a partnership relationship offers an effective means of moving forward from common practices where technology simply replicates, or supplements, traditional activities.

The relationship between perceived training and development and employee retention:the mediating role of work attitudes

This paper considers how utilizing a model of job-related affect can be used to explain the processes through which perceived training and development influence employee retention. We applied Russell’s model of core affect to categorize four different forms of work attitude, and positioned these as mediators of the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Using data from 1,191 employees across seven organizations, multilevel analyses found that job satisfaction, employee engagement, and change-related anxiety were significantly associated with intention to stay, and fully mediated the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Contrary to our hypotheses, emotional exhaustion was not significantly associated with intention to stay nor acted as a mediator when the other attitudes were included. These findings show the usefulness of Russell’s model of core affect in explaining the link between training and development and employee retention. Moreover, the findings collectively suggest that studies examining employee retention should include a wider range of work attitudes that highlight pleasant forms of affect.