'... the walls fell down but the blokes just coded ...' - Varieties of stability in software product development during organizational restructurings

Many Finnish IT companies have gone through numerous organizational changes over the past decades. This book draws attention to how stability may be central to software product development experts and IT workers more generally, who continuously have to cope with such change in their workplaces. It does so by analyzing and theorizing change and stability as intertwined and co-existent, thus throwing light on how it is possible that, for example, even if ‘the walls fall down the blokes just code’ and maintain a sense of stability in their daily work. Rather than reproducing the picture of software product development as exciting cutting edge activities and organizational change as dramatic episodes, the study takes the reader beyond the myths surrounding these phenomena to the mundane practices, routines and organizings in product development during organizational change. An analysis of these ordinary practices offers insights into how software product development experts actively engage in constructing stability during organizational change through a variety of practices, including solidarity, homosociality, close relations to products, instrumental or functional views on products, preoccupations with certain tasks and humble obedience. Consequently, the study shows that it may be more appropriate to talk about varieties of stability, characterized by a multitude of practices of stabilizing rather than states of stagnation. Looking at different practices of stability in depth shows the creation of software as an arena for micro-politics, power relations and increasing pressures for order and formalization. The thesis gives particular attention to power relations and processes of positioning following organizational change: how social actors come to understand themselves in the context of ongoing organizational change, how they comply with and/or contest dominant meanings, how they identify and dis-identify with formalization, and how power relations often are reproduced despite dis-identification. Related to processes of positioning, the reader is also given a glimpse into what being at work in a male-dominated and relatively homogeneous work environment looks like. It shows how the strong presence of men or “blokes” of a particular age and education seems to become invisible in workplace talk that appears ‘non-conscious’ of gender.

Structure-Reactivity Correlations of Benzoin Alkyl Ethers. Structures of 2-Methoxy-1,2-diphenylethanone (I) and 2-Isopropoxy-1,2-diphenylethanone (II)

(I): C15H1402, Mr---226.27, triclinic, Pi,a=8.441 (2), b= 10.276 (1), c= 15.342 (2)A, a=91.02 (2), ~ t= 79.26 (2), y= 105.88 (2) °, V=1256.8 (4)A 3, Z=4, D,,= 1.209 (flotation in KI),D x - 1.195 g cm -3, #(Mo, 2 = 0.7107/~) = 0.44 cm -~,F(000) = 480, T= 293 K, R -- 0.060 for 1793 significant reflections. (II): C~THlsO2, Mr= 254.83, orthorhombic, Pca21, a=8.476 (1); b= 16.098 (3), c=10.802(3)A, V=1473.9 (5) A s, Z=4, Dm=1.161 (flotation in KI), Dx= 1.148gem -3, /~(Mo, 2=0.7107 A) =0.41 cm -~, F(000) = 544, T= 293 K, R = 0.071 for 867 significant reflections. Both (I) and (II) crystallize in a cisoid conformation for the carbonyl group and alkoxy groups. Compounds (I) and (II) are photostable on irradiation in the solid state in spite of the favourable conformation of the functional groups for intramolecular H abstraction. Absence of photoreaction of (I)and (II) in the solid state is rationalized in the light of unfavourable intramolecular geometry.

Electron paramagnetic resonance studies of some ternary oxides of copper (II)

The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) of ternary oxides of Cu(II) has been studied between 4.2 and 300 K. The systems include those with 180 degrees Cu-O-Cu interactions (such as Ln2CuO4, Sr2CuO2Cl2, Sr2CuO3 and Ca2CuO3) or 90 degrees Cu-O-Cu interactions (such as Y2Cu2O5 or BaCuO2) as well as those in which the Cu2+ ions are isolated (such as Y2BaCuO5, La1.8Ba1.2Cu0.9O4.8 and Bi2CuO4). The change in the EPR susceptibility as a function of temperature is compared with that of the DC magnetic susceptibility. Compounds with extended 180 degrees Cu-O-Cu interactions which have a low susceptibility also do not give EPR signals below room temperature. For compounds such as Ca2CuO3 with one-dimensional 180 degrees Cu-O-Cu interactions a weak EPR signal is found the temperature dependence of which is very different from that of the DC susceptibility. For Y2BaCuO5 as well as for La1.8Ba1.2Cu0.9O4.8 the EPR susceptibility as well as its temperature variation are comparable with those of the static susceptibility near room temperature but very different at low temperatures. Bi2CuO4 also shows a similar behaviour. In contrast, for Y2Cu2O5, in which the copper ions have a very distorted nonsquare-planar configuration, the EPR and the static susceptibility show very similar temperature dependences. In general, compounds in which the copper ions have a square-planar geometry give no EPR signal in the ground state (0 K) while those with a distortion from square-planar geometry do give a signal. The results are analysed in the light of recent MS Xalpha calculations on CuO46- square-planar clusters with various Cu-O distances as well as distortions. It is suggested that in square-planar geometry the ground state has an unpaired electron in anionic orbitals which is EPR inactive. Competing interactions from other cations, an increase in Cu-O distance or distortions from square-planar geometry stabilise another state which has considerably more Cu 3d character. These states are EPR active. Both these states, however, are magnetic. For isolated CuO46- clusters the magnetic interactions seem to involve only the states which have mainly anionic character.

Self-assembled flower-like nanostructures of InN and GaN grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Nanosized hexagonal InN flower-like structures were fabricated by droplet epitaxy on GaN/Si(111) and GaN flower-like nanostructure fabricated directly on Si(111) substrate using radio frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to study the crystallinity and morphology of the nanostructures. Moreover, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence (PL) were used to investigate the chemical compositions and optical properties of nano-flowers, respectively. Activation energy of free exciton transitions in GaN nano-flowers was derived to be similar to 28.5 meV from the temperature dependent PL studies. The formation process of nano-flowers is investigated and a qualitative mechanism is proposed.

Contribution of solvent effect to the optical spectra of polyanilines: has it been underestimated

The coefficient of thermochromism of polyaniline solutions has been found to be solvent dependent and the solvent effect is not negligible. Hence, thermochromism of polyaniline solutions cannot be explained solely on the basis of conformational change induced by a change in temperature. Further, comparison of the solvatochromism of polyaniline and polytoluidine shows a higher solvatochromic shift for the former. It implies that the higher energy associated with the exciton peak of polytoluidine is not due to the higher ring torsional angle induced by the higher steric repulsion of the methyl group, as widely accepted, but is due to its less solvatochromic red-shift as compared to polyaniline.

A classification of homogeneous operators in the Cowen-Douglas class

An explicit construction of all the homogeneous holomorphic Hermitian vector bundles over the unit disc D is given. It is shown that every such vector bundle is a direct sum of irreducible ones. Among these irreducible homogeneous holomorphic Hermitian vector bundles over D, the ones corresponding to operators in the Cowen-Douglas class B-n(D) are identified. The classification of homogeneous operators in B-n(D) is completed using an explicit realization of these operators. We also show how the homogeneous operators in B-n(D) split into similarity classes. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On the isotope effect in some cuprate superconductors

The combined mechanism involving phonon and lochon (local charged boson) induced pairing of fermions developed earlier for cuprate superconductors is used to study the variation of the oxygen isotope effect (alpha(0)) in these systems. The recently observed results for some cuprates are in agreement with the calculated trend in which (alpha(0)) tends to larger value when the critical temperature (T-c) is reduced by appropriate doping. These results support the combined phononic and electronic (lochonic) mechanism for cuprates with the latter dominating in the higher T-c regions.

Unwinding of heterologous DNA by RecA protein during the search for homologous sequences

The search for homologous sequences promoted by RecA protein in vitro involves a presynaptic filament and naked duplex DNA, the multiple contacts of which produce nucleoprotein networks or coaggregates. The single-stranded DNA within the presynaptic filaments, however, is extended to an axial spacing 1.5 times that of B-form DNA. To investigate this paradoxical difference between the spacing of bases in the RecA presynaptic filament versus the target duplex DNA, we explored the effect of heterologous contacts on the conformation of DNA, and vice versa. In the presence of wheat germ topoisomerase I, RecA presynaptic filaments induced a rapid, limited reduction in the linking number of heterologous circular duplex DNA. This limited unwinding of heterologous duplex DNA, termed heterologous unwinding, was detected within 30 seconds and reached a steady state within a few minutes. Presynaptic filaments that were formed in the presence of ATP?S and separated from free RecA protein by gel filtration also generated a ladder of topoisomers upon incubation with relaxed duplex DNA and topoisomerase. The inhibition of heterologous contacts by 60 mImage -NaCl or 5 mImage -ADP resulted in a corresponding decrease in heterologous unwinding. In reciprocal fashion, the stability or number of heterologous contacts with presynaptic filaments was inversely related to the linking number of circular duplex DNA. These observations show that heterologous contacts with the presynaptic filament cause a limited unwinding of the duplex DNA, and conversely that the ability of the DNA to unwind stabilizes transient heterologous contacts.

Chelating and bridging bis(diphenylphosphino)aniline complexes of copper(I)

The ligand bis(diphenylphosphino)aniline (dppan) has been shown to be a versatile ligand sporting different coordination modes and geometries as dictated by copper(I) and the counter ion. The molecular structures of its Cu(I) complexes were characterized by X-ray crystallography. The ligand was found in a chelating mode and monomeric complexes were formed when the ligand to copper ratio was 2: 1 and the anion was non-coordinating. However, with thiocyanate as the counter anion, the ligand was found to adopt two different modes, with one ligand chelating and the other acting as a monodentate ligand. With CuX (X = Cl, Br), dppan formed a tetrameric complex when the ligand and metal were reacted in the ratio of 1:1. But reactions containing ligand and metal in the ratios of 1: 2 or 2: 1, resulted in the formation of a mixture of species in solution. Crystallization however, led to the isolation of the tetrameric complex. Variable temperature P-31{H-1} NMR spectra of the isolated tetramers did not show the presence of chelated structures in solution. Tetra-alkylammonium salts were added to solutions of various complexes of dppan and studied by P-31{H-1} NMR to probe the effect of anions on the stability of complexes in solution. The Cu-dppan complexes were robust and did not interconvert with other structures in solution unlike the bis(diphenylphosphino) isopropylamine complexes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Synthesis and properties of nanodispersed granular materials

Nanometric granular materials represent a new class of materials with significant promise. We shall discuss in this paper two phase granular materials where one of the phases having nanometric dimension is embedded in a matrix of larger dimension. These materials show many interesting properties which include structural, magnetic and transport properties, The phase transformation of the embedded particles shows distinctive behavior and yields new insight. We shall first highlight the strategy of synthesis of these materials through rapid solidification. This will be followed by three examples where the nanoscale dimension of the embedded particles play a unique role. These are melting and solidification of the nanodispersed embedded particles and the superconducting transition. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.

Growth and characterization of ferroelectric glycine phosphite single crystals

Single crystals of a recent ferroelectric material, glycine phosphite were grown from aqueous solution employing the techniques of slow cooling and controlled evaporation. Powder X-ray diffraction studies as well as thermal analysis were carried out on the grown crystals. The morphology of the crystal has been determined using contact and optical goniometry. The mechanical hardness of the crystal was evaluated by Vickers indentation method. Thickness dependence of the dielectric properties has been investigated and the results can be interpreted in terms of a surface layer of lower dielectric constant.

Dry tribology and nanomechanics of gaseous flame soot in comparison with carbon black and diesel soot

Ethylene gas is burnt and the carbon soot particles are thermophoretically collected using a home-built equipment where the fuel air injection and intervention into the 7.5-cm long flame are controlled using three small pneumatic cylinders and computer-driven controllers. The physical and mechanical properties and tribological performance of the collected soot are compared with those of carbon black and diesel soot. The crystalline structures of the nanometric particles generated in the flame, as revealed by high-resolution transmission electron studies, are shown to vary from the flame root to the exhaust. As the particle journeys upwards the flame, through a purely amorphous coagulated phase at the burner nozzle, it leads to a well-defined crystalline phase shell in the mid-flame zone and to a disordered phase consisting of randomly distributed short-range crystalline order at the exhaust. In the mid-flame region, a large shell of radial-columnar order surrounds a dense amorphous core. The hardness and wear resistance as well as friction coefficient of the soot extracted from this zone are low. The mechanical properties characteristics of this zone may be attributed to microcrystalline slip. Moving towards the exhaust, the slip is inhibited and there is an increase in hardness and friction compared to those in the mid-flame zone. This study of the comparison of flame soot to carbon black and diesel soot is further extended to suggest a rationale based on additional physico-chemical study using micro-Raman spectroscopy.