Electronic structure and bonding of beta-rhombohedral boron using cluster fragment approach

Theoretical studies using density functional theory are carried out to understand the electronic structure and bonding and electronic properties of elemental beta-rhombohedral boron. The calculated band structure of ideal beta-rhombohedral boron (B-105) shows valence electron deficiency and depicts metallic behavior. This is in contrast to the experimental result that it is a semiconductor. To understand this ambiguity we discuss the electronic structure and bonding of this allotrope with cluster fragment approach using our recently proposed mno rule. This helps us to comprehend in greater detail the structure of B-105 and materials which are closely related to beta-rhombohedral boron. The molecular structures B12H12-2, B28H21+1, BeB27H21, LiB27H21-1, CB27H21+2, B57H36+3, Be3B54H36, and Li2CB54H36, and corresponding solids Li8Be3B102 and Li10CB102 are arrived at using these ideas and studied using first principles density functional theory calculations.

Current Care Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation : Implementation, skills and attitudes

Background: The national resuscitation guidelines were published in Finland in 2002 and are based on international guidelines published in 2000. The main goal of the national guidelines, available on the Internet free of charge, is early defibrillation by nurses in an institutional setting. Aim: To study possible changes in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) practices, especially concerning early defibrillation, nurses and students attitudes of guideline implementation and nurses and students ability to implement the guideline recommendations in clinical practices after publication of the Current Care (CC) guidelines for CPR 2002. Material and methods: CPR practices in Finnish health centres; especially concerning rapid defibrillation programmes, as well as the implementation of CC guidelines for CPR was studied in a mail survey to chief physicians of every health centre in Finland (Study I). The CPR skills using an automated external defibrillator (AED) were compared in a study including Objective stuctured clinical examination (OSCE) of resuscitation skills of nurses and nursing students in Finnish and Swedish hospital and institution (Studies II, III). Attitudes towards CPR-D and CPR guidelines among medical and nursing students and secondary hospital nurses were studied in surveys (Studies IV, V). The nurses receiving different CPR training were compared in a randomized trial including OSCE of CPR skills of nurses in Finnish Hospital (Study VI). Results: Two years after the publication, 40.7% of Finnish health centres used national resuscitation guidelines. The proportion of health centres having at least one AED (66%) and principle of nurse-performed defibrillation without the presence of a physician (42%) had increased. The CPR-D training was estimated to be insufficient regarding basic life support and advanced life support in the majority of health centres (Study I). CPR-D skills of nurses and nursing students in two specific Swedish and Finnish hospitals and institutions (Study II and III) were generally inadequate. The nurses performed better than the students and the Swedish nurses surpassed the Finnish ones. Geriatric nurses receiving traditional CPR-D training performed better than those receiving an Internet-based course but both groups failed to defibrillate within 60 s. Thus, the performance was not satisfactory even two weeks after traditional training (Study VI). Unlike the medical students, the nursing students did not feel competent to perform procedures recommended in the cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines including the defibrillation. However, the majority of nursing students felt confident about their ability to perform basic life support. The perceived ability to defibrillate correlated significantly with a positive attitude towards nurse-performed defibrillation and negatively with fear of damaging the patient s heart by defibrillation (Study IV). After the educational intervention, the nurses found their level of CPR-D capability more sufficient than before and felt more confident about their ability to perform defibrillation themselves. A negative attitude toward defibrillation correlated with perceived negative organisational attitudes toward cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines. After CPR-D education in the hospital, the majority (64%) of nurses hesitated to perform defibrillation because of anxiety and 27 % hesitated because of fear of injuring the patient. Also a negative personal attitude towards guidelines increased markedly after education (Study V). Conclusions: Although a significant change had occurred in resuscitation practices in primary health care after publication of national cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines the participants CPR-D skills were not adequate according to the CPR guidelines. The current way of teaching is unlikely to result in participants being able to perform adequate and rapid CPR-D. More information and more frequent training are needed to diminish anxiety concerning defibrillation. Negative beliefs and attitudes toward defibrillation affect the nursing students and nurses attitudes toward cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines. CPR-D education increased the participants self-confidence concerning CPR-D skills but it did not reduce their anxiety. AEDs have replaced the manual defibrillators in most institutions, but in spite of the modern devices the anxiety still exists. Basic education does not provide nursing students with adequate CPR-D skills. Thus, frequent training in the workplace has vital importance. This multi-professional program supported by the administration might provide better CPR-D skills. Distance learning alone cannot substitute for traditional small-group learning, tutored hands-on training is needed to learn practical CPR-D skills. Standardized testing would probably help controlling the quality of learning. Training of group-working skills might improve CPR performance.

Flow driven electronic transport in carbon nan otubes

The flow of a liquid on single-walled carbon nanotube bundles induces an electrical signal (voltage/current) in the sample along the direction of the flow. The electrical response is found to be logarithmic in the flow speed over a wide range. The magnitude of the flow induced electrical signal generated depends sensitively on the ionic conductivity and the polar nature of the liquid, and electrical biasing of the nanotubes can control its direction. Our measurements suggest that the dominant mechanism responsible for this highly sub-linear response should involve a direct forcing of the free charge carriers in the nanotubes by the fluctuating Coulombic field of the liquid flowing past it.

The Problem of Implementation and its Relation to the Philosophy of Cognitive Science

According to certain arguments, computation is observer-relative either in the sense that many physical systems implement many computations (Hilary Putnam), or in the sense that almost all physical systems implement all computations (John Searle). If sound, these arguments have a potentially devastating consequence for the computational theory of mind: if arbitrary physical systems can be seen to implement arbitrary computations, the notion of computation seems to lose all explanatory power as far as brains and minds are concerned. David Chalmers and B. Jack Copeland have attempted to counter these relativist arguments by placing certain constraints on the definition of implementation. In this thesis, I examine their proposals and find both wanting in some respects. During the course of this examination, I give a formal definition of the class of combinatorial-state automata , upon which Chalmers s account of implementation is based. I show that this definition implies two theorems (one an observation due to Curtis Brown) concerning the computational power of combinatorial-state automata, theorems which speak against founding the theory of implementation upon this formalism. Toward the end of the thesis, I sketch a definition of the implementation of Turing machines in dynamical systems, and offer this as an alternative to Chalmers s and Copeland s accounts of implementation. I demonstrate that the definition does not imply Searle s claim for the universal implementation of computations. However, the definition may support claims that are weaker than Searle s, yet still troubling to the computationalist. There remains a kernel of relativity in implementation at any rate, since the interpretation of physical systems seems itself to be an observer-relative matter, to some degree at least. This observation helps clarify the role the notion of computation can play in cognitive science. Specifically, I will argue that the notion should be conceived as an instrumental rather than as a fundamental or foundational one.

Spectrophotometric and potentiometric investigations of copper (II)-Ethanolamine complexes - Part III. diethanolamine (Gaussian analysis of electronic spectra in mono and diethanolamine systems)

Spectrophotometric and potentiometric investigations have been carried out on copper-diethanolamine system. Job plots at 900, 900 and 580 mμ have indicated the formation of CuD++, CuD2++ and CuD3++. The n- pA curves obtained indicate the formation of CuD++, CuD2++, CuD3++, CuDOH+, CuD2OH+ and CuD3OH+. The n- pA curves have been analyzed to obtain the stability constants of these complexes. Absorption curves of pure complexes have been computed by a graphical method. Gaussian analysis of the absorption curves of pure and hydroxy complexes show the presence of a second band, indicating that the structure is that of a distorted octahedron.

Electronic Document Management in Construction – Research Issue and Results

Electronic document management (EDM) technology has the potential to enhance the information management in construction projects considerably, without radical changes to current practice. Over the past fifteen years this topic has been overshadowed by building product modelling in the construction IT research world, but at present EDM is quickly being introduced in practice, in particular in bigger projects. Often this is done in the form of third party services available over the World Wide Web. In the paper, a typology of research questions and methods is presented, which can be used to position the individual research efforts which are surveyed in the paper. Questions dealt with include: What features should EMD systems have? How much are they used? Are there benefits from use and how should these be measured? What are the barriers to wide-spread adoption? Which technical questions need to be solved? Is there scope for standardisation? How will the market for such systems evolve?

Adoption processes for EDM, EDI and BIM technologies in the construction industry

Three strategically important uses of IT in the construction industry are the storage and management of project documents on webservers (EDM), the electronic handling of orders and invoices between companies (EDI) and the use of 3-D models including non-geometrical attributes for integrated design and construction (BIM). In a broad longitudinal survey study of IT use in the Swedish Construction Industry the extent of use of these techniques was measured in 1998, 2000 and 2007. The results showed that EDM and EDI are currently already well-established techniques whereas BIM, although it promises the biggest potential benefits to the industry, only seems to be at the beginning of adoption. In a follow-up to the quantitative studies, the factors affecting the decisions to implement EDM, EDI and BIM as well as the actual adoption processes, were studied using semi-structured interviews with practitioners. The theoretical basis for the interview studies was informed by theoretical frameworks from IT-adoption theory, where in particular the UTAUT model has provided the main basis for the analyses presented here. The results showed that the decisions to take the above technologies into use are made on three differ- ent levels: the individual level, the organizational level in the form of a company, and the organiza- tional level in the form of a project. The different patterns in adoption can to some part be explained by where the decisions are mainly taken. EDM is driven from the organisation/project level, EDI mainly from the organisation/company level, and BIM is driven by individuals pioneering the technique.

The Electronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon): An Open Access Journal Using an Un-paid, Volunteer-Based Organization

Introduction This case study is based on the experiences with the Electronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon), founded in 1995. Development This journal is an example of a particular category of open access journals, which use neither author charges nor subscriptions to finance their operations, but rely largely on unpaid voluntary work in the spirit of the open source movement. The journal has, after some initial struggle, survived its first decade and is now established as one of half-a-dozen peer reviewed journals in its field. Operations The journal publishes articles as they become ready, but creates virtual issues through alerting messages to “subscribers”. It has also started to publish special issues, since this helps in attracting submissions, and also helps in sharing the work-load of review management. From the start the journal adopted a rather traditional layout of the articles. After the first few years the HTML version was dropped and papers are only published in PDF format. Performance The journal has recently been benchmarked against the competing journals in its field. Its acceptance rate of 53% is slightly higher and its average turnaround time of seven months almost a year faster compared to those journals in the sample for which data could be obtained. The server log files for the past three years have also been studied. Conclusions Our overall experience demonstrates that it is possible to publish this type of OA journal, with a yearly publishing volume equal to a quarterly journal and involving the processing of some fifty submissions a year, using a networked volunteer-based organization.

Non-disruptive and null-deflection mass flow measurement by a pressure compensation technique

Accurate mass flow measurement is very important in various monitoring and control applications. This paper proposes a novel method of fluid flow measurement by compensating the pressure drop across the ends of measuring unit using a compensating pump. The pressure drop due to the flow is balanced by a feedback control loop. This is a null-deflection type of measurement. As the insertion of such a measuring unit does not affect the functioning of the systems, this is also a non-disruptive flow measurement method. The implementation and design of such a unit are discussed. The system is modeled and simulated using the bond graph technique and it is experimentally validated. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Monetary Policy Implementation in the Interbank Market

The liquidity crisis that swept through the financial markets in 2007 triggered multi-billion losses and forced buyouts of some large banks. The resulting credit crunch is sometimes compared to the great recession in the early twentieth century. But the crisis also serves as a reminder of the significance of the interbank market and of proper central bank policy in this market. This thesis deals with implementation of monetary policy in the interbank market and examines how central bank tools affect commercial banks' decisions. I answer the following questions: • What is the relationship between the policy setup and interbank interest rate volatility? (averaging reserve requirement reduces the volatility) • What can explain a weak relationship between market liquidity and the interest rate? (high reserve requirement buffer) • What determines banks' decisions on when to satisfy the reserve requirement? (market frictions) • How did the liquidity crisis that began in 2007 affect interbank market behaviour? (resulted in higher credit risk and trading frictions as well as expected liquidity shortage)

Excited-state structures of molecules with nearby electronic states

Vibronic coupling among the nearby excited electronic states via the in-plane and the out-of-plane nuclear motions is examined in benzene, pyrazine, formaldehyde and thioformaldehyde. Results reveal that in benzene the structure distorts via the most active nuclear bending (planar) motion while in the other molecules the structures distort through an out-of-plane bending motion in their respective lowest excited states.

Electronic structures of electron donor-acceptor complexes: results from ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and molecular orbital calculations

HeI photoelectron spectra of 1:1 electron donor-acceptor complexes are discussed in the light of molecular orbital calculations. The complexes discussed include those formed by BH3, BF3 and SO2. Some systematics have been found in the ionization energy shifts of the complexes compared to the free components and these are related to the strength of the donor-acceptor bond. Hel spectra of hydrogen bonded complexes are discussed in comparison with results from MO calculations. Limitations of such studies as well as scope for further investigations are indicated.