Enhanced Ion Anisotropy by Nonconventional Coordination Geometry: Single-Chain Magnet Behavior for a [{(FeL)-L-II}(2){Nb-IV(CN)(8)}] Helical Chain Compound Designed with Heptacoordinate Fe-II

Nonconventional heptacoordination in combination with efficient magnetic exchange coupling is shown to yield a 1-D heteronuclear {(FeNbIV)-Nb-II} compound with remarkable magnetic features when compared to other Fe(II)-based single chain magnets (SCM). Cyano-bridged heterometallic {3d-4d} and {3d-5d} chains are formed upon assembling Fe(II) bearing a pentadentate macrocycle as the blocking ligand with octacyano metallates, [M(CN)(8)](4-) (M = Nb-IV, Mo-IV, W-IV.) X-ray diffraction (single-crystal and powder) measurements reveal that the [{(H2O)Fe(L-1)}{M(CN)(8)}{Fe(L-1)}](infinity) architectures consist of isomorphous 1-D polymeric structures based on the alternation of {Fe(L-1)}(2+) and {M(CN)(8)}(4-) units (L-1 stands for the pentadentate macrocycle). Analysis of the magnetic susceptibility behavior revealed cyano-bridged {Fe-Nb} exchange interaction to be antiferromagnetic with J = -20 cm(-1) deduced from fitting an Ising model taking into account the noncollinear spin arrangement. For this ferrimagnetic chain a slow relaxation of its magnetization is observed at low temperature revealing a SCM behavior with Delta/k(B) = 74 K and tau(0) = 4.6 x 10(-11) s. The M versus H behavior exhibits a hysteresis loop with a coercive field of 4 kOe at 1 K and reveals at 380 mK magnetic avalanche processes, i.e., abrupt reversals in magnetization as H is varied. The origin of these characteristics is attributed to the combination of efficient {Fe-Nb} exchange interaction and significant anisotropy of the {Fe(L-1)) unit. High field EPR and magnetization experiments have revealed for the parent compound [Fe(L-1)(H2O)(2)]Cl-2 a negative zero field splitting parameter of D approximate to -17 cm(-1). The crystal structure, magnetic behavior, and Mossbauer data for [Fe(L-1)(H2O)(2)]Cl-2 are also reported.

Generation of Cationic Two-Coordinate Group-13 Ligand Systems by Spontaneous Halide Ejection: Remarkably Nucleophile-Resistant (Dimethylamino)borylene Complexes

Spontaneous ejection of chloride from a three-coordinate boron Lewis acid can be effected by employing very electron rich metal substituents and leads to the formation of a sterically unprotected terminal (dimethylamino)borylene complex that has a short metal-boron bond and remarkable resistance to attack by nucleophilic and protic reagents.

Fading Customer Relationships

This dissertation is based on the assumption that fading customer relationships are important phenomena to understand in order for companies to prevent a future relationship termination, manage a desired relationship termination, or manage the situation where the relationship strength temporarily or permanently has weakened but where the customer still stays with the same service provider. It is assumed that fading could take different forms and develop through a range of different processes. The purpose of the thesis is therefore to define and describe fading, reveal different types of fading relationship processes, and discuss the dynamics of these processes. In services literature there is a lack of research focusing on the weakening of customer relationships. Fading therefore represents a new approach to understanding issues related to the ending of customer relationships. A fading relationship process could precede a relationship ending, but could also represent a temporal weakening of the relationship without leading to termination. It thus distinguishes the concept from other concepts within ending research which focus solely on relationships that have been terminated, taking a larger aspect of the relationship into account (as a relationship could build on constant changes). A pilot study created an understanding of difficulties related to understanding and detecting fading customer relationship, which led to a follow-up study incorporating qualitative interviews in relationship dyads characterised as fading with both private banking customers and their respective financial advisor. The focus remained on the understanding of the fading process resulting in a model for analysing different types of fading processes. Four types of fading processes were also revealed; the crash landing process, the altitude drop process, the fizzle out process and the try out process. The dissertation contributes to a broadened understanding of different types of fading processes within the research area of ending relationships emphasising the dynamic aspects of the phenomenon. Managerial implications include the management of different types of fading processes and also the understanding of the financial advisor’s role in influencing the development of these processes. Helena Åkerlund is associated with CERS, the Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management at Hanken, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki

A cost effective pipelined divider for double precision floating point number

he growth of high-performance application in computer graphics, signal processing and scientific computing is a key driver for high performance, fixed latency; pipelined floating point dividers. Solutions available in the literature use large lookup table for double precision floating point operations.In this paper, we propose a cost effective, fixed latency pipelined divider using modified Taylor-series expansion for double precision floating point operations. We reduce chip area by using a smaller lookup table. We show that the latency of the proposed divider is 49.4 times the latency of a full-adder. The proposed divider reduces chip area by about 81% than the pipelined divider in [9] which is based on modified Taylor-series.

Critical Incidents in Internal Relationships

Critical incidents have had an important role in service quality and service management research. The focus of critical-incident studies has gradually shifted from separate acts and episodes towards relationships, and even switching from one relationship to another. The Critical Incident Technique has mainly been used when studying the service sector, concentrating on the customer's perception of critical incidents. Although some studies have considered the perceptions of employees important, critical incidents have not been considered a tool for studying internal relationships to any larger extent. This paper takes a process approach and shifts the focus from an external to an internal setting. It puts forward a new technique for analysing internal relationships from a critical-incident perspective. The technique captures the dynamism in relationships through considering internal critical incidents as micro-processes affecting not only internal but also external relationships.

An Experimental Study to Show the Effect of Thermal Stress on Thermal Contact Conductance at Sub-megapascal Contact Pressures

Experimental studies are presented to show the effect of thermal stresses on thermal contact conductance (TCC) at low contact pressures. It is observed that in a closed contact assembly, contact pressure acting on the interface changes with the changing temperature of contact members. This change in contact pressure consequently causes variations in the TCC of the junction. A relationship between temperature change and the corresponding magnitude of developed thermal stress in a contact assembly is determined experimentally. Inclusion of a term called temperature dependent load correction factor is suggested in the theoretical model for TCC to make it capable of predicting TCC values more accurately in contact assemblies that experience large temperature fluctuations. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4001615]

Antibacterial & antiplasmid activities of Helicteres isora L.

Background & objectives: The multiple drug resistance (MDR) is a serious health problem and major challenge to the global drug discovery programmes. Most of the genetic determinants that confer resistance to antibiotics are located on R-plasmids in bacteria. The present investigation was undertaken to investigate the ability of organic extract of the fruits of Helicteres isora to cure R-plasmids from certain clinical isolates. mMethods: Active fractions demonstrating antibacterial and antiplasmid activities were isolated from the acetone extracts of shade dried fruits of H. isora by bioassay guided fractionation. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of antibiotics and organic extracts was determined by agar dilution method. Plasmid curing activity of organic fractions was determined by evaluating the ability of bacterial colonies (pre treated with organic fraction for 18 h) to grow in the presence of antibiotics. The physical loss of plasmid DNA in the cured derivatives was further confirmed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Results: The active fraction did not inhibit the growth of either the clinical isolates or the strains harbouring reference plasmids even at a concentration of 400 mu g/ml. However, the same fraction could cure plasmids from Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus and E. coli (RP4) at curing efficiencies of 14, 26, 22 and 2 per cent respectively. The active fraction mediated plasmid curing resulted in the subsequent loss of antibiotic resistance encoded in the plasmids as revealed by antibiotic resistance profile of cured strains. The physical loss of plasmid was also confirmed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Interpretation & conclusions: The active fraction of acetone extract of H. isora fruits cured R-plasmids from Gram-positive and Gram-negative clinical isolates as well as reference strains. Such plasmid loss reversed the multiple antibiotic resistance in cured derivatives making them sensitive to low concentrations of antibiotics. Acetone fractions of H. isora may be a source to develop antiplasmid agents of natural origin to contain the development and spread of plasmid borne multiple antibiotic resistance.

Chronopotentiometry with power-law perturbation functions at an expanding plane electrode with and without a preceding blank period for systems with a coupled first-order homogeneous chemical reaction

The systems formalism is used to obtain the interfacial concentration transients for power-law current input at an expanding plane electrode. The explicit results for the concentration transients obtained here pertain to arbitrary homogeneous reaction schemes coupled to the oxidant and reductant of a single charge-transfer step and the power-law form without and with a preceding blank period (for two types of power-law current profile, say, (i) I(t) = I0(t−t0)q for t greater-or-equal, slanted t0, I(t) = 0 for t < t0; and (ii) I(t) = I0tq for t greater-or-equal, slanted t0, I(t) = 0 for t < t0). Finally the potential transients are obtained using Padé approximants. The results of Galvez et al. (for E, CE, EC, aC) (J. Electroanal. Chem., 132 (1982) 15; 146 (1983) 221, 233, 243), Molina et al. (for E) (J. Electroanal. Chem., 227 (1987) 1 and Kies (for E) (J. Electroanal. Chem., 45 (1973) 71) are obtained as special cases.

Surface modifications in single crystal surfaces of YBa2Cu3O7-delta upon high energy ion irradiation

Atomic force microscopy investigations on swift heavy ion (200 MeV An) irradiated surfaces of a high T-c single crystal YBa2Cu3O7-delta are presented. Results obtained revealed an ion-induced erosion/sputtering clearly confirming our earlier observation on grain boundary dominated thin films. Apart from sputtering, notable effects were seen with many defect structures like dikes/hillocks surrounded by craters, dikes, holes, pearl like structures and ripple formation of sub-micron undulations, all in one crystal. Results are discussed in the light of co-operative phenomena of material re-distribution mechanism related to mass transfer and crater formations.

Vanhurskautta, oikeutta vai uskollisuutta? : ṣdq -sanue vuoden 1992 Kirkkoraamatun Psalmien kirjassa

Righteousness, justice or faithfulness? The Hebrew Root ṣdq in the Psalter of the Finnish Church Bible of 1992 This study attempts to answer three questions. Firstly, what do the derivates of the root ṣdq mean in the Hebrew Psalter? Secondly, with which equivalents are these Hebrew words translated in the Psalter of the Finnish Church Bible of 1992 and why? And thirdly, how is the translation of the root ṣdq in the Psalter placed in comparison with the translations of the root ṣdq in certain ancient and modern Bible translations? The root ṣdq has a very wide semantic field in Biblical Hebrew. The basic meaning of the root ṣdq is ‘right’ or ‘to be in the right’. The traditional English equivalent of the root ṣdq is righteousness. In many European languages the equivalent of the root ṣdq has some connection with the word ‘right’, but this is not the case in Finnish. The Finnish word vanhurskaus has been present since the first Finnish Bible translation by Mikael Agricola in 1548. However, this word has nothing to do with the Finnish word for ‘right’. The word vanhurskaus has become a very specific religious and theological word in Finnish, and it can be a word that is not obvious or at all understandable even to a native Finnish speaker. In the Psalter of the earlier Finnish Church Bible of 1938 almost every derivate of the root ṣdq (132/139) was translated as vanhurskaus. In the Psalter of the Finnish Church Bible of 1992 less than half of these derivates (67/139) are translated as that. Translators have used 20 different equivalents of the Hebrew derivates of the root ṣdq. But this type of translation also has its own problems. The most disputed is the fact that in it the Bible reader finds no connections between many Bible verses that have obvious connections with each other in the Hebrew Bible. For example, in verse Ps. 118, 15 one finds a Finnish word for ‘saved’ and in verse Ps. 142, 8 one finds another Finnish word for ‘friends’, while in the Hebrew Bible the same word is used in both verses, ṣaddîqīm. My study will prove that it is very challenging to compare or fit together the semantics of these two quite different languages. The theoretical framework for the study consists of biblical semantic theories and Bible translation theories. Keywords: religious language, Bible translations, Book of Psalms.

Hormones andCuscuta development: interaction of cytokinin and indole-3-acetic acid in the growth and curvature of subapical stem segments

Cuscuta stem (vines) exhibits two modes of growth—longitudinal elongation forming free-hanging vines, or coiling growth to twine around the host. The elongation zone of free-hanging vine extended up to 160 mm from the stem apex and in vivo growth rate (during 8 h of growth) was maximal in the 20-to-40-mm region. While gibberellic acid (GA3) or fusicoccin (FC) could maintain (GA3) or enhance (FC) the growth rate of apical (10 or 25 mm) segments, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) (10 mgrM) induced growth only in subapical (5–160 mm) segments. In vitro growth rate induced by IAA (10 mgrM) was similar to the in vivo growth rate up to 40 mm. Thereafter, up to 100 mm, IAA induced growth rate exceeded in vivo growth. p ]Subapical segments (sim13 mm) from 5- to 40-mm regions responded to a cytokinin (BA, Z, or iP) or to low IAA (0.1 mgrM) with curved growth, whereas the segments grew straight in the presence of high IAA (10 mgrM). Curvature (measured as the angle subtended at the center of the circle of which the segment formed an arc) induced by BA and low (0.1 mgrM) IAA was greater than either added separately. Besides, segments induced to curve in BA + low-IAA solution could be made to straighten out by transferring to a solution containing high IAA (10 mgrM) with or without BA. Thus in vivo patterns of straight and coiling growth could be mimicked reversibly in vitro by adjusting the relative concentrations of cytokinin and auxin; low auxin and cytokinin induced coiling growth, whereas high auxin and cytokinin induced straight growth. p ]Beyond 40 mm, BA had no growth-promoting or curvative-inducing effect.Cuscuta vine segments thus showed sequential sensitivity to applied hormones, the apical region (0–25 mm) to GA3, the subapical (5–40 mm) region to BA and IAA and the region beyond (40–160 mm) to IAA alone.

PES studies of semiconductor - metal transitions in metal oxides

Semiconductor-Metal transitions in Ti2O3, VO2, V2O3 and Ti3O5 have been investigated employing X-ray and UV Photoelectron spectroscopy. The transitions are accompanied by significant changes in the 3d band of the transition metals as well as some of the core levels.

Optimal reservoir operation for irrigation of multiple crops using genetic algorithms

This paper presents a genetic algorithm (GA) model for obtaining an optimal operating policy and optimal crop water allocations from an irrigation reservoir. The objective is to maximize the sum of the relative yields from all crops in the irrigated area. The model takes into account reservoir inflow, rainfall on the irrigated area, intraseasonal competition for water among multiple crops, the soil moisture dynamics in each cropped area, the heterogeneous nature of soils. and crop response to the level of irrigation applied. The model is applied to the Malaprabha single-purpose irrigation reservoir in Karnataka State, India. The optimal operating policy obtained using the GA is similar to that obtained by linear programming. This model can be used for optimal utilization of the available water resources of any reservoir system to obtain maximum benefits.