Robust Room Temperature Hysteresis in an FeIII Spin Crossover Metallomesogen

The high temperature magnetic and structural properties of an amphiphilic iron(III) spin crossover complex are reported. Thermal cycling reveals a scan rate-dependent 20 K thermal hysteresis in the mT vs. T data close to room temperature. A fast scan rate is essential for the hysteresis but it is robust and reproducible after multiple thermal cycles. Differential scanning calorimetry and cross polarized microscopy are used to show that the magnetic switching aligns with a material state change from solid to ordered liquid phase on warming.

Do exoplanets spin up their host stars?

We have collected initial evidence that tidal interaction between a late-type star and its close-in, massive planet can lead to a spin-up of the host star. We propose to explore this further by studying a small sample of proper motion pairs in which one of the stars is orbited by a Hot Jupiter. We will determine if the activity-estimated age appears to be strongly different for the two stars, which would indicate a tidal spin up of the Hot Jupiter host star. We propose to observe 4 such systems with Chandra/ACIS-S, and to perform a similar observation of one additional system with large angular separation using XMM-Newton/EPIC. The total proposed exposure times are 141 ks (Chandra) and 38 ks (XMM).

The Rossiter-McLaughlin effect reloaded: Probing the 3D spin-orbit geometry, differential stellar rotation, and the spatially-resolved stellar spectrum of star-planet systems

When a planet transits its host star, it blocks regions of the stellar surface from view; this causes a distortion of the spectral lines and a change in the line-of-sight (LOS) velocities, known as the Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect. Since the LOS velocities depend, in part, on the stellar rotation, the RM waveform is sensitive to the star-planet alignment (which provides information on the system’s dynamical history). We present a new RM modelling technique that directly measures the spatially-resolved stellar spectrum behind the planet. This is done by scaling the continuum flux of the (HARPS) spectra by the transit light curve, and then subtracting the infrom the out-of-transit spectra to isolate the starlight behind the planet. This technique does not assume any shape for the intrinsic local profiles. In it, we also allow for differential stellar rotation and centre-to-limb variations in the convective blueshift. We apply this technique to HD 189733 and compare to 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. We reject rigid body rotation with high confidence (>99% probability), which allows us to determine the occulted stellar latitudes and measure the stellar inclination. In turn, we determine both the sky-projected (λ ≈ −0.4 ± 0.2◦) and true 3D obliquity (ψ ≈ 7+12 −4 ◦ ). We also find good agreement with the MHD simulations, with no significant centre-to-limb variations detectable in the local profiles. Hence, this technique provides a new powerful tool that can probe stellar photospheres, differential rotation, determine 3D obliquities, and remove sky-projection biases in planet migration theories. This technique can be implemented with existing instrumentation, but will become even more powerful with the next generation of high-precision radial velocity spectrographs.

Curricular training report: pharmaceutical industry & spin-off company

O presente relatório expõe as atividades desenvolvidas durante o estágio curricular, frequentado na Bluepharma - Indústria Farmacêutica S.A. e na TREAT U, Lda. uma Spin-off da Universidade de Coimbra, no âmbito do Mestrado em Biomedicina Farmacêutica da Universidade de Aveiro. Esta foi uma experiência de 6 meses que teve duas componentes, uma multidisciplinar e outra monodisciplinar, as quais me permitiram desenvolver os conhecimentos e aptidões adquiridas ao longo do curso de mestrado e de as aplicar ao mundo real. Para além do desenvolvimento de competências profissionais, esta experiência possibilitou também a aquisição e desenvolvimento de várias aptidões, quer a nível pessoal como social. Nos primeiros dois meses desta minha experiência adquiri um conhecimento essencialmente teórico em várias áreas da indústria farmacêutica (financeira, desenvolvimento de negócio, assuntos regulamentares, investigação e desenvolvimento de medicamentos, garantia da qualidade, etc.) através da minha passagem pela Bluepharma. De seguida, na minha experiência de quatro meses na TREAT U, foi-me dada a oportunidade de realizar de forma mais independente, as funções inerentes ao cargo de assistente da gerência, com especial enfoque para atividades de gestão de projeto (incluindo assuntos regulamentares), tais como, apoio na preparação do plano de desenvolvimento não clínico e na preparação do pedido de aconselhamento científico. Este relatório começa assim por descrever os objectivos do estágio e uma breve descrição das instituições que me acolheram para a sua realização. De seguida, os conhecimentos adquiridos na vertente multidisciplinar do estágio e depois as atividades desenvolvidas no âmbito monodisciplinar. Por fim, apresenta uma análise das dificuldades e desafios encontrados bem como os esforços realizados para os ultrapassar.

Moralising Gold Supply Chains

During the late twentieth century the supply chains for gold were considered by the majority of consumers (when they were considered at all) to be driven by simple commercial imperatives. That notion was shattered during the first decade of the twenty-first century by the appearance of ethical campaigns, led by advocates determined to present major players in the gold industry as morally reprehensible. The ‘No Dirty Gold’ campaign sought to shift the purchasing of gold onto a moral register, in order to challenge the activities of large mining corporations. It was followed by the Fairtrade Foundation’s ‘Fairtrade Gold’ initiative, which had aspirations to support subsistence mining communities at the expense of big business. By directly targeting a luxury material and playing on its inherent social ambiguities, campaigners hoped to thoroughly moralise the purchasing of gold objects. Dr Oakley’s presentation will examine the forces behind this developing social phenomenon, describe the trajectories of a selection of major campaigns, and consider the extent to which these have impacted on public attitudes, gold miners and the actions of consumers, producers and retailers of luxury goods.

The Impacts of Variety on the Costs and Profits of a Hotel Chain’s Properties

In the hotel industry, undistributed operating expenses represent a significant portion of the operating costs for a hotel. Exactly how most of these expenses arise is not well understood. Using data from more than 40 hotels operated by a major chain, the authors examine the links between the variety of a hotel’s products and customers and its undistributed operating expenses and revenues. Their findings show that undistributed operating expenses are related to the extent of the property’s business and product-services mix. The results suggest that although increasing a property's product-service mix results in higher undistributed operating expenses, the incremental costs are compensated for by higher revenues. However, increasing business mix while increasing undistributed operating expenses does not result in higher revenues.

Assessing energy consumption in supply chains

The paper addresses the transport activities and associated energy consumption involved in the production and supply of two products: jeans and yoghurt. In the case of jeans, the analysis is from the locations in which cotton is grown, to retail outlets in the UK; in the case of yoghurt, the analysis is from the supply of milk on farms, to retail outlets in France. The results show that the transport stages from the point of jeans manufacture to UK port are responsible for the greatest proportion of transport energy use per kilogram of jeans in the UK supply chain. In the case of the French yoghurt supply chains, the results indicate that each of the three transport stages from farm to third-party distribution centre consume approximately the same proportion of total freight transport energy. The energy used on the transport stage for yoghurt from third-party distribution centre to retail outlet varies depending on the type of retail outlet served. Far greater quantities of energy are used in transporting jeans than yoghurts from farm/field to retail outlet. This is explained by the distances involved in the respective supply chains. Both case studies demonstrate that the energy used by consumers transporting goods to their homes by car can be as great as total freight transport energy used in the supply chain from farm/field to retail outlet (per kilogram of product transported).

Analysing energy use in supply chains: the case of fruits & vegetables and furniture

An increasing number of producers, retailers and third-party logistics providers are interested in carrying out energy assessments of their product supply chain. This is due to sensitivity about climate change and carbon emissions, but also to high energy prices. This paper presents an analytical approach developed to measure energy use in logistics activities in product supply chains. The approach (based on the Life Cycle Approach) quantifies energy use in transport and logistics activities at all stages of a product supply chain. The work has demonstrated that such an assessment approach based on the supply chain is useful in comparing the energy use implications of different strategies. This supply chain approach can be used to consider options such as sourcing and distribution centre locations, transport modes, road freight vehicle types and weights, vehicle load factors, empty running, transport distance and the balance between consumer shopping trips and delivery to the home.

Energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions of different supply chains: a comparison of French, UK and Belgian cases

Freight transportation system is critical to economic activity but it carries significant environmental costs, notably GHG emissions and climate change : energy use and corresponding CO2 emissions is increasing faster in freight transport than in other sectors and this increase is primarily the result of increased trade. This paper compares the transport activities, associated energy consumption and CO2 emissions of different supply chains for a range of products in three countries: Belgium, France and United Kingdom. Among the products considered are furniture and ‘fruits & vegetables’. For each of these products, different supply chains, involving more or less transport activity and associated energy consumption are analysed in each country. The comparison highlights some of the main factors that influence GHG emissions for different supply chains and illustrates how they vary according to product and country of final distribution. In more detail, the paper addresses the main differences between the supply chains of these products namely, the origin of their sourcing, the logistical organisation between production and retail and different types of retail outlet. The origin of the sourcing impact is mainly related to distance. The impact of the logistical organisation between raw material and retail on GHG emissions is linked to the mode and vehicle choice and to the load factor. As for retail, the consumer trip emissions, between his home and the retail outlet, are also an important part of the whole supply chain emissions. It is worthwhile to notice that our goal in this project is to consider the whole supply chain, from production to consumption. Therefore a particular focus is put on the mobility behaviours of consumers purchasing the studied products during their shopping and dropping back home activities related to these products. Especially a web based survey has been conducted and the gathered results offer an opportunity for drawing a more detailed picture of the associated CO2 emissions. This paper uses the results of an ongoing research on supply chain energy efficiency, funded by ADEME (the French Energy Agency) through the French program on transport research (PREDIT). This research is based on a comprehensive review of the various approaches to quantifying the environmental impacts of supply chains together with data collection from a range of organisations including manufacturers, retailers and transport companies. We will first present the developed methodologies, then the results corresponding to each studied product will be described. A discussion of the potential application of the research approach to the wider debate about the environmental impact of freight transport and the scope for GHG emissions reduction targets to be achieved will be included.

Energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions of different supply chains: a comparison of French, UK and Belgian cases

Freight transportation system is critical to economic activity but it carries significant environmental costs, notably GHG emissions and climate change : energy use and corresponding CO2 emissions is increasing faster in freight transport than in other sectors and this increase is primarily the result of increased trade. This paper compares the transport activities, associated energy consumption and CO2 emissions of different supply chains for a range of products in three countries: Belgium, France and United Kingdom. Among the products considered are furniture and fruits & vegetables. For each of these products, different supply chains, involving more or less transport activity and associated energy consumption are analysed in each country. The comparison highlights some of the main factors that influence GHG emissions for different supply chains and illustrates how they vary according to product and country of final distribution. In more detail, the paper addresses the main differences between the supply chains of these products namely, the origin of their sourcing, the logistical organisation between production and retail and different types of retail outlet. The origin of the sourcing impact is mainly related to distance. The impact of the logistical organisation between raw material and retail on GHG emissions is linked to the mode and vehicle choice and to the load factor. As for retail, the consumer trip emissions, between his home and the retail outlet, are also an important part of the whole supply chain emissions. It is worthwhile to notice that our goal in this project is to consider the whole supply chain, from production to consumption. Therefore a particular focus is put on the mobility behaviours of consumers purchasing the studied products during their shopping and dropping back home activities related to these products. Especially a web based survey has been conducted and the gathered results offer an opportunity for drawing a more detailed picture of the associated CO2 emissions. This paper uses the results of an ongoing research on supply chain energy efficiency, funded by ADEME (the French Energy Agency) through the French program on transport research (PREDIT). This research is based on a comprehensive review of the various approaches to quantifying the environmental impacts of supply chains together with data collection from a range of organisations including manufacturers, retailers and transport companies. We will first present the developed methodologies, then the results corresponding to each studied product will be described. A discussion of the potential application of the research approach to the wider debate about the environmental impact of freight transport and the scope for GHG emissions reduction targets to be achieved will be included.

How does a house remember? heritage-ising return migration in an Indonesian-Chinese house museum in Guangdong, PRC

This paper is an attempt to integrate heritage and museum studies through exploring the complex relationship between the materiality of architecture and social memories with a house museum of return migration in Guangdong, PRC as a case study. It unveils that the ongoing process of memory is intrinsically intertwined with spatial and temporal dimensions of the physical dwelling and built environment and the wider social-historical context and power relations shaping them. I argue that it is the house as ‘object of exhibit’ just as much as the exhibits inside the house that materialises the turbulent and traumatic migratory experience of Returned Overseas Chinese, embodies their memories and exposes the contested nature of museumification. By looking at the socially and geographically marginalised dwelling of return migrants, the house draws people’s attention to the often neglected importance of conceptual periphery in re-theorising what is often assumed to be the core of heritage value. It points to the necessity to integrate displaced, diasporic, transnational subjects to heritage and museum studies that have been traditionally framed within national and territorial boundaries.

A method for analysing operational complexity in supply chains

This paper proposes a method for analysing the operational complexity in supply chains by using an entropic measure based on information theory. The proposed approach estimates the operational complexity at each stage of the supply chain and analyses the changes between stages. In this paper a stage is identified by the exchange of data and/or material. Through analysis the method identifies the stages where the operational complexity is both generated and propagated (exported, imported, generated or absorbed). Central to the method is the identification of a reference point within the supply chain. This is where the operational complexity is at a local minimum along the data transfer stages. Such a point can be thought of as a ‘sink’ for turbulence generated in the supply chain. Where it exists, it has the merit of stabilising the supply chain by attenuating uncertainty. However, the location of the reference point is also a matter of choice. If the preferred location is other than the current one, this is a trigger for management action. The analysis can help decide appropriate remedial action. More generally, the approach can assist logistics management by highlighting problem areas. An industrial application is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the method.