Bismuth Telluride Solubility Limit and Dopant Effects on the Electronic Properties of Lead Telluride

The demand for energy efficiency has motivated many researchers to seek for novel methods capable of enhancing the conversion of heat to electricity. Most of the recently published methods for thermoelectric (TE) efficiency enhancement discuss on the reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity, with a minor focus on improved electronic optimization. This is attributed mainly to the fact that the electronic properties are correlated and opposing each other upon increasing the carrier concentration. It has been reported that the system of PbTe-BiTe has potentially high TE performance; this chapter is focused on a detailed investigation of the co-effect of bismuth as an effective electronic dopant and at the same time, as a second phase promoter in the PbTe matrix. (PbTe)x(BiTe)1−x alloys were thermoelectrically examined and the values were analyzed analytically by the general effective media (GEM) approach

CAROLE ZALBERG, À défaut d’Amérique

Ce roman d’une richesse rare nous offre à la fois l’étendue et la profondeur, puisqu’il court sur tout le XXe siècle, cinq générations et trois continents, tout en explorant dans toutes ses nuances la psychologie de quelques personnages. Il y a d’abord Suzan, une avocate juive new-yorkaise divorcée qui, depuis la mort de sa mère, s’occupe à Miami de son père âgé. Elle devra remonter le temps, reconstituer – à travers des lettres retrouvées –l’histoire de sa mère d’origine lithuanienne pour pa..

Symbolic debugging with Gillian

Software debugging for concrete execution enjoys a mature suite of tools, but debugging symbolic execution is still in its infancy. It carries unique challenges, as a single state can lead to multiple branches representing different sets of conditions, and symbolic states must be 'matched' against logical conditions. Some of today’s otherwise mature symbolic-execution tools still rely on plain-text log files for debugging, which provide no good overview of the execution process and can quickly become overwhelming. We introduce a debugger for Gillian’s verification mode---complete with a custom interface---and ponder the potential for this interface and the protocol behind it to be used outside of Gillian

Influence of National Culture on Top Executives' Approach to Strategy Development: an Exploratory Investigation in the International Hotel Industry

This mail-based study empirically examined the potential influence of national culture on executives' approach to business strategy development. A total of 207 executives of upper-scale hotels from the U.S.A., Malaysia, Thailand and Turkey participated in the survey. Respondents were assigned their countries' status on Hofstede's five cultural dimensions of power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and time orientation. In addition to the demographic and organizational characteristics of respondents, the instrument included items that measure several aspects that may differentiate between executives in the way they approach the task of strategy development. These aspects were: involvement in strategy development, content of strategic objectives , focus of strategic objectives, formality of strategic control, type of data used in strategic analysis, criteria for strategic evaluation, strategy evaluation time horizons, degree of rigorous analysis and rationality, strategic planning time horizons, openness to strategic change, and commitment to strategic decisions. Analysis of variance was used to test a set of hypotheses proposing that executives different in their national culture will express different beliefs toward these aspects. Hierarchical multiple regression was utilized to provide statistical control for the contextual variables. Findings and Conclusions: The findings of this study supported the notion that the strategic orientation and behavior of executives are culturally bound, and indicated that dissimilar approaches to developing business strategy are adopted by executives with dissimilar national cultural background. Among the five cultural dimensions investigated, the masculinity and long-term time orientation appeared to have the greatest influences, and uncertainty avoidance appeared to have little or no influence. Results for the other two dimensions, namely power distance and individualism, were not definitive and revealed interesting findings. Almost each aspect of executives' approach toward strategy development was affected to a greater or lesser extent. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research were discussed.School of Hotel and Restaurant Administratio

Symmetrical Coupler Curve with a Single Cusp or Two Symmetrical Cusps

Mechanical Engineerin

Problems related to upstream data fusion in pintwise source detection

It is a commonly accepted idea that upstream data fusion, i .e. at signal level, is more performant than downstream fusion, i .e. at decision level . This statement is correct in theory : any information loss in the first decision stages decreases the potential performance level . Practically, upstream data fusion may be difficult and the resulting quality may be worse than in the case of a simpler downstream dat fusion shceme . The problem is addressed in the domains of a) pointwise target detection, b) extended target detection . It is shown that spatial context must be taken into account, through the use of transfer functions and noise sensor models and of signal correlation models . Case a) is approached as a conditonal deconvolution problem . For example, it is encountered in remote airplane detection, using a multisensor suite composed of a radar and an infrared Search and Track sensor (IRST) . case b) is relevant of multisource image segmentation and is not dealt here . At last, dynamic aspects are mentioned and especially multisensor track-before-detect appproaches . These questions, raised by a working group of the Scientific and Technical College of Thomson-CSF, appeared to be of sufficient fundamental interest to be quoted here .II est communément admis que la fusion amont, c'est-à-dire des signaux, doit donner de meilleurs résultats que la fusion aval. Cette proposition est correcte en théorie puisque chaque étage de traitement peut faire perdre de l'information utile. En pratique, le résultat obtenu sans précaution peut être de plus mauvaise qualité que celui que l'on pourrait obtenir facilement par une fusion aval. Ce problème se pose dans le domaine de la détection de cibles a) ponctuelles, b) résolues (i.e. étendues sur plusieurs cellules de résolution). On montre qu'il est important de prendre en compte le contexte spatial si l'on dispose de modèles des fonctions de transfert des capteurs at/ou des corrélations entre les signaux. Le cas a) est abordé comme un problème de déconvolution conditionnelle à des hypothèses d'association. On le rencontre dans différentes applications, par exemple, en détection d'aéronefs à longue distance par un radar et une vieille infrarouge. Le cas b) relève plutôt de la segmentation d'images multisources et n'est pas traité ici. Enfin, les aspects dynamiques sont mentionnés et en particulier les approches de poursuite avant détection. Ces questions soulevées par un groupe de travail du Collège Scientifique et Technique de Thomson-CSF, nous ont paru suffisamment fondamentales pour être rapportées ici