Contemplative Science: An Insider's Prospectus

This chapter describes the potential far‐reaching consequences of contemplative higher education for the fields of science and medicine

The moral muteness of managers: an Anglo-American phenomenon? German and British managers and their moral reasoning about environmental sustainability in business

Several studies in the Anglo-American context have indicated that managers present themselves as morally neutral employees who act only in the best interest of the company by employing objective skills. The reluctance of managers to use moral arguments in business is further accentuated in the now common argument presented as a neutral fact that the company must always prioritise shareholder value. These and other commercial aims are seen as an objective reality in business, whilst questions about sustainability, environmental problems or fair trade are seen as emotional or moral ones; a phenomenon described as ‘moral muteness’. This research explores whether this ‘moral muteness’ is an Anglo-American phenomenon and/or whether managers in other countries - in this case Germany - might express themselves in a different way. The focus is on moral arguments around environmental sustainability and the implications of this study for cross-cultural management. This article is based on a qualitative, comparative cross-cultural study of British and German managers in the Food Retail and Energy Sectors. In line with the studies mentioned above, British managers placed a strong emphasis on their moral neutrality. In contrast, German managers tended to use moral arguments when discussing corporate greening, often giving such arguments more weight than financial arguments. Overall, the study suggests that the ‘moral muteness’ of managers is a British phenomenon and quite distinct from the German approach. The article ends in a short exploration of how this understanding can help managers better manage people, organisations and change across cultures

Characteristics of GaSb and GaInSb Layers Grown by Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy

GaInSb and GaSb layers have been grown on GaSb and GaAs substrates using metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) with trimethylgallium, trimethylindium and trimethylantimony as the sources. As grown layers are p type with the carrier concentration in the mid 10{sup 16} cm{sup {minus}3} range. N type layers are grown using diethyltellurium as the Te source. Incorporation of Te in high concentration showed compensation and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) result showed that only 2.5% of Te are active when 2 {times} 10{sup 19} cm{sup {minus}3} of Te was incorporated. The carrier concentration measured in n type samples increases as the temperature is lowered. This is explained by the presence of second band close to the conduction band minima. Silane which is a common n type dopant in GaAs and other III-V systems is shown to behave like p type in GaInSb. P-n junction structures have been grown on GaSb substrates to fabricate TPV cells

Creating Digital Coastal Watersheds: The Remote Data Acquisition Network at Bannockburn Plantation, Georgetown County, SC

2008 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Addressing Water Challenges Facing the State and Regio

Strain Relaxation Mechanisms and Local Structural Changes in Si_{1-x}$Ge_{x} Alloys

In this work, we address issues pertinent to the understanding of the structural and electronic properties of Si_{1-x} Ge_{x}alloys, namely, (i) how does the lattice constant mismatch between bulk Si and bulk Ge manifests itself in the alloy system? and (ii) what are the relevant strain release mechanisms? To provide answers to these questions, we have carried out an in-depth study of the changes in the local geometric and electronic structures arising from the strain relaxation in Si_{1-x} Ge_{x} alloys using an ab initio molecular dynamics scheme. The optimized lattice constant, while exhibiting a general trend of linear dependence on the composition (Vegard's law), shows a negative deviation from Vegard's law in the vicinity of x=0.5. We delineate the mechanisms responsible for each one of the above features. We show that the radial-strain relaxation through bond stretching is responsible for the overall trend of linear dependence of the lattice constant on the composition. On the other hand, the negative deviation from Vegard's law is shown to arise from the angular-strain relaxation.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Cryo-EM structure of the monomeric Rhodobacter sphaeroides RC-LH1 core complex at 2.5 Å.

Reaction centre light-harvesting 1 (RC-LH1) complexes are the essential components of bacterial photosynthesis. The membrane-intrinsic LH1 complex absorbs light and the energy migrates to an enclosed RC where a succession of electron and proton transfers conserves the energy as a quinol, which is exported to the cytochrome bc1 complex. In some RC-LH1 variants quinols can diffuse through small pores in a fully circular, 16-subunit LH1 ring, while in others missing LH1 subunits create a gap for quinol export. We used cryogenic electron microscopy to obtain a 2.5 Å resolution structure of one such RC-LH1, a monomeric complex from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The structure shows that the RC is partly enclosed by a 14-subunit LH1 ring in which each αβ heterodimer binds two bacteriochlorophylls and, unusually for currently reported complexes, two carotenoids rather than one. Although the extra carotenoids confer an advantage in terms of photoprotection and light harvesting, they could impede passage of quinones through small, transient pores in the LH1 ring, necessitating a mechanism to create a dedicated quinone channel. The structure shows that two transmembrane proteins play a part in stabilising an open ring structure; one of these components, the PufX polypeptide, is augmented by a hitherto undescribed protein subunit we designate as protein-Y, which lies against the transmembrane regions of the thirteenth and fourteenth LH1α polypeptides. Protein-Y prevents LH1 subunits 11-14 adjacent to the RC QB site from bending inwards towards the RC and, with PufX preventing complete encirclement of the RC, this pair of polypeptides ensures unhindered quinone diffusion

Temperature and territoriality in the Duke of Burgundy butterfly, Hamearis lucina

Abstract: The Duke of Burgundy butterfly (Hamearis lucina) has undergone severe declines over the last four decades. However, in recent years the UK population appears to have begun expanding again. This is likely to be due to beneficial management, although a warming regional climate may also have contributed to the resurgence of this spring-flying species. In this study, we investigated the effect of air temperature on the flight behaviour of adult male Duke of Burgundy butterflies. We also looked at the ability of adult males to behaviourally thermoregulate their body temperature and assessed their tendency to remain within small established territories. Increasing air temperature lead to a marked increase in the number and duration of flights associated with territorial behaviour but had no significant effect on other flights. This suggests that high temperatures are particularly important for sustaining energetically-demanding flights involved in territory defence and mate interception, which could impact the reproductive potential of Duke of Burgundy populations. We also found that butterflies had only a limited ability to regulate their body temperature behaviourally and may, therefore, be especially dependent on suitable environmental conditions to maintain the right temperatures for these flights. During observations, most males also remained confined to a few square meters within their territories, which could further restrict butterfly ability to thermoregulate by limiting relocation to other habitat types. However, we did find more males to leave the confines of their territories than expected from reports in previous studies. Our findings highlight the key role that warm, sheltered locations on reserves have in supporting the Duke of Burgundy. If this traditionally poor disperser is to take advantage of a warmer climate and extend its range North, a close network of such areas, appropriately managed, may be critical