Geochemical reactivity of subsurface sediments as potential buffer to anthropogenic inputs: a strategy for regional characterization in the Netherlands

Geochemical reactivity of subsurface sediments as potential buffer to anthropogenic inputs: a strategy for regional characterization in the Netherland

Interface-induced heavy-hole/light-hole splitting of acceptors in silicon

The energy spectrum of spin-orbit coupled states of individual sub-surface boron acceptor dopants in silicon have been investigated using scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) at cryogenic temperatures. The spatially resolved tunnel spectra show two resonances which we ascribe to the heavy- and light-hole Kramers doublets. This type of broken degeneracy has recently been argued to be advantageous for the lifetime of acceptor-based qubits [Phys. Rev. B 88 064308 (2013)]. The depth dependent energy splitting between the heavy- and light-hole Kramers doublets is consistent with tight binding calculations, and is in excess of 1 meV for all acceptors within the experimentally accessible depth range (< 2 nm from the surface). These results will aid the development of tunable acceptor-based qubits in silicon with long coherence times and the possibility for electrical manipulation

Human keratinocyte sensitivity towards inflammatory cytokines varies with culture time

Proliferating keratinocyte cultures have been reported to synthesize higher concentrations of prostaglandin (PG) E than confluent ones. As interleukin-1 (IL-1) stimulates keratinocyte PGE synthesis we investigated whether the degree of confluency of the keratinocyte culture modified the response of the cells to IL-1. It was found that IL-1α (100 U/ml) stimulated PGE2 synthesis by proliferating (7 days in culture) but not differentiating (14 days in culture) keratinocytes. Similar effects were observed using tumour necrosis factor-α. Both arachidonic acid (AA) and the calcium ionophore A23187 stimulated PGE2 synthesis by 7 and 14 day cultures although the increase was greatest when 7 day cultures were used. Our data indicate that there is a specific down-regulation of the mechanism(s) by which some inflammatory cytokines stimulate keratinocyte eicosanoid synthesis as cultured keratinocytes begin to differentiate

An evolutionary stage model of outsourcing and competence destruction : a Triad comparison of the consumer electronics industry

Outsourcing has gained much prominence in managerial practice and academic discussions in the last two decades or so. Yet, we still do not understand the full implications of outsourcing strategy for corporate performance. Traditionally outsourcing across borders is explained as a cost-cutting exercise, but more recently the core competency argument states that outsourcing also leads to an increased focus, thereby improving effectiveness. However, no general explanation has so far been provided for how outsourcing could lead to deterioration in a firm‟s competence base. We longitudinally analyze three cases of major consumer electronics manufacturers, Emerson Radio from the U.S., Japan‟s Sony and Philips from the Netherlands to understand the dynamic process related to their sourcing strategies. We develop an evolutionary stage model that relates outsourcing to competence development inside the firm and shows that a vicious cycle may emerge. Thus it is appropriate to look not only at how outsourcing is influenced by an organization‟s current set of competences, but also how it alters that set over time. The four stages of the model are offshore sourcing, phasing out, increasing dependence on foreign suppliers, and finally industry exit or outsourcing reduction. The evolutionary stage model helps managers understand for which activities and under which conditions outsourcing across borders is not a viable option. Results suggest that each of these firms had faced a loss of manufacturing competitiveness in its home country, to which it responded by offshoring and then outsourcing production. When a loss of competences occurred, some outsourcing decisions were reversed

OntoJob: Automated Ontology Learning from Labor Market Data

Due to the rapidly changing labor market and the consequently widening information gap between the labor market and education, there is a need for methods that can tackle, or at least ease, the construction of labor market ontologies. The current study set out to examine the viability of Ontology Learning (OL) methods for the (semi-)automated construction of labor market ontologies and / or taxonomies. The purpose of this paper is to propose an unsupervised framework, OntoJob, that can identify and extract from raw vacancy text instances, attributes, and relations, such as job titles, worker qualities, and the non-Taxonomic 'is-A' relations between those concepts, and convert those to an expressive descriptive logic. Evaluation of the extracted worker qualities from OntoJob, using a small sample of 5621 job postings representing 1048 occupations, showed an overall lexical precision of 0.36 and recall of 0.22. </p

Limited effect of patient and disease characteristics on compliance with hospital antimicrobial guidelines

Objective: Physicians frequently deviate from guidelines that promote prudent use of antimicrobials. We explored to what extent patient and disease characteristics were associated with compliance with guideline recommendations for three common infections. Methods: In a 1-year prospective observational study, 1,125 antimicrobial prescriptions were analysed for compliance with university hospital guidelines. Results: Compliance varied significantly between and within the groups of infections studied. Compliance was much higher for lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs; 79%) than for sepsis (53%) and urinary tract infections (UTIs; 40%). Only predisposing illnesses and active malignancies were associated with more compliant prescribing, whereas alcohol/ intravenous drug abuse and serum creatinine levels > 130 mu mol/l were associated with less compliant prescribing. Availability of culture results had no impact on compliance with guidelines for sepsis but was associated with more compliance in UTIs and less in LRTIs. Narrowing initial broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy to cultured pathogens was seldom practised. Most noncompliant prescribing concerned a too broad spectrum of activity when compared with guideline-recommended therapy. Conclusion: Patient characteristics had only a limited impact on compliant prescribing for a variety of reasons. Physicians seemed to practise defensive prescribing behaviour, favouring treatment success in current patients over loss of effectiveness due to resistance in future patients