Retirement Benefits as a Two-way Street: Investigating Psychological Mechanisms of Retirement Benefits on Employee Outcomes – A Conceptual Model.

Organizations are increasingly shifting from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) retirement plans. While such changes may lower organizational costs, the shift to DC plans has been conducted without consideration of how these changes may affect the exchange relationship that exists between organizations and employees. Drawing on previous benefits research and organizational support theory, I develop propositions regarding how retirement pension plans may affect a range of employee outcomes and provide a warning to researchers and practitioners not to overlook possible important side effects of the shift from DC to DB plans

Caractérisation électrique de transistors à effet de champ avancés : transistors sans jonctions, sur réseaux de nanotubes de carbone ou sur nanofil en oxyde d'étain

In this dissertation, the electrical characterization of heavily-doped junctionless transistors (JLTs) and individual tin-oxide (SnO2) nanowire field-effect transistors (FETs) and single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) random network thin film transistors (RN-TFTs) are presented in terms of I-V, C-V, low frequency noise (LFN), and low temperature measurement including a numerical simulation, respectively. As a potential emerging candidate for more than Moore, recently developed heavily doped JLTs were studied in low-temperature (77K ~ 350K) with double gate mode to have physical insights of carrier scattering mechanism with account for both the position of flat-band voltage and doping concentration, respectively. Besides, as a nano-scaled bottom-up device, polymethyl methacrylate passivated individual SnO2 nanowire FET was discussed. A large contribution of channel access resistance to carrier mobility and LFN behavior was found as same as in nano-structure devices. Furthermore, various electrical characteristics of percolation dominant N-type SWCNT RN-TFTs were demonstrated by taking into account for I-V, C-V, LFN and a numerical percolation simulation.Les matériaux de faible dimensionnalité, tels que les nanotubes de carbone, le graphène, les nanofils de semi-conducteurs ou d'oxydes métalliques, présentent des propriétés intéressantes telles qu'un rapport surface/ volume important, des mobilités électroniques élevées, des propriétés thermiques et électriques particulières, avec la possibilité de constituer une alternatives à certaines fonctions CMOS ou d'intégrer de nouvelles fonctions comme la récupération d'énergie ou des capteurs. Pour la bio-détection, les nanofils permettent par exemple d'obtenir une grande sensibilité à la présence de biomolécules cibles grâce à la modification de charge qui accompagne leur hybridation sur des biomolécules sondes greffées à la surface du nanofil et au fort couplage électrostatique de cette charge de surface avec le cœur du nanofil. La fabrication de ce type de structure suit différentes voies: une voie dite "top-down" qui est utilisée par la production microélectronique de masse et qui permet un excellent contrôle technologique grâce à l'utilisation d'équipements, notamment de lithographie, extrêmement performants; une seconde voie moins coûteuse mais moins contrôlée dite "bottom-up" dont un exemple répandu est la réalisation de réseaux aléatoires, obtenus par dispersion de nanostructures réalisées directement sous forme 1D par croissance et en général relativement dopés de façon non nécessairement contrôlée. Dans les deux cas, le mécanisme de base est le contrôle électrostatique du canal par effet de champ d'un ensemble (organisé ou non) de nanostructures. Dans cette thèse, trois types de transistors différents sont explorées ; des transistors à nanofils SnO2, des réseaux aléatoires de nanotubes de carbone, des transistors à nanofil à canal uniformément dopé, dits "junctionless transistors" ou JLTs). Par rapport à la configuration classique d'un transistor MOS à inversion, le contrôle demande en général à être reconsidéré pour tenir compte des spécificités de ce type de structures: topologie du canal, isolants non standards (résines), effets de percolation dans les réseaux désordonné, contrôle électrostatique dans les nanofils fortement dopés, rôle crucial des états d'interface. Le travail s'appuie sur (i) une caractérisation approfondie de ces composants en statique (contrôle du courant), en petit signal (contrôle de la charge) et en bruit (pièges et états d'interfaces), (ii) une analyse critique des méthodologies d'extraction de paramètres et des modèles utilisés pour analyser ce fonctionnement avec dans certains cas l'appui de simulations et (iii) le développement, lorsque cela s'avère nécessaire, de nouvelles méthodologies d'extraction

Development of a hybrid magnetic resonance/computed tomography-compatible phantom for magnetic resonance guided radiotherapy

The purpose of the present study was to develop a hybrid magnetic resonance/computed tomography (MR/CT)-compatible phantom and tissue-equivalent materials for each MR and CT image. Therefore, the essential requirements necessary for the development of a hybrid MR/CT-compatible phantom were determined and the development process is described. A total of 12 different tissue-equivalent materials for each MR and CT image were developed from chemical components. The uniformity of each sample was calculated. The developed phantom was designed to use 14 plugs that contained various tissue-equivalent materials. Measurement using the developed phantom was performed using a 3.0-T scanner with 32 channels and a Somatom Sensation 64. The maximum percentage difference of the signal intensity (SI) value on MR images after adding K2CO3 was 3.31%. Additionally, the uniformity of each tissue was evaluated by calculating the percent image uniformity (%PIU) of the MR image, which was 82.18 ±1.87% with 83% acceptance, and the average circular-shaped regions of interest (ROIs) on CT images for all samples were within ±5 Hounsfield units (HU). Also, dosimetric evaluation was performed. The percentage differences of each tissue-equivalent sample for average dose ranged from -0.76 to 0.21%. A hybrid MR/CT-compatible phantom for MR and CT was investigated as the first trial in this field of radiation oncology and medical physics

Helicobacter pylori Infection and Halitosis – Evidence, Hypothesis, and Korean Red Ginseng to Mitigate Its Effect

Halitosis is a common and ignored condition, but in some, it is a disease-associated health problem, suggestive of overt disease conditions and hasaffected about 25–30% of world’s population, bothering nonmedical social disturbance in many people. Although two kinds, pseudohalitosis and halitophobia, are also concerned, genuine halitosis originated from the oral cavity, such as gingivitis, caries, and poor oral hygiene, in 80% and the remaining 20% are extraoral sources of halitosis, which should not be ignored because of stigmata suggestive of overt tissue dysfunctions, for instance, poor nutrition and hygiene, alcohol abuse, smoking, and systemic illness such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, liver cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, and chronic renal diseases. In this chapter, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)–associated halitosis as one of the extragastric manifestations is introduced. Since diagnostics of halitosis includes subjective methods (examiner’s sense of smell) and objective methods (instrumental analysis), under the hypothesis of a possible relationship between H. pylori infection and objective halitosis, the real levels of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) in the breath showed significant correlation between VSC levels and the degree of H. pylori–associated erosive gastritis as well as gastric cancer. These findings are further validated through either measuring H2S level in gastric juices of H. pylori–infected gastritis or checking the expressions of cystathionine-γ-lyase (CSE) and cystathionine-β-synthase (CBS) responsible for H2S generation in biopsied stomach. The eradication of H. pylori significantly ameliorated halitosis, accompanied with significant reductions in gastric H2S levels (p<0.01). Korean red ginseng was very effective in either reducing H. pylori–associated H2S or alleviating halitosis in patients with H. pylori–associated chronic atrophic gastritis. Conclusively, H. pylori infection demonstrates to have an important relationship with the development of halitosis, and its eradication could possibly promote the improvement of this condition

Torsional Vibration Transduction in a Solid Shaft by MPTs

In this study, we aim to investigate the feasibility to use MPTs (Magnetostrictive Patch Transducers) for torsional vibration measurement in solid ferromagnetic cylinders. MPTs consisting of thin magnetostrictive patches, permanent magnets and a solenoid coil have been widely used for elastic wave transduction in the ultrasound frequency range [1] but they have been seldom used for sonic-frequency range vibration measurement, in spite of their unique wireless transduction characteristics. While a MPT was used in Ref. [2] to perform torsional modal testing in a hollow cylinder or a pipe having relatively small torsional rigidity, no investigation has been reported yet on the use of MPTs in “solid” “ferromagnetic” shafts, common torsional power carrying elements in machines.While we will be mainly focused here on the torsional wave measurement in stationary shafts, the MPT-based torsional measurement can be also applied to rotating shafts. Because the torsional rigidities of solid shafts are much larger than those of hollow cylinders of the same radii, it is important to find optimal MPT configurations, such as the optimal number of rectangular patches to be installed around the surface of a solid shaft. Thereby, we performed numerical investigations and accordingly designed a series of experiments for torsional vibration testing in steel shafts. The actual modal testing experiments with the designed MPTs were found to predict the torsional Eigen-frequencies and Eigen-modes that agree well with the theoretical predictions. Also the relation between the measured vibration signals from MPTs and those from strain gages was checked experimentally and in fact, the experimental result favorably agreed with the theoretical prediction. Potential applications of the MPT-based torsional vibration measurement technique in rotating solid shafts for structural health monitoring are also briefly discussed