2,360 research outputs found
Social Sector Business Ventures: The Critical Factors That Maximize Success
This paper seeks to help social sector leaders understand the factors that they should consider when launching revenue-generating business ventures. Given that much of the research on social sector business ventures is based on the personal experiences of individual practitioners, there is a wide array of advice for organizational leaders who are thinking about launching business ventures. Consequently, we approach the subject of social sector business ventures in a systematic and analytic way in order to determine what organizational leaders really need to know about launching successful ventures. We introduce a framework called "business in a box" that separates the process of thinking about launching business ventures from the organizational characteristics and dynamics that influence these ventures. We assert that organizational leaders who wish to maximize the success of their business ventures must explore (1) what is "inside" the box (The Business and its Context) to understand the business fundamentals of launching a venture and (2) what is "outside" the box (Assets and Internal Destructive Forces) to understand the forces and dynamics within the organizational context that impact these ventures.This publication is Hauser Center Working Paper No. 43. The Hauser Center Working Paper Series was launched during the summer of 2000. The Series enables the Hauser Center to share with a broad audience important works-in-progress written by Hauser Center scholars and researchers
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Extreme enrichment in atmospheric 15N15N.
Molecular nitrogen (N2) comprises three-quarters of Earth's atmosphere and significant portions of other planetary atmospheres. We report a 19 per mil (‰) excess of 15N15N in air relative to a random distribution of nitrogen isotopes, an enrichment that is 10 times larger than what isotopic equilibration in the atmosphere allows. Biological experiments show that the main sources and sinks of N2 yield much smaller proportions of 15N15N in N2. Electrical discharge experiments, however, establish 15N15N excesses of up to +23‰. We argue that 15N15N accumulates in the atmosphere because of gas-phase chemistry in the thermosphere (>100 km altitude) on time scales comparable to those of biological cycling. The atmospheric 15N15N excess therefore reflects a planetary-scale balance of biogeochemical and atmospheric nitrogen chemistry, one that may also exist on other planets
Transition Region Emission and Energy Input to Thermal Plasma During the Impulsive Phase of Solar Flares
The energy released in a solar flare is partitioned between thermal and
non-thermal particle energy and lost to thermal conduction and radiation over a
broad range of wavelengths. It is difficult to determine the conductive losses
and the energy radiated at transition region temperatures during the impulsive
phases of flares. We use UVCS measurements of O VI photons produced by 5 flares
and subsequently scattered by O VI ions in the corona to determine the 5.0 <
log T < 6.0 transition region luminosities. We compare them with the rates of
increase of thermal energy and the conductive losses deduced from RHESSI and
GOES X-ray data using areas from RHESSI images to estimate the loop volumes,
cross-sectional areas and scale lengths. The transition region luminosities
during the impulsive phase exceed the X-ray luminosities for the first few
minutes, but they are smaller than the rates of increase of thermal energy
unless the filling factor of the X-ray emitting gas is ~ 0.01. The estimated
conductive losses from the hot gas are too large to be balanced by radiative
losses or heating of evaporated plasma, and we conclude that the area of the
flare magnetic flux tubes is much smaller than the effective area measured by
RHESSI during this phase of the flares. For the 2002 July 23 flare, the energy
deposited by non-thermal particles exceeds the X-ray and UV energy losses and
the rate of increase of the thermal energy.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures To appear in Ap
A Statistical Study on the Morphology of Rays and Dynamics of Blobs in the Wake of Coronal Mass Ejections
In this paper, with a survey through the Large Angle and Spectrometric
Coronagraph (LASCO) data from 1996 to 2009, we present 11 events with plasma
blobs flowing outwards sequentially along a bright coronal ray in the wake of a
coronal mass ejection. The ray is believed to be associated with the current
sheet structure that formed as a result of solar eruption, and the blobs are
products of magnetic reconnection occurring along the current sheet. The ray
morphology and blob dynamics are investigated statistically. It is found that
the apparent angular widths of the rays at a fixed time vary in a range of
2.1-6.6 (2.0-4.4) degrees with an average of 3.5 (2.9) degrees at 3 (4) Rs,
respectively, and the observed durations of the events vary from 12 h to a few
days with an average of 27 h. It is also found, based on the analysis of blob
motions, that 58% (26) of the blobs were accelerated, 20% (9) were decelerated,
and 22% (10) moved with a nearly-constant speed. Comparing the dynamics of our
blobs and those that are observed above the tip of a helmet streamer, we find
that the speeds and accelerations of the blobs in these two cases differ
significantly. It is suggested that these differences of the blob dynamics stem
from the associated magnetic reconnection involving different magnetic field
configurations and triggering processes.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Solar Physic
Silicon-Organic Hybrid (SOH) and Plasmonic-Organic Hybrid (POH) integration
Silicon photonics offers tremendous potential for inexpensive high-yield photonic-electronic integration. Besides conventional dielectric waveguides, plasmonic structures can also be efficiently realized on the silicon photonic platform, reducing device footprint by more than an order of magnitude. However, nei-ther silicon nor metals exhibit appreciable second-order optical nonlinearities, thereby making efficient electro-optic modulators challenging to realize. These deficiencies can be overcome by the concepts of silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) and plasmonic-organic hybrid integration, which combine SOI waveguides and plasmonic nanostructures with organic electro-optic cladding materials
High-throughput electrochemical sensing platform for screening nanomaterial-biomembrane interactions
A high-throughput, automated screening platform has been developed for the assessment of biological membrane damage caused by nanomaterials. Membrane damage is detected using the technique of analyzing capacitance–current peak changes obtained through rapid cyclic voltammetry measurements of a phospholipid self-assembled monolayer formed on a mercury film deposited onto a microfabricated platinum electrode after the interaction of a biomembrane-active species. To significantly improve wider usability of the screening technique, a compact, high-throughput screening platform was designed, integrating the monolayer-supporting microfabricated electrode into a microfluidic flow cell, with bespoke pumps used for precise, automated control of fluid flow. Chlorpromazine, a tricyclic antidepressant, and a citrate-coated 50 nm diameter gold nanomaterial (AuNM) were screened to successfully demonstrate the platform’s viability for high-throughput screening. Chlorpromazine and the AuNM showed interactions with a 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) monolayer at concentrations in excess of 1 µmol dm−3. Biological validity of the electrochemically measured interaction of chlorpromazine with DOPC monolayers was confirmed through quantitative comparisons with HepG2 and A549 cytotoxicity assays. The platform also demonstrated desirable performance for high-throughput screening, with membrane interactions detected in <6 min per assay. Automation contributed to this significantly by reducing the required operating skill level when using the technique and minimizing fluid consumption
Solar winds along curved magnetic field lines
Both remote-sensing measurements using the interplanetary scintillation (IPS)
technique and in situ measurements by the Ulysses spacecraft show a bimodal
structure for the solar wind at solar minimum conditions. At present what makes
the fast wind fast and the slow wind slow still remains to be answered. While a
robust empirical correlation exists between the coronal expansion rate of
the flow tubes and the speeds measured in situ, further data analysis
suggests that depends on more than just . We examine whether the
non-radial shape of field lines, which naturally accompanies any non-radial
expansion, could be an additional geometrical factor. We solved the transport
equations incorporating the heating due to turbulent Alfv\'en waves for an
electron-proton solar wind along curved field lines given by an analytical
magnetic field model, representative of a solar minimum corona. The field line
shape is found to influence substantially the solar wind parameters, reducing
the asymptotic speed by up to km s, or by in
relative terms, compared with the case neglecting the field line curvature.
This effect was interpreted in the general framework of energy addition in the
solar wind: Relative to the straight case, the field line curvature enhances
the effective energy deposition to the subsonic flow, resulting in a higher
proton flux and a lower terminal proton speed. Our computations suggest that
the field line curvature could be a geometrical factor which, in addition to
the tube expansion, substantially influences the solar wind speed. Furthermore,
at solar minima although the field line curvature unlikely affects the polar
fast solar wind, it does help make the wind at low latitudes slow, thereby
helping better reproduce the Ulysses measurements.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic
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