Early-life neighborhood context, perceived stress, and preterm birth in African American Women.

Stressors from multiple sources, across the life-course, may have independent and joint associations with preterm birth (PTB) risk in African American women. Using data from the Life-course Influences on Fetal Environments Study (LIFE; 2009-2011) of post-partum African American women from Metropolitan Detroit, Michigan (n=1365), we examined the association between perceived stress and PTB, and effect modification by perceptions of early-life neighborhood social control and disorder. We defined PTB as birth before 37 completed weeks of gestation. We used Cohen's Perceived Stress scale, and valid and reliable scales of early-life (age 10) neighborhood social control and social disorder to quantify exposures. We estimated prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) with log binomial regression models- with separate interaction terms for perceived stress and each early-life neighborhood scale. We considered p < 0.10 significant for interaction terms. PTB occurred in 16.4% (n=224) of the study participants. In the total sample, perceived stress was not associated with PTB rates. However, there was suggestive evidence of a joint association between perceived stress and early-life neighborhood social disorder (p for interaction = 0.06), such that among women who reported high early-life neighborhood social disorder (n=660), perceived stress was positively associated with PTB (adjusted PR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.63). There was no association between perceived stress and PTB for women in the low early-life neighborhood social disorder strata (n=651) (adjusted PR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.75, 1.21). There was no evidence that early-life neighborhood social control modified the association between perceived stress and PTB. Our results suggest that early-life neighborhood stressors may magnify the association between current perceived stress and PTB rates, in African American women. More research to confirm and explicate the biologic and/or psychosocial mechanisms of the reported association is warranted

Promoting Women to MD in Investment Banking: Multi-level Influences

Purpose: Women remain underrepresented at senior levels in global investment banks. By investigating promotion processes in this sector, and using the concept of a multi-level, relational framework, this paper seeks to examine macro, micro, and meso-level influences, and the interplay between them, as explanations for why more progress is not being made. Design/Approach: Data is taken from two projects with a total of 50 semi-structured interviews with male and female directors and managing directors, across six investment banks discussing careers and promotions. An inductive approach was taken to data analysis. Findings: Women’s lack of representation at the top of investment banks is not simply an individual level problem but is the result of the dynamic interplay between macro and meso-level influences which impact individual agency, identity and perception of fit. Research Limitations/Implications: Public debate should be refocused around the meso-level influences of what organizations can do to promote more inclusive cultures and structures thereby enabling more women to achieve Managing Director positions in investment banking. Originality/Value: The paper considers challenges women face in their promotion to Managing Director using a multi-level framework demonstrating the impact of each level and their interconnectedness. It contributes to the limited qualitative research exploring the career experiences of senior level individuals in global financial services firms

Highly conductive Sb-doped layers in strained Si

The ability to create stable, highly conductive ultrashallow doped regions is a key requirement for future silicon-based devices. It is shown that biaxial tensile strain reduces the sheet resistance of highly doped n-type layers created by Sb or As implantation. The improvement is stronger with Sb, leading to a reversal in the relative doping efficiency of these n-type impurities. For Sb, the primary effect is a strong enhancement of activation as a function of tensile strain. At low processing temperatures, 0.7% strain more than doubles Sb activation, while enabling the formation of stable, ~10-nm-deep junctions. This makes Sb an interesting alternative to As for ultrashallow junctions in strain-engineered complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor device

Women on Boards: Progress following the 2012 Corporate Governance Code

This report monitors and recounts progress to date against the Financial Reporting Council's 2012 amendment to the Corporate Governance Code, considering inclusion of diversity reporting within annual reports. From this and from measuring the reality of the statistics on women in leadership and board positions across the top FTSE 350 companies, the report comments on the extent to which gender diversity is becoming an integral part of corporate strategy

Modeling thermal and mechanical cancellation of residual stress from hybrid additive manufacturing by laser peening

Additive manufacturing (AM) of metals often results in parts with unfavorable mechanical properties. Laser peening (LP) is a high strain rate mechanical surface treatment that hammers a workpiece and induces favorable mechanical properties. Peening strain hardens a surface and imparts compressive residual stresses improving the mechanical properties of a material. This work investigates the role of LP on layer-by-layer processing of 3D printed metals using finite element analysis. The objective is to understand temporal and spatial residual stress development after thermal and mechanical cancellation caused by cyclically coupling printing and peening. Results indicate layer peening frequency is a critical process parameter affecting residual stress redistribution and highly interdependent on the heat generated by the printing process. Optimum hybrid process conditions were found to exists that favorably enhance mechanical properties. With this study, hybrid-AM has ushered in the next evolutionary step in AM and has the potential to profoundly change the way high value metal goods are manufactured

An effective electrical isolation scheme by iron implantation at different substrate temperatures

High-energy implantation of iron in n-type doped InP epilayers at different substrate temperatures: 77K, room temperature (RT), 100degreesC and 200degreesC was investigated to study the electrical isolation of n-type InP. Iron isolation implants were performed at 1MeV with a fluence of 5 x 10(14) /cm(2). This isolation scheme was chosen to place most of the iron atoms well inside the n-type doped layer. The sheet resistivity (R,), sheet carrier concentration (n(S)) and sheet mobility (p) were measured as a function of substrate temperature and post-implantation annealing temperature (100 - 800degreesC). Samples implanted at 77K, RT and 100degreesC show more or less the same trend of postimplant annealing characteristics. A maximum sheet resistivity of similar to1 x 10(7) Omega/rectangle was achieved for samples implanted at 77K, RT and 100degreesC after annealing at 400degreesC. A lower resistivity of similar to1 x 10(6) Omega/rectangle was obtained for a 200degreesC implant after annealing at 4000C. Lower damage accumulation due to enhanced dynamic annealing is observed for the highest implantation temperature. For 200degreesC substrate temperature, annealing above 4000C resulted in a gradual decrease in sheet resistivity to a value close to that of the starting material. But this is not the case for the lower substrate temperatures. The sheet resistivity was increased again for 77K, RT and 100()C implant after annealing at 600degreesC. We infer that for 77K, RT and 100degreesC implantation temperatures, the electrical isolation is due to a product of both damage related centers and defects related to the presence of Fe whereas for 200degreesC substrate temperature, we infer that only damage induced compensation removes the carriers. These results show the importance of iron implants as a device isolation scheme.</p

The Female FTSE Board Report 2015

This year we have seen significant progress on FTSE 100 boards. All-male boards have totally disappeared with Glencore, the last, appointing a woman to its board. The percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards is 23.5%, almost exactly where we predicted in last year's report. This puts us on track to hit the 25% target by the end of 2015. The percentage of women in executive directorships on FTSE 100 boards is at an all time high of 8.6% with 24 women holding such roles

Mechanical Characterizations of 3D-printed PLLA/Steel Particle Composites

The objective of this study is to characterize the micromechanical properties of poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) composites reinforced by grade 420 stainless steel (SS) particles with a specific focus on the interphase properties. The specimens were manufactured using 3D printing techniques due to its many benefits, including high accuracy, cost effectiveness and customized geometry. The adopted fused filament fabrication resulted in a thin interphase layer with an average thickness of 3 μm. The mechanical properties of each phase, as well as the interphase, were characterized by nanoindentation tests. The effect of matrix degradation, i.e., imperfect bonding, on the elastic modulus of the composite was further examined by a representative volume element (RVE) model. The results showed that the interphase layer provided a smooth transition of elastic modulus from steel particles to the polymeric matrix. A 10% volume fraction of steel particles could enhance the elastic modulus of PLLA polymer by 31%. In addition, steel particles took 37% to 59% of the applied load with respect to the particle volume fraction. We found that degradation of the interphase reduced the elastic modulus of the composite by 70% and 7% under tensile and compressive loads, respectively. The shear modulus of the composite with 10% particles decreased by 36%, i.e., lower than pure PLLA, when debonding occurred

Pulsed Laser Cutting of Magnesium-Calcium for Biodegradable Stents

There is growing interests in the use of biodegradable magnesium implants for cardiovascular and pulmonary applications such as stents. Magnesium is a metal that has the ability to gradually dissolve and absorb into the human body after implantation. There is very little work discussing the relationship between process parameters and cut quality of magnesium stents by laser cutting. The objective of this research is to determine the effect of laser cutting conditions including peak laser power and cutting speed of a millisecond range pulsed laser on kerf geometry, surface topography, surface roughness, and microstructure. An assessment on the experimental work discussing laser cutting of magnesium alloys is also presented