656 research outputs found
Pseudo-γ aluminum oxide: A new transparent conductive oxide with outstanding structural properties
Wolframcarbid (WC) ist aufgrund seiner hohen Härte und Reibungsfestigkeit ein weit ver- breitetes Material für Schneidwerkzeuge. Bei hohen Temperaturen (z.B. durch Reibung beim Schnittprozess) tritt Oxidation auf und die stabile Phase von Wolframcarbid wird in eine pul- vrige Phase umgewandelt. Um Oxidation zu vermeiden und die Lebensdauer des Werkzeugs zu erhöhen, werden einzelne oder mehrere Schutzschichten aus verschiedenen Oxiden und Nitriden auf WC-Substrate aufgebracht. Bei Abscheidung mittels physical vapor deposition (PVD) Prozessen (bspw. Magnetron- Sputtern) wird ein Vorspannungspotential an das Substrat angelegt, um die für den Wachstumsprozess erforderliche Oberflächenenergie zu erreichen. Beim Aufwachsen von isolierenden Schichten (wie den meisten Metalloxiden) wird das effektive Vorspannungspoten- tial während des Wachstums verringert, was zu einer schlechteren Kristallinität führt. Die Entwicklung eines halbleitenden Oxids mit herausragenden mechanischen Eigenschaften für Beschichtungsanwendungen ist daher von großem Interesse. In dieser Arbeit wurde Aluminiumoxid auf Wolframcarbidsubstrat abgeschieden, wobei Dual- Magnetron-Sputtern (DMS) mit Argon als Sputtergas verwendet wurde. Die Abscheidungs- bedingungen während des Wachstumsprozesses werden durch viele verschiedene Parameter definiert. Es wurde eine Kombination aus Argon- und Sauerstoffdruck während des Sputterns zusammen mit dem Vorspannungspotential und der Substrattemperatur identifiziert, die zu einer elektrisch leitfähigen Aluminiumoxidphase führt. Ziel dieser Arbeit war es, die leitfähige Aluminiumoxidphase hinsichtlich der strukturellen und elektrischen Eigenschaften zu analysieren. Neben der verbesserten Qualität verschleißfester Beschichtungen für Schneidanwendungen ist leitfähiges Aluminiumoxid ein interessantes neues Mitglied der transparenten leitfähigen Oxide (TCO). Große Forschungsanstrengungen werden unternommen, um einen Ersatz für Indiumzinnoxid (ITO) zu finden, da es aus teuren und seltenen Materialien besteht. Ein leitfähiges Aluminiumoxid benötigt hingegen nur leicht verfügbare Materialien und ist daher ein hervorragender Kandidat, um bei zukünftigen TCO- Entwicklungen eine wichtige Rolle zu spielen. Die in dieser Arbeit analysierte Proben wurden von der Walter AG in Tübingen zur Verfügung gestellt. Die Proben bestehen aus WC-Substrat mit Verschleissschutzschichten aus Aluminiu- moxid, abgeschieden mittels DMS. Eine Teil der Proben wurde mittels Hochleistungsimpuls- Magnetron-Sputtern (HIPIMS) mit einer zusätzlichen Ti 0.33 Al 0.67 N-Schicht beschichtet. Die Struktur der leitfähigen Phase wurde als ungeordnete kubische Struktur identifiziert aus Aluminium und Sauerstoff, sowie Argon mit Molanteilen bis zu 2.5 at%. Bisher bekannte un- geordnete kubische Aluminiumoxidphasen sind als γ Aluminiumoxid bekannt und sind alle elektrisch isolierend. Um daher die elektrische leitfähige Phase abzugrenzen, wurde der Begriff pseudo-γ Aluminiumoxid eingeführt. Aufgrund seiner einzigartigen Struktur (bekannt als ungeordneter Spinell) ist es möglich, große Mengen an Edelgasatomen in die Struktur einzubauen. Doch nur beim Wachstum mittels DMS führt der Einbau von Argon zur Bildung der leitfähigen Phase. Die Ar- Atome scheinen die pseudo-γ Phase zu stabilisieren. Um die Rolle des Argon innerhalb der leitfähigen Phase zu verstehen, wurden die strukturellen Merkmale sowie die elektrischen Eigenschaften der pseudo-γ Phase in dieser Arbeit detailliert untersucht. Die Charakterisierung der Proben wurde sowohl an Draufsicht- als auch an Querschnittsproben durchgeführt. Die Proben wurden so ausgewählt, dass sie einen breiten Bereich an Probeneigenschaften abdecken, bspw. Probendicke, Vorspannungspotential, aber auch unter- schiedliche Härtewerte. Quantitative energiedispersive Röntgen-Spektroskopie (EDX) wurde im Rasterelektronenmikroskop (REM) durchgeführt, um die Ar-Molanteile zu bestimmen und eine Korrelation der Probenhärte mit der Ar-Molfraktion aufzustellen. Durch genaue Bestimmung des Ar- Anteils in Draufsicht sowie im Querschnitt konnte der Ar- Anteil erfolgreich mit der Probenhärte korreliert werden. Dies zeigt, dass die Ar- Atome für die Bildung der stabilen Struktur wesentlich sind. Zudem konnte mittels Röntgendiffraktometrie (XRD) beobachtet werden, dass die Gitterkonstante der Struktur umso größer wird, je mehr Ar in die pseudo-γ Phase eingebaut wurde. In REM-EDX Linescans an Querschnittproben wurde eine inhomogene Ar-Verteilung fest- gestellt. Der höchste Ar-Anteil wurde immer an der Grenzfläche zum WC-Substrat gemessen. Für den Rest der Probe wurden unterschiedliche Argonprofile gefunden, die von einem linearen Abfall im gesamten Film bis zu einem zweiten, kleineren Maximum des Ar-Anteils reichen. Untersuchungen im Transmissionselektronenmikroskop (TEM) ergaben, dass die Unterschiede im Ar-Molanteil tatsächlich mit den Strukturmerkmalen der pseudo-γAluminiumoxidphase zusammenhängen. Für die im TEM untersuchten Proben wurde eine Mehrschichtstruktur an der Grenzfläche zum Substrat mit hohen Ar-Molanteilen bis zu 10 at% gefunden. Für den Rest der Probe wurden unterschiedliche Merkmale für die Probe mit höherer und niedrigerer Härte gefunden. Die Probe mit hoher Härte zeigte säulenförmige Körner mit einem konstanten Ar- Molanteil bei ≈ 2 at%, während die Probe mit geringer Härte kleinere Körner mit abnehmen- dem Ar-Molanteil zur Oberseite des Films zeigte. Im Hinblick auf die elektrische Charakterisierung wurden zwei verschiedene Kontak- tierungsmethoden erfolgreich angewendet, sowohl DC-gesputterte Au-Kontakte als auch mit HIPIMS abgeschiedene Ti 0.33 Al 0.67 N-Kontakte. DC-Au-Kontakte zeigten niedrige ohmsche Widerstandswerte bei Raumtemperatur und halbleitendes Verhalten bei temperaturabhängi- gen Messungen. An denselben Proben wurde auch das Verhältnis der Thermokraft zur Wärmeleitfähigkeit von pseudo-γ Aluminiumoxid bestimmt, wobei ein positives Vorzeichen der Thermokraft festgestellt wurde. Temperaturabhängige Messungen des elektrischen Widerstandes wurden auch an Proben mit Ti 0.33 Al 0.67 N auf pseudo-γ Aluminiumoxid durchgeführt. Alle Proben zeigten in Arrhenius- Diagrammen gekrümmte Linien der elektrischen Leitfähigkeit, wie sie für einen polykristalli- nen Halbleiter erwartet werden. Durch die sorgfältige Auswahl des richtigen Modells zur Erk- lärung der Krümmung können Einblicke in die für das angewandte Modell wesentlichen Struk- turmerkmale wie Kornstruktur und Homogenität der Filme gewonnen werden. Für die weitere Verwendung von pseudo-γ Aluminiumoxid als TCO wurde die Möglichkeit un- tersucht, die Struktur auf verschiedene Substrate zu übertragen. Dünne Aluminiumoxid Filme wurden auf WC-Substrat (als Referenz) und auf elektrisch isolierendem SiO 2 abgeschieden, was in beiden Fällen zur gleichen pseudo-γ Aluminiumoxidphase führte. Alle angewandten Charakterisierungsmethoden wie XRD, REM und REM EDX zeigten, dass die abgeschiedenen Aluminiumoxidfilme identisch sind und nicht vom Substratmaterial abhängen. Die Optimierung des Kontaktierungsverfahrens für pseudo-γ Aluminiumoxid Schichten gilt es weiterhin zu optimieren. Insbesondere die Abscheidung strukturierter Kontakte auf Proben mit isolierenden SiO 2 -Substraten ist wichtig, um den spezfischen elektrischen Widerstand und die absoluten Thermokraftwerte zu bestimmen. Aufgrund seiner günstigen Ausgangsmaterialien ist pseudo-γ Aluminiumoxid ein hervorragender Kandidat für den zukünftigen Einsatz als transparentes leitfähiges Oxid.Tungsten carbide (WC) is a widely used material for cutting tools due to its high mechanical hardness and friction toughness. When exposed to high temperature (e.g. due to friction), oxidation occurs and transforms the stable phase of tungsten carbide to a powdery phase. To avoid oxidation and enhance the tool lifetime, protective layers are deposited on top of WC substrates consisting of various oxides or nitrides, either as single layers or as multilayer structures. For physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes (e.g. magnetron sputtering), a bias potential is applied to the substrate to achieve the surface energy necessary for the growth process. When growing insulating layers (such as most of the metal oxides), the bias potential is reduced during growth, leading to poorer crystallinity as the layer thickness increases. Therefore, the development of a semi conductive oxide with advantageous mechanical properties for coating applications is of great interest. In this thesis, aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) was deposited on tungsten carbide substrates using dual magnetron sputtering (DSM) with argon as the sputtering gas. The deposition conditions during the growth process provide many different parameters that influence the crystal growth. A combination of argon and oxygen pressure during sputtering, together with the bias potential and substrate temperature was identified as necessary to achieve an electrically conductive aluminum oxide phase. The goal of this thesis was to analyze the conductive aluminum oxide phase with respect to the structural and electrical features. In addition to the enhanced quality of wear resistant coatings for cutting applications, conductive aluminum oxide is an interesting new member of the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) family. Strong efforts are made to find a replacement for the most widely used material indium tin oxide (ITO), since it relies on expensive and rare materials. A conductive aluminum oxide only requires easily available materials and is therefore an excellent candidate to play an important role in future TCO developments. Samples analyzed in this thesis were provided by Walter AG in Tübingen. The samples consist of WC substrates (for cutting applications) and wear resistive coatings of aluminum oxide were deposited using DMS. A subset of the samples was coated with an additional Ti 0.33 Al 0.67 N layer using high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS). The structure of the conductive phase was identified as a disordered cubic structure, containing aluminum, oxygen and argon up to mole fractions of 2.5 at%. To make a distinction to insulating disordered cubic aluminum oxide phases known as γ aluminum oxide, the conductive phase is called pseudo-γ aluminum oxide. Due to its unique structure (known as disordered spinel) of γ aluminum oxide, it is possible to incorporate rather large amounts of noble gas atoms into the structure. But only when argon is incorporated in the growth using DMS, the conductive phase is formed. The Ar atoms seem to stabilize the pseudo-γ phase. To get a grasp on the role of argon in the formation of the conductive phase, the structural feasen to cover a wide range of samples properties such as film thickness, deposition bias, but also different hardness values. Quantitative energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) was carried out to trace the Ar mole fraction and to establish a correlation thereof to the sample hardness. By precisely determining the Ar mole fraction in plan-view as well as cross-section in SEM EDX point scans, the argon mole fraction was successfully correlated to the sample hardness, showing that the Ar atoms are essential to the forming of the stable structure. In addition, a shift in the lattice spacing towards a larger unit cell was observed when more Ar was incorporated into the pseudo-γ aluminum oxide phase. By performing SEM EDX linescans in cross-section, the Ar distribution was found to be nonuniform. The highest Ar amount was always found at the interface to the WC substrate, but different content profiles were found for the rest of the sample, ranging from a linear decay throughout the film to a second, smaller maximum in the Ar content. TEM investigation revealed that the differences in the Ar mole fraction are in fact linked to structures features of the pseudo-γ aluminum oxide phase. For both samples under investigation in the TEM, a multilayer structure was found at the interface to the substrate with high argon mole fractions up to 10 at%. For the rest of the sample, different structures were found for the sample with higher and lower hardness. The high hardness sample showed columnar grains with a constant Ar mole fraction at ≈ 2 at%, whereas the low hardness sample showed much smaller grains with decreasing Ar mole fraction towards the top of the film. In terms of electrical characterization, two different contacting methods were successfully applied, using DC sputtered Au contacts and Ti 0.33 Al 0.67 N contacts deposited using HIPIMS. Such contacts showed low ohmic electrical resistance values at room temperature and semiconducting behavior in temperature dependent measurements. The same samples were also used to determine the ratio of the thermopower of pseudo-γ aluminum oxide to its heat conductivity, revealing a positive sign of the thermopower. Temperature dependent measurements of the electrical resistance were also performed on samples with Ti 0.33 Al 0.67 N on top of pseudo-γ aluminum oxide. All samples showed curved lines in Arrhenius plots of the electrical conductivity as is expected for a polycrystalline semiconductor. By carefully choosing the right model to explain the curvature of the reference samples, it is possible to gain insight on the structural features that are essential for the applied model, such as grain structure and homogeneity of the films. For further use of pseudo-γ aluminum oxide as a transparent conductive oxide, the possibility to transfer the structure to different substrates was successfully investigated. Films were deposited on WC substrate as a reference and on electrically insulating SiO 2 , leading to the same pseudo-γ aluminum oxide phase in both cases. All applied methods of characterization such as x-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM and SEM EDX showed that the pseudo-γ aluminum oxide layers are identical and do not depend on the substrate material. Future work still needs to be done on the optimization of the contacting procedure of the pseudo-γ films. Especially the deposition of structured contacts on samples with insulating SiO 2 substrates is important to determine electrical resistivity and absolute thermopower values that can lead to a deeper understanding of the pseudo-γ aluminum oxide phase. Due to its cheap materials, pseudo-γ aluminum oxide is an excellent candidate for future use as a transparent conductive oxide. tures as well as the electrical properties were investigated in detail in this thesis. Investigations were performed both in plan-view and in cross-section. The samples were chosen to cover a wide range of samples properties such as film thickness, deposition bias, but also
different hardness values. Quantitative energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) in a scan-
ning electron microscope (SEM) was carried out to trace the Ar mole fraction and to establish
a correlation thereof to the sample hardness.
By precisely determining the Ar mole fraction in plan-view as well as cross-section in SEM
EDX point scans, the argon mole fraction was successfully correlated to the sample hardness,
showing that the Ar atoms are essential to the forming of the stable structure. In addition, a shift
in the lattice spacing towards a larger unit cell was observed when more Ar was incorporated
into the pseudo-γ aluminum oxide phase.
By performing SEM EDX linescans in cross-section, the Ar distribution was found to be non-
uniform. The highest Ar amount was always found at the interface to the WC substrate, but
different content profiles were found for the rest of the sample, ranging from a linear decay
throughout the film to a second, smaller maximum in the Ar content.
TEM investigation revealed that the differences in the Ar mole fraction are in fact linked to
structures features of the pseudo-γ aluminum oxide phase. For both samples under investiga-
tion in the TEM, a multilayer structure was found at the interface to the substrate with high
argon mole fractions up to 10 at%. For the rest of the sample, different structures were found
for the sample with higher and lower hardness. The high hardness sample showed columnar
grains with a constant Ar mole fraction at ≈ 2 at%, whereas the low hardness sample showed
much smaller grains with decreasing Ar mole fraction towards the top of the film.
In terms of electrical characterization, two different contacting methods were successfully ap-
plied, using DC sputtered Au contacts and Ti 0.33 Al 0.67 N contacts deposited using HIPIMS. Such
contacts showed low ohmic electrical resistance values at room temperature and semiconduct-
ing behavior in temperature dependent measurements. The same samples were also used to
determine the ratio of the thermopower of pseudo-γ aluminum oxide to its heat conductivity,
revealing a positive sign of the thermopower.
Temperature dependent measurements of the electrical resistance were also performed on sam-
ples with Ti 0.33 Al 0.67 N on top of pseudo-γ aluminum oxide. All samples showed curved lines in
Arrhenius plots of the electrical conductivity as is expected for a polycrystalline semiconductor.
By carefully choosing the right model to explain the curvature of the reference samples, it is
possible to gain insight on the structural features that are essential for the applied model, such
as grain structure and homogeneity of the films.
For further use of pseudo-γ aluminum oxide as a transparent conductive oxide, the possibility
to transfer the structure to different substrates was successfully investigated. Films were de-
posited on WC substrate as a reference and on electrically insulating SiO 2 , leading to the same
pseudo-γ aluminum oxide phase in both cases. All applied methods of characterization such as
x-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM and SEM EDX showed that the pseudo-γ aluminum oxide layers
are identical and do not depend on the substrate material.
Future work still needs to be done on the optimization of the contacting procedure of the
pseudo-γ films. Especially the deposition of structured contacts on samples with insulating SiO 2
substrates is important to determine electrical resistivity and absolute thermopower values that
can lead to a deeper understanding of the pseudo-γ aluminum oxide phase. Due to its cheap
materials, pseudo-γ aluminum oxide is an excellent candidate for future use as a transparent
conductive oxide
Reference Profile Correlation Reveals Estrogen-like Trancriptional Activity of Curcumin
Background: Several secondary metabolites from herbal nutrient products act as weak estrogens (phytoestrogens), competing with endogenous estrogen for binding to the estrogen receptors and inhibiting steroid converting enzymes. However, it is still unclear whether these compounds elicit estrogen dependent transcription of genes at physiological concentrations. Methods: We compare the effects of physiological concentrations (100 nM) of the two phytoestrogens Enterolactone and Quercetin and the suspected phytoestrogen Curcumin on gene expression in the breast cancer cell line MCF7 with the effects elicited by 17-beta-estradiol (E2). Results: All three phytocompounds have weak effects on gene transcription; most of the E2 genes respond to the phytoestrogens in the same direction though to a much lesser extent and in the order Curcumin > Quercetin > Enterolactone. Gene regulation induced by these compounds was low for genes strongly induced by E2 and similar to the latter for genes only weakly regulated by the classic estrogen. Of interest with regard to the treatment of menopausal symptoms, the survival factor Birc5/survivin and the oncogene MYBL1 are strongly induced by E2 but only marginally by phytoestrogens. Conclusion: This approach demonstrates estrogenic effects of putative phytoestrogens at physiological concentrations and shows, for the first time, estrogenic effects of Curcumin. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Base
Overexpression of the ATP binding cassette gene ABCA1 determines resistance to Curcumin in M14 melanoma cells
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens
Heavy flavor jet tagging algorithm developments at CMS for HL-LHC
The rich physics program at the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) requires all final state particles to be reconstructed with good accuracy. However, it also poses formidable challenge of dealing with very high pileup. Different identification algorithms need to be upgraded along with the detectors to improve the overall event reconstruction in such a hostile collision environment. The new timing device in the proposed CMS detector at the HL-LHC allows for the construction of timing observables at the track-level as well as at the jet-level. This information when given as inputs to the deep neural networks, have a potential to improve the existing algorithms used for heavy flavor (HF) jet tagging. In this paper, the latest developments on the studies for HF jet tagging performance at the HL-LHC are presented
Kaposi's Sarcoma and HIV-Tat: Challenges to Antiangiogenesis Research
Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is characterized by an abnormal growth of blood vessels. KS was found mainly in older men of Mediterranean or African origin (classic KS) or in patients after organ transplantation (iatrogenic KS). However, in the early 1980s, an aggressive epidemic form, linked to AIDS, was noticed and was one of the first clues to the existence of HIV-1 pandemy. The link between KS occurrence and HIV has raised multiple hypotheses. The drastic reduction of KS after the introduction of HAART, suggests HIV as a powerful co-factor for KS progression. We and others have contributed to the elucidation of KS cell nature and the possible involvement of extracellular HIV Tat. Tat is proangiogenic and is a true promoter of KS lesions acting as a VEGFR2 ligand both on KS and endothelial cells, in addition Tat is able to bind and activate chemokine receptors on monocytes and granulocytes causing a pro-inflammatory status. Evaluation of the effects of extracellular Tat on KS cells by microarray analysis after 24 h of incubation shows an interesting clustering of gene products involved in signal transduction, especially GTP-ase, Kinase and cAMP activity, confirming that Tat acts extracellularly by ways that are probably unrelated to its nuclear activity. KS occurrence is reduced by HAART but still present and in Africa is one of the most frequent oncologic disease. To find suitable drugs with low toxic impact on KS patients, we have tested several drugs and gene therapy approaches in in vivo models. from 2005 International Meeting of The Institute of Human Virology Baltimore, USA, 29 August – 2 September 200
Identification of a prognostic signature based on the expression of genes related to the insulin pathway in early breast cancer
INTRODUCTION: Insulin and the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) family play a key role in breast cancer (BC). OBJECTIVE: In this study, we evaluated on a genomic scale the potential prognostic value of insulin signaling in early BC. METHODS: Candidate genes were selected from the published literature and gene expression profiling experiments. Three publicly available BC datasets, containing gene expression data on 502 cases, were used to test the prognostic ability of the score. The gene signature was developed on GSE1456, containing microarray data from 159 patients, split into a training set (102 breast tumors) and a validation set (n = 57). GSE3494 and GSE2990 (350 patients) were used for external validation. Univariate Mann-Whitney test was used to identify genes differentially expressed between relapsed and nonrelapsed patients. Expression of genes significantly correlated with relapse was combined in a linear score. Patients were classified as low or high risk with respect to the median value. RESULTS: On the training set, 15 genes turned out to be differentially expressed: 8-year disease-free survival (DFS) was 51 and 91% in the high- and low-risk group (p < 0.001), respectively. In the validation set, DFS was 97 and 54% (p = 0.009), respectively. External validation: 8-year DFS was 72 and 61%, respectively, in GSE3494 (p = 0.03) and 74 and 55% in GSE2990 (p = 0.03). By multivariate analyses, the insulin signature was significantly associated with DFS, independently of age, hormone receptor status, nodal status, and grade. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the insulin pathway is involved in BC prognosis at a genomic level and provide a window of selectivity for preventive and treatment strategies targeting the insulin/IGF pathway in BC patients
Survival Online: a web-based service for the analysis of correlations between gene expression and clinical and follow-up data
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Complex microarray gene expression datasets can be used for many independent analyses and are particularly interesting for the validation of potential biomarkers and multi-gene classifiers. This article presents a novel method to perform correlations between microarray gene expression data and clinico-pathological data through a combination of available and newly developed processing tools.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed Survival Online (available at <url>http://ada.dist.unige.it:8080/enginframe/bioinf/bioinf.xml</url>), a Web-based system that allows for the analysis of Affymetrix GeneChip microarrays by using a parallel version of dChip. The user is first enabled to select pre-loaded datasets or single samples thereof, as well as single genes or lists of genes. Expression values of selected genes are then correlated with sample annotation data by uni- or multi-variate Cox regression and survival analyses. The system was tested using publicly available breast cancer datasets and GO (Gene Ontology) derived gene lists or single genes for survival analyses.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The system can be used by bio-medical researchers without specific computation skills to validate potential biomarkers or multi-gene classifiers. The design of the service, the parallelization of pre-processing tasks and the implementation on an HPC (High Performance Computing) environment make this system a useful tool for validation on several independent datasets.</p
One Health Education Nexus: enhancing synergy among science-, school-, and teacher education beyond academic silos
IntroductionThe fact that the daily lives of billions of people were affected by the medical, social, and political aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic shows the need to anchor the understanding of One Health in society. Hence, promoting awareness and deepening the understanding of the interrelation between human health, animal health, and ecosystems must be accomplished through quality education, as advocated by UN Sustainable Development Goal 4. The often-questioned and discussed measures taken by governments to control the global pandemic between 2020 and 2023 can be seen as an opportunity to meet the educational needs of civil society solutions in multi-stakeholder settings between public, universities, and schools.MethodsThis paper focuses on the integration of One Health principles in educational frameworks, particularly within the context of the higher education teaching framework “Teaching Clinic.” This master-level course in the domain of pre-service teacher education serves as a potent vehicle for facilitating One Health Education, bridging the gap between research, higher education, and schools. Through the presentation of two case studies, this article demonstrates how the Teaching Clinic approach fosters interdisciplinary perspectives and provides a dynamic learning environment for pre-service teachers, as well as for pupils involved in the educational process.ResultsIn both cases, the integration of educational One Health school teaching-learning settings effectively enhanced pupils’ understanding of complex topics and engaged them in active learning experiences. Pre-service teachers played a crucial role in developing, implementing, and evaluating these interventions. In Case I, pupils demonstrated proficiency in analyzing data and evaluating mathematical models, while in Case II, the chosen instructional approach facilitated One Health knowledge acquisition and enjoyment among pupils. These results underscore the potential of the One Health Teaching Clinic as a valuable educational framework for enhancing teaching and learning outcomes for pre-service teachers and fostering pupil engagement in socio-scientific One Health-related topics.DiscussionThe discussion delves into the significance of breaking down disciplinary silos and the crucial role of teacher education in promoting a holistic approach to education, emphasizing the intersectionality of One Health Education and Education for Sustainable Development. This article underpins the significance of collaborative efforts across multiple (scientific) disciplines and across secondary and tertiary education levels to reach a nexus. Moreover, it emphasizes the alignment of this approach with the 2030 Agenda, Education for Sustainable Development, and Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting the potential for collective action toward a more sustainable future
Understanding employee resourcing in construction organizations
In recent years the literature on employee resourcing has consistently advocated the importance of adopting a holistic, strategic approach to employee deployment decision making rather than adopting a reactive needs-based approach. This is particularly problematic in construction where the multi-project environment leads to constantly changing resource requirements and to changing demands over a project's life cycle. This can lead to inappropriate decisions, which fail to meet the longer-term needs of both construction organizations and their employees. A structured and comprehensive understanding of the current project team deployment practices within large construction organizations was developed. Project deployment practices were examined within seven case study contracting firms. The emergent themes that shaped the decision-making processes were grouped into five broad clusters comprising human resource planning, performance/career management, team deployment, employee involvement and training and development. The research confirms that a reactive and ad hoc approach to the function prevails within the firms investigated. This suggests a weak relationship between the deployment process and human resource planning, team deployment, performance management, employee involvement and training and development activities. It is suggested that strategic HR-business partnering could engender more transparent and productive relationships in this crucial area
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