Deflection of suspended graphene by a transverse electric field

We investigate the electromechanical response of doubly clamped graphene nanoribbons to a transverse gate voltage. An analytical model is developed to predict the field-induced deformation of graphene nanoribbons as a function of field intensity and graphene geometry. This model is validated thought atomistic simulations using the combination of a constitutive charge-dipole model and a pseudo-chemical many-body potential. As a newly observed effect of electric polarization, this field-induced deflection allows the graphene to oscillate at its natural frequency, which is found to decrease dramatically with increasing graphene size.Comment: 4 Figure

The East investing the West: Chinese investing overseas, with a specific focus on M&As ; trends, effects and likely issues or opportunities for the Swiss market

Nowadays, we live in an international world where everything is interconnected. Companies seek new opportunities in expanding their businesses abroad by either investing, acquiring or merging with important companies. In 2015, the total value of M&As has overpassed $5000 billion where half of this amount was invested by the United States and more than 20% by Asian companies. They have started to plant their facilities in developed economies even though cross-national businesses may face challenges in cultural difference. Over the past decades, Chinese leading firms have made headlines with their growth all over the world. The Middle Empire is doing its shopping mainly in the US and Europe where Switzerland is an attractive market. Some of those recent acquisitions represent a huge amount such as the acquisition of Syngenta for more than 40 billion dollars, by ChemChina, which has already Mercuria (a 12% stake) and Nestal, This paper focuses on the understanding of the different issues that can face a company entering in a foreign market. Different aspect of Chinese M&A will be analysed concerning trends, effects and likely issues or opportunities for the Swiss market. Firstly, there is an overview of the Chinese and the Swiss market. It is then followed by the relationship between both countries. As it will be explained, this relationship is one of the most important factors in Chinese business. It can influence and drive the business in a good or bad way depending on the relationship. In fact, it can represent a danger during important deals, which bring us to cultural matters. The latter focus on the cultural differences between China and Switzerland and how it can be measured with the Hofstede dimension. At the end, over more than 570’000 Swiss enterprises there are 90% of companies held by foreign stakeholders whereof 60 are Chinese. It is understandable because the “Swiss Made” and know-how is greatly prized. Chinese come to Switzerland in order to learn and be inspired about what advanced economies do best and catch up with developed countries. However, the transferability of knowledge could represent a danger, but it also gives Switzerland the possibility to have access to new market opportunities in the Asian markets

Characterization of anesthetists’ behavior during simulation training: performance versus stress achieving medical tasks with or without physical effort

Decades of research about stress have shown that it could be source of performance but also of cognitive deficit. The studies have led to highlight occupational stress variables that researchers have characterized by physiological measurements, data treatments and protocols becoming more and more complex with time. If these devices are gaining in precision, they are now too complex to allow non-specialist users to produce a quick interpretation of results. Yet for vocational training, specifically on simulators, trainers need to know in real time whether or not what they implement allows the trainees to learn in good conditions, i.e. by favoring the behavior produced by the positive effect of stress on performance. The present paper addresses the performance versus occupational stress during training sessions of anesthetists on simulator. We studied the performance and stress with or without physical effort using a simple protocol based on the use of basic heart parameters in order to obtain a quasi-instantaneous interpretation of the data. We identified cognitive deficit zone during training according to the Yerkes & Dodson (1908) relationship between performance and stress. We showed that performance versus stress during simulation training with or without physical efforts could be successfully analyzed for immediate assessment of stress influencing performance. Suggestions have been made for improving training sessions and avoid trainees’ behavior induced by cognitive deficit. Limits of the protocol are exposed

New SAR Target Imaging Algorithm based on Oblique Projection for Clutter Reduction

International audienceWe have developed a new Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) algorithm based on physical models for the detection of a Man-Made Target (MMT) embedded in strong clutter (trunks in a forest). The physical models for the MMT and the clutter are represented by low-rank subspaces and are based on scattering and polarimetric properties. Our SAR algorithm applies the oblique projection of the received signal along the clutter subspace onto the target subspace. We compute its statistical performance in terms of probabilities of detection and false alarms. The performances of the proposed SAR algorithm are improved compared to those obtained with existing SAR algorithms: the MMT detection is greatly improved and the clutter is rejected. We also studied the robustness of our new SAR algorithm to interference modeling errors. Results on real FoPen (Foliage Penetration) data showed the usefulness of this approach

The Provision of Services, Interest Margins and Loan Pricing in European Banking

This paper assesses the implications on bank interest margins of the expansion into non- traditional fee-based activities in European banking. We use a sample of 602 European commercial and cooperative banks from 1996 to 2002 and consider the total income shares of trading income and commission and fee income as measures of product diversification to explore loan pricing. Our results show that a higher income share from commission and fee activities is associated with lower margins and lower lending rates but that there is no link with trading activities. For banks exhibiting a higher share of commission and fee income there is a weaker link between the rate they charge on loans and borrower default risk. The hypothesis that banks use loans as a loss leader altering default screening and monitoring activities and consequently risk pricing cannot be rejected

Product Diversification in the European Banking Industry: Risk and Loan Pricing Implications

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between bank risk and product diversification in the changing structure of the European banking industry. Based on a broad set of European banks for the period 1996-2002, our study shows that banks expanding into non-interest income activities present higher risk than banks which mainly supply loans. Whereas previous studies (mainly on U.S. banks) focused on portfolio diversification effects we explore risk implications of cross-selling determinants of loan pricing as an alternative explanation. Our results show that higher income from other activities is associated with lower lending rates which suggests that banks may actually use loans as a loss leader altering default screening and monitoring activities and consequently risk pricing

Cellulose ethers influence on water retention and consistency in cement-based mortars

International audienceCellulose ethers (CE) are commonly used as additives to improve the quality of cement-based materials. As admixtures, they improve the properties of mortars such as water retention, workability, and open time. Also, polysaccharides such as starch derivatives are used to improve the consistency of the fresh material. The properties of cement-based mortars at fresh state were investigated. The effect of CE and their physico-chemical parameters (molecular weight, substitution degrees, etc.) on both water retention and rheological properties of mortars were studied. Moreover, some starch derivatives were also examined in order to better understand the water retention mechanisms. Rheological measurements showed that CE have a thickening effect for a content of 0.27 wt.%. Besides, a fundamental effect of CE molecular weight on mortar consistency and its water retention capability was highlighted. Finally, the comparison with starch ethers proved that, for those admixtures, water retention is not directly linked to mortar's viscosity