Focused-ion-beam-induced deposition of superconducting nanowires

Superconducting nanowires, with a critical temperature of 5.2 K, have been synthesized using an ion-beam-induced deposition, with a Gallium focused ion beam and Tungsten Carboxyl, W(CO)6, as precursor. The films are amorphous, with atomic concentrations of about 40, 40, and 20 % for W, C, and Ga, respectively. Zero Kelvin values of the upper critical field and coherence length of 9.5 T and 5.9 nm, respectively, are deduced from the resistivity data at different applied magnetic fields. The critical current density is Jc= 1.5 10^5 A/cm2 at 3 K. This technique can be used as a template-free fabrication method for superconducting devices.Comment: Accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letter

Planning oncologists of ambulatory care units

International audienceThis paper addresses the problem of determining the work schedule, called medical planning, of oncologists for chemotherapy of oncology patients at ambulatory care units. A mixed integer programming (MIP) model is proposed for medical planning in order to best balance bed capacity requirements under capacity constraints of key resources such as beds and oncologists. The most salient feature of the MIP model is the explicit modeling of specific features of chemotherapy such as treatment protocols. The medical planning problem is proved to be NP-complete. A three-stage approach is proposed for determining good medical planning in reasonable computational time. From numerical experiments based on field data, the three-stage approach takes less than 10 min and always outperforms the direct application of MIP solvers with 10 h CPU time. Compared with the current planning, the three-stage approach reduces the peak daily bed capacity requirement by 20 h to 45 h while the maximum theoretical daily bed capacity is 162 h

An More effective Approach of ECC Encryption Algorithm using DNA Computing

Now a day’s Cryptography is one of the broad areas for researchers. Encryption is most effective way to achieve data security. Cryptographic system entails the study of mathematical techniques of encryption and decryption to solve security problems in communication. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is one of the most efficient techniques that are used for this issue. Many researchers have tried to exploit the features of ECC field for security applications. This paper describes an efficient approach based elliptic curve and DNA computing. The security of the scheme is based on Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem (ECDLP). Existing DNA based cryptography technique need more computational power and more processing time with larger key sizes to provide higher level of security. The main goal of our construction is to enhance the security of elliptic curve cryptosystem using DNA Computing. Both image and text data are encrypted successfully

Extending algebraic modelling languages for Stochastic Programming

Extending algebraic modelling languages for Stochastic Programmin

The effectiveness of policies for formal knowledge transfer from European universities and public research institutes to firms

We use survey data for 247 European universities and 40 public research organizations to investigate the effects of institutional policies on four outcomes of transfer performance (R&D agreements with companies, patent applications, licence agreements, and start-ups established). We find that the effects of policies to establish clear rules, improve transparency, and provide financial or non-financial incentives vary by outcome. Improving transparency by publishing the policies for licencing or intellectual property are often negatively correlated with outcomes, particularly for licence agreements. Out of three non-financial incentives, only social rewards have a rather positive effect (on start-ups), but financial incentives are positively correlated with several outcomes. A higher salary is positively linked to the number of research agreements and patent applications, while giving inventors a share of revenue is positively correlated with licencing and start-ups. The results suggest that the type of incentive as well as the degree of transparency of transfer policies should be chosen to complement the main transfer channels and strategy of the institutio

Risks in global transport

Abstract. The background of this project is that the case company delivers its products to customer all over the world using different supply chains. Currently, the products are packed and shipped in relatively similar packages without considering the specific requirements of the various supply chains, which raises the concern of poor packaging performance. Meaning that the packaging system was not designed to meet the supply chain requirements which ultimately leads to product damage or quality deterioration. The purpose of this thesis is to define the conditions that the product and the industrial package are exposed to in the various supply chains, as they flow from the Alfa Laval facility in Lund to the customers. The identification of the supply chain conditions will provide essential data that can be used as a foundation to enhance the industrial package’s performance and increase the protection of products during transport. The methodology used is an abductive research using systems thinking, in which theoretical knowledge was combined with empirical data collected through various methods to answer the research questions and provide suggestions for improvements. The data collection methods were interviews, observations, internal documents examination, data loggers and GPS trackers. The Conclusions were that the product and the industrial package are exposed to various risks that can be classified as mechanical, chemical & biological or miscellaneous risks. The occurrence of risks and the extent of damage they can cause are influenced by factors related to the product & its package, the communication between the forwarders, the climatic conditions, the human factor and finally factors related to activities of transport, handling & storage. The shipped cargo was exposed to high humidity shocks throughout the different supply chains. The cargo was not exposed to more damaging conditions in developing countries, as high humidity levels and shocks were also recorded within the production facility in Lund and during handling in EU countries (e.g. at ports)

Space minimization in agricultural production planning by column generation

We deal in this paper with an agricultural production planning problem where crops must be scheduled on land plots so as to satisfy crop demands every period of time and to minimize the overall surface of land used for cultivation. This problem can be formulated as a covering integer program with a huge number of variables. A resolution scheme based on column generation is thus proposed, where the resulting pricing problem is efficiently solved by dynamic programming. The numerical experiments show that the method is all the more so efficient and robust as the planning horizon is long and plot sizes are small