Nano for Chemists

In the current nano-hype that permeates various fields of science and technology, how can chemists contribute to the big picture? And in particular, what is Nanochemistry? What characterizes this research field? Such questions were recently addressed by Ozin, Arsenault and Cademartiri

Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind: Narrative Explorations into the Oppressed Afrikan Consciousness

Since the onset of colonization, Afrikan people have been forever changed. This change has been observed by thinkers like W. E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, and others. The nature of oppression is to press someone down to a lower status. This pressing alters the consciousness of the person. The purpose of this study is to first reflect on how oppression has affected oppressed Afrikan people. Then, explore how oppressed Afrikan people can resist oppression. Finally, investigate how the consciousness of an oppressed Afrikan person is changed after converting from an Abrahamic belief system to an Indigenous Afrikan Spirituality and/or worldview. At the meeting of two opposing consciousnesses, what can be born? After interviewing three descendants of enslaved Afrikans using a narrative qualitative methodology, I discovered that people’s relationship to nature, the broader Afrikan community, and themselves changes after integrating Indigenous Afrikan Spiritual ideals into their being. I uphold that this can be used to construct new paradigms of humanity to bring about a Sankofa Revolution for the liberation of the Afrikan World

Deposition of Supercoiled DNA on Mica for Scanning Force Microscopy Imaging

The deposition of DNA molecules on mica is driven and controlled by the ionic densities around DNA and close to the surface of the substrate. Dramatic improvements in the efficiency and reproducibility of DNA depositions were due to the introduction of divalent cations in the deposition solutions. The ionic distributions on DNA and on mica determine the mobility of adsorbed DNA molecules, thus letting them assume thermodynamically equilibrated conformations, or alternatively trapping them in non-equilibrated conformations upon adsorption. With these prerequisites, mica does not seem like an inert substrate for DNA deposition for microscopy, and its properties greatly affect the efficiency of DNA deposition and the appearance of the molecules on the substrate. In our laboratory, we have some preliminary evidence that mica could also participate in DNA damage, most likely through its heavy metal impurities

Analysis and Design of a 1.8-GHz CMOS LC Quadrature VCO

This paper presents a quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (QVCO) based on the coupling of two LC-tank VCOs. A simplified theoretical analysis for the oscillation frequency and phase noise displayed by the QVCO in the 1/f/sup 3/ region is developed, and good agreement is found between theory and simulation results. A prototype for the QVCO was implemented in a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS process with three standard metal layers. The QVCO could be tuned between 1.64 and 1.97 GHz, and showed a phase noise of -140 dBc/Hz or less across the tuning range at a 3-MHz offset frequency from the carrier, for a current consumption of 25 mA from a 2-V power supply. The equivalent phase error between I and Q signals was at most 0.25/spl deg/

Martine Ravache, Regards paranoïaques : la photographie fait des histoires

Entre investigations et histoires iconologiques, Martine Ravache pique la curiosité par un assemblage de fragments, d’anecdotes et de recherches documentées. Préfacé par Mireille Calle-Gruber, les « regards paranoïaques » sont une manière spontanée, presque désordonnée, de voyager à travers l’histoire des photographies et des photographes. Le récit interroge : « Le regard aurait donc un pouvoir de vie ou de mort, réel ou symbolique », écrit l’autrice dans son avant-propos, avant de citer Serg..

Kharmohra : l’Afghanistan au risque de l’art

Catalogue d’exposition et ouvrage de référence sur la création contemporaine, Kharmohra : l’Afghanistan au risque de l’art est une publication bilingue (français-anglais) composée de textes documentés au sein desquels la géopolitique, l’histoire, les arts et les minorités sont abordés. Le pays oscille entre guerres, reconstructions et coexistence des deux situations depuis 2005. Quatre chapitres thématiques présentent les œuvres – la ville, l’insécurité, les révoltes, la poésie – et sont renf..

PENGARUH PENDIDIKAN POLITIK DPD PDIP PROVINSI PAPUA TERHADAP PARTISIPASI POLITIK PEMILIH PEMULA MENJELANG PEMILU LEGISLATIF 2014 DI KOTA JAYAPURA

Menjelang pemilu, partai politik, bisaanya membuat iklan atau propaganda politik yang menarik para pemilih pemula. Penelitian ini menggambarkan pemberian pendidikan politik bagi pemilih pemula yang dilakukan oleh DPD Partai PDIP di Kota Jayapura. Penelitian ini menjelaskan bagaimana hubungan antara pendidikan politik bagi pemilih pemula dilaksanakan. Pendidikan politik penulis paparkan berdasarkan indikator yang meliputi: (i) kepribadian politik, (ii) kesadaran politik, dan (iii) partisipasi politik. Sedangkan untuk pemilih pemula penulis menggunakan indikator; (i) usia, dan (ii) pertama menggunakan hak pilih. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Pendidikan politik bagi pemilih pemula di Kota Jayapura yang dilakukan oleh DPD Partai PDI Perjuangan Provinsi Papua pada Pemilu Legislatif tahun 2014 yang lalu belum dilaksanakan secara maksimal, hal ini dapat dilihat dari kesadaran dan partisipasi para pemilih pemula masih rendah.Kata Kunci: Pendidikan, Partai Politik, Partisipasi, Pemilih Pemul

BANKS' LEVERAGE

Questa tesi cerca di analizzare le determinanti della struttura finanziaria delle banche. Si ritiene generalmente che il leverage ratio bancario sia determinato indirettamente tramite l’applicazione di requisiti patrimoniali, in particolare requisiti legati al rischio dell’investimento come nello schema di Basilea II. Molti dei recenti contributi empirici criticano questa tesi ed anzi individuano fattori di mercato come principali variabili nella determinazione del leverage. Una collezione dei recenti studi in materia viene raccolta nel primo capitolo. Nel secondo capitolo, si analizza l’impatto dei requisiti patrimoniali sulla struttura finanziaria delle banche all’interno di un modello di signaling. Viene dimostrata l’esistenza di un equilibrio di separazione, in cui i requisiti patrimoniali non sono vincolanti per ogni tipo di banca; si dimostra inoltre che in equilibrio esiste una relazione negativa tra il leverage bancario e la qualità degli attivi: è infatti la banca di minore qualità ad avere un leverage maggiore. Questo risultato, in contrasto con la tradizionale teoria di finanza aziendale, può aiutare a comprendere alcuni episodi della recente crisi finanziaria ed interroga l’efficacia del sistema di Basilea II. Infine, nell’ultimo capitolo, viene condotta un’analisi empirica sulle determinanti del leverage bancario . Sono identificate relazioni stabili e negative tra il leverage delle banche incluse nel campione e la qualità dei loro attivi. Questo risultato si conferma al variare degli strumenti utilizzati per identificare la qualità degli attivi. Questa relazione negativa ci suggerisce che le banche si pongano l’obiettivo di targettizzare un certo livello di leverage per dare un segnale al mercato circa la loro qualità intrinseca: migliore la qualità degli attivi, minore è il loro utilizzo di leva finanziaria. Queste banche rinunciano ad intraprendere investimenti profittevoli pur lanciare un messaggio al mercato e ridurre il costo del finanziamento.This thesis analyzes banks’ choices over their leverage ratio targeting. It is commonly believed that the banks’ leverage ratio is implicitly driven by the risk-related regulation set by the Basel Committee. Many recent empirical studies on the subject challenge this presumption and suggest that factors other than regulation drive the banks’ choices on leverage. A review of the recent contributions on the subject is presented in the first chapter. In the second chapter we study how capital requirements affect banks' capital structure within a standard signaling model. We prove the existence of a separating equilibrium in which capital requirements are not binding for every type of bank, and we show that in equilibrium there exists a negative relationship between bank's leverage and its intrinsic quality: it is the low type bank that takes on more debt. This result, in contrast with the traditional theory of corporate finance, sheds some light on some of the recent financial crises episodes and hence questions the effectiveness of the current regulatory environment. Finally, in the last chapter, we conduct an empirical analysis on the cross-sectional determinants of banks' leverage. We find a negative and stable relation between banks leverage and the quality of their assets. This result is proved valid under different definition of assets' quality, based on ex-ante and ex-post expectation of the realization of asset quality. The results suggest that banks might target a certain leverage ratio to reveal their true quality to the market: the higher quality banks signal their private information to the market with a lower level of leverage, passing over some profitable opportunities to gain from a lower cost of funding