CSR and environmental criteria in supplier selection

Session - Green Manufacturing Technology: paper no. M3C1The APIEMS 2012 Conference proceedings' website is located at http://apiems.net/conf2012/The supplier selection issue in today’s world does not simply depend on price anymore. Other non-price criteria such as quality, delivery and overall capability are gradually gaining equal importance. Because of the globalization of trade, the world is becoming an increasingly open and global marketplace where the intense competition is urging companies to reduce the cost and development time of a new product. Companies are forced to take every possible factor into consideration when making the strategic decision to minimize costs and product development time. That means besides taking price into consideration, companies now also has to assess the overall capability of the suppliers, such as production capability, technological capability, company reputation and other factors that are hard to be quantified, in order to make the most informed decision to strive for a balance between lowering profits and rising costs. Different companies have their own ways in carrying out the supplier selection process that aligns with their corporate strategy. This paper is interested in what criteria are used in supplier evaluation and the ranking of the criteria importance. In particular, the focus is the incorporation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental responsibility (ER) requirements into supplier selection. With the increasing awareness of CSR and ER, large international corporations have been paying more attention in selecting suppliers that are capable of adhering to the practice of sustainability. Hence, this paper aims to find out what criteria or performance indicators are adopted by companies to assess their suppliers, and how much importance CSR and ER contributes to the final decision of the selected supplier. A multi-agent system is implemented with a multi criteria decision making model to incorporate the criteria identified for evaluating supplier performance and selecting the most suitable supplier.published_or_final_versio

Positron-annihilation study of compensation defects in InP

Positron-annihilation lifetime and positron-annihilation Doppler-broadening (PADB) spectroscopies have been employed to investigate the formation of vacancy-type compensation defects in n-type undoped liquid encapsulated Czochrolski grown InP, which undergoes conduction-type conversions under high temperature annealing. N-type InP becomes p-type semiconducting by short time annealing at 700°C, and then turns into n-type again after further annealing but with a much higher resistivity. Long time annealing at 950°C makes the material semi-insulating. Positron lifetime measurements show that the positron average lifetime τ av increases from 245 ps to a higher value of 247 ps for the first n-type to p-type conversion and decreases to 240 ps for the ensuing p-type to n-type conversion. The value of τ av increases slightly to 242 ps upon further annealing and attains a value of 250 ps under 90 h annealing at 950°C. These results together with those of PADB measurements are explained by the model proposed in our previous study. The correlation between the characteristics of positron annihilation and the conversions of conduction type indicates that the formation of vacancy-type defects and the progressive variation of their concentrations during annealing are related to the electrical properties of the bulk InP material. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Positron-lifetime study of compensation defects in undoped semi-insulating InP

Positron-lifetime and infrared-absorption spectroscopies have been used to investigate the compensation defects that render undoped n-type liquid encapsulated Czochralski-grown InP semi-insulating under high-temperature annealing. The positron measurements, carried out over the temperature range of 25-300 K, reveal in the as-grown material a positron lifetime of 282±5 ps which we associate with either the isolated indium vacancy V 3- In or related hydrogen complexes. The shallow donor complex V InH 4, responsible for much of the n-type conductivity and the strong infrared absorption signal at 4320 nm, is ruled out as a significant trapping site on the grounds that its neutral state is present at too low a concentration. After annealing at 950°C, in conjunction with the disappearance of the V InH 4 infrared-absorption signal, trapping into V In-related centers is observed to increase slightly, and an additional positron trapping defect having a lifetime of 330 ps appears at a concentration of ∼10 16 cm -3, indicating divacancy trapping. These results support the recent suggestion that the V InH 4 complex present in as-grown InP dissociates during annealing, forming V InH (3-n)- n (0≤n≤3) complexes and that the recombination of V In with a phosphorus atom results in the formation of EL2-like deep donor P In antisite defect, which compensates the material. It is suggested that the divacancy formed on annealing is V InV P, and that this defect is probably a by-product of the P In antisite formation.published_or_final_versio

Developing and evaluating a five minute phishing awareness video

Confidence tricksters have always defrauded the unwary. The computer era has merely extended their range and made it possible for them to target anyone in the world who has an email address. Nowadays, they send phishing messages that are specially crafted to deceive. Improving user awareness has the potential to reduce their effectiveness. We have previously developed and empirically-validated phishing awareness programmes. Our programmes are specifically designed to neutralize common phish-related misconceptions and teach people how to detect phishes. Many companies and individuals are already using our programmes, but a persistent niggle has been the amount of time required to complete the awareness programme. This paper reports on how we responded by developing and evaluating a condensed phishing awareness video that delivered phishing awareness more efficiently. Having watched our video, participants in our evaluation were able to detect phishing messages significantly more reliably right after watching the video (compared to before watching the video). This ability was also demonstrated after a retention period of eight weeks after first watching the video

Native donors and compensation in Fe-doped liquid encapsulated Czochralski InP

Undoped and Fe-doped liquid encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) InP has been studied by Hall effect, current-voltage (I-V), and infrared absorption (IR) spectroscopy. The results indicate that a native hydrogen vacancy complex donor defect exists in as-grown LEC InP. By studying the IR results, it is found that the concentration of this donor defect in Fe-doped InP is much higher than that in undoped InP. This result is consistent with the observation that a much higher concentration of Fe 2+ than the apparent net donor concentration is needed to achieve the semi-insulating (SI) property in InP. By studying the I-V and IR results of Fe-doped InP wafers sliced from different positions on an ingot, the high concentration of Fe 2+ is found to correlate with the existence of this hydrogen complex. The concentration of this donor defect is high in wafers from the top of an ingot. Correspondingly, a higher concentration of Fe 2+ can be detected in these wafers. These results reveal the influence of the complex defect on the compensation and uniformity of Fe-doped SI InP materials. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Compensation defects in annealed undoped liquid encapsulated Czochralski InP

As-grown undoped n-type semiconducting and annealed undoped semi-insulating (SI) liquid encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) InP has been studied by temperature dependent Hall measurement, photoluminescence spectroscopy, infrared absorption, and photocurrent spectroscopy. P-type conduction SI InP can frequently be obtained by annealing undoped LEC InP. This is caused by a high concentration of thermally induced native acceptor defects. In some cases, it can be shown that the thermally induced n-type SI property of undoped LEC InP is caused by a midgap donor compensating for the net shallow acceptors. The midgap donor is proposed to be a phosphorus antisite related defect. Traps in annealed SI InP have been detected by photocurrent spectroscopy and have been compared with reported results. The mechanisms of defect formation are discussed. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Compensation ratio-dependent concentration of a V InH 4 complex in n-type liquid encapsulated Czochralski InP

The concentration of hydrogen-indium vacancy complex V InH 4 in liquid encapsulated Czochralski undoped and Fe-doped n-type InP has been studied by low-temperature infrared absorption spectroscopy. The V InH 4 complex is found to be a dominant intrinsic shallow donor defect with concentrations up to ∼10 16 cm -3 in as-grown liquid encapsulated Czochralski InP. The concentration of the V InH 4 complex is found to increase with the compensation ratio in good agreement with the proposed defect formation model of Walukiewicz [W. Walukiewicz, Phys. Rev. B 37, 4760 (1998); Appl. Phys. Lett. 54, 2094 (1989)], which predicts a Fermi-level-dependent concentration of amphoteric defects. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Formation of P In defect in annealed liquid-encapsulated Czochralski InP

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements have been carried out on liquid-encapsulated Czochralski-grown undoped InP wafers, which reproducibly become semi-insulating upon annealing in an ambient of phosphorus at 800-900°C. The measurements reveal a high concentration of hydrogen complexes in the form V InH 4 existing in the material before annealing in agreement with recent experimental studies. It is argued that the dominant and essential process producing the semi-insulating behavior is the compensation produced by an EL 2-like deep donor phosphorus antisite defect, which is formed by the dissociation of the hydrogen complexes during the process of annealing. The deep donor compensates acceptors, the majority of which are shallow residual acceptor impurities and deep hydrogen associated V In and isolated V In levels, produced at the first stage of the dissociation of the V InH 4 complex. The high concentration of indium vacancies produced by the dissociation are the precursor of the EL 2-like phosphorus antisite. These results show the importance of hydrogen on the electrical properties of InP and indicate that this largely results from low formation energy of the complex V InH 4 in comparison with that of an isolated V In. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

First insights into the phylogenetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Nepal

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in Nepal. Strain variation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis may influence the outcome of TB infection and disease. To date, the phylogenetic diversity of M. tuberculosis in Nepal is unknown. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We analyzed 261 M. tuberculosis isolates recovered from pulmonary TB patients recruited between August 2009 and August 2010 in Nepal. M. tuberculosis lineages were determined by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) typing and spoligotyping. Drug resistance was determined by sequencing the hot spot regions of the relevant target genes. Overall, 164 (62.8%) TB patients were new, and 97 (37.2%) were previously treated. Any drug resistance was detected in 50 (19.2%) isolates, and 16 (6.1%) were multidrug-resistant. The most frequent M. tuberculosis lineage was Lineage 3 (CAS/Delhi) with 106 isolates (40.6%), followed by Lineage 2 (East-Asian lineage, includes Beijing genotype) with 84 isolates (32.2%), Lineage 4 (Euro-American lineage) with 41 (15.7%) isolates, and Lineage 1 (Indo-Oceanic lineage) with 30 isolates (11.5%). Based on spoligotyping, we found 45 different spoligotyping patterns that were previously described. The Beijing (83 isolates, 31.8%) and CAS spoligotype (52, 19.9%) were the dominant spoligotypes. A total of 36 (13.8%) isolates could not be assigned to any known spoligotyping pattern. Lineage 2 was associated with female sex (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.58, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.42-4.67, p = 0.002), and any drug resistance (aOR 2.79; 95% CI 1.43-5.45; p = 0.002). We found no evidence for an association of Lineage 2 with age or BCG vaccination status. CONCLUSIONS: We found a large genetic diversity of M. tuberculosis in Nepal with representation of all four major lineages. Lineages 3 and 2 were dominating. Lineage 2 was associated with clinical characteristics. This study fills an important gap on the map of the M. tuberculosis genetic diversity in the Asian reg

The altered expression of α1 and β3 subunits of the gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptor is related to the hepatitis C virus infection

The modulation of the gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABA A) receptors activity was observed in several chronic hepatitis failures, including hepatitis C. The expression of GABA A receptor subunits α1 and β3 was detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) originated from healthy donors. The aim of the study was to evaluate if GABA A α1 and β3 expression can also be observed in PBMCs from chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients and to evaluate a possible association between their expression and the course of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. GABA A α1- and β3-specific mRNAs presence and a protein expression in PBMCs from healthy donors and CHC patients were screened by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot, respectively. In patients, HCV RNA was determined in sera and PBMCs. It was shown that GABA A α1 and β3 expression was significantly different in PBMCs from CHC patients and healthy donors. In comparison to healthy donors, CHC patients were found to present an increase in the expression of GABA A α1 subunit and a decrease in the expression of β3 subunit in their PBMCs. The modulation of α1 and β3 GABA A receptors subunits expression in PBMCs may be associated with ongoing or past HCV infection