High-pressure/high-temperature synthesis of transition metal oxide perovskites

Perovskite and related Ruddlesden-Popper type transition metal oxides synthesised at high pressures and temperatures during the last decade are reviewed. More than 60 such new materials have been reported since 1995. Important developments have included perovskites with complex cation orderings on A and B sites, multiferroic bismuth-based perovskites, and new manganites showing colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) and charge ordering properties

Why we need engineers to make art

As design practitioners researchers and educators, we constantly find ourselves shuffled between humanities and sciences. In fact, the design departments in the universities around the globe are sometimes placed under the formers, sometimes under the latters, thus becoming a meeting point for academics and professionals coming from both realms. The synergy resulting from the varieties of backgrounds and expertise creates a fertile ground for explorations on both a conceptual and a technical level. This paper reflects on the potential benefits of combining engineering and art research. The authors of this paper look at the increasingly delicate role that technicians, engineers and computer programmers play in developing technologies that impact our social, emotional and intimal lives, and advocate for art as a context and tool to help those professional developing their sensitivity and critical sense, besides their skills. In doing so, the paper makes a contribution to the STEM vs. STEAM conundrum, encouraging an education that merges arts and humanities disciplines with scientific and technical subjects

An Empirical Evaluation Of The Retrospective Pretest: Are There Advantages To Looking Back?

This article builds on research regarding response shift effects and retrospective self-report ratings. Results suggest moderate evidence of a response shift bias in the conventional pretest-posttest treatment design in the treatment group. The use of explicitly worded anchors on response scales, as well as the measurement of knowledge ratings (a cognitive construct) in an evaluation methodology setting, helped to mitigate the magnitude of a response shift bias. The retrospective pretest-posttest design provides a measure of change that is more in accord with the objective measure of change than is the conventional pretest-posttest treatment design with the objective measure of change, for the setting and experimental conditions used in the present study

Knowledge usage in new product development (NPD)

New product development (NPD) can be described as both complex and multidisciplinary, and also as an activity that often requires significant amounts of design knowledge. Typically, there will be a large body of knowledge that designers can call upon, and use, during the design process from many areas including human factors, materials, business, manufacturing technologies and so on. The provision of this knowledge to designers during the design process is vital to the successful development of the product or system being designed, and to the future competitiveness of the company involved. Given that even the most routine of design tasks is dependent upon vast amounts of expert knowledge and supporting information, there is an obvious need for some sort of support which will free designers from much of the drudgery involved in searching and locating appropriate knowledge. This paper presents the findings from an initial review of designers knowledge needs in small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who are involved in new product design and development. This review forms part of a larger ongoing study which is concerned with the development of a support framework for representing and providing design knowledge

Measuring the Return on Information Technology: A Knowledge-Based Approach for Revenue Allocation at the Process and Firm Level

This paper proposes an approach for measuring the return on Information Technology (IT) investments. A review of existing methods suggests the difficulty in adequately measuring the returns of IT at various levels of analysis (e.g., firm or process level). To address this issue, this study aims to develop a method for allocating the revenue and cost of IT initiatives at any level of analysis using a common unit of measurement. Following the knowledge-based view (KBV), this paper proposes an analytic method for measuring the historical revenue and cost of IT investments by estimating the amount of knowledge necessary to generate a common unit of output from any business process. The amount of required knowledge is operationalized using the ¡®average learning time\u27 measure. The proposed operationalization is illustrated with a practical case example. The proposed KBV approach is extended specifically for IT resources, allowing us to assess the Return on IT (ROIT) using a typical productivity ratio (similar to ROI or ROA) that accurately captures the true business value of IT (despite any complementarities) at virtually any level of analysis

Self-guided mindfulness and cognitive behavioural practices reduce anxiety in autistic adults: A pilot 8-month waitlist-controlled trial of widely available online tools

Anxiety in autism is an important treatment target because of its consequences for quality of life and wellbeing. Growing evidence suggests that Cognitive Behaviour Therapies (CBT) and Mindfulness-Based Therapies (MBT) can ameliorate anxiety in autism but cost-effective delivery remains a challenge. This pilot randomized controlled trial examined whether online CBT and MBT self-help programmes could help reduce anxiety in 54 autistic adults who were randomly allocated to either an online CBT (n=16) or MBT (n=19) programme or a waitlist control group (WL; n=19). Primary outcome measures of anxiety, secondary outcome measures of broader wellbeing, and potential process of change variables were collected at baseline, after programme completion, and then 3 and 6 months post-completion. Baseline data confirmed that intolerance of uncertainty and emotional acceptance accounted for up to 61% of self-reported anxiety across all participants. The 23 participants who were retained in the active conditions (14 MBT, 9 CBT) showed significant decreases in anxiety that were maintained over 3, and to some extent also 6 months. Overall, results suggest that online self-help CBT and MBT tools may provide a cost-effective method for delivering mental health support to those autistic adults who can engage effectively with online support tools

Top-down estimate of a large source of atmospheric carbon monoxide associated with fuel combustion in Asia

We simulate the oceanic and atmospheric distribution of methyl iodide (CH3I) with a global 3-D model driven by assimilated meteorological observations from the Goddard Earth Observing System of the NASA Data Assimilation Office and coupled to an oceanic mixed layer model. A global compilation of atmospheric and oceanic observations is used to constrain and evaluate the simulation. Seawater CH3I(aq) in the model is produced photochemically from dissolved organic carbon, and is removed by reaction with Cl− and emission to the atmosphere. The net oceanic emission to the atmosphere is 214 Gg yr−1. Small terrestrial emissions from rice paddies, wetlands, and biomass burning are also included in the model. The model captures 40% of the variance in the observed seawater CH3I(aq) concentrations. Simulated concentrations at midlatitudes in summer are too high, perhaps because of a missing biological sink of CH3I(aq). We define a marine convection index (MCI) as the ratio of upper tropospheric (8–12 km) to lower tropospheric (0–2.5 km) CH3I concentrations averaged over coherent oceanic regions. The MCI in the observations ranges from 0.11 over strongly subsiding regions (southeastern subtropical Pacific) to 0.40 over strongly upwelling regions (western equatorial Pacific). The model reproduces the observed MCI with no significant global bias (offset of only +11%) but accounts for only 15% of its spatial and seasonal variance. The MCI can be used to test marine convection in global models, complementing the use of radon-222 as a test of continental convection.Engineering and Applied Science

The design thinking approaches of three different groups of designers based on self-reports

This paper compares the design thinking approaches of three groups of student-designers: industrial design and architecture undergraduates, and design PhD candidates. Participants responded to an open-ended design brief, working individually. Upon submission of their designs they were debriefed about their design processes. We compare the groups based on their submissions and self-reported design activities, especially the sequence of their design activities and the time allotted to them. There were some commonalities and differences between the two undergraduate groups but the main differences were between the two undergraduates and the PhD students. On the basis of the findings we pose questions regarding design methods in the era of 'design thinking' wherein designers are required to adopt an entrepreneurial frame of mind

Investigation of Superconducting Gap Structure in TbFeAsO0.9_{0.9}F0.1_{0.1} using Point Contact Andreev Reflection

Bulk samples of TbFeAsO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$ (T$_{c}$(on) = 50K) were measured by point contact Andreev reflection spectroscopy. The spectra show unambiguous evidence for multiple gap-like features plus the presence of high bias shoulders. By measuring the spectra as a function of temperature with both gold and superconducting niobium tips, we establish that the gap-like features are associated with superconducting order parameter in this material. We discuss whether the well defined zero bias conductance peak that we observe infrequently is associated with a nodal superconducting order parameter.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, published versio