Book Review: Mission Today -- Reflection from an Ignatian Perspective

A review of Mission Today -- Reflection from an Ignatian Perspective by Michael Amaladoss

Evaluating the performance of indian banking sector using DEA during post-reform and global financial crisis

The purpose of the study is to examine the performance of Indian banking sector in terms of efficiency, returns to scale, and total factor productivity change. The technique of data envelopment analysis is applied due to its flexibility to incorporate multiple inputs and multiple outputs without any underlying assumption on the functional form. There is growing tendency of public sector banks operating under increasing returns to scale, implying that substantial gains could be obtained from altering scale via either internal growth or consolidation in the sector. In terms of productivity, the results show a positive change in both the sectors due to technological change, possibly as a result of adoption of latest technology and new business practices in post reform period. However, there is an evidence of shrink in the market and negative growth in productivity in both the sectors during the period of global financial crisis. The main contribution of the paper is to empirically provide the evidences to resolve the debate if the global financial crisis had any impact on the performance of banking sector in India

Low Contact Barrier in 2H/1T' MoTe2 In-Plane Heterostructure Synthesized by Chemical Vapor Deposition.

Metal-semiconductor contact has been a critical topic in the semiconductor industry because it influences device performance remarkably. Conventional metals have served as the major contact material in electronic and optoelectronic devices, but such a selection becomes increasingly inadequate for emerging novel materials such as two-dimensional (2D) materials. Deposited metals on semiconducting 2D channels usually form large resistance contacts due to the high Schottky barrier. A few approaches have been reported to reduce the contact resistance but they are not suitable for large-scale application or they cannot create a clean and sharp interface. In this study, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique is introduced to produce large-area semiconducting 2D material (2H MoTe2) planarly contacted by its metallic phase (1T' MoTe2). We demonstrate the phase-controllable synthesis and systematic characterization of large-area MoTe2 films, including pure 2H phase or 1T' phase, and 2H/1T' in-plane heterostructure. Theoretical simulation shows a lower Schottky barrier in 2H/1T' junction than in Ti/2H contact, which is confirmed by electrical measurement. This one-step CVD method to synthesize large-area, seamless-bonding 2D lateral metal-semiconductor junction can improve the performance of 2D electronic and optoelectronic devices, paving the way for large-scale 2D integrated circuits

Low Contact Barrier in 2H/1T′ MoTe2 In-Plane Heterostructure Synthesized by Chemical Vapor Deposition

Metal–semiconductor contact has been a critical topic in the semiconductor industry because it influences device performance remarkably. Conventional metals have served as the major contact material in electronic and optoelectronic devices, but such a selection becomes increasingly inadequate for emerging novel materials such as two-dimensional (2D) materials. Deposited metals on semiconducting 2D channels usually form large resistance contacts due to the high Schottky barrier. A few approaches have been reported to reduce the contact resistance but they are not suitable for large-scale application or they cannot create a clean and sharp interface. In this study, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique is introduced to produce large-area semiconducting 2D material (2H MoTe2) planarly contacted by its metallic phase (1T′ MoTe2). We demonstrate the phase-controllable synthesis and systematic characterization of large-area MoTe2 films, including pure 2H phase or 1T′ phase, and 2H/1T′ in-plane heterostructure. Theoretical simulation shows a lower Schottky barrier in 2H/1T′ junction than in Ti/2H contact, which is confirmed by electrical measurement. This one-step CVD method to synthesize large-area, seamless-bonding 2D lateral metal–semiconductor junction can improve the performance of 2D electronic and optoelectronic devices, paving the way for large-scale 2D integrated circuits

Neuromatch Academy: a 3-week, online summer school in computational neuroscience

Neuromatch Academy (https://academy.neuromatch.io; (van Viegen et al., 2021)) was designed as an online summer school to cover the basics of computational neuroscience in three weeks. The materials cover dominant and emerging computational neuroscience tools, how they complement one another, and specifically focus on how they can help us to better understand how the brain functions. An original component of the materials is its focus on modeling choices, i.e. how do we choose the right approach, how do we build models, and how can we evaluate models to determine if they provide real (meaningful) insight. This meta-modeling component of the instructional materials asks what questions can be answered by different techniques, and how to apply them meaningfully to get insight about brain function