Low-resistivity homogeneous elastomers

Mixture of polyurethane polyelectrolyte and soluble, conducting organic compound produces homogeneous elastomer which has resistivity several orders of magnitude less than polyelectrolyte alone. Elastomeric material has novel resistivity dependence on temperature, that is, resistivity changes dramatically over narrow temperature range in vicinity of glass transition temperature

Structure-based analysis of Web sites

The performance of information retrieval on the Web is heavily influenced by the organization of Web pages, user navigation patterns, and guidance-related functions. Having observed the lack of measures to reflect this factor, this paper focuses on an approach based on both structure properties and navigation data to analyze and improve the performance of Web site. Two types of indices are defined two major factors for analysis and improvement- "aaccessibility" reflects the structure property to measure how easy the user can access the pages and "popularity" implies the navigation data primarily based on the log statistics. The accessibility and popularity (A-P) plot serves as a compass for the Web designer to get an overview of current performance status and explore in the possible directions for improvement to balance the design anticipation and navigation expectation.published_or_final_versio

Childhood Malnutrition In China: Change Of Inequality In A Decade

A concentration index methodology to analyze the inequality in childhood malnutrition in China is outlined. Height-for-age z score is used as a measure of childhood malnutrition. Using household survey data from nine Chinese provinces, it is found that per-capita household income, household head's education, urban residence and access to a bus stop reduced malnutrition. Child's age had a nonlinear effect on the malnutrition status. Income growth and access to public transportation reduced the inequality, while rural-urban gap, provincial differentiation, and unequal distribution of household head's education increased inequality in childhood malnutrition. Gender is not a factor in either malnutrition status or inequality. Investments in infrastructure and welfare programs are recommended to reduce the inequality.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Chosen-Plaintext Cryptanalysis of a Clipped-Neural-Network-Based Chaotic Cipher

In ISNN'04, a novel symmetric cipher was proposed, by combining a chaotic signal and a clipped neural network (CNN) for encryption. The present paper analyzes the security of this chaotic cipher against chosen-plaintext attacks, and points out that this cipher can be broken by a chosen-plaintext attack. Experimental analyses are given to support the feasibility of the proposed attack.Comment: LNCS style, 7 pages, 1 figure (6 sub-figures

Decay Process for Three - Species Reaction - Diffusion System

We propose the deterministic rate equation of three-species in the reaction - diffusion system. For this case, our purpose is to carry out the decay process in our three-species reaction-diffusion model of the form $A+B+C\to D$. The particle density and the global reaction rate are also shown analytically and numerically on a two-dimensional square lattice with the periodic boundary conditions. Especially, the crossover of the global reaction rate is discussed in both early-time and long-time regimes.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Late

A hierarchical assessment method using bayesian network for material risk detection on green supply chain

Today's social awareness of environmental protection presents the electronic companies with an irreversible trend towards green manufacturing. It raises harsh requirement for the sourcing process and imposes unprecedented pressure to the QA system, majorly due to the risk of hazardous material. As QA procedures are becoming more complicated for coping with increasing material risk and meanwhile the time and resource available are tightly constrained, the development of an effective mechanism for material testing turns up to be a critical issue. In this study, a hierarchical material risk assessment approach is proposed based on FMEA framework. Taking into account the risk occurrence, the difficulty in detection and the severity the risk causes, it enables companies to estimate their material risks dynamically using Bayesian network. With its help, companies can assess and prioritize the material risk in a systematic and efficient manner which will drive QA towards a more high-performance process. ©2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM 2010), Macao, China, 7-10 December 2010. In Proceedings of IEEM, 2010, p. 1184-118

Retailer acceptance of consumer LED group buying from a stakeholder influence strategy perspective

Paper no. 157The Internet has brought a new way of collaboration among consumers to the door steps of retailers. Existing studies have assumed that retailers play an active role and focused on discussing how retailers can make good use of Web 2.0 to develop new business models, however little has been done to address what retailers should do if being forced to cope with changes. This paper, based on a stakeholder influence strategy perspective, studies how the structural relationship factors have influenced retailers' strategic decisions on whether or not to accommodate a consumer led group buying behaviour in China, Tuangou. Tuangou refers to the phenomenon that a group of web users are organized using the Internet and physically approach the retailers together to negotiate for a discount for a particular product or service by using their collective bargaining power. This paper provides a useful initial roadmap to understanding how the pressures from different stakeholders might influence a retailer's decision-making at the Web2.0 age. It also develops propositions to conceptualise the relationship between structural factors and decision outcomes. This paper offers an explanation of why retailers make different decisions to cope with Tuangou activities and concludes with a plan for future studies.published_or_final_versionThe 14th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS 2010), Taipei, Taiwan, 9-12 July 2010. In PACIS 2010 Proceedings, 2010, p. 1626-163

Modeling and analysis of supply chain risk system under the influence of partners' collaboration

Confining the focus to individual enterprise, traditional risk management literature seems to echo inadequately in the context of collaborative supply chain, partially due to its exclusion of correlation of risks across companies. In this study, we refine the notion of risk in supply chain and propose a model of supply chain risk system (SCRS) that consciously takes into account the correlation among risks resulting from partners' collaboration. Through analytical inference we found that the level of collaboration contributes to the resilience of supply chain. It implies that collaboration can positively affect the topology of SCRS, thus benefiting supply chain operations in terms of risk management. A simulation program has been developed with aim to demonstrate the practical feasibility of the proposed model. Implemented in simulation, two sets of experiments have been conducted for testing the model in actual business scenarios. The experimental results provide supporting evidence to consolidate the analytical findings. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Science (HICSS 2011), Kauai, HI., 4-7 January 2011. In Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2011, p. 1-1

Novel Field-Induced Phases in HoMnO3 at Low Temperatures

The novel field-induced re-entrant phase in multiferroic hexagonal HoMnO3 is investigated to lower temperatures by dc magnetization, ac susceptibility, and specific heat measurements at various magnetic fields. Two new phases have been unambiguously identified below the Neel transition temperature, TN=76 K, for magnetic fields up to 50 kOe. The existence of an intermediate phase between the P[6]_3[c]m and P[6]_3c[m] magnetic structures (previously predicted from dielectric measurements) was confirmed and the magnetic properties of this phase have been investigated. At low temperatures (T<5 K) a dome shaped phase boundary characterized by a magnetization jump and a narrow heat capacity peak was detected between the magnetic fields of 5 kOe and 18 kOe. The transition across this phase boundary is of first order and the magnetization and entropy jumps obey the magnetic analogue of the Clausius-Clapeyron relation. Four of the five low-temperature phases coexist at a tetracritical point at 2 K and 18 kOe. The complex magnetic phase diagram so derived provides an informative basis for unraveling the underlying driving forces for the occurrence of the various phases and the coupling between the different orders.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figure