21,556 research outputs found
The embeddedness of global production networks: The impact of crisis on Fiji's garment export sector
In this paper the author explores how changing geopolitical conditions reconfigure network embeddedness and theorises the conditions of network disconnection and transformation. Through a case study of the changes in interfirm relationships within the Fiji – Australia garment-production network after Fiji’s 2000 political coup d’état, the author develops a relational and dynamic view of embeddedness, highlighting its multifaceted and multiscalar character and emphasising the interrelationships between embeddedness, trust, and power
Dual function filtration and catalytic breakdown of organic pollutants in wastewater using ozonation with titania and alumina membranes
Water recycling via treatment from industrial and/or municipal waste sources is one of the key strategies
for resolving water shortages worldwide. Polymer membranes are effective at improving the water quality
essential for recycling, but depend on regular cleaning and replacement. Pure ceramic membranes
can reduce the cleaning need and last significantly longer in the same applications while possessing the
possibility of operating in more aggressive environments not suitable for polymers. In the current work,
filtration using a tubular ceramic membrane (�-Al2O3 or TiO2) was combined with ozonation to remove
organic compounds present in a secondary effluent to enhance key quality features of the water (colour
and total organic carbon, TOC) for its potential reuse.
‘Bare’ commercial �-Al2O3 filters (pore size
∼0.58 �m) were tested as a microfiltration membrane and
compared with the more advanced catalytically active TiO2 layer that was formed by the sol–gel method.
The presence of anatase with a 4 nm pore size at the membrane surface was confirmed by X-ray diffraction
(XRD) and N2 adsorption. Filtration of the effluent over a 2 h period led to a reduction in flux to 45% and
60% of the initial values for the �-alumina and TiO2 membrane, respectively. However, a brief dose (2 min)
of ozone at the start of the run resulted in reductions to only 70% of the initial flux for both membranes. It
is likely that the oxide’s functional property facilitated the formation of hydroxyl (OH•) or other radicals
on the membrane surface from ozone decomposition which targeted the breakdown of organic foulants
thus inhibiting their deposition. Interestingly, the porous structure therefore acted in a synergistic, dual
function mode to physically separate the particulates while also catalytically breaking down organic
matter. The system also greatly improved the efficiency of membrane filtration for the reduction of
colour, A254 (organics absorption at the wavelength of 254 nm) and TOC. The best performance came
from combined ozonation (2 min ozonation time with an estimated applied ozone dose of 8 mg L−1)
with the TiO2 membrane, which was able to reduce colour by 88%, A254 by 75% and TOC by 43%. It is
clearly evident that a synergistic effect occurs with the process combination of ozonation and ceramic
membrane filtration demonstrating the practical benefit of combining ceramic membrane filtration with
conventional water ozonation
Some inequalities for -normal operators in Hilbert spaces
An operator acting on a Hilbert space is called -normal
() if \begin{equation*} \alpha ^{2}T^{\ast
}T\leq TT^{\ast}\leq \beta ^{2}T^{\ast}T. \end{equation*} In this paper we
establish various inequalities between the operator norm and its numerical
radius of -normal operators in Hilbert spaces. For this
purpose, we employ some classical inequalities for vectors in inner product
spaces.Comment: 11 page
Punishing welfare : genealogies of child abuse
Official statistics on child protection in Australia suggest that child abuse is at crisis levels, providing a context for the most recent legislative and regulatory changes in child protection in Victoria; these promote community-managed services, voluntary care agreements, informal legal processes and fast-tracking of child
intervention. This article sets out the rudiments of a genealogical account of the category of child abuse, placing the present events in the context of historical shifts in how the problem of child abuse is conceived and acted upon. It draws attention to new forms of power in relation to the policing of children and families, and their corresponding modes of subjectification that seek to fabricate individual responsibility for the underlying social arrangements surrounding children and families
Plasmodial Hsp40s: New avenues for antimalarial drug discovery
Malaria, an infectious disease caused by Plasmodium spp, is one of the world\u27s most dangerous diseases, accounting for more than half a million deaths yearly. The long years of co-habitation between the parasite and its hosts (human and mosquito), is a testimony to the parasite’s ability to escape the immune system and develop drug resistance mechanisms. Currently, an important search area for improved pharmacotherapy are molecular chaperones of the heat shock protein family, abundant in Plasmodium falciparum and contributing to its continuous survival and development. Thus far, small molecule inhibitor studies on P. falciparum Hsp70s and Hsp90s have indicated that they are promising antimalarial targets. However, not much attention has been given to Hsp40s as potential antimalarial drug targets. Hsp40s are known to function as chaperones by preventing protein aggregation, and as co-chaperones, by regulating the chaperone activities of Hsp70s to ensure proper protein folding. There are only a limited number of reviews on Hsp40s as drug targets, and the few reviews on plasmodial Hsp40s tend to focus largely on the intra-erythrocytic stage of the parasite life cycle. Therefore, this review will summarize what is known about Hsp40s throughout the malaria parasite life cycle, and critically evaluate their potential to serve as new avenues for antimalarial drug discovery
Efficient Truss Maintenance in Evolving Networks
Truss was proposed to study social network data represented by graphs. A
k-truss of a graph is a cohesive subgraph, in which each edge is contained in
at least k-2 triangles within the subgraph. While truss has been demonstrated
as superior to model the close relationship in social networks and efficient
algorithms for finding trusses have been extensively studied, very little
attention has been paid to truss maintenance. However, most social networks are
evolving networks. It may be infeasible to recompute trusses from scratch from
time to time in order to find the up-to-date -trusses in the evolving
networks. In this paper, we discuss how to maintain trusses in a graph with
dynamic updates. We first discuss a set of properties on maintaining trusses,
then propose algorithms on maintaining trusses on edge deletions and
insertions, finally, we discuss truss index maintenance. We test the proposed
techniques on real datasets. The experiment results show the promise of our
work
A Functional Associated with Two Bounded Linear Operators in Hilbert Spaces and Related Inequalities
Inequalities for Stieltjes Integrals with Convex Integrators and Applications
Inequalities for a Grüss type functional in terms of Stieltjes integrals
with convex integrators are given. Applications to the Čebyšev functional
are also provided
Further observations on the mean velocity distribution in fully developed pipe flow
The measurements by Zagarola & Smits (1998) of mean velocity profiles in fully developed turbulent pipe flow are repeated using a smaller Pitot probe to reduce the uncertainties due to velocity gradient corrections. A new static pressure correction (McKeon & Smits 2002) is used in analysing all data and leads to significant differences from the Zagarola & Smits conclusions. The results confirm the presence of a power-law region near the wall and, for Reynolds numbers greater than 230×10^3 (R+ >5×10^3), a logarithmic region further out, but the limits of these regions and some of the constants differ from those reported by Zagarola & Smits. In particular, the log law is found for 600<y+ <0.12R+ (instead of 600<y+ <0.07R+), and the von Kármán constant κ, the additive constant B for the log law using inner flow scaling, and the additive constant B∗ for the log law using outer scaling are found to be 0.421 ± 0.002, 5.60 ± 0.08 and 1.20 ± 0.10, respectively, with 95% confidence level (compared with 0.436±0.002, 6.15±0.08, and 1.51±0.03 found by Zagarola & Smits). The data also confirm that the pipe flow data for ReD ≤ 13.6×10^6 (as a minimum) are not affected by surface roughness
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