Issues in Managing Information Technology

This paper describes three case studies which investigated issues relating to the implementation and management of advanced information technology. The benefits derived from information technology were found to vary from one organization to another. These studies provide further evidence to support earlier research findings that senior management has an important role to play in the effective exploitation of information technology, and that the investment approach taken by an organization has a significant effect on the development of computer-based information systems. The effectiveness of a system depends not only on applying the appropriate technology, but also on how successfully technical and behavioural issues are resolved.     

A Hybrid Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm for Solving Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

Vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) involves the routing of a set of vehicles with limited capacity from a central depot to a set of geographically dispersed customers with known demands and predefined time windows. The problem is solved by optimizing routes for the vehicles so as to meet all given constraints as well as to minimize the objectives of traveling distance and number of vehicles. This paper proposes a hybrid multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (HMOEA) that incorporates various heuristics for local exploitation in the evolutionary search and the concept of Pareto's optimality for solving multiobjective optimization in VRPTW. The proposed HMOEA is featured with specialized genetic operators and variable-length chromosome representation to accommodate the sequence-oriented optimization in VRPTW. Unlike existing VRPTW approaches that often aggregate multiple criteria and constraints into a compromise function, the proposed HMOEA optimizes all routing constraints and objectives simultaneously, which improves the routing solutions in many aspects, such as lower routing cost, wider scattering area and better convergence trace. The HMOEA is applied to solve the benchmark Solomon's 56 VRPTW 100-customer instances, which yields 20 routing solutions better than or competitive as compared to the best solutions published in literature.     

Crystallographic report: Bis[bis(N,N‐dibenzyldithiocarbamato)cadmium(II)]

The centrosymmetric structure of {Cd[S₂CN(CH₂Ph)₂]₂}₂ features both bridging and chelating dithiocarbamate ligands so that a square pyramidal S₅ coordination geometry results. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust H∞ control for linear Markovian jump systems with unknown nonlinearities

This paper studies the problem of stochastic stability and disturbance attenuation for a class of linear continuous-time uncertain systems with Markovian jumping parameters. The uncertainties are assumed to be nonlinear and state, control and external disturbance dependent. A sufficient condition is provided to solve the above problem. An H_∞ controller is designed such that the resulting closed-loop system is stochastically stable and has a disturbance attenuation γ for all admissible uncertainties. It is shown that the control law is in terms of the solutions of a set of coupled Riccati inequalities. A numerical example is included to demonstrate the potential of the proposed technique.     

手性奎宁-卟啉锰催化剂的合成及其催化性能

为了寻找催化活性、相转移活性和手性诱导为一体的卟啉配体[1-4],我们把卟啉和手性相转移源连结起来,用奎宁-卟啉化合物作配体[5],考察其锰 配合物为催化剂对烯烃环氧化反应的催化性能。奎宁-卟啉锰 配合物结构式如下:1　实验部分1.1　试剂和仪器苯乙烯和α-甲基苯乙烯在氮气保护下减压蒸馏处理。氧源ＮａＯＣｌ的浓度由碘量法测定。其余试剂均为化学纯,色谱标样环氧苯乙烯和α-甲基环氧苯乙烯按文献[6]方法合成。奎宁-卟啉配体按文献[5]合成。260-50型红外光谱仪,ＫＢｒ压片;ＵＶ-3000型紫外可见光谱仪,溶剂ＤＭＦ;ＭＴ-3型ＣＨＮ元素…     

Highly enantioselective epoxidation of alpha,beta-unsaturated esters by chiral dioxirane

This paper describes a highly enantioselective epoxidation of alpha,beta-unsaturated esters using the fructose-derived ketone 2 as catalyst and Oxone as oxidant. High ee's have been obtained for a number of trans and trisubstituted substrates (82-98% ee). The results described show that it is feasible for dioxiranes to effectively epoxidize electron-deficient olefins with high ee's.     

Chaotic micromixers using two-layer crossing channels to exhibit fast mixing at low Reynolds numbers

We report two chaotic micromixers that exhibit fast mixing at low Reynolds numbers in this paper. Passive mixers usually use the channel geometry to stir the fluids, and many previously reported designs rely on inertial effects which are only available at moderate Re. In this paper, we propose two chaotic micromixers using two-layer crossing channels. Both numerical and experimental studies show that the mixers are very efficient for fluid manipulation at low Reynolds numbers, such as stretching and splitting, folding and recombination, through which chaotic advection can be generated and the mixing is significantly promoted. More importantly, the generation of chaotic advection does not rely on the fluid inertial forces, so the mixers work well at very low Re. The mixers are benchmarked against a three-dimensional serpentine mixer. Results show that the latter is inefficient at Re = 0.2, while the new design exhibits rapid mixing at Re = 0.2 and at Re of O(10(-2)). The new mixer design will benefit various microfluidic systems.     

Protection against photoaging in the hairless mouse by the isoflavone equol

Topical application of the isoflavone equol immediately following solar-simulated UV (SSUV) radiation exposure has previously been demonstrated to have significant photoprotective effects. Equol reduced both the inflammatory edema and the systemic suppression of the contact hypersensitivity reaction in hairless mice. Furthermore, daily topical equol application immediately following irradiation during a 10-week chronic SSUV exposure regime also reduced photocarcinogenesis severity in the mouse. This study examines the potential for topical equol to prevent photoaging in response to chronic SSUV irradiation for up to 30 weeks. We did not find consistent expression of the characteristic markers of photoaging until 30 weeks, although moderate epidermal hyperplasia and a transient increase in dermal mast cell numbers were evident after 1 week. Daily application of 10 muM equol lotion significantly reduced these early changes. However after 30 weeks of SSUV exposure, photoaging was well developed, as shown histologically by markedly increased epidermal hyperplasia, increased dermal mast cell number, pronounced focal elastotic deposits, degraded dermal collagen and deposition of glycosaminoglycans in the lower dermis. Topical equol treatment protected significantly from each of these impairments, as demonstrated histologically and quantitatively. Additionally, equol was found to have strong antioxidant action against acute UVA (320-400 nm)-induced lipid peroxidation of mouse skin, this property accounting for its antiphotoaging mechanism. The evidence for equol's antiphotoaging activity, taken together with its anti-inflammatory, immunoprotective and anticarcinogenic efficacy against SSUV irradiation in the mouse, suggests that equol could be developed as a helpful topical photoprotective agent for daily use by humans.     

AFM imaging and characterization of latex particles formed by copolymerization of styrene and poly(ethylene oxide) macromonomer

A new type of latex particle was prepared by copolymerization of styrene and poly(ethylene oxide) macromonomer. By controlling the concentration of styrene in reaction mixtures, several latexes with different grain sizes were obtained. The packing patterns of the latex films as well as shapes and sizes of the latex particles were measured with atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM images revealed that the grain sizes of the latexes increase with increasing concentration of styrene. At a higher styrene concentration (10 wt%), the latex showed a rather homogenous distribution of grain sizes. Lateral force microscopy (LFM) was used to reveal frictional features of latex particles. Contact and non-contact mode AFM were employed to image the same sample of the latex films. The results show that AFM working in non-contact mode can be used to effectively eliminate the horizontal-line-like artifacts, which may obscure AFM images.     

Automated gas chromatography with cryogenic/sorbent trap for the measurement of volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere

An automated gas chromatographic system was constructed to easily adapt either the cryogenic trap or chemical sorbent trap for preconcentrating ambient levels of volatile organic compounds. Remarkable similarity in chromatograms from C3 to C10 was found between these two enrichment methods, except that the sorbent trap did not quantitatively trap the C2-hydrocarbons. In contrast to cryogenic trapping, the chromatographic conditions for more volatile compounds were substantially improved using the sorbent trap. Water interference on the porous-layer open tubular column was also better managed using the sorbent trap for the continuous analysis of humid room air. The similarity in peak profiles between the GC-flame ionization detection (FID) and a commercial GC-MS system, regardless of concentration levels, facilitated compound identification on the FID chromatograms based on a field mission involving analysis of 106 air samples.