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.     

Simple Entanglement Measure for Multipartite Pure States

A simple entanglement measure for multipartite pure states is formulated based on the partial entropy of a series of reduced density matrices. Use of the proposed new measure to distinguish disentangled, partially entangled, and maximally entangled multipartite pure states is illustrated.     

火工品可靠性试验数据的综合分析方法

升降法试验数据和固定刺激量下的成败型试验数据,是两种最常见的火工品可靠性试验数据．我们应用Markov链,研究了升降法试验数据下,感度分布参数的极大似然估计的特性．在此基础上,应用Bootstrap方法和Bayes方法,给出了综合分析两种试验数据的方法．最后,将该方法应用于520底火的可靠性鉴定,得出了有益的结论．     

分析非轴对称腔的复光线数值迭代法

将像散光束的复光线表示法用于分析非轴对称腔，并对有复杂像散的折迭腔作了数值迭代计算以说明方法的应用．     

Robinson-Trautman equations and Chandrasekhar's special perturbation of the Schwarzschild metric

A perturbation wave solution of the Robinson-Trautman equations is proved to be a perturbation of the Schwarzschild black hole which describes an outgoing axial gravitational wave and corresponds to a special case of Chandrasekhar's algebraically special perturbation of the Schwarzschild metric.     

Singlewall carbon nanotubes covered with polystyrene nanoparticles by in‐situ miniemulsion polymerization

This work is to make carbon nanotubes dispersible in both water and organic solvents without oxidation and cutting nanotube threads. Polystyrene‐singlewall carbon nanotube (PS‐SWNT) composites were prepared with three different methods: miniemulsion polymerization, conventional emulsion polymerization, and mixing SWNT with PS latex. The two factors, crosslinking and surface coverage of PS are important factors for the mechanical and electrical properties, including dispersion states of SWNT in various solvents. The PS‐SWNT composite prepared via a conventional emulsion polymerization showed SWNT bundles entirely covered with PS, whereas the PS‐SWNT composite prepared via a miniemulsion polymerization showed SWNT partially covered with crosslinked PS nanoparticles. The method of mixing SWNTs with PS latex did not show the well dispersed state of carbon nanotubes because PS was not crosslinked and was dissolved in a solvent, and nanotubes separated from PS precipitated. So the PS nanoparticle‐SWNT composite had lower electrical resistance, and higher mechanical strength than the other composites made by the latter two methods. As the amount of SWNT increases, the bare surface area of SWNT increases and the electrical conductivity increases in the composite made by the miniemulsion polymerization. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 573–584, 2006     

An evaluation of exogenous application of protoporphyrin IX and its dimethyl ester as a photodynamic diagnostic agent in poorly differentiated human nasopharyngeal carcinoma

5-Aminolevulinic acid and its esterified analogues have been under much investigation to enhance the endogenous production of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) in tumor cells. However, in this work, we studied the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of exogenously administered PpIX and its esterified analogue, PpIX dimethyl ester (PME), in poorly differentiated human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC/CNE-2) as a photodynamic diagnostic (PDD) agent. NPC/CNE-2 at its earliest time, 1 h after incubation with PME in in vitro studies, has exhibited 64% (P <0.01) higher tumor to normal cell (T/N) fluorescence ratio than with PpIX. In an in vivo mouse xenograft model, comparable photosensitizer concentration in tumor after intravenous administration was observed at 1-3 h time points, but at 9 h, PME had 31% (P=0.05) greater concentration in tumor compared with PpIX. In addition, by constituting PME and PpIX in different topical gel composites, of which, PME gel composition of 8:2 Plasdone and Gantrez resulted in the highest T/N ratio at 6 h after application (34%; P <0.05) in comparison with other gel composites. Evaluation of PME and PpIX constituted in the delivery vehicles investigated showed comparable selectivity for tumor at 1-3 h, thus neither photosensitizer is more efficient than the other for PDD at the early time points; however, beyond 6 h, PME had higher selectivity for tumor compared with PpIX. Thus, further investigation is warranted to improve the drug delivery vehicle for greater tumor selectivity at a shorter incubation time.     

Extremal k *-Cycle Resonant Hexagonal Chains

Denote by ^* _n the set of all k ^*-cycle resonant hexagonal chains with n hexagons. For any B _n ^* _n , let m(B _n ) and i(B _n ) be the numbers of matchings (=the Hosoya index) and the number of independent sets (=the Merrifield–Simmons index) of B _n , respectively. In this paper, we give a characterization of the k ^*-cycle resonant hexagonal chains, and show that for any B _n ^* _n , m(H _n )m(B _n ) and i(H _n )i(B _n ), where H _n is the helicene chain. Moreover, equalities hold only if B _n =H _n .     

Proteomic analysis of mouse liver for the evaluation of effects of Scutellariae radix by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry

Scutellariae radix or Scutellaria baicalensis is a medicinal plant that contains major flavonoids such as baicalein, baicalin, wogonin and wogonosides. The present work describes the development of an approach using proteomic analysis of mouse liver to study the effects of prolonged exposure to substances present in chemically standardized Scutellariae radix extracts. Histopathological examination of the mouse liver was compared with the proteome data. The botanical extracts were prepared using pressurized liquid extraction (PLE). A method without isotope labeling was developed, using proteolytic digestion with one- and two-dimensional liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry, and was used to characterize the extent of differential protein expression in mouse liver in response to external factors such as extracts from Scutellariae radix. From the histopathological examination and proteome data, significant changes in the mouse livers were not observed for the low-dose group. The Scutellariae radix extracts at high dose were observed to cause damage at the bile duct and expression change of a number of proteins including some involved in catabolism of triglyceride-rich particles, carbohydrate metabolism, regulators of cell signaling processes, and enzymes involved in biotransformation. Thus, proteomic analysis of liver samples from mice treated with botanical extracts is a promising approach to provide information on any potential toxicity effects of the extracts. The present method also provides another means for comparing proteomes in biological samples such as liver lysates from mice subjected to different treatments.