The Project Involvement Index,psychological distress,and psychological well-being: Comparing workers from projectized and non-projectized organizations

It is important to understand the extent to which project involvement affects mental health. As projects and project management expand beyond traditional fields, it is also important to compare project involvement and mental health across settings that vary in terms of management structure. This study is the first to validate a Project Involvement Index (PII) useful in various settings to understand how workload relates to mental health defined as high psychological well-being and low psychological distress. Our results demonstrate that the PII is parsimonious measure showing reliability, predictive validity, and discriminant validity. Furthermore, results show that people involved in projects from a non-projectized organization show less mental health than those from a projectized organization.     

后京都议定书时代的大都市:从手段到目的,从规划到激发

2008年,法国政府发起"后京都议定书时代大都市"和"未来都市巴黎"的研究,l'AUC事务所入选10家国际团队作为大巴黎研究项目的咨询顾问。本文展示了l'AUC事务所的方案及其他4个项目,分别针对当代规划、城市主义和建筑不同方面的主要问题:回收,生态城,紧凑和节点城市。     

Rapid Screening of Lectins for Multivalency Effects with a Glycodendrimer Microarray

Multivalency is an important phenomenon in protein–carbohydrate interactions. In order to evaluate glycodendrimers as multivalent inhibitors of carbohydrate binding proteins, we displayed them on a microarray surface. Valencies were varied from 1 to 8, and corrections were made for the valencies so that all surfaces contained the same amount of the sugar ligand. Five different carbohydrates were attached to the dendrimers. A series of fluorescent lectins was evaluated, and for each of them a binding profile was obtained from a single experiment showing both the specificity of the lectin for a certain sugar and whether it prefers multivalent ligands or not. Very distinct binding patterns were seen for the various lectins. The results were rationalized with respect to the interbinding distances of the lectins.     

Temperature Effects on a Non-Volatile Memory Device with Ferroelectric Capacitor

The temperature effects on a ferroelectric non-volatile memory latch were measured. The device is based on a design from Radiant Technologies Inc. utilizing a discrete ferroelectric capacitor. The effects measured include functionality, I-V characteristics and retention. The range of temperatures for which the device was tested is –107°F to +302°F. The results are compared with measurements made at room temperature for the device. Retention measurements of the device at elevated temperatures allow predictions of retention performance under normal operating conditions. Potential applications of this device in harsh environments which include aerospace, industrial and automotive are presented.     

Naturally occurring phenolic compounds as promising antimycotoxin agents: Where are we now?

Mycotoxins are metabolites produced by molds that contaminate food commodities, are harmful to both humans and animals, as well as cause economic losses. Many countries have set regulatory limits and strict thresholds to control the level of mycotoxins in food and feedstuffs. New technologies and strategies have been developed to inhibit toxigenic fungal invasion and to decontaminate mycotoxins. However, many of these strategies do not sufficiently detoxify mycotoxins and leave residual toxic by-products. This review focuses on the use of phenolic compounds obtained from botanical extracts as promising bioagents to inhibit fungal growth and/or to limit mycotoxin yields. The mechanism of these botanicals, legislation concerning their use, and their safety are also discussed. In addition, recent strategies to overcome stability and solubility constraints of phenolic compounds to be used in food and feed stuffs are also mentioned.     

Influence of pressure losses on compressor performance in a pressurized fuel cell air supply system for airplane applications

Low ambient pressures at elevated flight altitudes lead to power losses in fuel cell powered aircrafts. As countermeasure ambient air can be pressurized with a suitable fuel cell air supply system. In this study the influence of low ambient pressures and pressure losses within the system on the performance of two turbo compressors and the resulting stack power are examined theoretically and the findings validated experimentally. Results show that decreasing ambient pressures and pressure losses in front and after the compressor reduce the maximum pressure from 2.4 to 1.6 bar(a) in the examined system. Air compression may require a significant share of the fuel cell stack power and the maximum system power is reduced from 54 to 41 kW. For air pressures higher than 1.8 bar(a) the fuel cell stack power gain due to pressurization is found to be cancelled out by the increasing power required for air compression.     

Assessing the risks of pesticide residues to consumers: recent and future developments

Assessing exposure of consumers to pesticide residues is an area of regulatory science that has rapidly developed over the last decade. From simplistic, deterministic models calculating lifetime exposure for adults only, assessment procedures have diversified so that more realistic estimates of long term exposures for adults, schoolchildren, toddlers and infants and short term exposures for adults and toddlers (who generally bound the more extreme consumer patterns) are now carried out. The final assessment of risk still remains a simplistic numeric comparison against hazard assessment based on a wide range of toxicity studies incorporating the appropriate safety or uncertainty factors. As development of risk assessments continues, the use of probabilistic models is becoming an invaluable information tool for quantitative risk management and aiding assessment of cumulative exposure. This paper examines the recent developments in risk assessment and consumer perception of the risks of pesticide residues, and speculates where the future developments in these areas may lie.