Iron content in common Cambodian fish species: Perspectives for dietary iron intake in poor,rural households

Iron deficiency is the most widespread nutritional disorder in Cambodia. Sixteen Cambodian fish species were screened for iron, zinc and calcium contents. Esomus longimanus has a higher iron content (451 mg Fe/kg dry matter, SD = 155, n = 4) than other species. Iron pools were measured as inorganic iron (I-Fe) by the ferrozine method, haem-bound iron (H-Fe) by the acetone method and total iron (T-Fe) by atomic absorption spectrometry. I-Fe + H-Fe accounted for <50% of T-Fe in E. longimanus, indicating a pool of complex bound, probably high-molecular weight non-haem iron (Hm-Fe). In a field study, thirty rural women were interviewed about traditional use of E. longimanus; their cleaning and cooking practices were observed and the amounts of fish consumed were recorded and meal samples were collected for iron analysis. Calculations based on the iron content and a high bioavailability of Hm-Fe showed that a traditional fish meal, sour soup, covered 45% of the daily iron requirement for women.     

Foreign labor and regional labor markets: aggregate and disaggregate impact on growth and wages in Danish regions

Foreign labor has become a central issue in Western Europe. This paper tests whether (1) inflows of foreign labor affect regional growth, and thereby whether employment opportunities for Danish workers are affected; (2) inflows of foreign labor lower real wage growth. We find that foreign labor has non-negative effects on the job opportunities for Danish workers in regional labor markets, whereas the evidence of a regional wage growth effect is mixed. We also present disaggregated results focusing on regional heterogeneity of business structures, skill levels and backgrounds of foreign labor. The results are interpreted within a specific Danish labor market context and the associated regional outcomes. This adds to previous findings and emphasizes the importance of labor market institutions for the effect of foreign labor on regional employment growth.     

Determination of cohesive laws by the J integral approach

The determination of cohesive laws for describing large scale failure process zones is discussed. Firstly, a general approach for determination of cohesive laws, by the measurement of the J integral and end-opening of the cohesive zone of double cantilever beam specimens loaded with pure bending moments, is described. Next, two case stories are reviewed: failure of adhesive joints and splitting of a unidirectional carbon fibre/epoxy composite. For the adhesive joints, measured failure strengths of bonded panels having a central notch were found to in very good agreement with predictions from cohesive law parameters determined on test specimens. For the problem of splitting of unidirectional composites, micromechanisms were observed in situ during cracking. A cohesive law shape, predicted by a micromechanics model, was found to agree well with macroscopic cohesive law determined by the J integral approach. The cohesive law was used for predicting effect of specimen shape on strength; predictions were confirmed by experiments. Finally, some ideas regarding determination of mixed mode cohesive laws are discussed.     

A Triply Divergent Reagent for Glycoprotein Synthesis

Chemical synthesis of glycoproteins through three different strategies, from the same reagent, is herein described. The flexibility of this system, which allows the comparison of different linkage motifs between the same glycan and protein, is shown by one-step diversification of a GlcNAc-ylating reagent and its application in both site-specific and non-site-specific glycoprotein synthesis to create different conjugates from common representative protein scaffolds.     

Sustainability of incentives for excellent research — The German case

The state authorities in Germany used to fund public sector research without controlling the performance of the research units. This has changed during past decade, where the dominant mechanism by which formerly unconditional state funds are allocated nowadays is indicator-based performance measurement. The indicator sets used to measure the research-related performance in the German public science sector are usually very narrow, often consisting exclusively of finished doctoral theses and third-party funds. Using a unique dataset of 473 German research units from astrophysics, nanotechnology, economics and biotechnology, this paper outlines principles for the construction of sensible indicator sets for the performance measurement of scientific research groups. It is argued that scientific production is multidimensional. Thus one-sided indicator sets that fail to cover the relevant output dimensions give rise to incentives that will ultimately lower the performance of the science sector in total. Indicator sets should strive for sustainable incentives, which can be guaranteed if the sets are broad enough. As a starting point it is shown that the very common performance indicator ‘acquired third-party funds’ may affect research efficiency negatively, especially if the level of third-party funds is already very high. Therefore, we conclude that third-party funds should be used with great care, if at all.     

Two Natural Deduction Systems for Hybrid Logic: A Comparison

In this paper two different natural deduction systems forhybrid logic are compared and contrasted.One of the systems was originally given by the author of the presentpaper whereasthe other system under consideration is a modifiedversion of a natural deductionsystem given by Jerry Seligman.We give translations in both directions between the systems,and moreover, we devise a set of reduction rules forthe latter system bytranslation of already known reduction rules for the former system.     

Intercept measure of non‐linear stages

Intercept points are often used to describe the non‐linear performance of transceiver stages. This letter introduces an intercept measure. The intercept measure is a performance parameter including both intercept point and gain parameters. Particularly for low gain stages the intercept measure is useful and is better to use than the traditional output intercept point. The intercept measure is very useful as a single non‐linear performance parameter. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nanoconfined hydrides for energy storage

The world in the 21(st) century is facing increasing challenges within the development of more environmentally friendly energy systems, sustainable and 'green chemistry' solutions for a variety of chemical and catalytic processes. Nanomaterials science is expected to contribute strongly by the development of new nanotools, e.g. for improving the performance of chemical reactions. Nanoconfinement is of increasing interest and may lead to significantly enhanced kinetics, higher degree of stability and/or more favourable thermodynamic properties. Nanoconfined chemical reactions may have a wide range of important applications in the near future, e.g. within the merging area of chemical storage of renewable energy. This review provides selected examples within nanoconfinement of hydrogen storage materials, which may serve as an inspiration for other research fields as well. Selected nanoporous materials, methods for preparation of nanoconfined systems and their hydrogen storage properties are reviewed.