Convergence and trust in eCommerce

Trust is the key element of commerce, both for traditional models and — more recently — for eCommerce. Unlike its traditional counterpart, eCommerce relies on trust being created and maintained with the help of digital devices and services. Convergence brings significant changes to the way people interact through digital media by offering ubiquitous and seamless communication. This has a significant impact on the way trust is established and maintained, with consequent impact upon eCommerce. This paper identifies a number of the most important challenges to trust in eCommerce as well as trust-related aspects of key enablers of eCommerce. From this perspective, the paper studies an impact of convergence on trust within eCommerce to identify several positive relationships.     

An inventory analysis of rural pollution loads in China.

Rural pollution has attracted increasing attention over the past decade for its important consequences on surface and groundwater quality. This is particularly so in China due to the wide and effective control of industrial and municipal wastewater discharges over the past decade. Based on the discussion of rural activities in China, this paper develops a new method of inventory analysis through the definition of elementary unit (EU). This inventory analysis approach is then applied to estimate the total rural pollution loads of COD, TN and TP, as well as their spatial distributions in China. Further analysis is also conducted to investigate the correlations between rural pollution loads and agricultural production outputs, as well as population. It is found that China's agriculture is developing largely at the cost of environment quality, and a high population, as well as the increasing demand for agricultural products, is one of the dominant driving forces. The constructed EKC, which describes the relationship between rural pollution loads and agricultural income, also reveals that current agricultural development in China is mostly far from de-locked from the environmental problem.     

Catalytic epoxidation of olefins in the presence of a vanadyl porphyrin complex

It was found that vanadyl porphyrin complexes synthesized from petroleum metal porphyrin concentrates stimulated epoxidation during the olefin oxygenation process. The yields of obtained oxiranes turned out to be 38–75%, depending on the olefin structure. An epoxidation mechanism that suggests the formation of a protonated dioxygen adduct as an intermediate during oxygenation of olefins in the presence of vanadyl porphyrin complexes was proposed. An analogy is drawn between the epoxide formation reaction upon the catalytic oxygenation of olefins and the Prilezhaev reaction.     

Vacuum degassing of chromium-nickel-molybdenum steel at the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine

The Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine has conducted a study of the effect of technological factors on the hydrogen content of chromium-nickel-molybdenum steel after vacuum degassing. It was established that the most important factor is the hydrogen content of the steel before the degassing operation. The study also determined the effects of the circulation coefficient, the duration of the degassing operation, and the vacuum used in the treatment. __________ Translated from Metallurg, No. 7, pp. 68–69, July, 2006.     

Comprehensive heat exchange model for a semiconductor laser diode

By measuring the total energy flow from an optical device, we can develop new design strategies for thermal stabilization. Here we present a comprehensive model for heat exchange between a semiconductor laser diode and its environment that includes the mechanisms of conduction, convection, and radiation. We perform quantitative measurements of these processes for several devices, deriving parameters such as a laser's heat transfer coefficient, and then demonstrate the feasibility of thermal probing for the nondestructive wafer-scale characterization of optical devices.     

Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of silver thin films for future interconnects by direct liquid injection system

Deposition of Ag films by direct liquid injection-metal organic chemical vapor deposition (DLI-MOCVD) was chosen because this preparation method allows precise control of precursor flow and prevents early decomposition of the precursor as compared to the bubbler-delivery. Silver(I)-2,2-dimethyl-6,6,7,7,8,8,8-heptafluoro-3,5-octanedionato-triethylphosphine [Ag(fod)(PEt₃)] as the precursor for Ag CVD was studied, which is liquid at 30 °C. Ag films were grown on different substrates of SiO₂/Si and TiN/Si. Argon and nitrogen/hydrogen carrier gas was used in a cold wall reactor at a pressure of 50–500 Pa with deposition temperature ranging between 220 °C and 350 °C. Ag films deposited on a TiN/Si diffusion barrier layer have favorable properties over films deposited on SiO₂/Si substrate. At lower temperature (220 °C), film growth is essentially reaction-limited on SiO₂ substrate. Significant dependence of the surface morphology on the deposition conditions exists in our experiments. According to XPS analysis pure Ag films are deposited by DLI-MOCVD at 250 °C by using argon as carrier gas.     

The anisotropic effect of a weak magnetic field on the photoconductivity of C<Subscript>60</Subscript> single crystals

The effect of crystal orientation on the photogeneration of free charge carriers was studied for C₆₀ single crystals in a weak magnetic field. The photoconductivity sharply depends on the orientation of magnetic field with respect to the crystallographic directions, showing a 5–8% increase for seven axes of the C₆₀ crystal.     

State of polarization changes: Classification and measurement

We propose a standardization procedure that provides a convenient, quantitative and reproducible laboratory-based method for measuring the state of polarization (SOP) fluctuations produced by polarization varying devices. This method is based on the SOP distributions generated by commercial polarization scramblers. We show that these devices generate distributions of the maximum change of the SOP (in a given sample time) that follow Rayleigh statistics, which scale linearly with scrambling frequency and the sample time. We use this procedure to measure the SOP fluctuations in a short length of coiled fiber subject to mechanical perturbations.     

Synthesis and characterization of biocompatible hydroxyapatite coated ferrite

Ferrite particles coated with biocompatible phases can be used for hyperthermia treatment of cancer. We have synthesized substituted calcium hexaferrite, which is not stable on its own but is stabilized with small substitution of La. Hexaferrite of chemical composition (CaO)_0.75(La₂0₃)_0.20(Fe₂O₃)₆ was prepared using citrate gel method. Hydroxyapatite was prepared by precipitating it from aqueous solution of Ca(NO₃)₂ and (NH₄)₂HPO₄ maintaining pH above 11. Four different methods were used for coating of hydroxyapatite on ferrite particles. SEM with EDX and X-ray diffraction analysis shows clear evidence of coating of hydroxyapatite on ferrite particles. These coated ferrite particles exhibited coercive field up to 2 kOe, which could be made useful for hysteresis heating in hyperthermia. Studies by culturing BHK-21 cells and WBC over the samples show evidence of biocompatibility. SEM micrographs and cell counts give clear indication of cell growth on the surface of the sample. Finally coated ferrite particle was implanted in Kasaulli mouse to test its biocompatibility. The magnetic properties and biocompatibility studies show that these hydroxyapatite coated ferrites could be useful for hyperthermia.     

A Digital Deformation Vacuum Gauge with an LC-Generator

The design of a sylphon bellows sensor and the basic circuits of an LC-generator and of a microprocessor unit are presented. An analytical pressure–frequency conversion function and a special method of adjusting the sensor ensure an error of less than 0.05%. The dynamic range is up to 10⁵. The instruments developed cover the ranges 10³, 10⁴, and 10⁵ Pa.