A triblock terpolymer vs. blends of diblock copolymers for nanocapsules addressed by three independent stimuli

The chemical structure of triblock terpolymers is exploited to achieve polymer nanocapsules responsive to three different stimuli.</p

Improving BDD Based Symbolic Model Checking with Isomorphism Exploiting Transition Relations

Symbolic model checking by using BDDs has greatly improved the applicability of model checking. Nevertheless, BDD based symbolic model checking can still be very memory and time consuming. One main reason is the complex transition relation of systems. Sometimes, it is even not possible to generate the transition relation, due to its exhaustive memory requirements. To diminish this problem, the use of partitioned transition relations has been proposed. However, there are still systems which can not be verified at all. Furthermore, if the granularity of the partitions is too fine, the time required for verification may increase. In this paper we target the symbolic verification of asynchronous concurrent systems. For such systems we present an approach which uses similarities in the transition relation to get further memory reductions and runtime improvements. By applying our approach, even the verification of systems with an previously intractable transition relation becomes feasible.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2011, arXiv:1106.081

Women on boards of Malaysian firms: Impact on market and accounting performance

We seek to offer some reconciliation for the conflicting theoretical arguments and empirical findings regarding the impact of women’s participation in boards on firms’ performance.We suggest that this impact differs in relation to market- and accounting-performance, and it is firm-specific, and varies by firms’ ownership type and the composition of their boards.These arguments find theoretical underpinnings in agency and resource-dependency theories, combined with behavioral and discrimination theories that articulate women behavior in the workplace and market perception of gender equality.The empirical analysis is based on a dataset of 841 publicly-listed firms in Malaysia.The results show positive impact of women’s participation on accounting-performance and negative impact on market-performance, suggesting that women directors create economic value, which is undervalued by the market. We interpret the findings with reference to the perception of women’s role in society and business in Malaysia, and the nature of corporate governance and ownership types prevalent among Malaysian firms.We suggest that the relationships might be context-specific, and hence the desired level of women’s participation varies across countries.We discuss the normative implications of the findings for government authorities considering legislation of gender-quota on boards, and for firms

The 'long' 16th century : a key period of animal husbandry change in England

Although many historians have extensively discussed the agricultural history of England between the Late Middle Ages and the Modern Era, this period of crucial changes has received less attention by archaeologists. In this paper, zooarchaeological evidence dated between the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period is analysed to investigate changes in animal husbandry during the ‘long’ sixteenth century. The size and shape of the main domestic animals (cattle, sheep, pig and chicken) is explored through biometrical data and discussed in line with evidence of taxonomic frequencies, ageing and sex ratios. Data from 12 sites with relevant chronologies and located in different areas of the country are considered. The results show that, although a remarkable size increase of animals occurred in England throughout the post-medieval period, much of this improvement occurred as early as the sixteenth century. The nature and causes of such improvement are discussed, with the aim of understanding the development of Early Modern farming and the foundations of the so-called Agricultural Revolution