Supply chain management must appeal to different and more innovative strategies that make possible a better responsiveness to customers’ requirements and needs. The supply chains must be more agile, and also improving its ability to cope with unexpected disturbances, that is, supply chains must be more resilient. The deployment of these two strategies simultaneously will contribute to enhance the supply chain performance and competitiveness. Accordingly, the main objective of this paper is to propose an innovative conceptual model to a better understanding the influence of agile and resilient strategies on supply chain performance and competitiveness. The conceptual model proposed considers a set of agile and resilient practices deployed with consideration for the upstream and downstream supply chain relationships, as well as for the firm inward. In this model a performance measurement system is also proposed which intends to monitor the influence of these practices on operational and economic performance of the supply chain.

N-doped ZnO films were deposited on glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering with different deposition pressures. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force morphology (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Hall measurements and optical spectrophotometer. The XRD patterns confirmed that the films are polycrystalline and the influence of deposition pressure on the structural properties. AFM microstructures also authenticated the change in the size and shape of the grains as a function of deposition pressure; the root mean square (RMS) roughness has reached a maximum (10.65 nm) at 1.5 x 10 -2 mbar. XPS spectra revealed the change in the chemical composition. The amount of adsorbed oxygen and nitrogen at oxide sites has reached the maximum at 9.0 x 10 -3 mbar, where the film showed p-type conductivity. The optical transmittance spectra have indicated that the absorption edge is shifted towards the shorter wavelength at higher deposition pressure. Correspondingly, the optical band gap is increased from 2.17 to 2.80 eV. The average visible transmittance in the wavelength ranging 500-800 nm has been increased from 49% to 82%. Copyright © 2010 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.

N-doped ZnO films were radio frequency (RF) sputtered on glass substrates and studied as a function of oxygen partial pressure (OPP) ranging from 3.0×10-4 to 9.5×10-3 Pa. X-ray diffraction patters confirmed the polycrystalline nature of the deposited films. The crystalline structure is influenced by the variation of OPP. Atomic force microscopy analysis confirmed the agglomeration of the neighboring spherical grains with a sharp increase of root mean square (RMS) roughness when the OPP is increased above 1.4×10-3 Pa. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed that the incorporation of N content into the film is decreased with the increase of OPP, noticeably N 1s XPS peaks are hardly identified at 9.5×10-3 Pa. The average visible transmittance (380-700 nm) is increased with the increase of OPP (from ∼17 to 70), and the optical absorption edge shifts towards the shorter wavelength. The films deposited with low OPP (≤ 3.0×10-4 Pa) show n-type conductivity and those deposited with high OPP (≥ 9.0×10-4 Pa) are highly resistive (>105 ·cm) © 2010 The Nonferrous Metals Society of China.

A dye sensitized TiO2 photodetector has been integrated with a DNA detection method based on non-cross-linking hybridization of DNA-functionalized gold nanoparticles, resulting in a disposable colorimetric biosensor. We present a new approach for the fabrication of dye sensitized TiO2 photodetectors by an inkjet printing technique-a non-contact digital, additive, no mask and no vacuum patterning method, ideal for cost efficient mass production. The developed biosensor was compared against a dye sensitized photodetector fabricated by the traditional "doctor blade" method. Detection of gold nanoparticle aggregation was possible for concentrations as low as 1.0 nM for the "doctor blade" system, and 1.5 nM for the inkjet printed photodetector. The demonstrated sensitivity limits of developed biosensors are comparable to those of spectrophotometric techniques (1.0 nM). Our results show that a difference higher than 17% by traditional photodetector and 6% by inkjet printed in the photoresponses for the complementary and non-complementary gold nanoprobe assays could be attained for a specific DNA sequence from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the etiologic agent of human tuberculosis. The decrease of costs associated with molecular diagnostic provided by a platform such as the one presented here may prove of paramount importance in developing countries. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

{A nonvacuum and low temperature process for passivating transparent metal oxides based thin-film transistors is presented. This process uses the epoxy-based SU-8 resist which prevents device degradation against environmental conditions, vacuum or sputtering surface damage. The incorporation of SU-8 as a passivation layer is based on the ability of this polymer to provide features with high mechanical and chemical stability. With this approach, lithography is performed to pattern the resist over the active area of the device in order to form the passivation layer. The resulting transistors demonstrate very good electrical characteristics, such as μFE =61 cm2 /V s

High visible to near infrared (NIR) transparent Mo (0-1 at%) doped In2O3 (IMO) thin films with high carrier mobility were deposited on Corning-1737 glass substrates at 400 °C by spray pyrolysis experimental technique. The films were annealed in vacuum (∼1×10-4 mbar) at 550 °C for 45 min. XRD analysis confirmed that indium oxide belongs to cubic bixbyite structure. The preferred growth orientation along (2 2 2) plane for low Mo doping level shifts to (4 0 0) for higher Mo doping levels. Crystallite sizes extracted from the XRD data corroborate the changes in full-width at half-maximum due to the variation in Mo doping. Scanning electron microscopy study illustrates the evolution in surface microstructures as a function of Mo doping. The negative sign of Hall coefficient confirmed n-type conductivity. Films with high mobility of ∼149 cm2/(V s), carrier concentration of ∼1.0×1020 cm-3, resistivity of ∼4.0×10-4 Ω cm and high figure of merit of ∼1.02×10-2 Ω-1 were observed for post-annealed films (0.5 at% Mo). The obtained high average transparency of ∼83% in the wavelength range 400-2500 nm confirms that transmittance is well extended into the NIR region. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The isolation and characterization of a new metalloprotein containing Cu and Fe atoms is reported. The as-isolated Cu-Fe protein shows an UV-visible spectrum with absorption bands at 320 nm, 409 nm and 615 nm. Molecular mass of the native protein along with denaturating electrophoresis and mass spectrometry data show that this protein is a multimer consisting of 14 +/- 1 subunits of 15254.3 +/- 7.6 Da. Mossbauer spectroscopy data of the as-isolated Cu-Fe protein is consistent with the presence of [2Fe-2S](2+) centers. Data interpretation of the dithionite reduced protein suggest that the metallic cluster could be constituted by two ferromagnetically coupled [2Fe-2S](+) spin delocalized pairs. The biochemical properties of the Cu-Fe protein are similar to the recently reported molybdenum resistance associated protein from Desulfovibrio, D. alaskensis. Further-more, a BLAST search from the DNA deduced amino acid sequence shows that the Cu-Fe protein has homology with proteins annotated as zinc resistance associated proteins from Desulfovibrio, D. alaskensis, D. vulgaris Hildenborough, D. piger ATCC 29098. These facts suggest a possible role of the Cu-Fe protein in metal tolerance. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Inc.

A presente Dissertação consiste num estudo do comportamento competitivo de entidades, produtoras e comercializadoras de energia eléctrica, num período de tempo antes e após a entrada em vigor do Mercado Ibérico de Electricidade (MIBEL). Esse período de tempo engloba os meses entre Abril de 2007 e Abril de 2008, sendo que o MIBEL teve início a 1 de Julho de 2007. O estudo incide principalmente no grau de competitividade ou ausência da mesma, que as referidas entidades adoptaram após o começo do MIBEL. Para poder efectuar essa avaliação, recorre-se a uma abordagem baseada em variações conjecturais, que constituem um indicador desse grau de competitividade. Ou seja, as variações conjecturais representam a convicção que determinada empresa X tem face ao comportamento que outra empresa Y adoptará após uma acção efectuada pela empresa X. Por acção depreende-se, por exemplo, uma redução ou um aumento da quantidade de produção de uma empresa. Se o valor da variável conjectural for 0, as empresas encontram-se a concorrer à Cournot. Caso seja -1, as empresas encontram-se em concorrência perfeita. Por outro lado, se o valor da variação conjectural for superior a 0 pode existir uma situação de conluio entre as empresas. De modo a obter estes valores das variações conjecturais, utiliza-se e readapta-se um simulador de mercado diário, denominado SiMEC - Simulador do Mercado Eléctrico e do Carbono. Este simulador, que anteriormente simulava apenas períodos temporais precedentes ao MIBEL, foi reajustado de modo a incluir dados pós MIBEL. Finalmente, são então realizados gráficos comparativos e retiradas conclusões acerca do comportamento das entidades face a alterações na estrutura do mercado de electricidade.

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Indium molybdenum oxide thin films were deposited using different radio-frequency sputtering units on glass substrates at room temperature from an In 2O 3 (95 wt.%): Mo (5 wt.%) target. The film thickness ranges between 160 and 275 nm. The chamber volume of Unit-1 was ̃2.4 times larger than that of Unit-2. Apart from the chamber volume, a significant difference between the two units was the sputtering pressure. The films were characterized by their structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties. A strong reflection from (222) plane was obtained for the ̃275 nm thick films deposited in Unit-1. The films deposited with <275 nm thickness and those deposited in Unit-2 are close to amorphous with a small crystalline fraction. The surface of the films deposited in Unit-1 is comprised of randomly arranged crystallites, which is restructured with the increasing film thickness to become a well defined "rice field" like structure (275 nm thick). The films deposited in Unit-2 are comprised of many holes on the surface that is presumably due to back sputtering. The average visible transmittance calculated in the wavelength between 400 and 800 nm ranges from 70 to 82%. The optical band gap is found to vary between 3.80 and 3.86 eV. The lowest bulk resistivity of the films deposited in Unit-1 was increased from ̃4.06×10 -3 to 4.07×10 -1ωcm when deposited in Unit-2. The carrier concentration was decreased from 1.31×10 20 to 1.03×10 18 cm -3 but the Hall mobility increased from 11.7 to 15.0 cm2 V -1 s -1. © 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

ZnO films were deposited on c-plane sapphire substrates in Ar atmosphere by ii magnetron sputtering and were post-annealed at 400°C in green gas (95% N2 + 5% H2). The properties of the as-grown and annealed films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA), Hall measurement and photoluminescence spectra. XRD studies confirmed the variation in strain and an improvement in crystallinity. From RBS and ERDA analysis, the presence of H atoms on the surface of the as-grown ZnO films was evidenced. Annealing in green gas increased the amount of H in the film. Compared with the as-grown films, the ultra exciting intensity obviously decreases in the annealed films and new optical active centres in the blue/violet ( 3.0 eV) and red ( 1.9) regions are emerged in the PL spectrum. The positive sign of Hall coefficient confirmed the low (-type conductivity in the as grown films, which was improved after annealing. However, the (-type conductivity was not stable, especially for the annealed sample it changes from ( type to n type after 9 days. Copyright © 2009 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.

The isolation and characterization of a new metalloprotein containing Cu and Fe atoms is reported. The as-isolated Cu-Fe protein shows an UV-visible spectrum with absorption bands at 320 nm, 409 nm and 615 nm. Molecular mass of the native protein along with denaturating electrophoresis and mass spectrometry data show that this protein is a multimer consisting of 14 +/- 1 subunits of 15254.3 +/- 7.6 Da. Mossbauer spectroscopy data of the as-isolated Cu-Fe protein is consistent with the presence of [2Fe-2S](2+) centers. Data interpretation of the dithionite reduced protein suggest that the metallic cluster could be constituted by two ferromagnetically coupled [2Fe-2S](+) spin delocalized pairs. The biochemical properties of the Cu-Fe protein are similar to the recently reported molybdenum resistance associated protein from Desulfovibrio, D. alaskensis. Further-more, a BLAST search from the DNA deduced amino acid sequence shows that the Cu-Fe protein has homology with proteins annotated as zinc resistance associated proteins from Desulfovibrio, D. alaskensis, D. vulgaris Hildenborough, D. piger ATCC 29098. These facts suggest a possible role of the Cu-Fe protein in metal tolerance. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Inc.

The Upper Jurassic Lourinhã Formation (Lusitanian Basin, Portugal) contains a diverse dinosaur fauna comprising theropods, sauropods, stegosaurs, ankylosaurs and several genera of ornithopods. The sedimentology in the area favours preservation of tracksways, and tracks from most of the dinosaurs are also represented by skeletal remains. During fieldwork in the summer of 2003 a new, large, tridactyl track was found at the beach of Vale Frades, approximately 6 km north of Lourinhã (central west Portugal). The track was found together with a stegosaur track on a clay bed exposed within the intertidal zone. Due to the immediate danger of erosion, the track was collected and is now on display at Museu da Lourinhã. The track is 70 cm long and 69 cm wide, the toes are short and broad, with indications of short blunt claws, and there is a high angle of divarication between the outer digits. The shape and dimensions of the track identifies it as deriving from an ornithopod dinosaur with an estimated hip height around three metres. Although very large ornithopods are known from the Cretaceous, the largest known Jurassic ornithopod is Camptosaurus from North America, and the largest known from Portugal is the camptosaurid Draconyx loureiroi. Neither of these reached the body size suggested by the new track. So far the track described herein is the only evidence for a Jurassic ornithopod of that size.

A previous paper studied the stability of soldier-pile walls in clay under vertical loading using upper bound analyses. A classical Tresca yield criterion was assumed in that analysis. This paper extends that study by considering a tension truncated Tresca yield criterion in an upper bound numerical analysis of the problem. It shows that assuming zero tension soil strength has a significant influence on the values of the minimum soldier-pile resistance required to ensure stability.