Since the discovery of the first metallic glass in 1960 (1), amorphous metals have been made in a variety of compositions. However, they have been largely fabricated as thin ribbons less than a millimeter in thickness because fast cooling rates (;10 K/sec) have been required to retain the metastable amorphous phase. Recently, however, a new class of amorphous metals has been developed which req...

Geologic processes strongly influence water and sediment quality in aquatic ecosystems but rarely are geologic principles incorporated into routine biomonitoring studies. We test if elevated concentrations of metals in water and sediment are restricted to streams downstream of mines or areas that may discharge mine wastes. We surveyed 198 catchments classified as "historically mined" or "unmine...

The ecotoxicological and chemical response of five metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn) to selective fractionation techniques was assessed using the organism Daphnia magna. The metals Cu and Zn revealed similar toxicity patterns, showing an increased toxicity when lowering the pH, a marked reduction in toxicity after addition of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). Similar toxicity reductions wer...

Symbiodinium is an indispensable endosymbiont in corals and the most important primary producer in coral reef ecosystems. During the past decades, coral bleaching attributed to the disruption of the symbiosis has frequently occurred resulting in reduction of coral reef coverage globally. Growth and proliferation of corals require some specific trace metals that are essential components of perti...

Communication among companies and between clients and companies has been revolutionized by the Internet, e.g., b2b market places, as well as new ways of collaboration like virtual companies. Many systems with holistic and individualized service, sales and marketing concepts are available today. In this paper we give an overview of the basic concepts of office communication, groupware, workflow ...

Uolevi Nikula Introducing Basic Systematic Requirements Engineering Practices in Small Organizations with an Easy to Adopt Method Lappeenranta 2004 207 p. Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis 189 Diss. Lappeenranta University of Technology ISBN 951-764-948-7, ISSN 1456-4491 Requirements-related issues have been found the third most important risk factor in software projects and as the biggest r...

The paper presents a modelling approach for performance comparison of Central European companies on three levels: country, industry, and company. The approach is based on Data Envelopment Analysis and Analytic Hierarchy Process. The proposed model consists of two basic sections. The first section estimates the importance of selected industries in the countries, whereas the second section evalua...

Although it has been recognized only relatively recently that the electrowinning process could be employed for the recovery of metals from wastewaters, the basic process is well established. Electroref ining, a process closely related to electrow inning, was introduced about a hundred years ago. Today, practically a l l of the world's copper (approx. 8,000,000 metric tons/year) i s electroref i...

The research and development of innovative new therapies are expensive and risky processes, and companies require substantial resources if they are to translate basic science into modern biomedical products. When resources are limited, as in the current economic climate, biotechnology start-up companies are often among the first casualties in the fight for assets. Policy-makers can play an impo...