Basic Characteristics of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Terms of Their Strategic Management

The strategic management represents current direction of management. It is applied in all types of enterprises, including small and medium sized ones. Using principles of process management within SMEs has its limitations caused mainly by the size of the enterprise and the related focus on operational management. Other specifics are function accumulation, informal leadership, preference of oral communication to written, etc. Nevertheless, implementation of strategic management can increase competitiveness, reduce costs, improve decision-making, facilitate implementation of the employee motivation system, shorten delivery times, raise quality of customer satisfaction, etc. The aim of this article is to find out how to what extent SMEs implement the principles of strategic management.

Unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance in epitaxial Cr/Fe bilayer from electron-magnon scattering

Unidirectional Spin Hall magnetoresistance (USMR) is a non-linear phenomenon recently observed in ferromagnet (FM)/nonmagnetic metal (NM) bilayer structures. Two very different mechanisms of USMR have been proposed; one relies on the current-direction-dependence of electron-magnon scattering in a FM layer, and the other on the current-direction-dependence of the spin accumulation at the FM/NM interface. In this study, we investigate the USMR in epitaxial Cr/Fe bilayers finding that the USMR is significantly enhanced when the Fe magnetization is aligned to a particular crystallographic direction where the magnon magnetoresistance (MMR) by the electron-magnon scattering becomes stronger. This highlights the importance of the electron-magnon scattering for the understanding of USMR in Cr/Fe bilayers. Our result also suggests a route to enhance the efficiency of magnon generation in the magnonic devices. Lastly, we discuss the Ising-type spin exchange as a possible origin of the crystallographic direction dependences of the USMR and the MMR.

EBIRCH Localization for Low-Current Soft Fails

An experimental study was undertaken to determine the minimum level of leakage or shorting current could be detected by EBIRCH. A 22 nm SRAM array was overstressed with a series gradually increasing bias, followed by EBIRCH scans with 1 V applied bias and 2 kV SEM imaging, until fins were observed. The result was that with only 12 nA of shorting current, the fins of a pulldown device could be imaged by EBIRCH. Higher stresses created an ohmic short, and careful consideration of experiments with current direction provide additional evidence that EBIRCH is largely a temperaturedriven, or Seebeck effect.

Lexicographic regionalistics: experience and prospects

В статье рассматривается значение лексикографии в условиях современной парадигмы постструктуралистского гуманитарного знания. Осмысление языковой ситуации ХХI в. показывает, что внимание лингвистов постепенно меняет фокус с нормативного языка до общенационального языка в различных, в том числе субстандартных его формах. Автор указывает на трансформацию соотношения в языке явлений диалекта и региолекта. Актуальным видится направление лингвистической регионалистики, в рамках которого происходит накопление и изучение сведений о лингво- и этнокультурном колорите ситуации в российских регионах. В начале нового столетия в России стали выходить словари, ориентированные на феномен локального языка и фиксацию живых локализмов. На настоящий момент существуют лексикографические источники, которые представляют сведения о региолектах Центральной России, Поволжья, Урала, Сибири и Дальнего Востока. Отмечается рост профессионального и непрофессионального интереса к лингвокультуре регионов страны, указывается перспектива развития региональных словарей в электронном виде. The article examines the importance of lexicography in the context of the modern paradigm of post-structuralist humanities. Understanding the language situation of the twenty-first century shows that the attention of linguists gradually changes the focus from the normative language to the national language in various, including sub-standard, forms. The transformation of the relation in the language of the phenomena of dialect and regiolect is indicated. The current direction of linguistic regionalism is the accumulation and study of information about the linguistic and ethno-cultural color of the situation in the Russian regions. At the beginning of the new century, dictionaries focused on the phenomenon of local language and the fixation of living localisms began to appear in Russia. At the moment, there are lexicographic sources that provide information about the regiolects of Central Russia, the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East. The growth of professional and non-professional interest in the linguistic culture of the country's regions is noted, and the prospects for the development of regional dictionaries in electronic form are indicated.

Vector Current Measurement Using Doppler Scatterometry with Optimally Selected Observation Azimuths

The Doppler scatterometer is a new style of remote sensing tool that can provide current measurements over a wide swath for rapid global coverage. The existing current estimation method for Doppler scatterometry uses the maximum likelihood method to jointly derive the wind and current fields but shows high computational complexity. Moreover, the current radial speeds measured along two arbitrary observation azimuths are used to derive the vector current according to the parallelogram rule, which is not applicable for the case where two observation azimuths are not perpendicular. In this paper, a vector current velocity inversion method using an optimally selected observation azimuth combination—as well as a general current velocity calculation method—is proposed for Doppler scatterometry. Firstly, current radial speeds along several different observation azimuths are estimated using an interferometric phase difference matching method with low computational complexity. Then, two current radial components of each point are arbitrarily selected to estimate a preliminary current direction using the proposed vector current velocity derivation method. Finally, two observation azimuths that have the smallest intersection angles with the preliminarily estimated current direction are selected for vector current velocity determination. With the Ocean Surface Current Analyses Real-time (OSCAR) data as current input, vector current estimation experiments were conducted based on simulation analysis using an instrument conceptual design model for a pencil-beam scatterometer. The results show that the standard deviation of the estimated current velocity magnitude is 0.06 m/s. Compared with the reported results obtained by the existing method, the inversion accuracy of velocity magnitude is improved by 67%.

Compact 3 × 1 Matrix Converter Module Based on the SiC Devices with Easy Expandability

This paper discusses a new approach for building a compact all-in-one matrix converter module based on SiC semiconductors arranged in a common source connection. The used transistors are in the D2PAK package. The design of the module is divided into two parts, namely a power module designed at one-layer aluminum substrate printed circuit board (PCB) to ensure good thermal performance and voltage isolation between the module and heatsink. The second board is responsible for the SiC driving and is mounted at the top of the power PCB and consists of metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) drivers, isolated power supplies, a current direction detection circuit, and current value sensors. In the paper, the proper function of the SiC MOSFET drivers, current direction detection, and current measurement sensors were evaluated. Finally, 3D design together with the final prototype is presented. The modules contain three bidirectional cells for interconnection three input voltage sources and one output phase. The uniqueness and novelty of the presented module are the compactness and easy expandability of the module to achieve higher power outputs and multiphase applications such as five phase machines.

Zebrafish Larva’s Response and Habituation to Electric Signal: Effects of Voltage, Current and Pulsation Studied in a Microfluidic Device

We previously showed that electric current can cause zebrafish larvae to move towards the anode pole along a microchannel. For a semi-mobile larva, we observed that zebrafish response to electricity depended on the current magnitude. The effects of electric signal direction, voltage magnitude and habituation to repeated exposures to electric pulses were not characterized. Here, this knowledge gap was addressed by exploiting these parameters in a microfluidic device with a head-trap to immobilize a zebrafish larva and a downstream chamber for tail movement and phenotypic characterization of response duration (RD) and tail beat frequency (TBF). We first assessed larvae’s response to electric current direction (at 3µA) and voltage magnitude. Changing the current direction significantly altered the RD and TBF with long and low-frequency responses seen when the anode was positioned at larvae’s tail. The electric voltage drop across the fish body had a significant effect on larvae’s locomotion with long RD and low TBF observed at 5.6V in the range of 1.3-9V. We also demonstrated that the zebrafish locomotor response to repeated 3µA current pulses diminished with dependency on the interstimulus interval. However, the diminished response was fully recovered after a 5-min resting period or introduction of a novel light stimulus (i.e. habituation-dishabituation strategy). Therefore, electric response suppression in zebrafish was attributed to the habituation as a form of non-associative learning. Our microfluidic platform has broad application potential in behavioral neuroscience to study cognitive phenotypes, fundamental studies on the biological roots of electric response, and pharmacological screening.

Analysis of Abandoned Mine Wastes Disposal Techniques in Malawi: A Concept of Circular Economy

Non-operational mines mostly constitute of significant quantities of valuable mineral resources within tailings and waste rock that can be disposed properly using innovative techniques. Proper waste disposal techniques do not only reduce the need for new mines to be developed but also have broad beneficial results on mining environmental impact. This paper presents a solution on abandoned mine wastes in Malawi. Malawi government wants to embrace techniques on former mine waste recycling operations that incentivize investment. Thus, this analysis proposes abandoned mine waste recycling technique for Malawi government to adopt. Recycling technique, as one of the current direction methods, is determined for adoption. The powerful impacts of recycling principles in turning Malawi’s abandoned mine wastes into beneficial products that can support and sustain its economy are given. The concept of circular economy is prominently in the picture, so the wastes can be changed into wealth and other created benefits.

From modernism to metamodernism. Change of eras as transformation of forms of creative activity: from philosophy to fashion

The article deals with the current direction of metamodernism as the final stage of the postmodernism era and with the main representatives of this era. The author traces in a comparative plan the features of three eras: modernism, postmodernism and metamodernism, showing the specifics of the subject of historical action in these periods, and reveals such features of the modernism era as its rationalism and the desire to produce new meanings and ideas, historical consistent thinking, allowing the representatives of the Enlightenment era to realize the qualities of this period as the next stage of development that replaced the Middle Ages. The author demonstrates that the era of postmodernism, which replaced the Enlightenment or modernism, recorded a stable denial of the former main dominants, replacing uniqueness with replicability, novelty - with repetition, the desire to follow big ideas - an intellectual game. The era of metamodernism is associated by the author with the development of digital technologies. The article touches upon the problem of fashion as the sphere of culture, which quite fully embodies the main tendencies of the change of eras.