Health impact assessment (HIA) on a strategic level focuses on the broad determinants of health. However, the evidence with regard to the health impacts is often necessarily 'soft'. The example of a health impact review on national housing policy in the Netherlands shows that HIA can be effective even in the absence of hard data. Strategies used to overcome the problem of not having hard data a...

The time-lag method, using a gas permeation experiment, is currently the most popular method for determining the membrane properties: diffusivity coefcient and permeability coefcient, and from which the solubility coefcient can be calculated. In this investigation, the impact of systematic, random (noise), resolution and extrapolation errors associated with gas permeatio...

Methods and problems in the field of modern MOS-modeling are reviewed. Models for surface scattering and impact ionization, physical parameters which are of particular relevance for MOS-Transistor simulation programs, are explained. The various conceptional approaches for the numerical solution of the classical semiconductor equations are compared. An example of application of a simulation prog...

Micromachined vacuum pumps are one of the key components in miniature systems for chemical and biological analysis. Miniature sensors and analyzers are normally operated at the pressure range lower than a few millitorr. We are developing a micromachined vacuum pump that is comprised of a mechanical rough pump integrated with micromachined ion-pumps. The rough pump generates a low vacuum of tens...

We apply the non-parametric, unconditional, hyperbolic order- quantile estimator to appraise the relative efficiency of Microfinance Institutions in Africa in terms of outreach. Our purpose is to verify if these institutions, which must constantly try to strike a compromise between their social role and financial sustainability are operationally efficient. Using data on African MFIs extracted ...