Boron-deoxidized copper withstands brazing temperatures

Boron-deoxidized high-conductivity copper is used for fabrication of heat transfer components that are brazed in a hydrogen atmosphere. This copper has high strength and ductility at elevated temperatures and does not exhibit massive intergranular failure

The future of banking in Europe

At least in the past, banking in continental Europe has been characterised by a number of features that are quite specific to the region. They include the following: (1) banks play a strong role in their respective financial systems; (2) universal banking is prevalent; (3) not strictly profit-oriented banks play a significant role; and (4) there are considerable differences between national banking systems. It can be safely assumed that the future of banking in Europe will be shaped by three major external developments: deregulation and liberalisation; advances in information technology; and economic, financial and monetary integration. The overall consequences of these developments would be much too vast a topic to be addressed in one short paper. Therefore the present paper concentrates on the following question: Are the traditional peculiarities of the banking and financial systems of continental Europe likely to disappear as a consequence of the aforementioned external developments or are they more likely to remain in spite of these developments? The external developments affect the features specific to banking in continental Europe only indirectly and only via the strategies selected and pursued by the various players in the financial systems, notably the banks themselves, and in ways which strongly depend on the structure of the banking industry and the level of competition between banks and other providers of financial services. The paper develops an informal model of the relationships between (1) external developments, (2) bank strategies and the structure of the banking industry, and (3) the peculiarities of banking in Europe, and derives a hypothesis predicting which of the traditional peculiarities are likely to disappear and which are likely to remain. It argues that, overall, the peculiarities are not likely to disappear in the short or the medium term. First version June 2000. This version March 2001.Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt einen Versuch dar, die Zukunft des Bankwesens in Europa unter der spezifischen Fragestellung zu analysieren, ob sich trotz der offensichtlichen und gravierenden Änderungen informations-technologischer, regulatorischer und politischer Art im Umfeld der Banken die traditionellen Besonderheiten der kontinentaleuropäischen Banksysteme in der Zukunft erhalten oder ob sie in der Folge dieser Änderungen eher verschwinden werden. Zu diesen Besonderheiten gehören unter anderem enge Beziehungen zwischen Banken und ihren Kreditnehmern, eine starke Rolle von nicht oder nicht primär gewinnorientierten Banken und beträchtliche Unterschiede zwischen den Bank- und Finanzsystemen verschiedener Länder. Methodisch geht der Beitrag so vor, dass untersucht wird, wie Banken bei der Festlegung ihrer Strategien auf die Änderungen Art reagieren und wie sich dies auf den Wettbewerb im Bankwesen auswirkt, um daraus Schlüsse hinsichtlich des Fortbestehens bzw. des Verschwindens der angesprochenen traditionellen Besonderheiten von "Banking in Europe" zu ziehen. Es lässt sich zeigen, dass mindestens einige der traditionellen Besonderheiten – entgegen weit verbreiteten Erwartungen – zumindest mittelfristig nicht verschwinden werden

The use of AntiMisting Kerosene (AMK) in turbojet engines

The effect of antimisting kerosene (AMK) flow characteristics on fan jet engines and the impact of degradation requirements on the fuel system was evaluated. It was determined from the present program that AMK fuel cannot be used without predegradation, although some degradation occurs throughout the fuel feed system, expecially in the fuel pumps. There is a tendency toward FM-9 AMK additive agglomeration and gel formation when the liquid flows at a critical velocity through very small passages. The data indicate this phenomenon to be a function of the degree of degradation, the passage size, the differential pressure, the fluid temperature, and the accumulated flow time. Additionally, test results indicate that the long term cumulative effects of this phenomenon may require more degradation than the theoretical requirement determined from short term tests

Two-stage emitter follower is temperature stabilized

Two-stage temperature stabilized circuit using two transistors is described. Increase in temperature causes the base-to-emitter voltage of n-p-n transistor to become less positive whereas the base-to-emitter voltage of p-n-p transistor becomes less negative, so the temperature-induced variation in V sub 1 and V sub 2 cancel out

Evaluation of decay curves of a chemical species undergoing simultaneous first- and second-order decay

IBM 1620 computer prepares tables to enable fast calculation of the first- and second-order rate constants from two half-lives and the corresponding initial concentrations, obtained from either one or two decay curves

Corporate governance : the role of other constituencies ; paper presented at the Conference on Workable Corporate Governance: Cross Border Perspectives, held in Paris, March 17-19, 1997

Paper Presented at the Conference on Workable Corporate Governance: Cross-Border Perspectives held in Paris, March 17-19, 1997 To appear in: A. Pezard/J.-M. Thiveaud: Workable Corporate Governance: Cross-Border Perspectives, Montchrestien, Paris 1997. The paper discusses the role of various constituencies in the corporate governance of a corporation from the perspective of incomplete contracts. A strict shareholder value orientation in the sense of a rule that at any time firm decisions should be made strictly in the interest of the present shareholders would make it difficult for the firm to establish long-term relationships as the potential partners would have to fear that, at a later stage of the co-operation, the shareholders or a management acting only on their behalf could exploit them because of the inevitable incompleteness of long-term contracts. One way of mitigating these problems is to put in place a corporate governance system which gives some active role to the other stakeholders or constituencies, or which makes their interests a well-defined element of the objective function of the firm. A commitment not to follow a policy of strict shareholder value maximization ex post can be efficient ex ante. Such a system would clearly differ from what is advocated by proponents of a "stakeholder approach", as it would limit the rights of the other constituencies to those which would have been agreed upon in a constitutional contract concluded between them and the founder of the firm at the time when long-term contracts are first established

Differences between financial systems in Europe : consequences for EMU

Major differences between national financial systems might make a common monetary policy difficult. As within Europe, Germany and the United Kingdom differ most with respect to their financial systems, the present paper addresses its topic under the assumption that the United Kingdom is already a part of EMU. Employing a comprehensive concept of a financial system, the author shows that there are indeed profound differences between the national financial systems of Germany and the United Kingdom. But he argues that these differences are not likely to create great problems for a common monetary policy. In the context of the present paper, one important difference between the two financial systems refers to the structure of the respective financial sector and, as a consequence, to the strength with which a given monetary policy impulse set by the central bank is passed on to the financial sector. The other important difference refers to the typical relationship between the banks and the business sector in each country which determines to what extent the financial sectors and especially the banks pass on pressure exerted on them by a monetary policy authority to their clients in their national business sector. In Germany, the central bank has a stronger influence on the financial sector than in England, while, for systemic reasons, German banks tend to soften monetary policy pressures on their customers more than British banks do. As far as the transmission of a restrictive monetary policy of the ECB to the real economy is concerned, these two differences tend to offset each other. This is good news for the advocates of a monetary union as it eases the task of the ECB when it comes to determining the strength of its monetary policy measures