Terfenol: a study of the phase equilibrium diagram and the solidification process

Terfenol is a rare earth-iron alloy that was first developed at the Naval Ordinance Laboratory because of its rare magnetostrictive properties. Terfenol is composed of terbium and dysprosium combined with iron in a composition Tb{sub x}Dy{sub 1{minus}x}Fe{sub 2}, where x{approximately}0.3. The objective of this work was to determine the growth characteristics of Terfenol and its dependence on solidification rate, temperature gradient, and stoichiometry. Specific goals of this work were to verify the phase equilibria that is currently accepted for the systems DyFe{sub 2} and TbFe{sub 2}, and establish the phase equilibria near the composition Tb{sub 0.3}Dy{sub 0.7}Fe{sub 2}; establish that Terfenol grows directly from the liquid and that the reaction is occurring under metastable conditions; evaluate whether or not Terfenol can be grown under plane front conditions with a new radiofrequency float zone apparatus, and; determine whether or not \u3c111\u3e seeded crystals can be grown and \u3c111\u3e single crystals produced by elimination of dendrites employing growth methods capable of achieving high gradient/solidification rate ratios

Western Michigan University Everyone Counts Learning Community

Everyone Counts Learning Community Partners with organizations within the community to build awareness and understandin

The Effect of Leadership Style on Sense of Community and Group Cohesion in Outdoor Pursuits Trip Groups

Outdoor pursuits trip programs are widely popular around the world (Attarian, 2001). Many of these programs are centered in colleges and universities, and may be either academic or extracurricular in nature. Participants in these programs engage in a variety of outdoor adventure recreation activities such as backpacking, canoeing, rock climbing, sea kayaking, and caving. Outcomes of participation in these programs include (among others): enhanced problem solving skills; appreciation of the natural environment; increased self-confidence; accomplishment of common goals and objectives; and the development of positive group experiences and interpersonal relationships (Ewert & McAvoy, 2000; Martin, Cashel, Wagstaff, & Breunig, 2006). These positive group experiences and interpersonal relationships can lead to an enhanced sense of community among group members (Mitten, 1999). Sense of community is characterized by sharing an awareness of group membership, influencing each other, fulfilling needs, and being emotionally connected (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Group cohesion, or sense of belonging, attraction, and unity a group has toward its members (Wilson, 2002), has been found to influence the creation of community, and vice versa (McMillan & Chavis). In essence, when feelings of cohesiveness are present in a group, members tend to feel a greater sense of community. At the same time, those feelings of community enhance group cohesion. Most outdoor pursuits trip groups have a designated leader or instructor. The leader is responsible for the protection of the natural environment, for the safety of the participants, and for enhancing the quality of the experience for the students or participants (Martin et al., 2006). Thus, the outdoor leader is in a unique position to influence the sense of community and group cohesion of that group. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of leadership style on the sense of community and group cohesion of outdoor pursuits trip groups

Wave Induced Erosion in Artificial Vegetated Beds

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Generative AI as a Tool for Environmental Health Research Translation

One valuable application for generative artificial intelligence (AI) is summarizing research studies for non-academic readers. We submitted five articles to Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) for summarization, and asked the article\u27s author to rate the summaries. Higher ratings were assigned to more insight-oriented activities, such as the production of eighth-grade reading level summaries, and summaries highlighting the most important findings and real-world applications. The general summary request was rated lower. For the field of environmental health science, no-cost AI technology such as ChatGPT holds the promise to improve research translation, but it must continue to be improved (or improve itself) from its current capabilit

TREM2 deficiency attenuates neuroinflammation and protects against neurodegeneration in a mouse model of tauopathy

Significance Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and is a major public health problem for which there is currently no disease-modifying treatment. There is an urgent need for greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in patients to create better therapeutic options. Recently, genetic studies uncovered novel AD risk variants in the microglial receptor, triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2). Previous studies suggested that loss of TREM2 function worsens amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque-related toxicity. In contrast, we observe TREM2 deficiency mitigates neuroinflammation and protects against brain atrophy in the context of tau pathology. These findings indicate dual roles for TREM2 and microglia in the context of amyloid versus tau pathology, which are important to consider for potential treatments targeting TREM2.</jats:p

Sacred communities: contestations and connections

This article discusses a project whose purpose was to review existing qualitative and quantitative data from two separate studies to provide new insights about everyday religion and belonging. Researchers engaged in knowledge exchange and dialogue with new and former research participants, with other researchers involved in similar research, and with wider academic networks beyond the core disciplines represented here, principally anthropology and geography. Key concluding themes related to the ambivalent nature of ‘faith’, connections over place and time, and the contested nature of community. Implicit in terms like ‘faith’, ‘community’, and ‘life course’ are larger interwoven narratives of space, time, place, corporeality, and emotion. The authors found that understanding how places, communities, and faiths differ and intersect requires an understanding of social relatedness and boundaries

Multipactor experiment on a dielectric surface

A novel experiment to investigate single-surface multipactor on a dielectric surface was developed and tested. The compact apparatus consists of a small brass microwave cavity in a high vacuum system. The cavity is ∼15 cm in length with an outer diameter of ∼10 cm. A pulsed variable frequency microwave source at ∼2.4 GHz, 2 kW peak excites the TE111TE111 mode with a strong electric field parallel to a dielectric plate (∼0.2 cm thickness) that is inserted at midlength of the cavity. The microwave pulses are monitored by calibrated microwave diodes. An electron probe measures electron current and provides temporal measurements of the multipactor electron current with respect to the microwave pulses. Phosphor on the dielectric surface is used to detect multipactor electrons by photoemission. The motivation of this experiment is to test recent theoretical calculations of single-surface multipactor on a dielectric. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71183/2/RSINAK-72-7-3095-1.pd