Inflation, slack, and Fed credibility

It is generally agreed that slack has some impact on inflation. There is much less agreement on what form the relationship takes and whether it is stable enough to reliably help predict inflation. This analysis focuses on the Great Moderation period. We find that slack (as measured by the unemployment rate) and changes in slack are negatively correlated with changes in inflation and also deviations of inflation from long-forward inflation expectations.> ; These relationships could have been exploited to produce forecasts of trimmed mean PCE inflation more accurate than rule-of-thumb forecasts. Forecasts of trimmed mean PCE inflation also serve well as predictions of GDP inflation and headline PCE inflation. Our analysis suggests that currently high levels of slack should hold inflation below two percent over 2012.Price levels ; Forecasting

Advanced high temperature heat flux sensors

To fully characterize advanced high temperature heat flux sensors, calibration and testing is required at full engine temperature. This required the development of unique high temperature heat flux test facilities. These facilities were developed, are in place, and are being used for advanced heat flux sensor development

Disabled patients in acute hospital wards: the limitations of role theory for understanding the problems of patients and nurses

This study explores the care provided for physically disabled people who are admitted to acute hospital wards for the treatment of short -term illness. Two groups of 75 disabled and 75 non - disabled patients were recruited for the study on a matched pair basis, and a survey of 205 nurses was undertaken. The study involved an assessment of how well disabled patients could manage eight activities of daily life at home and in hospital. The experiences of disabled and non -disabled patients in acute hospital wards were compared by assessing patient satisfaction with six different aspects of care. The views of nurses about caring for disabled patients in acute hospital wards, their experience and training in the care of disabled patients are also explored.The study demonstrates no difference in the levels of satis- faction with care experienced by disabled and non- disabled patients. Patient satisfaction with all aspects of care was found to be associated with satisfaction with the communication of information, a factor shown to be equally important for both disabled and non -disabled patients.It was hoped that the theory of social roles would provide a theoretical framework for understanding the position of the disabled patient on an acute hospital ward. However, in the event, role theory proved not to be entirely adequate for this purpose. An alternative model is developed which takes into account the attitudes and experiences of nurses as well as the experiences of disabled patients on acute hospital wards. This is used to suggest ways in which improvements could be made in the care of disabled patients

Local density of states of a d-wave superconductor with inhomogeneous antiferromagnetic correlations

The tunneling spectrum of an inhomogeneously doped extended Hubbard model is calculated at the mean field level. Self-consistent solutions admit both superconducting and antiferromagnetic order, which coexist inhomogeneously because of spatial randomness in the doping. The calculations find that, as a function of doping, there is a continuous cross over from a disordered ``pinned smectic'' state to a relatively homogeneous d-wave state with pockets of antiferromagnetic order. The density of states has a robust d-wave gap, and increasing antiferromagnetic correlations lead to a suppression of the coherence peaks. The spectra of isolated nanoscale antiferromagnetic domains are studied in detail, and are found to be very different from those of macroscopic antiferromagnets. Although no single set of model parameters reproduces all details of the experimental spectrum in BSCCO, many features, notably the collapse of the coherence peaks and the occurence of a low-energy shoulder in the local spectrum, occur naturally in these calculations.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Validation of a physically-based solid oxide fuel cell anode model combining 3D tomography and impedance spectroscopy

This study presents a physically-based model for the simulation of impedance spectra in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) composite anodes. The model takes into account the charge transport and the charge-transfer reaction at the three-phase boundary distributed along the anode thickness, as well as the phenomena at the electrode/electrolyte interface and the multicomponent gas diffusion in the test rig. The model is calibrated with experimental impedance spectra of cermet anodes made of nickel and scandia-stabilized zirconia and satisfactorily validated in electrodes with different microstructural properties, quantified through focused ion beam SEM tomography. Besides providing the material-specific kinetic parameters of the electrochemical hydrogen oxidation, this study shows that the correlation between electrode microstructure and electrochemical performance can be successfully addressed by combining physically-based modelling, impedance spectroscopy and 3D tomography. This approach overcomes the limits of phenomenological equivalent circuits and is suitable for the interpretation of experimental data and for the optimisation of the electrode microstructure