Robert V. Langmuir

Robert V. Langmuir, professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Caltech and a member of the team that first directly observed synchrotron radiation, died of cancer on 7 May 1992, at the age of 80. Langmuir had had a long and productive career as an educator, physicist, engineer and inventor

Gender, Risk Taking, and Negotiation Performance

This Article will evaluate the impact of the confluence of two factors- gender and the availability of a credit/no-credit grading option- on student performance in Professor Craver\u27s Legal Negotiating course at George Washington University. Our empirical assessment will analyze the results achieved on negotiation exercises and on course papers by the 612 male and female law students who took Professor Craver\u27s course over the past eleven years. Do a greater percentage of female students take the Legal Negotiating course on a credit/no-credit basis, when that option is available, than do their male cohorts? Are the woman students who take the course on a credit/no-credit basis motivated more by a desire to avoid the discomfort associated with overt competition than by a desire to earn an easy two-credit hours in a skills course? If so, the credit/no-credit female students might work as diligently as their graded classmates causing the negotiation exercise and course paper performances of credit/no-credit females to exceed those of credit/no-credit males who may elect the credit/no-credit alternative not to avoid competition, but to guarantee themselves a credit with a minimal amount of effort

Gender, Risk Taking, and Negotiation Performance

Over the past three decades, the number of women entering the legal profession has increased substantially. Despite significant expansion in the number of female law students and legal practitioners, many individuals, including both legal employers and academics, stereotypically think that male and female attorneys behave differently in critical situations. These individuals suspect that female attorneys are less successful negotiators than their male counterparts. This article explores this assumption by empirically testing the relative abilities of men and women to perform successfully on negotiation exercises. It concludes that there is no significant difference in the relative abilities of men and women to achieve beneficial results for their clients and discusses how this research relates to women in the legal profession generally

Gender, Risk Taking, and Negotiation Performance

Over the past three decades, the number of women entering the legal profession has increased substantially. Despite significant expansion in the number of female law students and legal practitioners, many individuals, including both legal employers and academics, stereotypically think that male and female attorneys behave differently in critical situations. These individuals suspect that female attorneys are less successful negotiators than their male counterparts. This article explores this assumption by empirically testing the relative abilities of men and women to perform successfully on negotiation exercises. It concludes that there is no significant difference in the relative abilities of men and women to achieve beneficial results for their clients and discusses how this research relates to women in the legal profession generally

Coronal Loop Expansion Properties Explained Using Separators

One puzzling observed property of coronal loops is that they are of roughly constant thickness along their length. Various studies have found no consistent pattern of width variation along the length of loops observed by TRACE and SOHO. This is at odds with expectations of magnetic flux tube expansion properties, which suggests that loops are widest at their tops, and significantly narrower at their footpoints. Coronal loops correspond to areas of the solar corona which have been preferentially heated by some process, so this observed property might be connected to the mechanisms that heat the corona. One means of energy deposition is magnetic reconnection, which occurs along field lines called separators. These field lines begin and end on magnetic null points, and loops forming near them can therefore be relatively wide at their bases. Thus, coronal energization by magnetic reconnection may replicate the puzzling expansion properties observed in coronal loops. We present results of a Monte Carlo survey of separator field line expansion properties, comparing them to the observed properties of coronal loops.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, to be submitted to Ap

HTR2008-58073 MINING PROCESS AND PRODUCT INFORMATION FROM PRESSURE FLUCTUATIONS WITHIN A FUEL PARTICLE COATER

ABSTRACT The Next Generation Nuclear Power/Advanced Gas Reactor (NGNP/AGR) Fuel Development and Qualification Program included the design, installation, and testing of a 6-inch diameter nuclear fuel particle coater to demonstrate quality TRISO fuel production on a small industrial scale. Scale-up from the laboratory-scale coater faced challenges associated with an increase in the kernel charge mass, kernel diameter, and a redesign of the gas distributor to achieve adequate fluidization throughout the deposition of the four TRISO coating layers. TRISO coatings are applied at very high temperatures in atmospheres of dense particulate clouds, corrosive gases, and hydrogen concentrations over 45% by volume. The severe environment, stringent product and process requirements, and the fragility of partially-formed coatings limit the insertion of probes or instruments into the coater vessel during operation. Pressure instrumentation were installed on the gas inlet line and exhaust line of the 6-inch coater to monitor the bed differential pressure and internal pressure fluctuations emanating from the fuel bed as a result of bed and gas "bubble" movement. These instruments are external to the particle bed and provide a glimpse into the dynamics of fuel particle bed during the coating process and data that could be used to help ascertain the adequacy of fluidization and, potentially, the dominant fluidization regimes. Pressure fluctuation and differential pressure data are not presently useful as process control instruments, but data suggest a link between the pressure signal structure and some measurable product attributes that could be exploited to get an early estimate of the attribute values

MINING PROCESS AND PRODUCT INFORMATION FROM PRESSURE FLUCTUATIONS WITHIN A FUEL PARTICLE COATER

The Next Generation Nuclear Power (NGNP) Fuel Development and Qualification Program included the design, installation, and testing of a 6-inch diameter nuclear fuel particle coater to demonstrate quality TRISO fuel production on a small industrial scale. Scale-up from the laboratory-scale coater faced challenges associated with an increase in the kernel charge mass, kernel diameter, and a redesign of the gas distributor to achieve adequate fluidization throughout the deposition of the four TRISO coating layers. TRISO coatings are applied at very high temperatures in atmospheres of dense particulate clouds, corrosive gases, and hydrogen concentrations over 45% by volume. The severe environment, stringent product and process requirements, and the fragility of partially-formed coatings limit the insertion of probes or instruments into the coater vessel during operation. Pressure instrumentation were installed on the gas inlet line and exhaust line of the 6-inch coater to monitor the bed differential pressure and internal pressure fluctuations emanating from the fuel bed as a result of bed and gas “bubble” movement. These instruments are external to the particle bed and provide a glimpse into the dynamics of fuel particle bed during the coating process and data that could be used to help ascertain the adequacy of fluidization and, potentially, the dominant fluidization regimes. Pressure fluctuation and differential pressure data are not presently useful as process control instruments, but data suggest a link between the pressure signal structure and some measurable product attributes that could be exploited to get an early estimate of the attribute values

SS433:the microquasar link with ULXs?

SS433 is the prototype microquasar in the Galaxy and may even be analogous to the ULX sources if the jets' kinetic energy is taken into account. However, in spite of 20 years of study, our constraints on the nature of the binary system are extremely limited as a result of the difficulty of locating spectral features that can reveal the nature and motion of the mass donor. Newly acquired, high resolution blue spectra taken when the (precessing) disc is edge-on suggest that the binary is close to a common-envelope phase, and hence providing kinematic constraints is extremely difficult. Nevertheless, we do find evidence for a massive donor, as expected for the inferred very high mass transfer rate, and we compare SS433's properties with those of Cyg X-3.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in "Compact binaries in the Galaxy and beyond

Sodium-Bearing Waste Treatment Alternatives Implementation Study

The purpose of this document is to discuss issues related to the implementation of each of the five down-selected INEEL/INTEC radioactive liquid waste (sodium-bearing waste - SBW) treatment alternatives and summarize information in three main areas of concern: process/technical, environmental permitting, and schedule. Major implementation options for each treatment alternative are also identified and briefly discussed. This report may touch upon, but purposely does not address in detail, issues that are programmatic in nature. Examples of these include how the SBW will be classified with respect to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), status of Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) permits and waste storage availability, available funding for implementation, stakeholder issues, and State of Idaho Settlement Agreement milestones. It is assumed in this report that the SBW would be classified as a transuranic (TRU) waste suitable for disposal at WIPP, located in New Mexico, after appropriate treatment to meet transportation requirements and waste acceptance criteria (WAC)