867 research outputs found
Results of the 1978 NASA/JPL balloon flight solar cell calibration program
The 1978 scheduled solar cell calibration balloon flight was successfully completed. Thirty six modules were carried to an altitude of above 36 kilometers. Recovery of telemetry and flight packages was without incident. These calibrated standard cells are used as reference standards in simulator testing of cells and arrays with similar spectral response characteristics. The factors affecting the spectral transmission of the atmosphere at various altitudes are summarized
Some Relationships in the Water Quality and Life Forms of Field Tile Effluents and Downstream Water
A critical examination of new constructional techniques and their influence on productivity in the building industry with special reference to housing in south-east Scotland
In these notes which follow, an attempt is made
in the first instance to sketch in the background to this
investigation of the effect of new constructional techniques
on productivity. Then in Vol. 2 a representative selection
of new techniques is critically examined, and wherever
possible the effect of the new method on productivity is
discussed. In Part Two the aspects of productivity and cost
are considered more closely by summarising the data already
assembled in Vol. 2 of Part One, together with certain
additional notes and analyses relating to productivity and
cost.The scope of this study is limited to constructional techniques and therefore does not take account of, or
seek to enter into such fruitful fields of enquiry as site
organisation and management, architectural design, etc. In
the early stages of this study it was soon found that it
would indeed be necessary to exercise some discrimination
in the selection of suitable techniques for examination
owing to the bewildering variety of new constructional methods
now being applied in the industry.Occasionally there have been instances where these
enquiries have included a process which is not strictly a process/
L}
process of construction. For example, the packaging of
bricks has been discussed and also a number of mechanical
aids to more productive building. Wherever possible,
however, I have endeavoured to confine my studies to methods
of construction.The scope of this thesis was further limited . by confining all study to new methods employed in house - building. This limitation was applied, firstly because the
housing aspect of the building industry is worthy of a considerable amount of study and secondly because the field
would otherwise have been Duch todlarge for any reasonable
concentration of thought. Indeed, in the study of the
many types of buildings which can properly be described as
houses, the field has been wide enough and it may be that
as a consequence of this, there has perhaps been slightly
more emphasis on the two or three- storey type of house types
rather than multi- storey flats.It was intended that this study should have
special reference to housing in South East Scotland because
it was originally considered that there should be ample
opportunity for site studies in this area. In particular
it was hoped that a certain amount of time and motion
study/
6
study might be applied experimentally to a pre = planned scheme
of four- storey maisonettes to be carried out by the Dept. of
Health in Edinburgh during 1955. These maisonettes were to
incorporate a number of interesting techniques of cost - saving construction. It turned out, however, that the
Dept. was not interested in my offer to carry out, partly as
a College project, observations and cost analyses based on
labour expenditure. This was in spite of the fact that the
consultant quantity surveyor for this scheme had said that
he would welcome my assistance in this connection.A substantial number of the techniques which
have been examined do, however, relate to Scottish house - building and wherever possible the examples have been
drawn from the South East area of Scotland. From time to
time it will be noted that Scottish building terms are
used when describing the various constructional processes
or parts of buildings, e.g. scarcement, deafening, rhone,
slapping, etc.; in most instances the meaning of the term
will be obvious from tho text, but where any doubt arises
reference should be made to the Glossary of Scottish
Building Terms included as an Appendix.In a number of instances the critical
examination of new methods has been supported by
laboratory tests or trial, and for the facilities necessary to do this work I am indebted to the Principal and
Governors of the Heriot-Watt College.The difficulties encountered in the study of
the economic aspects of the new methods proved to be far
greater than were anticipated. Many contractors and
others connected with the industry were approached for data
on labour expenditure applied to particular processes, and
in practically all instances there was a complete inability
or unwillingness to provide the desired information. A
similar result was experienced when attempts were made to
obtain a representative selection of priced bills of
quantities relating to house -building work that had included
new building methods designed to save costs. My intention
here was to analyse a substantial number of priced bills on
an elemental basis, but it was possible to obtain only
a relatively small amount of this type of cost data. The
cost analyses based on these data are inserted in Appendix A
to Part 2. Many letters of enquiry were sent to
various contractors, manufacturing firms, architects, etc.,
and some extremely useful information was obtained in this way. But it was quite the exception to receive a prompt
and really informative reTTly to these enquiries. In many
cases the enquiries were siinply ignored - even by a number
of local authority and private architects, who, one might
have thought would have had the courtesy to reply, however
unhelpfully.These difficulties that have been described are
in no way unusual: an extract from the 1956/57 Report of
the Advisory Council on Building Research and Development
reads - "It is difficult to establish the actual cost of
the construction of separate structural components because
few builders outside the largest firms operate exact systems
of cost recording and there is an understandable reluctance
to divulge detailed figures even when they are available;
Government departments suffer from the same reluctance.
In any case it is necessary to find out what kind of cost
data would be most helpful to architects and how such data
would best be compiled ".In spite of this regrettable dearth of detailed
information it has been possible, with the co- operation of
such organisations as the Scottish Special Housing Association
and one or two research- minded contracting firms, together
with personal observation, much reading, and experiment to
make a critical assessment of a selected group of techniques
and in many cases, to publish factual information on
productivity and cost.Some extracts from this thesis have already been
published in the Transactions of the .Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors and other technical journals, (copies of
these publications are deposited with this thesis). It is
hoped that a substantial part of the findings in the thesis
will eventually be published in professional and technical
journals and will serve, in a modest way, to inform the
professions and the industry on these vital matters of
productivity and cost
Localised electro-thermal processing: a new route to the patterning of magnetic recording media
notes: A new route to magnetic nanopatterning demonstrated experimentally and via new theoretical modelpublication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePrevious reports have detailed the fabrication of media able to support high density magnetic recording in both longitudinal and perpendicular formats by the global rapid thermal processing of sputtered non-magnetic precursor films. During processing in this manner a magnetic element is released from its nitride and agglomerates to form a random near mono-dispersion of magnetic nano-particles. Here we explore, primarily through modelling and simulation, the feasibility of processing similarly formulated precursor media not globally but locally. We investigate the potential of using conducting nano-probe tips to produce, via electro-thermal (Joule) heating, a nano-patterned recording media in the form of regular arrays of magnetic islands in a non-magnetic host. In the first instance we concentrate on the simplest cobalt based precursor medium for which both initial simulation and experimental studies indicate the formation of magnetic islands with dimensions of the order of the tip diameter is relatively straightforward. The results signify that if practical production scenarios can be devised to produce technologically significant areas of recording media by the rapid multi-probe repetition of this technique, then processing in this manner offers a promising route to areal recording densities of perhaps 5 Terabit/in2 even with the simplest cobalt media. We also note that the electro-thermal processing method is potentially extendable to the production of a wide variety of magnetic materials (eg. PtCo, FeCo, NiFe alloys) and, applied via electrical nano-imprinting type techniques, to the production of a wide variety of patterned structures
Recommended from our members
Differences in Proinflammatory Cytokines and Monocyte Subtypes in Older as Compared With Younger Kidney Transplant Recipients.
Background:The number of elderly patients with end-stage kidney disease requiring kidney transplantation continues to grow. Evaluation of healthy older adults has revealed proinflammatory changes in the immune system, which are posited to contribute to age-associated illnesses via "inflamm-aging." Immunologic dysfunction is also associated with impaired control of infections. Whether these immunologic changes are found in older kidney transplant recipients is not currently known, but may have important implications for risk for adverse clinical outcomes. Methods:Three months after transplant, innate immune phenotype was evaluated by flow cytometry from 60 kidney transplant recipients (22 older [≥60 years] and 38 younger [<60 years old]). Multiplex cytokine testing was used to evaluate plasma cytokine levels. Younger patients were matched to older patients based on transplant type and induction immune suppression. Results:Older kidney transplant recipients demonstrated decreased frequency of intermediate monocytes (CD14++CD16+) compared with younger patients (1.2% vs 3.3%, P = 0.007), and a trend toward increased frequency of proinflammatory classical monocytes (CD14++CD16-) (94.5% vs 92.1%) (P = 0.065). Increased levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) were seen in older patients. Conclusions:In this pilot study of kidney transplant recipients, we identified differences in the innate immune system in older as compared with younger patients, including increased levels of IFN-γ. This suggests that age-associated nonspecific inflammation persists despite immune suppression. The ability to apply noninvasive testing to transplant recipients will provide tools for patient risk stratification and individualization of immune suppression regimens to improve outcomes after transplantation
A first measurement of the interaction cross section of the tau neutrino
The DONuT experiment collected data in 1997 and published first results in
2000 based on four observed charged-current (CC) interactions. The
final analysis of the data collected in the experiment is presented in this
paper, based on protons on target using the 800 GeV
Tevatron beam at Fermilab. The number of observed CC interactions is
9, from a total of 578 observed neutrino interactions. We calculated the
energy-independent part of the tau-neutrino CC cross section (), relative to the well-known and cross sections. The
ratio / was found to be
. The CC cross section was found to be cm. Both results are in
agreement the Standard Model.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figure
A New Upper Limit for the Tau-Neutrino Magnetic Moment
Using a prompt neutrino beam in which a nu_tau component was identified for
the first time, the nu_tau magnetic moment was measured based on a search for
an anomalous increase in the number of neutrino-electron interactions. One such
event was observed when 2.3 were expected from background processes, giving an
upper 90% confidence limit of 3.9x10^-7 Bohr magnetons.Comment: 9 pages; 1 figur
- …