Australian Vessel Performance in the East Coast Tuna Longline Fishery

A sample of daily observations on the activities of Australian vessels longlining for yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares, during 1987-90 was analyzed, using a production junction approach, to determine the effects of vessel characteristics and operational practices and conditions. Significant differences were found between the tuna fisheries in the northern and southern regions of the inshore yellowfin tuna fishery in the east Australian Exclusive Economic Zone. The type of vessel used, and fishing practices such as soaktime, patrolling the longline, and choice of surface water temperature were found to have significant effects on yellowfin tuna catch rates

Electrophoretic deposition of gradated oxidation resistant coatings on tantalum-10 tungsten alloy

Material selection and electrophoretic deposition studies of high temperature oxidation resistant coatings on tantalum-10 tungsten allo

Development of oxidation resistant coatings for use above 3500 deg F

Physical property evaluation of oxidation resistant coating materials for high temperature protection of tantalum-base alloy

Low temperature field-effect in crystalline organic material

Molecular organic materials offer the promise of novel electronic devices but also present challenges for understanding charge transport in narrow band systems. Low temperature studies elucidate fundamental transport processes. We report the lowest temperature field effect transport results on a crystalline oligomeric organic material, rubrene. We find field effect switching with on-off ratio up to 10^7 at temperatures down to 10 K. Gated transport shows a factor of ~10 suppression of the thermal activation energy in 10-50 K range and nearly temperature independent resistivity below 10 K.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Electronic compressibility of a graphene bilayer

We calculate the electronic compressibility arising from electron-electron interactions for a graphene bilayer within the Hartree-Fock approximation. We show that, due to the chiral nature of the particles in this system, the compressibility is rather different from those of either the two-dimensional electron gas or ordinary semiconductors. We find that an inherent competition between the contributions coming from intra-band exchange interactions (dominant at low densities) and inter-band interactions (dominant at moderate densities) leads to a non-monotonic behavior of the compressibility as a function of carrier density.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Final versio

Effective marginal tax rates in Australia

The households included in the 1988-89 ABS Household Expenditure Survey were grouped according to size, degree of labour force participation, and weekly household private income. Households at similar levels of income were then compared to determine the effect on disposable income of a small increase in labour market earnings, resulting in higher taxes paid and lower benefits received. A wide range of direct and indirect taxes and direct and indirect benefits was included in the calculation. Effective marginal tax rates were calculated as the ratio of increased taxes plus reduced benefits to the postulated increase in earnings. Effective marginal tax rates were found to be generally higher for households in the bottom half of the household disposable income distribution than in the top half

Field-Effect Transistors on Tetracene Single Crystals

We report on the fabrication and electrical characterization of field-effect transistors at the surface of tetracene single crystals. We find that the mobility of these transistors reaches the room-temperature value of $0.4 \ cm^2/Vs$. The non-monotonous temperature dependence of the mobility, its weak gate voltage dependence, as well as the sharpness of the subthreshold slope confirm the high quality of single-crystal devices. This is due to the fabrication process that does not substantially affect the crystal quality.Comment: Accepted by Appl. Phys. Lett, tentatively scheduled for publication in the November 24, 2003 issu

Hysteretic ac losses in a superconductor strip between flat magnetic shields

Hysteretic ac losses in a thin, current-carrying superconductor strip located between two flat magnetic shields of infinite permeability are calculated using Bean's model of the critical state. For the shields oriented parallel to the plane of the strip, penetration of the self-induced magnetic field is enhanced, and the current dependence of the ac loss resembles that in an isolated superconductor slab, whereas for the shields oriented perpendicular to the plane of the strip, penetration of the self-induced magnetic field is impaired, and the current dependence of the ac loss is similar to that in a superconductor strip flanked by two parallel superconducting shields. Thus, hysteretic ac losses can strongly augment or, respectively, wane when the shields approach the strip.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Post-AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds and neutron-capture processes in AGB stars

We explore modifications to the current scenario for the slow neutron capture process in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars to account for the Pb deficiency observed in post-AGB stars of low metallicity ([Fe/H] ~ -1.2) and low initial mass (~ 1 - 1.5 Msun) in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. We calculated the stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis for a 1.3 Msun star with [Fe/H]=-1.3 and tested different amounts and distributions of protons leading to the production of the main neutron source within the 13C-pocket and proton ingestion scenarios. No s-process models can fully reproduce the abundance patterns observed in the post-AGB stars. When the Pb production is lowered the abundances of the elements between Eu and Pb, such as Er, Yb, W, and Hf, are also lowered to below those observed. Neutron-capture processes with neutron densities intermediate between the s and the rapid neutron-capture processes may provide a solution to this problem and be a common occurrence in low-mass, low-metallicity AGB stars.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. To be published in Astronomy and Astrophysic