Glass fiber addition strengthens low-density ablative compositions

Approximately 15% of E-glass fibers was added to compositions under test and greatly improved char stability. Use of these fibers also reduced thermal strains which, in turn, minimized char shrinkage and associated cracks, subsurface voids, and disbonds. Increased strength allows honeycomb core reinforcement to be replaced by equivalent amount of glass fibers

Japanese Rice Protectionism: A Challenge for the Development of Agricultural Trade Laws

The Japanese government has failed to contribute meaningfully to agricultural trade negotiations. Japan’s extreme negotiation posture primarily stems from a disinclination to make concessions in its domestic rice market. It is also a result of the ability of Japan, and other developed nations, to take advantage of the rule structure outlined by the Agreement on Agriculture. Under current agricultural laws, Japan is able to maintain many domestic measures that provide support for rice farmers while also charging prohibitively high tariffs. Japan’s reluctance to limit its support for domestic rice farmers is based on the premise that rice plays a central role in Japanese culture, and without protection, the industry would collapse. What Japan has failed to realize, however, is that the bases of its arguments have little merit today. Perhaps more importantly, Japanese resistance to agricultural trade reform seriously undermines the legitimacy of the WTO

Nongovernmental Organizations and African Governments: Seeking an Effective International Legal Framework in a New Era of Heath and Development Aid

International and domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have multiplied on the African continent as both public and private donors have shifted their funding away from ineffective governments. Many African nations, including Zimbabwe and Sudan, have responded by expelling international NGOs and enacting laws that severely limit their ability to function. In most cases, NGOs are without recourse because of their precarious position in international law. Some scholars have posited that NGOs should be granted legal personality to make them full or partial subjects in international law. This Note argues that such a solution would not promote important goals NGOs advance in Africa. It would also ignore the important role that African governments must play in health and development issues. Instead, the international community should reinforce the existing international legal framework, allow NGOs to remain independent, and create mechanisms to foster communication between NGOs and host governments

A complete checklist with new records and geographical distribution of the rove beetles (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) of Brazil

This paper presents the first comprehensive list of 2,688 species of Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) recorded from Brazil. The list is based on the taxonomic and ecological literature, and new records from some insect collections, and includes locality references for each species. In addition, Brazilian localities and the country-level distribution outside of Brazil are provided for each species. Brazilian localities are organized by state, and include the bibliographic reference and page number where each locality was reported. All localities are geo-referenced, organized by state, and listed in an Appendix.Este trabalho apresenta a primeira lista completa das 2.688 espécies de Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) registradas para o Brasil. A lista inclui todas as localidades citadas para cada espécie e baseia-se na literatura taxonômica e ecológica disponíveis. Cada localidade inclui a referência bibliográfica e o número da página onde foram citadas. Também são apresentados registros inéditos obtidos de algumas coleções de insetos. Além das localidades brasileiras são citados todos os países com ocorrência conhecida para cada espécie. As localidades brasileiras, listadas no Apêndice, estão organizadas por estado e georreferenciadas

Perturbation theory of the mass enhancement for a polaron coupled to acoustic phonons

We use both a perturbative Green's function analysis and standard perturbative quantum mechanics to calculate the decrease in energy and the effective mass for an electron interacting with acoustic phonons. The interaction is between the difference in lattice displacements for neighbouring ions, and the hopping amplitude for an electron between those two sites. The calculations are performed in one, two, and three dimensions, and comparisons are made with results from other electron-phonon models. We also compute the spectral function and quasiparticle residue, as a function of characteristic phonon frequency. There are strong indications that this model is always polaronic on one dimension, where an unusual relation between the effective mass and the quasiparticle residue is also found.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Some Temporal Factors Effecting Shuttle Sidman Avoidance Performance in Rats

A paper presented at the Kentucky Academy of Science at Northern Kentucky University by Francis H. Osborne and Howard Chandler in November of 1979 on the effects of variables on avoidance efficiency in a modified shuttle Sidman-avoidance task