Three Year Aging of Prototype Flight Laser at 10 Khz and 1 Ns Pulses with External Frequency Doubler for the Icesat-2 Mission

We present the results of three year life-aging of a specially designed prototype flight source laser operating at 1064 nm, 10 kHz, 1ns, 15W average power and external frequency doubler. The Fibertek-designed, slightly pressurized air, enclosed-container source laser operated at 1064 nm in active Q-switching mode. The external frequency doubler was set in a clean room at a normal air pressure. The goal of the experiment was to measure degradation modes at 1064 and 532 nm discreetly. The external frequency doubler consisted of a Lithium triborate, LiB3O5, crystal operated at non-critical phase-matching. Due to 1064 nm diagnostic needs, the amount of fundamental frequency power available for doubling was 13.7W. The power generated at 532 nm was between 8.5W and 10W, depending on the level of stress and degradation. The life-aging consisted of double stress-step operation for doubler crystal, at 0.35 J/cm2 for almost 1 year, corresponding to normal conditions, and then at 0.93 J/cm2 for the rest of the experiment, corresponding to accelerated testing. We observed no degradation at the first step and linear degradation at the second step. The linear degradation at the second stress-step was related to doubler crystal output surface changes and linked to laser-assisted contamination. We discuss degradation model and estimate the expected lifetime for the flight laser at 532 nm. This work was done within the laser testing for NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) LIDAR at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD with the goal of 1 trillion shots lifetime

Micromechanical Properties of Injection-Molded Starch–Wood Particle Composites

The micromechanical properties of injection molded starch–wood particle composites were investigated as a function of particle content and humidity conditions. The composite materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. The microhardness of the composites was shown to increase notably with the concentration of the wood particles. In addition,creep behavior under the indenter and temperature dependence were evaluated in terms of the independent contribution of the starch matrix and the wood microparticles to the hardness value. The influence of drying time on the density and weight uptake of the injection-molded composites was highlighted. The results revealed the role of the mechanism of water evaporation, showing that the dependence of water uptake and temperature was greater for the starch–wood composites than for the pure starch sample. Experiments performed during the drying process at 70°C indicated that the wood in the starch composites did not prevent water loss from the samples.Peer reviewe

Bringing Power Back in: A Review of the Literature on the Role of Business in Welfare State Politics

What is the impact of business interest groups on the formulation of public social policies? This paper reviews the literature in political science, history, and sociology on this question. It identifies two strands: one analyzes the political power and influence of business, the other the preferences and interests of business. Since the 1990s, researchers have shifted their attention from questions of power to questions of preferences. While this shift has produced important insights into the sources of the policy preferences of business, it came with a neglect of issues of power. This paper takes a first step towards re-integrating a power-analytical perspective into the study of the role of business in welfare state politics. It shows how a focus on variation in business power can help to explain both why business interest groups accepted social protection during some periods in the past and why they have become increasingly assertive and averse to social policies since the 1970s.Wie beeinflussen Unternehmensverbände die Gestaltung staatlicher Sozialpolitik? Dieses Papier bietet einen Überblick über die politikwissenschaftliche, geschichtswissenschaftliche und soziologische Forschungsliteratur zu diesem Themenfeld. Es identifiziert zwei Forschungsstränge: Einer befasst sich mit politischer Macht und Einflussnahme von Unternehmen und der andere mit deren sozialpolitischen Interessen und Präferenzen. Seit den 1990er-Jahren verlagert sich der Schwerpunkt der Forschung vom ersten zum zweiten Strang. Diese Verlagerung brachte wichtige neue Einsichten in die sozialpolitischen Präferenzen von Unternehmen, führte jedoch zu einer Vernachlässigung von Fragen nach Ursachen und Stärke des politischen Einflusses von Unternehmen. Der Bericht versucht, die machtanalytische Perspektive in die Untersuchung der Ausgangsfrage - wie Unternehmensinteressen Sozialpolitik beeinflussen - zu reintegrieren. Durch diesen Blick auf die verschiedenen Ausprägungen politischen Einflusses kann erklärt werden, warum Unternehmensverbände sozialpolitische Reformen in bestimmten Perioden akzeptierten, jedoch seit den 1970er-Jahren staatlicher Sozialpolitik zunehmend kritisch gegenüberstehen

The Effects of Cinacalcet in Older and Younger Patients on Hemodialysis: The Evaluation of Cinacalcet HCl Therapy to Lower Cardiovascular Events (EVOLVE) Trial.

This article contains supplemental material online at http://cjasn. asnjournals.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.2215/CJN.07730814/-/ DCSupplemental.BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The calcimimetic cinacalcet reduced the risk of death or cardiovascular (CV) events in older, but not younger, patients with moderate to severe secondary hyperparathyroidism (HPT) who were receiving hemodialysis. To determine whether the lower risk in younger patients might be due to lower baseline CV risk and more frequent use of cointerventions that reduce parathyroid hormone (kidney transplantation, parathyroidectomy, and commercial cinacalcet use), this study examined the effects of cinacalcet in older (≥65 years, n=1005) and younger (3-fold higher in younger relative to older patients and were more frequent in patients randomized to placebo. In older patients, the adjusted relative hazard (95% confidence interval) for the primary composite (CV) end point (cinacalcet versus placebo) was 0.70 (0.60 to 0.81); in younger patients, the relative hazard was 0.97 (0.86 to 1.09). Corresponding adjusted relative hazards for mortality were 0.68 (0.51 to 0.81) and 0.99 (0.86 to 1.13). Reduction in the risk of severe unremitting HPT was similar in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: In the EVOLVE trial, cinacalcet decreased the risk of death and of major CV events in older, but not younger, patients with moderate to severe HPT who were receiving hemodialysis. Effect modification by age may be partly explained by differences in underlying CV risk and differential application of cointerventions that reduce parathyroid hormone.The Evaluation of Cinacalcet HCl Therapy to Lower Cardiovascular Events (EVOLVE) trial was funded by Amgen