The Effectiveness of a NiCrY-Coating on a Powder Metallurgy Disk Superalloy

Protective ductile coatings could be necessary to mitigate oxidation and corrosion attack on superalloy disks in some turbine engine applications. However, the effects of coatings on fatigue life of the disk during service are an important concern. The objective of this study was to investigate how such a coating could perform after varied post-coating processing. Cylindrical gage fatigue specimens of powder metallurgy-processed disk superalloy LSHR were coated with a NiCrY coating, shot peened, preparation treated, exposed, and then subjected to fatigue at high temperature. The effects of varied shot peening, preparation treatment, and exposures on fatigue life with and without the coating were compared. Each of these variables and several of their interactions significantly influenced fatigue life

ISSCR standards for the use of human stem cells in basic research.

The laboratory culture of human stem cells seeks to capture a cellular state as an in vitro surrogate of a biological system. For the results and outputs from this research to be accurate, meaningful, and durable, standards that ensure reproducibility and reliability of the data should be applied. Although such standards have been previously proposed for repositories and distribution centers, no widely accepted best practices exist for laboratory research with human pluripotent and tissue stem cells. To fill that void, the International Society for Stem Cell Research has developed a set of recommendations, including reporting criteria, for scientists in basic research laboratories. These criteria are designed to be technically and financially feasible and, when implemented, enhance the reproducibility and rigor of stem cell research

Constrained SUSY seesaws with a 125 GeV Higgs

Motivated by the ATLAS and CMS discovery of a Higgs-like boson with a mass around 125 GeV, and by the need of explaining neutrino masses, we analyse the three canonical SUSY versions of the seesaw mechanism (type I, II and III) with CMSSM boundary conditions. In type II and III cases, SUSY particles are lighter than in the CMSSM (or the constrained type I seesaw), for the same set of input parameters at the universality scale. Thus, to explain $m_{h^0} \simeq 125 GeV$ at low energies, one is forced into regions of parameter space with very large values of $m_0$, $M_{1/2}$ or $A_0$. We compare the squark and gluino masses allowed by the ATLAS and CMS ranges for $m_{h^0}$ (extracted from the 2011-2012 data), and discuss the possibility of distinguishing seesaw models in view of future results on SUSY searches. In particular, we briefly comment on the discovery potential of LHC upgrades, for squark/gluino mass ranges required by present Higgs mass constraints. A discrimination between different seesaw models cannot rely on the Higgs mass data alone, therefore we also take into account the MEG upper limit on BR$(\mu \to e \gamma)$ and show that, in some cases, this may help to restrict the SUSY parameter space, as well as to set complementary limits on the seesaw scale.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures. v2: comments and references added. Final version to appear in JHE

Rethinking the fall of the planter class

This issue of Atlantic Studies began life as a one-day conference held at Chawton House Library in Hampshire, UK, and funded by the University of Southampton. The conference aimed, like this issue, to bring together scholars currently working on the history of the British West Indian planter class in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and to discuss how, when, and why the fortunes of the planters went into decline. As this introduction notes, the difficulties faced by the planter class in the British West Indies from the 1780s onwards were an early episode in a wider drama of decline for New World plantation economies. The American historian Lowell Ragatz published the first detailed historical account of their fall. His work helped to inform the influential arguments of Eric Williams, which were later challenged by Seymour Drescher. Recent research has begun to offer fresh perspectives on the debate about the decline of the planters, and this collection brings together articles taking a variety of new approaches to the topic, encompassing economic, political, cultural, and social histor

A Multicenter Description of Intermediate-Care Patients* Comparison With ICU Low-Risk Monitor Patients

Study objectives: To describe the characteristics and outcomes of patients admitted to interme-diate-care areas (ICAs) and to compare them with those of ICU patients who receive monitoring only on day 1 and are at a low risk (ie, < 10%) for receiving subsequent active life-supporting therapy (ie, low-risk monitor patients)