Mechanical and thermal induced phase transformations in superduplex stainless steel

The aim of this work is to study the microstructural changes in SAF 2507 type superduplex stainless steel due to heat treatments and mechanical fatigue process. Specimens were heat treated in the 400-1360 °C temperature range for 1 and 5 hours respectively. An other series of specimens were periodically loaded by using a fatigue testing machine. The microstuctural changes were investigated by using a complex micromagnetic measuring system which includes a Barkhausen noise measuring and a magnetic harmonic analysing system. The RMS value of the Barkhausen noise, the distortion factor (k), and magnetic coercivity values were measured. The microstuctural changes were investigated by metallography using scanning electron microscope

Liquidity Constraints and Consumer Impatience

In recent years significant changes have been observed in household saving and consumption behavior in several transition countries including Hungary. In the second half of the 1990s the financial saving rate fell markedly and household borrowing surged. These developments are not unique to Hungary, they correspond to the experience of other emerging countries, and they can be attributed above all to financial liberalization and modernization and the improving permanent income prospects of households, with prospective EU accession playing an important role in the improving income perception. We believe that declining saving rates and increasing indebtedness in accession countries will be important issues in the following years, even after joining the EU – as the example of less developed EU members shows. The phenomena of declining saving rates and increasing indebtedness are, of course, not unique to EU accession countries, they were observed in other emerging countries, too – e.g. in Latin America -, but these developments have special aspects in Eastern and Central Europe. One special aspect is prospective EU accession, which is perceived to be close and certain enough to contribute to the rise in future income expectations. Another special aspect is the reaction of other sectors of the economy to deteriorating net household position. Emerging market experience shows that declining household savings were offset by increasing corporate savings in some countries and by a rise in public savings in others (often along with a temporary deterioration of the current account). As Eastern and Central European countries wish to join the EMU as soon as possible, they will do their best to meet the Maastricht criteria, which involves limits on the budget deficit and public debt. This implies an additional incentive for the public sector to be the one that does the major adjustment to the decline in household saving rates in most accession countries. In this regard, we think that our paper is not only relevant for Hungary, but it has implication for other Eastern and Central European countries as well. The paper is organized as follows: Chapter 1 summarizes recent research on Hungarian household savings based both on macro indicators and survey data, while Chapter 2 gives a brief description of the evolution of Hungarian aggregate indicators for financial wealth, assets and liabilities. Chapter 3 analyzes data obtained from a special survey conducted in September 2000. The survey questions were supplied by the authors and were constructed to gain insight into prevailing liquidity constraints, consumer impatience, households’ attitude towards indebtedness, and to separate „financially relevant” households, i.e. households with financial assets and/or liabilities, because these are the groups that are most relevant for economic policymakers. The paper also contains estimations of the propensity to borrow. Based on the survey questions, special indicators, such as income tension, consumer impatience are constructed and used – among others - as explanatory variables in the regressions. The standard framework for analysis of household saving and consumption behavior is the life-cycle hypothesis. We do not aim to give a review of the life-cycle theory here, see Deaton (1992) or Browning and Lusardi (1996) for excellent surveys. Most empirical tests of the life-cycle hypothesis examine excess sensitivity and the significance of precautionary savings. Our paper has different aims, but it still relates to the life-cycle theory in several respects when we discuss the reasons for saving, consumer impatience, and the propensity to borrow.

The formation of carbonaceous layer from ethylene over various transition metal catalysts – an FT-IR study

The ethylene-derived carbonaceous overlayers were studied over silica-supported Pt, Pd, Rh and Cu catalysts by FT-IR spectroscopy under desorption conditions. As a general feature it was observed over all catalysts that upon increasing the desorption temperature the overlayer gradually became poor in hydrogen. The structure of the overlayers was similar over the silica-supported Pt, Pd and Rh. On increasing the reaction temperature the σ-adsorbed half-hydrogenated species are transformed to adsorbed ethylidyne. On the Cu catalyst prepared with ion exchange a similar picture emerged, while on those prepared with precipitation ethylidyne soon became the predominant species. Hydrogen swept off the carbonaceous species from the transition metals, however, copper retained large portions of it

A bírósági végrehajtás és a sérelemdíj = Judicial Enforcement and Compensation for Emotional Distress

A sérelemdíj bevezetése a magyar jogrendszerbe bizonyos tekintetben új alapot jelent a személyiségi jogok tekintetében. A bírósági végrehajtás jogintézménye az állami, elsősorban vagyoni kényszer alkalmazása okán ütközőpontot képezhet a sérelemdíjjal mint polgári jogi szankcióval. Mivel az egységes és következetes bírói gyakorlat még nem alakult ki, ezért jelen írás a sérelemdíj és a bírósági végrehajtás összefüggéseit vizsgálja

Onium salts as catalysts in the liquid-phase oxidation of cyclohexene or tetraline by N2O

The liquid-phase oxidation of cyclohexene or tetraline with N2O was studied in various solvents in the presence of onium salts or without them. The onium salts exerted significant promoting effect on the reactions. The activation of the oxidant was studied by IR spectroscopy. It was found that the interactions of the ions in the onium salts and the polarised N–O bond further enhanced polarisation leading to an activation of the oxidant, thus, increasing the rate of oxidation

Corruption manual for beginners: "Corruption techniques" in public procurement with examples from Hungary

This paper develops 30 novel quantitative indicators of grand corruption that operationalize 20 distinct techniques of corruption in the context of public procurement. Each indicator rests on a thorough qualitative understanding of rent extraction from public contracts by corrupt networks as evidenced by academic literature, interviews and media content analysis. Feasibility and usefulness of the proposed indicators are demonstrated using micro-level public procurement data from Hungary in 2009-2012. While the prime value of this broad set of indicators is the possibility of combining them into a robust composite indicator of high-level corruption, the high degree of detail also reveals that many regulatory interventions have succeeded in changing the form of corruption, but not its overall incidence