16 research outputs found
Postscript: Beirut Life and Debt Version 2.016
This essay continues a project begun a decade ago with the article, “A Matter of Life and Debt: The
Untold Costs of Rafiq Hariri’s New Beirut.” This new article, or “Postscript,” begins by examining
the reception of that first investigation and responds to one criticism directed at the original essay:
that it proffers an unfairly pessimistic profile of the reconstruction effort generally and of its prime
mover specifically, the now-deceased Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. This paper follows a cost/benefits
analysis of the project and the company behind it, Solidere, and examines two other Solidere-styled
developments abroad, both results of the company’s attempts to monetize its so-called “brand.”
The first of these, “Abdali,” is in Amman. The second of these comprises a trio of projects that SI
prepared for Sheikh Zayed City in metropolitan Cairo. The paper argues that Solidere’s failure
to disclose the dubious financial dealings behind such projects further erodes the credibility of a
company for whom the notion of “business as usual” works first and foremost to benefit the few at
the expense of the many
Structural Relaxation in Amorphous Alloys of Type FeSiB
The Irreversible component of the structural relaxation in two ferromagnetic amorphous alloys Fe78Si9B13 and Fe78Si13B9 was examined by making use of mechanical spectroscopy and isothermal time instability measurements of shear modulus G(t) and magnetic permeability µ(t). It was shown that the first stage of the structural relaxation, attributed to the rearrangements of anisotropic atom pairs Si/B in the vicinity of free volumes takes place in the temperature range 300-500K with the mean activation energy E=0.9 eV (the spectrum stretches between 0.6-1.2 eV). The second stage - annealing out of free volumes - takes place in the temperature range 500-700 K with E=1.4 eV (the spectrum stretches between 1.2 - 1.7 eV)
Structural relaxation and formation of nanocrystalline phase in Fe-X-Si-B amorphous alloys
Magnetic and electric properties of amorphous alloys based on iron were examined by making use of different experimental methods. It was shown that the magnetic properties (mainly permeability) are able to be optimised by applying a specific annealing treatments. A strong increase of magnetic permeability observed for samples annealed at the temperature range 500-700 K has been attributed to disappearance of microvoids and formation of a nanocrystalline phase. This process is discussed in details
Structural Relaxation and Crystallisation in Fe-Cr-Si-B and Fe-Cu-Cr-Si-B Amorphous Alloys
Structural relaxation, crystallisation and optimisation processes in soft magnetic amorphous alloys based on iron are examined by applying different experimental techniques: X-ray diffraction analysis, high-resolution electron microscopy, measurements of magnetic and electric properties (permeability, after-effect, resistivity). The presented results are discussed in terms of annealing out of microvoids, formation of a nanocrystalline phase and changes of effective magnetostriction constant
Optimization of Soft Magnetic Properties in Fe-B and Fe-B-Si Amorphous Alloys Obtained by Melt Spinning Method
In the present paper the process of optimization of soft magnetic properties have been studied by applying different experimental techniques (magnetic measurements, electric measurements, X-ray analysis, and high-resolution electron microscopy observations). It has been shown that an increase in magnetic permeability after optimization annealing can be mainly attributed to annealing out of microvoids
Structural Relaxation in Amorphous Alloy Studied by Mössbauer Spectroscopy
It was shown that soft magnetic properties of amorphous alloy can be significantly improved by applying 1-h annealing at temperature 623 K (permeability increases even about 8 times). The Mössbauer Spectroscopy technique indicated that the optimized microstructure (corresponding to the maximum magnetic permeability) is free of iron nanograins and should be attributed to annealing out of free volume and a reduction of internal stresses i.e. to the relaxed amorphous phase