Gifford-McMahon refrigerator with split cold head

Leybold-Heraeus Co. have developed, built and successfully tested a Gifford-McMahon cryocooler with splitted cold head for cooling a cryopump. The refrigerating part of the cold head and the gas flow control device have been separated (splitted cold head) and the distance between them is bridged by only two thin lines for carrying the working gas. Due to this separation the size of the refrigerating part is virtually defined only by the size of the displacers whilst the gas flow control device can be of any desired design. It has been shown that dimensioning of the connecting lines and the corresponding losses became less critical with increasing size of the expander, but additional cooling in proportion to the refrigerating capacity is required

A mixed method study of a gratitude diary intervention on tinnitus-related distress in adults

Background: Tinnitus is a persistent condition which constitutes a challenging and life-changing experience for which there is no medical cure. There is wide-spread consensus that individuals’ interpretation of tinnitus affects how distressing they find it. Research suggests individuals with greater levels of dispositional gratitude are less distressed by tinnitus. However, there is no published research examining whether an experimental manipulation of gratitude reduces tinnitus-related distress. Method: A mixed method design was adopted to evaluate the application and experience of a 3-week gratitude diary intervention in adults with distressing tinnitus. Measures were collected pre- and post-intervention. Primary outcome measures were tinnitus-related distress (Tinnitus Questionnaire) and psychological wellbeing (Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale). Outcomes were evaluated using paired t-tests and correlational analysis. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore participants’ experience of the intervention and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Finally, quantitative and qualitative results were integrated to develop mixed methods inferences. Results: Fifteen participants completed the intervention and analysis showed a statistically significant reduction in tinnitus-related distress but no change in psychological wellbeing. Correlational analysis found a strong negative relationship between tinnitus duration and tinnitus-related distress, suggesting those who had tinnitus for longer received less benefit. In addition, thematic analysis identified three themes capturing participants (N = 6) broadening awareness, feeling empowered, and changing relationship with tinnitus. Conclusion: Findings suggest that a gratitude diary intervention is an acceptable intervention to reduce tinnitus-related distress in adults. Participants reported a changing relationship with tinnitus as greater awareness of the blessings in their lives seemed to have reduced their preoccupation with tinnitus. However, further research is required to compare the intervention against an active control condition and examine its utility in clinical samples

Workers' Compensation Insurance In North America: Lessons for Victoria?

Among the issues we will consider here are the following. Who carries the underwriting(insurance) risk for workers' compensation benefits? How is workers' compensation insuranceprices, and by whom? What fundamental principles guide the insurance pricing system? Whomonitors benefits for compliance with statutory requirements? Are the availability of coverageand the payment of insurers' claims obligations guaranteed? Is self-insurance allowed and, if so, for whom? How are incentives for prevention of accidents, and resulting workers' compensation claims, maintained? What is the performance of the overall system? In summary, how are these questions answered and what so the answers reveal about how these responsibilities are allocated among government agencies, other public entities and private firms

Tritiated alumina serves as reagent for self-labeling analysis

Tritiated alumina, prepared by exchange of the surface hydroxyl groups with tritiated water, is a suitable reagent for exchange-labeling of specific compounds in low concentrations prior to chromatographic analysis. In a chromatographic column, it detects and measures submicrogram quantities of material

Interplay of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov and Vortex states in two-dimensional Superconductors

Clean superconductors with weakly coupled conducting planes have been suggested as promising candidates for observing the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state. We consider here a layered superconductor in a magnetic field of arbitrary orientation with respect to the conducting plane. In this case there is competition of spin-pair-breaking and orbital-pair-breaking effects. In previous work, phase boundaries characterized by Landau quantum numbers n > 0 have been predicted. Here, we calculate the actual structure of the stable states below Hc2 by minimizing the free energy. We find several new order parameter structures differing from both the traditional Abrikosov and FFLO solutions. Some interesting unsolved questions appear in the limit of large n.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure