Thermal barrier coating system

A coating system which contains a bond coating and a thermal barrier coating is applied to metal surfaces such as turbine blades and provides both low thermal conductivity and improved adherence when exposed to high temperature gases or liquids. The bond coating contains NiCrAlY and the thermal barrier coating contains a reflective oxide. The reflective oxides ZrO2-Y2O3 and ZrO2-MgO have demonstrated significant utility in high temperature turbine applications

Climigration? Population and climate change in Arctic Alaska

Residents of towns and villages in Arctic Alaska live on “the front line of climate change.” Some communities face immediate threats from erosion and flooding associated with thawing permafrost, increasing river flows, and reduced sea ice protection of shorelines. The term climigration, referring to migration caused by climate change, originally was coined for these places. Although initial applications emphasized the need for government relocation policies, it has elsewhere been applied more broadly to encompass unplanned migration as well. Some historical movements have been attributed to climate change, but closer study tends to find multiple causes, making it difficult to quantify the climate contribution. Clearer attribution might come from comparisons of migration rates among places that are similar in most respects, apart from known climatic impacts. We apply this approach using annual 1990–2014 time series on 43 Arctic Alaska towns and villages. Within-community time plots show no indication of enhanced out-migration from the most at-risk communities. More formally, there is no significant difference between net migration rates of at-risk and other places, testing several alternative classifications. Although climigration is not detectable to date, growing risks make either planned or unplanned movements unavoidable in the near future

Reasons for using web-based counselling among family and friends impacted by problem gambling

Despite the range of free services available in Australia, few family and friends of&nbsp;people with problem gambling access them. Over recent years, the Australian&nbsp;gambling help service system has expanded to include web-based counselling.&nbsp;Family and friends make up approximately 15% of people accessing this new&nbsp;modality, however little is known of the reasons for choosing this form of assistance&nbsp;over other interventions. This research aimed to understand the reasons family and&nbsp;friends choose to use single-session web-based counselling over other modes (i.e.,&nbsp;face-to-face and telephone), as well as why they would recommend it to other&nbsp;affected people. The study involved 63 participants (70% intimate partners, 13%&nbsp;children, 6% friends, 5% parents, 6% other family members) who completed openended&nbsp;questions on reasons for using and recommending web-based counselling,&nbsp;with over three-quarters of the sample seeking help for the first time. A descriptive&nbsp;content analysis revealed multiple overlapping themes, including ease of access&nbsp;(41.3% of reasons for choosing), privacy and anonymity (17.5%), and a preference for&nbsp;the characteristics inherent in the therapeutic medium (23.8%). We also found webbased&nbsp;counselling provided a pathway into services (11.1%) and that the intervention&nbsp;provided was viewed as helpful and a reason for recommendation (34.9% of reasons&nbsp;for recommending). This research provides important new information on the help seeking&nbsp;preferences of family and friends. Future research is required to understand&nbsp;the relationship between reasons for use, help-seeking preferences and the&nbsp;effectiveness of single-session web-based counselling for people affected by problem gambling.</span