1,659 research outputs found
Brazing process provides high-strength bond between aluminum and stainless steel
Brazing process uses vapor-deposited titanium and an aluminum-zirconium-silicon alloy to prevent formation of brittle intermetallic compounds in stainless steel and aluminum bonding. Joints formed by this process maintain their high strength, corrosion resistance, and hermetic sealing properties
Method of joining aluminum to stainless steel Patent
Joining aluminum to stainless steel by bonding aluminum coatings onto titanium coated stainless steel and brazing aluminum to aluminum/titanium coated stee
The equivalence of numbers: The social value of avoiding health decline: An experimental web-based study
BACKGROUND: Health economic analysis aimed at informing policy makers and supporting resource allocation decisions has to evaluate not only improvements in health but also avoided decline. Little is known however, whether the "direction" in which changes in health are experienced is important for the public in prioritizing among patients. This experimental study investigates the social value people place on avoiding (further) health decline when directly compared to curative treatments in resource allocation decisions. METHODS: 127 individuals completed an interactive survey that was published in the World Wide Web. They were confronted with a standard gamble (SG) and three person trade-off tasks, either comparing improvements in health (PTO-Up), avoided decline (PTO-Down), or both, contrasting health changes of equal magnitude differing in the direction in which they are experienced (PTO-WAD). Finally, a direct priority ranking of various interventions was obtained. RESULTS: Participants strongly prioritized improving patients' health rather than avoiding decline. The mean substitution rate between health improvements and avoided decline (WAD) ranged between 0.47 and 0.64 dependent on the intervention. Weighting PTO values according to the direction in which changes in health are experienced improved their accuracy in predicting a direct prioritization ranking. Health state utilities obtained by the standard gamble method seem not to reflect social values in resource allocation contexts. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that the utility of being cured of a given health state might not be a good approximation for the societal value of avoiding this health state, especially in cases of competition between preventive and curative interventions
High-Resolution, Wide-Field Imaging of the Galactic Center Region at 330 MHz
We present a wide field, sub-arcminute resolution VLA image of the Galactic
Center region at 330 MHz. With a resolution of ~ 7" X 12" and an RMS noise of
1.6 mJy/beam, this image represents a significant increase in resolution and
sensitivity over the previously published VLA image at this frequency. The
improved sensitivity has more than tripled the census of small diameter sources
in the region, has resulted in the detection of two new Non Thermal Filaments
(NTFs), 18 NTF candidates, 30 pulsar candidates, reveals previously known
extended sources in greater detail, and has resulted in the first detection of
Sagittarius A* in this frequency range.
A version of this paper containing full resolution images may be found at
http://lwa.nrl.navy.mil/nord/AAAB.pdf.Comment: Astronomical Journal, Accepted 62 Pages, 21 Figure
Measuring the mean and scatter of the X-ray luminosity -- optical richness relation for maxBCG galaxy clusters
Determining the scaling relations between galaxy cluster observables requires
large samples of uniformly observed clusters. We measure the mean X-ray
luminosity--optical richness (L_X--N_200) relation for an approximately
volume-limited sample of more than 17,000 optically-selected clusters from the
maxBCG catalog spanning the redshift range 0.1<z<0.3. By stacking the X-ray
emission from many clusters using ROSAT All-Sky Survey data, we are able to
measure mean X-ray luminosities to ~10% (including systematic errors) for
clusters in nine independent optical richness bins. In addition, we are able to
crudely measure individual X-ray emission from ~800 of the richest clusters.
Assuming a log-normal form for the scatter in the L_X--N_200 relation, we
measure \sigma_\ln{L}=0.86+/-0.03 at fixed N_200. This scatter is large enough
to significantly bias the mean stacked relation. The corrected median relation
can be parameterized by L_X = (e^\alpha)(N_200/40)^\beta 10^42 h^-2 ergs/s,
where \alpha = 3.57+/-0.08 and \beta = 1.82+/-0.05. We find that X-ray selected
clusters are significantly brighter than optically-selected clusters at a given
optical richness. This selection bias explains the apparently X-ray
underluminous nature of optically-selected cluster catalogs.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, revised after referee's comments. ApJ accepte
Optical spectroscopy and photometry of SAX J1808.4−3658 in outburst
We present phase resolved optical spectroscopy and photometry of V4580 Sagittarii, the optical counterpart to the accretion powered millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4−3658, obtained during the 2008 September/October outburst. Doppler tomography of the N iiiΛ4640.64 Bowen blend emission line reveals a focused spot of emission at a location consistent with the secondary star. The velocity of this emission occurs at 324 ± 15 km s −1 ; applying a ‘ K -correction’, we find the velocity of the secondary star projected on to the line of sight to be 370 ± 40 km s −1 . Based on existing pulse timing measurements, this constrains the mass ratio of the system to be 0.044 +0.005 −0.004 , and the mass function for the pulsar to be 0.44 +0.16 −0.13  M ⊙ . Combining this mass function with various inclination estimates from other authors, we find no evidence to suggest that the neutron star in SAX J1808.4−3658 is more massive than the canonical value of 1.4 M ⊙ . Our optical light curves exhibit a possible superhump modulation, expected for a system with such a low mass ratio. The equivalent width of the Ca ii H and K interstellar absorption lines suggest that the distance to the source is ∼2.5 kpc. This is consistent with previous distance estimates based on type-I X-ray bursts which assume cosmic abundances of hydrogen, but lower than more recent estimates which assume helium-rich bursts.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74893/1/j.1365-2966.2009.14562.x.pd
Electromechanics of charge shuttling in dissipative nanostructures
We investigate the current-voltage (IV) characteristics of a model
single-electron transistor where mechanical motion, subject to strong
dissipation, of a small metallic grain is possible. The system is studied both
by using Monte Carlo simulations and by using an analytical approach. We show
that electromechanical coupling results in a highly nonlinear IV-curve. For
voltages above the Coulomb blockade threshold, two distinct regimes of charge
transfer occur: At low voltages the system behave as a static asymmetric double
junction and tunneling is the dominating charge transfer mechanism. At higher
voltages an abrupt transition to a new shuttle regime appears, where the grain
performs an oscillatory motion back and forth between the leads. In this regime
the current is mainly mediated by charges that are carried on the grain as it
moves from one lead to the other.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, final version to be published in PR
Materialising architecture for social care: brick walls and compromises in design for later life.
This article reports on an ethnography of architectural projects for later life social care in the UK. Informed by recent debates in material studies and ‘materialities of care’ we offer an analysis of a care home project that is sensitive to architectural materials that are not normally associated with care and wellbeing. Although the care home design project we focus on in this article was never built, we found that design discussions relating to both a curved brick wall and bricks more generally were significant to its architectural ‘making’. The curved wall and the bricks were used by the architects to encode quality and values of care into their design. This was explicit in the design narrative that was core to a successful tender submitted by a consortium comprising architects, developers, contractors, and a care provider to a local authority who commissioned the care home. However, as the project developed, initial consensus for the design features fractured. Using a materialised analysis, we document the tussles generated by the curved wall and the bricks and argue that mundane building materials can be important to, and yet marginalised within, the relations inherent within an ‘architectural care assemblage.’ During the design process we saw how decisions about materials are contentious and they act as a catalyst of negotiations that compromise ‘materialities of care.
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