Flexible composite membrane Patent

Flexible composite membrane structure impervious to extremely reactive chemicals in rocket propellant

Preach what you practice? donating behaviour of parents and their offspring

Using data drawn from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we explore the relationship between the donating behaviour of parents and that of their children aged less than 18. Furthermore, we exploit information relating to whether or not parents encourage their children to donate to charity in order to unveil information related to the intergenerational transmission of philanthropic behaviour. Our findings suggest that whether a child donates to charity is influenced by positive effects from whether the parent donates to charity as well as from whether the parent talks to their child about donating to charity. In addition, whether the parent donates to charity has an indirect influence via its positive effect on the probability that the parent talks to the child about donating to charity. Further, we find that the influence of whether the parent donates to charity on the probability that the child donates to charity is particularly heightened in terms of both magnitude and statistical significance in the context of parental donations to religious causes

The existence and persistence of household financial hardship

We investigate the existence and persistence of financial hardship at the household level using data from the British Household Panel Survey. Our modelling strategy makes three important contributions to the existing literature on household finances. Firstly, we model nine different types of household financial problems within a joint framework, allowing for correlation in the random effects across the nine equations. Secondly, we develop a dynamic framework in order to model the persistence of financial problems over time by extending our multi-equation framework to allow the presence or otherwise of different types of financial problems in the previous time period to influence the probability that the household currently experiences such problems. Our third contribution relates to the possibility that experiencing financial problems may be correlated with sample attrition. We model missing observations in the panel in order to allow for such attrition. Our findings reveal interesting variations in the determinants of experiencing different types of financial problems including demographic and regional differences. Our findings also highlight persistence in experiencing financial problems over time as well as the role that saving on a regular basis in previous time periods can play in mitigating current financial problems

Geochemical zoning and early differentiation in the moon

The volatile elements (e.g., Rb, Pb, Tl, Bi, Cs) seem to have been depleted at the time of lunar accretion. Accordingly, it may be assumed that the moon initially accreted from refractory material. The good correlation between volatile/involatile element ratios (e.g., Cs/U, K/La, K/Zr) in both highland and maria samples means that element distribution in lunar crustal rocks is not governed by volatility differences. This and other evidence encourages the view that the moon was accreted homogeneously. A consequence of homogeneous accretion theories is that very efficient large-scale element fractionation is required to account both for the high near-surface concentrations of refractory elements (e.g., Th, U, REE, Zr, Ba, etc.) and for the Ca-Al-rich crust

Knowledge management: Using a knowledge requirements framework to enhance UK health sector supply chains

The gaps of mismatch both knowledge and understanding of beneficiaries and solution providers at the initial stage of developing projects have led to the failures of many projects including supply chains (SC) and related information technology systems (ITS) projects (Lyytinen and Hirschheim, 1987) . The aims of this paper are first, to address theoretical framework by bridging the gaps of different types of knowledge. Second, to establishing business requirements and the flow of information in supply chains between beneficiaries and solution providers in the long and complicated supply chains of the UK’s Health Sector. On the basis of brief introduction to knowledge, knowledge management and supply chain, the paper presents a practical framework that has been developed through critical and relevant literatures in the above three subject areas. Techniques and Tools stem from both management science and information systems were used to provide a possible solution for the problem in bridging the gaps of mismatch knowledge and understanding at the initial stage of identifying requirements in projects through knowledge sharing and transfer

Taxonomy of the fouling cheilostome bryozoans, Schizoporella unicornis, (Johnston) and Schizoporella errata (Waters)

Figure 1. (A–D) Images of Wood's Pliocene specimen from the Coralline Crag, Suffolk (NHM B1675) described in Busk (1859). (A) Group of autozooids at growing edge of colony within small bivalve shell. (B) Autozooids exhibiting deep V-shaped sinus. (C) Frontal shield with paired avicularia and deep V-shaped sinus. (D) Detail of primary orifice and sinus. (E, F) Lectotype of Schizoporella unicornis [NHM 1847.16.174 (a)] bleached portion. (E) Group of autozooids at the distal edge of colony with adventitious avicularia, paired, single or absent. (F) Ovicellate autozooids showing radially aligned scalloped grooves. Scale bars: 500 µm (A); 250 µm (B); 100 µm (C, E); 50 µm (D,F).Published as part of Tompsett, Scott, Porter, Joanne S. & Taylor, Paul D., 2009, Taxonomy of the fouling cheilostome bryozoans Schizoporella unicornis (Johnston) and Schizoporella errata (Waters), pp. 2227-2243 in Journal of Natural History 43 (35-36) on page 2231, DOI: 10.1080/00222930903090140, http://zenodo.org/record/521715

Methods of resistance estimation in permanent magnet synchronous motors for real-time thermal management

Real-time thermal management of electrical ma- chines relies on sufficiently accurate indicators of internal tem- perature. One indicator of temperature in a permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is the stator winding resistance. Detection of PMSM winding resistance in the literature has been made on machines with relatively high resistances, where the resistive voltage vector is significant under load. This paper describes two techniques which can be applied to detect the winding resistance, through ‘Fixed Angle’ and ‘Fixed Mag- nitude’ current injection. Two further methods are described which discriminate injected current and voltages from motoring currents and voltages: ‘Unipolar’ and ‘Bipolar’ separation. These enable the resistance to be determined, and hence the winding temperature in permanent-magnet machines. These methods can be applied under load, and in a manner that does not disturb motor torque or speed. The method distinguishes between changes in the electro-motive force (EMF) constant and the resistive voltage. This paper introduces the techniques, whilst a companion paper covers the application of one of the methods to a PMSM drive system

Debt and Risk Preference: A Household Level Analysis

We explore the relationship between risk preference and the level of unsecured debt at the household level within the context of a two period theoretical framework, which predicts that debt is a function of risk aversion. We test the predictions of our theoretical framework for a sample of households drawn from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Using a sequence of questions from the 1996 PSID and the 1989 to 2004 SCF, we construct measures of risk preference allowing us to explore the implications of interpersonal differences in risk preference for the accumulation of unsecured debt at the household level. Our empirical findings, which accord with our theoretical priors, suggest that risk preference is an important determinant of the level of unsecured debt acquired at the household level with risk aversion serving to reduce the level of unsecured debt accumulated by households