Workmanship standards for fusion welding

Workmanship standards manual defines practices, that adhere to rigid codes and specifications, for fusion welding of component piping, assemblies, and systems. With written and pictorial presentations, it is part of the operating procedure for fusion welding

The distributional effect of the 2008 Pre-Budget Report

The Pre-Budget Report given by the Chancellor on 24th November 2008 contained a number of changes to the tax and benefit system to come into effect at various points over the next three years. This briefing note expands on the information provided at a briefing given by IFS researchers on the day after the Pre-Budget Report1. It gives details of the changes to taxes, benefits and tax credits directly affecting households, and the total distributional impact of measures announced in PBR 2008 together with pre-announced changes, by income and expenditure decile and household type, at three points in time – January 2009, April 2009 and April 2011. It also discusses what PBR 2008 does to our impression of all tax and benefit changes under this Government. Finally, it discusses what PBR 08 did for child poverty in 2010/11 and the likely effects of the income tax changes for those earning more than £100,000 a year

What would you do? An investigation of stated-response data

When analysing choices or policy impacts, economists generally rely on what people actually do, rather than what they say they would do. The "stated response" approach is treated with scepticism due, for example, to concerns regarding the effect of strategic or social considerations on what people say, and a belief that people may not adequately consider such a hypothetical question. This paper evaluates an example of this approach; the direct questioning of parents as to whether they would withdraw their children from school if the Familias en Accion education subsidies were withdrawn. Our results suggest that these concerns are not entirely invalid but that the stated responses do provide important information and correlate in the expected manner with child and household characteristics. We conclude by emphasising the importance of good question design, which may allow researchers to use the "stated response" method as a complement to more typical quantitative methodologies

Thermal expansion of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg-chain compound Cu(C4_4H4_4N2_2)(NO3_3)2_2

Compounds containing magnetic subsystems representing simple model spin systems with weak magnetic coupling constants are ideal candidates to test theoretical predictions for the generic behavior close to quantum phase transitions. We present measurements of the thermal expansion and magnetostriction of the spin-1/2-chain compound copper pyrazine dinitrate Cu(C$_4$H$_4$N$_2$)(NO$_3$)$_2$. Of particular interest is the low-temperature thermal expansion close to the saturation field $H_c \simeq 13.9 \mathrm{T}$, which defines a quantum phase transition from the gapless Luttinger liquid state to the fully saturated state with a finite excitation gap. We observe a sign change of the thermal expansion for the different ground states, and at the quantum critical point $H_c$ the low-temperature expansion approaches a $1/\sqrt{T}$ divergence. Thus, our data agree very well with the expected quantum critical behaviour.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; to appear in the proceedings of the ICM 09 held in Karlsruhe, German

Results of an experimental program to provide low cost computer searches of the NASA information file to university graduate students in the southeast Final report

Experimental program to provide low cost computer searches of NASA information files to university graduate student

Poverty and Inequality in the UK: 2008

In this Commentary, we assess the changes to average incomes, inequality and poverty that have occurred under the first 10 years of the Labour government, with a particular focus on the changes that have occurred in the latest year of data. This analysis is based upon the latest figures from the DWP's Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series, published on 10 June 2008 (Department for Work and Pensions, 2008c). The HBAI series takes household income as its measure of living standards and is derived from the Family Resources Survey, a survey of around 28,000 households in the United Kingdom that asks detailed questions about income from a range of sources

Halo effective field theory constrains the solar Beryllium-7 + proton -> Boron-8 + photon rate

We report an improved low-energy extrapolation of the cross section for the process Beryllium-7+proton -> Boron-8+photon, which determines the Boron-8 neutrino flux from the Sun. Our extrapolant is derived from Halo Effective Field Theory (EFT) at next-to-leading order. We apply Bayesian methods to determine the EFT parameters and the low-energy S-factor, using measured cross sections and scattering lengths as inputs. Asymptotic normalization coefficients of Boron-8 are tightly constrained by existing radiative capture data, and contributions to the cross section beyond external direct capture are detected in the data at E < 0.5 MeV. Most importantly, the S-factor at zero energy is constrained to be S(0)= 21.3 + - 0.7 eV b, which is an uncertainty smaller by a factor of two than previously recommended. That recommendation was based on the full range for S(0) obtained among a discrete set of models judged to be reasonable. In contrast, Halo EFT subsumes all models into a controlled low-energy approximant, where they are characterized by nine parameters at next-to-leading order. These are fit to data, and marginalized over via Monte Carlo integration to produce the improved prediction for S(E).Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, and 1 supplemental materia

CD28 interaction with B7 costimulates primary allogeneic proliferative responses and cytotoxicity mediated by small, resting T lymphocytes.

Engagement of the CD3/T cell antigen receptor complex on small, resting T cells is insufficient to trigger cell-mediated cytotoxicity or to induce a proliferative response. In the present study, we have used genetic transfection to demonstrate that interaction of the B7-BB1 B cell activation antigen with the CD28 T cell differentiation antigen costimulates cell-mediated cytotoxicity and proliferation initiated by either anti-CD2 or anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (mAb). Moreover, a B7-negative Burkitt's lymphoma cell line that fails to stimulate an allogeneic mixed lymphocyte response is rendered a potent stimulator after transfection with B7. The mixed leukocyte reaction proliferative response against the B7 transfectant is inhibited by either anti-CD28 or B7 mAb. We also demonstrate that freshly isolated small, resting human T cells can mediate anti-CD3 or anti-CD2 mAb-redirected cytotoxicity against a murine Fc receptor-bearing mastocytoma transfected with human B7. These preexisting cytotoxic T lymphocytes in peripheral blood are present in both the CD4 and CD8 subsets, but are preferentially within the CD45RO+ "memory" population. While small, resting T cells apparently require costimulation by CD28/B7 interactions, this requirement is lost after T cell activation. Anti-CD3 initiates a cytotoxic response mediated by in vitro cultured T cell clones in the absence of B7 ligand. The existence of functional cytolytic T cells in the small, resting T cell population may be advantageous in facilitating rapid responses to immune challenge