Pennsylvania Waiver Doctrine in Criminal Proceedings: Its Application and Relationship to the Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claim

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Clair rejected the fundamental error doctrine in criminal proceedings, ruling that it will not hear on appeal issues which have not been properly preserved. After examining the scope of the waiver doctrine and requirements for preserving an issue, this comment questions the circumvention of the doctrine by ineffective assistance of counsel claims

Constitutional Law - Fourteenth Amendment - Due Process - State Prejudgment Garnishment Statute

The Supreme Court of the United States has held the due process requirements of the United States Constitution were not satisfied by a state statute which permitted issuance of a prejudgment writ of garnishment on the basis of conclusory allegations made in an ex parte proceeding without judicial participation and which afforded the alleged debtor\u27s interest in the property no protection other than provisions for posting bond and counterbond. North Georgia Finishing, Inc. v. Di-Chem, Inc., 419 U.S. 601 (1975)

Solid rocket technology advancements for space tug and IUS applications

In order for the shuttle tug or interim upper stage (IUS) to capture all the missions in the current mission model for the tug and the IUS, an auxiliary or kick stage, using a solid propellant rocket motor, is required. Two solid propellant rocket motor technology concepts are described. One concept, called the 'advanced propulsion module' motor, is an 1800-kg, high-mass-fraction motor, which is single-burn and contains Class 2 propellent. The other concept, called the high energy upper stage restartable solid, is a two-burn (stop-restartable on command) motor which at present contains 1400 kg of Class 7 propellant. The details and status of the motor design and component and motor test results to date are presented, along with the schedule for future work

The Effect of Clamping Pressure and Orthotropic Wood Structure on Strength of Glued Bonds

Reference values for compression strength perpendicular to the grain were determined for radial and tangential sections of samples of sugar maple and ponderosa pine. Samples to be glued were matched according to specific gravity and orthotropic structure and bonded along the grain in tangential or radial sections. Magnitude of clamp pressure was controlled throughout a range of pressures commonly applied in industry, up to about 80% of the compression strength of the wood sample. Tests were conducted on the bonded samples to determine glueline shear strength and percent of wood failure at the bonded surfaces. Results were subjected to regression analysis to ascertain relationships. It was determined that clamping pressure had a different effect on both shear strength and percent of wood failure depending on species and orthotropic section. It is possible to maximize joint strength by applying proper clamping pressure. Results similar in direction but differing in magnitude were obtained with both PVAc and U-F adhesives. A generalized measure of clamping pressure was defined as the ratio of applied clamping pressure to the compression strength (CP/CS) of the wood section to be glued. Using this concept, the optimum clamping pressure for sugar maple was found to be 0.3 times compression strength using U-F glue and 0.5 times using PVAc glue. This approach to determining reliable clamping pressure data can lead to improved gluing practice and more precise testing procedures

Atomic structure of Cu adlayers on Au(100) and Au(111) electrodes observed by in situ scanning tunneling microscopy

The atomic structure of ordered Cu adsorbate layers on Au(111) and Au(100) electrode surfaces and of the clean substrates was resolved in scanning tunneling microscopy images taken in situ. For submonolayer coverages deposited from sulfuric acid solutions under potential control, various ordered structures were observed. The quasihexagonal arrangement of Cu atoms in these structures reflects increasingly repulsive interactions between closely spaced Cu adatoms. These structures differ from the pseudomorphic Cu adlayer formed under vacuum conditions, which demonstrates the structure-determining role of the coadsorbed anions

Interactions between alkali metals and oxygen on a reconstructed surface: An STM study of oxygen adsorption on the alkali-metal-covered Cu(110) surface

Room-temperature adsorption of oxygen on potassium- and cesium-precovered Cu(110) surfaces was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy. Depending on the alkali-metal precoverage, two different scenarios exist for the structural evolution of the surfaces. For alkali-metal coverages θalk≤0.13 ML [θalk=0.13 corresponds to the (1×3) missing-row reconstructed Cu(110) surface], oxygen adsorption leads first to a transient contraction of the missing rows into islands of a (1×2) structure. After longer exposures it causes the local removal of the alkali-metal-induced reconstruction, and the (2×1) Cu-O ‘‘added-row’’ structure with θO=0.5 is formed. In this structure the alkali-metal atoms are incorporated in the Cu-O chains. For higher alkali-metal precoverages, in the range of the (1×2) reconstruction (θalk≊0.2), more than one-half a monolayer of oxygen can be incorporated into the (1×2) phase with only a minor structural effect before, at higher oxygen coverages, complex oxygen–alkali-metal–Cu structures with oxygen coverages well above 0.5 ML are formed. The saturation oxygen coverage is drastically enhanced beyond θO=0.5, the quasisaturation value of the clean surface. Based on mass-transport arguments the substrate is reconstructed for all ratios of oxygen and alkali metal investigated here. Hence, adsorbate-substrate interactions are essential for these structures; they are not dominated by interactions between alkali metals and oxygen, i.e., by adsorbate-adsorbate interactions

Ionic Liquid Electrolytes for Metal-Air Batteries: Interactions between O2, Zn2+ and H2O Impurities

Motivated by the potential of ionic liquids (ILs) to replace traditional aqueous electrolytes in Zn-air batteries, we investigated the effects arising from mutual interactions between O₂ and Zn(TFSI)₂ as well as the influence of H₂O impurities in the oxygen reduction/oxygen evolution reaction (ORR/OER) and in Zn deposition/dissolution on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode in the ionic liquid N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)-imide (BMP-TFSI) by differential electrochemical mass spectrometry. This allowed us to determine the number of electrons transferred per reduced/evolved O₂ molecule. In O₂ saturated neat BMP-TFSI the ORR and OER were found to be reversible, in Zn²⁺containing IL Zn deposition/stripping proceeds reversibly as well. Simultaneous addition of O₂ and Zn²⁺ suppresses Zn metal deposition, instead ZnO₂ is formed in the ORR, which is reversible only after excursions to very negative potentials (−1.4 V). The addition of water leads to an enhancement of all processes described above, which is at least partly explained by a higher mobility of O₂ and Zn²⁺ in the water containing electrolytes. Consequences for the operation of Zn-air batteries in these electrolytes are discussed

Dynamic changes of Au/ZnO catalysts during methanol synthesis: A model study by temporal analysis of products (TAP) and Zn L_III near Edge X-Ray absorption spectroscopy

Small gold nanoparticles supported on ZnO have been identified as highly active and selective catalysts for the green synthesis of methanol from CO2 and H2. Furthermore, they can serve also a model system for the mechanistic understanding of methanol synthesis on the industrial Cu/ZnO catalyst. The dynamic changes in the structure of Au/ZnO upon exposure to methanol synthesis gas mixtures were studied using a combination of TAP reactor and near edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES) measurements at the Zn LIII edge, both in CO2/H2 and CO/H2 gas mixtures. TAP measurements indicated that CO can create significant amounts of O-vacancy defects in ZnO at 240°C, while CO2 can re-oxidize a pre-reduced catalyst or maintain this state in the presence of s trongly reducing gases (CO and H2). Furthermore, CO2 present as reactant or resulting from the reactive removal of surface lattice oxygen by interaction with CO can be deposited on the pre-reduced Au/ZnO surface as stable adsorbed carbon containing species, e.g., as surface carbonates, which decompose at T≥250°C. In situ XANES measurements at the Zn LIII edge revealed that ZnO is significantly reduced during reaction, both in CO2/H2 and CO/H2 gas mixtures, but with the extent of the reduction being more pronounced in CO/H2 than in CO2/H2. These results will be critically discussed in the light of previous findings on the role of ZnO reduction in the activity of methanol synthesis catalysts