Method of radiographic inspection of wooden members

The invention is a method to be used for radiographic inspection of a wooden specimen for internal defects which includes the steps of introducing a radiopaque penetrant into any internal defects in the specimen through surface openings; passing a beam of radiation through a portion of the specimen to be inspected; and making a radiographic film image of the radiation passing through the specimen, with the radiopaque penetrant in the specimen absorbing the radiation passing through it, thereby enhancing the resulting image of the internal defects in the specimen

Methods for design of hoppers. Silos, bins and bunkers for reliable gravity flow, for pharmaceutical, food, mineral and other applications

It is now four and a half decades since Andrew Jenike introduced the first integrated method for characterising powders for flow, and using this information to design a hopper that would discharge without hang-up. Sadly, many users and designers of hoppers still do not benefit from this, so a lot of process vessels in industry still suffer from rat-holing, arching and bridging. Objections of cost, time and questionable accuracy were levelled at the original hopper design method, in spite of the breakthrough it represented. However, over the last 40 years these problems have been overcome with the introduction of faster, easier to use and more sensitive powder flowability measurement techniques, and a lot of experience of what measurements matter with which materials and in what operational scenarios. This paper will pull together various lessons learned from many years of hopper and silo design projects, and show a practical approach to deciding (i) what flow pattern is required (mass flow or core flow), (ii) what measurements need to be made of the powder properties, and (iii) what design models should be used, based on the material being handled and the operational requirements of any given case

Berry phase in a non-isolated system

We investigate the effect of the environment on a Berry phase measurement involving a spin-half. We model the spin+environment using a biased spin-boson Hamiltonian with a time-dependent magnetic field. We find that, contrary to naive expectations, the Berry phase acquired by the spin can be observed, but only on timescales which are neither too short nor very long. However this Berry phase is not the same as for the isolated spin-half. It does not have a simple geometric interpretation in terms of the adiabatic evolution of either bare spin-states or the dressed spin-resonances that remain once we have traced out the environment. This result is crucial for proposed Berry phase measurements in superconducting nanocircuits as dissipation there is known to be significant.Comment: 4 pages (revTeX4) 2 fig. This version has MAJOR changes to equation

Constitution Day, 2007

Robert Berry, the research librarian for the social sciences at the Ryan Matura Library, has written an essay about the Constitution and the American founding, on the occasion of Constitution Day 2007 at Sacred Heart University

Researching the Early History of the Patent Policy: Getting Started

There are a lot of reasons to research the early history of American patent policy. It is an inherently interesting history that provides a framework making contemporary patent policy more comprehensible and a foundation for interpreting historic patent records. For students it provides an opportunity to become familiar with some of basic primary sources that are a staple of research into American history. Also, of course, questions may arise from time to time that can only be authoritatively answered by researching this history. The approach described below seeks to balance comprehensiveness with feasibility, and emphasizes the importance of creating a structure for the research before wading into the vastness of the historical record. This approach will allow researchers new to this area to get up to speed quickly

Plagiarism: The Legal Landscape

In Chapter 10, Robert Berry discusses legal issues regarding plagiarism and academic cases of intellectual dishonesty. From the Introduction: Colleges and universities with plagiarism policies that are fundamentally fair—and that are applied consistently—enjoy three significant advantages over those that do not. First, these schools enjoy greater legitimacy in the eyes of the people who must live with their decisions. They exercise genuine moral authority in their decision making, which is much more consistent with the goals of education, and they avoid the exercise of raw power that often accompanies ad hoc decision making. Second, educational institutions with fair policies are less likely to be sued and, if sued, are less likely to lose. Third, the same procedures that ensure fairness also promote the effectiveness of university prohibitions against plagiarism by creating an educational milieu where a school\u27s response to plagiarism is predictable and reliable

The X Patents: Patents Issued under the Patent Acts of 1790 & 1793

The earliest United States patents— sometimes called “name and date patents” because they were not numbered—are distinctive in many respects. Patent specifications were not required to include claims until the Patent Act of 1870. Moreover, while the 1790 Act required a substantive examination by a Patent Board, that requirement ended with the 1793 Act, when it was deemed too burdensome. Thereafter the evaluation of the sufficiency of patent specifications was left to the courts

Indigenous Nations and International Trade

In an era where economic policy must be increasingly fashioned in global terms, the economies of Indigenous Nations in present-day Canada and the United States remain isolated from international commerce.These nations--once independent, now governed by a supervising state --in most cases cannot be said to enjoy evenan unhindered access to commerce within the states that surround them. Indeed, the insularity of the North American Indigenous Nations is a fundamental feature of their existence and, too, a formidable barrier to these nations\u27 ability to establish vibrant and diversified economies. This Note examines the central role that trade played in relations between Indigenous Nations and the European powers historically, concluding that Indigenous Nations\u27 historic loss of access to international trade contributed centrally to the impoverishment of indigenous economies and to these nations\u27 loss of political autonomy

Constitution Day 2012: The American Judiciary

Robert Berry, research librarian for the social sciences at the Sacred Heart University Library, has written an essay about the role of the American Judiciary in interpreting laws of the United States government. The essay was written for the occasion of Constitution Day 2012 at Sacred Heart University