Method of purifying metallurgical grade silicon employing reduced pressure atmospheric control

A method in which a quartz tube is charged with chunks of metallurgical grade silicon and/or a mixture of such chunks and high purity quartz sand, and impurities from a class including aluminum, boron, as well as certain transition metals including nickel, iron, and manganese is described. The tube is then evacuated and heated to a temperature within a range of 800 C to 1400 C. A stream of gas comprising a reactant, such as silicon tetrafluoride, is continuously delivered at low pressures through the charge for causing a metathetical reaction of impurities of the silicon and the reactant to occur for forming a volatile halide and leaving a residue of silicon of an improved purity. The reactant which included carbon monoxide gas and impurities such as iron and nickel react to form volatile carbonyls

Transmissivity of carbon monoxide

The line strengths and self- and nitrogen-broadened half widths for selected lines of the 4.6 micron fundamental band of carbon monoxide were determined. The band strength determined at stp. is higher than previously reported measurements. The half widths agree well with other measurements and calculations

How does culture impinge upon managers' demeanor of earnings management? Evidence from cross-country analysis

We examine the impact of national culture on earnings. Specifically, we examine managers’ likelihood of using accrual or real earnings management and the role of culture on various attributes of earnings (accruals quality, persistence, smoothing, and predictability). We measure national culture using Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture (1984, 2001, and 2010). Using data from 36 countries during 1997-2018, we find that managers are likely to use both accruals and real earnings management in high power distance countries. In long-term oriented countries, managers are more likely to use real earnings management. In uncertainty avoidance countries, in high individualist countries, and in higher indulgent versus restraint countries, managers are less likely to use either type of earnings management. In masculine countries, managers tend to use lower accruals management rather and rely on production cost real earnings management. We also find the use of accruals management and the use of real earnings management are substitutes for each other. In addition, we are able to classify countries into four earnings quality groups based on the culture impact on the earnings attributes (primarily driven by accruals quality, predictability, and smoothing). Persistence is generally not significant in classifying countries by earnings attributes. Our findings indicate that a universal set of accounting standards is a challenging goal to achieve given the cultural diversity across countries. To improve the existing corporate governance framework and to ensure high quality and uniform financial statements, the enforcement of standards should be tailored to specific cultures, or at a minimum, corporate boards need to be more culturally diversified

Semiconductor Grade, Solar Silicon Purification Project

A low cost by-product, SiF4, is reacted with mg silicon to form SiF2 gas which is polymerized. The (SiF2)x polymer is heated forming volatile SixFy homologues which disproportionate on a silicon particle bed forming silicon and SiF4. The silicon analysis procedure relied heavily on mass spectroscopic and emission spectroscopic analysis. These analyses demonstrated that major purification had occured and some samples were indistinguishable from semiconductor grade silicon (except possibly for phosphorus). However, electrical analysis via crystal growth reveal that the product contains compensated phosphorus and boron

A Method for the Calculation of Lattice Energies of Complex Crystals with Application to the Oxides of Molybdenum

A theoretical study has been made of molybdenum dioxide and molybdenum trioxide in order to extend the knowledge of factors Involved in the oxidation of molybdenum. New methods were developed for calculating the lattice energies based on electrostatic valence theory, and the coulombic, polarization, Van der Waals, and repulsion energie's were calculated. The crystal structure was examined and structure details were correlated with lattice energy

Semiconductor grade, solar silicon purification project

Experimental apparatus and procedures used in the development of a 3-step SiF2(x) polymer transport purification process are described. Both S.S.M.S. and E.S. analysis demonstrated that major purification had occured and some samples were indistinguishable from semiconductor grade silicon (except possibly for phosphorus). Recent electrical analysis via crystal growth reveals that the product contains compensated phosphorus and boron. The low projected product cost and short energy payback time suggest that the economics of this process will result in a cost less than the goal of $10/Kg(1975 dollars). The process appears to be readily scalable to a major silicon purification facility

Transmissivity of carbon monoxide in the 2.3 microns band region

Line strengths and self and nitrogen broadened half-widths have been determined from high resolution spectroscopic measurements of selected lines in the 2.3 micrometer band region of CO. The CO 0-2 total band strength is estimated to be 2.086 + or - 0.146 cm/1 (ATM-cm)/1 STP which is higher than most previously reported values. The line half-widths are also generally higher than those in the literature

Self-mutilation and psychiatry: impulse, identity and the unconscious in British explanations of self-inflicted injury, c. 1864 - 1914

Modern accounts of “self-harm” commonly attribute self-inflicted wounds with emotional or other psychological “meaning”, while assuming that these acts are a product of twentieth-century concerns. While self-harm is certainly a modern concept, the attribution of meaning to self-inflicted injury – above and beyond the physical existence of the wounds themselves – is not new. This thesis explores the way in which medical writers in the later nineteenth century understood and explained what they called “self-mutilation”, situating this debate within the history of asylum psychiatry (where most discussion occurred). Self-mutilation as a concept, it is argued, could only exist within the context of a prior understanding of “the self” as a specific physical and psychological entity, and physiological, anthropological and psychological approaches to selfhood are closely associated with medical attention to self-injury. While it might have been expected that writing on self-mutilation emerged from the bureaucratic nature of the contemporary asylum system, and psychiatric concern with the expansion of diagnostic nosologies, this was not necessarily the case. In fact, most of the alienists writing on this topic did not embrace “medical materialism” and hereditary models of illness wholeheartedly, but drew on a wide variety of fields – including anthropology, normal psychology, spiritualism and religious and literary allegory – in their efforts to understand self-injurious acts. This approach encouraged the idea that self-mutilation described more than just a physical wound, but was an act which could be analysed to uncover underlying mental or emotional meaning. In the writings and practices of these psychiatrists and, indeed, in cases of so-called “insane self-mutilation” reported more widely, I show that ideas and attitudes towards self-mutilation in this period can also inform the historian about ideas of the human condition, normal versus abnormal behaviour, and the very idea of selfhood

Dynamic Shear Modulus of Soft Silt

This paper presents the geotechnical properties of soft silt obtained from the Greater Shanghai Region of the People\u27s Republic of China. Fundamental correlations of shear modulus, damping ratio, shear stress, shear strain with varying consolidation pressures are determined in the laboratory by cyclic simple shear tests. A comparison is made between laboratory test results, in situ cross-hole test results and the building code data proposed by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau. Finally, a comparison of the laboratory data on Shanghai silt with other published data on sands and clays is presented and discussed

Measuring Family Centred Care: Working with Children and Their Parents in a Tertiary Hospital

Rationale and aim: Family-centred care (FCC) is widely used in paediatrics, though no rigorous evidence for it exists. A growing body of qualitative research raises concerns about FCC, and health professionals’ attitudes to it. We measured attitudes to working with children and working with parents of hospitalised children held by nurses, doctors, allied health and ancillary staff at an Australian children’s hospital, using a validated questionnaire with two scores, one for working with children, one for working with parents, and demographic characteristics, and compared responses. Method: we recruited a randomized sample, and compared means of working with children and working with parents scores, using a Wilcoxon signed rank test p<0.0001. Mean differences by categories of demographics were estimated using ANOVA and median test compared the median scores.Results: respondents gave significantly more positive scores for working with children than parents. These were influenced by level of education, whether respondents were parents themselves, if they held senior positions, had worked with children for a long time, and held a paediatric qualification. Conclusions: paediatric health professionals view working with children in a more positive light than working with parents. However, if FCC was being implemented effectively, given its empahsis on the whole family as the unit of care, there would be no difference between working with children or their parents. This quantiative study supports the increasing body of qualitative research which highlights problems with this model. In addition, this study provides a way to measure FCC