Hermetic-coaxial package design for microwave transistors

Semiconductor package has been developed for high power semiconductor devices that operate in the GHz-frequency range at several watts. Package includes stud, insulating ring, electrically conductive washer, insulating washer, braze ring, and cap. It is mechanically strong and can be used with variety of circuits

Transistor bonding pad configuration for uniform injection and low inductance

Modification of process for fabricating transistors, which comprises a metallization-pattern design for emitter and base areas together with a double bonding configuration for each emitter and base-bonding lead, improves uniformity of carrier injection in transistors and of reducing lead inductances at base-emitter terminals

Congressional Testimony on the Effectiveness of Trade Adjustment Assistance and Suggestions for Improving the Program

In this testimony, I will sketch key findings from research that I conducted with others, bearing on the justification and effectiveness of trade adjustment assistance. Most economists agree that protecting workers from the negative consequences of the North American Free Trade Agreement is appropriate, since we believe that a measure is unambiguously good only when some benefit, but no one is hurt. Even if trade liberalization is only a minor source of job loss, when many workers are hurt by imports, trade often is restricted. Thus, an effective assistance program can counter a drift toward protectionism that would be far more costly than compensating job losers. For example, in the early 1970's, quotas cost steel users $11 billion, while removing those quotas would have cost workers, at most,$1.5 billion. A key problem is that gains per person are small, while the losses per person are large. Even worse, many workers not adversely affected feel threatened. Thus, losers have strong incentives to restrict trade, compared to incentives gainers have to make trade freer. This is a situation where providing all threatened workers with insurance would increase the general welfare at a modest price. To reduce workers' fears, the TAA program must effectively compensate losers. Because the cost of job loss is high, benefits per person need to be substantial. Four years after displacement, 60 percent of high-tenure job losers typically have not found similar work and have earnings reduced by 50 percent. Even job losers who find similar work suffer reductions in earnings from 12 to 22 percent. Job loss is common even in prosperous times, but paradoxically, even in the worst of times, roughly two-thirds of laid-off workers are recalled. In short, most workers adversely affected by trade liberalization need protection for less than 2 years, while a minority face permanent earnings reductions. TAA extends UI payments by 26 weeks. Even in the early 1980's, UI plus TAA virtually eliminated the incidence of large losses among trade impacted workers for the first two years following jobs loss given the workers were covered by TAA. That is the good news. The bad news is that many workers with large losses did not return to similar jobs within two years, and therefore, were not adequately protected even if covered by TAA. TAA now provides training vouchers often worth $12,000 or more. Unfortunately, training programs targeted on dislocated workers have been shown to have very limited success. Even under highly optimistic assumptions, an investment in training of over$100,000 would be needed to offset the costs of job loss. The GI bill is a precedent for providing assistance of that magnitude. In 1967, the GI bill provided inflation-adjusted benefits of $80,000. High-tenure dislocated workers are unlikely to benefit from a similar program, however. They are older than vets, already have marketable skills, and sometimes are lacking basic education. The bottom line is that training is not a panacea for dislocated workers. In fact, placement services, other job search assistance, and counseling have been shown to be as effective as training, just much less expensive. My research strongly supports that view. The huge earnings difference between finding and not finding similar work suggests helping job losers to locate similar jobs could be equivalent to providing a$100,000 annuity. Equally important, plenty of comparable jobs are available. In Pittsburgh, between 1978 and 1982, one-quarter of all manufacturing jobs were filled by new hires. Even though net employment fell by 15 percent, quits and retirement opened enough job slots, so every displaced worker could have remained in that sector. In addition, the employment service has been shown to help dislocated UI exhaustees return to work 9 weeks sooner. Initially pay is below predisplacement levels, but pay grows substantially. Yet, without outside help, dislocated workers find accepting pay cuts difficult, particularly while receiving UI. Thus, my central policy conclusion is that the combination of UI and TAA does a good job in protecting the majority of trade impacted workers. But available funds would be better spent by helping dislocated workers find jobs, particularly by adequately funding the employment service. Improving the coordination between EDWAA and the ES also would help, as would improving the monitoring of UI claimants' job search. A more innovative approach, with a good chance of success, is offering wage subsidies or reemployment bonuses. Such measures should encourage more rapid return to work and at least partially offset wage reductions. Finally, we should remember that high-tenure workers need protection against sources of job loss other than government actions. Workers should be willing to pay for that protection, and many unionized workers have done just that. The government can play a key role, by encouraging labor and management to adopt measures to deal with job loss. As many workers learned in the early 1980's, by the time a threat is apparent, it is too late to solve the problem. Improving TAA is difficult, but fairness suggests the threat to workers livelihoods inherent in the NAFTA should be reduced, and common sense suggests reducing the threat is the key to maintaining free trade. I hope this testimony will contribute to making a good program better. I am very grateful for this opportunity to discuss trade adjustment assistance with you.trade, adjustment, assistance, dislocated, workers, NAFTA, Jacobson

Nucleosynthesis and astrophysical gamma ray spectroscopy

The HEAO-3 gamma ray spectrometer has provided evidence in the quest for the understanding of complex element formation in the universe with the discovery of Al-26 in the interstellar medium. It has demonstrated that the synthesis of intermediate mass nuclei is currently going on in the galaxy. This discovery was confirmed by the Solar Maximum Mission. The flux is peaked near the galactic center and indicates about 3 solar masses of Al-26 in the interstellar medium, with an implied ratio of Al-26/Al-27 = .00001. Several possible distributions were studied but the data gathered thus far do not allow discrimination between them. It is felt that only the spaceflight of a high resolution gamma ray spectrometer with adequate sensitivity will ultimately resolve the issue of the source of this material

High-temperature durability considerations for HSCT combustor

The novel combustor designs for the High Speed Civil Transport will require high temperature materials with long term environmental stability. Higher liner temperatures than in conventional combustors and the need for reduced weight necessitates the use of advanced ceramic matrix composites. The combustor environment is defined at the current state of design, the major degradation routes are discussed for each candidate ceramic material, and where possible, the maximum use temperatures are defined for these candidate ceramics

Application of an atmospheric pressure sampling mass spectrometer to chlorination reactions

An atmospheric pressure mass spectrometric sampling system, based on a free jet expansion was used to study certain M-Cl-O reactions at high temperatures. The apparatus enables the volatile species from a 1-atm chemical process to be directly identified with a mass spectrometer which operates at approx. 10 to the minus 8th power torr. Studies for both pure metals and alloys are discussed. It is shown that this mass spectrometer system aids in identifying the volatile species, and provides fundamental information on the reaction mechanism

Congressional Testimony on the Effectiveness oof the Employment Service in Aiding UI Claimants

This testimony describes the results of a study of the Employment Service (ES) conducted by Dr. Jacobson and Prof. Arnold Katz of the University of Pittsburgh using data on over 100,000 individuals who registered with the Pennsylvania ES between 1978 and 1987, and an even larger sample of non-registrants. One major finding is that much of the decline in the ES's performance over the past thirty years can be explained by changes in: funding, characteristics of registrants, and characteristics of job vacancies. Thus, we concluded that criticism of the ES often ignores changes in crucial factors outside of the ES's control that reduced its effectiveness. A second major finding is that most criticism of the ES is based on the inappropriate assumption that the primary goal of the ES should be to maximize placements. The proper measure of ES benefits is how well it reduces joblessness, increases earnings, and reduces UI and welfare payments. We found that the ES reduced the average duration of unemployment of long-term UI claimants by nine weeks. This was for UI claimants who were unemployed for at least 30 weeks. But the ES reduced joblessness of claimants unemployed for 12 weeks by less than two weeks. This is evidence that the ES is most effective in aiding claimants who had substantial trouble finding work on their own. But we suspect that the jobs found with the help of the ES do not compare favorably with jobs held prior to becoming unemployed. Thus, we believe the ES primarily acts as a backstop preventing large earnings losses. Finally, although savings in UI benefits and increases in earnings created by the ES may be modest, the cost of ES service is so low, $75 on average, that modest benefits would more than offset those costs. We believe our results, coupled with similar findings from related studies, is sufficiently strong to warrant increasing the funding of the ES. That measure is favored because it would be at least budget neutral. In contrast, other measures to assist the long-term unemployed, such as providing extended UI benefits or training, would not come close to being budget neutral. In addition,$1 spent on job search assistance is likely to be more effective in helping claimants than $1 spent on training.unemployment, insurance, employment, service, displaced, dislocated, Jacobson

Core-periphery analysis: a tale of two nations

Bias, unreliability and omission have been documented in traditional sources of trade data; the lack of service data in trade statistics is the most frequently cited shortcoming. Current trade liberalization is likely to exacerbate these deficiencies. This paper develops and applies a location quotient based methodology for analysing core-periphery dualism, thus obviating the use of trade data. Our application to the European Union shows agglomeration in core areas of high technology, large scale manufacturing, and producer service industries. Peripheral countries are shown to specialize in agriculture, extractives, low technology manufacturing, and standardized production. Detailed examination of two peripheral economies, Ireland and Denmark, finds that each departs from the mean of peripheral nations. A comparison of proxied trade data to actual trade data indicates that the location quotient method is a statistically viable means of proxying trade patterns