Calibration of Hewlett-Packard network analyzers: A precision viewpoint

Alternative calibration procedures are examined for Hewlett-Packard vector network analyzers which lead to an improved open-circuit capacitance model, and hence, higher measurement accuracy

Electroweak Radiative Corrections to WW and ZZ Boson Production in Hadronic Collisions

Some results of a calculation of electroweak radiative corrections to $W$ and $Z$ boson production in hadronic collisions are presented.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, uses sprocl.sty, 2 embedded postscript figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the DPF96 Conferenc

Convergence Rates for Newton’s Method at Singular Points

If Newton’s method is employed to find a root of a map from a Banach space into itself and the derivative is singular at that root, the convergence of the Newton iterates to the root is linear rather than quadratic. In this paper we give a detailed analysis of the linear convergence rates for several types of singular problems. For some of these problems we describe modifications of Newton’s method which will restore quadratic convergence

The determination of the alumina content in diaspore and high alumina clays

The determination of the alumina in diaspore and kindred high alumina clays has been a problem which has attracted the interest of ceramists and chemists ever since a sample of Missouri diaspore was first sent for analysis to the laboratories of the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy in 1917...It is the writer\u27s intention to review in this paper the various published methods for the determination of alumina in high alumina clays and to present a new indirect one that after some months\u27 use in industrial practice, fulfills, in some measure at least, the need outlined above --Introduction, page 1 -2

Adhesion between atomically pure metallic surfaces, part IV Semiannual report

Adhesion between metal couples in vacuum environment and use of contact resistance measurements to evaluate surface contaminatio

Resource supplements cause a change in colony sex-ratio specialization in the mound-building ant, Formica exsecta

We examine the role of food resources on split sex ratios in Formica exsecta. Models of resource-based sex allocation predict that greater resources will cause an increase in the production of reproductive females (gynes) and an increase in overall size of offspring. We experimentally increased food resources for a subset of colonies in a polygynous population with a very male-biased sex ratio. This increase in food availability caused colonies that were male specialists the prior year to switch to female production. Overall, a significantly greater proportion of food-supplemented colonies produced gynes, compared to control colonies. Moreover, food-supplemented colonies produced significantly larger workers and males (but not gynes), compared to those produced by control colonies. There was, however, no significant difference in the numerical productivity of food-supplemented and control colonies. We also measured the natural association between colony sex specialization and proximity to conifers, which typically harbor honeydew-bearing aphids (an important natural food source). In line with the view that resources play an important role for determining sex ratios in social insects, we found that female-producing colonies were significantly closer to conifers than were male-producing colonies

Queen recruitment and split sex ratios in polygynous colonies of the ant Formica exsecta

Sex ratios in social insects have become a general model for tests of inclusive fitness theory, sex ratio theory and parent-offspring conflict. In populations of Formica exsecta with multiple queens per colony, sex ratios vary greatly among colonies and the dry-weight sex ratio is extremely male-biased, with 89% of the colonies producing males but no gynes (reproductive females). Here we test the queen-replenishment hypothesis, which was proposed to explain sex ratio specialization in this and other highly polygynous ants (i.e. those with many queens per nest). This hypothesis proposes that, in such ants, colonies produce gynes to recruit them back into the colony when the number of resident queens falls below a given threshold limiting colony productivity or survival. We tested predictions of the queen-replenishment hypothesis by following V. exsecta colonies across two breeding seasons and relating the change in effective queen number with changes in sex ratio, colony size and brood production. As predicted by the queen-replenishment hypothesis, we found that colonies that specialized in producing females increased their effective queen number and were significantly more likely to specialize in male production the following year. The switch to male production also coincided with a drop in productivity per queen as predicted. However, adoption of new queens did not result in a significant increase in total colony productivity the following year. We suggest that this is because queen production comes at the expense of worker production and thus queen production leads to resource limitation the following year, buffering the effect of greater queen number on total productivity

Molecular-beam epitaxy of (Zn,Mn)Se on Si(100)

We have investigated the growth by molecular-beam epitaxy of the II-VI diluted magnetic semiconductor (Zn,Mn)Se on As-passivated Si(100) substrates. The growth start has been optimized by using low-temperature epitaxy. Surface properties were assessed by Nomarski and scanning electron microscopy. Optical properties of (Zn,Mn)Se have been studied by photoluminescence and a giant Zeeman splitting of up to 30 meV has been observed. Our observations indicate a high crystalline quality of the epitaxial films.Comment: To be published in Applied Physics Letter