Low-noise flow valve for air ducts

Valve assembly controls air flow from feeder into main duct, with minimum of turbulence, friction, pressure differential, and noise. Valve consists of damper, deflector, and spring. Streamlining of damper and deflector merges flow smoothly, while spring keeps damper and deflector in contact and eliminates valve chatter and damping vibrations

Chandra imaging spectroscopy of 1E 1740.7 - 2942

We have observed the black hole candidate 1E 1740.7 - 2942, the brightest persistent hard X-ray source within a few degrees of the Galactic centre, for 10 ksec with Chandra (ACIS-I) on August 2000. Attempting to compensate for pile-up effects we found the spectra were well-fit by an absorbed power law, with photon indices Gamma = 1.54 ^{+0.42}_{-0.37} (readout streak) and Gamma = 1.42^{+0.14}_{-0.14} (annulus), consistent with a black hole low/hard state. We have analysed a public observation performed by Chandra which utilised short frames in order to avoid severe pile-up effects: subtracting the core point spread function from the whole image, we did not find evidence for any elongated feature perpendicular to the radio jet axis, as reported in a recent analysis of the same data. Moreover, comparing the radial profiles with those of an unscattered X-ray point source, we found indication of an extended, previously undetected, X-ray scattering halo. The measured halo fractional intensity at 3 keV is between 30 and 40 percent within 40 arcsec but drops below detectable levels at 5 keV. Finally, by placing a limit on the X-ray flux from the radio emitting lobe which has been identified as the hot spot at the end of the northern jet of 1E 1740.7 - 2942, we are able to constrain the magnetic energy density in that region.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

MONITORING THE IMPACT OF CONSOLIDATION IN THE FOOD SYSTEM ON THE CONSUMER IN 1996

Very little research has been done on the impact of mergers, divestitures, and leveraged buyouts on the American consumer. The U.S. food marketing system had nearly 400 mergers and leveraged buyouts in 1996, bringing the 15-year total to about 6,400. In 1996, all indicators show that consumers were not adversely affected by this level of activity, although profitability and owners' equity continue to skyrocket. This presentation examines the consumer's welfare indirectly by looking at key economic indicators of the food marketing system in 1996-such as retail food prices, advertising expenditures, new product introductions, research and development, profitability, and equity appreciation.Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics,

The Food Marketing System in 1996

New food product introductions fell sharply in 1996. The number of new plants, consumer advertising expenditures, and common stock prices reached new highs in 1996, as did the number of mergers in the foodservice industry. Profitability from food manufacturing and retailing was higher due to strong sales, wage and producer price stability, and streamlining of operations.food marketing, food processors, wholesalers, retailers, foodservice, advertising, profitability, trade, Agribusiness, Marketing,

AGGREGATE PROFITABILITY IN U.S. FOOD MANUFACTURING

Agribusiness,

ARE THERE TOO MANY NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTIONS IN U.S. FOOD MARKETING?

New food product introductions have risen sharply in recent years, but the net number of products on retail shelves has remained about the same. Most new product introductions are extensions of existing products, and innovation has fallen sharply in recent years.Marketing,

FOOD PROCESSING ASSETS

U.S. food processing sector assets are valued at about $360 billion, or about 12 percent of all manufacturing assets. Profit and sales returns on assets in food processing are among the highest in the U.S. economy. Foreign holdings comprise a significant portion of food processors' assets.Agribusiness,

CONSOLIDATION IN THE U.S. FOOD MARKETING SYSTEM

Marketing,

On the correlation between radio and X-ray flux in Low/Hard state Black Holes

Radio emission from X-ray binary systems (XRBs) has developed in recent years from being peculiar phenomenon to being recognised as an ubiquitous property of several classes of XRBs. In this scenario the synchrotron emission is interpreted as the radiative signature of jet-like outflows, some or all of which may possess relativistic bulk motion. We have analysed a collection of quasi-simultaneous radio/X-ray observations of Black Holes in the Low/Hard X-ray state, finding evidence of a clear correlation between their fluxes over many orders of magnitude in luminosity. Given that the correlation extends down to GX 339-4 and V404 Cyg in quiescence, we can confidently assert that even at accretion rates as low as ~ 10^{-5} dot{m}_{Edd} a powerful jet is being formed. The normalisation of the correlation is very similar across a sample of nine sources, implying that it is nearly independent of jet inclination angle. Remarkably, V 404 Cyg is the second source (after GX 339-4) to show the correlation S_{radio} proportional to S_{X}^{+0.7} from quiescent level up to close to the High/Soft state transition. Moreover, assuming the same physics and accretion:outflow coupling for all of these systems, the simplest interpretation for the observed scenario is that outflows in Low/Hard state do not have large bulk Lorentz factors.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the 4th Microquasar Workshop, eds. Ph Durouchoux, Y. Fuchs and J. Rodriguez, published by the Center for Space Physics: Kolkat

Diffractive Interactions

The general framework of diffractive deep inelastic scattering is introduced and reports given in the session on diffractive interactions at the International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Phenomena, Rome, April 1996, are presented.Comment: LaTeX with procl.sty, 20 pages. To appear in the Proceedings of the International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering and Related Phenomena, Roma, Italy, April 199