Migration of elderly people to join existing households: some evidence from the 1991 Household Sample of Anonymised Records

"In this paper the extent to which migration of the elderly is linked to changing family living situations [in Great Britain] is explored.... [The authors] estimate the number of older people making moves of this type, and...identify their age, sex, and marital status, and their relationship to the household they have joined. It is also possible to say something about the households which these people are joining, in terms of tenure and house type, and to describe the distribution of distances moved."     

Sol-gel coating technology for the preparation of solid-phase microextraction fibers of enhanced thermal stability

A novel sol-gel method is described for the preparation of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers. The protective polyimide coating was removed from a 1-cm end segment of a 200 μm o.d. fused-silica fiber, and the exposed outer surface was coated with a bonded sol-gel layer of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). The chemistry behind this coating technique is presented. Efficient SPME-GC analyses of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, alkanes, aniline derivatives, alcohols, and phenolic compounds in dilute aqueous solutions were achieved using sol-gel-coated PDMS fibers. The extracted analytes were transferred to a GC injector using an in-house-designed SPME syringe that also allowed for easy change of SPME fibers. Electron microscopy experiments suggested a porous structure for the sol-gel coating with a thickness of ～10 μm. The coating porosity provided higher surface area and allowed for the use of thinner coatings (compared with 100-μm-thick coatings for conventional SPME fibers) to achieve acceptable stationary-phase loadings and sample capacities. Enhanced surface area of sol-gel coatings, in turn, provided efficient analyte extraction rates from solution. Experimental results on thermal stability of sol-gel PDMS fibers were compared with those for commercial 100-μm PDMS fibers. Our findings suggest that sol-gel PDMS fibers possess significantly higher thermal stability (>320 °C) than conventionally coated PDMS fibers that often start bleeding at 200 °C. This is due, in part, to the strong chemical bonding between the sol-gel-generated organic-inorganic composite coating and the silica surface. Enhanced thermal stability allowed the use of higher injection port temperatures for efficient desorption of less-volatile analytes and should translate into extended range of analytes that can be handled by SPME-GC techniques. Experimental evidence is provided that supports the operational advantages of sol-gel coatings in SPME-GC analysis.     

Robust active queue management design: A loop-shaping approach

In this paper, a novel systematic design procedure is presented for robust active queue management (AQM). The congestion control law is obtained through an interactive loop-shaping process that manipulates the system frequency response to meet robust stability and performance requirements in the presence of uncertain network conditions. A sufficient condition leading to a satisfactory level of robust performance against high-frequency parasitics that naturally affect the desired requirements is then derived. A feature of the technique is that the uncertain phase information and round-trip time-delay that are inherent to the system dynamics are fully addressed in the design equations, resulting in minimal conservatism and/or over-design. Simulation results using the ns2 simulator are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

A sequential real-time refinement calculus

We present a comprehensive refinement calculus for the development of sequential, real-time programs from real-time specifications. A specification may include not only execution time limits, but also requirements on the behaviour of outputs over the duration of the execution of the program. The approach allows refinement steps that separate timing constraints and functional requirements. New rules are provided for handling timing constraints, but the refinement of components implementing functional requirements is essentially the same as in the standard refinement calculus. The product of the refinement process is a program in the target programming language extended with timing deadline directives. The extended language is a machine-independent, real-time programming language. To provide valid machine code for a particular model of machine, the machine code produced by a compiler must be analysed to guarantee that it meets the specified timing deadlines. Received: 27 September 1997 / 13 June 2000     

Selected Phase Equilibria Studies in the Al2O3–CaO–SiO2 System

The Al₂O₃–CaO–SiO₂ system provides the basis for describing many important chemical processes. Although the system has previously been extensively studied, recent advances in experimental technique have provided the opportunity to obtain accurate liquidus measurements in the low‐silica region at fixed temperatures. The experimental procedures involve equilibration of high‐purity oxide powder mixtures at selected temperatures, rapid quenching, and accurate measurement of phase compositions using electron probe X‐ray microanalysis. The liquidus isotherms have been determined at selected temperatures between 1503 and 1873 K in the anorthite, gehlenite, pseudowollastonite, corundum, CaAl₁₂O₁₉, CaAl₂O₆, lime, Ca₃SiO₃, and Ca₂SiO₄ primary phase fields. The results are compared with currently available thermodynamic model predictions of the phase chemistry.     

Creep behavior of Ti–6Al–2Sn–4Zr–2Mo: I. The effect of nickel on creep deformation and microstructure

The effect of trace levels of Ni on the intermediate temperature creep behavior of the alloy Ti–6Al–2Sn–4Zr–2Mo (wt%) has been investigated. Creep experiments were performed in tension over the temperature range 510–565 °C at stress range 138–413 MPa. Two heats of commercial grade Ti–6Al–2Sn–4Zr–2Mo with Ni levels of 0.006 and 0.035 wt% were studied. The high Ni material uniformly exhibited higher primary creep strains and minimum strain rates than the lower Ni material. Stress exponents in the range 5–7 and 4–6 were obtained for the high Ni and low Ni material respectively. At 565 °C a transition to a low stress region with a stress exponent equal 1 is found for both materials. At all stress levels, the apparent activation energy was lower for the high Ni material. The apparent activation energy is in excellent agreement with those reported for lattice self-diffusion in -titanium in the presence of fast diffusing impurities. The results also suggest that creep in the higher stress regime is controlled by dislocation motion within the -phase. We suggest that trace levels of Ni in the -phase accelerate self-diffusion therefore increasing the rate of dislocation climb leading to the higher creep rates observed in the high Ni material. In Part II, direct evidence in support of dislocation-based creep being important in both low and high stress regimes is presented.     

Fermi surface studies of the pressure induced organic superconductor (ET)3Cl2.2H2O

The effects of temperature, pressure and magnetic field on the electrical transport of single crystal of (ET)₃Cl₂.2H₂O are reported. Increasing pressure gradually reduces the ordering temperature of a charge density wave ground state from 160 K at 1 bar to 6 K at 10.2 kbar. A superconducting state with T_c > 4 K is stabilised between 10.2 kbar and 13.5 kbar. Above 12.5 kbar, the observation of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations allows the pressure dependences of the area of a closed Fermi surface pocket and the associated carrier effective mass to be deduced.     

On the Al-Si, Al-Ge, and Al-Ge-Si systems and their application to brazing in high power semiconductor devices

Results of the Smith thermal analysis studies¹³ of the Al-Si, Al-Ge, and Al-Ge-Si systems are presented and compared with previous work. Isothermal and vertical sections for the Al-Ge-Si system, computed from thermodynamic data, are given and compared to the experimental data. The computed sections are used to interpret results of vacuum brazing experiments in which Si discs were joined to Mo with an Al-Ge eutectic alloy.