Mechanism of resistance microwelding of crossed fine nickel wires

Resistance microwelding of fine crossed nickel wires is of increasing industrial importance for electrical connections in downsized electronic and medical devices, but the understanding of the process is very limited. A study has, therefore, been performed to clarify the basic joining mechanisms, in which the effects of main process parameters (welding current and force and weld time) were investigated by detailed mechanical testing and metallurgical examinations. A bonding mechanism with main process stages (wire cold collapse, surface melting, molten-phase squeeze-out and, solid-state bonding) was proposed. A new technique has also been developed to optimize the process by initiating the welding current well before the electrode force has reached its full nominal value.     

Individual differences in self-assessed health: An information-processing investigation of health and illness cognition.

In 2 studies, the relation between measures of self-assessed health (SAH) and automatic processing of health-relevant information was investigated. In Study 1, 84 male and 86 female undergraduate students completed a modified Stroop task. Results indicated that participants with poorer SAH showed enhanced interference effects for illness versus non-illness words. In Study 2, 27 male and 30 female undergraduate students completed a self-referent encoding task. Results offered a conceptual replication and extension of Study 1 by confirming the specificity of the relation between SAH measures and automatic processing of health (vs negative or positive general trait) information. These studies provide evidence that individual differences in SAH are reflected in schematic processing of health-relevant information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Competitiveness of Inexperienced and Experienced Contractors in Bidding

This paper tests the assertion that experienced contractors are more competitive than inexperienced contractors by measuring the effect of experience on bidding competitiveness for building contracts procured by a regular client. Contractors are grouped into experienced and inexperienced contractors, and two levels of contractors’ experience are identified: (1) bidding experience only and (2) bidding plus construction experience. Results of two-sample t tests show that experienced contractors are more competitive than inexperienced contractors. Contractors’ competitiveness in respect of school contracts and other contracts are further compared in evaluating the relationship between the project type and experience effect. Experienced contractors are, on average, more competitive in competing for school contracts. It emerges that the factor of project type familiarity amplifies the experience effect. A comparison of experienced contractors’ competitiveness in bidding for (1) new building works and (2) alteration and extension works shows that the effect of experience would be more significant when contract works packages are highly standardized.     

Effect of prior oxidation on the creep behavior of NiAl-hardened austenitic steel

The effect of prior oxidation at 1473 K on the creep behavior of an Fe-Ni-Cr-Al alloy, hardened by ordered NiAl precipitates, has been investigated at 873 K over a stress range of 275 to 450 MPa. The alloy in the as-electroslag remelted (ESR) as well as the ESR-plus-hot-worked conditions was considered. Prior oxidation causes creep strengthening in the Fe-Ni-Cr-Al alloy, resulting in a decrease in minimum creep rate and increase in time to rupture, in contrast to the observations reported on nickel-based superalloys. Creep strengthening is, however, accompanied by a significant reduction in creep ductility. Oxidation-induced creep strengthening in the current alloy can be attributed to the improved adherence of surface oxide caused by the presence of yttrium. An effective stress that incorporates the contributions of load transfer as well as substructural strengthening is used to account for the observed oxidation-induced creep strengthening. While creep strengthening is more pronounced in the ESR cast alloy, the loss in creep ductility is more intense in the ESR wrought alloy. Increasing the oxidation time beyond 1 hour has a minimal effect on creep strengthening of both the alloys, though it lowers significantly the creep ductility of the wrought alloy. The observed differences in creep behavior of the alloy in the two different conditions could be attributed to the differences in grain size as well as morphology and related oxidation-induced damage.     

Radiation-induced hydrogen yield from silicon bombarded with 710-MeV bismuth ions

The behavior of hydrogen in solids under the action of intense ionizing radiation is of importance in solving numerous problems of materials science for the nuclear and thermonuclear power industry, spacecraft engineering, hydrogen energetics, and microelectronics. Experimental results are presented that provide evidence of the radiation-induced yield of hydrogen from single crystal silicon bombarded with 710-MeV bismuth ions.     

Surface Films on Zinc-Plated Steel Formed on Holding in Aqueous Extracts of Anticorrosion Pigments

The methods of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Auger spectroscopy are used to study surface films formed on zinc and zinc-plated steel in the process of holding in aqueous extracts of mixtures of phosphate and calcium-containing pigments. It is shown that protective films formed mainly of zinc and calcium phosphates of different chemical structure are deposited in inhibited solutions on specimens of pure zinc and zinc-plated steel. The protective properties of these films are much better than the protective properties of the surface layers formed on the metal in the extracts of a single phosphate (or calcium-containing) pigment. The mixture of these pigments may serve as a promising substitution of chromate inhibitors in anticorrosive organic coatings.     

Psychopathy, IQ, and Violence in European American and African American County Jail Inmates.

The accuracy of the prediction of criminal violence may be improved by combining psychopathy with other variables that have been found to predict violence. Research has suggested that assessing intelligence (i.e., IQ) as well as psychopathy improves the accuracy of violence prediction. In the present study, the authors tested this hypothesis by using a contemporary measure of psychopathy, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (R. D. Hare, 2003), in a sample of 326 European American and 348 African American male offenders. The postdictive power of psychopathy was evident for both ethnic groups and robust across most changes in the operationalization of violence and the analysis conducted, whereas the postdictive power of IQ was not. No Psychopathy x IQ interactions were identified. Implications of these results for violence prediction are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

GaAs pHEMT-based technology for microwave applications in a volume MMIC production environment on 150-mm wafers

The establishment of a 150-mm (6-in) gallium arsenide (GaAs) facility is described together with the development of very high yielding and cost-effective semiconductor device technologies and a manufacturing capacity of over 40000 wafers/annum. The background to the demand for very high volumes of RF products for this market is discussed, together with the prospects for future growth. The paper describes recent process development by the utilization of a data-driven yield management system to support the delivery of high-quality RF products to customers. Finally, "end of line" DC and RF testing of finished 150-mm GaAs pHEMT foundry wafers is described, enabling scalar measurements of power, noise, and intermodulation products as well as vector measurements of S-parameters and noise parameters at frequencies of up to 40 GHz.     

Blind equalization - case of an unknown symbol period

We address the problem of estimating blindly a linearly modulated sequence of unknown rate transmitted over an unknown frequency selective channel. We achieve the goal by extending the concept of deconvolution to a cyclo-stationary context and present a generic class of functionals, the minimization of which achieves the equalization. This defines estimates of the symbol rate: by construction, they are insensitive to a lack of excess bandwidth, bestowing a clear advantage on them over the estimates of the literature.     

Interaction of NbVNi with Hydrogen

The interaction of NbVNi with hydrogen is studied over wide pressure and temperature ranges. Hydrogen absorption–desorption isotherms are measured, and the compositions of the resulting hydride phases are determined. X-ray diffraction analysis demonstrates that the incorporation of hydrogen into NbVNi leads to an isotropic expansion of its crystal lattice.