A factor analysis of the Wesley Rigidity Inventory: Its relationship to age and nonverbal intelligence.

The present research involved an item analysis of the Wesley Rigidity Inventory (1953) to determine its unidimensionality and the effect of age and intelligence. Factor analysis revealed orthogonally-related factors: rigidity in intellectual thinking, liking for established routine which was highly loaded with the factor of age, and a factor of appreciation of methodical behavior and details. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2HF91C. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elevated-Temperature Creep of Silicon Carbide-Aluminum Nitride Ceramics: Role of Grain Size

Samples containing 50 mol% SiC and 50 mol% AIN were fabricated to neartheoretical density by hot-pressing in graphite dies in N₂ atmosphere. Grain size was varied by varying the hot-pressing conditions. Bar-shaped samples cut from the billets were subjected to creep deformation in four-point bending. Creep was found to depend upon the grain size with coarse-grained material exhibiting lower creep rate. The stress exponent was ∼2.0.     

Rigidity: A flexible concept.

A survey of tests and experiments reveals little consistency of results due to poorly constructed and administered tests, failure to control relevant variables, and lack of tight theoretical conception. 220 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability analysis of a multipath switching network

Multipath switching networks are encountered in areas such as communications, energy transmission, and transportation. The reliability of such networks usually cannot be calculated using conventional probability arguments for series and parallel systems. In this paper we describe a new Markov chain method for the reliability calculation. The method is easily implemented and has already been applied successfully. A case application in communications is used to illustrate the method. The paper generalizes and extends work reported in whitmore, Pullum and Chown [4].     

Severe aplastic anaemia in association with a unique constitutional translocation 46,XY,t(6;10)(q13;q22)c

Severe aplastic anaemia (SAA) is an uncommon disorder which may be associated with several congenital syndromes. However, it has rarely been described in association with a constitutional karyotypic abnormality. The breakpoint of the balanced t(6:10)(q13:q22) translocation described here does not disrupt any currently recognized gene of haemopoietic or stromal importance. This report also highlights the problems inherent in the use of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for treating multiply transfused aplastic anaemia patients.     

Investigation of hot ductility in Al-killed boron steels

The influence of boron to nitrogen ratio, strain rate and cooling rate on hot ductility of aluminium-killed, low carbon, boron microalloyed steel was investigated. Hot tensile testing was performed on steel samples reheated in argon to 1300 °C, cooled at rates of 0.3, 1.2 and 3.0 °C s⁻¹ to temperatures in the range 750–1050 °C, and then strained to failure at initial strain rates of 1 × 10⁻⁴ or 1 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹. It was found that the steel with a B:N ratio of 0.19 showed deep hot ductility troughs for all tested conditions; the steel with a B:N ratio of 0.47 showed a deep ductility trough for a high cooling rate of 3.0 °C s⁻¹ and the steel with a near-stoichiometric B:N ratio of 0.75 showed no ductility troughs for the tested conditions. The ductility troughs extended from 900 °C (near the Ae₃ temperature) to 1000 or 1050 °C in the single-phase austenite region. The proposed mechanism of hot ductility improvement with increase in B:N ratio in these steels is that the B removes N from solution, thus reducing the strain-induced precipitation of AlN. Additionally, BN co-precipitates with sulphides, preventing precipitation of fine MnS, CuS and FeS, and forming large, complex precipitates that have no effect on hot ductility.     

High-Temperature Creep and Cavitation of Polycrystalline Aluminum Nitride

Dense, polycrystalline AlN samples of grain size between 1.8 and 19 μm were fabricated by hot-pressing. Bar-shaped samples were subjected to creep in four-point bending under static loads in nitrogen atmosphere. The outer fiber stress was varied between 20 and 140 MPa and the temperature between 1650 and 1940 K. Steady-state creep rate, dɛ/d t was proportional to σ ⁿ d ^{− m} where the stress exponent, n , was between 1.27 and 1.43 and grain-size exponent, m , between ∼ 2.2 and ∼ 2.4. The activation energy for creep ranged between 529 and 625 kJ/mol. Both round (r type) and wedgeshaped (w type) cavities were observed in electron micrographs of the deformed samples. No noticeable change in the dislocation density was observed. Contribution of cavitation to the creep rate was estimated using an unconstrained cavity model. Based on this study it is concluded that the dominant mechanism of creep in polycrystalline AlN is diffusional.     

Performance Monitoring for In-life Capacity Management

The key to providing a meaningful management view of the performance of complex systems lies in having a co-ordinated process for data collection, analysis and presentation. TeleMarketing Services, such as the Freefone service, provide a good example. Managers of diverse, remote subsystems receive summarised performance and customer service information, mostly in the form of simple graphs, in exchange for providing reliable data. The aim is to bring together a structured view of all the components, including a red-amber-green status table, for use by senior customer-facing staff. Generally, the analyses focus on capacity, forecast and measurement, covering a flexible range of parameters. Managers then have an early view of service degradation, potential capacity exhaustion, workload imbalance and resource wastage, enabling timely remedial action, fault clearance and system enhancements.