Fatigue cracking in polycrystalline NiTi was investigated using a multiscale experimental framework for average grain sizes (GS) from 10 to 1500 nm for the first time. Macroscopic fatigue crack growth rates, measured by optical digital image correlation, were connected to microscopic crack opening and closing displacements, measured by scanning electron microscope DIC (SEM-DIC) using a high-precision external SEM scan controller. Among all grain sizes, the 1500 nm GS sample exhibited the slowest crack growth rate at the macroscale, and the largest crack opening level (stress intensity at first crack opening) and minimum crack opening displacements at the microscale. Smaller GS samples (10, 18, 42, and 80 nm) exhibited nonmonotonic trends in their fatigue performance, yet the correlation was strong between macroscale and microscale behaviors for each GS. The samples that exhibited the fastest crack growth rates (42 and 80 nm GS) showed a small crack opening level and the largest crack opening displacements. The irregular trends in fatigue performance across the nanocrystalline GS samples were consistent with nonmonotonic values in the elastic modulus reported previously, both of which may be related to the presence of residual martensite only evident in the small GS samples (10 and 18 nm).

Sorption and desorption of cyanazine with three Mississippi Delta soils (two silt loams and one silty clay) were studied under laboratory conditions. Cyanazine sorption calculated using the Freundlich equation was greatest for the Sharkey silty clay soil. Partition coefficients (Kd values) for cyanazine sorption ranged from 1.67 to 1.82, 1.92 to 2.15, and 3.65 to 3.96 ml g−1 for the Bosket silt loam, Dubbs silt loam, and Sharkey silty clay soils, respectively. Differences in sorption and Kd values were attributed to clay content. At a given initial cyanazine concentration, cyanazine was desorbed more readily from the silt loam soils than from the Sharkey clay after the first 4-h desorption cycle. Desorption from the Sharkey clay continued for a longer period than that from the silt loam soils, with up to 6% cyanazine desorption from the Sharkey clay after a 16-h desorption cycle compared with 0% for the silt loam soils. Cyanazine losses increased with decreasing clay content, Dubbs = Bosket > Sharkey. This implies a potential relationship between cyanazine desorption and surface runoff losses of cyanazine.

Herbicide soil/solution distribution coefficients (Kd) are used in mathematical models to predict the movement of herbicides in soil and groundwater. Herbicides bind to various soil constituents to differing degrees. The universal soil colloid that binds most herbicides is organic matter (OM), however clay minerals (CM) and metallic hydrous oxides are more retentive for cationic, phosphoric, and arsenic acid compounds. Weakly basic herbicides bind to both organic and inorganic soil colloids. The soil organic carbon (OC) affinity coefficient (Koc) has become a common parameter for comparing herbicide binding in soil; however, because OM and OC determinations vary greatly between methods and laboratories, Koc values may vary greatly. This proposal discusses this issue and offers suggestions for obtaining the most accurate Kd, Freundlich constant (Kf), and Koc values for herbicides listed in the WSSA Herbicide Handbook and Supplement.

A field study was conducted in 1992 and 1993 to identify the spray volume and droplet size combinations to optimize control of common cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium) from acifluorfen by maximizing target deposition. In many instances, acifluorfen controlled common cocklebur better using either small (250 µm) or large (450 µm) spray droplets when applied at the lower carrier volumes of either 56 or 112 L/ha. When sprays were applied at 169 L/ha, there was little difference in control between droplet sizes. Deposition of acifluorfen was determined in 1993. Stepwise regression indicated that acifluorfen deposition amount is less important than environmental conditions for common cocklebur control. Relative humidity was the most significant variable for determining common cocklebur control with acifluorfen.

Despite the enormous impact that war and the threat of war have had on human well-being, utilitarians have had surprisingly little to say about when, if ever, we may fight wars. Discussion of this question has been dominated by realism, pacifism and just war theory. This article takes some preliminary steps toward remedying this situation. I begin by spelling out what I call the Utilitarian War Principle (UWP). After presenting some considerations in its favour and answering some possible objections to it, I compare UWP with pacifism and with the principles of jus ad bellum found in the work of contemporary just war theorists. I argue that adherents of UWP should treat those principles as secondary moral principles, which, although subordinate to UWP, can and should guide its application and which, in turn, should be refined and revised with this goal in mind.

The nature of analogies, and their legitimacy in argumentation and inference, is a disputed subject. This essay is intended to shed some light on the tangle of issues that it involves. After discussing in section one the different functions of analogy, in particular in explanation and in science, we present in section two a prima facie defense of analogical argument against those who repudiate it entirely and in section three an account of its logical structure. Section four argues that analogical inference does not collapse, as some of its critics contend, into standard induction, and section five attempts to explicate more precisely the warrant for analogical inference. We conclude in section six by suggesting a typology for arguments from analogy.

Eldon Soifer and Béla Szabados argue that hypocrisy poses a problem for consequentialism because the hypocrite, in pretending to live up to a norm he or she does not really accept, acts in ways that have good results. They argue, however, that consequentialists can meet this challenge and show the wrongness of hypocrisy by adopting a desirefulfilment version of their theory. This essay raises some doubts about Soifer and Szabados's proposal and argues that consequentialism has no difficulty coming to grips with hypocrisy, whether or not one favours a desire-fulfilment account of the good.

The Working Group FITS (WG-FITS) is the international control authority for the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) data format. The WG-FITS was formed in 1988 by a formal resolution of the IAU XX General Assembly in Baltimore (MD, USA), 1988, to maintain the existing FITS standards and to approve future extensions to FITS.

The business meeting began with a brief review of the current rules and procedures of the WG, which are documented on the WG web page. Four regional FITS committees have been established by the WG, covering North American, Europe, Japan, and Australian/New Zealand, to provide advice to the WG on pending proposals. While it is recognized that this committee structure might need to be revised to provide representation to other regions, the current system is working well, and there were no motions to make any changes at this time.

In Zimbabwe today, Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF colleagues are busy expropriating white-owned farms, and claiming the moral high ground while they do so. Indeed, many observers, inside Zimbabwe and elsewhere, take it for granted that, whatever Mugabe's excesses, there is justice in his cause. But is there? This paper examines three moral arguments that Mugabe and his supporters advance to justify their land policies: that the peasants need the land, that the war of liberation was fought for the land, and that Zimbabweans are only taking back land that was originally stolen from them. The last of these arguments, which rests on an implicit entitlement theory of justice, is the strongest, and this essay therefore scrutinises it closely. It argues, however, that despite their emotive appeal, all three arguments are flawed beyond repair. Debunking them should help pave the way for a more sensible and more viable approach to the land question in Zimbabwe.